Why Do Europes Dumbest Countries Exist At All?

[@lycos94]

san marino's story is so fun tho, this dude climbs a mountain and declares it his country, and the pope is just like ''ok sure, why not''

[@drixtrix]

I also find it funny how the british in ww2 “accidentally bombed it” maybe in general its history isnt very straight forward

[@daisybrain9423]

Yeah, it basically started out like Sealand or any other micronation, but they eventually recognised it because everything was fragmented anyway due to feudalism. This is not to question the legitimacy of San Marino, just a thought I had...

[@Wompwompwomp.ny1]

Damn I should try that

[@lixobounce6588]

@@drixtrix bruh "accidental bombings" are common and if it happens on a small country it isn't as funny as the us accidentally bomb zurich with 6 bombers

[@yespls4184]

@@drixtrix well it's in the middle of Italy (at the time a fascist state) so kind of understandable during WW2

[@RileysFilms]

'The president of Moldova thinks covid is bad' I trust Toycat to keep me informed on the real issues.

[@nataliekennedy4646]

hell yeah

[@damn9424]

dang he really thinks that?

[@LucasNorden05]

@@damn9424 She

[@matthew-qu2mn]

"and she thinks other stuff is good"

[@Mr.Nichan]

Wow, heads of state have such strange beliefs: Gaddafi and Trump both thought Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, Erdoğan thinks lowering interest rates reduces inflation, and now we hear Sandu thinks COVID is bad, when everyone knows it's healthy for you because it trains your immune system and separates your mind from worldly attatchments like the taste of food? What will they say next?

[@diogovieira845]

"Why did no one ever invade Portugal?" Portugal: They tried

[@ruialmeida818]

Several times... laughs in Brites de Almeida (the baker of Aljubarrota) :D

[@camiblack1]

I mean, sure they tried, but you did have that 80 year period where Both Empires were together.

[@diogovieira845]

@@camiblack1 We don't talk about that in this household

[@AleaRandomAm]

@@camiblack1 It's 60 years and it happened because the king of Spain became king of Portugal after defeating the other pretendant, not due to a military invasion.

[@novedad4468]

@@AleaRandomAm well, in order to defeat the pretender, he had to militarily invade the country.

[@lightsoda7445]

Fun fact about Andorra: there is a legend/historic story of a man who, when visiting Japan, had a legitimately made passport with the country name "Taured" on it (a non-existent nation). When Japanese officials asked him to point out the country on the map, he pointed to where Andorra was. After being held in a room with no windows for the purpose of later questioning, guards entered only to find him missing, which lead to the theory that the man was in fact from an alternate universe version of Andorra.

[@k.a263]

Did he really disappear like that, I mean can this story be officially confirmed?

[@HorsesArePeople2]

@@k.a263 No, the real story is that the guy was a conman who managed to get his obviously fake passport stamped and was arrested in Japan and later fled iirc

[@blanco7726]

@@k.a263 yeah he fled, happens a lot in places where people are kept

[@wizzotizzo]

@@blanco7726 sounds like sarcasm

[@justarandomguy337]

Andorra? More like KZbinrland.

[@eax2010EA]

Belgium exists for chocolate, obviously

[@irishtaco57]

And waffles

[@cllego]

and fries

[@romainsavioz5466]

For belgium people only

[@Eburon]

And beer

[@finn950]

Swiss chocolate better anyways 😌

[@louhenber]

Reasons why Portugal exists: -it was a powerful empire -it was a country before Spain was a thing -they did try conquering us but failed all of them -different culture and language

[@guillermohita6347]

Olivenza...

[@ptafonsofm]

@@guillermohita6347 *IT'S OURS*

[@miguelpimentel2911]

Finalmente alguém inteligente

[@gamermapper]

The last isn't really a reason when it's also true for Catalonia and Basque country

[@kosinusify]

6:05 "How does a country exist when it doesn't have a language?" Austria: Oh no, it's Anschluss time again

[@peterlustig6888]

Tbf Austria only exists because the allies and entente didn't want it to unite with Germany

[@MartianCZ]

@@peterlustig6888 Austria had own empire for centuries

[@peterlustig6888]

@@MartianCZ The other german states too

[@news_oftheweek]

How does a country exist when it doesn't have a language? Bold of you to assume it needs a language. Of course, a language usually provides better stability and communication, but there are multiple examples of multi-ethnic countries. If we look at it the way Toy Cat did, even USA doesn't have its own language, because American is only an accent of English

[@kosinusify]

@@news_oftheweek I didn't assume that, I just quoted a funny sentence for a quick joke.

[@okapijohn4351]

Spain tried multiple times, they just simply failed and couldn't. Portugal exists since 1139 while Spain only exists since 1479, it is just nearly 350 years in between.

[@princeneko9103]

“Why does Portugal exist?” Portugal being a powerful empire in history: 🙃

[@hansberger4939]

Also the USA once been powerful and they still exist today.

[@miguelfrancisco7325]

As a Portuguese person, i am very glad the question became why does Spain exist :)

[@VistaMaps]

And Belgium

[@mistersir7882]

Reason people give: "Portugal was powerful empire🙃"(🤡) Spain be like: Am I a joke to you?

[@Daoland-Everywhere]

Ghana is a country but it has 27 languages. Moroccans claim every street has its own language. China has 52 languages. So one language isn't really require one language.

[@moderatemapper9440]

I think it's pretty obvious why most African countries exist.

[@ecurewitz]

Laughs in Papua New Guinean

[@lucaslevinsky8802]

In china most people speak sinic languages And what about Tibet and Uighuristan? Should be free

[@theblackryvius6613]

​@@moderatemapper9440 Same thing I was thinking. The idea that each country should have it's own language seems to only apply to Europe and parts of Asia. Though, even in these places, there are actually quite a lot of languages spoken just like anywhere else.

[@moderatemapper9440]

@@theblackryvius6613 Yes. In Africa, majority of the places that are unsettled in their current country is because of the domination of 1 or two ethnic groups, or religion. It would be better if the countries were split in an equal manner. For example, Nigeria, Yourbas and Igbos get along but don't get along with people from the North, because of religious and cultural incompatibility, as well as the domination of the north over government. Even so, languages are different to ethnic groups, as for example, Han Chinese are the same ethnic group but speak different languages.

[@Eburon]

Why does Belgium exist? Don't know, and I'm from the Flanders region (about 5km from the Wallonia border). I've got no problems with the French speaking part of the country, but it does seem to make more sense to me to just call it a day and divide the regions between France, the Netherlands and Germany. Not that I am actively pursuing this goal myself. The truth is that Belgium has too many governments and money is being squandered left and right. There are people who advocate for an independent Flanders, but for me that's the least desirable outcome

[@jordanskene3243]

Belgium exists for Chocolate of course haha

[@Roozyj]

Do you know Zondag met Lubach? It's a Dutch satirical news show. They made an item about their worries about Belgium and their answer was to add Wallonia to the Netherlands. Their reasoning was that Wallonia wants to be part of something, Flanders wants to be independent and we get the Ardennes xD

[@piotrarturklos]

This is the problem. One belgian guy wants to divide Belgium, another wants Flanders independent, yet another one wants to stay united. You've locked yourselves in this conundrum.

[@Nicky_TM]

Here’s the average Dutch person waiting for our Flemish brothers to reunite with us

[@julianshepherd2038]

Belgium is there to separate the Netherlands and France and stop German access to the sea. Its a v successful country.

[@Typhyr]

Belgium is held together by the incredibly tangled political mess it is and can’t be untangled.

[@Roozyj]

Toycat: "This is why Belgium and indeed also Luxembourg split from the Kingdom of the Netherlands." Subtitles: "This is why Belgium and indeed also Luxembourg split from the Kingdom of Belevolence." Me, a Dutch person: YES

[@space__idklmao]

Benevolent Benelux

[@renderproductions1032]

|-O-|

[@SalvatoreBabones]

As a supporter of this channel, I am quite upset to see my money going to pay for professional editing instead of for "a strange drink that will probably taste bad."

[@soumitrade010]

So are we going to ignore the fact that the picture literally states why does France speak French?

[@Hodoss]

I still can’t wrap my head around it.

[@HD82345]

“Why does a country exist when it doesn’t have its own language” *Me sitting here like* Americans speak English Canadians speak English. Like all of Central America and most of South America speak Spanish. Bunch of countries in Africa speak French… all the countries in the Middle East speak Arabic (sure different dialects but still technically all Arabic)

[@will7922]

not "most", less than half of South Americans speak Spanish.

[@will7922]

@@GGdL08 Português e espanhol não são as únicas línguas faladas na América do Sul.

[@Liggliluff]

He kinda changed that argument to "Why does a country exist when it doesn't have a single unifying language". But there's still Switzerland so.

[@rhythmicmusicswap4173]

you have point,though in europe the idea that a country doesn't have its own language it's considered lot of time weird

[@ADMICKEY]

@@Liggliluff and the u.s doesn't have an official language

[@ActualGoatUnicorn]

Another reason Belarus exists is because Lukashenko is one of the only people Putin can rely on as aconsistent yesman

[@Nooticus]

THIS

[@ronaldweasly7020]

Yeah, so we're completely gonna ignore the fact that it's a former successor of the Great Duchy of Lithuania which got rid of the crusaders influence in Southern Europe, or that we saved Austria's butt from Turkey in the Battle of Vienna in 1683 just to have our territories divided among Austria, Prussia and Russia. We deserve to exist, but ya'll were all ignoring us when we asked to support us against Soviet Russia.

[@unifiedhorizons2663]

@@ronaldweasly7020 i know right belrus guys we existense

[@malaxes]

@@ronaldweasly7020 You could have been part of Poland but you turned against Poland and chose to be part of Soviet Union so you get what you people wanted. If you thought you will be independent so as you see you have been fooled. You have a place on the map but your car will be deciding about your future. Anyway I wish you that this will change somewhere in the future.

[@ronaldweasly7020]

@@malaxes what kind of bs is this? We were never part of Poland, we were part of the commonwealth!!! And even so, we didn't have full consent in this, our delegation protested against, but it was still decided for us in the end. The same with the Soviet Union- we tried creating a separate country BNR, but no one accepted us and the Soviets created their own BSSR in response. We had Slutsk rebellion against the Poles and the Soviets during the war of 1919-1921. Mere peasantry fought for freedom, but were soon ended by the Soviets. It was never our choice to begin with, stop acting like you know everything.

[@GermanK13]

As a latin american, I have never heard someone here asking why Portugal isn't part of Spain, only north americans and europeans ask that, and that is as ignorant as say "why Caucasian people don't create just one unified country", "why the Central America don't unify with Mexico" or "why the -stans aren't united".

[@sauronsmundwinkel]

Tbh, as a european i'd say we are living in the 21st century and making countrys based on ethnicity is such a 20th century thing. Ethnocountrys should be a thingnof the past.

[@max__pain]

@@sauronsmundwinkel Why?

[@sauronsmundwinkel]

@@max__pain because we had enough wars about who is what and who isnt. and they just a huge waste of everything

[@nartworks557]

@@skoochoo5851 💀💀 bro what

[@nartworks557]

honestly i don’t see the point in making central america unite with mexico but like it would make sense, wether people wanna admit it or not all the countries in central america are near culturally identical compared to countries in south america

[@kotsunia]

1:01 It's simple we haven't been annexed by Spain yet. Wooden spoons, baker woman, somehow being more powerful than your enemy even though you're out numbered, Heróis do mar, nationalist Feeling (no clue what name is), and England

[@thearousedeunuch]

Patriotism?

[@michelleken.]

Actually 60% op Belgian population speaks Dutch (Flemish) as their first language. And as you can see Flemish people speak way more French as a second language than Walloons speak Dutch as a second language, while Dutch is clearly the biggest language in Belgium. This is one of the reasons there are frustrations in Belgium.

[@myra0224]

I feel like people think Belgium is French because of Brussels and the majority speaking French there

[@michelleken.]

@@myra0224 yes indeed, unfortunately the majoruty of Brussel's population speaks French, altough originally being a Flemish city that only spoke Flemish (Dutch). But the vast majority of the Belgian population in total speaks Flemish (Dutch).

[@carthkaras6449]

@@michelleken. and before that we spoke the gaulish language of our ancestor the eburons... a least the french kept some gaulish words and phonology from our ancestors.

[@carthkaras6449]

the "they speak a lot more French" is really relative ... And if the Walloons don't like to speak Flemish it is because, and it is a shared feeling, they think that the Flemings don't like them. And they have every reason to think so with the Flemish politicians and media who when they show Wallonia present random hobo.

[@myra0224]

@@carthkaras6449 Honestly, Wallonia doesn't like Flanders either. I feel like it's because they're kinda stuck in time and can't grow a lot anymore. Which is sad, because they just need some help with it and I wish Belgium as a whole could work on that. In Brussels, it's mainly French that gets spoken but Flanders has more population than Wallonia so there would be more Dutch-speakers

[@lars9255]

As a Belgian, some extra (political) insights. The top part wants to split from the bottom (french side) because they differ massively politicaly. Flanders is mainly right leaning while Wallonia is basically entirely left. The percentage of people on welfare benefits in Wallonia is also massive compared to Flanders so they feel like they are paying for Wallonian people 'not working' and are angry about it. While a lot of Wallonian people feel like the Flemish are antisocial. Politicaly each part already has its own government with the Belgian government overseeing the major stuff. To illustrate how different each part is in opinions, the Flemish government is usually formed within days as well as the Wallonian. The Belgian government needs a majority to 'be formed' this has set records every election of being the longest formation ever, basically every time we vote it takes 1-2 years before an actual government is formed. As for seeing us split, I do think politically we will get rid of the Belgian overarching government and basically stay a country with each part governing themselves. So we will basically be a country but only in name. The reason we will never split entirely is because Wallonia just doesn't want to and you need a 2/3 majority to have a political chance at doing this. More than half of Flemish would be open to splitting up entirely but considering our entire population that's still nowhere near enough. Only scenario is if the biggest flemish national party gets a Flemish majority (which is near impossible in our political system) there's no chance of this ever happening, and even then, rules will need to be bent a lot. Me personally, I am for splitting politically as the gap in opinions between the two sides is just to enormous and this would solve most of the tention so we can stay 'together' in name only. Keeping close economical bonds.

[@cry0genic784]

"Sweden is filled with Swedish people." Damn what year did you record this in?

[@MaestroBlur]

based

[@blanco7726]

Depends on what you mean with Swedish doesnt it.

[@hansberger4939]

The large majority is sweedish but "filled"? there are only 10 mio people.

[@MasonGreenWeed]

From future when Sweden really contain people instead bunch wood on cold wasteland

[@Spacemongerr]

80% of people in sweden are born in sweden. More have swedish citizenship. 75% of everyone there has a Swedish parent. Top immigrant countries are Syria, Finland, Iraq and Poland.

[@jfrancobelge]

Living where I live really makes me feel European - and I love that. I am a Frenchman, originally from Western France, who lives in Eastern Belgium, close to the borders with Luxembourg (20 minutes drive) and Germany (30 minutes drive). I live in a French-speaking town but our neighbors in the next town speak German though still in Belgium, and many of them are actually bilingual German-French. And of course the Luxemburgers have their own language which is basically a Germanic idiom with some French influence; in practice they are trilingual Luxemburgish-French-German, and these actually are the three official languages of the country. And I'm personally fluent in French (mother tongue) and English, I get along pretty well in German, and I'm at least able to read basic Luxemburgish and Dutch, plus notions of Spanish and Italian. Let's not forget to mention the tourists who come visit us from Flanders and the Netherlands, these ones speak Dutch (though Flemish Dutch and Dutch Dutch are kind of different) so that's a fourth language and a fourth country commonly in the area. So, for me normal life is about three/four countries and three/four languages, not to mention English and my native country, France. When I go visit my family in France, hundreds of kilometers away from the closest border, and for some time live in a French-only environment, that is weird to me.

[@blanco7726]

Wou wunns de?

[@jacquesm.6392]

@@blanco7726 Vielsalm

[@Delta_47]

Q: Why is Portugal so small A: The Portuguese king died without heir. The Spanish Crown got a personal union over Portugal, controlling Portugal to a certain extent, but still keeping Portugal as an independent country and not really part of Spain. Spain was having some trouble as well and took Portugal down the line, losing a lot of colonies and overseas territory.

[@luismarques9280]

Portugal is not small in Europe. As matter fact at some point, Portugal controlled a vry large part of the world!

[@kniddelliz7512]

As a national of one of those countries that "shouldn't exist," I find this a very creative video. Why do we exist? Impossible to answer. Most likely a combination of money, politics, strategic alliances, and frankly it would just be undiplomatic to come invade us now after all this time. And then Europe is still living with the memories of WW2, so peace is important.

[@Mothyave]

As a Polish person, I very much don't want Belarus to be officially swallowed by Russia, it's bad enough as it is. Case an point: current Poland-Belarus border situation.

[@Vescilla]

Not only for our benefit, people of Belarus want democracy and other countries should support them. I live in Białystok, which is like 60 km from the Poland-Belarus border and we had a couple of big protests supporting Belarussians protesting against Lukashenka.

[@haroeneissa790]

Russia will allow Belarus to exist for as long as the government stays pro-russia. Russia is definitely going to support a coup or organise another sketchy referendum if Belarus becomes a pro-EU country in the future. Russia doesnt want a pro-EU country right next to Moscow and other big cities in the surrounding areas.

[@haroeneissa790]

@clouds yeah. But the government is not. And they make the decisions.

[@Seriona1]

If Alex had a choice with Belarus, Belarus would of been annexed by Russia. The problem is that the Russian government won't annex it because they would have to dump money into the region to upgrade it to Russian standards and Alex already follows Putin's orders anyways so it's better off being its own nation plus with the current bullshit off invading Ukraine to keep it out of NATO, Belarus buffers Russia from this problem on some spots.

[@Potatotenkopf]

Don't bully him he's trying his best :(

[@111michiel]

You're a cappy! Wanna pet!

[@Potatotenkopf]

@@111michiel yuh

[@DeKevers]

No

[@DeKevers]

@@111michiel no

[@DeKevers]

@@Potatotenkopf no

[@charles727727]

3 Essential reasons why Belgium exists: It is the country who invented "French" Fries , makes the best chocolate on the planet and brews best beer in the world bar none.

[@geosophik9369]

You forgot to include United Kingdom. Equally dumb to exist given the fact that it's a union of 4 kingdoms: Wales, Scotland, Ireland (north) and England. Each still has their own language and culture (although in decay). The people in Spain, Switzerland and Belgium are just better at keeping their identities ;)

[@paggity977]

why do i enjoy this channel more than his main channel

[@PurPurDot]

Geography is nice (👍≖‿‿≖)👍

[@trueriver1950]

@@PurPurDot ...and Minecraft is boring ???

[@NautyCat]

7:12 The man on the left was the chancellor-candidate for the CDU in Germany. He lost the election.

[@Juanthar]

As a Belgian, we don't know

[@MaestroBlur]

Then our education system has failed you...

[@nietaiden4436]

@@MaestroBlur r/wooooooosh

[@nicholas3435]

By the way, as far as European central figures go, given how Maia Sandu is also 48, she is impressively attractive. Just need to throw that out there so that toycat doesn't mention it.

[@lb2kxx]

kinda true

[@johnlockeac7288]

Keep up these great geography videos man. I absolutely heckin love them. Your format is simple and easy to digest. no cuts or anything. Great work!

[@johnlockeac7288]

Perfect. I mean it

[@renderproductions1032]

@@johnlockeac7288 agreed

[@RosePencil]

0:54 “the Belgian person editing this video can confirm this” Me: Wait, this video is EDITED?!

[@Titan55555]

As a Romanian, i see Moldova as a sibling stolen from us by Russia. It would be awesome if we were reunited

[@WindrunnerB4]

My favorite part of the “why does [country name] ...?” Is “why does France speak French?” Edit: maybe “why does Austria have a navy?”

[@gameplayxtreme3389]

Religion isn't actually the main reason for the splitting of Belgium. King Willem van Oranje often neglected the people of the so-called Southern Netherlands, mainly for speaking French. After an opera, the Belgian people came on the streets, demanding Willem to go away. Belgium was allowed to be a country, as long as they stayed neutral. The irony is that for many years until a little after WWII, the Dutch-speaking people in Belgium got oppressed by the French-speaking people.

[@myra0224]

Why doesn't this have more likes?? Like honestly, thank you for educating a bit more about our history 💖 It's ironic how the tables turned so much about who's more powerful/rich in Belgium, Flanders or Wallonia

[@BamBamGT1]

AAnd then people are like: why did so many Flemish side with the Germans during the wars... well yeah, the Germans offered the Flemish a better deal than what the Frenchies we formed a country with offered. Why on earth should the Flemish people have stayed loyal to a country that looked down on them.

[@gamemasteroffun]

I assume this willem van oranje is the same person as William of Orange the English monarch correct?

[@lieselotdevos9253]

@@gamemasteroffun No the Dutch monarch, from the Netherlands

[@MasonGreenWeed]

Ew French 🤮🤮🤮🤮- Konig Willem van Oranje

[@giacomomariomenegola2036]

2:27 “Spain is the weirder country to exist rather than Portugal” ‘cause of them having been separate and having different languages. Meanwhile Italians: *have 20 different Regions due to the same (almost) reasons, 1 of which speaks French and another speaks German*

[@GlitterendeEenhoorn]

Luxemburg exists because of sexism/patriarchy. They were part of the Dutch Kingdom, but when the Netherlands got a queen (Wilhelmina) The Luxemburgers were like omg a woman that’s against our law and they split of and went on with the nephew or something something.

[@max__pain]

Based

[@PhilfreezeCH]

10:50 Switzerland and Lichtenstein could theoretically merge but there really is no reason to do so. We share almost everything already and it Lichtenstein would have to give up some tax and banking shenanigans if they were to join Switzerland. Nobody, not even Switzerlands, really wants that though.

[@ssssaa2]

As an American I can see France, Germany, Uk as real (if small) countries, but a place like Belgium doesn't feel substantial enough to be a country to me. I can never view it as a country so much as a space between the countries that is allowed to exist due to the relationship between the countries. It just isn't big enough to be more than a state/province equivalent to me. Of course I'm sure it's different if you are from such a place lol but when the US is your benchmark for what a country is a lot of countries just don't feel like a country.

[@yamamoto9772]

And i am not from belgium. ppl from the Usa think they have a perfect country but its far from that. So wake up every Eu country is better than the Usa the small ones are mostly the best to live.

[@yamamoto9772]

BTW WITHOUT THE HELP FROM A VERRY SMALL COUNTRY THE USA WAS STILL A PART OF ENGLAND NOW.

[@ssssaa2]

@@yamamoto9772 I think belgium is a very nice country it's the size I am talking about. The idea of being able to drive to the other side of your country in a single day blows my mind as an american. The idea that you can't cross major city to major city each with millions of inhabitants and still have only seen a portion of the country is weird to me. Like I said only countries like France Germany Britain Spain Italy would feel like full fledged countries to me but would still feel small, the ones in between are very small and just don't feel large enough to be a country to me. Not saying they aren't politically but it's weirdly small compared to what I'm used to. I would guess that there aren't many countries that would feel like peers to the US in terms of the amount of stuff going on, so of course most of the rest of the countries would seem insubstantial to me who is used to the US just being a normal benchmark country for me.

[@PowerHamster]

Slight correction on Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro were always inhabited by Serbs but because of the constant wars in Balkans they couldn't really merge together until Yugoslavia. Ever before that Montenegro's most wanted wish was to unite with Serbia. It got seperated in 2006. by referendum after their dictator Djukanović (former pro-Serb) decided "Montenegrin" is a term and brainwashed people into thinking like that. Luckily, new president was elected last year and people are proud of their origin and wast majority of Montenegro people call themselves Serbs. If it was to the people, they would probably be united by now but we will se what comes of it.

[@abhabh6896]

It wasnt president but prime minister and he sucks too. Its like people living here font have an opinion because our government behaves contrary to our brliefs. Example. Government likes NATO....people hate it. World thinks of us as pri west ehole people are strongly pro east.

[@aminadabbrulle8252]

Fun fact, Belarus still has government in exile back from its 1919 incarnation, residing in Canada.

[@tomw4637]

I’ve never considered using patreon to give money to anyone. Toycat tells me he will waste it and we shouldn’t give it to him Now I want to donate

[@tonymatic1704]

14:12 map is innacurae bc yugoslavia didn't obey stalin, it's actualy a saying in the balkans when Tito told Stalin Niet

[@wedonteatbears]

Calling European countries' existence dumb makes the most Anschluss statement ever

[@baum7275]

To clear up the language situation a bit: most people do not speak Walloon in Belgium, they generally speak French that has been influenced by Walloon. It is somewhat just semantics but generally linguists would say it’s the Walloon dialect of Standard French. It‘s similar to how most Germans speak “dialects“ of standard German that have been heavily influenced by the local German ”idioms“, not the historic idioms themselves, but often laypeople don’t make a difference but for linguistics it is important. Particularly in the North, where Low German (a language closer to Dutch than Standard German) was traditionally the local language, only few people actually speak the historic idiom today, with others speaking a High German based dialect with Low German features (ich > ik, das > dit, kaufen > koofen) but when you compare this to historic Low German texts, you see a clear break from tradition, explained by a transition to High German, when it became the political, economic prestige language. This is quite different to, say, Swiss German or Austro-Bavarian, where a lot of people speak dialects that that may have been influenced by Standard German but they still show a clear unbroken tradition from the idioms spoken before the advent of Standard German. Of course a lot of this is debatable bc dialect / language is only loosely defined. However, one major difference I think you can see is a young child from Walloon will have no trouble understanding Standard French without training, whereas for example there are really villages in Austria where young children will struggle to understand Standard German until they are trained in it at school. Also I have never heard of somebody learning French and saying it is difficult to get by in Belgium, but many German learners will have a hard time in Austria and Switzerland, until they learn enough of the dialect bc it is that different and common enough to cause problems to those who don’t understand

[@itsarnieho]

Whenever toy cat tells me not to pay for his patreon the more I want to do it

[@thearousedeunuch]

Reverse psychology works.

[@liamgriffin218]

7:12 My 1st thought was "Why are the Germans included in that picture of the Benelux?" My 2nd thought was "Oh yeah... Germany loves meddling in Benelux affairs."

[@thelobsterperson]

There was actually a time where Spain "took over" to use the term generously, Portugal, in the Iberian Union of 1580, taking advantage of a Portuguese succession crisis. It only lasted 60 years until 1640 when Portugal got a new royal dynasty. Even then it wasn't so much a case of mighty Spain taking over little Portugal because Portugal had its own sprawling mercantile empire all over the world, hardly a small country.

[@luismarques9280]

Not true, Spain never took Portugal

[@VTX_G]

Portugal exists because during the reconquest, a knight stood out and the king of Spain gave him portugal. Then they wanted independence, and they fought for it, in a very important battle.

[@stagnatedsand6609]

Denmark exists for the sole purpose of Lego and Windmills, also getting made fun of by the rest of Scandinavia for being flat

[@pedrothevenard]

The proper question should be, why does any country in Europe exist? Every single country in the last 1000 years changed size or name or language dozens of times, actually Portugal is the absolute most rock solid contry in Europe, almost never changing anything (geographically speaking in the continent), France changed so many times that it's impossible to count, Germany was dozens of different countries, Austria, Spain, Italy, even Greece or every single other big or small country is the same, England (which is reasonably stable) changed size many times, specially gaining our losing half of France, I'm not even gonna start on Croatia or Slovakia or Serbia or anything close to them, there's no reason for any country to exist, other than they exist BECAUSE THEY CAN, they fought, defended or bought enough to exist, that's it.

[@luismarques9280]

Exactly, Portugal is the oldest Europe's nation state with unchanged borders

[@rejereal42623]

Mumbo once asked "Is belgium actually a real country"

[@ihavenonamederp3013]

really when

[@nautilusstopmotion8304]

Geopolitics with minecrafters

[@chao3948]

> Why doesn't Belgium split? They speak diferent languages! > Why isn't Portugal and Spain one country? bruh

[@Langharig_Tuig]

Reminder that under their own guarantee of independence Belgium should be returned to the Netherlands Article 7 of the Treat of London 1839, never forget

[@chrisg8680]

Its a speedbump for Germany

[@MrTohawk]

A language is just a dialect with an army and a flag. That's so true

[@mikeberkshire8579]

Iceland and Costa Rica would like a word with you.

[@SiqueScarface]

Why does Belarus exist? During the Middle Ages, the Grand Duke of Lithuania was one of the most powerful monarchs in Europe, and after the Mongol invasion in the 13th and 14th century, managed to grab large swaths of the former Kievan Rus. He also managed to stop the expansion of the Teutonic Order along the Baltic sea, and went to be elected King of Poland, forming the union of Poland-Lithuania, which ran from the Baltic Sea to the borders of the Ottoman Empire. After some shifting of internal borders, the Kingdom of Poland consisted mainly of today's Poland and Ukraine, and Lithuania of today's Lithuania and Belarus, with Belarus being the slavonic speaking part of the country, and today's Lithuania speaking Lithuanian, a Baltic language. Due to several uprisings of the Cossacks, Poland-Lithuania lost control of the Ukraine, which joined Russia as autonomous territory. At the end of the 18th century, rivaling powers Prussia, Hapsburg and Russia managed to split the remaining Poland-Lithuania between them, and all of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania went to Russia, where Belarus was split off from Lithuania as its own province. In the aftermath of World War I., the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the following civil war, Poland and Lithuania gained sovereignty, the Ukraine and Belarus remained with Russia, but being in a somewhat twilight status. They were separate states within the Soviet Union. Belarus and the Ukraine had their own soccer associations, and were playing in international tournaments under their own flag until the final break-up of the Soviet Union, where each former state within the union became its own country.

[@krealyesitisbeta5642]

“I don’t know if we have historical examples of that.” Belgians: 😡 Germans: 😶

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

HONESTLY!

[@xcoder1122]

You are turning things around here: People don't live in the same country because they used to speak the same language, if they speak the same language, it's because they used to live in the same country for long enough and at some point either one of the languages spoken there became dominant or the language we know today is a mixture of the languages people used to speak before that language was formed. Countries where this is not the case are countries that don't exist long enough as a country or are filled with people that don't feel like being an integral part of that country and prefer to focus on how they differ from the rest of the country and may one day even want to separate from it again. In Switzerland there are still 4 official languages, but one of them is slowly dying out, so in several hundred years, there may be only 3 left.

[@witsewouters8945]

Tbh I live in Belgium and I am not even offended. It would just be much better that the dutch part goes with the Netherlands the French with France and the german with Germany. And to make things not to complicated make Brussels a city state with all the EU and Nato buildings. And yhea Luxembourg should also go with France bcs 80 percent of the population can speak french

[@douchebagdave3813]

Luxemburgish is a german dialect (moselfränkisch) though, if you move into the Eifel on the german side of the border it is litteraly the same dialect, "official language" or not.

[@Roozyj]

@@douchebagdave3813 Well as Toycat said: a language is just a dialect with a flag and an army xD. Moselfränkisch is pretty hard to understand so it might as well be a language :P

[@vzmt9319]

As a Luxembourgish resident I can confirm, either u love or you hate French people, so goin with France is unlikely

[@matthings4133]

Nah i prefer to be belgian and independant, sorry

[@MaestroBlur]

The fact that you cann yourself "the dutch part" instead of the "flemish part" shows enough that you not only don't understand why our country exists but also that you don't care for your people or culture and wouldn't bat an eye to have it absorbed and integrated by foreigners. Landsverrader.

[@aayushsharma4857]

There's Belgium for having trouble with 2 languages and then there's India with 26 recognized languages and hundred's of dialects still managed to be united

[@weird2982]

Why does Belgium have so many trouble: We are stubborn Why is Belgium still a country: We are stubborn

[@dudamonas2450]

You forgot to say that Portugal was “incorporated” for like 70 years in the 1400’s

[@goganii]

you mean 1500s and 1600s ?

[@dudamonas2450]

@@goganii yeah yeah, sorry for the mistake mate, I got confused and actually didn't know where the 3rd dinasty was located in time

[@carlosmagalhaes7109]

1580-1640

[@easytiger6570]

A union is different from being incorporated

[@dudamonas2450]

@@easytiger6570 eh, at the time Portugal was basically annexed by Spain, so I think it counts

[@tomfrazier1103]

As someone said "When you don't set the parking brakes on your tank."

[@lfwynn5230]

Yes the true questions of Belgium: Why do we exist? Why are fries called french fries? we have invented them!

[@blufferfish0896]

5:18 “I *had* to speak with my girlfriend recently” This does not sound like a healthy relationship

[@emelinehuhu2814]

We dont speak Walloon in Belgium😅 that langage doesn't exist anymore (except ederly people saying 1 or 2 words) but Wallonia and Brussels speak same French as France (except 1 or 2 words, just like between London and Manchester for example)

[@tililou9557]

I got taught in school that there are some differences in Grammar too, but I’m not French speaking, so I can’t speak for the French.

[@blanco7726]

Shame walloon was a funny language to hear

[@Liggliluff]

This title describes my life. Why does Europes dumbest human exist at all? I have failed at life and almost willing to give up.

[@randomstuff2733]

I’m watching this video even tho I have school at 1 am lol love the content

[@Bismarck-S]

wow, who goes to school at 1am?

[@randomstuff2733]

I meant I have school and it’s 1 am

[@randomstuff2733]

I said it wrong

[@PurPurDot]

@@Bismarck-S you should probably sleep more if you have school

[@randomstuff2733]

@@PurPurDot he meant to me and also I really should I get sleep deprived at night

[@Mr.Nichan]

6:06 I guess that's true for a lot of Eurasian countries, but not in Africa or the Americas. Also not very clearly in the Southern half of Asia (since so many share Arabic, Farsi, Dari, and Tajik are mutually intelligible, Afghanistan has a multiple languages, as do Pakistan and India, Bangladesh shares a language with India, SE Asian countries each are centered around one language, but have a zillion minority languages, Malay and Indonesian are mutually intelligible, and most Indonesians don't even speak Indonesian natively anyway, and while we're at it, China doesn't ACTUALLY speak a single language natively, and Korea is split in two despite sharing language, I also have doubts about how different central Asian Turkic languages are from each other, but I guess the same applies to some Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages in Europe, too).

[@Tweeteketje]

If I use Google, it auto-fills to "Why does Belgium even exist". And "Why does The Netherlands have yellow license plates". I think both questions are equally important.

[@Minelaughter]

Did you watch this video before or after the searches because if it was after than Google saw you watching this video. If it was before though, coincidence?

[@Tweeteketje]

@@Minelaughter after 🤭

[@beu9245]

And the answer to both those questions is: because why not?

[@blanco7726]

Logically for Luxembourg it should be "Why does Luxembourg exist and have yellow license plates?"

[@lieselotdevos9253]

Fun fact about Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourgh. Their union (Benelux) is literally the foundation of the EU. So why do these countries exist again?

[@viloxy]

The way toycat pronounces Lukashenko is hilarious

[@crimson5664]

I prefer Belgium fries more then French ones. Also their chocolatiers are superior. Is that a good reasons to exists? Greeting from Poland

[@Sayonararara]

If you go to places like Lille near the belgium border, it's pretty much the same. Makes sense because both regions used to be the County of Flanders. Similar Architecture, food, etc. Only that the belgian part did a better job keeping their customs than the french one.

[@WarriorPNG]

Belgium exists so sabaton could make a cool song about the Chasseurs Ardennais's motto

[@This-is-Michael]

Why do they exist with no main language? "South Africa having 11..."

[@briancops3798]

Yes, I question France. It is a place full of Occitan, Breton, Alsatian, Arpitan, Catalan, Basque and Flemish people who do not have anything to say because of centralism. Why are the real French people so cruel and imperialistic, why do these people force others to give up their culture, why is France allowed to keep on assimilating and colonizing those other people?

[@piotrarturklos]

I sympathize with your hurt feelings over the central government not recognizing culture of the people, but the answer to your question is obvious to me as an outsider. The government does it so that noone asks "why does France exist?".

[@briancops3798]

@@piotrarturklos My comment is meant to push back against the narrative that France is unquestionable. But yeah you are absolutely right!

[@Frang14998]

Great topic toycat, Belgium grinds my gears and doesn't make sense at all!! I love your content!

[@Bananaman-hk6qw]

JOIN. THE. EFFING. DUTCH.

[@DevinDTV]

It's not that hard to understand why Belarus would be independent. Texas or California could conceivably secede from the US, and people will ask "why do those exist", and the answer is cultural differences. You can have two friendly, same language, same ethnicity, similar culture countries next to each other. Canada and the US is another example. "Basically the same" place but there are enough differences that neither side particularly wants to merge.

[@alexanderharding2221]

I am shocked, perplexed and disgusted that you would so much as CONSIDER mentioning Liechtenstein, the greatest country in Europe (and indeed the world) in this context.

[@MurdokEXTRA]

Saying Belarus is the same thing as White Russia is like saying Corwall is basically Eastern Wales. Belarus and Russia take their name from Kievian Rus and the general region of Ruthenia. Rus isn't the same as Russia and it never was.

[@PhilfreezeCH]

Germany tried to fix this twice but both times the international community disapproved.

[@roccosoldi8678]

Netherlands and Belgium have more of a right to exist than "Germany". International community please help us! We've been occupied since 1871!

[@phoenix5054]

“Switzerland has invaded Liechtenstein 3 times by mistake.” Sure. Like when Japan has bombed Hawaii “by mistake”.

[@PolecanePC]

Idea for follow up video: Why those countries doesn't exist yet? / Which countries might exist in the future? list of countries: Bavaria, Silesia, Northumbria, Basque, Karelia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Udmurtia, Buryatia, Zakarpattia, Sicily, Kurdistan

[@r-pu4md]

2:43 the regional languages while there, coexist with spanish everywhere. Everyone speaks Spanish in Spain apart from maybe old people in remote villages that only learnt Catalan/Basque/Galician.

[@benhajvan]

Bosnian here. The Montenegro part made me comment. First of all yeah it's literally cakked black mountain and the place is cool af. The Balkans are all kinds of weird when it comes to that. We are mostly ethnically Slavs with some minorities wich are severly underrepresented and except for Slovenia and Macedonia have the same language (and we even understand each other and can communicate with Macedonians and Slovenians while each using their own language), with same words and rules. Our cultures are also just variations of each other. So the entire Balkans should be a single country as Yugoslavia was but extreme nationalism that took hold through the 80s and 90s artificially created this mess we have now.

[@abhabh6896]

Name of Montenegro originates from Crnojević, not from black. It was wrongly translated because invaders (turks and italians)called ir a black land due to their soldiers dying.

[@Betrunkenes.Huhn.]

Belgium exists, so someone is gonna be upset, when you call them "french" fries.

[@xshadiie6447]

I see the thumbnail and feel SOOO ATTACKED

[@iamfuzzydolphins7792]

Good.

[@lincolnlog5977]

Good.

[@SAHarry]

Good.

[@svenen7299]

Good.

[@matthings4133]

Me too.

[@DJPJ.]

19:00 In Norwegian Belarus' name is "Hviterussland" which is the Norwegian translation of "Belarus".

[@HannahHäggAutisticTransWoman]

After France and napoleon lost in 1815 neatherlands got some territores from france and in 1839 those territores became independent Belgium with fence and Dutch people inside of it. It didn't make any sense at all why Belgium got it's independence from the neatherlands.

[@jefdenis8773]

because the netherlands treated us like shit and we had enough so we declared independence its the same thing as the U.S.A and England

[@armandbrn3281]

From a genetic standpoint the Belgian people is “more valid” than most other people in Europe even more genetically similar than the people of Netherlands : if we use table 2 from Van den Elden et al 2018 the Fst distance between the populations of Wallonia and the population of Flanders is of 2.5e-04(the closer to 0 the more genetically similar are two populations). If we compare those results with the genetic distances from the Netherlands as seen in Byrne et al 2020 Figure 1, most regions of the Netherlands have a higher fst distance and are therefore less genetically similar, those with an Fst distance lower or equal to that of Wallonia and Flander are the exception more the norm.

[@blanco7726]

There is a lot of immigration though

[@armandbrn3281]

@@blanco7726 Yes but individuals with known immigrant ancestry are usually excluded from the sample.

[@blanco7726]

@@armandbrn3281 then the statement about "Belgian people" cant be taken seriously. 2.5e-04 means nothing if +30% was left out of the experience.

[@armandbrn3281]

@@blanco7726 Including the immigrants genomes to infer the Fst distance between different regions would have heavily biased the results, making them far less exploitable. The point of said research is partly to understand the specificities of the genomes that are unique to a given place. The immigrant genomes were included in the principal components as seen in Fig 1, but weren’t for the evaluation of inter-regional Fst distances.

[@blanco7726]

@@armandbrn3281 ok I see what you mean, there's Belgian people and then theres Belgian people. The first, meaning anyone of biological Belgian origin. The second meaning those that are born and grow up in Belgium and are officially Belgian. In my opinion though, the biological significance is minimal compared to the actual situation in a city/country/village etc. which includes immigrants, descendants from different regions. All of them make up the population as much as a "real" locals and should be counted when justifying something like the validity of a country, especially when those "outsiders" make up a large portion of the population and are completely integrated.

[@ShawNshawN]

these videos are hilarious man. Love it! I lived in Belgium, Poland, Spain and Germany. You definitely get a feel of the split in Germany (Holy Roman Empire) as there are many dialecs that the hoch-deutsche (High German dialec) make fun of all other Germans. You missed Austria being separate although it speaks mostly German. (Austria-Hungary empire). Spain is very distinct by language as well, each town has its own unique food and drink for some reason (lot of food pride after the Empire collapsed in 1898). Poland was fairly unified although has been parts of Russia, Germany and once was all the way to the Baltics, so lots of mixed relations. Basically, they are flat and easily invaded. Princes would just side with the winning side and Poland would disappear a few times. Great show. I would have loved to do a similar channel, but you nail it perfectly... quirks and all.

[@ShawNshawN]

Belgium is also very racist as well. (Similar to France). Mostly because they adapt the French equality, egalitarian and whatever the third one was. They don't TRACK racism at all, so its very rampant. They use for example Algerian/African bouncers at bars to keep out other Africans from those bars. Africans are all in one or two neighborhoods in Brussels. Brussels is a trip because of bilingual. TV is wild. All the shows are melodramas (kidnappings, rape, etc.) Super quirky country. Also they have the best part, which you missed, is full windows of scantily dressed woman selling the oldest business all over the country. Even small towns have it. LOL

[@ShawNshawN]

Another fun fact on Belgium. They have nuclear power and set them all along the border to screw with I think the Netherlands and Germany. LOL

[@beans731]

As a person from Belgium I hate that I need to learn multiple languages at school. Like Dutch isn't already bad enough. They just slap on another language like it's nothing. If French isn't already bad enough. Learn German too while ur at it. And mabye some English will help cure your depression.

[@corey2232]

I find it more interesting what people from those countries call themselves... Is a person from Belgium called "Belgen?" In French, yes, but in English, nope. What about Lichtenstein? Are they "Lictensteinese?" 😂 Obviously not, but it's always interesting to me.

[@NorthPoleSun]

"give me a hand in asking what atrocities they have committed" oh godddddd that was a good one i gotta admit.

[@parkjimin-standkb-62]

01:33 Switzerland "Speaks French" lmao German is the bigger part and then there's also Italian.

[@jmp9035]

Your also forgetting the one that always gets overlooked which is Austria. Why Austria is separate from the rest of Germany is a bit weird, I mean if Austria is a separate country why not Saxony, Bavaria etc They just seem to be there still because of the old Austria- Hungarian kingdom and since then have always been out on their own.

[@soasertsus]

The German-speaking part of Austria-Hungary actually wanted to join Germany after losing WW1 and having the empire basically forcibly dissolved but the Entente specifically put in the peace treaty that Austria should under no circumstances merge with Germany, ripped away the German parts of Bohemia which were traditionally a part of German Austria and tacked them onto Czechoslovakia, and arranged everything in the region to intentionally be a bit of a shitshow so the new countries could basically be French puppets. This whole situation was seen as extremely insulting which is why 20 years later some of the first things Hitler did were demand the Sudetenland be given back from Czechoslovakia and orchestrate the anschluss, which wasn't necessarily as unpopular as you would think at the time. After the second world war the countries were divided again by the Allied powers and the German-speaking world was pretty much split in half between the Soviets and the west. People know about the German occupation but Austria was also separately under occupation for a full decade and by the time they got their independence in 1955 Germany was already divided into east and west, all of Prussia was either directly annexed by the USSR or part of communist Poland, the Sudeten was given back to Czechoslovakia, and the idea of a full unified German nation-state was already dead so they just carried on on their own as a neutral country.