AHC: A 'Hermit Kingdom' in the Western World

Inspired by a comment in this thread about long periods of peace:

Tokugawa Japan was basically at peace for 253 years, if one ignores minor uprisings, and even then at least 220. Apparently closing yourself off from most of the world does have some benefits.

Well, what's certain is that closing yourself off from most of the world has drastic consequences. That got me thinking about what a hypothetical 'Tokugawa-style' Britain or USA might look like. (My mind went to those two because one is an island nation, making closed borders somewhat easier, and the other has historically showed a strong isolationist streak. Switzerland might be another strong contender, what with mountain ranges for borders and a policy of neutrality.)

The only historical 'hermit kingdoms' I can think of, however, are Tokagawa Japan and North Korea; both Asian nations. I don't think a hermit kingsom has ever existed in the West. But that's what alternate history is for! :D

You challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a scenario where a Western nation becomes a hermit kingdom. (That is to say: complete or near complete isolationism, resulting in no or very little and strictly regulated contact with the outside world.)

To make it interesting, let's exclude microstates, and limit the challenge to the bigger nations. Bonus points if you explore not only how such a situation could arise, but what the result might look like.
 
Well, IOTL Lithuania could pretend to the title, at least partially.

The big problem with "Hermit" states are they really weren't so fully. You had always toughts, goods, else passing trough legally or not. (It's particularly true for Best Korea).

And Europe doesn't have the means to enforce so : just look at OTL tentatives of blockade (as Napoléon's) to see how it backfire. Being a continent of one tenant (except for UK, but Britain being really close to continent, contrary to Japan that is at least a bit far and surrounded by a regularly troubled sea) doesn't help. At all.
 
Does Communist Albania under Hoxha count?
From what I read, admittedly not that much, Albania had very little to no diplomatic relations, since it believed itself to be the last bulwark of "true" Communism and it remained as closed-off as it could be.
 
I suppose if Greenland had been recontacted before the settlements were abandoned it might count for the intervening period. Iceland's a good candidate as well being on the edges of things and quite isolated. Theoretically it might be possible in the Middle Ages for something like Asturias to become one-just hanging on in the mountains of Calabria and cut off from the wider Christian world by al-Andalus- but I can't see it being a particularly long lasting or stable state of affairs.
 
Would a more North Korea-ish Cuba satisfy the challenge?

Sure. Why not? I'd consider a more unlikely candidate to be more interesting for AH purposes, but it's a fair option to answer the challenge.


Well, IOTL Lithuania could pretend to the title, at least partially.

The big problem with "Hermit" states are they really weren't so fully. You had always toughts, goods, else passing trough legally or not. (It's particularly true for Best Korea).

And Europe doesn't have the means to enforce so : just look at OTL tentatives of blockade (as Napoléon's) to see how it backfire. Being a continent of one tenant (except for UK, but Britain being really close to continent, contrary to Japan that is at least a bit far and surrounded by a regularly troubled sea) doesn't help. At all.

All true, but if it were very easy, it wouldn't be a challenge. :p


Does Communist Albania under Hoxha count?
From what I read, admittedly not that much, Albania had very little to no diplomatic relations, since it believed itself to be the last bulwark of "true" Communism and it remained as closed-off as it could be.

Was it that isolated? I frankly admit to being less than super-informed on Albanian history.
 
While there wouldn't really be a true Hermit kingdom (as LSCatilina points out), the closest equivalent which springs to mind in Europe would be an Ireland which manages to unify, then cuts itself off from foreign contact to discourage English intervention. That couldn't last forever, but it could probably keep it up for a while.
 
Tokugawa Japan was only really closed to Europeans, it could and did maintain links with the rest of Asia at the time. So... a bit of an illusion, in their case.
 
I suppose if Greenland had been recontacted before the settlements were abandoned it might count for the intervening period. Iceland's a good candidate as well being on the edges of things and quite isolated. Theoretically it might be possible in the Middle Ages for something like Asturias to become one-just hanging on in the mountains of Calabria and cut off from the wider Christian world by al-Andalus- but I can't see it being a particularly long lasting or stable state of affairs.

The problem I see with Greenland and Iceland is that they can barely sustain a population in complete isolation. There have been several major volcanic eruptions on Iceland, reaulting in one or more volcanic winters. During one or two, nearly all livestrock on Iceland died. That would demand the end of isolation, because without trade (or viking raids, who knows)... everyone starves. And those same volcanic winters affected Greenland as well...

I really like the Asturias idea. :D


While there wouldn't really be a true Hermit kingdom (as LSCatilina points out), the closest equivalent which springs to mind in Europe would be an Ireland which manages to unify, then cuts itself off from foreign contact to discourage English intervention. That couldn't last forever, but it could probably keep it up for a while.

I wonder what such an Ireland would end up like, culturally.
 

Driftless

Donor
Iceland

The one aspect in favor of Iceland, is the the comparative isolation until the last century or so, has allowed them to maintain their language in a form much more closely aligned to that of a thousand years ago. Much more linguistic stability than most Western languages. Their isolation may not have been intentional, but language is one of the first mutations of cultural interactions.

The Icelanders have maintained both high levels of learning and cultural stability by their geographic isolation.

It wouldn't take much of a push to have them become your hermit kingdom. POD of the Black Death? Closing the island to outsiders?
 
Vinland that survives, but then loses contact? They ethnic cleanse Newfoundland and then ignore the mainland for extra hermit-ness.

As for OTL, didn't Korea go Hermit for a while around the time Japan did?
 
Was it that isolated? I frankly admit to being less than super-informed on Albanian history.

Neither am I, but according to the article I found about it, credible, but not really academic, Hoxha was a Marxist-Leninist hardliner and admirer of Stalin, when Stalin died and Khrushchev took over, Hoxha didn't agree with him and aligned himself with Mao. All the while Hoxha and Tito didn't get along with eachother, so Albania was surrounded on all sides by enemies (at least in Hoxha's perception), Yugoslavia in the north, Capitalist Greece in the South and Italy across the Adriatic. To make matters even worse, when the relations between the PRC and the West became better, the relation between Albania and the PRC worsened. Hoxha, finally, broke his alliegence with them after Mao died and declared his nation to be the last true Communist state in the world. To ensure its survival autarky became the official policy, trade was minimized, borrowing money abroad was forbidden and foreigners no longer appreciated in Albania. To sell all this to the public Hoxha told the people that the country was about to be invaded by foreign powers and as a consequence Albania started building bunkers, lots of them, around 700,000 on population of about 3 million people.

I would say Albania in the later years of Hoxha's rule could be considered a hermit kingdom, if only for a, relatively, short time, about 10 years (1976-1985, from the end of the alliance with China to the end Hoxha's rule).

It would be nice if somebody could come up with some proper references on this.
 
The one aspect in favor of Iceland, is the the comparative isolation until the last century or so, has allowed them to maintain their language in a form much more closely aligned to that of a thousand years ago. Much more linguistic stability than most Western languages. Their isolation may not have been intentional, but language is one of the first mutations of cultural interactions.

The Icelanders have maintained both high levels of learning and cultural stability by their geographic isolation.

It wouldn't take much of a push to have them become your hermit kingdom. POD of the Black Death? Closing the island to outsiders?

Very true; the effect on cultural development is one of the reasons I found the subject interesting. Suppose such an effect, but in a nation that wasn't (very) isolationist IOTL. What would that do to such a nation's culture?


It's post-1900, but would a surviving Soviet Hungary qualify?

Sure, but that would have to suppose that communist Hungery prevails, while the USSR still falls. (They didn't close themselves off to other communist nations, IIRC.) Somehow, I think that's not going to last. On the other hand, Hungery as a North Korea-like communist pariah state right in the middle of Europe would be interesting as an AH idea.
 
@ the greenland comment. Even towards the end, greenland was never totally isolated from the west. ivory, furs, and the such were still being traded eastwards, and lumber still being collected from the southwest. It was getting close to a hermit kingdom towards the end though.
 
The proto-socialist dictatorship of Francia in Paraguay definitely qualifies. I can also easily see lots of other scenarios involving isolationist Paraguay, such as a jesuitic Guarany state.
 
Have some of the Boers establish a state in OTL Rhodesia, away from the mineral wealth (and consequent foreign involvement) of the Transvaal, and leave them to it?
 
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