United States of Scandinavia.

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This is my proposed Roleplay nation, the United States of Scandinavia. Is there anyone who can give me a background. the P.O.D is that in 1947, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway form an EU-like organization that federalizes into one country in 1970. Estonia could just be added in 1991 after they broke off from the soviet union.

give details as to how this union could form.
 
You should avoid WW2 firstly that you could get such union already on 1947. USSR wouldn't allow Finland to join Scandinavian Union supported by capitalist west and Sweden was neutral during Cold War. Or at least there is very different WW2.

Probably Germany and USSR would develope such threat to Nordic nations that they decide form alliance.
 
Sweden stands to gain the most from such a union. Without any Nordic countries joining the EU it would be likely that be would see more Nordic integration independant of EU.
 

Driftless

Donor
A couple of unlikely POD's.....
  • The French and British are able to offer more substantive help to the Finn's early in the Winter and Continuation Wars, neutering German influence, while retaining the USSR as the primary threat.
  • The Germans invade Sweden at some point in WW2
Then, the Swedes, Finns, Norwegians, and Danes have a more common strategic link with a very recent and impactful history. That requires a couple of very big shifts though....
 
First thought: Why would Iceland throw away its long desired independence which it had just acquired a mere three years earlier?

Second thought: How would the Nordic countries unite in this "EU-structure" when they couldn't even agree on a defensive alliance in 1948?

Third thought: How do you overcome the fact that Norway and Sweden are never going to agree on whether neutrality or alignment with the West is the best course of action.
 
First thought: Why would Iceland throw away its long desired independence which it had just acquired a mere three years earlier?

Second thought: How would the Nordic countries unite in this "EU-structure" when they couldn't even agree on a defensive alliance in 1948?

Third thought: How do you overcome the fact that Norway and Sweden are never going to agree on whether neutrality or alignment with the West is the best course of action.

We might need some WW2 POD. This might alter some things but it is only option.
 
Quite apart from the question of what Moscow is smoking to get them to tolerate this, how are the linguistic difficulties going to be sorted out once the federation becomes a single country?
 
Quite apart from the question of what Moscow is smoking to get them to tolerate this, how are the linguistic difficulties going to be sorted out once the federation becomes a single country?

For Swiss linguistic differences seemingly aren't very big problem so hardly to Nordic Union (Which I think being better name than Scandinavian Union when traditionally Scandinavia means Sweden Norway and perhaps Denmark).
 
Why would Norway agree to this? Swedish and Norwegian economic/trade interests are very different, not to mention the fact that the thought of a new union will sound very sour considering the previous one was dissolved not more than 40 years earlier in a referendum where 184 out of 371000 voters voted against dissolution, and that was for a union were internal affairs where very much separately handled by each country.

At best you might get some sort of defense cooperation alliance between denmark, norway and sweden but even that is a hard sell due to Norways vital strategic and vulnerable position.
 
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Devvy

Donor
Post-WW2 this was very close to reality anyway in OTL, although the "federalise by 1970" is very challenging. Look up Nordek on Wikipedia, especially the Danish version which has some good information on it. This kind of collaboration is what led to the Nordic Passport Union, Nordic Language Convention and Nordic Council. The founding of Nordek (which would be the Nordic equivalent to the EEC/EU) stumbled ultimately in the face of economic challenges and Russian paranoia on Finland (the Finnish-USSR treaty said neither side would enter alliances without the permission of the other if I remember right, which the USSR duly ignored in setting up the Warsaw Pact, but Finland obviously can't afford to do this and risk upsetting the USSR). Economically, in the days before North Sea oil, Norwegian industry and agriculture were small, and would stand to be crushed by Swedish industry and Danish agriculture, so they wanted a gently phasing in of the economic union, and financial assistance to modernise, which was not forthcoming. Iceland, only just rid of the Danish personal union in 1944 were less willing to join straight away, but would probably join at a later stage.
 
First thought: Why would Iceland throw away its long desired independence which it had just acquired a mere three years earlier?
A Nazi invasion?

Second thought: How would the Nordic countries unite in this "EU-structure" when they couldn't even agree on a defensive alliance in 1948?
A more immediate threat, perhaps the Trigonists take over most of Europe.

Third thought: How do you overcome the fact that Norway and Sweden are never going to agree on whether neutrality or alignment with the West is the best course of action.
Trigonists again.
 
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Its telling that you have to nearly completely rewrite 2 centuries of european history to get this one to work. Best bet is probably to go all the way back to 1814.
 
Its telling that you have to nearly completely rewrite 2 centuries of european history to get this one to work. Best bet is probably to go all the way back to 1814.

I would suggest even few years earlier. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte refuses from Swedish throne and then Danish king becomes heir to Swedish throne. Getting Finland to United Kingdom of Scandinavia is then bit tricky. Perhaps Scandinavia joins to Crimean War and are victorious. But more difficult is getting Finns accept unification to Scandinavia. And Estonia is probably even harder.
 
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