tongue.

In some other parts of Western Europe, as in the Spanish and
Scandinavian peninsulas, the coincidence of language and nationality is
stronger than it is in France, Britain, or even Italy. No one speaks
Spanish except in Spain or in the colonies of Spain. And within Spain
the proportion of those who do not speak Spanish, namely the Basque
remnant, is smaller than the non-assimilated element in Britain and
France. Here two things are to be marked: First, the modern Spanish
nation has been formed, like the French, by a great process of
assimilation; secondly, the actual national arrangements of the Spanish
peninsula are wholly due to historical causes, we might almost say
historical accidents, and those of very recent date. Spain and
Portugal are separate kingdoms, and we look on their inhabitants as
forming separate nations. But this is simply because a queen of
Castile in the fifteenth century married a king of Aragon. Had
Isabella married a king of Portugal we should now talk of Spain and
Aragon as we now talk of Spain and Portugal, and we should count
Portugal for part of Spain. In language, in history, in everything
else, Aragon was really more distinct from Castile than Portugal was.
The king of Castile was already spoken of as king of Spain, and
Portugal would have merged in the Spanish kingdom at last as easily as
Aragon did. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, there must have been
less assimilation than anywhere else. In the present kingdoms of
Norway and Sweden there must be a nearer approach to actual purity of
blood than in any other part of Europe. One cannot fancy that much
Finnish blood has been assimilated, and there have been no conquests or
settlements later than that of the Northmen themselves.

When we pass into central Europe we shall find a somewhat different
state of things. The distinctions of race seem to be more lasting.
While the national unity of the German Empire is greater than that of
either France or Great Britain, it has not only subjects of other
languages, but actually discontented subjects, in three corners, on its
French, its Danish, and its Polish frontiers. We ask the reason, and
it will be at once answered that the discontent of all three is the
result of recent conquest, in two cases of very recent conquest indeed.
But this is one of the very points to be marked; the strong national
unity of the German Empire has been largely the result of assimilation;
and the