Visca Catalunya!
Late last night I was working on my article about the Catalan mercenaries hired by the Byzantines in the early 14th century (Catalans being Catalans it did not end well for the Byzantines). What better than to listen to a little faux medieval music from Miklos Rozsa while writing.
Then on a whim I looked at Andrew Sullivan and found this little map showing Catalunya as an independent country! None of that ol' Castilian for them.
what happens to France is kinda interesting too.
.
posted by Clemens @ 11:32 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I could be wrong, but it seems like most of the arrangements that the Byzantines made for "protection" ended pretty badly. The Fourth Crusade comes to mind. The Byzantines really were in a bad fix: everyone hated them for no particularly good reason except that they were rich, and they couldn't raise enough soldiers from their own population (esp. after losing Anatolia). Easily attacked from the west, easily attacked from the East... it seems a miracle that they lasted as long as they did.
As to the map, the borders of Padania are a tad optimistic, I think--or else, a tad pessimistic. Emilia-Romagna is not in there, and without that major manufacturing region they'd have trouble.
I also don't believe in a Republic of Sardinia for an instant, not before a Republic of Naples anyway. And Naples is too happy to mooch off the rest of Italy for that ever to happen. The worst thing that happened to the Republic of Italy was the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: they've been doomed to corruption and incompetence ever since. Take that, Garibaldi!
Yes, the Byzantines have gotten a bad press. The main reason the empire lasted so long was that no one wanted anyone else to get it. And then the Ottomans were busy with first the Mongols and then Tamerlane. BTW, the Byzantines did not ask for the Fourth Crusade. It was an Italian job (Venetian, to be exact).
I thought the map was great fun too. I kept trying the analyze it the way you do. Finally decided that Sardinia, southern France and Sicily should all be given back to the new revived Catalan Empire when the Catalans break free - which they virtually have. Their scholars are once again publishing in Catalan rather than that other Spanish language.
As for language, we now live in a world where everyone (other than Anglophones) only need to learn two languages: whatever they want to speak at home and in the streets of their hometown, and English to communicate with everyone else.
Why fool around with Castilian if you speak Catalan or Gallego to Mom and Dad, or Iraqi Arabic if are a Kurd?
Post a Comment
<< Home