Pan-Gothism
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Pan-Gothism (Hendalarskisch: Algótanbewégung, East Gothic: Allgotismus) is a political ideology (or series of ideologies) primarily found in the Gothic countries of northwestern Levantia. Stressing that the division of the Gothic peoples into various states (Anglei, Carna, Eldmora-Regulus, Hendalarsk and Yonderre) is an artificial process, Pan-Gothists seek to unify these disparate polities into a "Greater Gothica" (Hendalarskisch: Grósgótanland). In its most extreme formulations, this ideology sometimes includes irredentist claims on territories held by Hollona and Diorisia, Urcea and Faneria.
History
As with many other romantic-nationalist ideologies, Pan-Gothism sprung up across many different Gothic countries in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Industrial Revolution birthed the political consciousness of first a regional bourgeoisie, many of whom had an interest in the easing of commerce across Gothica, and then various Gothic-national proletariats, which came in time to chafe against the restrictions imposed on them by elites new and old. The spread of literacy and new, more efficient methods of communication like the telegraph[1] intensified these processes still further. Whereas it might once have taken weeks for news from Collinebourg to reach Frehmenwerth, with the story ever-changing in the telling and retelling of various intermediaries, literate workers and businessmen in Maessen and Dunaird - of whom there were increasingly many everywhere - could learn about each others' actions, relatively directly, within a matter of hours. It was in these circumstances that many different groups, thinkers and parties across Gothica came to conceive of the region as an organic whole that was merely temporarily divided.
Influence
Hendalarsk
As of the twenty-first century, Pan-Gothism is a largely discredited ideology in Hendalarsk. "Traditional" Pan-Gothism is closely bound up in popular consciousness with the State of Hendalarsk and therefore reviled. The idea has even lost favour among the Hendalarskara far-right, itself a largely splintered and incoherent milieu. Many far-right groups (e.g. the "Rassenkrieg" hooligan collective) view the other Gothic nations as so hopelessly 'polluted' by Latin and Levantine Catholic influence as to be essentially lost, while a more esoteric minority inspired by the blogger "Tír Éwig" argues that it is actually the Hendalarskaren themselves who are polluted beyond hope of salvation. Contrary to the general emphasis of the far-right on reproduction, this minority instead favours a "voluntary self-extinction" of all Hendalarskaren, with the newly vacant land to be colonised by other, worthier Gothic nations.
Left-wing Pan-Gothism has also endured a stark decline in popularity in recent decades. Among the most common arguments against left pan-Gothism is that the position of minorities such as the Khunyer and Nünsyak would inevitably deteriorate in a new super-state which would necessarily be founded on Gothic cultural dominance, a situation which would only be exacerbated by the increased _demographic_ dominance of Goths relative to non-Goths in the new state. Still others argue that, as Hendalarsk is the only Gothic state which is both democratic and left-wing, any plausible Gothic union short of total regional anti-capitalist revolution would involve a dissolution of many of Hendalarsk's most positive ideological qualities.[2] The "Gótansche Einischkeid" campaign within the Hendalarskara Social Front continues to agitate for a pan-Gothic union on left-wing principles, but it is very much a minority within the wider party; in the twenty-first century, most left-wing groups in Hendalarsk tend to focus on celebrating the country's patchwork culture rather than insisting on its homogeneity and innate compatibility with its neighbours.
Notes
- ↑ Hendalarsk, due to its far-flung cities and major copper deposits, was a major driver and adopter of this new technology.
- ↑ This argument has found an unlikely ally in the form of the Pentapolis, whose bargaining position would plainly be dramatically weakened in any larger Gothic state, let alone a socialist one.)