What If The United Kingdom Broke Up?

the united kingdom today there are four countries in the united kingdom england scotland wales and northern ireland and then other smaller possessions their capitals are london edinburgh cardiff and belfast respectively apart from england each country has their own governments each with varying powers and this is a key detail because by not having its own local government we understand the weight and power that the english have in ruling the united kingdom this might be historically justified or not but it happens nonetheless they didn't always exist together and in fact their union is reasonably recent when it comes to the big picture of history the union between the kingdom of england which included wales and the kingdom of scotland took place in 1707 to form the kingdom of great britain followed by the union with the kingdom of ireland in 1801. most of ireland seceded from the uk in 1922 achieving independence so what if following the early example of the irish the other constituent countries of the uk also seeked to achieve their independence in the coming years whether we think it would be good or bad i think we can't deny it's a possibility a lot of people across the country some more than others have argued for this separation so in this video we're going to explore this possibility what if the uk separated itself from one nation into four or even more separate and independent countries first here's why it could happen when i usually do these videos like i did for the united states australia or brazil they are highly unlikely if not completely impossible but in this case of the uk at least as i make this video the possibility is reasonable or at least existent scotland's independence was put to a vote already it lost but not by much and the circumstances have changed a lot key factors which were keeping scotland in the uk have gone away when the uk voted to leave the eu and yes one it only won overall in england and in wales in scotland and northern ireland the majority and in scotland's case a big majority voted to remain because of this and some other reasons pressure for a new vote is building the latest polls point to a victory of independence by five or more points should a new independence referendum take place in northern ireland population tendencies are changing and current agreements after the uk left the eu might push the two irish states towards unification the good friday agreements state that northern ireland will be able to vote for unification when they choose to in a recent poll from january of 2021 by the sunday times points to 42 percent of people in northern ireland wanting unification 47 are still against but it's a shorter lead than a 2013 poll that only had 17 percent in favor if such should happen which i find the most likely out of all these scenarios two of the four countries would be out an independent scotland and a free northern ireland which would eventually unify with the irish republic and after this how long could england and wales remain together as the two last countries in a much smaller united kingdom just this week the bbc published an article titled welsh independence more people in favor but the latest polls only point to 22 however this number could go up if scotland and northern ireland leave a quarter of voters were undecided and the independence movement has jumped from 2 000 members to 17 000 in just a year wales received significant funding from the eu which is now gone and their economy is suffering a lot with the uk leaving the european union and so we could end up with four new countries or even other smaller sovereign states like the isle of man or gibraltar but for now let's focus on the main four england scotland wales and northern ireland and understand how they would do on their own first becoming independent each would need their own specific government as i mentioned all of them already have local governments today they have different levels of autonomy and power but the infrastructures exist so it would be just a matter of transferring full control of the territory to them england has no local parliament or government however they could just inherit the uk one but what type of governments would they have a few countries throughout the world that got their independence from the british remained as a part of the british commonwealth also keeping the british monarch as their head of state but would this be the path for these new countries as well i honestly feel that they would be less likely to want to remain a monarchy if they would go through the whole process of separation they would probably not want to keep any ties of sovereignty with the uk and so we could see scotland wales and northern ireland become full-on republics with their own governments but also with their own presidents when it comes to the flags of these new countries i don't think much would change since they already have their own individual flags today within the union flags which have been around since incredibly early on even before the united kingdom existed england has the saint george's red cross on a white field in use since around 1348 scotland has the saint andrew saltire since 1286 wales has the red dragon flag on a green and white field arguably one of the coolest flags in the world whose variance have been present since 1485 and northern ireland has no official flag but a commonly used one is the ulster banner but this is if all countries became independent what if only one or two left if scotland were to leave would it make sense to remove the blue background from the uk flag leaving it simply white and red i think the union jack is such a cultural symbol at this point that should it happen i wouldn't change the flag but what if northern ireland also leaves that would just leave us with the english flag whale's absence from being represented in the union jack is unfair as it is but in the case of an england whales only union they would have to figure out a way to represent them as well and so a new flag might have to be designed and what about the australian and new zealand flags which use the union jack on the top left corner they could still remain a part of the commonwealth but if some argue it doesn't make sense to keep the canton there now would its removal be needed in these scenarios when it comes to population the united kingdom's population in 2020 was estimated to be 67.8 million the world's 21st most populated country but the distribution of people along the territory is highly unbalanced england accounts for the vast majority with 56 million people scotland only has around 5.4 million wales 3.1 and northern ireland 1.9 england would therefore remain in the top 25 most populated countries in the world while the other three would be significantly smaller scotland would be just ahead of slovakia and behind countries like finland or denmark wales between mongolia and bosnia's population numbers in northern ireland between guinea-bissau and north macedonia although joining the republic of ireland the irish island would then account for a total of 6.7 million people when it comes to the religion of these various peoples there aren't that many differences christians are the vast majority in all four countries 60 in england 57 in wales 53 in scotland and 82 in northern ireland the second largest group are non-religious people in each of them there are very small minorities in all of them the most relevant being islam at five percent in england but there are no significant religious differences between these four potential new countries there is a key difference though between protestants and catholics most of the united kingdom is protestants however there are some catholic populations still and this might play a role in a few future developments in scotland catholics comprise around 16 of the total population a number that goes down to seven percent in wales or ten percent if you count england and wales together but what about northern ireland one of the key divisions between british northern ireland and the independent republic of ireland is religion in the north they are mostly protestant and in the republic mostly roman catholic but things are changing in 2011 48 of northern irish saw themselves as protestant and 45 as catholic and over the past 40 years the number of catholics has been steadily increasing and the number of protestants going the opposite direction this population tendency might contribute to an easier path towards irish unification in the future and especially in the case of northern irish independence a situation where their connection to the great protestant country of the area england would be much smaller and what about the area in which these people live united the uk has a total area of around 242 000 square kilometers the world's 78th largest country how would it be divided in the case of separation once again england makes up the majority of this with 130 000 square kilometers 54 of the uk's european land scotland comes second with 32 percent wales at nine percent and northern ireland last with only six percent of the territory england would still be within the top 100 biggest countries at number 95 just behind greece scotland only at 115 ahead of czechia but behind austria wales at 148 between el salvador and belize and northern ireland at 156 behind istamor the border of northern ireland with the irish republic would likely remain open further contributing to unification but it's likely that free movement of people and goods would also be a reality within great britain additionally there is the issue of other overseas territories that the british have today which of the countries would keep control over them i think proximity makes sense for this so the channel islands would necessarily remain dependencies of an independent england but what about those in the caribbean africa or asia would this separation be a chance for them to lose a few of them i'm sure for instance argentina would see it as a possibility to once again attempt to conquer or occupy the malvinas falkland islands and others across the world might go through similar issues of local and neighboring countries wanting to take them over gibraltar is as it is a complicated issue would uk the solution lead to it remaining english or finally cave and join spain they could also become independent as could the isle of man and other small overseas territories of the british leading now to four new countries but five six or even more of them gibraltar and the isle of man already have their own cool looking flags but many others like bermuda don't and so in the case of independence for these smaller islands new flags might also be needed and what about the economy the british gdp was 2.8 trillion in 2019 they are the world's fifth largest economy but the distribution per country is again very different england accounts for most of it with london alone being a key part of their economy i guess that's why there are even some people who have the crazy idea of london becoming its own independent city-state sort of like what vatican is to italy but for companies instead of the church i guess out of those 2.8 trillion 2.4 were generated through and in england although if you exclude london that number falls to 1.7 trillion however still very much ahead of scotland at 200 billion wales at 100 billion in northern ireland at 50 billion london alone surpasses the other three combined with their 700 billion contribution to the uk's gdp at 2.4 trillion england would drop from the uk's fifth place to that of the seventh global economy then behind india and france scotland would go down to number 50 just behind portugal wales further down between kenya and ethiopia and northern ireland would roughly match panama's economy size this next graphics information is from 2012 so almost a decade outdated from the british office for national statistics but it's still interesting to look at because despite things probably having changed in the past 10 years general tendencies might not be too far off it shows us how each english region compares along with the three other countries of the union we notice that england is responsible for 80 percent's worth of the economy scotland for eight percent wales for four percent and northern ireland for two percent although this only adds up to 94 so i don't know where the other six are the point is even assuming england's position is partly due to working together with the other countries even if they were exploiting their resources and concentrating all industry production exports and service providing in england their economy is largely bigger and at the moment of a breakup would be the biggest obviously that without the resources of the three countries and with the three establishing their own individual separate economies england would likely fall in benefit of the other three so so far in population territory and economic terms england would retain much of what the uk already has now obviously i think at least immediately there would be a very big drop from no longer working together and each of the countries might lose significant amounts in their gdp especially because all the new countries might have new expenses that the central uk government now covers only 16 percent of scottish exports are to the eu while 63 percent the uk if these uk destined exports were at risk their economy would suffer a lot but i think in the long term scotland would likely begin improving and doing better there is also the issue of currency would all of them keep the british pound or come up with scottish welsh and irish bounds northern ireland unifying and scotland joining the eu could mean they also joined the euro zone and begin using the euro but unless all of them continue to use the british pound which in this scenario i would find unlikely the value of the currency would most likely drop even if then rising again or even more in the future and finally one of the biggest issues in any country separation the military how would they divide military forces and resources according to this document from 2014 the uk have around 156 000 active military personnel of these 125 000 are provided by england around ten thousand by scotland and just over two thousand by wales and northern ireland each in this map we can see that although this includes civilian personnel and the armed forces too the darker the color the more that region contributes to the armed forces staff while scotland surpasses certain regions of england england altogether has a large lead over the rest and so in the event of a separation having the most land the most people and the biggest economy it makes sense that most of the military resources would remain theirs while scotland and wales having to somewhat build their militaries from scratch northern ireland's almost absence of armed forces would be another step towards unification with the republic of ireland with the potential loss or independence of the british overseas territories the last remnants of the once gigantic british empire would effectively be in danger and possibly disappear forever the united kingdom's role as a major country in international politics might also come to an end damaging their seat at the table i mean who would occupy the uk's permanent seat on the un security council my logic would dictate england has the biggest chance but would they be able to justify their presence without the existence of the uk as a whole the economies we saw before separating would bring their economic power significantly down and even if england or perhaps eventually scotland maintained their presence in the g20 or g7 groups their power and influence would decrease as their economy would be much smaller as well so that is a short overview of what could happen if the united kingdom broke apart separating itself into four or five or more independent separate countries england scotland wales northern ireland or a united island and perhaps even the small isle of man or gibraltar as small states in the style of monaco or andorra how these new countries would compare to each other when separate economically politically in terms of population and other factors the fate of their territory and how they would do on an international level like i said i don't think this scenario is impossible i think there is some likelihood of it happening but only in part irish unification seems inevitable in the future and scottish independence seems to be very possible but i think at least england and wales would remain together even in those scenarios would these separations be good for those who leave and those who stay i honestly don't know so make sure to leave your opinions below would you like to see this happen or not and what do you think the results would be thanks so much for watching this video subscribe if you want and i will see you next time for more general knowledge

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 400,303

Rating: 4.7929878 out of 5

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: svG7dmV1XGo

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021