Is Wales an independent country in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Unless there is a tradition at the United Nations of displaying the flags of subnational entities,
it seems this is the case.
The big question is how this has happened. By some metrics, Wales is exceptionally distinctive, with a Celtic language still widely spoken and diverse distinctive cultural traditions. Against this, perhaps because of the very late formation of Wales as a coherent entity compared to Scotland, Welsh nationalism was late to take off. Even now, Plaid Cymru and outright separatism are far from having the mass support of their counterparts in Scotland.
Thoughts? Would you need an earlier POD, to make the Welsh language be a bigger cause?
Thinking some more:
The best bet with a 1900 POD is to keep the Liberal Party as a party of government - and have Lloyd George maintain his earlier interest in Welsh nationalist causes. Constitutional issues are an integral part of Liberal DNA, which means earlier devolution/federalism is more likely.
Unfortunately, if we want an Independent Wales, and definitely a Welsh-speaking one, we need a nineteenth century POD and not a 20th century one.
This book explains how and why:
The book's main argument is this: That whereas in the rest of Europe, the period from the 1840s to the First World War was one of national awakening - increased nationalism and language movements, this did not happen in Wales - at least not to any comparable degree. Instead of nationalism and language conservationism like in Finland, Poland, Estonia or Ireland, in 'Liberal Wales' the dominant political belief was liberalism, and with it utilitarianism and assimilatory liberalism.
This led directly to the collapse of the Welsh Language in industrial South Wales, as there was no thriving Welsh nationalist movement producing a will to assimilate the English incomers into Welsh culture. Instead the prevailing philosophy was that incomers should have no obligation to learn Welsh, and that English should be the common language and the language of education. When the Welsh nationalist Emrys ap Iwan objected to building English language chapels for incomers to then Welsh-speaking areas, he was shouted down and the Calvinistic Methodist church refused to ordain him.
Thus, in the 19th century, you had individuals who were Welsh-nationalist but no Welsh nationalist movement. Yes you had a thriving Welsh language press with newspapers, but the ideology expressed in these was mainly liberalism, not nationalism.
This changed somewhat in the 1890s when a group of Liberals, led by Tom Ellis and David Lloyd George, tried to set up a Welsh nationalist movement called
Cymru Fydd with some aiming to make it into a Welsh nationalist political party just like Parnell's Irish Parliamentary party in Ireland. However, the Liberal leadership in Westminster refused to back this move, and neither did the Liberals in an increasingly anglicised South Wales.
Cymru Fydd was killed stone dead, and although there was a Welsh Nationalist League set up in 1911, and a single Welsh MP introduced a Private Member's Bill for Welsh Home Rule, the latter failed.
It wasn't until the 1920s that Plaid Cymru was founded, although by this time it was too late - Welsh had become a minority language in Wales, and it was socialism, not Welsh nationalism that was replacing Liberalism in industrial South Wales. Even in the Welsh-Speaking heartlands in North and West Wales, Plaid Cymru would not win its first parliamentary seat until 1966, and it was from then that the subsequent national awakening happened, but for Plaid Cymru, it only really affected the Welsh-Speaking North and West, the South not so much. In 1997, the people of Wales voted for Devolution and a Welsh Assembly, but only by a narrow margin, having rejected it in 1979. Although Plaid has on and off won seats in the heavily populated South Wales in the Welsh Assembly, it remains to be seen if there are any breakthroughs.
Meanwhile, the decline of the Welsh Language has been extremely sad, and the lack of Welsh Nationalism in the 19th century undoubtedly was a key part in its demise in industrial South Wales, making Welsh-speakers a minority in their own country today:
Welsh Language in 1810:
1900:
1961:
2011:
So, as you can see, to have an Independent Welsh-Speaking Wales like Finland or Estonia, we need a 19th century POD whereby a Welsh nationalist movement emerges like in Finland or Poland. This would a) Save the Welsh Language and make it the language of education and assimilate the incomers, and b) push for Home Rule, like in Ireland.