Northumberland was almost as foreign to Devon or Kent as Normandy was.

And the Church in those days was a great international factor, and the Crusades bound men together fighting under one leader for a common cause.

Also there was not a great national past to be forgotten as there is in this case." "There are many factors, certainly, that are against us," conceded the statesman, "but you must also take into account those that will help us.
In most cases in recent history where the conquered have stood out against all attempts at assimilation, there has been a religious difference to add to the racial one--take Poland, for instance, and the Catholic parts of Ireland.

If the Bretons ever seriously begin to assert their nationality as against the French, it will be because they have remained more Catholic in practice and sentiment than their neighbours.
Here there is no such complication; we are in the bulk a Protestant nation with a Catholic minority, and the same may be said of the British.
Then in modern days there is the alchemy of Sport and the Drama to bring men of different races amicably together.

One or two sportsmanlike Germans in a London football team will do more to break down racial antagonism than anything that Governments or Councils can effect.