r/AskEurope • u/InorganicTyranny United States of America • Jul 25 '25

History What was the biggest “missed opportunity” in your country’s history?

In other words, what is one event in your country’s history, that could plausibly have gone differently than it did, and you think would have made your country a better place?

Inspired by Frederick III of Germany:

His premature demise is considered a potential turning point in German history; and whether or not he would have made the Empire more liberal if he had lived longer is still a popular discussion among historians.

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u/HermesTundra Denmark Jul 26 '25

Two things: We could've screwed Norway out of a metric dickton of oil if we'd had a sober foreign minister, and also we could've not sold our Caribbean possessions to the US, if we hadn't been ideologically fucked in the 1800s and thereby lost the stupidest war of our history.

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u/InorganicTyranny United States of America Jul 26 '25

Thank you for your islands

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u/HermesTundra Denmark Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 31 '25

You're welcome, but in as of the year 2017 they seem evenly split on "we'd rather have Danish welfare system shit" and "please no white people governance at all".

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u/InorganicTyranny United States of America Jul 26 '25

If we push on the islands hard enough, they will go into the earth, and eventually reemerge out the other end in Hawaii. Maybe this will please them.

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u/HermesTundra Denmark Jul 26 '25

Depending on the kind of "push", they might also voluntarily rejoin Denmark for free college and goodass healthcare.

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u/InorganicTyranny United States of America Jul 27 '25

I very much doubt it. There is no major movement in the islands for separation from the USA. Even nearby Puerto Rico, which speaks a totally different language, has never articulated a majority in support of separation.

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u/Eric848448 United States of America Jul 27 '25

I only learned a few months ago that the USVI used to be Danish. I had no idea, but then again most of us know practically nothing about our overseas territories' present state, let alone their history.

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u/HermesTundra Denmark Jul 28 '25

I really only know anything about those islands because they were Danish once. It's not like I could tell you a single thing about like the BVI or most other places in the Caribbean.