List of proposed state mergers

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This is a list of proposed state mergers, including both current and historical proposals originating from sovereign states or organizations. The entities listed below differ from separatist movements in that they would form as a merger or union of two or more existing states, territories, colonies or other regions, becoming either a federation, confederation or other type of unified sovereign state.

Current

Proposed state	Components	Notes
China	People's Republic of China  Republic of China	Unification of the Greater China Region is the stated goal of both governments, though support in Taiwan is slowly decreasing over time. Supported by Chinese nationalists in both states.[1][2][3]
United Republic of Cyprus	Republic of Cyprus  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus	Proposed federal union between the two Cypriot states to end the Cyprus dispute.[4]
East African Federation	Burundi  Kenya  Rwanda  South Sudan  Tanzania  Uganda	Proposed political union between the six member states of the East African Community.[5]
Korea	North Korea  South Korea	Korean reunification has been a goal for both Koreas since the 1953 armistice agreement. However, proposed strategies vary between the two Koreas.[6]
Romania	Romania  Moldova	The unification of Romania and Moldova became a popular concept in the two countries in late 1980s, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Historic

21st century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Russia	Russia Crimea	2014	Yes (de facto)	Crimea unilaterally seceded from Ukraine and later conducted a referendum to join the Russian Federation and was later annexed by Russia. The referendum was controversial and most countries continue to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine.

20th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Germany	East Germany  West Germany	1990	Yes	German reunification
Yemen	North Yemen  South Yemen	1990	Yes	Yemeni unification
Senegambia Confederation	The Gambia  Senegal	1982–1989	Yes (1 January 1982 – 30 September 1989)	A loose confederation was formed, but ended due to the Gambia's lack of interest in integration.
Federation of Arab Republics	Libya  Egypt  Syria Also invited:  Iraq  Sudan	1972–1977	Yes (1 January 1972 – 19 November 1977)	An attempt by Muammar Gaddafi to build a Pan-Arab state.
Vietnam	North Vietnam  South Vietnam	1976	Yes	Reunification Day and the Fall of Saigon
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi Dubai  Sharjah  Ajman Umm al-Qaiwain Fujairah  Ras Al Khaimah Also invited: Bahrain Qatar	1971	Yes	Six independent emirates formed the United Arab Emirates in December 2, 1971. Ras Al Khaimah later joined the federation.
India	India Monarchy of Sikkim	1947–1975	Yes	After independence in 1947, joining the new Indian Union was rejected by popular vote. Sikkim grew closer to India over time, becoming a protectorate and later a suzerainty of India. When Sikkim voted to join India in 1975, the merger was widely criticized as an annexation by India.
Arab Islamic Republic	Libya  Tunisia	1974	No	Proposed by Muammar Gaddafi.
Tanzania	Tanganyika Zanzibar	1964	Yes
Malaysia	Malaya North Borneo Sarawak  Singapore Also invited:  Brunei	1963	Yes	Singapore was expelled from the federation on 9 August 1965 due to political conflict and power tension.
North Borneo Federation	North Borneo Sarawak  Protectorate of Brunei	1956–1960	No
Arab Federation	Kingdom of Iraq  Jordan	1958	Yes (14 February 1958 – 2 August 1958)	An attempt to unify the two Hashemite kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan. While successful, the short-lived union was disestablished after a military coup deposed King Faisal II of Iraq.
United Arab Republic	Republic of Egypt Syrian Republic	1958	Yes (22 February 1958 – 28 September 1961)	A short-lived Pan-Arab state.
West Indies Federation	British Barbados British Jamaica British Leeward Islands British Trinidad and Tobago British Windward Islands	1958	Yes (1958–1962)	The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state, however, before that could happen, the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts.
United Arab States	United Arab Republic  Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen	1958	Yes (8 March 1958 – 26 December 1961)	Loose confederation between the United Arab Republic and (North) Yemen.
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland	Nyasaland  Northern Rhodesia  Southern Rhodesia	1953	Yes (1953–1963)	A semi-independent state.
Canada	Canada Newfoundland	1949	Yes	Newfoundland Act
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia People's Socialist Republic of Albania People's Republic of Bulgaria	1946–1948	No	Josip Broz Tito came extremely close to getting Albania into accepting integration into Yugoslavia, but relations cooled in 1948 over fears that Yugoslavia only intended to use Albania for raw materials, subsequently resulting in the expulsion of Yugoslav diplomats. Yugoslav/Bulgarian negotiations fell through when Moscow attempted to force both countries into accepting Soviet control over the merge, which caused Yugoslavia to withdraw from negotiations and precipitated the Tito–Stalin split.
Greek-Yugoslav confederation	Strictest definition:  Kingdom of Greece  Kingdom of Yugoslavia Loosest definition also includes:  Albanian Kingdom  Kingdom of Bulgaria  Kingdom of Romania	1942–1944	No
Polish-Czechoslovak confederation	Czechoslovak Republic  Polish Republic	1939–1948	No	Proposed by Władysław Sikorski.
Republic of Turkey	Republic of Turkey  Hatay State	1939	Yes
Nazi Germany	Nazi Germany Federal State of Austria	1938	Yes (1938–1945)	Anschluss
Soviet Union	Byelorussian SSR Russian SFSR Transcaucasian SFSR Ukrainian SSR	1922	Yes (1922–1991)	Treaty on the Creation of the USSR
Ukrainian People's Republic	Ukrainian People's Republic West Ukrainian People's Republic	1919	Yes (1919)	Act Zluky
Weimar Republic	Weimar Republic Republic of German-Austria	1918–1919	No	Following the disintegration of Austria-Hungary in the final days of World War I, the German-speaking territories of the Empire attempted to begin a process of integration into Weimar Germany. The Allies did not favor the idea, and forced the Austrian rump state to sign the Treaty of Saint Germain, which prohibited Austria from uniting with Germany.
Międzymorze	Belarusian People's Republic  Czechoslovak Republic  Estonia  Finland Hungarian People's Republic  Latvia  Lithuania  Polish Republic  Kingdom of Romania  Ukrainian People's Republic  Kingdom of Yugoslavia	November or December 1918	No	Also called "Intermarium". Suggested shortly after World War I to combat the influences of Germany and Russia.
United Baltic Duchy	Estonia Latvia	1918	No	Attempt to form a German protectorate state in a Personal Union with Kaiser Wilhelm II, mostly led by Baltic German nobility and was only recognized by the German Empire. After Germany's defeat in World War I, Latvia declared its independence. Germany Army General Rüdiger von der Goltz was unsuccessful at attempting to keep the region under German control.
Kingdom of Romania	Kingdom of Romania Transylvania (Part of Hungary) Banat Republic Duchy of Bukovina	1918	Yes (1918–1947)	Unification of Greater Romania
Kingdom of Romania	Kingdom of Romania Moldavian Democratic Republic	1918	Yes (1918)	See Treaty of Bucharest
Kingdom of Yugoslavia	Kingdom of Montenegro Kingdom of Serbia State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs	1918	Yes (1918–1992)	Creation of Yugoslavia
Balkan Socialist Federation	Principality of Albania  Kingdom of Bulgaria  Kingdom of Yugoslavia	1910–1916	No
Commonwealth of Australia	New South Wales  Queensland  South Australia  Tasmania  Victoria  Western Australia Also invited: Fiji  New Zealand	1901	Yes	Federation of Australia

19th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
German Empire	North German Confederation Kingdom of Bavaria Kingdom of Württemberg Grand Duchy of Baden Grand Duchy of Hesse Alsace-Lorraine Austrian Empire	1871	Partial (1871–1918)	Unification of Germany (excluding Austria) after German victory over the French in the Franco-Prussian War. See also, the German Question regarding the competing ideas of "Greater Germany" and "Lesser Germany" (whether or not a united Germany should include the Austrian Empire). The matter was settled with the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, in which Prussia assumed leadership of the various minor German nation states.
Antillean Confederation	Captaincy General of Cuba Captaincy General of Puerto Rico  Dominican Republic	1869–1870	No	Proposed by Ramón Emeterio Betances.
North German Confederation	Kingdom of Prussia  Kingdom of Saxony  Grand Duchy of Hesse  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz  Grand Duchy of Oldenburg  Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach  Duchy of Anhalt  Duchy of Brunswick  Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha  Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen Various other small principalities and free cities	1866	Yes (1867–1871)	Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the annexation by Prussia of Austria's northern German ally states, Otto von Bismarck proposed to unify Prussia and its own German ally states into a single Federation. Consequently, the North German Constitution was adopted, with the provision that the southern German minor states could enter into the union when politically feasible.
Kingdom of Italy	Kingdom of Sardinia Papal States Grand Duchy of Tuscany Duchy of Parma Duchy of Modena and Reggio Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (Part of Austrian Empire)	1848–1870	Yes	Although the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, the Italian Unification is generally considered to have been incomplete until after the integration of Venetia in 1866 and the capture of Rome in 1870. See Italian Unification and Expedition of the Thousand.
Dominion of Canada	New Brunswick  Nova Scotia  Ontario  Quebec	1867	Yes	Canadian Confederation
Greater Republic of Central America	El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Considered joining: Costa Rica  Guatemala	1895–1898	Yes (1896–1898)
Kingdom of Greece	Kingdom of Greece United States of the Ionian Islands	1864	Yes	Treaty of London (1864)
United Principalities	Wallachia Moldavia	1862	Yes	Becomes Kingdom of Romania in 1881
Confederate States of America	South Carolina Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana Texas Virginia Arkansas North Carolina Tennessee	1861	Yes (1861-1865)	American Civil War
United States of America	United States of America Republic of Texas	1845	Yes	Texas annexation
Peru–Bolivian Confederation	Bolivia Peru	1829–1839	Yes (1836–1839)
Gran Colombia	Viceroyalty of New Granada Venezuela Free Province of Guayaquil	1819–1830	Yes (1819–1830)
Scandinavia	Denmark  Norway  Sweden	Mid-19th century	No
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Kingdom of Great Britain  Kingdom of Ireland	1800	Yes (1801–1922)

18th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Kingdom of Great Britain	Kingdom of England  Kingdom of Scotland	1707	Yes	Though having been ruled since 1603 in Personal Union when James I succeeded both the English and Scottish crowns both countries remained separate sovereign nations states until 1706 when the Treaty of Union unified them into a single entity.
United States of America	Vermont Republic United States of America	1777–1791	Yes
United States of America	Connecticut  Delaware  Georgia  Maryland  Massachusetts  New Hampshire  New Jersey  New York  North Carolina  Pennsylvania  Rhode Island  South Carolina  Virginia	1786-1788	Yes	United States Constitution is ratified by the Thirteen Original Colonies, replacing the Articles of Confederation and thereby forming a Federal government, ending the individual sovereignty of the US States.

17th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Cossack Hetmanate	1658–1659	No	Treaty of Hadiach

16th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Polish–Lithuanian–Muscovite Commonwealth	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Tsardom of Russia	1574–1658	No
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth	Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569) Grand Duchy of Lithuania	1569	Yes (1569–1795)	See Union of Lublin

15th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Jagiellonian Union	Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)	1440	Yes (1440–1444)	See Union of Hungary and Poland

14th century

Proposed state	Components	Time period	Successful?	Notes
Angevin Union	Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)	1370	Yes (1370–1382)	See Union of Hungary and Poland

See also

• Lists of active separatist movements
• Pan-nationalism
• Political union

References

1. Lynch, David (9 October 2014). "China’s Long Game With Taiwan Just Got Longer". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
2. Nylander, Johan (4 November 2014). "Taiwan president will deal with China but not at expense of sovereignty". CNN. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
3. Chung, Lawrence (25 September 2014). "Ruling on Hong Kong poll a hammer blow to Taiwan reunification hopes". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
4. "Basis for a Comprehensive Settlement of the Cyprus Problem" (PDF). GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
5. LAMU (3 September 2009). "An East African Federation: Big ambitions, big question-marks". The Economist. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
6. Babones, Salvatore (17 October 2014). "2015: The Year of Korean Reunification?". The National Interest. Retrieved 2 August 2015.