Chapter 2086 Ireland

Saying that Northern Ireland is not as important as Scotland is only measured in terms of strategic significance.

But it is absolutely impossible to say that the British do not take it seriously.

After all, if the British want to truly leave the European Union, they must also look at Ireland's face.

Ireland is a very interesting country. They like to fight, right? But in the two world wars, they were at most engaged in petty tricks behind the back of Britain, and did not participate in the real war at all.

Can we say that they are peace-loving? But when it comes to national unification, they are all short-tempered.

To put it simply, they never mind seeking violence when dealing with the British issue, but they don't care about dealing with other nations and countries.

As mentioned earlier, the origin of Northern Ireland is actually a British vassal state throughout history, and the time when Ireland was conquered by the United Kingdom can be traced back to 1172 AD, more than 200 years earlier than Wales and more than 500 years earlier than Scotland.

However, because of religious beliefs, Ireland, which has been ruled by the United Kingdom for the longest time, has produced the most serious separatism.

The so-called religious belief issue mainly comes from the religious reformation in England in the 16th century. To establish a separate Church of England.

As a result, Henry VIII's move to establish a new Protestantism directly led to the hostility between Irish Catholics and Protestants.

Therefore, in order to suppress the Catholics in Ireland, the United Kingdom immigrated Protestants to Ireland on a large scale, and at the same time mobilized troops to suppress the Catholics in Ireland.

In the 17th century AD, Cromwell led an army into Ireland, confiscated Catholic properties, and through executions and exiles, the population of Ireland dropped by nearly 50%, while the immigrants from England into Ireland directly occupied the original Catholicism. Christian property.

Since then, uprising and repression have become the main theme of England and Ireland. With the support of the British government, although the Irish resisted bravely, in the north of Ireland, Protestant immigrants still have an absolute advantage.

Therefore, after centuries of heroic resistance, although the Irish succeeded in gaining independence in the 20th century, they also lost their northern frontier forever.

The problems caused by Northern Ireland After the origin of Northern Ireland is clarified, the possible problems caused by the British leaving the European Union are actually relatively clear.

Because of its weak strength, the country was divided between the north and the south. The Irish obviously would not be convinced, so the Irish never gave up their efforts to unify the north and the south.

However, if the United Kingdom insists on leaving the European Union, the Irish may lose Northern Ireland forever.

Because Ireland belongs to the EU area, if the UK leaves the EU, it will leave the EU area with Northern Ireland.

The original United Kingdom and Ireland belonged to the EU area, so goods and people from the two countries can freely circulate on the border.

However, if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the border between the United Kingdom and Ireland will become the border between the "EU area" and the "non-EU area". Free movement on the border, and even border checkpoints have to be set up on the border between the two countries.

In this way, Northern Ireland is completely separated from Ireland, which Ireland cannot agree to, and if Northern Ireland is left alone in the European Union, the British obviously cannot agree, because this will completely separate the United Kingdom.

As a result, the border between the UK and Ireland has become an unavoidable and unsolvable headache in the Brexit negotiations.

But you can't ignore it. Maybe Ireland will stab you in the back at any time, just like they did in the early 20th century, maintaining "neutrality" at critical moments.

At that time, on the Atlantic battlefield of World War II, hunting and anti-hunting were constantly staged between Britain and Germany, and they fought each other badly.

However, Ireland, which is closer to the front line than England and Germany, is maintaining its neutrality leisurely. If the neutrality of Sweden and Switzerland in World War II depends on strength, and the neutrality of Portugal and Spain depends on diplomacy, then Ireland relies on "hostility"!

During World War II, the struggle between German submarines and British anti-submarines was extremely fierce. Although it seems far-fetched, "hostility to Britain" is indeed an important factor for Ireland to maintain neutrality.

After the First World War, Ireland became independent during the division. In the minds of the Irish, the division was caused by the British, and they were worried about it, so "hostility" to the UK became the meaning of the topic.

With this level of experience, most Irish people naturally do not want to be involved in a new world war and contribute to the British war.

In other words, "As long as Britain does not return Northern Ireland, Ireland will never be able to stand on the same front as the British."

Therefore, although Ireland was still a subsidiary of the United Kingdom in the legal sense and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1939, it was the only member of the Commonwealth of Nations that did not participate in the war. Moreover, whenever the United Kingdom made a request to Ireland, Ireland would take the "Northern Ireland" Questions" talk about things.

However, Ireland has never turned against Britain. Since the "Irish Free State" is legally attached to the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom retains a naval base and considerable military power in Ireland.

Therefore, although Ireland has a history of purchasing weapons from Germany, it is backed by the position of the United Kingdom and its too weak military strength - there were only 6,000 troops before the war, few fighter planes, and almost zero navy. Self-protection is not enough, not to mention " Turn your face", and they are more or less aware that "seeking refuge" in Germany is not a reliable option at all.

And even if it participated in the war, Ireland did not have enough economic strength to maintain it. Before World War II, Ireland’s economy mainly relied on agriculture. During the British rule, Ireland was intentionally built into a granary, so Ireland "intentionally" developed towards agriculture. .

Coupled with the lack of coal and other mine resources in Ireland, there is almost no decent heavy industry, and it is simply unable to support large-scale wars.

Throughout the 1930s, some people in Ireland always felt that "Ireland's neutrality is very safe, and raising troops is useless." Even if war was imminent, there was no intention of increasing military spending.

Therefore, during the entire war, although the Irish realized the importance of "anti-government", they still couldn't let go of their grievances with the British. The mentality of adding blockages has successfully ensured that the territory has not been baptized by artillery fire.

txt download address:

phone-reading: