Have more Finland-style Bilingual countries in Europe

Then come up with way to make Wales a Soverign nation. Yes, I know this is difficult.
Interestingly a book has been written called 'Why Wales Never Was' by Simon Brooks about why a) the Welsh Language collapsed, and b) a Welsh nationalist movement did not emerge in the 19th century like in Ireland or across Eastern Europe. Essentially, he blames what he calls 'majoritarian liberalism' and argues that its prevalence in Wales during the 19th century prevented the growth of Welsh nationalism at the time. He also argues that 'majoritarian liberalism' prevented a push for greater Welsh Language rights and that if Welsh had been the medium of Education in schools from 1870 onwards and if the Welsh had not been so ready to switch to English in the presence of English incomers, then the latter would have been assimilated during the period 1880-1914 when they migrated to South Wales in the tens of thousands.

What both he and other historians agree is that one only needs a POD in the early 19th century, perhaps even in 1850, to have Wales stay Welsh-Speaking and a POD a few decades later to allow a Welsh-nationalist movement to develop, like the Home Rule Movement in Ireland.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
How can we have some more Finland-style bilingual countries in Europe, in which the country has two official languages, one being the language of a small minority that's less than 10% of the population? Try to keep the POD to 1900 but you do have my permission to go back further.
If Germany wins WWI, it could coerce its Eastern European allies and puppet states to adopt German as a second official language.

Also, if Manchukuo survives, it can have an official language of both Chinese and Japanese.

In addition to this, what about having interwar Poland adopt Ukrainian as a second official language in the spirit of Intermarium? (The under 10% rule would likely be violated here, though.)
 
Interestingly a book has been written called 'Why Wales Never Was' by Simon Brooks about why a) the Welsh Language collapsed, and b) a Welsh nationalist movement did not emerge in the 19th century like in Ireland or across Eastern Europe. Essentially, he blames what he calls 'majoritarian liberalism' and argues that its prevalence in Wales during the 19th century prevented the growth of Welsh nationalism at the time. He also argues that 'majoritarian liberalism' prevented a push for greater Welsh Language rights and that if Welsh had been the medium of Education in schools from 1870 onwards and if the Welsh had not been so ready to switch to English in the presence of English incomers, then the latter would have been assimilated during the period 1880-1914 when they migrated to South Wales in the tens of thousands.

What both he and other historians agree is that one only needs a POD in the early 19th century, perhaps even in 1850, to have Wales stay Welsh-Speaking and a POD a few decades later to allow a Welsh-nationalist movement to develop, like the Home Rule Movement in Ireland.

It feels a bit weird quoting myself but anyway, in order for Wales to become an independent country, all you need is a POD in the mid-late 19th century (but preferably before 1870.) In this TL, greater Welsh nationalism means that a) a Home Rule movement develops like in Ireland, b) Compulsory Education in Wales, when it arrives, is through Welsh, not English, like in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, c) Knowledge of English among the Welsh population is much lower than in OTL, and English incomers, when they arrive in South Wales in mass between 1880 and 1914, are forced to learn Welsh and assimilate. Wales thus stays majority Welsh-Speaking and follows the same path as Ireland.

Thus, Wales, like Ireland gains independence in 1922, in the form of the Welsh free state. In this ATL Welsh would be the majority language and English would be a minority language, but they would still be a much larger minority than a mere 10% since even in 1800 native English-speakers were more like 20%, however in post-independence that number could always diminish. Here is the sort of Wales we're looking at in this ATL 20th century, one in which the language boundaries are as they were in 1870:
CjSaCZXWYAApn7I.jpg:large
 
belgium has dutch/french and german (less then 10%) as official languages so i gues it auto qualify's
i believe there about 300 000 germans here out of a pop of 11million and its not like the germans have any wealth or influence in the country in general

they did benefit from the constant conflicts of intrests between dutch and french though

Even less: the population of the German-speaking community is only about 75 000.

The problem is that with a small (10-20%) minority you will slowly lose those who use the #2 language primarily.

This depends a lot on the geographical situation of these speakers. If they are spread across the country and are nowhere a majority, then they will feel major pressure to assimilate. But if they form a local majority this can often be maintained. Examples: the French and Italian-speaking regions of Switzerland, Szekely Land in Romania, South Tyrol...
 
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It feels a bit weird quoting myself but anyway, in order for Wales to become an independent country, all you need is a POD in the mid-late 19th century (but preferably before 1870.) In this TL, greater Welsh nationalism means that a) a Home Rule movement develops like in Ireland, b) Compulsory Education in Wales, when it arrives, is through Welsh, not English, like in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, c) Knowledge of English among the Welsh population is much lower than in OTL, and English incomers, when they arrive in South Wales in mass between 1880 and 1914, are forced to learn Welsh and assimilate.

Can that actually be done? Do we have any examples of English speakers in the 19th century assimilating linguistically? That was the peak of the British Empire, when the sun never set on it and all that. Abandoning their mother tongue in that era seems hard to imagine.

I think maybe you could have a situation like Québec though, where the English and Welsh speakers basically live separate lives and the latter maintains an overall majority.
 
If Germany wins WWI, it could coerce its Eastern European allies and puppet states to adopt German as a second official language.

Given how popular and common learning German was in Central-Eastern Europe in pre-WWI years, I am not sure if it would be seen as necessary to make German a formal official language outside nations where there is a significant German-speaking population. In the allied and especially satellite states, German would be seen as a lingua franca pretty much like English is today: it would be a high priority teaching people German through the national education systems even if it was not official as such.
 
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