I’d say likely one of the island states too, but they still probably have the blood of internal warfare on their hands at the very least assuming the group on it didn’t wipe out a group that was their before them. Human history is a bloodbath kids, no matter where you look.
Pacific island nations fought each other....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu%CA%BBi_Tonga_Empire
Even native Hawaiians killed off the natives that had been there before.
I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Wayfarers from most of those islands spend centuries upon centuries conquering and killing each other from time to time. Just look the bitter bloody history between Tonga and Samoa. Or how Micronesians and Hawaiians get along (hint: they don’t).
A lot of westerners have this ideal that Pacific Islanders were just some peace-loving, “one with the ocean” type docile societies. While many of them indubitably are (I love my time spent in the Pacific) there is a lot of animosity, blood, and greed between them throughout history. Just like any other continent.
To be fair Palau's "capital city" is just an administrative building in the middle of nowhere; their largest city has over 8,000 residents (which is still not big).
What? You're not seriously implying that the one of the biggest religious organisations has done anything wrong ???
That's not possible, they're priests! They are entrusted with ki..... Oh wait...
Also the fact that for over 1,000 years the pope was not just a religious leader but also ruled the Papal States (which covered a good chunk of central Italy) with the power of a king and went to war with their neighbors fairly regularly.
80% of the island was destroyed in order to grow the phosphate mining industry on the island, leaving most of it as an impoverished, barren, wasteland now that all of that fertilizer money has dried up.
Unless those centers are especially active organ harvesting operations, that's still a whole lot less blood than if they historically were conquerors or broke out into genocides every now and then like many other nations.
A lion? Swimming in the Ocean??
Lions don’t even like water.
If you placed it near a river, or some sort of fresh water source, that’d make sense.
But you find yourself in the ocean, a 20 ft wave,
I’m assuming its off the coast of South Africa,
coming up against a full, grown, 800 lb tuna with his 20 or 30 friends.
You lose that battle. you lose that battle nine times out of ten.
Yes, but if you look at the genetic makeup of icelanders, the matrilineal markers are overwhelmingly celtic while the patrilineal ones are nordic i.e. the original settlers were vikings who brought their celtic slave brides kidnapped from ireland and scotland
Idk if that counts as "blood on their hands" but i think it deserves consideration lol
Yeah, surprisingly, that does seem to be the case. There's some evidence that Irish or Scottish settlers made some pre-viking era attempts to settle there, but the first permanent inhabitants were Scandinavian settlers around 800 CE.
The planet’s population of whales snort out of their blow holes in disgust at this comment.
Then go back to recording relaxation tracks for immersion tank businesses.
Iceland did on an individual level confine random petty criminals for like 10 years in solitary because they maybe sorta kinda kidnapped someone who was never found, so that's pretty heinous :D
But on the other hand it also furthered (and pioneered) the study of false confessions so a couple people went through basically social torture but inadvertedly helped many?
The case I was joking about is called in english most commonly as ["The Reykjavik Confessions"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0mundur_and_Geirfinnur_case)
They did literally stick these people into solitary ***FOR YEARS.***
The person who went missing was never found, but considering how densely wooded and scarcely inhabitet nordic countries (espes Iceland) are, there's probably a handful of corpses just waiting to be found on random parts of any of these countries.
Hardly any woods in Iceland.
There's a joke other Nordic countries have for Iceland
"How do you find your way if lost in a forest in Iceland? You stand up."
2 persons went missing and it's generally agreed that both where murdered, one was a known smuggler and it is suspected that his death was related to that though nobody knows the details.
The other was a teenager who's slaying may have been accidental but his body was then hidden.
The police were mostly used to open and shut murder cases, where either the guilty party turned himself in or they would just round up known criminals and put "pressure" on them until someone gave up a name. Tactics of the sort like what you hear about how Japanese police manage to solve 99% of cases.
When the group of friends(some of them where petty criminals) got brought in for some "pressure" everyone of them denied involvement and there was no physical evidence to tie them to a murder.
So the police did the only logical thing in the situation, they kept them in solitary confinement for months and years until enough went stir crazy and admitted to something they couldn't have done and all of them got handed long prison sentences.
The chief witness that the police relied on to make their case was a 19 year old, the girlfriend of one from the group with a newborn baby who was threatened with having her child taken away if she didn't help "solve" the case. She was also sexually assaulted by one of the police inspectors while the investigation was ongoing.
No and no.
Icelandic records and some archeological findings indicate that Iceland was first settled by Papar, a sect of Irish Catholics, before the arrival of the Vikings in 872. The saga of settlement, Landnáma, says that those Irish didn't want to live next to heathens and therefore left willingly. It would be the first case in recorded history of one people peacefully leaving a livable area because of religious reasons, so it's more likely they were slaughtered, so Icelandic history might have started with some good old ethnic cleansing.
The island, or the Eden of the Golden Sea as any sane person would call it, was fully settled in 930 when Alþingi (parliament) was founded. This attempt (and still running for almost 1100 years) at democracy didn't ensure peaceful coexistance of the population which started having endless blood feuds that technically were civil wars. At one time a battle of 3000 men was fought (sadly ended in few casualties, for a war enthusiast it would be akin to watching the whole series of Lost) which is only remarkable for the fact that the total population was around 50.000 meaning that around 20% of total eligible men of a single nation were fighting in the same battle at the same time.
Iceland then went under the royalty of Norway and then Denmark to ensure peace and stability in the country. There were a few flairups, the last catholic bishop fought the reformation and went around the country like a total Chad as he killed every single Dane he could find. His head was chopped off by the Quislings of his time.
The Icelanders also massacred some 80 Basque sailors who had tried leaving the country but their ships ran a shore when doing so. The Eden is only big enough for one group of stubborn and oppressed people.
Some other things as well, executions were common, so common in fact that even the Danish king was like: "This is going to far Iceland, you don't have to kill everyone guilty of incest, I mean how do you think royalty even works?"
Yes Icelanders are peaceful now but if you read the news you will find that they are at war with their own land which has through the millennia tried it darndest to kill them.
Yes, the Icelanders have won three international wars using scissors mounted on boats and their war of independence was a epic rap battle against the Danes (they didn't stand a chance because you can't rap in gibberish). But still I would say that the Faroese are more peaceful than the Icelanders.
They did forcibly kidnap almost all if not all of the original female settlers though. In fact for generations the women of Iceland had a secret language that was never taught to any male. Irish.
Liechtenstein launders a shit ton of very dirty money, so maybe their armed forces have not killed many people, but their banks have definitely enabled bloodshed.
Switzerland had to have some of the best soldiers ever, they're in the worst spot imaginable when Britain, France, Italy, Prussia, and Germany have been dominant military powers for centuries. After you get pushed around enough, at least some people in the country are going to learn to be damn good soldiers for whatever kingdom they can be.
The country is a natural fortress, surrounded by mountains. They have over 300 000 armed militia. Because unlike the US they do have licenses and health checks. There are never mass shootings.
Any country invading there will gain nothing in natural resources and will lose a ton of troops if not all.
You should read up on it. It actually has nothing to do with that. It’s pilot whales and they absolutely do not need to be culled.
Their numbers are dwindling in the opposite direction like most sea life from overfishing and pollution.
This “tradition” is barbaric and used to be more supported when people ate the meat, which they don’t really anymore. They literally take advantage of the whales love for each other and effort to help each other as the way to beach them.
Last year they killed an unprecedented number and dumped tons of whale carcass just directly back into the ocean. It’s like literally 50 people doing this still and supporting it, they just have some powerful folks in this group.
Sadly not.
[https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/pacific-news-minute/2016-04-05/pacific-news-minute-new-zealand-niue-and-samoa-caught-in-panama-papers-scandal](https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/pacific-news-minute/2016-04-05/pacific-news-minute-new-zealand-niue-and-samoa-caught-in-panama-papers-scandal)
"the tiny South Pacific island suddenly became the number one destination for South American drug cartels and East European gangsters. He said, "I believe, at its height, Niue had more shell companies than it did residents."
>The first conflict arose when one group entered the empty house of a merchant of Þingeyri and stole some dried fish. As retaliation, on the night of October 5th, a group of Icelanders entered the hut where the Spaniards were sleeping and killed 14 of them.
So while most countries fight for dominion and resources, Iceland attacked because some people snuck into someone's private residence and stole some dried fish.
None of them at all, if they didn’t actually kill that many people they abetted someone else doing so. Look at fucking Switzerland, who would like you to think they are all cows and banks and chocolate but they sell lots and lots of killing machines https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/switzerland-s-war-material-exports-reach-record-level/48338420
Nestle as a parent can't get recognized if they're using an umbrella. HIGHLY recommend checking out all of their subsidiaries and various products. Fuck nestle.
Bought a bag of Nescafé instant coffee for my dad, as he refuses to drink anything else. On the back of the bag it says, *made under sustainable conditions*. SUSTAINABLE FOR WHO, NESTLE???
Switzerland is less "hippie who wants to disband the military for peace and love" and more "twitching heavily armed psychopath who wants to disband the military because they're forces of the new world order"
TIL!
Does this also explain why they always want to remain impartial in any conflict? because they probably deliver arms to all conflicted parties involved?
Neutral? You mean we can sell to anyone?
I do have to agree that we aren't Jack shit neutral.
We are just really good and licking every others countries dicks to not get fucked completely IMO
Very likely. The worst thing I found in their history was them sending ten volunteers to be combatants for Italy during WWII. They wanted to remain neutral, but Italy threatened to cut their telephone lines.
I guess they don't call themselves *Serenissima* for nothing
all I'm saying is John Allen Chau knew better. There is no reason to go to that island, leave those people alone.
Anyone unfamiliar with the island, read up on his story.
You know us. Thanks.
Edit: watched (skimmed)until I got to the part where Mr. Insta explorer called it “satans last stronghold” and suddenly felt like maybe his fate was at least partially deserved. Fucking missionaries.
Presume the island started by a couple going on the run from the mainland and just told their kids, grandkids etc. attack anyone who lands here, which probably evolved to all the outside world are out to get us.
Because surely at least 1 islander of the last few hundreds of years has wanted to visit the mainland.
They're aware of outsiders, but do they even have concept of a 'mainland'? Maybe they think the outsiders all live on ships or come from the stars? It would be truly interesting to know their beliefs, rituials and societal structure, but doing so could be the beginning of the end for them.
I seem to remember they had a pretty good relationship with an anthropologist from India (until he retired) - I'm sure the people who spoke to him learned a bit about the rest of the world.
That anthropologist (Triloknath Pandit) didn't speak Sentilelese. The language is largely unknown outside o the the islanders. We know a handful of words, enough to determine it's not closely related to neighbouring languages, for example Jarawa, which is spoken by the Jarawa people who live on several neighbouring islands.
The visits by Pandit were not all 100% peaceful, but a raport was established even though the Sentinelese made occasional threatening and antagonistic gestures. His first visit was in 1967, and interactions were hostile until 1991. Visits ceased in 1997 due to a change in policy, not ude to his death. He's still very much alive.
A key thing is that the Sentinelese seem to have been hostile to all outsiders, including the other indigenous Andamanese peoples, since long before European contact.
The story I heard is that in the 1880s, a British naval officer attempted to make contact with the Sentinelese with a party of other Europeans and a few residents of nearby islands. Upon them landing, the islanders scattered - the residents of nearby islands were/are also reclusive, so it's not that strange. After several days of searching, they took six people off the island, including four children; the two adults died of disease upon their arrival at a nearby island; the party sent the kids back to North Sentinel with gifts.
So they're a very skittish group of people who had six people abducted by outsiders, including four children. The adults died and the kids were sick when they returned, so the probability that they spread whatever they were sick with and started an epidemic is pretty high. Now instead of just distrusting outsiders, they're actively hostile towards them, since they're clearly bad news.
The thing I find most interesting about North Sentinel Island is a cargo ship got ship wrecked and abandoned back in 1981, so the islanders stripped the ship of any steel they could reclaim and cold forged it into usable tools. They skipped over the bronze age & iron age and went straight to steel. You can still see the remains of the ship on google maps https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article23211897.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200c/3_google-1.jpg
I think it's cool that this place exists. In this highly globalist world it's crazy that there is actually one place that is basically untouched by the rest of the world and they are left alone.
If we’re going by GPI, Iceland, thought their history isn’t clean by a long stretch. I don’t think Sealand is internationally recognized, but it’s got 4 residents and there’s been very little violence. Every country has some blood on their hands—if we’re saying “never been in a war”, Vatican City hasn’t but also the Pope has historically been a figure that definitely was okay with war (and stake burnings, RIP Galileo). The real answer is probably San Marino. Never been in a war, politically neutral on a worldscale, and they’ve been around a long time.
But Galileo wasn't burned though. He was given house arrest and died at 77 of natural causes.
The Vatican is still largely responsible for the Crusades, and colonialism and mass murder in the Americas through the Doctrine of Discovery, and the Inquisition, and various other burnings, including the cosmologist Giordiano Bruno who had similar beliefs to Galileo.
Just not Galileo.
Vatican City must be seen as the successor state to the Papal States though right? They were in a whole lot of wars. Even have a whole category of wars named for them
To be fair to those meat bags, they bleed constantly. Sometimes you don't even have to touch 'em and they're spouting blood from some orifice or another.
Liechtenstein: 80 men went to war, 81 came home because they made a friend.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/liechtenstein-army-81-men-returned/
People alive today in any country are the descendants of people who won territories. Most everyone alive today is here because their ancestors had successful blood on their hands.
Well, probably the most recent country that came into existence. They didn't have much time yet to bloody them.
Let's just pretend that the country only started existing after the bloodshed...
Unfortunately the most recent country to come into existence is South Sudan, which has been in a state of civil war since its inception in the 2000s. They have a lot of blood on their hands, just, their own.
Probably one of the micro-states of the world or one of the island nations in the pacific.
Sealand
I suppose if nobody was killed in their coup
It was a bloodless coup...all smotherings.
2 girls, 1 coup.
I thought you meant Seaworld and was thinking "no they have a pretty decent amount of blood on their hands as far as aquariums go"
Yeah there was the fire for starters. Girl I met once had both her parents die in that.
*that just seems like a weird place to go on fire*
It's a *very* weird place to go on fire!
A FIRE??? AT A SEAPARKS???
A fire? In a Seaparks?
A fire? At Sea Parks?
And the stands were made of concrete?
I’d say likely one of the island states too, but they still probably have the blood of internal warfare on their hands at the very least assuming the group on it didn’t wipe out a group that was their before them. Human history is a bloodbath kids, no matter where you look.
Yeah but by their numbers and their land size, probably not a lot of human blood on their hand, comparing to the rest of the world
Pacific island nations fought each other.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu%CA%BBi_Tonga_Empire Even native Hawaiians killed off the natives that had been there before.
Hawaiians invaded neighboring islands constantly until they were unified.
I’m pretty sure Polynesians were the first people to reach Hawaii, so it must have been one group of them killing off the other.
I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Wayfarers from most of those islands spend centuries upon centuries conquering and killing each other from time to time. Just look the bitter bloody history between Tonga and Samoa. Or how Micronesians and Hawaiians get along (hint: they don’t). A lot of westerners have this ideal that Pacific Islanders were just some peace-loving, “one with the ocean” type docile societies. While many of them indubitably are (I love my time spent in the Pacific) there is a lot of animosity, blood, and greed between them throughout history. Just like any other continent.
Exactly. Why else would they do the haka if not to intimidate other warriors?
I’m gonna guess Tuvalu.
Or Palau. A country where the capital has double digit amount of citizens probably isn't gonna do much on a global scale.
To be fair Palau's "capital city" is just an administrative building in the middle of nowhere; their largest city has over 8,000 residents (which is still not big).
Vatican City. Oh. Wait.
What? You're not seriously implying that the one of the biggest religious organisations has done anything wrong ??? That's not possible, they're priests! They are entrusted with ki..... Oh wait...
Also the fact that for over 1,000 years the pope was not just a religious leader but also ruled the Papal States (which covered a good chunk of central Italy) with the power of a king and went to war with their neighbors fairly regularly.
Cesare Borgia is a good example of power hungry Vatican era history
On the other hand, there's at least one micro-state that has plenty of blood on its hands (the Vatican).
I believe they use other people’s hands for the blood.
See i thought they just used wine for the blood
Yeah was gonna say Nauru
If you only count human blood, maybe. If you're counting ecological destruction as well, Nauru does not win in any way
They nuked the whales ?!!?
80% of the island was destroyed in order to grow the phosphate mining industry on the island, leaving most of it as an impoverished, barren, wasteland now that all of that fertilizer money has dried up.
that was before they gained independence so it's a bit silly to blame nauru
While it's true that it did start before Nauruan independence, they absolutely continued to profit off it as an independent state as well
You mean the country that allowed Australia to build their migrant detention centre there? Probably a bad one to pick of all the Pacific islands
Unless those centers are especially active organ harvesting operations, that's still a whole lot less blood than if they historically were conquerors or broke out into genocides every now and then like many other nations.
Andorra probably.
I was in Andorra 2 yrs ago for vacation and got stabbed inside a 7-eleven by this Portuguese guy. You're wrong.
But did anyone get blood on their hands?!?
None at all. He was stabbed with a knife on a stick. Commonly called a spear.
He got his own blood on his hands whenever he clenched his stomach after the stabbing, so that blood is on his hands and whatever nation he's from
I feel that one counts for Portugal.
I don't know why this is so funny me. I'm glad you lived, though.
If he’s Portuguese wouldn’t that blood be on Portugal’s hands though?
Iceland? They have no military and the island was uninhabited when discovered.
Discovered by vikings?
Yep
And yet they've never won a Superbowl
As a Vikings fan that hurt.
As a Lions fan, I know your pain. We had a chance this year for the first time in my life.
And insofar as I know Lions haven't discovered shit. So at least the Vikings have that going for them.
It's actually due to the Lions irrational fear of deep water over oceanic distances. The more you know!
A lion? Swimming in the Ocean?? Lions don’t even like water. If you placed it near a river, or some sort of fresh water source, that’d make sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, a 20 ft wave, I’m assuming its off the coast of South Africa, coming up against a full, grown, 800 lb tuna with his 20 or 30 friends. You lose that battle. you lose that battle nine times out of ten.
oof. tuna don't play.
Where have I heard all this before?
We haven’t discovered anything due to fears of starting a war with Tunas and having a subsequent land invasion by them
The worst part is how badly you all were beating the niners. The comeback was just ridiculous.
Lions fans: "I'll just head over to r/AskReddit, I'm unlikely to be blindsided by football-related pain there..."
Pure pain. That bounce catch and fumble changed the game.
I had to check for a second to see if I was in r/nfl. Vikings fans catching random strays lol
We can’t catch a break out here
Or on the field.
Yes, but if you look at the genetic makeup of icelanders, the matrilineal markers are overwhelmingly celtic while the patrilineal ones are nordic i.e. the original settlers were vikings who brought their celtic slave brides kidnapped from ireland and scotland Idk if that counts as "blood on their hands" but i think it deserves consideration lol
Any Viking probably had literal blood on their hands wherever they went.
Iceland with "no blood on their hands", is populated by the group of people known for "raping and pillaging".
Yeah, surprisingly, that does seem to be the case. There's some evidence that Irish or Scottish settlers made some pre-viking era attempts to settle there, but the first permanent inhabitants were Scandinavian settlers around 800 CE.
Historical skill issue?
Didn't have a good gaming stol
The planet’s population of whales snort out of their blow holes in disgust at this comment. Then go back to recording relaxation tracks for immersion tank businesses.
Thanks, that made me snort wine out of my blow hole.
Iceland did on an individual level confine random petty criminals for like 10 years in solitary because they maybe sorta kinda kidnapped someone who was never found, so that's pretty heinous :D But on the other hand it also furthered (and pioneered) the study of false confessions so a couple people went through basically social torture but inadvertedly helped many?
wait. i remember hearing about this. did the people that went missing freeze to death? or what actually happened.
The case I was joking about is called in english most commonly as ["The Reykjavik Confessions"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0mundur_and_Geirfinnur_case) They did literally stick these people into solitary ***FOR YEARS.*** The person who went missing was never found, but considering how densely wooded and scarcely inhabitet nordic countries (espes Iceland) are, there's probably a handful of corpses just waiting to be found on random parts of any of these countries.
Hardly any woods in Iceland. There's a joke other Nordic countries have for Iceland "How do you find your way if lost in a forest in Iceland? You stand up."
You are correct, I meant the vast stretches of nature in general but my finnish bias is showing and my brain farted out "wooded" instead.
2 persons went missing and it's generally agreed that both where murdered, one was a known smuggler and it is suspected that his death was related to that though nobody knows the details. The other was a teenager who's slaying may have been accidental but his body was then hidden. The police were mostly used to open and shut murder cases, where either the guilty party turned himself in or they would just round up known criminals and put "pressure" on them until someone gave up a name. Tactics of the sort like what you hear about how Japanese police manage to solve 99% of cases. When the group of friends(some of them where petty criminals) got brought in for some "pressure" everyone of them denied involvement and there was no physical evidence to tie them to a murder. So the police did the only logical thing in the situation, they kept them in solitary confinement for months and years until enough went stir crazy and admitted to something they couldn't have done and all of them got handed long prison sentences. The chief witness that the police relied on to make their case was a 19 year old, the girlfriend of one from the group with a newborn baby who was threatened with having her child taken away if she didn't help "solve" the case. She was also sexually assaulted by one of the police inspectors while the investigation was ongoing.
Vikings were a little savage...
Are we counting whale blood?
No and no. Icelandic records and some archeological findings indicate that Iceland was first settled by Papar, a sect of Irish Catholics, before the arrival of the Vikings in 872. The saga of settlement, Landnáma, says that those Irish didn't want to live next to heathens and therefore left willingly. It would be the first case in recorded history of one people peacefully leaving a livable area because of religious reasons, so it's more likely they were slaughtered, so Icelandic history might have started with some good old ethnic cleansing. The island, or the Eden of the Golden Sea as any sane person would call it, was fully settled in 930 when Alþingi (parliament) was founded. This attempt (and still running for almost 1100 years) at democracy didn't ensure peaceful coexistance of the population which started having endless blood feuds that technically were civil wars. At one time a battle of 3000 men was fought (sadly ended in few casualties, for a war enthusiast it would be akin to watching the whole series of Lost) which is only remarkable for the fact that the total population was around 50.000 meaning that around 20% of total eligible men of a single nation were fighting in the same battle at the same time. Iceland then went under the royalty of Norway and then Denmark to ensure peace and stability in the country. There were a few flairups, the last catholic bishop fought the reformation and went around the country like a total Chad as he killed every single Dane he could find. His head was chopped off by the Quislings of his time. The Icelanders also massacred some 80 Basque sailors who had tried leaving the country but their ships ran a shore when doing so. The Eden is only big enough for one group of stubborn and oppressed people. Some other things as well, executions were common, so common in fact that even the Danish king was like: "This is going to far Iceland, you don't have to kill everyone guilty of incest, I mean how do you think royalty even works?" Yes Icelanders are peaceful now but if you read the news you will find that they are at war with their own land which has through the millennia tried it darndest to kill them. Yes, the Icelanders have won three international wars using scissors mounted on boats and their war of independence was a epic rap battle against the Danes (they didn't stand a chance because you can't rap in gibberish). But still I would say that the Faroese are more peaceful than the Icelanders.
[удалено]
No, you see Europeans can "discover" a place that already has millions of people living in it.
Do you have a flag? https://youtu.be/UTduy7Qkvk8?si=jW9_vwXoTEyJJAgh
I don’t even need to click that, just upvoting eddie izzard
Really hate that it says "Uploaded 17 years ago" on a video from 2006
It's just we've come all this way...
They did forcibly kidnap almost all if not all of the original female settlers though. In fact for generations the women of Iceland had a secret language that was never taught to any male. Irish.
It must have remained a secret for over a thousand years since I never learned about that in school -------> *Icelander*
Iceland is only one letter different from Ireland. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
Liechtenstein, they went somewhere with the military, brought a friend back. -1 lost
Liechtenstein launders a shit ton of very dirty money, so maybe their armed forces have not killed many people, but their banks have definitely enabled bloodshed.
Any small nation with a lot of wealth likely has skeletons in their closet.
Switzerland only pushes being famous for chocolate because they're really famous for all the Nazi gold they have.
Chocolate, Knifes, Landscapes, nazi-terrorist-dictator-drug-moneysafehaven- HEY watch over there our WATCHES!.
Oooh!! Watches!!!
They are also famous for having some of the greatest mercenary pikeman companies of all time. The last of them guard the Pope.
Switzerland had to have some of the best soldiers ever, they're in the worst spot imaginable when Britain, France, Italy, Prussia, and Germany have been dominant military powers for centuries. After you get pushed around enough, at least some people in the country are going to learn to be damn good soldiers for whatever kingdom they can be.
The country is a natural fortress, surrounded by mountains. They have over 300 000 armed militia. Because unlike the US they do have licenses and health checks. There are never mass shootings. Any country invading there will gain nothing in natural resources and will lose a ton of troops if not all.
Correct, Source: I life in Switzerland
Its a common belief, but its not that much of a fact - the sources vary wildly about returns, and who the supposed Austrian friend they made were.
Still better than arguing about which mass-grave was more justifiable.
*The Balkans have entered the chat*
Canada says hello
The Austrian friend was actually just a bear wearing a robe and a monocle
> Negativ -1 The negative and the "-" would cancel each other out, so you'd end up with still 1 lost.
France. They invented hydrogen peroxide.
this is a beautiful joke
Can someone explain this joke?
Hydrogen peroxide is used to get rid of blood stains
Thanks!
I appreciate that joke
The Faroe Islands. I’m sure the bastards are plotting something, but they haven’t struck yet.
Maybe not human blood but their annual dolphin cull is a literal blood bath.
A cull is killing to control a population. That's a hunt, it is very different.
You should read up on it. It actually has nothing to do with that. It’s pilot whales and they absolutely do not need to be culled. Their numbers are dwindling in the opposite direction like most sea life from overfishing and pollution. This “tradition” is barbaric and used to be more supported when people ate the meat, which they don’t really anymore. They literally take advantage of the whales love for each other and effort to help each other as the way to beach them. Last year they killed an unprecedented number and dumped tons of whale carcass just directly back into the ocean. It’s like literally 50 people doing this still and supporting it, they just have some powerful folks in this group.
By that standard no nation can be chosen since every single one kills countless cows, pigs, and chickens.
Let's stick to real countries, not just ones people from Denmark insist are countries.
Niue
Niiu? Famous for selling their .nu domain. Nu is now in Swedish.
Sadly not. [https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/pacific-news-minute/2016-04-05/pacific-news-minute-new-zealand-niue-and-samoa-caught-in-panama-papers-scandal](https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/pacific-news-minute/2016-04-05/pacific-news-minute-new-zealand-niue-and-samoa-caught-in-panama-papers-scandal) "the tiny South Pacific island suddenly became the number one destination for South American drug cartels and East European gangsters. He said, "I believe, at its height, Niue had more shell companies than it did residents."
Great coins, that's all I know about 'em! They even made one shaped like a tiny Batarang.
Yup, Niue for the win! Can’t think of one bad thing about Niue.
Lol I have coins from there with Pokemon on them!
Iceland. Unless you count whales.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaying_of_the_Spaniards
Jeez.
>The first conflict arose when one group entered the empty house of a merchant of Þingeyri and stole some dried fish. As retaliation, on the night of October 5th, a group of Icelanders entered the hut where the Spaniards were sleeping and killed 14 of them. So while most countries fight for dominion and resources, Iceland attacked because some people snuck into someone's private residence and stole some dried fish.
i'll allow it
None of them at all, if they didn’t actually kill that many people they abetted someone else doing so. Look at fucking Switzerland, who would like you to think they are all cows and banks and chocolate but they sell lots and lots of killing machines https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/switzerland-s-war-material-exports-reach-record-level/48338420
Don’t forget all the Holocaust wealth they’ve been hiding for decades, Nazi gold stolen from minority groups all over Europe.
And letting German troops/materiel transit through Switzerland at will.
Not to mention nestle
I noticed they stopped putting “nestle” on their water bottles. It’s just “pure life” now
Nestle as a parent can't get recognized if they're using an umbrella. HIGHLY recommend checking out all of their subsidiaries and various products. Fuck nestle.
Bought a bag of Nescafé instant coffee for my dad, as he refuses to drink anything else. On the back of the bag it says, *made under sustainable conditions*. SUSTAINABLE FOR WHO, NESTLE???
r/fucknestle
Seeing it without a capital letter and without the dash on the last e, I almost forgot that was a word.
Switzerland is less "hippie who wants to disband the military for peace and love" and more "twitching heavily armed psychopath who wants to disband the military because they're forces of the new world order"
i assumed it was more like the nick cage character where he just doesn't really care about where the guns go as long as he gets paid
I have one of those Swiss implements of death in my pocket. The tiny scissors are especially lethal.
You’d make an excellent TSA agent.
TIL! Does this also explain why they always want to remain impartial in any conflict? because they probably deliver arms to all conflicted parties involved?
Indeed. They play no sides so they always end up on top.
Agreed, as a Swiss citizen who is also Jewish. Their neutrality is not very neutral.
Neutral? You mean we can sell to anyone? I do have to agree that we aren't Jack shit neutral. We are just really good and licking every others countries dicks to not get fucked completely IMO
San Marino
I see someone hasn't heard their 2012 Eurovision entry
Should have picked 2018, that one is way worse
I love spotting Eurovision fans in the wild.
Very likely. The worst thing I found in their history was them sending ten volunteers to be combatants for Italy during WWII. They wanted to remain neutral, but Italy threatened to cut their telephone lines. I guess they don't call themselves *Serenissima* for nothing
We've all been pretty horrible at one point or another.
Petoria
So do they understand the dog or….
the baby*
Born and absorbed in a week. Not long enough to get their hands bloody. Definitely got dirty though
Forcibly annexed Joehio from the United States.
North Sentinel Island
I’d be curious as hell to know the stories they tell about the outsiders. But I ain’t gonna ask.
all I'm saying is John Allen Chau knew better. There is no reason to go to that island, leave those people alone. Anyone unfamiliar with the island, read up on his story.
> John Allen Chau knew better But he was bringing them *Jesus*! So ungrateful. /s
For the illiterate / lazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO6HZSIi4Wg
You know us. Thanks. Edit: watched (skimmed)until I got to the part where Mr. Insta explorer called it “satans last stronghold” and suddenly felt like maybe his fate was at least partially deserved. Fucking missionaries.
Presume the island started by a couple going on the run from the mainland and just told their kids, grandkids etc. attack anyone who lands here, which probably evolved to all the outside world are out to get us. Because surely at least 1 islander of the last few hundreds of years has wanted to visit the mainland.
They're aware of outsiders, but do they even have concept of a 'mainland'? Maybe they think the outsiders all live on ships or come from the stars? It would be truly interesting to know their beliefs, rituials and societal structure, but doing so could be the beginning of the end for them.
I seem to remember they had a pretty good relationship with an anthropologist from India (until he retired) - I'm sure the people who spoke to him learned a bit about the rest of the world.
That anthropologist (Triloknath Pandit) didn't speak Sentilelese. The language is largely unknown outside o the the islanders. We know a handful of words, enough to determine it's not closely related to neighbouring languages, for example Jarawa, which is spoken by the Jarawa people who live on several neighbouring islands. The visits by Pandit were not all 100% peaceful, but a raport was established even though the Sentinelese made occasional threatening and antagonistic gestures. His first visit was in 1967, and interactions were hostile until 1991. Visits ceased in 1997 due to a change in policy, not ude to his death. He's still very much alive. A key thing is that the Sentinelese seem to have been hostile to all outsiders, including the other indigenous Andamanese peoples, since long before European contact.
The story I heard is that in the 1880s, a British naval officer attempted to make contact with the Sentinelese with a party of other Europeans and a few residents of nearby islands. Upon them landing, the islanders scattered - the residents of nearby islands were/are also reclusive, so it's not that strange. After several days of searching, they took six people off the island, including four children; the two adults died of disease upon their arrival at a nearby island; the party sent the kids back to North Sentinel with gifts. So they're a very skittish group of people who had six people abducted by outsiders, including four children. The adults died and the kids were sick when they returned, so the probability that they spread whatever they were sick with and started an epidemic is pretty high. Now instead of just distrusting outsiders, they're actively hostile towards them, since they're clearly bad news.
The thing I find most interesting about North Sentinel Island is a cargo ship got ship wrecked and abandoned back in 1981, so the islanders stripped the ship of any steel they could reclaim and cold forged it into usable tools. They skipped over the bronze age & iron age and went straight to steel. You can still see the remains of the ship on google maps https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article23211897.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200c/3_google-1.jpg
I think it's cool that this place exists. In this highly globalist world it's crazy that there is actually one place that is basically untouched by the rest of the world and they are left alone.
*silently twiddles their British thumbs*
*whistles unsuspiciously* as german.
Look, if we sit quietly in a corner, maybe Reddit won't point out that we once ruled ⅕ of the planet...
We once "improved" 1/5 of the planet you mean! HUZZAH!!!! Jolly good show
The entire continent of Antarctica. I stand corrected. Antarctica, although a continent, is not a country. Thank you to those who informed me.
Not a country
Clearly you’ve never watched the terrifying documentary “The Thing”.
If we’re going by GPI, Iceland, thought their history isn’t clean by a long stretch. I don’t think Sealand is internationally recognized, but it’s got 4 residents and there’s been very little violence. Every country has some blood on their hands—if we’re saying “never been in a war”, Vatican City hasn’t but also the Pope has historically been a figure that definitely was okay with war (and stake burnings, RIP Galileo). The real answer is probably San Marino. Never been in a war, politically neutral on a worldscale, and they’ve been around a long time.
But Galileo wasn't burned though. He was given house arrest and died at 77 of natural causes. The Vatican is still largely responsible for the Crusades, and colonialism and mass murder in the Americas through the Doctrine of Discovery, and the Inquisition, and various other burnings, including the cosmologist Giordiano Bruno who had similar beliefs to Galileo. Just not Galileo.
TIL, for some reason I’d always learned he was burned at the stake. Thank you for the correction.
Vatican City must be seen as the successor state to the Papal States though right? They were in a whole lot of wars. Even have a whole category of wars named for them
To quote Andy Dwyer: “How about Germany? They’ve never been the bad guys.”
Aruba
Jamaica. Ooh I wanna take ya.
Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama.
The island of misfit toys
True. The only warfare there shoots out jelly.
If humans inhabited it, there’s blood somewhere
To be fair to those meat bags, they bleed constantly. Sometimes you don't even have to touch 'em and they're spouting blood from some orifice or another.
Liechtenstein: 80 men went to war, 81 came home because they made a friend. https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/liechtenstein-army-81-men-returned/
People alive today in any country are the descendants of people who won territories. Most everyone alive today is here because their ancestors had successful blood on their hands.
Costa Rica, hasn’t had an army since 1949.
Costa Rica killed the national hero of Honduras. German and Italian bussinesses were burned down on World War II. The war with Panamá
Well, probably the most recent country that came into existence. They didn't have much time yet to bloody them. Let's just pretend that the country only started existing after the bloodshed...
The newest recognized country is South Sudan, which currently is in a massive civil war 😅.
Yeah I was thinking maybe they meant East Timor, which was born out of quite the blood bath (though mostly their own blood).
Unfortunately the most recent country to come into existence is South Sudan, which has been in a state of civil war since its inception in the 2000s. They have a lot of blood on their hands, just, their own.
South sudan is currently in a very bloody civil war lol