By divide I mean a big difference between regions in terms of culture, society, economy. Obviously in the US there’s a reputation for the South to be considered a lot more rural and conservative than the northern states, although I was surprised that 4 states which are firmly southern rank in the top 10 of states by GDP.
One of the biggest divides I can find is in Italy, where the north is far richer, urban and industrialised than the south.
In England it’s the north which is considered to be backwards and comparatively poor compared to the south, for the UK as a whole England’s GDP dwarfs that of Scotland.
Any others? Only after regions within states, not internationally like South and Best Korea or South Sudan and original Sudan.
Lots of places. Are you also looking for East/West? The German divide is obvious that way, but even then the north has more of an uptight stereotype vs. the south (Bavaria). Similar to France, the southern parts are a little more laid back in stereotypes. You might also count Spain, where two non-Spanish speaking cultures predominate in the north.
Yemen was two different countries 60s to 1990. Geographically, it’s more west-east though. Military government vs. communist. Then they formed one country, until recently when what was the north is now a Iran-backed Shiite unrecognized government, and the south is the original KSA-backed Sunni government.
Nigeria’s south is Christian dominated and the north Muslim, along with ethnic/cultural differences. The south has better resources including oil, and there are currentand pastsecessionist movements.
And in Florida, the part of it that is the south in culture is in the north.
India has huge inter-regional variations in social and economic development. The best performing state (Kerala) has a HDI similar to Russia, the worst performing have a HDI similar to Burundi or Sierra Leone.
There are big inter-region differences in Brazil, Mexico and other countries as well, but I think India is the most extreme.
Vietnam from my personal experience. The south has better weather and stronger French colonial influence. It is also wealthier and more metropolitan because Vietnamese emigrants largely came from the south. Those emigrants remitted funds to their families and helped them establish trade links to every country with Vietnamese immigrants. North Vietnam had more Chinese and Soviet cultural influence. I would say there are still different political leanings between North and South but perhaps that’s changing as people who lived through the war die off and everyone learns that it’s more profitable to be a capitalist.
Australia would be another candidate.
Where the notional boundary would be drawn is arguable. Culturally somewhere between Sydney and Brisbane, maybe Newcastle (32° South) would be my guess
The geodetic centre of the country (the Johnston Geodetic Station (25° 56’ 49.3" South, 133° 12’ 34.7" East) or for simplicity 26° South which is the southern border of the Northern Territory.
Half Australia’s land mass is north of this line with less than 3% of the national population and no population centres above 200k (Townsville Qld 165k, Cairns Qld 140k, Darwin NT 110k)
Economically the North/South divide wouldn’t be quite as extreme as Canada.
If you extend the definition of “the north” to include all of Queensland the equation puts 65% the land, 20% or the population and 15% of the GDP mostly agricultural, mining and tourism.
Belgium is divided between French speaking Wallonia, and Dutch speaking Flanders. The divide has gotten so bad the national government barely existed for several years.
There’s so many offensive things in that line I don’t know where to begin.
There’s that you’re missing the galegos in linguistic terms; astures in linguistic and economic terms. For cultural and political dominance, Old Castille still beats everybody else to an extent that’s not concomitant with its population.
There’s that you’re missing that most of Spain’s north speaks neither Catalan nor Basque.
There’s that the main reason there’s so few written documents in Basque before the 19th century is the permanent multilingualism of my foreparents.
What you said is akin to saying that the US’s North is defined by Chicago and New York, with the added twist of confusing “bilingual” with “non-Spanish speaking”.
Is there a north-south divide in Spain? Sure. Differences in economy, in accent, in languages… but the overlaps between divisions aren’t always quite on the same spot, and they’re definitely not three regions vs the other fourteen.
Offensive? Really…? Are you really offended? Oversimplification, sure, absolutely, but really???
How about, the far northeast of Spain, which is much less than half the country by area, has one “autonomous communities” that historically speaks another language and is currently voting to leave, while another nearby community which historically speaks a very different language has had a movement to leave for many decades, often with violent consequences? Last I checked, Galicia et al. are a bit calmer.
How is that Northern Spain vs. Southern Spain? And you’re apparently managing to miss again the existence of two Basque-speaking communities, never mind butchering English grammar.
And yes, it offends me when people confuse bilingual with monolingual and ignore the existence of my region and of… eight other regions if I’m not miscounting. The Spanish north is 11 regions by its widest definition (the one that includes Catalonia); 5 or 6 by the usual divisions of commercial and operational areas (depends on whether my region goes with “North” or with “Northeast”).
There’s nothing like this in South Africa - the richest places are widely scattered, as are the poorest places. There is one clear E-W divide, though - see if you can spot it on this map. Oh, look, there it is again.
One of the USA’s divisions is east-west in terms of population density and urban sprawl. The line runs north-south through the plains states. To the east it is densely populated, and to the west it is wide open.
