Differences between Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Given they and Italy were all part of the Holy Roman Empire and later on with the latter two, the Austro-Hungarian empire such an overlap’s going to be inevitable. There are even German speaking, lederhosen wearing enclaves in Northern Italy. If there are differences, there’ll be differences no matter how subtle they seem (like in Scandinavia).

Switzerland’s famous for being trilingual though keep in mind that the Francophone and Italophone cantons could’ve belonged to either France or Duchy of Milan (Italy) at some point or another. Both Austria and Switzerland are landlocked whilst France, Italy and Germany face seas and oceans.

Whilst Austria and Switzerland used to be part of the Holy Roman Empire, Lombardy and Veneto in recent memory used to be part of the Austrian Empire. Not to mention Austria’s got one of the highest numbers of mongrels in the DACHs region at around 60-70 percent. (Purebreds, if I recall make up 40 percent there but larger* in Germany.)

That’s also shared in France. Also Switzerland, Britain and Norway are outside of the EU.

*May’ve changed now.

Differences between Nordic nations

Where I suspect, like with Germany and Austria may be more of a matter of geography and history. Since I don’t know much about history for these nations, it’s best to look at geography and demography. Iceland’s isolated and volcanic. Norway’s closer to the Atlantic, Denmark to Germany and Sweden and Finland in the Baltic.

Sweden, Norway and Finland all have Sami populations, those predating the Indo-European Scandinavians. Iceland and Denmark don’t. (When you have Samis, there’re inevitably degrees of discrimination and marginalisation by the majority.)

Iceland, being volcanic and isolated from the rest of the world has little to no known ethnic minorities until recently whereas Sweden, Norway and Finland already and still do with the Samis. Sweden has numerically more people than Denmark but because the latter’s got less land area it’s more densely populated.

Norway ruled over Iceland and Norway itself used to be ruled by Denmark whilst Sweden ruled Finland. Now here’s something more trivial, Denmark begat Aqua (and White Horse). Sweden begat ABBA. Norway begat A-HA and Iceland begat Bjork. Ikea’s Swedish, Lego’s Danish.

I’ve yet to go to those places but I’ve quickly summed up the differences.

Dogs and the start of Chinese civilisation

There’s a new study claiming that Chinese civilisation could’ve started earlier, especially with desertification where it may’ve started in the North. Especially when it comes to the Gobi Desert encompassing both China and Mongolia. In another, almost related study dogs are now thought to be first domesticated somewhere near Mongolia. If these two ever coexisted together before, that suggests a profound correlation.

After all I remember somebody saying that dogs and ancestral Filipinos came from China, which still makes perfect sense. The Philippines is fairly close to China and China in turn shares a border with Mongolia which is said to be where dogs first came from. If it went with desertification and wolves becoming commensal, that’s practically how dogs came to be.

From then on dogs spread, sometimes straying away from villages and within compounds in heat and sometimes mating with wolves (African dogs are said to have Middle Eastern DNA).

Cursed

When it comes to the endless proliferation of stray and feral dogs, while this isn’t always the case for many countries I still strongly suspect that both ecology and geography (especially geographical distance) are also partly to blame. Poverty, bad ownership practises and living in villages, compounds and farms (or near them) is one thing, being unable to access to better vets is another matter. Again this isn’t always the case but especially so for Russia and Australia where you have stray and feral dogs around.

Both of them are mostly uninhabitable, harsh terrains where well-meaning dog (and cat) owners are rendered powerless. Very vast harsh terrains too. While not always the case, especially for cats (and sometimes dogs if you will), these are perfect breeding grounds for persistent feral dog populations. (Same for Mongolia which has been cited as where dog domestication began.) I guess it also similarly goes for cats, especially farm cats where their owners also consider sterilisation but can’t always afford or find better vets.

Such things are hard to come by at times, thus such circumstances may arguably be cursed when it comes to stray cats and dogs.

Some East Asian Influence

East Asian influence in the Philippines’s isn’t always entirely lost. American imports are generally too expensive and inaccessible. So are most European imports. There are several Japanese and Korean stores here in the Philippines and likely Korean, Chinese and Japanese products often get sold here too. That’s obvious as they’re our geographical neighbours.

Korean programmes get dubbed and shown in local channels. We often eat Chinese food and covers of certain Philippine novels resemble Japanese light novels. It’s not always a matter of plagiarism but that Japanese and East Asian influence on the Philippines’s clear on some level. Though with some awkwardly improved relations with China.

That’s going to be a bit more uncertain given conflicts over resources though I suspect if Mr Duterte’s intentions went well the Philippines might get further Sinicised. Though the actual extent of such relations and influences have yet to be determined,

Geography and history help

Inevitably due to history and geography, Northern Italy’s got more in common with Germany, Austria and Switzerland than it does with Southern Italy. (Central Italy’s somewhat more complicated but I do recall it being part of the Holy Roman Empire.) In some Northern Italian locales, people dress in what you’d expect Germans to wear: lederhosen.

To be fair, Northern Italian folk clothing’s got more in common with Alpine parts of Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Whilst not always the case, it’s inevitably that with shared borders comes shared ideas, customs, beliefs and fashion sense. A similar case can be made with Turkey, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia being made Arabic to varying degrees even down to fashion sense.

(Turkish was written in Arabic script before.)

Not always the case but enough to draw comparisons, whether if it’s Islam in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey or Holy Roman Empire to Italy, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland.

There was no Italy, was there?

The weird thing about Italy is that if it a united Italy had existed before, it only exists for as long as the Visigoths, Napoleon Bonaparte and Holy Roman Empire were around. Venice’s a later inclusion, though by the way of the Austrian Empire (according to one Reddit user). Switzerland’s somewhat more complicated in that parts of it belonged to France and Milan/Italy. Nonetheless, like Italy, it’s also part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ticino’s in Switzerland and was part of the Duchy of Milan, which’s in Italy proper now. Due to shared histories and borders between Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany it’s culturally inevitable that Northern Italy would’ve more in common with those three than Southern Italy does. (Conversely speaking, parts of Eastern France like Lorraine were part of the Holy Roman Empire too.)

It’s got to do with having city-states but even most of them couldn’t remain independent for long as they get conquered by other territories.

The hellish mountains

Like I said, Dante Alighieri’s time in the Apuan Alps as well as Verona’s proximity to it (especially towards Germany, Austria and Switzerland) would’ve influenced him a lot. If extrapolated from demonology texts like Compendium Maleficarum, De Lamiis Et Pythonicis and Manuale Exorcistarum (or Candido Brognolo’s other works) where they’re published in Northern Italy and Southern Germany respectively as well as Demons of Urban are any indication, mountains attract fear.

Even in Ukraine and parts of Russia, witches are associated with mountains and from what’ve read witches would appear as cats, dogs and pigs when entering black sabbaths on Bald Mountain. (Though it could also be that some people have acrophobia as well as weather complicating matters in European mountains.) The former four mention wolves being connected to witchcraft, especially as forms demons take and as witches’ familiars. Another document, Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, enlists wolves as one of the witches’ favourite guises.

(Various other sources cite werewolves being able to appear as cats and dogs.)

There’s no doubt Dante would eventually get used to it. But I also wouldn’t doubt if at least with Compendium Maleficarum mentioning demons appearing as cats and dogs (also agreed in Henri Boguet’s Discours des Sorciers and Francois Perrault’s Demonologie) as well as leopards and wolves suggests such beliefs would’ve already existed in Dante’s time.

They just have to wait longer to get recorded.

The Alpine Comedy

Let’s not forget that ever since Dante Alighieri got exiled and spent the rest of his life in Northern Italy, it’s inevitable that the beliefs that Guazzo, Brognolo and Molitor would eventually record (or harbour) already made their way in his work. Not to mention Dante’s more immediate blood relatives and descendants would’ve been alive when these were writing those texts.

The very first Serego-Alighieris (because a certain Alighieri made his nephew take up his mum’s maiden name) were certainly alive and well when Compendium Maleficarum and Manuale Exorcistarum were published. This might not always be case as Viadana’s in Lombardy too and closer to Verona (Girolamo Menghi comes from Viadana) but Verona, Milan and  Bergamo are closer to the Alps.

Enough to share borders and beliefs with Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Verona, despite being closer to Viadana, shared borders with Bergamo and Milan. Verona’s close to Bolzano, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. That Dante Alighieri himself spent time in the Apuan Alps solidifies this.

Alpine lore in the Divine Comedy

Like I said before, considering that Dante Alighieri got exiled from Florence he spent much of his time in Verona. Let’s not forget that Verona and Milan are closer to Switzerland, Austria and Germany which means whatever the borders but for as long as they’re that close (closer still at some point or another) would inevitably share beliefs and communities together.

To give an idea, both Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have Akan as majority ethnicity as they were part of one and the same country/empire/kingdom before. The British and French partitioned them and also in Cameroon. Save that both Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon got reunited, for better or worse.

Much of Italy (including Venice and Milan) were part of the Frankish Kingdom before. With Venice eventually becoming its own nation (which Verona’s in) and Milan belonging to the Holy Roman Empire would’ve lead to similar effects. As Cameroon borders Nigeria, keep in mind there’s an Igbo community in Cameroon.

There’s a Milanese community in Verona. Dante wasn’t alone in a sense. It could also be me extrapolating this from later demonologists’ backgrounds. Compendium Maleficarum’s written by Francesco Maria Guazzo (Milan) and Manuale Exorcistarum’s written by Candido Brognolo (Venetian). That Bergamo went from Milan to Venice’s telling.

Ulrich Molitor’s from Konstanz (southern Germany) and got educated in both Alpine Italy and Switzerland. The former two involve demonic dogs, cats (housecats, lions and leopards) and wolves which get reflected in Dante’s work. Molitor’s involves witches and their wolves. There’s a study called Urban Reform as it’s about reports of Swiss witches riding on wolves.

All the more a reason to suspect shared beliefs. Since Italy wasn’t yet unified and moreso in Dante’s time, whatever beliefs Molitor, Brognolo and Guazzo had themselves certainly had prototypes when Dante wrote the Divine Comedy.