It's weird to me when people post the "what if Europe colonized europe" images
Like don't get me wrong they're funny and painfully accurate, but Europe's current borders are drawn by colonialism.
Let me explain

Europe has had a brutal and disgusting history of eliminating native people for their land and resources, but they didn't just do this abroad, they did it on their own continent too. This dates back thousands of years!

One could say that the first colonization was when Indo-Europeans successfully drove out or killed most Paleo-European and Finno-Ugric people from the continent because they liked the land. There's even theories that some languages like German exist because of...

Intermingling between colonizing powers and the people they were living with.
If wr fast forward later, this tradition still holds up, in a much less benign way. I can, and will, go through every European region just shitting on how they've treated the indigenous people

To start off, the most massive bitch of the whole bitch parade, Britain.
The English became a strong power and right off the bat started fighting their neighbors (Note, this doesn't take into account Roman colonization, which I'll talk about later) they fucked up the Welsh, Scots

And closest to me, the Irish. They destroyed 3 whole languages and cultures just because they wanted to. Which honestly disgusts me. Hell even today the borders of the UK are because of colonization! They *still* hold on to Northern Ireland, because they want to keep it

I mean they amount of culturally significant sites in Northern Ireland is staggering, but that whole region is cut off, for what? It's an arbitrary line drawn in the sand because some fuckheads in London wanted to try and pretend their crumbling empire was still ok

No, I won't stop being mad at the English for what they did to Ireland, so many people will never be able to experience the language and culture of their ancestors, both in Ireland and the diaspora abroad.

The truth is, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, were the foundation for British colonization in the Americas and Africa, especially in the idea of erasing language and culture while absorbing territory. Also, Cornish and Manx are basically extinct!

Ok so everyone can obviously agree Britain was terrible, but there are few exceptions to this rule. France has brutal colonial rule at home and abroad. They've had a cruel history of beating the fuck out of the Bretons, a people who only exist because of displacement...

Out of Britain thanks to Anglo-Saxons. Brittany, inhabited by... Bretons, is in that little peninsula to the west of France.
Most of the fighting over the land happened during the medieval period, a frantic land grab by the French king for power known as the "Mad War"

After several succession wars, the French found themselves in possession of the land and got to work phasing Breton out of existence. It worked. Worked so well I didn't even know the people existed until a couple years ago, and even then i learned it in passing via a video game

The language is critically endangered, and might slip away very very soon. Again, this is straight up colonialism.
Down south, the French and the Spanish fucking suck.
Enter, the Basque, the only Pre-Indo-European people and language left after Roman colonization

The Basque homeland has been split between France and Spain
That border in the Pyrenees mountains just sort of. Exists. For no reason, with no regards for the people living there (keep in mind that there were and are more! Most of the language and cultures went extinct though)

Basque has been looked upon pretty poorly by the colonizing powers, and they've suffered way too much, especially in Spain.
Side by side is Catalonia, everyone's favorite little revolutionary country.
Both of the region's had strong independence movements out down...

During the Spanish Civil War and the following fascist dictatorship under Franco. Of course putting down rebellions means putting down the reason for it, and this was of course cultural differences.

The fascists attempted to homogonize the culture of the Iberian Peninsula (including Galician, Ladino, Asturian, and others) to the point that many languages no longer exist. Many Basque had to flee or lose their long held traditions and language lest they face the consequences

Spain, Britain, France, all major powers known for colonization that did a disgustingly good job at it in the country we today see as theirs. Keep in mind though that this all stems from the fucking Romans

The Roman Empire was probably the most destructive force in all of European history. They annihilated Etruscan, Lusitanian, Dacian, and hundreds other. Every single country that speaks a Latin based language one had dozens of native cultures and languages that were eliminated

France, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland were all incredibly diverse countries until some stabable dumbfucks waltzed in.
Britain too was colonized, Anglo-Saxon being a culture created by refugees onto the island and Roman mercenaries from Germany who brought their language

You see where I'm getting with this? The only difference between colonization in Europe and in other continents is that they were much more efficient and had more time in Europe.

But I'm not done. Not a god damn chance. Consider me slandering every European country I can think of.
I also want to bring attention to these people! They deserve your attention and respect, and in my opinion should be included in many world wide pro-indiginous movements

Outside of Britain, though, I think Spain is the worst, but they both pale in comparison to Russia.
I'm including the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and modern day Russia in this. Because they all have done things that are similar or the same.

1st off, the Russian Empire has borders that were just straight up fucking made up. Same with Germany and Austria. Like they literally just broke apart Poland just because they wanted to. The partitioned the Baltic states in the same way!

This thread is getting long and I'm tired, but I absolutely will continue this later because it pisses me off how little people know or care about the indiginous population of Europe, those that are both living and "on their deathbed"
I'm starting to not makes sense oof