List of proposed state mergers
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This is a list of proposed state mergers, including both current and historical proposals originating from sovereign states or organizations. The entities listed below differ from separatist movements in that they would form as a merger or union of two or more existing states, territories, colonies or other regions, becoming either a federation, confederation or other type of unified sovereign state.
Historical[]
Early modern period[]
Proposed state | Components | Time period | Successful? | Notes |
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Uri Schwyz Unterwalden |
1307 | Yes (1307–1798) |
Three cantons formed the initial Confederation in the 1307 Rütlischwur, followed by the 1315 Pact of Brunnen; ten more cantons joined over the life of the Confederacy. |
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1569 | Yes (1569–1795) |
See Union of Lublin |
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1574–1658 | No | |
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1580–1640 | Yes | Portugal became part of the realms of the Spanish Habsburg (Casa de Austria) following the death of Henry I of Portugal but resumed its independence 60 years later. |
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1658–1659 | No | Treaty of Hadiach |
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1707 | Yes | Though having been ruled since 1603 in Personal Union when James VI succeeded both the English and Scottish crowns both countries remained separate sovereign nations states until 1706 when the Treaty of Union unified them into a single entity. |
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1777–1791 | Yes | |
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1786–1788 | Yes (1788–1861) |
United States Constitution is ratified by the Thirteen Original Colonies, replacing the Articles of Confederation and thereby forming a Federal government. |
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1789–1790 | No | During the Brabant Revolution, Hendrik Van Der Noot, Prime Minister of the young Belgian state proposed incorporating the confederation into the Dutch Republic. Later Willem I admited that his idea to unite the Low Countries under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was influenced by Van Der Noots proposal.[1][2] |
19th century[]
Proposed state | Components | Time period | Successful? | Notes |
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1800 | Yes (1801–1922) |
Created by the Acts of Union 1800. Most of Ireland left the union as the Irish Free State in 1922, while Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. |
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1815 | Yes | See United Kingdom of the Netherlands |
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1819–1830 | Yes (1819–1830) |
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1821 | Yes (1821–1823) |
Central America was annexed into the First Mexican Empire. After the dissolution of the Empire only Chiapas choose to remain part of Mexico, the rest became the Federal Republic of Central America.
Costa Rica in particular was split between inner factions in favor and against the annexation ending in a Civil War. The pro-Mexican provinces declared membership but was not recognized by the pro-independence provinces. |
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1823 | Yes (1823–1839) |
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1824 | Yes | The old "Partido de Nicoya" currently encompasses most of the 21st-century Guanacaste Province. See Annexation of Nicoya. |
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1829–1839 | Yes (1836–1839) |
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1830s | No | Republicans in Upper Canada pursued annexation by the United States.[3] See Rebellions of 1837–1838. |
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1845 | Yes | Texas annexation |
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1848–1870 | Yes | Although the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, the Italian Unification is generally considered to have been incomplete until after the integration of Venetia in 1866 and the capture of Rome in 1870. See Italian Unification and Expedition of the Thousand. |
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1852 | Yes | Second attempt at unification that lasted for less than a month. |
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1854–1857 | Yes | Republic of Maryland was officially named Maryland in Liberia during its independence referendum on 29 May 1854. |
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1860 | No | Belgian Prime Minister Charles Rogier proposed a Personal Union of the Kingdom Of The Netherlands and the Kingdom Of Belgium due to fear of French invasion.[4] |
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1861 | Yes (1861–1865) |
American Civil War |
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1861 | Yes | In 1861, general Pedro Santana asked queen Isabella II of Spain to retake control of the Dominican Republic, after a period of only 17 years of independence. Spain accepted his proposal and made the country a colony again.[5][6] |
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1862 | Yes | Becomes Kingdom of Romania in 1881. |
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1864 | Yes | Treaty of London (1864) |
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1866 | Yes (1867–1871) |
Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the annexation by Prussia of Austria's northern German ally states, Otto von Bismarck proposed to unify Prussia and its own German ally states into a single Federation. Consequently, the North German Constitution was adopted, with the provision that the southern German minor states could enter into the union when politically feasible. |
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1867 | Yes | Canadian Confederation |
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1867–2019 | No | The idea for the United States to buy Greenland was first proposed during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, when, in 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward unsuccessfully proposed buying Greenland and Iceland from the Danish Kingdom. A post-World War II bid was also declined by Denmark.[7] In 2018 and 2019, President Donald Trump spoke to aides about acquiring the island; Greenlandic and Danish officials firmly rebuffed the suggestion that the island could be sold.[8][9] |
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1869–1870 | No | Proposed by Ramón Emeterio Betances. |
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1871 | Partial (1871–1918) |
Unification of Germany (excluding Austria) after German victory over the French in the Franco-Prussian War. See also, the German Question regarding the competing ideas of "Greater Germany" and "Lesser Germany" (whether or not a united Germany should include the Austrian Empire). The matter was settled with the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, in which Prussia assumed leadership of the various minor German nation states. |
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1878–1879 | No | Proposed personal union, German prince Alexander of Battenberg is elected instead.[10] |
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1880–1898 | No | By the Propaganda Movement led by Filipinos educated in Europe which advocated the Philippine islands be converted from a colony to a province of Spain.[11] |
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1885–1886 | Yes | After Bulgaria defeated Serbia in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, Bulgaria nearly doubled in size when East Rumelia was incorporated within its borders. Bulgaria officially annexed it from the Ottoman Empire in 1885. |
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1886–1887 | No | Proposed personal union, rejected by Carol I of Romania due to Russian pressure.[10] |
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1890 | No | In the late 19th century, there was some discussion of some form of political union between Canada and Jamaica.[12] |
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1895–1898 | Yes (1896–1898) |
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1898 | Yes | United States annexation of the Territory of Hawaii |
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1860–1914 | No | Numerous prominent transatlantic thinkers proposed a union of the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as a consolidation of the United Kingdom and its remaining white settler colonies (Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand).[13][14] |
20th century[]
Proposed state | Components | Time period | Successful? | Notes |
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1901 | Yes | Federation of Australia |
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1904–1956 | No | A Franco-British Union is a concept for a union between the two independent sovereign states of the United Kingdom and France.
Such a union was proposed during certain crises of the 20th century; it has some historical precedents. In April 1904 the United Kingdom and the Third French Republic signed a series of agreements, known as the Entente Cordiale, which marked the end of centuries of intermittent conflict between the two powers, and the start of a period of peaceful co-existence. Nationalist political leaders from both sides were uncomfortable with the idea of such a merging. |
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1909 | Yes | Union of South Africa |
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1910–1916 | No | |
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1911 | No | In 1911, at the request of the Bahamian House of Assembly, the Canadian and the Bahamian governments began serious negotiations for Bahamian accession to the Canadian confederation.[15] However, a racial panic ignited by the migration of over one thousand African-Americans fleeing violence in Oklahoma derailed the discussions. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier turned against the idea, citing incompatible "ethnical origin". After Laurier lost the September 1911 federal election, Bahamian Governor William Grey-Wilson travelled to Canada to reopen accession talks with newly elected PM Robert Borden.[16] In a meeting between Grey and Borden on 18 October 1911, Borden rejected the possibility of taking the Bahamas into the Canadian confederation. His reasoning was that the events of the past year had proved that Canadian public opinion would not countenance the admission of a majority-black province. The British Colonial Office concurred: "No doubt for the moment the Dominion government would safeguard their interests, but there are signs of the rise of a colour question in Canada and in any case it cannot be long before U.S. opinion gives the tone to Canada in regard the Negro."[17] |
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1918 | Yes (1918–1992) |
Creation of Yugoslavia |
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1918 | Yes (1918) |
See Union of Bessarabia with Romania, Treaty of Bucharest |
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1918–1920 | Partial (1920–1947) |
Unification of Greater Romania, in 1918 Bessarabia and Bukovina fully included, while in 1920 Banat, Crișana and Maramureș partially, while Transylvania fully included |
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November or December 1918 | No | Also called "Intermarium". Suggested shortly after World War I to combat the influences of Germany and Russia. |
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1918 | Yes (1918) |
A short-lived South Caucasian state that extended across what are now the modern-day countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, plus parts of Eastern Turkey as well as Russian border areas. The state only lasted for a month before Georgia declared independence, followed shortly by Azerbaijan and Armenia. |
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1918–1919 | No | Following the disintegration of Austria-Hungary in the final days of World War I, the German-speaking territories of the former Austria-Hungary attempted to begin a process of integration into Weimar Germany. The Allies did not favor the idea, and forced the Austrian rump state to sign the Treaty of Saint Germain, which prohibited Austria from uniting with Germany. |
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1917–1920 | No | Federation or personal union between the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom/Republic of Hungary under one monarch. Proposals were mostly enhanced in 1919 and 1920, but they continued to exist up to the Second World War.[18][19][20][21] |
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1919 | Yes (1919) |
Act Zluky |
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1922 | No | The concept of a shared homeland or community encompassing all of Spanish America, and sometimes all of Latin America and the Caribbean. The term is associated with political ideas of Ibero-American integration, rejecting the balkanization of the Spanish Empire in the Americas that followed the Spanish American wars of independence. The term may be also used to talk specifically about projects of Hispanic American unity held by Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. |
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1922 | Yes (1922–1991) |
Treaty on the Creation of the USSR |
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1922 | No | A referendum on the status of Southern Rhodesia was held in the colony on 27 October 1922. Voters, almost all of them White, were given the options of establishing responsible government or joining the Union of South Africa.[22] After 59% voted in favour of responsible government, it was officially granted on 1 October 1923. |
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1928–1960 | No | The term Baltoscandia was first used by Sten de Geer in an article in "Geografiska Annaler" in 1928 and further developed by Kazys Pakštas.[23] He envisioned Baltoscandia as an economic, political and military unit.[24] Kazys Pakštas proposed that one of the ways for the small nations to withstand the influence coming from the large ones is to unite and to cooperate more closely among each other. As he mentions, unification is possible only among nations that are similar by their size, geographical environment, religion and culture. |
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1928 | No | A political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together by uniting the territories of Dutch East Indies (and Portuguese Timor) with the British Malaya and British Borneo. It was espoused by students and graduates of Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers in the late 1920s, and individuals from Sumatra and Java including Muhammad Yamin and Sukarno in the 1950s. Indonesia Raya was later adapted as the name of the Indonesian national anthem in 1924. |
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1938 | Yes (1938–1945) |
Anschluss |
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1939 | Yes | On 2 September 1938 the Sanjak of Alexandretta declared itself separate from the French Mandate of Syria, becoming the Hatay State. On 29 June 1939, the legislature voted to merge with Turkey. |
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1939–1948 | No | Proposed by Władysław Sikorski. |
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1942–1944 | No | The Greek-Yugoslav confederation, was a political concept during World War II, sponsored by the United Kingdom and involving the Yugoslav government-in-exile and the Greek government-in-exile. The two governments signed an agreement pushing the proposal ahead, but it never got beyond the planning stage because of opposition from within the Yugoslav and the Greek governments, real world events, and the opposition of the Soviet Union. The proposal envisioned the creation of a confederation of Greece and Yugoslavia. |
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1946–1948 | No | Josip Broz Tito came extremely close to persuading Albania to accept integration into Yugoslavia, but relations cooled in 1948 over fears that Yugoslavia only intended to use Albania for raw materials, subsequently resulting in the expulsion of Yugoslav diplomats. Yugoslav/Bulgarian negotiations fell through when Moscow attempted to force both countries into accepting Soviet control over the merge, which caused Yugoslavia to withdraw from negotiations and precipitated the Tito–Stalin split. |
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1947–1948 | Yes | Political integration of India, Annexation of Junagadh |
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1946–1949 | Yes (1949–1950) |
Following discussions between Dutch authorities and Indonesian nationalist leaders, the Linggadjati Agreement was signed on 15 November 1946, in which the unilaterally declared Republic of Indonesia agreed to the principle of a federal Indonesia including the territory controlled by the Republic and other territory in the region which the Dutch controlled at that point. The Dutch then organised the December 1946 Denpasar Conference, which led to the establishment of the State of East Indonesia, followed by a state in West Borneo. Further states were set up in former territory of the Republic after they were conquered by the Dutch in 1947. Further Dutch military action faced increasing resistance from governments of the states they had established, and this combined with international pressure caused the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference to take place in The Hague from August to November 1949. This Conference resulted in the Dutch agreeing to hand over sovereignty to a federal union of these states, which officially became the Republic of the United States of Indonesia. This federation lasted only a year, as its member states agreed to dissolve themselves into a unitary state, the last stage of which took place on 17 August 1950. |
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1947–1950 | Yes | Instrument of Accession |
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1947–1950 | Yes | Instrument of Accession |
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1948 | Yes | Annexation of Hyderabad |
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1948–1949 | Yes | In two rounds of referendums in 1948, the Dominion of Newfoundland had the choice of becoming an independent state, merging with the Dominion of Canada, or remaining as a British dominion. The Newfoundland Act of 1949, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, confirmed and gave effect to the Terms of Union agreed to between the then-separate Dominions of Canada and Newfoundland on 23 March 1949. |
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1949 | No | In 1949 Henry Vassey, then Chairman of the Bermuda Trade Development Board, urged the House of Assembly of Bermuda to pursue a political union with Canada. Four Methodist church congregations in Bermuda are part of the United Church of Canada, forming Bermuda Presbytery of the United Church's Maritime Conference headquartered in Sackville, New Brunswick. The same Salvation Army Church territory serves both Canada and Bermuda with many of their pastors travelling between countries.[25]
In January 2009, Nova Scotia's Premier, Rodney MacDonald, and the Premier of Bermuda, Ewart Brown, signed a five-year agreement that would strengthen Nova Scotia's ties with Bermuda and enhance service export opportunities, tourism, transportation and health links in both jurisdictions. Bermuda's ties to Canada include the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda being overseen by Canada's Chartered Professional Accounting profession. |
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1950–1969 | Yes | Following Dutch recognition of Indonesian Independence, Indonesia continued to claim the remaining Dutch territory in the region, Netherlands New Guinea, as its rightful territory. The dispute escalated into low-level conflict in 1962 following Dutch moves in 1961 to establish a New Guinea Council. Facing diplomatic pressure from the United States, fading domestic support and continual Indonesian threats to invade the territory, the Netherlands decided to relinquish control of the disputed territory in August 1962. Following a short period of UN administration, the territory was transferred to Indonesia on 1 May 1963. |
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1953 | Yes (1953–1963) |
A semi-independent state. |
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1955–1957 | Yes | 1955 Saar Statute referendum, Saarland became a New State of Germany and exited France's economic union |
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1956 | No | See 1956 Maltese United Kingdom integration referendum. |
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1956–1957 | Yes | In the 1956 British Togoland status plebiscite, 58% of voters supported a union with Ghana, whereas 42% voted in favor of remaining a United Nations Trust Territory under British control until neighbouring French Togoland had decided its future.[26] |
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1956–1960 | No | Sarawak and North Borneo merged with the independent Federation of Malaya several years later, forming Malaysia, while Brunei later became an independent state on its own. |
United States of Latin Africa | ![]()
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1957–1959 | No | Proposed union of Romance-language-speaking Central African countries envisioned by Barthélémy Boganda. Boganda first called for it in May 1957.[27] The idea's implementation was cut short by Boganda's death in a plane crash on March 29, 1959.[28] Boganda viewed this entity to be a counterweight to the powerful British-influenced southern bloc of South Africa and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.[27] |
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1958–1963 | No | The Equatoguinean independence leader Enrique Nvo and the first formal Equatoguinean political party, IPGE, advocated for independence from Spain and a political union between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.[29] The idea of a union was deemed unfeasible after the 1963 Equatorial Guinean autonomy referendum.[29] |
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1958 | Yes (1958–1962) |
The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state. However, before that could happen, the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts. |
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1958 | Yes (1958–1961) |
A short-lived Pan-Arab state. |
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1958 | Yes (1958–1961) |
Loose confederation between the United Arab Republic and North Yemen. |
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1958 | Yes (14 February – 2 August 1958) |
An attempt to unify the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan. While successful, the short-lived union was disestablished after a military coup deposed King Faisal II of Iraq. |
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1960 | Yes (1960–1991) |
On 26 June 1960, the former British Somaliland protectorate briefly obtained independence as the State of Somaliland, with the Trust Territory of Somaliland following suit five days later.[30][31] The following day, on 27 June 1960, the newly convened Somaliland Legislative Assembly approved a bill that would formally allow for the union of the State of Somaliland with the Trust Territory of Somaliland on 1 July 1960.[32] Following the collapse of Barre's government in early 1991, local authorities, led by the SNM, unilaterally declared independence from Somalia on 18 May of the same year and reinstated the borders of the former short-lived independent State of Somaliland. |
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1960–1964 | No | Proposed political union between the four territories (one colony, two protectorates and one League of Nations mandated territory) under British rule in East Africa in the 1960s. Tanganyika proposed to delay its imminent independence in 1960 so that the four territories might achieve independence together as one federation. In 1963 the leaders of all of the territories (some now independent) pledged to work towards a federation by 1964, but ultimately disputes over the nature of the federation and concerns about sharing power led to the collapse of effort to federate. Only Tanganyika and Zanzibar eventually united in 1964. |
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1961 | Partial (Southern Cameroons) | In the 1961 British Cameroons referendum, the Christian majority in the south of British Cameroon voted to integrate with Cameroon, whereas the Muslim-majority Northern areas voted to integrate with Nigeria. |
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1961 | Yes | Annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Annexation of Goa |
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1962 | Yes | Causes of the merger of the territories of French India with India |
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1962 | Yes | The Federation of the Emirates of the South (Arabic: اتحاد إمارات الجنوب العربي Ittiḥād ʾImārāt al-Janūb al-ʿArabiyy) was an organization of states within the British Aden Protectorate in what would become South Yemen. The Federation of six states was inaugurated in the British Colony of Aden on 11 February 1959, and the Federation and Britain signed a “Treaty of Friendship and Protection,” which detailed plans for British financial and military assistance. It subsequently added nine states and, on 4 April 1962, became known as the Federation of South Arabia. This was joined by the Aden Colony on 18 January 1963. |
Maphilindo | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
1963 | No | Proposals to create a union of the people of the Malay race and deal with the continued decolonisation of Southeast Asia led to leaders of the three countries signing the Manila Accord on 5 August 1963. However, cooperation quickly broke down following the formation of Malaysia by Malaya and other former British colonies in the region, which was opposed by Indonesia and the Philippines.[33] |
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1963 | Yes | Singapore was expelled from the federation on 9 August 1965. |
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1964 | Yes | |
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1964–1965 | No | In 1963, the Australian Government proposed that the citizens of Nauru, a United Nations trust territory under Australian administration, would move to Curtis Island and become Australian citizens.[34][35] By that time, Nauru had been extensively mined for phosphate by companies from Australia, Britain and New Zealand damaging the landscape so much that it was thought the island would be uninhabitable by the 1990s. The cost of resettling the Nauruans on Curtis Island was estimated to be £10 million, which included housing and infrastructure and the establishment of pastoral, agricultural, and fishing industries.[36] However, the Nauruan people did not wish to become Australian citizens and wanted to be given sovereignty over Curtis Island to establish themselves as an independent nation, which Australia would not agree to.[37] Nauru rejected the proposal to move to Curtis Island, instead choosing to become an independent nation operating their mines in Nauru.[38] Nauru became self-governing in January 1966, and following a two-year constitutional convention, it became independent in 1968 under founding president Hammer DeRoburt.[39] |
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1969 | No | 1958 Saipan integration referendum 1961 Northern Mariana Islands status referendum 1963 Northern Mariana Islands integration referendum 1969 Guamanian Northern Mariana Islands union referendum 1969 Northern Mariana Islands status referendum |
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1971 | Yes | Six independent emirates formed the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971. Ras Al Khaimah later joined the federation. |
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1972–1977 | Yes (1972–1977) |
An attempt by Muammar Gaddafi to build a Pan-Arab state. |
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1974 | No | Proposed by Muammar Gaddafi. |
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1975 | No | Despite the People's Republic of Kampuchea cooperation with the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge leadership feared that the Vietnamese communists were planning to form an Indochinese federation, which would be dominated by Vietnam. In order to pre-empt any attempt by the Vietnamese to dominate them, the Khmer Rouge leadership began, as the Lon Nol government capitulated in 1975, to purge Vietnamese-trained personnel within their own ranks. Then, in May 1975, the newly formed Democratic Kampuchea began attacking Vietnam, beginning with an attack on the Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc.[41][42][43] |
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1975 | Yes | After independence in 1947, joining the new Indian Union was rejected by popular vote. Sikkim grew closer to India over time, becoming a protectorate and later a suzerainty[citation needed] of India. With Indian pressure and support, Sikkim voted to join India in 1975.[44][45] |
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1975 | No | The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) advocated for the independence of the colonies of Portuguese Guinea and Portuguese Cape Verde, and governed both countries immediately after independence (1974 for Guinea-Bissau, and 1975 for Cape Verde) with the goal of unifying the two. However, following a 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau, the Cape Verde branch of the party separated to form the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), ending plans for a union.[46] |
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1975–1976 | Yes (1976–1999) |
Indonesian invasion of East Timor |
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1976 | Yes | Unified due to military conquest. See Reunification Day and the Fall of Saigon. |
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1982–1989 | Yes (1982–1989) |
A loose confederation was formed, but ended due to the Gambia's lack of interest in integration. |
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1990 | Yes | Yemeni unification |
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1990 | Yes | German reunification |
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1990–1991 | No | An attempt by Mikhail Gorbachev to avert the collapse of the Soviet Union and reorganize the union into a new confederated entity (see 1991 Soviet Union referendum). |
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1991 | No | Zulfikarpašić–Karadžić agreement |
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1994 | Yes | During apartheid, the South African Government granted nominal independence to four autonomous bantustans within it. While no external country recognized these states, South Africa strongly promoted their independence, and the four mutually recognized each other. As South Africa moved to end apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC) party advocated reintegration of all bantustans, including the nominally independent ones, into a unitary South African state. Resistance to integration by leaders of some bantustans led to violence, such as in the Bisho massacre and the Bophuthatswana crisis. Nonetheless, inhabitants of all four independent bantustans participated in the 1994 South African general election, during which a new constitution came into effect which reintegrated all bantustans into South Africa. |
21st century[]
Proposed state | Components | Time period | Successful? | Notes |
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2004 | No | A referendum was held in Cyprus on 24 April 2004.[47] The two communities were asked whether they approved of the fifth revision of the United Nations proposal for reuniting the island, which had been divided since 1974. While it was approved by 65% of Turkish Cypriots, it was rejected by 76% of Greek Cypriots. |
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2010 | No | The Lucayan Archipelago (named for the original native Lucayan people), also known as the Bahama Archipelago, is an island group comprising the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The archipelago is in the western North Atlantic Ocean, north of Cuba along with the other Antilles, and east and southeast of Florida. In 2010 the leaders of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands discussed the possibility of forming a federation.[48] |
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2011 | No | President Ollanta Humala of Peru proposed Bolivian president Evo Morales to reunite the countries in a confederation.[49][50] The Cabinets of the two countries have held joint meetings.[51] |
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2014 | Yes | Crimea seceded from Ukraine and later conducted a referendum to join the Russian Federation and was later annexed by Russia. The referendum was extremely controversial and most countries continue to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine. |
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2014 | No | Novorossiya (Full name: Federal State of Novorossiya) was a proposed confederation between the two self-declared nations of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. The Confederation was declared on 22 May 2014. On 20 May 2015 the constituent members announced the freezing of the Novorossiya project. |
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1867–2019 | No | The idea for the United States to buy Greenland was first proposed during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, when, in 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward unsuccessfully proposed buying Greenland and Iceland from the Danish Kingdom. A post-World War II bid was also declined by Denmark.[7] In 2018 and 2019, President Donald Trump spoke to aides about acquiring the island; Greenlandic and Danish officials firmly rebuffed the suggestion that the island could be sold.[8][9] |
Current proposals[]
Proposed state | Component states | First proposed | Notes |
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2008 | Since Kosovo's Independence from Serbia, talks have been made for Albania and Kosovo to unite into a Greater Albania due to Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian population.[52][53][54] |
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1917 | The proposed Canadian annexation of the Turks and Caicos Islands has been an ongoing political discussion between the two nations since Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden first supported the idea in 1917.[55] |
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2018 | Although several historical efforts to reunite the countries that belonged to the United Provinces of Central America and later Federal Republic of Central America into one single state, the first major political figure to suggest it and the first time including Panama was that of then nominee later President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele.[56][57][58] |
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1949 | Unification of the territories of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China is the nominal goal of both governments, which both operate under the One-China policy.[59][60][61] However, within the free area of the Republic of China, there is a sizeable movement to formally declare a Taiwanese state, led by the Democratic Progressive Party,[62] which is currently in government. |
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2004 | Proposed political union between the six member states of the East African Community.[63] Federation was proposed in 2004, but in 2016 it was decided that confederation would be the short-term goal. South Sudan is not as integrated as the other five members, having only gained independence from Sudan in 2011.[64] |
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1953 | Since the Partition of India, there have been multiple calls to reunite the territories by the remerger of successor states.[65] |
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1953 | Korean reunification has been a goal for both Koreas since the 1953 armistice agreement. However, proposed strategies vary between the two Koreas, with both proposing unification under one sociopolitical system while abandoning the other, similar to German reunification.[66] |
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1991 | Due to the revolutions of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia Governorate declared secession in 1917 as the Moldavian Democratic Republic and united unconditionally with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918, before the Soviet occupation in 1940. After Moldova gained independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, unification with Romania has been proposed which is supported by the Moldovan minorities according to polls and the Romanian Government. In 2018, Moldovan PM Pavel Filip ruled out reunification with Romania, despite growing calls from Moldovans for unification.[67] See also: Greater Romania. |
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1999 | Belarus and Russia signed an agreement to form the Union State in 1999, aiming to continue deeper integration, possibly until unification.[68][69] |
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2021 | General Secretary Baghdad Amreyev announced that the Turkic Council aims for a united state overseeing the Turkic world.[70] |
See also[]
- Arab Union
- Independence referendum
- Irredentism
- List of irredentist claims or disputes
- Lists of active separatist movements
- North American Union
- Pan-nationalism
- Pan-Latinism
- Political union
- Supranational union
- United States of Africa
- United States of Europe
- Dynastic union
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- Lists of countries
- National unifications
- Proposed countries
- Lists of proposals