People place way too much importance on big nations controlling the course of world history. Small nations are basically either an afterthought or are completely subjected to the whims of bigger nations. While this is understandable considering that bigger nations are more likely to be more powerful, history is filled with small nations that have shown that they too can impact international politics and the course of history. Netherlands, Djibouti, UAE, Israel, Malta, Belgium, Switzerland, Cuba, Panama, Venice, Austria, etc.
What is a common thing or trope that always seem to happen?
- Thread starter Viking25
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I thought about it but Portugal felt more like a medium-size country.
Well its of a comparable size to Israel but agreed
I meant the one with the two furry founders
Portugal is 92,230 km2, Israel is 22,072 km2 (not counting Palestinian territories). Portugal is over 4 times Israel's size. So yeah, I would not consider Portugal a small nation.
I think that has a lot to do with the assumption that a small nation will not be strong enough to be able to do "things that are interesting to write about" (i.e., the nation cannot engage in orgies of imperialism where it forces other smaller countries to submit to their designs at gunpoint without a larger country appearing to protect them).
That's why we also see the idea, common in the TLs, where the small nations are divided between "sensible nations" that immediately see the light and bow to the great powers for "protection" and "foolish nations" that try to get ahead alone... and They are immediately crushed and "put in their place" by a larger nation through the massive use of heavy weapons and the commission of war crimes.
Today it is even more insidious because, in many TLshe largest nations no longer even bother to invade the small ones, but destroy them through "economic sanctions" and "blockade acts".
(which no one protests against, even though I believe the other countries should be upset by things like, for example, US Navy ships, openly flying the Stars and Stripes, shooting at French-flagged civilian ships, simply because they were passing near Cuba, to "enforce the embargo on Cuba." ).
They cosplayed as Greece till Greece cosplayed them, truly an achievement for the ages
I think its also because small nations when they did pull off stuff were often very outside the box
Like the aforementioned Israel with monotheism and ethnoreligion, then later ressurrecting as a nation-state thousands of years later(as a nuclear power no less)
Or with the Portugal(wheter small or medium sized) and Netherlands example, literally managing to reach Japan from Western Europe by being just that good at sailing
These things could not have been predicted by someone in the timeline itself without the benefit of hindsight, so someone outside the timeline is unlikely to conceive that kind of stuff either and since writen timelines follow the conception of one person rather than the actions of in-universe people(for the most part, some authors have that condition where the story "writes itself" in a sense they have little control over it) it makes sense the neglected countries lack this level of self-agency
Like the aforementioned Israel with monotheism and ethnoreligion, then later ressurrecting as a nation-state thousands of years later(as a nuclear power no less)
Or with the Portugal(wheter small or medium sized) and Netherlands example, literally managing to reach Japan from Western Europe by being just that good at sailing
These things could not have been predicted by someone in the timeline itself without the benefit of hindsight, so someone outside the timeline is unlikely to conceive that kind of stuff either and since writen timelines follow the conception of one person rather than the actions of in-universe people(for the most part, some authors have that condition where the story "writes itself" in a sense they have little control over it) it makes sense the neglected countries lack this level of self-agency
Let's face it, it was either cosplay as Greece or cosplay as Etruscan and after Alexander there really wasn't a choice.
And in many cases attempts to do things out of the ordinary would be shot down as "ASB" or "Here's a list of 200 reasons why this nation couldn't do this in any way, much less without being surpassed by a largest nation. But the TL;DR can be summed up in one word: ECONOMICS."
"So you're saying this OC island of yours not only conquered all of India and Oceania but its also currently beating up China at the peak of its power over a bunch of drugs
Honestly Im too shocked to even complain"
I personally just hate small countries because how it looks on the map, I much prefer them being annexed outright into large empires so the map looks nice and clean.
"That's different because my OC is too superior due to... uh... economic institutions... checks and balances... and a Parlament... STOP QUESTIONING MY TL!"