I'm not trying to start any wars here, but it does seem odd that the Germanic kingdoms never really thought it was an issue that a smaller, entirely separate country exists basically on the same landmass with no nature borders separating themAnd it managed to develop a culture and language independent from the other Germanic countries, how?
Cope and seethe. Denmark IS the natural border. They literally owned the entire Baltic at one point while the "germanic kingdoms" were busy being 300 different LARPers in the HRE. Their language split off when your ancestors were still trying to figure out how to be one tribe.
>>18172935You're assuming that Germans were just going around invading people for no reason. You must have confused Germany for France.
>>18172935It's a worthless land: low population (therefore low tax base), no valuable resources, shit climate, geographically distant from relevant regions. That's why no one bothered to conquer it.
When Prussia took the German parts during unification an international agreement had already been signed that allowed free navigation to and from the Baltic.
>>18172935They are Nordic. Germanic are spook. Never existed as a people. Germanic is a socio-military organisation style.
>>18172957They occupy a key location on the Baltic Sea
That's the thing though. Denmark wasn't an "entirely separate" country. Back then you didn't have passports and could just travel where you wanted. Sure, if you came with an invading army, you would be met with an opposing army, but Germanics regarded guests rights very highly, which allows for relatively safe travels, even before the existence of organized states. Germans and North Germanics worshipped the same Gods, they even used to have a mutually intelligible language until very recently. The Anglo-Saxons and the Norse for example could speak to each other without interpreters. Germanics were very close, until the Christian Clergy caused that to change and splinter.But yeah Denmark, when it took control of territory in the HRE respected the rights and privileges of the German population. German traders got rich in Denmark and German mercenaries were paid well. There really was no real division along the HRE's/Germany's western border, because everyone was Germanic anyway. The eastern frontier of Germany on the other hand is a different story. There was a very clear colonizing effort going on there.
>>18172935The Holy Roman Emperor was always preoccupied with more important things than conquering Denmark, like fighting with the Pope, Italians or his own princes, and the princes up in the north were not strong enough on their own to conquer the kingdom of Denmark.
>>18172957Hanseatic league. It was pretty wealthy.
>>18172935Why would they start shit with their germanic northern neighbors when they could bully balts and poles?
>>18172935Denmark was highly defensible from land anon. The Schleswig region was an uninhabited morass of inlets, marshes and sandy hill country, and Danish kings built a series of fortifications called the Dannevirke over the only possible invasion route.
>>18172935The Holy Roman Empire could never mobilize like it does in CKII besides for defense.
Yeah, I saw that thread on X (formerly Twitter) as well.
>>18172935>And it managed to develop a culture and language independent from the other Germanic countries, how?Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian are essentially variants of the same language, they can understand each other with little difficulty given a bit of exposure.
>>18172935It was a gradual development. When Denmark became christianized three dioceses of the ottonian-salian church system were established by Otto I. around 948. Those danish bishops were suffragan bishops towards the bishop of Hamburg and thus members of the HRE. At 965 Harald Bluetooth was the first king of Denmark who became baptised and the Kingdom of Denmark became integrated into the western christian world under the stewardship of the Holy Roman Empire. In the same year Otto I. freed the danish churches from all tithes towards the imperial estate and the danish crown became responsible for the upkeep of those churches - which still remained in suffragan towards Hamburg.In 974 Harald Bluetooth rebelled against the HRE but after initial success the famous Dannevirke were breached and the entirety of Jutland was soon occupied by imperial troops under Otto II. But as the imperial focus shifted southwards and the successors of Harald Bluetooth ceased to threaten the HRE the Kingdom of Denmark managed to emancipate itself evermore from the HRE.And as the ottonian-salian church system collapsed in the 12th century with the Investiture Controversy the danish church too gained more independence.>>18173010The Baltic Sea wasn't that important in the early middle ages.>>18174400The Hanseatic League had no branch in the Kingdom of Denmark. And being victorious in the Danish–Hanseatic War (1361–1370) the Hanse managed to get exemption from the passage tax of the Øresund anyways.
>>18173010Oh damn, the Baltic Sea? Let's check what other countries are in the region. Yep, Denmark's fucking worthless.
>>18175745>Germany, the third largest economy in the world>Russia, the world's largest country, with it second largest city (the fourth in Europe) on the Baltic
>>18174923They are radically different
>>18172935Worthless marsh with difficult fortifications. Why would the Germans bother
1. The HRE wasn't politically very capable of organized expansion. The emperor never had that kind of power. Local rulers or even organizations like the Hanse did, but they were generally too small to overpower denmark.2. What expansionist drive there was in the HRE was funnelled east, where there was better land and weaker defenders to be found.
>>18172957The Baltic Sound was basically the premodern Suez Canal. Every single country with any interest in the Baltic was paying the toll to Denmark.
>>18177030Nibba in the 10th century the HRE occupied all of Jutland after an uprising of Harald Bluetooth. And the Haseatic League won several wars against Denmark.>>18177040Naval trade was marginal in the early middle ages and when it picked up by the high middle ages the Hanse was able to get an excamption from the Øresund toll due to winning a war against Denmark.
>>18176901Every Scandinavian I know has reported that given a bit of exposure they can understand each other's languages with little difficulty.
