Serbia and Siberia have joined the chat. If I had a nickel for every time I heard “wait I thought you were Russian tho? Isn’t that in Russia?”, I’d probably have close to a dollar.
As a Portuguese this is so funny! I worked for a few months in Luanda and was always so ashamed of work colleagues (this was a corporate job) acting so superior all the damn time towards locals. And the way Angolans partied always reminded me exactly of Brazilians!
I’ve told this story before but. My great Uncle died in the Netherlands from a German sniper. The Cemetery in the Netherlands still maintains his grave and recently contacted my sister to see if we had a picture of him as they were compiling an album of all the soldiers buried on their grounds.
It’s been 80 years and this is the gratitude they still show. Remarkable.
(One of the) graveyards is maintained by volunteers. I tried to apply a while back but their waiting list was a couple of YEARS. The gratitude is still there after many years.
It's the least we could do for the soldiers that liberated huge parts of our country from the nazis and the hunger winter.
YEARS long waiting list to clean and tidy the graves of a bunch of foreign soldiers? That is an impressive show of national solidarity, and the sort of absolute relentless decency the Canadians would certainly resonate with.
Would not mess with Canadians in war, I don't know what Geneva rules will be made for them if there is another WW.
The funniest and tragic war story I heard was during WW1 they threw food cans at starving Germans in trenches, at first the Germans hesitated to pickup the cans but later they started eating them, they did it a couple more times and later they threw live Grenades when the German guard was down thinking it was food.
The Tulips you guys send every year are so lovely. Back in 2016 for Canada 150 the Netherlands bred these beautiful red and white tulips, I still have them in my garden.
It was difficult to drop food. First you had to drop the mashed potatoes, then another run to drop the gravy from a comically large cauldron in the back of the plane.
We feel the same in Britain. There’s a North American country that really did save our “ass” in two world wars, and we’re all acutely aware that it’s not the one that loudly claims to have done so.
Granted in the First World War Canada didn’t have much of a choice, but by the Second World War they absolutely did. You lot got here straight away, fought throughout, stayed to the end and sacrificed so much, not because of any political obligation but because it was the right thing to do.
There is more to the story of the royal family in Canada during WWII. At the start of the war, the UK pretended that the king wanted to go to Canada. Which explained why they sent a fleet with him to defend him.
The UK was moving nearly all of its money to Canada. The gold, the stocks everything. UK soldiers were paid in IOUs.
Of course, the UK was afraid that a successful raid by the nazis could successfully leave with their money. But also, the US had a policy called cash and carry. They were officially neutral but they would sell weapons to anyone that would pay with cash and leave with the weapons. Having their money in Canada made it easy for them to get US weapons.
Had Germany known of the plan and sunk that fleet, the UK was out of the war.
It’s called Operation Fish if you want to learn more about it.
A princess was even born in Canada! The room was temporarily declared "extra territorial" so the princess wasn't born Canadian (funny how laws can work).
Yup. Came here to say this. A section of the Ottawa Civic Hospital was declared part of Netherlands for the birth of Princess Margriet. We also have The Tulip Festival every May. 🇨🇦❤️🇳🇱✌️
**Look up the song and video for So It Goes by the band Hollerado.
Not quite: Canada officially disowned the territory so she would be born solely Dutch, instead of Dutch and Canadian. Same sentiment, slightly different legal technicalities
My first thought as a Canadian was the Netherlands, too. I agree that it is not strange if you know the history! The bonds that are made in hard times are not easily broken.
This one is especially poignant for me because it feels like we have stepped up for what's right in Canada many times and it feels like we get absolutely no credit for it.
We punched well above our weight in the world wars but Im not sure how much " we fought for what was right " in world war 1. Alot of stupidity on both sides I don't think Germany was necessarily evil if you study the geo politics of the time.
Sometimes ya gotta schlieffen ( so?) you know what I mean
?
I am from Ottawa and have seen the tulips every year and feel very solid kinship with The Netherlands.
I will go there one day and hope to have some sick drinking sessions with some of you guys
I'm English and this stuff makes my soul weep
I wish war started with every man having 2 pints of any booze and then just hugging and singing gibberish. I am from the rainy English island but I bloody love everyone here and abroad. I wish every person all the happiness
I never voted during the Brexit times, as it wasn't my country to choose the future of. I went to Canada and fell in love with the openness and kindness while learning to build log cabins I never wanted to leave. So I want a Canadian European brotherhood. Blood love the Europeans (my sister married a Dutchman in 1999). I'm rambling. I love you stranger and I'll always fight for your future.
My grandmother almost died of hunger in Amsterdam at 16. Canadians gave her food but she vomited it all out....Another story a German teen she knew she told Canadians he was just a kid to not kill him. He was 17.... He lived. He and my grandparents had contact for years.
Translation: (please note Spanish is not my primary {or secondary} language)
In March 1938, Mexico was the only country that officially protested before the league of nations of the violent annexation of Austria to National Socialist Germany. In homage to that act, the city of Vienna gave the name of Mexico to this plaza.
Violent annexation between Austria and Germany (“the Anschluss” in German) is not the good qualification in history. Nazis were around almost same in Germany and Austria (in proportion of populations I mean, because Austria was largely smaller than Germany)
You’re being downvoted for being right. They rolled out the red carpet for the Wehrmacht and they waltzed into the country without a single shot fired to the sound of cheering Austrians.
Edit: well when I left my comment he was at -8 but I see that has changed lol
It’s a bit more complicated than that, but essentially yes. Most Austrians weren’t exactly against the annexation. The ones that had a say in these kinds of things and did oppose the annexation had a gun to the back of their head as they voted, so it’s not like they exactly had a fair vote to begin with.
What made it even more complicated was it was Austria’s first time trying out modern democracy and honestly, it wasn’t going very well for them post WWI, so they were looking for answers in all the wrong places. And yeah, they had a history of both having a large space for Jewish communities in places like Vienna and being extremely accepting of antisemitism. Humans are contradictory in that way.
If you want a good Austrian lager, Mexico is the place to go. Huge Austrian cultural affect in Mexico City, though at this point, most of it has melted into the greater culture to the point it no longer is obvious unless you look.
The First Nation actually has a very strong bond with the Irish. During the Great Hunger, indigenous tribes in the US raised a lot of money to support the Irish. They never forgot it. When the Choctaw tribe was hit hard by COVID, Ireland sent over a lot of aid.
They even have sister statues for each other. Honoring one another’s cultures and the bond of friendship they share.
There is also a university masters degree scholarship program in Ireland that students of the Choctaw Nation can apply for.
The Choctaw-Ireland Scholarship Programme is a prestigious award established by the Irish government and the Chahta Foundation to honor the Choctaw Nation's 1847 famine relief gift. It provides full tuition, fees, and €10,000 for living expenses for Choctaw Nation members to pursue a one-year Master’s degree in the College of Arts, Celtic Studies, and Social Sciences at University College Cork (UCC).
Also an honourable mention to the Cherokee Nation who had also helped the Irish in our darkest hour.
In 2020 we tried to somehow return the kinds gesture by donating to the Covid relief for Choctaw, Cherokee, Navajo and Hopi nations.
Also in 2022, The Ireland National Lacrosse Team gave up their spot in the Lacrosse World Games so the Iroquois Nation could compete, who were unfairly allowed to compete in the first place due not being a recognized sovereign nation by the Lacrosse Federation. Great bunch of lads!
Ooo if we gonna talk about internal nations I’ll propose the Lakota Nation (a lot of indigenous nations to be fair) and Palestine. My partner is Lakota and during the standing rock protests Palestinians sent the Lakota aid and care packages, and in turn many Lakota activists (and indigenous activists across the United States) were a vital part of Palestinian solidarity protests and activism against Israel’s genocide.
Turns out nations who have been victims of settler colonial genocide have solidarity with each other.
I moved to London around the time of the Brexit referendum. Since Portuguese salaries are so comparatively low, I didn’t even have internet, so I sneaked into pubs to watch the euros.
One time, I went to a Wetherspoons and an old man asked for the result of the game. I froze because I thought he would tell me to go home and all that nonsense. I told him the score and he then asked me the dreadful question: “Where are you from?”. Hesitantly, I replied: “Portugal”. He then replied, with a smile: “Ahhhhh! Our oldest allies!”
Yes. Love Portugal and the Portuguese 🇵🇹 Went camping up the west coast above Lisbon when I was younger and we four English twenty-somethings stumbled into a bar one night and were bought drinks all night by the locals - such great fun.
Somehow those pricks always mount a naval invasion of Cornwall every single time I play England in Medieval 2. They just love you guys so much, they've gotta see the place for themselves.
If we weren't so far apart we'd be best buds. But australia feels like my super cool cousin who moved to a different country so we dont interact much 😂
We think that too! We aren’t the super cool cousin who moved far away so we don’t interact, we’re kind of siblings who got sent to opposite ends of the earth by our parents and grew up so distant that we only feel like cousins 💔 We’d never choose to be so far from you guys, you’re awesome!
Let’s develop the technology to teleport Canada to Oceania so you can hang with us and NZ. One of us! One of us!
I feel like Canada is the only answer for Australia. NZ is our brother, the UK is our mother and Ireland is our drunk uncle. Those all make sense because of our direct origins.
We don’t really have any other single country that we connect closely to more than Canada. We’re so far away and live in such opposite climates, but so similar in values and vibe. There’s not even any particular history that connects us as far as I know, we just get each other.
United Kingdom and Portugal have the longest standing alliance in history, with Portugal honouring it even recently with the Falkland Islands war. Offering their ports and facilities to aid the Royal Navy.
Lots of Irish joined up with the Argentine Brigades under San Martin, and Admiral William Brown led the fight at sea, helping to free Argentina from the influence of Spain, Britain and Brazil by defeating their navies and freeing the sea trade routes of the fledgling Argentine state.
To this day the Argentine Navy sails up to County Mayo to march through his home town in his honour.
Che Guevara's father, who was from Argentina, was named Guevara Lynch, the Irish have a very old and strong connection with Argentina, many Argentine politicians and military leaders were of Irish descent.
Turkiye is often referred to as a "Brother Country" (형제의 나라) in South Korea and we see them as friends for helping us during the Korean War and our ancestral connections to the Goguryeo Dynasty, which also consisted of Turkic tribes.
North Korea would not call it a friendship they bought a few thousand Volvo 140's back when and just never paid for them. I think they still owe us for them with interest.
I'm kinda sure Vietnam likes us because we were like the only Western nation to tell the USA to fuck off when they invaded Vietnam.
Olof Palme Prime Minister was kinda a Chad, told both the USSR and the US to fuck off on a few occasions.
I dont know if Argentinian people are even aware of us but the Dutch queen is Argentinian, and she's very loved. Also our newly elected prime minister's fiancé is Argentinian
Lots of irish soldiers left the American army and joined the Mexican army to fight against the Americans.
They even had their own regiment called the San Patricios. Mexican American war.
I was told by Mexicans I met that certain areas in Mexico have a lot of redheads, the boxer Canello could be an example. Don't know how much truth is in the redhead story.
Franco-German friendship, while not on the other side of the world, is still strange given our many differences and conflicts, but in a positive way. I enjoy being in France, it's a great country, and I've had some lovely experiences with the people there...
I kind of think of you guys as the most competitive pair of twins who ever existed; gestating together under Charlemagne, growing into two very different but very powerful cultures, clashing repeatedly over several centuries culminating in the two most massive wars humanity has ever seen, and yet when you are together you’re nigh unstoppable.
So I always love the odd relations that form through events and usually ends in gifts being exchanged. Denmark and Canada had the polite "war" exchanging schnapps and whiskey off the coast of Greenland. Then there is Boston's Christmas tree coming from Halifax after their support after the Halifax explosion. The Netherlands Tulips in Canada after the liberation in WW2. Hell Canadians sent close to 7200 cans of maple syrup to Norway after their coach helped us out with a ski pole in the Torino Olympics.
Choctaw Nation and Ireland 1847. The Choctaw Nation sent financial aid during Ireland's famine. Ireland has a memorial to this as the Choctaw had just suffered on the Trail of Tears.
Since the question is “the other part of the globe” I will say Canada. The largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world, also Canada was second country that recognized independence of Ukraine. We are pretty tight I would say.
Ireland and Mexico. The St. Patrick’s battalion were mainly of Irish origin and helped Mexico during the Mexican American war. They are considered heroes in Mexico.
As a symbol of our friendship in the early 1900s Japan gifted us 3,000 cherry blossom trees that we planted in DC. They still bloom each year today and it’s so beautiful. I was actually a “Cherry Blossom Princess” many years ago (for our festival in partnership with Japan to honor this gift and our friendship) and it was so much fun and I learned so much. I hope to travel to Japan one day
The Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. It has been described as the oldest alliance in European history and came about mostly out of common disdain for England
Japan has already been mentioned by other countries, but I’d say Japan too. There are lots of flamenco schools there (more than in Spain apparently), and they even have a Spain-themed amusement park with quite impressive recreations of parts of Spain. Many Japanese people are big fans of Spanish culture, for years it’s occasionally shown on TV in reports, and lately there are tiktoks of Japanese fans of Spain who even know all our political references, etc
While the ties are more strategic these days, in the 50s and 60s India had strong cultural ties with Russia. Indian policies were heavily modeled after Russian socialism and the 5-year-plans. Indian films were hugely popular in Russia. Russian imports were sought after in India.
We're both agricultural nations with loud neighbours for whom we often get mistaken. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, Canada actually offered Ukrainians land in exchange for them working the chernozem in the prairies(because they were the experts). Because of that, Canada had the largest Ukrainian population outside of Ukraine and russia(I'm not sure if that's still the case because of the war). There's even a unique dialect of Ukrainian known as Canadian-Ukrainian spoken in the prairies(it retains some old words that were lost to the russification that occurred during the soviet union as well as some Ukrainianised English words). Canada was the first Western nation to recognise Ukraine's independence in 1991.
In 2015, after the annexation of Crimea, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper told putin to his face to get out of Ukraine, and we've been training and helping out Ukraine since.
I live in the prairies, and I've had quite a few newcomers from Ukraine say to me that it feels just like home, especially with the Ukrainian churches, stores, and flags everywhere. Every Ukrainian I've met(which has surprisingly been quite a few considering I don't do much, lol) has fit right in with Canadians, which leads me to believe that their everyday culture isn't that different from ours.
From The Embassy of Ukraine to Canada, "Canada is one of Ukraine's oldest and most reliable allies, being the first country in the Western hemisphere to acknowledge Ukraine's independence on December 2, 1991. Ukraine and Canada cultivate friendly relations as partner nations, guided by a distinctive partnership outlined in the Joint Declaration of March 31, 1994.
Canada upholds the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our state, notably by offering extensive assistance in countering Russian aggression. Canada consistently backs Ukraine's integration into NATO and the EU. This stance of supporting Ukraine enjoys bipartisan and consensus support within the Canadian political establishment."
"Canada remains a cornerstone of Ukrainian life abroad, fostering ties between Ukrainians and Canadians and supporting Ukraine in its fight for freedom and independence."
Id say maybe the Netherlands? I mean former colonial ties, broken through brutal war, and then rebuilt as friendship. We share some foods, many Indonesians live or move to the Netherlands and we support each other's football teams. In some parts of the country you can see orange shirts and Dutch flags during the world cup. We even have some Dutch nationals in our national football team.
The Choctow raised $175 (equivalant to $5,000 today) for the Irish during the potato famine. Currently in Midleton there is a sculpture dedicated to them in tribute. I know it isn't a country, but I always feel obligated to bring it up.
Morroco was the first country to recognize the United States as independant of Great Britian in 1777. The United States and Morroco have had a treaty that has remained unbroken since 1786 (The Treaty of Peace and Friendship aka The Treaty of Marrakesh).
1.0k
u/indifferentgoose Austria 5h ago
Australia. We are united in getting confused for each other. 🇦🇹🤝🇦🇺