That sounds like a counterpart to how England ended up with a strong Norse contingent along the shores: if you want to protect your land from raiders, hire other raiders to come move in and be your buffer! Ingenious solution, if a bit on the risky side, if you ask me. But that also ended up being one of the big influences on why (or so I've read) that Old English -- and thus our Modern English -- is actually considerably more Norse/Teutonic than Romantic.
Still, the first time I read about the invitations from Wales to Norse settlers, I was like: isn't that kind of liking asking the fox to guard the henhouse? But apparently it worked, for the most part, and next thing you know, there's intermarrying and settling down and here we are.
I hadn't been aware that Hitler used ethnic Germans as the basis for any of his invasions, but I have seen that in other areas/histories, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. (Although the "agreement of other nations" does surprise me, tbh -- I mean, essentially granting another country permission to invade a third country on the grounds of having a substantial ethnic population there? Considering other situations -- like that the biggest ethnic minority in Vietnam are the Han Chinese -- it doesn't exactly set a comfortable precedent.)
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Date: 1 Jul 2011 02:50 am (UTC)Still, the first time I read about the invitations from Wales to Norse settlers, I was like: isn't that kind of liking asking the fox to guard the henhouse? But apparently it worked, for the most part, and next thing you know, there's intermarrying and settling down and here we are.
I hadn't been aware that Hitler used ethnic Germans as the basis for any of his invasions, but I have seen that in other areas/histories, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. (Although the "agreement of other nations" does surprise me, tbh -- I mean, essentially granting another country permission to invade a third country on the grounds of having a substantial ethnic population there? Considering other situations -- like that the biggest ethnic minority in Vietnam are the Han Chinese -- it doesn't exactly set a comfortable precedent.)