Hm, as some one who grew up on the continent (yes, that big land mass to the South and West of the British Isles with which it forms Europe (side rant -- I hate it when I hear/see the phrase "UK and Europe". The UK is a geographically, historically, culturally, and politically a part of Europe, like it or not.)), I have always wondered why the English, Scottish, and Welsh were so intent on maintaining their independence from one another.
Wales has been a part of the UK since the 1300s, Scottland since the 1600s, that's a fairly long time to develop a single national identity. I suppose the same could be said for the Spanish and Catalans.
Germany, by comparison managed to integrate much faster. I wonder why that is. Granted, there wasn't nearly as much animosity historically between Saxony, Bavaria, and Prussia as say between England and Scottland, but today a German would say they are German first, then Bavarian, etc. (at least the ones I know). It seems like a Welshman and Englishman would be Welsh, respectively English, first and then British (leaving out Ireland to avoid defining an adjective for United Kingdom). It almost seems like a confederation at times. Why is that? I'd love any insights/thoughts as I'm really curious about this.
Ingo
P.S. I excluded the Irish from the examples above since the history between Ireland and England since the history of the two countries is relatively more troubled and the Republic of Ireland is independent of the United Kingdom.
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