The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." This is absolutely true, but this doesn't happen with countries. Some have oil or diamonds in their depths, some don't have access to the sea, and some have aggressive neighbors for a long time...
But what countries and people have in common is that just as any person can become a self-made one, rising from the very bottom to the top, or completely lose everything they had, a country can also make a real 180° turn - for both better and worse. And this viral thread in the AskReddit community is dedicated to such examples.
More info: Reddit
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More than thirty years ago, the famous American futurist Francis Fukuyama released his catchphrase book The End of History and the Last Man. It was 1992, the Soviet Union had just collapsed, China was confidently moving towards capitalism - and Fukuyama suggested that the spread of liberal democracy in the world was the pinnacle of the sociocultural evolution of humanity.
In other words, the 'end of history' in its traditional sense - with wars, spheres of influence, palace coups and ideological confrontations. It would be appropriate to insert some sarcastic meme here, but Fukuyama, to his credit, later emphasized once again that he was wrong. And recently he even said that he was too hasty in drawing conclusions.
Yes, the history of any country and state is a continuous chain of changes, for better or for worse. There are examples when, literally out of the blue, world hegemons rose up in a couple of decades, and prosperous, comfortable countries turned into something like Robert Rodriguez' 'Sin City'...
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“In many ways, the development of countries is determined by economic factors - and their skillful use,” says Olga Kopylova, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Odessa National Maritime University, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment here. “When demand appears, rapid development begins, and here it depends only on those in power how wisely the use of the wealth that has fallen on them will be.”
“For example, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the city of Manaus, deep in the Amazon forests, was one of the richest in the world - all because of the so-called 'rubber fever' mostly associated with the sharp increase in the number of cars in the world. However, the higher-ups there turned out to be not very far-sighted - and instead of investing in the infrastructure and the city's well-being, they chose to build luxurious villas, palaces and a even lavish opera house."
“It all ended as quickly as it began - new, more logistically convenient places for rubber production were found, and a significant part of the business in Manaus went bankrupt, and the era of prosperity lasted only a couple of decades,” Olga summarizes.
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It is quite possible that the leaders of the countries of the Middle East, fabulously rich thanks to their oil and gas deposits, know the lessons of history and understand that this situation will not continue forever. And now they are trying to change the structure of their income by investing money around the world. Well, not all efforts end successfully - for example, the widely publicized Saudi Pro League in soccer, although it attracts superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, does not look like a full-fledged business and sport project. But the approach as a whole is quite understandable and pretty much reasonable.
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As for longer historical periods, yes, the Vikings, who once brought fear to all of Europe, after a thousand years have turned into sedate and respectable Norwegians (by the way, the so-called “Oil Fund” of Norway is another one, much more justified from a business point of view, approach to investing money earned from oil trading), and the Swiss mercenaries, once the desired goal of any medieval commander, are a thing of the past, giving way to one of the most peaceful and well-off states of the modern world...
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Perhaps, in any country one can find examples of similar, effective or not-so-effective “state rebranding”, which has changed not only its perception in the world, but also, to a significant extent, the mentality of its citizens. And if you also have your own ideas about similar cases from world history - please feel free to share your opinion in the comments below.
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Lithuania. They went from the misery of USSR to the best growing country in Europe. Nominal GDP grew 276% from 1990 and they are erasing all the Soviet architecture (or restoring it) in favor of modern infrastructures. Stunning Botswana. They went from the poorest and most uneducated country in Africa, to one of the richest and most modern. This was all largely due to the visionary first president that they had, Sir. Seretse Khama. They’ve had no civil wars, coups, nothing.Japan. from isolationist nation, to naval superpower, to entertainment and electronic hub all in 150 yearsI might be wrong in this, but Iran? I saw some photos from Iran before the Islamic revolution, and it was shocking how modern and secular things seemed. Like from . Women were wearing short skirts?? AND studying?Maybe not the craziest ever but Switzerland going from "who wants to hire mercenaries?" to "we don't participate in any war" is quite amusing.Ireland went from a very poor country to one of the richest (on paper) countries in the worldEl Salvador went from having one of the highest murder rates in the world to the lowest in the western hemisphere in two years. Their president basically declared war on gangs and pushed himself through as a dictator in order to get it done.Biased, but Estonia. Former USSR. Lead the way of anything IT related for decades. We’ve had pretty much our whole life digital for decades. Nowadays some other countries are catching up, but E-stonia is cool.Singapore. Wasn't too long ago that they were so poorly thought of that Malaysia dumped them. These guys did the revenge bod thing to their economy and voila! World's most powerful passport.I swear, maybe 2 decades ago Finland was the most depressed country on the planet. There was even a news show about it. The people were unhappy and not accustomed to making eye contact and had a high rate of depression.
Today, somehow, they are the happiest most well-adjusted people on Earth.Iceland. People 20-30 years older than me who worked in nursing homes would sometimes welcome people who’d literally lived their entire lives on a farm with grass roofs and no electricity. Went from a poor, isolated, extremely homogenous and unremarkable country to one of the best countries in the world by many if not most metrics in the span of a century.
My girlfriends grandmother grew up in a tiny village in the west fjords totally isolated from the world, no water, no electricity, they had to walk over the mountains to the next fjord if they wanted to go meet boys.Germany, no explanation neededSurprised Turkey with Kemalist reforms has not been brought up.
In the 1920s/1930s went from the late medieval Ottoman Empire to a secular state with full language & alphabet reform, abolishing the caliphate, giving women right to vote, adopting last names, adopting modern Western clothing, increased literacy & education.Czechoslovakia went from existing to getting occupied by germany and splitting to getting together again only to be occupied by soviets to get freedom to splitting again while also changing name everytime that happened, also they did all that in 75 yearsBritain: our monarchy once owned most of the globe. now they’re a tourist attraction.China also had a crazy rebrand. From imperial dynasties of different warlords, to collapse, then communist revolution, then opening up a bit to the world... and now they're essentially hypercapitalist with a communist dictatorship. Talk about versatility!Vietnam. The communists "won", and yet 15 years later Vietnam was one of the most capitalist countries in the world. Now all your textiles and furniture is made there.Mongolia went from ruling a large portion of the world to not mattering too much.Rwanda - from genocide 30 years ago to one of the cleanest, safest cities I’ve ever been to.South Korea. Sansung, LG, Hyundai, Kia, etc. have all been around for decades, but a generation ago, their products were seen as cheap, mediocre knock-offs of their Japanese counterparts (remember the flammable Excels?) Now, certainly for electronics and hi-tech items, they have outdone them (except maybe when it comes to video game systems for which Japan has always maintained the edge). And no one makes fun of Korean cars anymore.
South Africa. From officially unequal, racially segregated, fascist, white supremacist state to pluralistic, inclusive democracy. The transition, which was remarkably peaceful, was 30-35 years ago and while the country is far from perfect with plenty if problems, it still functions and has to some degree stayed true to Mandela's vision. Who else knows they were the first country to officially protect sexual orientation in their constitution?Well Istanbul was Constantinople...Not a country, but Mexico City - from a “dangerous area” to the biggest hotspot of food, culture, design, fashion, etc
For a country, probably Croatia, although Serbia is coming up too India went from the largest producer of goods with the richest province and royal family in the world in 1700 to a broke nation that was a buyer of goods by 1857. That was a reversal of over 3000 years of history lol.Australia: Has gone from an egalitarian paradise where working class people had the best quality of life in the world to a two-tier s**t show based on whether you own property. Has had such a huge redistribution of wealth to the top that for the first time young people are looking to migrate to countries such as Japan and Italy for affordable housing.I still find Saudi Arabia attempts wildThe Vikings were the ISIS of their time. The Iberian peninsula was involved in a centuries old war with the moors to the south yet when vikings raids started happening someone wrote in some manuscript "the enemy that comes from the north is even worse than our enemy to the south", something like that. Making the Vikings look "cool", touristic and marketable always sounded to me like a great marketing trick.
"Welcome to the land of the Vikings!"
Ohh hell no!
I'm joking on that last part, been to Norway and Denmark, love both countries.New Zealand. International money laundering hub, internally run by a coalition of classic European blokes and South American gangs, supported by a legal system adapted to enabling coverups in advance. Rebranded as milk and apples. On which they’d have you believe an island with no mineral resources can run a first world economy and lots and lots of [substances].
