I am intrigued by the idea of Poland and Scania being united in a dynastic union or integrated in a single state since Poland and Scania do face each other in the baltic sea, is it possible with 1000 AD as a POD.
You mean Scania as in the tip of the Swedish part of the Scandinavian peninsula? The one that has for the longest time been contested by both, Denmark and Sweden? Or do you mean Scandinavia as a whole during the Kalmar Union?
Why would they remain loyal though? Scania wasn't a foreign culture being dominated by Denmark, it was the very heartland of Danish culture. I just don't see what would make the two sides of the Sound cleave to different sides in an independence war. Religion might be a way, but then you have to explain why Scania is now a different religion. The two are right next to each other, and the largely coastal nature of Denmark makes communication and trade really easy. Not really an ideal environment for creating a split.Hm, a Union of Denmark and Poland that lasts for awhile, but not permanently leading to say the Danish declaring Independence but with Scania remaining loyal to the government/Monarch, leaving Poland, Scania and probably Bornholm as the remaining territory controlled, which would end-up being renamed Poland-Scania.
Why would they remain loyal though? Scania wasn't a foreign culture being dominated by Denmark, it was the very heartland of Danish culture. I just don't see what would make the two sides of the Sound cleave to different sides in an independence war. Religion might be a way, but then you have to explain why Scania is now a different religion. The two are right next to each other, and the largely coastal nature of Denmark makes communication and trade really easy. Not really an ideal environment for creating a split.
The Austrians not being included in Germany wasn't their choice, that was the Junkers not wanting more Catholics in Germany. The post-WWII history has of course made the separation between the two more pronounced, as the Austrians disavowed themselves of their German identity to distance themselves from the Nazis.Cuture and language does not mean a place is going to want to be United, I mean look at Austria and Germany or the United States and Canada, the share the same language (hell America and Canada even both have Francophone minorities) and share the same cultural paradigms as each other, yet Austria and Canada have no (and never had) intereste what-so-ever in uniting with Germany and the United States respectively.
But why would Scania remain conservative? By what mechanism would this schism occur? And this schism would have to be stronger than the gulf between Danish and Polish culture.Likewise, ideology can come into play, so let's say, to use this example within the scenario itself; an egalitarian populistic republican movement develops in Denmark (such things did happen in Europe in the Middle Ages IOTL), leading to the majority of the population either wanting serious reforms or more radical changes while in Poland and Scania the population remained Conservative and pro-Monarchist, eventually leading to Denmark declaring independence to form its own state based on the aforementioned ideals.
How about this?
Poland and Denmark enter dynastic union. Maybe this is by Denmark conquering Poland, maybe by the vagaries of inheritance, maybe a little of both.
Sweden and Germany* invade Denmark, splitting the kingdom between them at the Sound.
The king of Poland comes back in a later war and retakes the "stolen" land of Scania from Sweden, but is never able to beat the Germans well enough to regain Jutland etc.
*I suppose England or Norway could work instead.