| Comment | not really, the Russian position on Crimea is that the local population really actually want to be part of Russia please so it's just recognising their right to self-determination and not at all a military incursion of a sovereign state, no
whereas in the 15th century serfs had literally no rights and nobody could have given a flying fuck whether the population of Shetland wanted to be part of Norway or Scotland, that's entirely up for the nobles who own the land to decide
also nowadays we have things like the UN to arbitrate (or try to), if they had existed back then they might have called out James III on his shenanigans and told him to give the islands back to Norway
the only equivalent then was the Hanseatic league, who being a trade organisation were basically happy with whatever kept the peace and fish sales going (so actually not dissimilar to the UN I guess) |
|---|