What if the Nordic countries united?

[@GummiAnd]

As a Dane I can say with pretty high confidence that such a union would never happen. That being said, there will always be a strong bond between our countries, and if you mess with any one of us, you mess with us all. Yes I'm looking at you Putin. lol

[@OlkaOve]

As a Swede i agree. Good friends for life but a union was done before and didn't really work so well 😂. No one mess with the Vikings/Finns.

[@S.R.Crnt.]

Exactly!

[@Abiodun92]

Yes yes, you will probably fight until the last Finn and then begin the surrendering process. (Joke) 😏

[@ohrosberg]

As a Norwegian I totally agree with you. We're sibling nations, we argue at times, but we do stand firmly with each other when the going gets tough.

[@Decayrate-of-Ravn-Rike]

We should be isolationist and neutral until we have actual defensive capabilities. Finnish and Norwegian terrain is quite defensive in its nature, we could have torpedo-boats, AA and artillery installations at every fjord. These days were are too dependant on NATO. There's also the topic of global politics and the view that nations states is an archaic system, which most of politicians agree with. I do not however, because that will hurt the populace more and make us into complete serfs without representation. A union would be great, we all share common beliefs and culture, we also share common genes and are brothers and sisters in the grand scheme of things. But then again, maybe that will be looked at negatively by USA and Russia. Because both of these nations have the tendency to view everyone else as pawns for their future plans (with no regard for our people). I don't want to get too far down the rabbit-hole, but there are over-national factions (globalism factions) that view all people as (doesn't matter where you are from) as pawns ripe for the taking.

[@DE-xt7jv]

In Berlin their is a Nordic Embassy, with all of the five nations being represented there. They still have their own ambassador and staff, but share a common complex. Worth seeing.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

It's called efficiency. There's no point wasting time,money and resources by running 5 embassies when you can do it with just 1 since we all have consensus how things should be done

[@sampohonkala4195]

@@mantelikukkapenkki2368 There are separate embassy buildings for all the Nodrics in Berlin, they only share a common lot. They likely save something in security measures but the embassies function separately.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

@@sampohonkala4195 Tiedän, kirjoitin tuon aika kieli poskessa ns.kautta rantain vittuiluksi tohon DE:n laittamaan misinformaatioon 😉

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

I'm convinced theres a good old traditional Norwegian VS Swede VS Dane VS Finn VS Icelander joke in there somewhere... And i imagine 5 northerners could occupy a single lot without bothering eachother at all xD the norwegian would be outside somewhere eating brown cheese, the dane would be on the couch having "hygge", the swede would be in the garage with his volvo, and the finn would be drunk as all hell *somewhere* while the icelander is the only one concerned enough to look for him, tracking him by following wet sauna footprints and licorice wrappers 😂

[@richardnelson3227]

If Norway were in the EU, they could keep the capital in Brussels.

[@sirkkusalomaa4644]

Having english as the official language would be a big no, us nordics are very into having our own languages. We would either have each one of our languages be an official language, and learn each one of them in school, or we would make a mix between all of them. The only problem here would be finnish, since it's so different from the rest of the languages.

[@tessjuel]

Danish, Swedish and the two main Norwegian languages are so similar they could be used in parallel and then maybe naturally merge with each other (or not) as time goes by.

[@sampohonkala4195]

@@tessjuel Finnish on the other hand is so different that a single language would not work.

[@herrakaarme]

The Nordic countries don't have any intention to fuse into a single country, so in that sense if you play with the idea, picking English wouldn't be any more strange. However, since there's already some difference between English and American English (and the other English dialects), I imagine the Nordic English would also be somewhat different. For example, I reckon the extremely loose relation between the written and pronounced English would be fixed to a certain degree. From the Nordic perspective, it's just ridiculous.

[@sirkkusalomaa4644]

@@herrakaarme Joining together or not is irrelevant, we're just entertaining an idea here

[@MrGunnar69]

I vote for Rally English.

[@JohanCarrion]

When you're determining the rankings, you're taking about the average, but you forget that you're decreasing the amount of top ranking countries. For example, for world happiness ranking, the numbers are 1,2,4,6,7 and average would be 20/5=4, but there is only the country ranking 3rd (outside of the group) competing with that (or possibly country ranked 5th), and the global ranking would be either 1, 2 or at highest 3. The same principle applies to all of the categories!

[@Jsdo1980]

Yeah taking the average ranking is very strange in this case.

[@queertales]

How would you actually calculate it correctly? I guess you could take the population of each country in as a factor to weight their ranking, and come up with a new rank from that, and then of course, remove all the original Nordic countries from the ranking.

[@molin18]

@@queertales Most of the categories has an index I guess you could take the average of this, and it would be a lot closer instead of taking the average of the ranks.

[@TheGeographyBible]

And this is why we're not called The Maths Bible haha, thanks for clearing this up!

[@SwikingSwe]

This.

[@maaliseppo6616]

As a Finn I have to say our language is very unique and there would be no sense to start to speak either English or Swedish which are compared to Finnish very new languages. Otherwise I don’t mind if there would be a Nordic Union or even having a one country as long as Finns are not forced to speak Indo-European languages.

[@christophermumper4143]

I think everyone could speak their own language, with everybody somewhat learning eachothers languages just to understand eachother better. Finland is just the odd one out here and most finns somewhat know swedish from what i understand, so i dont see why you could just speak swedish when speaking to a scandinavian is a problem, but of course speaking finnish to eachother

[@gamerbasic9133]

@@christophermumper4143 We Faroese already do that with Denmark but we learn a lot of the Danish language in school

[@HalValla01]

@@christophermumper4143 Not many people in Finland actually speak Swedish. It's an official language in some southern regions, but not at all in the whole country. It's like finding english speakers in Murmansk or Moscow as opposed to Irkutsk or Berobidjan (Биробиджан)

[@christophermumper4143]

@@HalValla01 aha ok, but dont you learn it in school in the whole country at least learn it a bit?

[@thetoyodacar2264]

I think it would be better if we merged governments and all those things, made it one country in a literal sense, while maintaining our different cultures. The people in power would have to speak english to reduce barriers, but everyone knowing english is already a thing so that would be fine. The boarder between each region would slowly fade

[@edvins8863]

I think every nordic language should be official. Theres no need to stick to one language, It works just fine in switzerland. As for capitals we could have multiple ones like in south africa.

[@petterbossum4716]

Yeah! Besides, swedish, danish and Norwegian would probably make a kind of "bland standard blend" over time anyway. Kind of like Skavlan Svorsk

[@eriklagergren7124]

Sweden already has 5 official languages: Swedish, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani and Yiddish. So there's no reason why only one languages to be the official

[@Nicoj1]

@@eriklagergren7124 no they don’t the only official language of sweden is swedish.

[@eriklagergren7124]

@@Nicoj1 yeah we do, Finnish, sami and yiddish are official protected languages in sweden

[@penttiperusinsinoori3037]

@@eriklagergren7124 Ok... varför du inte talar på finska?😆

[@sercanyilmak4244]

- Danish immigration policy - Finnish education policy - Swedish innovation & industry - Norweigan oil moneyz - Norweigan + swedish winter olympics domination - Great national football team; Ibrahimovic, Haaland, Eriksen etc - Gothenburg is the logical capital; same size as Oslo, fast growth, lots of skyscrapers under construction. Let's make it a real scandinavian metropolis.

[@tobbakken2911]

There lives 150 000 more in Oslo, and has many big-medium cities (in norwegian standard) around it, so no. Oslo area is much bigger than Gothenburg. I do agree that should be the capital tho if we unite.

[@Machoison]

Göteborg make more sence its between Oslo and Copenhagen Fuck Stockholm

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

Unpopular opinion perhaps, but Trondheim would make an excellent capital. Beautiful and historic, on the coast to the atlantic, and if you take a map of the 5 nations and erase their internal borders, Trondheim becomes a middlepoint between the massive mainland area added by sweden and finland, and the huge northern ocean expanse that would become it's territory and most vital trade and resource area. Oil, fishing, and traderoutes in the arctic would remain the arteries conaining the lifeblood of such a big nation.

[@thebronywiking]

@@zarahandrahilde9554 Sorry to critique your opinion, but isn't Trondheim rather limited in expansion space because of the fjords and mountains? Göteborg has a lot of central poorly used former industrial space (The most central being Tingstad (Parliament-city).), the island of Hissingen is relatively flat and underdeveloped, the lower ground on the main land can also be developed. Also if you adjust for population then Göteborg is rather central with distances to: København 300 km, Oslo 300 km, Stockholm 500 km.

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

@@thebronywiking it could be, it really depends on where one draws the limit of cost to develop land for a capital - there's plenty of space in trondheim directly as well as around the whole fjord - but it's a lot of uneven terrain, the bill would be pretty big if this new hypothetical nation would decide to expand it greatly.

[@Mosern1977]

Norwegian here - don't see this happening anytime soon anyways. Current arrangements are good, and I don't see what sort of benefit making a formal union would have, except pushing the Nordics up on a lot of statistics tables. The Nordics would probably need to have English as a official language in addition to the local languages. As Finish (and Icelandic) is not compatible with Norwegian, Danish or Swedish. On the political side, I don't want to see Swedish politicians in any sort of power, the Danish ones seems much better. Finish school system is supposedly excellent. Swedish roads are good. Danish design is great. Norway's electric car policies are great. Swedish industry is good. Norwegian oil-fund is a winner. But we don't need to be a union for all this to exist, its better to learn from the best of breed. Seeing what works in one of the Nordic countries and applying that to the others is always a good idea and shun away from bad policies. But in order to do that, one needs to have similar, but different countries.

[@stigcc]

I agree. In fact, I would like to see less centralization instead of more

[@johangambler]

Of course the Norwegians say "current arrangements are good", because you are best off, well invested oil money and no EU obligations/payments. As a Swede a union like this would benefit us tremendously since we are probably the poorest country of the union and going steadily down, and like you said we could get rid of the most incompetent government in the history of the Nordic countries. But this is all just a dream, this will never happen during my lifetime. I'm pretty sure the only country that would be for a union like this is Sweden, because that would bail us out of some of the current escalating problems. It is as likely as USA and Mexico forms a union.

[@stigcc]

@@johangambler Swedish pensioners are the poorest in the Nordic countries and well below the EU average. In addition they have worked much longer than the pensioners in the South, which they have financed. In addition you use retirment homes as a dumping ground for unemplyable immigrants «for integration purposes». You should be ashamed, for letting this happen

[@johangambler]

@@stigcc If you read my comment again you will see that I agree with all of this, it falls under "the most incompetent government in nordic history".

[@stigcc]

@@johangambler Yes, but you probably voted for it and need to be shamed for it. This has been a planned disaster since Palme, if not Erlander

[@maxfrancois89]

This is such an interesting topic. During the 1200’s (just focusing on today’s Nordic states) the Nordics were Sweden (including Finland), Norway (including Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and Denmark. From 1397 all the Nordic countries was part of a personal union called the Kalmar Union. In 1523 it split into Sweden (including Finland) and Denmark (including Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands). This lasted until 1809 when Finland was lost to Russia during the Finnish War. In 1814 Norway went from Denmark to Sweden, which lasted until 1905 when Norway declared independence. In 1918 Finland's ties to Russia was severed, but it wasn’t until the 1940’s Iceland became a sovereign republic. So the Nordics of today are a pretty new thing. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are still connected to Denmark, however with greater autonomy than before. We might’ve had a shot on a greater Scandinavia in the wake of the Scandnavianism movement of the 1800’s if it wasn’t for the Swedish declaration of neutrality in 1834 which lead to Sweden not taking the opportunity to war against Russia during the Crimean War and thus not being able to reclaim Finland (though demilitarizing Åland), and the failure to assist Denmark during the Second Schleswig-Holstein War. This might’ve strengthened the Scandinavianism in all countries resulting in the possibility of a Nordic Union. However such speculation is pretty futile. The Nordic countries tried post-World War 2 to form a Scandinavian Defence Union which could’ve been the start of something, but that project died when Denmark, Norway and Iceland joined Nato in 1949, and Sweden demanded Finland (sharing a very large border with the Soviet Union) get an OK from the Soviets to join such a union. In 1952 the Nordic Council was established - an interparliamentary cooperation on policy, economics and culture. In 2010 the Swedish historian Gunnar Wetterberg drew up a detailed set of proposals for a United Nordic Federation, which has since been published in the Nordic Council’s yearbook. If a unification would happen, it’d probably look something like that. Concerning a common language I think a combination of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian would be appropriate - Continental Scandinavian. The Nordic Council uses these three languages as their working language, and that covers about 80 % of the people living in the Nordics. The split from Old Norse to Old West Norse (Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian) and Old East Norse (Swedish and Danish) happened in the 800’s. If there was a great Nordic country I think the view on Swedish, Danish and Norwegian as different languages would go away. Linguistically they are very close and for many people already mutually understandable, which kinda is the main criteria for a language, and pretty soon everyone would see them as dialects of the same Continental Scandinavian language.

[@justarandomsmochannel9364]

Props for writing this much 👏👏👏👏

[@Alfred.Förstberg]

holy christ i feel like im in teh history class

[@justarandomsmochannel9364]

@@Alfred.Förstberg this guy should become a history teacher btw if i ever have to write about scandinavian history i will 1000% steal som of that information.

[@maxfrancois89]

@@justarandomsmochannel9364 I’ll tell my boss not to fire me then ;)

[@j.erlandsson]

Wonderful read. Thanks for that. Regarding the linguistics though. You’re right that they’re very similar in print, but when spoken I’d say that Danish kinda sticks out. All this from point of view as a Swede. Others might disagree :-) I, for one, think all this is an amazing idea.

[@tillfalligt1148]

I really would want this to happen. I love my Scandinavian friends. We belong together. With love from Sweden. 🇸🇪 🇸🇯 🇫🇮 🇮🇸 🇩🇰

[@C.A0110]

I am from Sweden to and love 🇫🇮🇳🇴🇸🇪🇮🇸

[@cubeboy2125]

I am Aldo from Sweden 🇩🇰🇮🇸🇫🇮🇳🇴🇸🇪

[@larsnielsen1852]

You forgot 🇬🇱

[@tillfalligt1148]

@@larsnielsen1852 No, I did not. But you forgot 🇦🇽.

[@jimmywayne983]

Just remember that only Denmark, Norway and Sweden is scandinavia.. thats the difference between scandinavia and the Nordic countries.

[@Luredreier]

8:26 Why on earth would we use just *one* official language?!? Even currently we don't have single ones within our *current* borders. In Norway for instance the government is *required* to answer you in the same language you addressed them in if you use either of the two written forms of Norwegian as well as any of the Sami languages. The government also tries to accommodate other languages. Linguistic freedom is *extremely* important, especially in Norway, and that alone would easily block any talk about a union. Sweden and Denmark and Finland all have minority languages that's officially recognized too. On old ferrys like Norrøna belonging to Smyrill Line back when it used to come to port in Bergen people used to do a mix of speaking their own language while listening to people using theirs and kind of a mix between them kind of developing avoiding the parts that's the most difficult in each. As for the idea of English being picked, you might as well ask the Brits to switch official language to French... Yes, we're *proficient* in English, but making it a official language would be a insult, and would be a no go, especially for Norway and Iceland, both countries with ties between their languages and nationalism and identity.

[@Jonassoe]

If we had to have a single official language for the entire region, English would be an obvious pick. If you count by the number of fluent speakers, it is by far the biggest language in the Nordic countries. And let's be honest, we don't understand each other's national languages nearly as well as we would like to think, even if we only look at the three Scandinavian languages.

[@unclear6055]

@@Jonassoe I would honestly rather go through the hassle of learning Danish and Norwegian rather than use English as a first language but that's just me.

[@Luredreier]

@@Jonassoe Trust me, we'd use our own languages, all of us. All of us understand each other with even just a low amount of prior exposure. It would be trivial to increase that exposure and add basic understanding of the other two languages to the curriculum. As for the Icelandic and Faeroese and Finnish people, they're already learning another nordic language in school and would get by with that in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Faeroese and Icelandic people understand each other well enough. So yeah, it would be just fine. Swedes and Danes might occasionally switch to English when talking with each other just like now, but officially it would be the native nordic languages at play with everyone using the closest language everyone involved understands.

[@Luredreier]

@@unclear6055 You wouldn't even need to learn them, you'd just need exposure to understand them, then keep talking in your own Swedish. Norwegians would have very little problems with understanding your Swedish, Danes would struggle a bit more, but would manage if you talk slowly and try to find Swedish synonyms where possible when there's issues. They'd need exposure too. Finns already learn Swedish in school, that would probably continue. Icelandic and Faeroese people and I believe people from Greenland as well learn Danish. Well, Icelandic people used to have compulsory Danish in school, now it has been switched to a Nordic language of the students choice I believe, so it could be Swedish or Norwegian too.

[@unclear6055]

@@Luredreier Well the similarities are the reasons for my previous comment. We understand norwegian without much trouble, whereas danish can be a bit harder. Other langauges in the nordic countries are harder for Swedes to grasp which I'm certain you already know.

[@alle8689]

I would fully support a union between our five nations as a Swede

[@core3086]

It would be good to actually make a real difference in the world

[@johanonemag0kills795]

I don't think the rest of the Nordic countries want anything with Sweden, just look how Sweden is falling apart in 10 - 15 years Swedish people will be a minority

[@alle8689]

@@johanonemag0kills795 And you are just delusional. Someone who believes everything media says. Saying Swedes will be a minority in 20 years is really really stupid.

[@banananusthegoat]

I don't as a Norwegian

[@Kold87]

I would also invite our little cousin Estonia.

[@tessjuel]

A formal merging of the Nordic nation into a single country wouldn't actually make that much difference since we are already united for most practical purposes and have been so for a long time. This is one of the reason why we've prospered btw. While nations elsewhere have been busy wasting resources fighting each other, we have worked together and stayed friends.

[@arstan8092]

It honestly would, would make us less addicted to a single resource as some of our countries are, would also help alot with military and defence overall since we would have a bigger military and better chance of defending ourself which atm we do not since many have to rely on the us to survive. I do not wish for us actually going together as one country, but would love more official deals and systems around eachother because it would make alot of sense in most ways.

[@kirstireinholdtsen5844]

Agree. Like when Putin told he would go into Ukraine, the nordic countries hurried to have a meeting. That's what the finnish president told CNN. And also Sweden and Finland are at the big NATO summit in North of Norway.

[@tovekauppi1616]

I mean, historically we’ve fought *a lot* of wars with one another. Denmark and Sweden have basically fought for as long as our nations have existed up until the early 1800s.

[@kirstireinholdtsen5844]

@@tovekauppi1616 I don't think Norway ever attaced Danmark or Sweden. But I know the swedish King Karl 12 attaced Norway, twice, and lost.The swedish soldiers was so fed up of wars. They wanted to get home to feed their family, as the soldiers actually were farmers.They killed, shot their warloving King themself, in Trondhjem Norway.

[@kirstireinholdtsen5844]

@Jukebox Ok, were ever he died, he was shot. In Norway, and it ended the stupid war we could have lost, and the swedes was tired of.

[@fancyform]

As many cool possibilities this could bring, one thing came to mind. Imagine the hockey team we'd have. Seeing Swedes and Fins in the same national jersey would be incredibly weird. We've been rivals on the ice for decades. My family is half Swedish and half Finnish. So it's always a good, if somewhat loud time when we gather around the TV to watch the games.

[@alvaraktner3774]

Det laget hade varit ostoppbart

[@theadultpantry7219]

Not to mention the Ski teams!!! I mean the talent that Norway, Swden and Finland has in skiers is just bar none!

[@fancyform]

@@theadultpantry7219 True! Didn't even think about that. Would be quite the competition to get on the national team!

[@prst99]

Could make United Nordic Nation act like the UK during World Cup? I believe each country of the UK is given a separate team. They could carry that practice to all international sports so the UNN would not have a unified team.

[@hobomike6935]

"what would happen if the Nordic countries united?" *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim theme intensifies*

[@ejun251]

As a Swede, I feel like this would actually work because I don't know anyone that actually dislikes the other nordic countries. We love each other and already have a lot of cooperation. It would have to be a federation type of thing where each country can still make their own decisions where there's disagreement.

[@alexanderludvigsen1893]

Yeah. It would quite easily work. We would just have to agree on some topics, politically. And we could still speak our own language, we understand each other and we would just start teaching Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish in the schools.

[@Fabermain]

we are a unique group in the history of mankin who has such shared minority culture. we are the natives of this land. and some will deny that fact.

[@MG77740]

I didn’t realize how much Swede I was in my so-called Norwegian side and then I’m Danish also (genetic test revealed). I was happy to claim another Scandinavian country as my own, because they are all awesome. When I look at the map I can easily imagine that the Swedes where very near, so they were intermingling and someone drew these boundaries that separated these regions into countries. I do think they should cooperate on military, energy and economy. They should make trade deals with the US and Great Britain also because of cultural ties and for economies of scale. We might have more Scandinavians in the US than in Scandinavia.

[@worldofthemeparks155]

Have you ever thought about Copenhagen and Malmö as one capital:) They are two big cities, very close to each other. Just combined by a bridge

[@Muhamedim]

After a unification, the cities will merge ,that's why it's good to create a new capital

[@pollutingpenguin2146]

They are already advertising that region as greater Copenhagen with 4.3 million people.

[@Muhamedim]

@@pollutingpenguin2146 so, copenhagen becomes a major economical city, and they could chose a federal city btw norway and sweden. everybody wins except finnland.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

Malmö would be ideal capital. We could build the parliament house and all the other government buidings to the middle of Rosenborg, so that the MPs of the leftist- and green parties could every day witness how their politics affects to society

[@pollutingpenguin2146]

@@mantelikukkapenkki2368 no it wouldn’t

[@Int._society_of_carrots]

I think the most logical capital would be a completely new one like Brazil did with Brasilia. This wouldn’t make anyone bitter and you could choose a good location and develop perfect infrastructure

[@Motorvegful]

Jönköping: exists

[@xaoz2362]

Göteborg...

[@ShadowTani]

Longyearbyen The logic behind this is simple. Svalbard is technically already shared land, and none of its citizens are native to the region as you can only stay as long as you work there; you also cannot retire there, and you can't be buried there (thus you have to move back to the mainland when your career is over). In other words a multi-national Nordic government with equal representation among the Nordic states would occur most naturally there, with everyone retaining their ties to their mainland regions. The Swedish alternatives would be the most controversial politically due to historic reasons (Sweden have a poor track record when it comes to oppressing its Nordic vassals), Sweden would have to give Denmark, Norway, and Finland some major compensations to make that kinda deal more agreeable. It's not that we don't think Sweden could be different today, but yeah... just saying, it wouldn't go over smoothly. The same would be true with a Danish capital option, that wouldn't go over well with Sweden and Iceland. Besides, this kind of union would only happen if a major international conflict would make it a necessity. And in this kinda scenario you would want your government positioned in areas that isn't easily accessible for authoritarian warmongers, such as Iceland or Svalbard. In the digital age the need for the capital to be the more centralized city isn't as crucial. If a more centralized option is truly needed then I would vote for Åland instead.

[@sirkkusalomaa4644]

The logical choice is Gøteborg, it's dead set in the middle with easy sea access to all areas

[@Int._society_of_carrots]

Yea there are many existing options that are good but I still think a new one would be best as you can build it up to for fill the needs of a civilianisation in the 21 century.

[@Jsdo1980]

Some of the rankings are a bit strange. For the World's Mothers report you place the combined nation as fourth in the world, but the individual countires rank 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th in the world. How could three other nations be better than that?

[@KapteeniKetza]

They just had absolutely no idea how to calculate correctly but its not like you need to be accurate when making youtube videos.

[@erpirat9577]

Bad maths. They counted the average of the rankings,

[@TNbarnholdt]

@@erpirat9577 and rounded very heavily up.

[@Oystein87]

It's an average.. Nothing mystical about it

[@Jsdo1980]

@@Oystein87 But that's not how that works. At all. You can't average a ranking. Let's say it's based on a scoring system. 1st has a 100 points, 2nd, has 99, 3rd has 98, 4th has 97, 5th has 96 and 6th has 95. That means that the average score of 1,2,3,4 and 6 is 97,8, which is still higher than the highest ranking other nation (the 5th placed) with 96 points. The new country should still rank first with the 5th ranked country now as second.

[@eisenstahlbrenner3516]

A year ago the Nordics formed a joint airforce command. Yesterday the Nordics agreed to allow eachothers military forces to operate on eachothers territory and collaborate even closer militarily. The Nordics already collaborate in a lot of areas and citizens from the memberstates can move freely over the borders.

[@EidunNorway]

Half Norwegian, half Swedish I've dreamt about this for nearly 40 years. If the population in every country would unite in this notion it would happen. Let us all push for this!

[@denmark23]

Agreed but with Greenland, Åland and faro Islands... We would be a super power!

[@Maltheus_]

I'm all for a sort of "Nordic Union" as a Swede, as long as it acts more like a lose federation (decentralised - maybe a bit like the UK, where Denmark, Sweden, Norway etc. can be different kingdoms within the Union) and preserves our cultures and languages with all the current most spoken languages being the national ones. If a union is done right I think it can be quite beneficial for us, we are much stronger together than we are standing all alone.

[@svensvensson1085]

Jag har alltid och kommer alltid önska ett enat Norden!

[@the.norwegian.moncarchist]

​@@Maltheus_I would disegree as we have to be able merge our cultures or instabilety will ensue, a Kingdome United under one culture and under one king, or if we are lucky a constitisjonal Emperor, prestige will follow, and optimism will hopfully follow that. A kingom (or Empire) united Under, Keiser, folk og fedreland. 🇧🇻🇸🇪🇩🇰🇮🇸🇫🇮

[@jesperlykkeberg7438]

Well said. According to your wishes I will arrange for the Kingdom of Denmark to issue an official invitation to the Nordic countries to join Her Majesty´s Union. Following the abdication of the regents of Sweden and Norway I´m confident that all Nordic countries will enjoy the same status as loyal subjects to the Kingdom of Denmark on equal terms with the Faroes and Greenland.

[@markuselias6017]

I've lived in Sweden for about 7 years and Iceland for almost a year. It's interesting to see what the countries combined would look like, but I do think it's better to keep them separated. Even though the countries seem quite similar, there are also big differences in cultural habits, languages, etc. I would rather strengthen this than merging them and changing everything to one language and culture. For example Sweden and Finland, they have very different languages that make them unique. If I were to choose a capital city, I think that Gothenburg is well located and since it's not a capital, it feels more fair to choose a non-capital city. Or what about having different capitals for different things. Like in The Netherlands, we have a capital for Peace and Justice (The Hague) and a media city (Hilversum). There are also other countries with several capital cities, including South Africa, Bolivia and Malaysia.

[@ilkkak3065]

I think healthy competition between Nordic countries has driven they to were they are today.

[@bard-anilsen]

We have tried this union thing and it did not work as we are a bit different. Being able to move freely among our countries are good enough.

[@miguelorte]

Maarjanhamina @ Åland would be perfect capital. It would be isolated from everybody

[@evanantor3402]

Although we do share the same official language as well. Finland has both Finnish and Swedish :)

[@Zycoreination]

I used to discuss this with my dad roughly 25-30 years ago. I don't think it will happen but I would welcome it as a Swede 👍

[@headerahelix]

@SchroedingersDog What kind of person thinks foreigners are murderous thieves? Because some small amount of foreigners misbehave? Are all Swedes bad because a few misbehave?

[@rediboi7046]

dont belive everything you read, 8% of Swedens population is muslim and most of them are third generation immigrants. All in all theres theres about 600,000 muslims in sweden but theres also about 700,000 people in sweden with finnish background, does that mean the finns will take over Sweden instead if we use your logic? No it does not

[@WorldofTanks-BestReplays]

Finish is very much different than the rest of the nordic languages, its like comparing chinese with english

[@DubFull]

As a Scandinavian this was very interesting mini docu🙌🏼 It was surprising to see how similar they all are, as well if a union like this were to happen in terms of metrics when compared to the world stage 👏🏼 Cool to watch and nicely performed😊

[@marcuskarlsson8535]

Well we kind of did this already, "The Kalmar Union". But the Danes where being dicks as always so it ended in war ^^ (No hard feelings Danes, Love Sweden)

[@LaughingOrange]

None of us want this. My perspective on these countries described as a family: Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are brothers. Denmark has a speech impediment, but he's still our brother. Finland is the weird friend Sweden keeps bringing everywhere, and while not a blood relative, he's practically part of the family. Iceland is a half sibling who lives with their other parent. Greenland is the adopted child of Icelands exclusive parent, and we often forget they exist. Other members are cousins we've only met once, they don't live anywhere near us. The 3 brothers, while good friends who will help each other in hardship, do not want to live in the same house, ever since we all moved out.

[@arttunieminen4583]

The reason Finland has so many military personell is because it's mandatory to complete army service

[@Trikie77]

also Finland have been at war With Russia before so is mandatory today.

[@Zedja]

While the nordic countries have their own languages we start learning english at an early age and can choose to learn a third one at a later stage. It's usually a choice between German and French, but some schools could probably offer Spanish as well. In Sweden we value languages so much that we offer Home Language classes for children that has come to Sweden through immigration, so that they are able to speak better with their parents.

[@Bore_eagle]

I learned English as my third language at the age of 3 and I’m so happy that I did because I have never really been pushed back linguistically when travelling like others would and I have a easy time learning new languages

[@eplejuice8641]

Very good and informative video! The capital would probably become Göteborg. Its the most central existing option and is a close distance to the three scandinavian capitals. Otherwise they could create a new one. As for language, english is probably a good bet, especially as the younger generations attain political power. The Scandinavian languages are similar, but icelandic and finnish are very different, finnish the most. So english is a good neutral ground. The old languages would then retain a more local value, which is sad, but a very possible future reality even without unification.

[@alexanderbrandt]

I totally agree with you. Capital should be Gothenburg because of geographical location and allready existing infrastructure. Language should be English. Lagal system should be Danish. Will this happen? Probably not as long as Stockholm isn't nuked. It employs a wast beuracratic nobility which is going to be very hard to uproot.

[@turtle-balloon]

English would be neutral as in it would be hated equally by everyone

[@grab8119]

Well finnish stundents learn swedish at their school, so the only language to worry about is icelandic

[@harrikuusjarvi3795]

@@grab8119 We study but not really learn. And its most boring stuff. Only coastal areas people kind of speak it but its mixex Finnish/Swedish. 4-5% speak it. But number are dropping bc younger people learn more german, spanish etc, Also many choose Russia.

[@grab8119]

@@harrikuusjarvi3795 i know 2 finnish people and both know swedish fluently, i thought everyone in finland did aswell. sorry!

[@gwillis01]

Thank you for a pleasant, informative video

[@Viljuri]

Finland is a bit of different of the others, but not that different from Sweden, there are lots of common history. And yet, the Norwegians are much more relatable from a Finnish standpoint, based on their "beteende". So. There isn't much reason(s) to do Kalmar Union again, unless we include Statens pensjonsfond into this, and we shouldn't. However, we should increase our defense cooperation. Finland will send her Nato application in May or early June, and Sweden will follow. We already do much cooperation, Finland and Sweden have common defense plans, but to get Denmark and Norway into the fray, will help operationally. Our point here is to get Nato to think it's northern flank differently.

[@michaelhammar2778]

Va händer när Trump blir President?

[@bafattvahetere]

@@michaelhammar2778 Gud förbjude!

[@hannayyxy]

I feel so lucky to be born in Sweden, with such great neighbours! 💕

[@annieask3128]

Samma här ❤️

[@christianity6697]

I feel lucky to live in Sweden for the past year:) 🇸🇪😇

[@crossboSpiritual]

In Finland we also feel lucky that we have such wonderful neighbors in the South, the West and the North. 😅

[@henningsmidemann9924]

I must say, Sweden has better neighbours than Denmark.. (Just a joke from Denmark. 🙂)

[@ElectariumTunic]

8:15 - I think Gothenburg would be the ideal place for a capital, because it's at equal distance from Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm. Plus its in the middle of a urban belt (albeit discontinuous) between all three cities... The only thing speaking against it is that the other countries might not want a Swedish city as capitol

[@dorte3791]

Agreed as Dane

[@fredriks5090]

To be fair, GOTHENburg is Gotic and not Swedish.

[@Alfred.Förstberg]

yea true but if it just were ONE country all together it wouldt be a swedish city

[@Alfred.Förstberg]

@@fredriks5090 not gothemborg göteborg lol

[@fredriks5090]

@@Alfred.Förstberg Gothburger

[@luukasvirolainen8038]

Finland be carrying💪🏻🇫🇮

[@Luihuable]

4:04 spilled my coffee, Why arent we invading these weaklings already? Danes, Norwegians and Swedes had their warmongering days already, what about Finland?!?

[@luukasvirolainen8038]

@@Luihuable yeah

[@leifiseland1218]

​@@LuihuableDon't you have enough on your plate with the Muscovites?..

[@ninirema4532]

Dear great all gentle very sweet explaning.

[@robertkerr4201]

How about adding Estonia to the Union? They speak a Finnic language, border the Baltic, would provide another land connection to the rest of Europe, and would prevent Finland from being isolated as the only non-Scandinavian speaking nation in the Union.

[@magnusemilsson7205]

Regarding to languages, I think that the big problem are what language that the government and court system will use. The ordinary people will presumable continue to speak whatever they spoken. This because it is a huge range of dialects in our countries. A person from south of Sweden have very difficult to understand one from the north, but do undrestand Danish. In Finland they usually learn Swedish, and at the border between Seden and Finland they got their own language that are a mix. On Iceland they learning Danish in school. Usually two person from the Nordic countries have already today possibility to understand each other with some common language. I do not think English will be the base, when this will cause lost of the Nordic identity.

[@jackeinessontjader5291]

I wouldn’t be surprised if a union like this wouldn’t have a single government, more like a council of every government. I wouldn’t expect the Nordic union to be centralized at all.

[@lomsen8314]

I feel proud as a Norwegian and a scandinavian. Even tho we will never be one contry, we will allways be united!

[@arcticblue248]

The thing is ... we would never agree on where the capital would be, we would never agree on what language should be official ... and probably not even on flags... among the things we would disagree on because these things have strong cultural bondage for us .. we (norwegians) love our flags, we have many dialects and while we do speak norwegian and sami (not all speak sami) we have 2 official languages and 3 written languages (Norwegian split to new norwegian and book norwegian, and sami). Many years ago the swedish telecompany Telia and the norwegian Telenor was to merge to one, and that showed among other how things go, Sweden wanted the main office to be in sweden (ofcourse), and we norwegians did not want that, we wanted it to be in Norway.. it ended up not merging at all... And I doubt very hard that us norwegians would allow ourself to be ruled by swedes or danes .. (or finland for that matter) because we all well apart from Finland and Iceland our royal families .. for one, and there is atleast here a deep distrust in being ruled from far away .. so there would atleast be a way to compansate for representations ... like at the government.

[@ratyjoona]

Let's have English as lingua franca. Let's have our now used languages as official languages too, but mostly enforced in their respective regions. Let's use South African model and have multiple capitals. And finally, let's make a new, unique flag but maintain our current ones as regional flags. We could also make a flag featuring all the current flags in it.

[@gratefulfrisko8645]

The country would need to be federal, all members of the union would have a lot of autonomy and will have there own state flag, like Texas, California and Scotland. Meaning that Norway and the rest of the member states would keep there flags.

[@Hammern28]

1:12, that is Geiranger, lovely place here in Norway.

[@RannonSi]

7:47 The new Capital city would, of course, be Göteborg! :p Or making a new one on the Swedish west coast (or, I guess, the middle-part of Southern Sweden). I mean, it'd be pretty much in-between the current capitols (and countries). It'd be in the most densely populated part of the Nordics (as in the Southern part of Sweden, and just a few hours away from the three largest capitols). It'd be rather easy to get there from anywhere in the (more populated parts) *new country* (there are direct train routes between Gothenburg and Copenhagen-, Oslo-, and, Stockholm (and you can get there, from any current capitol, in about 3:40 hours (and we could shorten it to under or around 3h (at least))) - I can imagine there being a high-speed train route built from Helsinki; the best route would probably be Helsinki, Turku-Åland-Norrtälje-Stockholm, with a tunnel between Åland and Norrtälje). Being in (or close to) Kattegatt would mean that it'd be surrounded (and protected) by Denmark (South to west) Norway (North-West), and Sweden (North, East, and South), so an attack would have to go through Skagerrak (between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) or The Danish Straits (Denmark and Sweden (or between the Danish Islands), or the entirety of Sweden (if straight from Russia) and would probably have been seen when nearing Finland) - And it'd still be easily accessible for trade (The Port of Gothenburg being the largest port in Scandinavia (and as far as I know, the largest Nordic port)). When it comes to official Languages; in the short-term, I'd say that we'd probably adapt the Nordic Council's stance. I.E.: “Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Swedish (including Finland-Swedish) are all official national languages. Along with Faroese, Greenlandic and Sámi” (with the Scandinavian languages (I.E. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) being the working languages). We'd probably (hopefully) with better language integration (I.E. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are close enough to be considered dialects of one language (in some circles), and most problems with understanding each other has to do with pronunciation (and some false friends, of course) of words) - In the long term, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish would probably (hopefully?) blend together a bit more (again, let's call it Scandinavian, or just Scandi) which would make Scandi the working language with the other current languages proceeding to be Official languages. Keeping English as a second (or even third language) But a united Nordics is, sadly, just a pipedream - But we do have a Nordic council, at least that's something.

[@flaviomulatojerkin]

If this happens... man these countries are already great, imagine if they were together 😱 really smart idea right here!!!

[@ndexer]

It would never happen. Its like saying "what if Spain and Portugal became one country" They are independent countries.

[@williamknows3908]

Countries usually get worse the larger they are so i don’t think so

[@zigge1989]

"imagine if they were together" -But, we are alredy "together". We are Scandinavia (+Finland, iceland kind of also ^^) we are old brothers, with 1000years of history. We are already "the nordic's, with same flags, just different colours ^^ Also, we already have The Nordic Council. An organization much like EU

[@zigge1989]

@torivarnor Chance is life. how different is our life now, compared to life 100-200 years ago ? Stop hating change, the world will continue to change, no matter how you feel

[@zigge1989]

​@torivarnor okey.. . in 100-200 years the world will be even more interconected, then now ! So you fear that future generations not being "pure scandinavian" ?? Are your fears 'genetic diverety, or cultural diversity? Pretty sure we shuld worry more about climate change, the future kids learning about your fear of other cultures merging with our own nordic culture ..

[@oh2mp]

I'm a Finn and in my opinion Stockholm would be the best capital for United Nordics because of its location in the middle.

[@ash3rishere]

You’re right, but what about Iceland? It’s kind of isolated from the rest.

[@oh2mp]

@@ash3rishere There is no perfect solution.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

Norway is so filthy rich that we could build two bridges over the if needed and it would be just a pocket money for them. And if we take iceland in to concederation and we wanted the capital to be in the middle of everyhing, ideal location would beTrondheim

[@lillia5333]

No bridges! We have to think about climate change. No, fellow northerners, it's back to the longboats. Rowing and sailing and the capitol on Iceland, far away from Putin. Then we all learn icelandic so no one will understand our secret documents. Runes would be great. And we join our delicious food for tourists: rotten shark with sheeps brain in a delicious gravy made of sweedish hermetic herring. Our countries will finally be great again. I suggest that we start conquering England again, just for fun, and have some raids into France in the summer.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

@@lillia5333 Pretty good one 😂😂

[@isaakisaak3559]

Thank you very much we have our own language and our scandinaviens lives is pretty good as it is ..

[@liveen]

the city to be capitol would also have symbolic meaning though? like, look at belgium for example. They technically dont actually have a capitol, but seeing as they HAVE to have a place to maintain government buildings, procedures etc, the main one would be in what would then be the capitol. They chose Bern. Its not strategic. Its not powerful. Its not large. Its not particularly beautiful. its not especially popular. But it's unassuming, its quiet, and it wont seem aggressive. Essentially, I think the capitols you yourself put up would be the least likely ones, as all of these countries prefer peace above all else. Most likely we'd choose someplace quiet, small, but still central. Maybe someplace that would still work well for a domestically stratetic point, but not something that would draw much attention, if that makes sense. For norway for example, if we were to choose again, we might choose a place like Bergen, Trondhjem, Kristiansand or similar. Its the safe way to go basically.

[@thequ4lm69]

@1:38 you forgot to add a bit of land area, Greenland was not added to the area of Scandinavia! Greenland is a part of Denmark.

[@Janx886w]

Kalmar Union v.2. I'm from Denmark, but I think that Gøteborg would be a good choice as a capital and then have the Copenhagen and Malmø area as a cultural hub.

[@vadokunvot]

Som sydsvensk säger jag vad som helst så länge det inte är Stockholm bara.

[@bafattvahetere]

@@vadokunvot Åmål?

[@vadokunvot]

@@bafattvahetere varför inte, Åmål är ju mysigt

[@Alfred.Förstberg]

hope it wont end teh same way teh first did LOL.

[@zedg2156]

@Sketch Duo no way its gotta be Copenhagen or Gøteborg

[@Luredreier]

9:18 What benefits would English as a official language give that we don't already have due to our proficiency as second language users of the language?!? Holy cow, anglophones realy doesn't understand the rest of the world nearly as well as they think...

[@unclear6055]

Also even if we all could speak english with each other I would much rather push for a common scandinavian language or at least multiple offical languages rather than give up on them.

[@Onnarashi]

People in the Anglosphere have a cultural imperialist mindset. They can't imagine why anyone would ever need another language than English. Who cares about cultural identity, right?

[@ratyjoona]

It'd make our systems, education, industry etc. more internationally appealing. Easier to immigrate and come to study. Easier to do business.

[@turtle-balloon]

@@ratyjoona but also lose our culture

[@ratyjoona]

@@turtle-balloon Not necessarily. Check my other longer comment on this video. It has some explanations.

[@4700_Dk]

I’m in Denmark 🇩🇰, we are pretty United already.

[@johnnyandersen9209]

@@creepyfck creepyfck… who gave noway their King? Have noway ever ruled denmark? Have denmark ruled norway?.. JK

[@ulrichkristensen4087]

​@@johnnyandersen9209Denmark rules East Fold and West Fold and later while Norway, until they got their own country

[@swekarl1114]

Great Video! Btw i'm from Sweden

[@bjrnarestlen1234]

As for language, one of the most special traits of the Nordic countries is the status dialects have. I would guess that all the languages would be deemed official languages. Norway has 4 official languages already, so adding swedish, finnish, icelandic and danish on top wouldn't be that much of a stretch. It would need an increased focus on teaching about the other nordic countries in schools. Finnish would actually be the biggest challenge (but not bigger than sami already is).

[@Raven_Battles]

We tried this already, it was called the Kalmar-union and lasted from 1397 to 1523. Didn’t last because the Swedes and Dane’s fought for power. (Stockholms blood bath didnt help either). What would probably be a good idea is a collaboration like EU but only for the Nordic countries.

[@iaxivers7694]

We have a collaboration like EU.

[@ZugzugZugzugson]

the Kalmar union collapsed not because the people couldn't get along, it was the royal families, specifically, fighting for power amongst each other that caused it to collapse. that, however, would not be a problem today because the monarchies of all the Scandinavian countries have been invalidated and stripped of most, if not all political power. the question then is if the politicians would screw it up using the same power hungry philosophy to rule as the monarchy did. if they do, then it will collapse like it did last time.

[@KimFareseed]

@@iaxivers7694 The Nordic Council.

[@DrivingGod04]

Didnt work becouse denmark is to evil and bad and stupid and small and bad to be in power

[@leifiseland1218]

​@@ZugzugZugzugson Hmm.. more like the Danish crown looked to centralizing everything to Denmark/Köbenhavn, with little regard for the interests of the other lands, like a typical colonial power.. That was a big mistake..🧐

[@keyvin2251]

I think Norwegian and Swedish would become the same language in just a couple of years since they are really similar and we already understand each other. Danish would take quite a bit longer but still become part of the language. In Finland some regions speak Swedish which means that I think a Scandinavian language would form. The official languages would maybe be Scandinavian, English and Finnish but with a couple hundred thousand Icelandic speakers

[@paal8193]

Norwegians "already understand" Danish, just pick up a Danish newspaper and start reading ... 99% the same, when you remember to put in some "hard" consonants here and there ... apart from that there are just a few words that you have to learn. Spoken Danish is whole other story ..

[@ottar3402]

That is not true at all Norwegian is 60 % Danish so us reading it is kiiiiinda easy but we might sound closer to swedish but in reality no . My experience as a Norwegian whit both Danish and swedish friends we understand both Danish and swedish but struggel to read swedish and struggel to understand dansih when they speak to us due to theyr strange vocalisation of words, Swedes dont really understand Norwegian both vocally or written even if they dont wanna admit to it and danes struggel to understand Norwgian both vocally and written. Also from my friends they say they understand us better than they understand swedish as a dane or danish as a swede.

[@keyvin2251]

@@ottar3402I’m Swedish and I can pretty comfortably say that Norwegian is really easy for Swedes to understand. Maybe a word in every third sentence needs explaining but other than that it’s understandable, just sounds funny/odd

[@ByynDawg]

I feel Oslo would be a good location considering it's in the middle of Norway, Denmark and Swedish

[@alexanderbrandt]

Oslo is not reallyin the middle considdering poppulation gravity

[@dontmindme5163]

I think Gothenburg in Sweden would be a great choice for the capital.

[@rogerhaukas9522]

It would have to be gøteborg :P and im from the westcoast of NOrway

[@dand7763]

The Kalmar Union was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden, that from 1397 to 1523 joined under a single monarch the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, together with Norway's overseas colonies. The union was not quite continuous; there were several short interruptions

[@lovfro]

Perspective from a Dane. I would suggest Lund as a common capital, as long as it would be done in a way to complement the long history of the town and not mar it.. The combined Øresund-region with Malmö and Copenhagen is the biggest metropolitan area in the Nordics. It has the best logistics infrastructure as well, especially once the Femern connection is completed. Choosing Lund instead of nearby Copenhagen would signal a fresh start, while still having access to the amenities of the region.

[@kevinschwarzenegger6904]

I dont think anyone outside of malmö would ever want to live anywhere close to malmö

[@lovfro]

@@kevinschwarzenegger6904 And it is exactly pathetic, regional tribalism like what you display, which spells the doom for any unification project. Do you have anything else to add, apart from denigrating your fellow Swedes?

[@ogbobo7691]

A nordic union would certainly be a world power, but if you look back a few centuries, many unions have been formed up here, and it didnt go so well. So i think a nordic union would be powerful, but all 5 would fight for thier identity to be the face of the union, so like the Kalmar Union, i think a new union would split up pretty quickly

[@ShadowTani]

Yeah, a new kalmar union wouldn't work. However, the Nordics are pretty military united today anyway, considering half of us are in NATO, and majority are in EU, which are both unions that demand some form of reaction if one of the members gets attacked. So if Sweden or Finland got attacked, Denmark would get dragged into the war as a fellow EU member, which would drag Norway into the war as a fellow NATO member.

[@stansimp838]

They speak 5 languages in the 5 counties. Be curious how they would sort that out

[@lillia5333]

@@stansimp838 Norwegian, sweedish and danish are very similar. We can almost understand Icelandic, as it is old norse and something we learn a bit in high school. Finnish on the other hand will be difficult. But a lot of finns are speaking sweedish. We also have sami dialects spoken by a lot of people up north in Norway, Sweeden and Finland. It's a finnish- urgish language. I guess english would be the logic choice as a public language. It's already taking over in many ways.

[@stansimp838]

@@lillia5333 thank you for that

[@Alfred.Förstberg]

lol ive jkust read all of tehm in history im a swede

[@JustSomeTommy]

I think that Malmö and Copenhagen should be merged into one big capital city in this case.

[@derptweaker945]

Yea and we can have the presidential palace in Rosengård

[@tomme6875]

Norwegians, Swedish and Danish all pretty much understand each other if we speak slow and clearly. I think Finland and Iceland would have to learn either Norwegian Danish or Swedish, and we would be golden. We would also get better at understanding the other language over time.

[@ludviglindberg5004]

Maybe the Finnish can learn Swedish like a part of Finland is already speaking Swedish and Icelandic people can learn Norwegian cause that’s the closest

[@tomme6875]

@@ludviglindberg5004 yeah, thats great. Also in education people can pick one of the three languages to specialize in.

[@ludviglindberg5004]

@@tomme6875 yea right

[@zarahandrahilde9554]

Honestly i'd prefer the opposite, but purely for interest and not out of practicality at all. I'd vote for us all to "adopt icelandic", meaning going back to it basically. It'd be an identity that historically overlaps with all of us, and to be realistic here; even if we all spoke it fluently as a standard, we'd still have such severe dialects that we can barely understand our weird coworker who lives just 2 towns over, so things would generally still be the same as today xD

[@davidkasquare]

I don’t think this sounds completely fair. Iceland and Finland would always feel like outsiders, and sooner than we think, only Denmark, Sweden and Norway would remain in the Union.

[@chxlaw8588]

Great video!

[@KungKokkos]

Either a new city purpose built for the job somewhere in the middle part of southern Sweden or Gothenburg would make the most sense as a new capital. Gothenburg is the largest non-capital city of the new country, and none of the old capitals would have to lose face, it's also ideally located on the coast in the middle of a triangle of Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen with good communications to all 3 cities.

[@andersvassli2349]

I love how all the clips he is showing on screen is mostly Norway.

[@user-B_8]

Yes, we like that! 😉😁👍😂

[@UlfHansen]

..and Copenhagen

[@thorbeorn4295]

I'm a Swede and I know English better than Swedish most of the time. It happens alot where I know the English word for something but struggle to find the Swedish one.

[@shrestha_99]

How does it work in general? I mean do you guys speak in English or in Swedish with each other?

[@thorbeorn4295]

@@shrestha_99 We speak Swedish most of the time.

[@teddybean2]

im sorry but if you are swede and do not know words in your own language, you are a ignorant. seems fake. unless you are half swede and live in... london. otherwise... im not buying it

[@Aisers]

Yeah I'm from Norway It's kinda the same I'm better at Norwegian but sometimes forget what the words are in Norwegian.

[@thorbeorn4295]

@@teddybean2 What? xD Do you know how much influence we have as a culture with the English language? It starts from a very young age and it never goes away. Ofcourse we are going to become more bilingual and it's not strange at all that we forget some words from our native tounge sometimes. For instance, in my day to day life I probably hear more English than Swedish because I work with computers, watch youtube, watch shows and movies with English subtitles and so on and so forth. Only time I hear Swedish is when I meet friends and family and that's not everyday.

[@vilmanord30]

My vote for capital city would be gothenburg. It is swedens 2nd largest city and therefore big enough to host all things required of a capital city. Also has good accessability to both oslo, copenhagen and stockholm both via sea (or canal) and rail as well as having a central location within the region. Yes I live here so I might be biased. Also this fantasy will not happen at least not in our lifetime. I dont think any of the noridc contries want a united nordics. There are allready a lot of special bonds culturally and lots of shared heritage but each contry has its own identity and we are proud of that.

[@InTenZeGamingHD]

Both Norway and Finland wants a United Nordic Military. This was mentioned before the fall of the Soviet Union and i don't think it is super unrealistic considering the nordic economical entanglement.

[@HalValla01]

On the language side, I think a pan-scandinavian language would naturally develop over time. For easy usage however, I would wager having Norwegian, Danish and Swedish all be official languages, with some word mixing allowed. The finns would have to learn one of these languages tho, but we could just as easily return the favor by incorporating some of their language into the new pan-scandi language. As for the faroe isles and iceland, they both have Danish classes in school from a very early age, so these would be fairly easy to understand as well

[@Keinapappa]

As usual "sauna" would be the only Finnish word in that pan- Scandinavian language. 😁

[@fredrikhansson7944]

As a Swede with close ties to Norway and Denamrk (living with a Norwegian and have relatives in Malmö/Köpenhamn) I dont think this kind of union would happen any time soon. A great beenfit of beeing separate countries is the ability to freely pursue different policies. This allows us to both tend to the needs of our respective populations better and learn from each other. In almost any political discussions you'll hear things like "well the Danes are doing X and its working for them" or "We do almost the same as the Norwegians with Y but it doesnt work for us, why?" etc. With the very close ties our nations already have and likely will continue having, there are not many obvious benefits that would come from uniting. For the average citizen its so easy moving between the nations (for vacations, work, or settling down) that its almost like we are already part of the same nation. You cross the border and the only change you'll notice straight away is that people start to speak funny.

[@-V.S.T-]

As a Finn living in Sweden, I say... PLEASE, LET THIS NEVER EVER HAPPEND. Politicians in Sweden would ruin it with immigration.

[@leifiseland1218]

Hmm.. Pretty sure such a constellation would result in a different mix of politicians than the current swedish ones..🤔🧐

[@thomasthomas3980]

This could work if we use the same system as in the US (united states) and not a new union. Creating a new federal government. Let's invite Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to. Just for the fun of it!

[@tangfors]

In that case, they must put a cross in their flags : D

[@clubardi]

you can take your us government type and throw it off a bridge, it wouldn't work in the nordic, and inviting EE, LV and LT would defeat the purpose of a *nordic* union

[@DreamMill1]

I would love to see this happen. Stockholm is suitable place to be a capital. Helsinki is more beautiful and startup oriented.

[@ratyjoona]

Suggestion: -Languages: Lingua franca being English. Would bring global importance and internationalization. Current national languages would remains as official languages, but would be mostly enforced regionally. -Money: new, unified currency -Capital: South African model (multiple capitals) -Flag: new, unique flag featuring all the current national flags in it -Military: Land borders being in Denmark, Norway and Finland. Finnish border would need the best surveillance at the moment. Naval forces: Baltic forces based in Stockholm or Gotland. Arctic forces based in North-western part of Norway. Air forces major bases in Turku and Copenhagen. -Government form: quasi-federal system with strong regional emphasis. Thus federal government would have less power, and exist for more important questions. Main power would reside with regional governments. With strong regional governments, it is ensured that one or two countries cannot dominate the legislature and politics. -An extra: Turku-Stockholm railway bridge or tunnel would bring further geographical unity and tie most of the capitals together.

[@ratyjoona]

So, opinions?

[@nobadoba7991]

There once was a union kind of like the one you are talking about, it was called 'Kalmar Unionen' in Danish and was the union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It was established by the danish ruler, Magrethe the 1st during the middle ages. But it ended up falling apart because of lots og societal, economic and politial disagreements and differences.

[@meatball99]

Everyone knows what the kalmar union is dumbass

[@Johan-sb9ds]

Perhaps a new capital instead of Stockholm or Copenhagen make sense like Gothenburg. The city of Gothenburg is the largest in Scandinavia not being a capital and is located close to bouth Oslo and Copenhagen. There is a lot of construction in the city, sky scrapers are built the population density is increasing. The official language could be swedish or norwegian but perhaps english would make sense.

[@tangfors]

However, Gothenburg is a bad idea as the whole city is built on mud and it blows and rains constantly here

[@Johan-sb9ds]

@@tangfors Yes its true and some other problems

[@maple494]

If there will be a Nordic union a lot of Finns will be against it just because we don't like speaking Swedish lol

[@davidkasquare]

I’m a Swedish speaking Finn, but I understand you. For us it’s natural, but it’s not your native language, so it doesn’t come naturally. I think the language would be a pretty big issue also with the Icelanders, and most probably we would end up speaking English, just as most people are doing here in the comments.

[@Viljuri]

@@davidkasquare I'm a Finnish speaking Finn as a mother tongue, but I understand quite a lot of Swedish and Norwegian, Danish is a different matter. However, as it goes in any of our corporations or other venues, we speak English or Skandinaviska, problem solved.

[@mysteriousDSF]

Gothenburg seems quite fit as a capital tbh

[@tsunemi4869]

We all love our scandinavian rivalry. It's not like the balkan countries or something. We actually feel like we're bro's and have a natural feeling of mutual trust, and no one holds grudges for what kings did in the past. I was in Copenhagen in 2007 to see the world cup qualification match between Denmark and Sweden. I've never seen anything anywhere, with that kind of intensity in a crowd. It all went bonkers, and the match was called off before time, because 1 guy had a little too much to drink, and the win was given to Sweden. But afterwards everyone just walked peacefully on the streets, tens of thousands of swedes and danes side by side, talking to each other. No need to make us walk out of specific exits, we just know with each other that there won't be any trouble, even though it was a high risk event. I believe this would be the same for all scandinavian countries, and i think it's pretty special to be honest. Definately a connection that we don't have with non-scandinavian countries, and growing stronger in these times.

[@Viljuri]

Not that a year ago, when Denmark and Finland played on the Euros at Copenhagen, and after Christian Eriksen got hurt, both sections of fans, chanted for his honor.

[@brianarbenz1329]

This is all fanciful, though your descriptions of Nordic social values were interesting. I would have added that economic equity is the principal value.

[@Torsteen-p3d]

Not sure if this could ever happen, but I would be all for at least giving more power to the Nordic Council. Maybe to a point where all 5 countries could actually put their economic power to use as a single entity rather than 5, and thus have a bit more say in European politics. Something like the EU, but better, and more closely tied to the national governments.

[@WolfHeathen]

We did have the Kalmar Union for like 150 years. It worked pretty well while it lasted.

[@sampohonkala4195]

Stockholm for capital of course. It is the only one with an almost reasonable distance from every part of the country. Although the video was amusing, one should think what real advantages a union would bring, if any - all of the Nordic countries are doing fine just as they are now. There is always a union in the minds and hearts of the Nordic people, and they already have the Nordic Council for co-operation between the governments. Being separate states there is less need for compromises as there are differences that require different measures depending on where you are. The government is and can be trusted because the countries are small and your representatives are close; the MP:s are local politicians that people actually know, not just a bunch of people in the capital.

[@henriks5008]

Øhhhh? Sthlm for capital are you drunk?? Copenhagen is closer to the rest of Europe and an more central city than Sthml

[@sampohonkala4195]

@@henriks5008 It would not be the capital of Europe, at least not immediately. It should be central within the Nordics.

[@henriks5008]

@@sampohonkala4195 We are not talking about the cap of Europe man! If we unite nordic countries which is the topic here. Sthml would not be the capital. Copenhagen is mor cultural and is closer to Europe.

[@sampohonkala4195]

@@henriks5008 All the Nordic countries are in Europe. No place there is 'closer to Europe'. Speaking of Central Europe it is not relevant how close or far the Nordic capital would be. That becomes quite obvious when looking at how well each of the Nordic countries has managed, despite the very different location of lets say Helsinki and Reykjavik as compared to Oslo or Stockholm. The location of the capital of a major world power is irrelevant in the world scale, it is more meaningful for the citizens and for the organization of government within the country. We are really far from Tokyo or Washigton D.C. no matter where we have a Nordic capital.

[@henriks5008]

@@sampohonkala4195 Copenhagen is more fitted for Capital than Sthml, end of discussion!

[@Aisers]

I think Norwegian should be the main language because Sweden and Denmark has been in union with Norway so Norwegian is kind of a mix of Swedish and Danish.

[@TheBatugan77]

I like a good danish with coffee in the morning.

[@mantelikukkapenkki2368]

@@TheBatugan77 Danish wold be perfect. Everyone could automatically speak it by just putting a hot potato in their mouths 😁 But what about swearing? The only candidate to be even considered would be Finnish since all the other languages lack proper balls for it. PERKELE!

[@MrApaze]

English would be best

[@Aisers]

@@MrApaze But I’m Norwegian and I understand danish and Swedish and they speak Swedish in Finland. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are very similar and for Danish and Swedish people it’s easiest for them to learn Norwegian fully.

[@MrApaze]

@@Aisers I'm Finnish and maybe like 15% understand swedish. Everyone hates that language

[@1975Per]

As a Swede, I still have to admit that Copenhagen would make most sense as capital. Norwegian would be the language, as every other country can understand it.

[@DaDunge]

7:45 Gothenburg, it sists about midway between all of the current capitals.

[@TheNismo777]

I wouldn't have problem with being united :)

[@Lupinemancer87]

Personally, I'd love for the Nordic Countries to unite into one country.

[@freyjulundr]

@@creepyfck cause you aint nordic :)

[@frederikwaltherliberothchr757]

We're already united pragmatically in multiple ways. Wouldn't make much of a difference.

[@Onnarashi]

Norway would never allow it to happen, and neither would Finland.

[@Jotaro-o]

The nordic countries have been united before so it is foolish to say it will never happen again.

[@Eliel-Lin]

@@Jotaro-o theres a reason why the union broke before. National identity.

[@tacozmacleo]

If someone takes a look at the 'Nordic Council', you will find the "solution" on which language would be the official language of the Union, and the Headquarters. With that said, there have been ideas about how to unite more like:"The United Nordic Federation" by GUNNAR WETTERBERG. Like the idea about talking with one voice outward, but each stille be independent. No idea how, but but can dream. Can only be easier then what EU is working on! xD

[@Steff2929again]

The Nordic Council has published an in-depth look at this, 'The United Nordic Federation'. It's available for free on their homepage, publication number 2010:583. It's also available in Swedish, "Förbundsstaten Norden' publication 2010:583. The Nordic Council is quite interesting. It is a bit puzzling that such a large organisation is kept up and running, in spite of being mostly redundant. I guess it serves as backup, should the need arise.

[@macnuz]

I'm Danish but I live in Sweden and I think it sounds like a nice idea to unite all the Nordic countries. I know a lot of scandinavians are proud of their language and country so I don't see it ever happening unfortunately. But I could see it work, but I think we would need to keep each country's individual language. We could do so much more together and united, but most people are not really a fan of that kind of thinking :(

[@Maltheus_]

We could do quite well if the union was more of a lose federation rather than one large centralised state. I'm thinking kind of like the UK or Switzerland, where each country can keep it's identity within the federation. We could have a very modernized and large united army, large diverse economy, much bigger influence and louder voice on the world stage, and much more that would benefit us without having to give up our nationalities since the nations wouldn't cease to exist. The national languages of the federation in this case would be all the current most spoken languages in the Nordic countries and every nation within the federation could also keep there current national languages (the national language of the Nation of Denmark would be Danish, while the official language of the broader union including Denmark and all other nations would be Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish etc). I could see this work, but unfortunately not very many seem to support this idea like you said, although here in Sweden it seems to be more popular than in Denmark and especially Norway from what I have heard. If this happened it would be my dream come true.

[@macnuz]

@@Maltheus_ yeah think that would be wonderful. But again a dream scenario. Will probably never happen

[@Valjean666dk]

You combine #1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, and you get #4? So the union would be outranked by the countries it used to be.... By that logic all of them would have to be #1, to be a shared #1 after becoming a union.

[@rofln00b]

I was just about to write the same, the statistics don't quite match up here.

[@belsnickel9670]

I understand what you mean, but youre wrong. You said it yourself; the union would be outranked by the countries it used to be. Thats right, I know it sounds weird but if you think about it for a bit I dont even think I have to explain it to you.

[@rofln00b]

@@belsnickel9670 If the union was formed, then the countries it used to be would cease to exist individually and thus would no longer take a spot on the rankings. So it's either/or, the union and the former countries can't exist at the same time so the union can't be outranked by it's parts on the same list.

[@ow916]

That's not all he doesn't understand.

[@MrMauthen]

Being Swedish I'd say Icelandic would be the obvious chose for language, it is closest to Norse.

[@stevengilland3433]

Hello Mats how are you doing today?

[@bell4textu973]

Reykjavik should be the capital and Icelandic should be the language.

[@gratefulfrisko8645]

A Scandinavia/ Nordic union would make it so the region would have a much greater say on the world stage and it would improve the region’s standards of living (do to economic growth)and strengthen the regions ability to defend it self greatly. Sure it would be hard to mix all the cultures in to one common Nordic culture, but if we just give it time I know that economic and cultural prosperity will come. The country will be federal, each member of the union will have the power to set there own laws and they would be responsible for police, schools, provincial roads and more. Think USA, Canada or Switzerland. Together we stand strong as one! 🇳🇴🇸🇪🇩🇰🇫🇮🇮🇸

[@miguelorte]

As also we would be epic on winter sports

[@MrRoyalbeers]

We need to have a serious discussion about the football team before we go ahead and do anything else.

[@vetarlittorf1807]

Too bad Danes will never want to unite with Swedes. And Swedes will never want to share borders with Norwegians. And Icelanders will never want to unite with Danes.

[@gratefulfrisko8645]

@@vetarlittorf1807 Sweden and Norway already share a super long border. It’s like one of the longest borders in Europe lol.

[@vetarlittorf1807]

@@gratefulfrisko8645 I obviously meant that they don't want to unite.

[@ragnarlundin1579]

about time too !!!

[@robserrano8971]

Gothenburg and English across all Nordicland. English as a primary language and their native language as their secondary. A flag with a Nordic cross w a different color square to representing each one.

[@Einungbrekke]

We tried once, the Kalmar Union. Didn't last long though. Very hard to make unions out of sovereign nations. Just look at the European Union. Its not without issues.

[@thegoofydane]

It is true that the Kalmar Union didn´t last long, but in the time it did, it prosper very much for the whole union. In ways of economically and culturally.

[@Settiis]

That's a point that's often brought up and I get it, but I don't think it's a fair comparison. Those were very different times, and if even EU kinda works with all the wastly different cultures, surely a nordic union would work with a few almost identical cultures.

[@citizenVader]

There already exists a lot of union between the nordic countries, I would even say you missed out on 3 essential countries that we consider nordic too, and that is the baltics..

[@zedg2156]

nope not Nordic

[@headerahelix]

Baltic states are not Nordic. I've never seen a person from here refer to themselves as "Nordic", only of the nation/s from which they live... Are you an American LARPer?

[@kinzaz123]

As a Finn I love other nordic people like brothers and sisters. For those how don´t already know; When it comes to language we Finns already have to learn sweden compulsorily through grades 7-9 and are expected to learn more in high school. Swedish is our official second language and sweden speaking population are required by law to get services in swedish. Nice video thanks for making this. Uniting these countries is very in likely at this point :D But I would like to see us co-operating even more in foreign policies, promoting human rights across the globe.

[@NorweiganKarl]

Det visste jeg ikke! Her i Norge har vi to offisielle språk, men begge er egentlig en variasjon av det norske språket. Visste ikke at dere i Finland måtte lære svensk på skolen!

[@spenceystudios]

Can you answer my quistion? In 8:10 Where you say sweden is the biggest of them all, how isnt that denmark since they own Greenland and farou island?

[@Anton-vz5qy]

IT sould be danish Because im from denmark Nice vid keap up the good work

[@linevenelite9603]

I dont really think any Nordic feels like merging into one country is a great idea. We already have wide Nordic deals. Moving and settling between the countries is already easy and it is simply not a need for merging. And if we did, English would ofcourse not be the official language. You would never get any Nordic to agree on that. Its kind of an innapropriate suggestion, and you would risk being yelled at alot lol 😅.

[@Onnarashi]

Anglosphere people are cultural imperialists. They don't realise it, perhaps, but they are. They simply don't understand why anyone would need anything but English.

[@gratefulfrisko8645]

I am all for a Nordic Union. Like come on, why not? We would become a lot more powerful in the world stage and our economy would probably grow rapidly which will increase the standards of living for the citizens of the union.

[@turtle-balloon]

I think a lot of people are for it. But yeah, even suggesting that english would be the official language is an insult

[@clubardi]

agreed with the language, there's no reason why we couldn't make all languages our official ones

[@linevenelite9603]

@@gratefulfrisko8645 there is many pros with having the Nordics more united. But I dont think emerging all into one country is a good idea. But some kind of modern day union is ofcourse possible. Foreningen Norden seems to want that. Their program has many good points, if you have not read it check it out 🙂

[@rautamiekka]

Very good points. English would have to be it cuz not even the other languages get every computer app translated and the 'forced Swedish' is a nation-wide sticking point in Finland due to its uselessness outside jobs for the govt and the Swe-speaking areas, and being a pretty hard language for many; my upper elementary Swe and Eng teachers together said it's easier than Eng due to a structure that makes it have far less grammar exceptions, but those are far easier for me.

[@srensen3081]

languages would most likely merge soon enough into a mix of danish, norwegian and swedish

[@rautamiekka]

@@srensen3081 Possibly.

[@srensen3081]

@@rautamiekka id sure as hell not be speaking english in my home country at least

[@odinulveson9101]

Great video! Yeah..Were it so easy. A Nordic Union is my dream. If Denmark, Sweden and Finland can get their EU addiction cured. Sure we all can keep the most sensible EU directives as we in Norway have through EUS. Like human rights, environment protection etc. By Nordic Union I mean NOT a single huge state, but yeah a more focused Nordic version of EU. We should still have close ties with EU, juicy trade deals etc. But not restricted due to the cultural, ruling etc disparicies with East, West, Central parts of the European Union. Its better to have regions united in chunks than scoop it all up in the mixer and get the mess that comes with it with a ovetnational union. You see it today with EU, big differences between member nations on different aspects. Not quite similar but Soviet were a mess and the USA is so divided today I wouldnt say they are united. But thats my take. Cheers!

[@natrixnatrix]

There is not a chance in the world that english would be made into an official language since while almost everyone speaks it fluently almost everyone does so as a second language and not natively. What would happen is that all the currently official languages would simply remain as official languages and the country would simply have multiple ones. Something several of the nordic countries already have. It's possible but unlikely that swedish would see a spelling reform to be more inline with danish and norwegian. Those three languages could pretty much be reclassified as dialects of a single common nordic language already. While we joke about it we usually don't have any problem holding conversations with each other with each talking their own language. Norwegians, swedes, and danes that is. With people from Iceland and especially Finland we will probably switch to english. But that is mostly for politness since icelanders can usually speak either swedish, norwegian, or both and most finns can speak swedish (begrudgingly). Speaking as a swede I don't think there would be any huge opposition to learning icelandic and finnish in school so everyone could speak their own language with each other.

[@clubardi]

icelandic ppl have danish as a second language in school, english is third

[@jeokgames675]

Damn imagine ice hockey team of this nation