Lichtenstein and Luxembourg Questions?

For Liechtenstein, Austria's in the way and Austria didn't really care about annexing it.

For Luxembourg, Germany wanted it, but France refused to allow it and it was left as a neutral state after the Franco-Prussian war because they hadn't been involved. German defeats in the World Wars prevented later annexations from sticking.
 
The British had Luxembourg under their kinds sorta protection so they stopped the French attempt to purchase it from the Dutch King, when the Prussians had complained, after earlier having given false reassurances to the French that they would support them gaining territory west of the Rhine. Liechtenstein had first Austrian protection then Swiss protection.
 
In the case of Luxembourg as well their's the issue that it's Germanic, not German, that is they're a Germanic people, just as the Dutch and Swedish are, but they're not Germans and don't speak German.
 
In the case of Luxembourg as well their's the issue that it's Germanic, not German, that is they're a Germanic people, just as the Dutch and Swedish are, but they're not Germans and don't speak German.

prior to WW1 they were considered to be germans, only after ww1 did that really start to change. Austrians considered themselves German also, and that has been changing and is still changing. The definition of what is and what is not German changes constantly.
 
prior to WW1 they were considered to be germans, only after ww1 did that really start to change. Austrians considered themselves German also, and that has been changing and is still changing. The definition of what is and what is not German changes constantly.

Ethnically yes, however anyone who'd thought they actually spoke German would've needed their head examined, even back then.
 
Ethnically yes, however anyone who'd thought they actually spoke German would've needed their head examined, even back then.

Are you serious??? There is very little difference between what is spoken in Luxemburg and what is spoken in Trier. It gives just as much sense as saying that people of Yorkshire don't speak english.

In the time we are talking about here, the only ones who spoke German (as we know it) were people in and around Hannover and Göttingen.

Previously Luxemburg was just another duchy left over from the broken HRE. Letzebürgisch is a classical (successful) attempt of splitting a dialect from a normal language continuum, declare it a language and build a country around it.
 
Ethnically yes, however anyone who'd thought they actually spoke German would've needed their head examined, even back then.

the dialect spoken at the time was mutually intelligible with the dialects surrounding it. Also please remember that German at the time was more of a collection of dialects since the division of the High, Low and Middle German dialects was still very much in place. Only recently did the dialects lose prominence and still those differences exist.

Gronings, the dialect of the Dutch province of Groningen is a dialect that is mutually ineligible with both Dutch AND the German dialect spoken right across the border. The idea that a language stops at a border is something that is very recent. The language spoken in the core regions of a country differ from those spoken on the borders, since the languages on the border are more like the language of the neighbouring country. In Dutch we call that an "overgangs dialect", in French it's called a "dialecte de transition" and in german it'd be "Übergangszeit Dialekt"

Flemish as an example is more like French than Hollandish dialects of Dutch are, yet they are still mutually intelligible eventhough they are different. Luxembourgish (sp?) has allot of French, German, Limburgish and Dutch influences but only after WW1 did it really start to become a language of its own instead of a regional dialect.

Are you serious??? There is very little difference between what is spoken in Luxemburg and what is spoken in Trier. It gives just as much sense as saying that people of Yorkshire don't speak english.

In the time we are talking about here, the only ones who spoke German (as we know it) were people in and around Hannover and Göttingen.

Previously Luxemburg was just another duchy left over from the broken HRE. Letzebürgisch is a classical (successful) attempt of splitting a dialect from a normal language continuum, declare it a language and build a country around it.

Just like Dutch, Afrikaans, Swiss German and various other languages
 
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Ethnically yes, however anyone who'd thought they actually spoke German would've needed their head examined, even back then.

You look at this from a far too modern perspective. Yes, spoken Letzebuergesch is very different from spoken High German and understanding the latter will not help you much with the former. But that was not special at all. The same was true for the Nordniedersächsisch of Oldenburg, the Alemannisch of southern Baden, the Bairisch of parts of Bavaria, to name just a few.
In times before radio and tv, big differences between the locally spoken dialect and the written language of the educated were normal.

Also, Moselfränkisch (the dialect group Letzebuergesch is part of) is generally known to be difficult to unterstand for other Germans. This goes for the whole area from Trier to Koblenz and Siegen.
 
Ethnically yes, however anyone who'd thought they actually spoke German would've needed their head examined, even back then.

It's really a continuation of the German dialect continuum. It's just as far from standard German as a lot of the 'German' spoken within Germany, as I understand it. As an independent nation, however, Luxembourg has had more opportunity to define and promote the local speech as a full-fledged language. "A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot," after all.

At one point, France wanted very much to take over Luxembourg, but that raised serious balance-of-power concerns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Crisis . The treaty that resulted guaranteed Luxembourg's neutrality, which (I believe) is why it did not get annexed to the German Empire along with the rest of the Zollverein customs union.

I think Liechtenstein got away only through the accident of its location. Same with Andorra and Monaco.
 
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