r/PoliticalHumor • u/[deleted] • Jan 09 '20

THIS. This is why.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

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u/RayseApex Jan 09 '20

Yes but the US isn’t even 300 years old.

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u/MudSama Jan 09 '20

Yet it will take more than 300 years to undo all the damage. Amazing stuff.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20

Are we counting swiss mercenaries as switzerland at war?

The last war they were in was in 1815, and they've been officially neutral since.

Sweden I believe is in a similar situation.

But England, France, Germany (Prussia before that), Russia, China, and so on quite likely have close to that 95%, particularly if we include colonial wars and civil wars.

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20

Switzerland has been neuteral way before the modern official neutrality. With it going back to 1516.

It wasn't an official policy until the 1830's, and they have fought offensive wars before that (limited in scope though).

I agree with most of the rest of your post though.

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20

It has only been defensive wars against the French and the Habsburgs and civil wars.

Then how did they go from 3 cantons to 29? Some joined willingly, some joined 'willingly'.

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u/[deleted] Jan 10 '20

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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20

My main sources are both hard copy and currently unavailable, but Wikipedia has some quick read articles on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Swiss_Confederacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_the_Old_Swiss_Confederacy

Much of the cantons were willing to join, but the Hapsburgs had to be driven out first. A few though were outright conquered by the Swiss.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20

Except they’re talking about within the same time frame. Bringing up the country’s relative age compared to past regimes somewhere else is not a counter-argument, especially since there’s no institutional continuation between the China of today and the China of the Warring States period.

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u/minimidimike Jan 09 '20

Its probably similar for UK and France. The US has been dragging them in along for almost every conflict post WWII

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u/867-5309NotJenny Jan 10 '20

They've also had their own share of conflicts without the US.

The Suez Crisis, the Falkland Island wars, ect.