completely off-the-wall question

[kaigou]

(No, this has nothing to do with any plans for world domination. JUST ASKIN', really.)

What happens if more than 50% of your country's tangible property -- land -- is purchased/owned/occupied by nationals of another country? I mean, is there any scenario in which you could visualize or rationalize or imagine buying out a country? Or maybe just causing significant political shifts (assuming it's a multi-party and/or non-authoritarian regime)? Or... what happens when refugees from another country completely overwhelm the existing population (numbers-wise)? Could you end up with such chaos that the country ends up in a state of quasi-claimant by the nationals of a second country?

Feel free to reference books, movies, other fiction that's addressed such ideas, or your own experience and/or theories, academic or just fantastical, or real-world political, economic, financial, etc.

[Consider it purely curiosity on my part, but probably a curiosity that's buttressed by my own culture's assumptions that a nation is made up of its people & its land, which is where the foregone conclusion resides that a massive paradigm shift of people & ownership would have to, therefore, affect the nation as a whole.]

Comments

[edenfalling]

Or... what happens when refugees from another country completely overwhelm the existing population (numbers-wise)? Could you end up with such chaos that the country ends up in a state of quasi-claimant by the nationals of a second country?

I think this is a fairly accurate general description of European colonization of the Americas, though at least some of the "refugees" would be better described as adventurers and profiteers. :-(

[kaigou]

Except that colonization is an indigenous landgrab, and there, the argument is that the land isn't "occupied" (as though those aren't actual people over there, looking pissed-off!) or that the land is occupied but by uncivilized people who "need" the "assistance" or whatever. Hell, the Australian land grab tried to legitimize itself by arguing that the continent was "empty" and therefore open for the taking. I mean, there's erasing, and then there's... that's just erasing on such a sheer chutzpah level that I can't even comprehend the level of erasure.

I was talking more about in cases where it's an established (recognized by other countries as legit/existing governed nation-state) legal entity, in what way a section of it could end up annexed. It appears that the process used in creating Israel is (for better or worse) unexpectedly pretty close to the scenario I had in mind, which in turn explains why so many [third-world] countries have extreme limitations on land-purchase by non-citizens. Not to mention the issue of land speculation by so-called investors from first-world countries with lots of cash to throw around.

What's cool about asking such vague open-ended questions is that I get better answers (and better questions that in turn prompt better answers) than if I were all specific and shit. And that in turn improves the story ideas. Wah.

[edenfalling]

Fair enough!

I find this discussion an interesting contrast to the history of German settlers in Europe. Various rulers had been in the habit of inviting Germans to come create towns and farms in their territory, since they felt that Germans were more orderly and productive subjects (and therefore a better tax base, I suppose). There were significant ethnic German minorities all through eastern Europe, western Russia, and the northern Balkans. (For example, there's a reason Bram Stoker thought German was a useful language for a visitor to Transylvania to speak.) This diaspora was probably useful from Austria-Hungary's point of view, and if that empire had survived, those German populations might be an example of the kind of ethnic and political shift you're talking about.

Except Austria-Hungary broke up, WWII happened, and those ethnic German enclaves pretty much vanished -- the people either died or migrated to Germany (often against their will), despite having resided in their "foreign" homes for generations. I suspect some of the bad feeling that triggered the expulsion of ethnic Germans may have been caused by a fear of the process you're postulating... especially since, IIRC, "protecting" an ethnic German population was Hitler's excuse for taking over parts of Czechoslovakia -- which, incidentally, he did with the agreement of other European nations.

[kaigou]

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.)