Do We Have any European History Buffs 'Round These Parts?

I've started work on a game project for the summer (very exciting, woo!) and I need a hand. Actually, I will probably be coming back to GB frequently to talk about elements that are outside my area of expertise. But to the matter at hand:

I have to develop a fictional country for the game to take place in, and having a well fleshed out history is very important. I have decided that it will be an island in the North Sea:

I know some things about European history, but I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for.
The biggest challenge to your story right now is probably the anglo dutch war, the brits and dutch were fighting for control of the north atlantic, the british wouldn't have accepted a resolution to that conflict that left a dutch colony hanging out there threatening the sea trade.

Hey hey hey!
Dutch history student reporting in!
A Dutch colony IN Europe will be highly unbelievable.....

I am no history buff at all ( what do you have to do to be a buff?), but it seems wrong for that island to be a former dutch colony. Would make more sense for it to either be somehow affiliated with the UK, or for it to be a small country founded by norse Vikings. But again, I am no buff, and know next to nothing about anything.

I like European history, but I am a sucker for Cannuck history

I figured I was going to have to give more information. It would be preferable that this be a recently formed country with heavy cultural links. This would give me a source to draw from while still giving me a nice gap of space to develop any elements that are necessary to the game.

A land mass being there would have greatly changed the course of history.

Just saying.

" @Jwkokosmakroon: Hmm, you sound useful. So is the issue that Holland would not be in a position to control the island, or that it wouldn't really qualify as a colony anymore since Europe was all quite developed by the 1900s? "

" @chocolaterhinovampire: Yeah, this would probably be easier if I went with a North American country, but that doesn't really have the cultural hooks that I want. North America is too far away from everything else, and the USA is overwhelmingly dominant in the region. "

" @nintendoeats said:

" @Jwkokosmakroon: Hmm, you sound useful. So is the issue that Holland would not be in a position to control the island, or that it wouldn't really qualify as a colony anymore since Europe was all quite developed by the 1900s? "

There would be no point in seizing control of the island. The Dutch even neglected to 'liberate' the southern Netherlands from Spanish rule because they were more interested in trade and commerce than  making war. Further more why would an island that's practically of the coast be in a position to secede from the motherland if for all intents and purposes it is actually a part of the Motherland. Representation like for instance was the issue with the Americans in the British Empire would not be a problem. "

That map makes no sense. I don't know of any Island states off the east coast of the UK and as someone who took a GCSE and A level in Modern History I never once came across this place.

" @nintendoeats said:

" @chocolaterhinovampire: Yeah, this would probably be easier if I went with a North American country, but that doesn't really have the cultural hooks that I want. North America is too far away from everything else, and the USA is overwhelmingly dominant in the region. "

You could also go for an Island  near the coast of Italy and evolve it's history as a Crusader state where a Knightly order annexed the island form muslim rule. Evolving teh country as a staunchly Catholic nation throughout it's history. Often coming into conflict with North African states or the Ottomans. Or it could be an Orthodox succesor state to the Byzantine Empire.Endless possibilities ^^ "

The first thing that jumps to my mind as a logical thing was that it would have most likely been part of the British Empire and could have become independent in the early part of the 20th century in a similar manner to the Ireland, but with the entire country becoming independent. I don't know if that's something that seems plausible to you. Being so close to Britain, I'm sure it would have been part of Britain during the years of the British Empire, unless it was already a powerful state prior to that. Your choice seems to be to either for it to already be a powerful independent nation by about the 1500's, or be a British Colony that gained independence.

I have A Level history in england, so far from expert. But i'd say you'd be far better to make it a British colony, historically England had a massive empire and it would be strange to think that it would have colonised far reaching islands but left a close (and relatively large in comparison to its own size) island to the dutch. However it wouldn't be unrealistic to give this island a dutch culture, the islands in the north of scotland already have a culture that mixes british elements and scandanavian elements so in your story it would be perfectly believable to have a island with a mixture of british, dutch and scandanavian cultures. (yet owned by the british) 

Is this going to have a serious tone to it? Because if not, all I can think of is a Red Alert style super weapon made by the North Koreans (Crysis/homefront style North Koreans that are actual powers in the world, of course) to transport their whole country with all of it's weapons right in the middle of Europe so it can attack everywhere. It would be ridiculous for many reasons but it would be pretty cool too.
Feel free to ignore my crazy, my knowledge of European history is patchy at best.

Make it Danish, then make it leave its (fictional) union with Denmark at the same time Iceland does (after WW2).

An island that big there would mean a completely different history for Europe. Reduce the size to that of Jersey and you will avoid most of the problems.

You have some important events you should think about:

" @nintendoeats: I think it's of too much strategic importance for Britain to leave on it's own during World War II. If Germany invaded it, they would have an easy way of entering eastern England & Scotland. I'm thinking that maybe they could have gained independence during the latter half of the 1920's. Having seen the Irish War of Independence the inhabitants decided to have a similar uprising and they become fully independent. There will still be a lot of bad blood between the Britain and this country, so during WWII Britain will be reluctant to defend it and they're likely to be largely unable to defend themselves. With the strategic importance of it, though, Britain would probably put the history aside and help defend the country. Maybe not straight away, Germany might start invading it, but sooner or later Britain will have to step in and push the Nazi forces back. That's how I see things playing out, anyway. They could have become independent after WWII if you're set on that idea, but Britain definitely wouldn't leave them largely undefended during the war. "

Even if you assume history remains relatively unchanged until WW2 (which it wouldn't of course), an island there probably means:

• Germany relatively easily invades it after the fall of France in 1940.
• Uses air bases on Island X to more easily destroy Britain's northern industrial cities.
• RAF is spread too thin defending the whole country, Germany gains air supremacy, swiftly invades and conquers Britain, then Ireland.  Germany helps itself to Africa.  Japan helps itself to Singapore, Hong Kong etc.
  
• Germany only has to fight on one front against Russia, Germany defeats Russia.
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, US declares war on Japan, Germany declares war on US.
• Stalemate in Atlantic and Pacific.  Germany eventually has massive economic advantage over everybody else, probably also develops first nuke, kills everybody else.
  

One tip, if you do go with the Island being Dutch; don't refer to the Netherlands as Holland. Only a part of the Netherlands is actually Holland. It would be like calling England Warwickshire, or calling the US Maine. :)

Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge of European history. My area seems to be more in the Ancient times. But good luck. 

The island is too big.  It's the size of all of England, for god's sake!.  Choose a landmass small enough that you could plausibly claim it couldn't have directly interfered in the many European continental wars.  All these arguments about who would take over the island are important, but I think the bigger question is what the island would have done on its own.

Look at that map, what to you see in the flags? Bottom left=Stripes, Top Right=cross. Britain has been conquered by the two sides and such has both features. I think the easiest thing to do, is say it was a Germanic collony, used for testing during WW2 post WW2 it was held by the Russians and was further used for testing/millitary. In the events of a WW3 it would be a Nuclear launch centre for western Europe, when the wall fell it was handed back over to the Puppet government that had previously been put in place to comply to UN regulations, due to it's location and cold war fears the Nothern Oil fields where never discovered. The island voted for it's government in 1992, it went for the Nationalistic And Rand style goverment. It finally went for the name 'Ynysdyr' in 1995 it discovered the oil fields and had exclusives writes, it sits on a large cold war stockpile, larger than Britain, France and Germany combined.

First of, I would think that the fictional Island that you have created would have been British. Another thing, even further back in history is when the Vikings raided and plundered Scotland and England that fictional island is in the way. So either the Vikings stirred some shit up pretty bad for those people who lived there, or you can say that the Vikings colonized the island first and then the German came along afterwards and took over, this could work out seeing as Vikings where Germanic people, while the brits are Anglo-Saxon. 

" @MattyFTM:@JBird: Awesome stuff guys, British does seem to make more sense when you put it that way.I have definitely been concerned about how WWII would have played out. It seems likely that the island would have been a majour battleground, which makes it seem implausible that it would be in a position to gain independence. I suppose that if the British had left the defenses primarily in the hands of the inhabitants of the island, they could well have turned on them after the war ended and demanded independence. It's not exactly a pretty start to the country, but I think I can write it in such a way that the revolutionaries remain sympathetic. "