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Most nations/countries celebrate their independence from some foreign power, a historical victory over aggressors or the end of a war. Are there any modern era examples where a historical event of annexation is being celebrated?

Note that I do not mean the case where native populations regain the control of an area lost to invading armies, but an invasion which is celebrated by the invaders, as a glorious event.

Martin Schröder
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Midas
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10 Answers10

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Turkey celebrates "Conquest Day" on May 29th to commemorate the Fall of Constantinople. On this occasion in 1453 the Ottomans took the Byzantine capital, and then made it their own capital.

Conquest day TV news broadcast

Commemorative illustration of invasion

American Historical Review editor Robert A. Schneider summarized Gavin D. Brockett's paper "When Ottomans Become Turks: Commemorating the Conquest of Constantinople and Its Contribution to World History":

In the modern Turkish Republic, May 29 celebrations have been a way of appropriating the imperial past for the national present. After an initial period of ambivalence following the founding of the republic, public memory embraced the quincentenary of Constantinople’s conquest in 1953.

Aaron Brick
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    Seems like only Constantinople celebrates its demise. WP https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Türkiye%27deki_resmî_tatiller does not list that for the nation? – LаngLаngС Dec 05 '18 at 06:52
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    Also compare http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/conquering-constantinople-again-and-again-20540 & https://www.dw.com/en/erdogan-holds-mass-celebration-on-ottoman-conquest-anniversary/a-19292255 – LаngLаngС Dec 05 '18 at 06:55
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    But it's not an Erdo-only-thing. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/119.2.399 – LаngLаngС Dec 05 '18 at 07:04
  • https://www.historians.org/Images/Perspectives/April%202014/schnieder-AHR-SidebarFig.jpg https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/april-2014/whats-in-the-april-ahr – LаngLаngС Dec 05 '18 at 11:35
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    @LangLangC Good finds. Anything you'd like to see added? – Aaron Brick Dec 05 '18 at 17:08
  • Your answer. I suggested for you to choose :) Since the Erdogan – we have to call that accusation? – came up, I think that might need addressing: since when and why do they celebrate, what was it then, what became of it/is it now? – LаngLаngС Dec 05 '18 at 17:10
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    @MichaelSeifert according to Brockett's paper (that LangLangC found and linked), 500 years passed before May 29th was publicly celebrated. – Aaron Brick Dec 05 '18 at 17:27
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    As A Turk I should say that May 29th is not a country wide holiday. Schools and offices are still open on May 29th. Only some commemorative events take place. – Ege Bayrak Dec 07 '18 at 14:35
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    Less ideal than I'd hoped for, given the even more less than ideal and pushy Q. Within these restrictions and within the one-sided categories and narratives, this is still alining the closest to the now common narrative and what OP was looking for. – LаngLаngС Dec 16 '18 at 17:09
  • @LangLangC : Yes, I think the example given is the least controversial. I appreciate your mentions of border cases where "annexation" is relative depending on who you ask, but when I asked the question I was not looking for the "grey zones" (see e.g. Jerusalem day). – Midas Dec 17 '18 at 19:02
  • @EgeBayrak: I wasn't expecting for an event celebrated as a national day. Local events/memorials/celebrations qualify as an answer. – Midas Dec 17 '18 at 19:04
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Yes, there are at least two such cases.

Guanacaste Day is celebrated in Costa Rica to commemorate the annexation Guanacaste province from Nicaragua in 1824. However, my very brief research indicates it was a peaceful annexation, not the result of war.

More recently, the Russian parliament voted to create a holiday commemorating the annexation of Crimea in 1783 to be first celebrated in 2019.

Gort the Robot
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    annexation of Crimea from the Ottomans in 1783 — that's historically inaccurate phrase, Ottomans lost control over Crimean Khanate in 1774, almost decade before. So, it was annexation, but of de-jure independent state, which was no longer part of Ottoman Empire at a time. – user28434 Dec 03 '18 at 15:43
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Yes. Romania celebrates on December 1 (Great Union Day) the annexation of Transylvania from Austria-Hungary.

Adam Gyenge
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  • Hungarians (not to mention Austrians) were an invading power themselves, so that doesn't count. Transilvania was inhabited earlier by people akin to those who later formed Romania. – Midas Dec 03 '18 at 05:40
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    @Midas: There is a dispute about this between Hungarians and Romanians, but this was not part of the question. The question was that is there a country which celebrates an annexation and this is clearly the case with the Great Union Day of Romania, when the annexation of Transylvania is celebrated. – Adam Gyenge Dec 03 '18 at 05:49
  • The second part of the question mentions it excludes areas taken back by its former owners. Of course i understand that there are technicalities around the equation of Romania and Dacia, so the issue is rather more complicated. Just to be clear, I did not down-vote the answer. – Midas Dec 03 '18 at 06:58
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    @Midas : there is even a dispute between Romanian historians themselves, between ultranationalisitc and more sensible ones. No one but the ultranationalists claim that Romania "owned" Transylvania before the end of WW1. In the Middle Ages there was not even the concept of a Romanian statehood. There were the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia, formed in the 13th-14th centuries, and they fought more against each other than against anyone else. Besides a brief personal union under Michael the Brave lasting less than a year, there was no "ownership", so you can't talk about "taking it back". – vsz Dec 03 '18 at 07:16
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    @vsz: I think he meant the Dacian times. However, there is also a difficulty with equating the (probably independent and/or partly nomadic) principality of Dacia, and the Roman province Dacia (which covered only a part of the 1918 land gain of Romania). If we take it seriously, then a significant part of the land (but not the whole) was owned by the Roman Empire for a while. Then the exact relationship between Dacians, the Roman Empire and Romanians is also not completely known, or let's say, disputed, and Midas mentions this too. – Adam Gyenge Dec 03 '18 at 07:24
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    @vsz: Anyway, what I meant (and what you probably also mean) is that the modern state of Romania then came as a new administrator of the area, so according to international law it is an annexation. The 55% romanian population of the area of course welcomed this, the 30% hungarian population of the area opposed it, while the 10% saxons also supported it. – Adam Gyenge Dec 03 '18 at 07:24
  • @vsz - Good comment, except they fought more against each other than against anyone else is not only excessive, but plainly false. I am not aware of medieval neighboring states that never fought each-other. The two principalities surely waged war much more often against the Turks, Tartars, Hungarians and Poles, but external greater powers (especially the Ottoman) intervened during the frequent periods of internal strife in both states, and sometimes engaged them in opposite alliances (Ottoman vs. Hungary, or Poland, or Russia, or Austria). –  Dec 03 '18 at 08:51
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    Romania gained for the first time Transylvania, but also other parts of Hungary proper (Banat and some parts of Eastern Hungary that were not historically Transylvania: Crisana region); also it took back some territories (Bessarabia taken from Russia/USSR and Bukovina from Austria-Hungary, but separate from Hungary proper) that historically had been parts of Moldavia, as well as south Dobrudja from Bulgaria (first taken in 1913, lost in 1918, re-taken in 1919). All this is celebrated on December 1st in relation to that date in 1918, although part of the gains were made in 1919. –  Dec 03 '18 at 13:04
  • @vsz: I understand the difficulties of that question and I am aware of what you said. What I meant is that traditionally, that area was inhabited by people more or less akin to each other. Then, the Huns happened... and the whole area became a bit more complicated. – Midas Dec 03 '18 at 19:07
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    In addition to the disputes above: the question itself talks about nations and countries. Romania as a country didn't exist prior mid-19th century, and there wasn't any formation ruling over that place that is obiviously related to modern-day Romans, even prior the arrival of Hungarians. (As discussed in other comments, the connection of the Romans with the modern romanian nation is disputed.) This excludes the possibility that the Romanian nation/country ever ruled over Transylvania prior WW1, thus the answer is valid for the question. – Neinstein Dec 03 '18 at 22:15
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    In case you want to read further arguments about the nationality side of the dispute, this Reddit thread may be a good starting point: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/38ck91/did_transylvania_historically_speaking_belong_to/ – Neinstein Dec 03 '18 at 23:03
  • @Neinstein - OP said I do not mean the case where native populations regain the control of an area lost to invading armies, so some of your arguments are not needed, especially the connection of the Romans with the modern Romanian nation is disputed, as what you say about Romania being a recent state is enough. - But one shouldn't fall in the other extremity: what modern nation can be politically connected to the Romans? what modern state or nation has a connection to Romans stronger than the linguistic connection? And that connection cannot be seriously contested for Romanians. –  Dec 09 '18 at 13:59
  • @Midas - "Annexation" should be understood neutrally, without any relation to a dispute over its "justification". –  Dec 09 '18 at 14:07
  • @Neinstein - What I mean is: part of your comment is very clarifying. But given that Romanian being a Romance language has no more importance for this question than presence/absence/proportion of Romanians in Transylvania, bringing that up as argument can be confusing. –  Dec 09 '18 at 14:12
  • @cipricus: I agree. There should be no grey-zone cases. Usually, between neighbouring countries it can be hard to have a black or white situation. On the contrary if Russia celebrated the incorporation of Kamchatka, there is no doubt it is an annexation, since there were no Russians around that place for thousands of miles/kilometers. – Midas Dec 09 '18 at 19:51
  • @cipricius I agree. I only brought that up since that supposed connection was mentioned as an argument earlier, and the question asks about nations too, not only countries. – Neinstein Dec 14 '18 at 13:01
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On 6 November every year, Morocco celebrates the Green March, which led to the claimed annexation of Western Sahara (which had been held by the Spanish until that time) by Morocco.

Sixtyfive
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user2384824
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  • Spanish in Western Sahara? This one is a special case. Must have in turn been taken over by the Spanish earlier. – Midas Dec 08 '18 at 07:52
  • Yes, the Western Sahara was a Spanish colony ("Province of the Sahara") from some time in the late 1800s (1880something?) until 1975. Not to be confused with "Spanish Morocco". The first Green March in late 1975 resulted in Spain withdrawing, which lead to war between the Sahrawi "Polisario Front" and Morocco until early 1990s. By no means can the Western Sahara be considered "annexed". This is an ongoing issue, by Spanish media often only called "El Problema". – Sixtyfive Aug 06 '19 at 08:00
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In the current form of the question, I'd suggest Germany, Italy. Caveats apply.

Germany

One question in the comments below the original question that arose displays nicely how flawed the concept asked about really is as it depends very much on opinions.

Does the Day of German Unity, observed annually on October 3, count?

Of course that would count. This inherently essentialist and nationalistic concept of 'former owners' would be what in that case? Nazi-Germany taking it back? Of course not! Unless we recognise the Federal Republic of Germany to be the seamless continuation of statehood of the Third Reich. Did the Red Army not leave and NVA cease to exist while the NATO rolled in? Was it not explicitly an annexation as devised by the basic law of the West (as opposed to the also envisioned unification)? There are opinions out there that still only speak of annexation of the GDR.

As there seem to be contentions evoked by the above example and its choice of sources to drive home the point about the absurdity and different interpretations possible about the term "annexation" with regard to the process that led to current form of Germany on a map –– Let's look at other languages, viewpoints? American, if you like:

Chronology
Feb 19 – GDR Prime Minister Modrow criticizes the plan to introduce a German currency union before elections are held in the GDR. He points out that a currency union must be combined with a social package. The participants at the Round Table protest against the annexation of the GDR by the FRG according to Article 23 of the West German Basic Law.
Mar 1 – The "Alliance for Germany" adopts the campaign slogan "Freedom and affluence––never again socialism". The principal plank in their election platform is the annexation of the GDR by the FRG according to Article 23 of the West German Basic Law.
Mar 6 – In a joint declaration, East German Prime Minister Modrow and Soviet leader Gorbachev support the idea of a gradual merger of the two German states, but they warn against the annexation of the GDR by the FRG according to Article 23 of the West German Basic Law. Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German CDU, speaks out against an unconditional annexation of the GDR by the FRG.
July 10 – The coalition government in the GDR is divided over the question […] They also cannot agree on a date for the annexation of the GDR by the FRG according to Article 23 of the West German Basic Law.
[… quite some more …]

Quoted from Richard T. Gray & Sabine Wilke: "German Unification and Its Discontents: Documents from the Peaceful Revolution", Washington University Press, 1996. (GBooks)

If that still doesn't satisfy readers in terms of qualities of sources. Jürgen Habermas: "Yet Again: German Identity: A Unified Nation of Angry DM-Burghers?", New German Critique, No. 52, Special Issue on German Unification (Winter, 1991), pp. 84-101: (JSTOR)

It is difficult not to write a satire about the first flowerings of chubby-faced DM-nationalism. The triumphant Chancellor let the thin but honest Prime Minister' know the conditions under which he was willing to buy up the GDR; in terms of monetary policy he pumped up the voters of an "Alliance for Germany" blackmailed into existence by himself; in terms of constitutional policy he set the course for annexation via article 23 of the Basic Law; and in terms of foreign policy he protested against the phrase "victorious powers" and left open the question of Poland's western border.[…]
After his visit to Dresden, the Chancellor quickly decided on a double strategy of undisguised destabilization and quick annexation of the GDR, in order to make the Federal Republic master of the situation and at the same time preempt international friction. Evidently, the Federal government wants to enter into the difficult negotiations about distributing the burdens among the EC partners, about a transformed security system, and about decisions on a peace treaty from a position of strength provided by an economic and political annexation that is already a fait accompli. Hence, on the one hand, the Federal government stepped on the gas pedal; it effectively dramatized the number of refugees, even though no one knew how to influence their motives. On the other hand, it could reach the goal of annexation - i.e., unification according to the Federal Republic's terms - only by breaking down the GDR's resistance and creating the necessary majority for unification via Article 23 of the Basic Law.[…]
This means, concretely, that the will of the voting public is given precedence over an annexation cleverly initiated but in the final analysis carried through only at the administrative level - an annexation which dishonestly evades one of the essential conditions for the founding of any nation of state-citizens: the public act of a carefully considered democratic decision taken in both parts of Germany. This act of foundation can only be carried out consciously and intentionally if we agree to accomplish unification via Article 23 of our Basic Law (which go the accession "of other parts of Germany")[…]
If, now, the GDR, like the Saarland, accedes according to article 23, without any further changes in the Basic Law, the chosen method of unification will implicitly underline what the irredentists have ways affirmed: that the conditions for Article 146 have not yet been fulfilled That article states: "This Basic Law loses its validity on the day that a new constitution takes effect, chosen by the German people in free determination." And it is quite true: an "accession" of the GDR could not be the same thing as a free decision of the entire German people; because the citizens of the Federal Republic would have to leave the decision to the representatives of the GDR. When, then, if not now, will that day foreseen in Article 146 ever come? Are we still waiting for East Prussia and Silesia?

Note to German readers fixated on the official mythology and the "correct wording": In a previous article for a newspaper Habermas uses indeed not Annexion but Anschluss (in a meaning every American understands immediately), just like those who made the "peaceful revolution" come about in the first place:

enter image description here Source: Matthias Platzeck und kein Anschluss unter dieser Nummer, Euractiv, 2010. (Matthias Platzeck was a member of one of those opposition parties that before opposed the communists, instigated the demonstrations, and then opposed German unity, at the very least in the very form it took place. He went on to become minister and then prime-minister of a federal state…

The debate for clarification below the question as well as the debate that this answer has caused illustrate both brilliantly how loaded the term "annexation" is. Technically it is just nothing more than enlargement of territory, yet using that term qualifies the procedure in terms of "yep, OK vs Noway". Yet in case of Germany: "We like them, now, they won't do that!" And in the case of Russia and Crimea: "A typical! They just annex that peninsula, how dare they!".

Just look at the idiotic argumentation in this article from the Washington Post: Russia’s bizarre proposal to condemn West Germany’s 1989 ‘annexation’ of East Germany and compare how they quote Gorbachev with what was just quoted above. "Annexation" does not describe or analyse, "annexation" approves or condemns.

Further example: the Russian Wikipedia speaks of Crimea accession to the Russian Federation while West Germany annexed East-Germany

2014 - the accession of the Crimea to the Russian Federation (with the formation of two new subjects - the Republic of Crimea and the city of federal significance Sevastopol), which did not receive international recognition.

The unification of Germany, officially: the German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) or the restoration of the unity of Germany (German: Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands) - the incorporation of the GDR and West Berlin into the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990. At the same time, a new state was not created, and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949 was enacted in the annexed territories (German Beitrittsgebiet).

Whatever any reader's perspective on this "annexation" or "accession" might be, since 1972–74 not only Eastern bloc states, but West-Germany, Australia, the US, the UK, the UN recognised the GDR as territory foreign to the Federal Republic of Germany.

As now "invasion gets the flak: it's the same game. Compare word usage in eg British Invasion with what a dictionary says and then the rhetoric of victory over socialism, Treuhand-effects, Buschzulage, de-industrialisation, colonisation, Bundeswehr/NATO expansion into the East etc. – from both sides of the former wall. Again this is over one ill-defined word from the question and opinion over the monotheistic definition of one word. This answer present multiple perspectives and narratives, arguing against precisely "the one and only".

Mark Duckenfield & Noel Calhoun: "Invasion of the western Ampelmännchen", German Politics, 6:3, 54-69, DOI: 10.1080/09644009708404488
Wenhao (Winston) Du: "Wiedervereinigung oDer anschLuss? The Effects of Reunification in Former East Germany", Vanderbilt University: Vanderbilt Historical Review, 2016. (PDF)

Since it has been completely dominated by West German state and corporate actors, East Germany's transformation has taken on characteristics of colonization. East Germans have been economically expropriated as a combined result of unification laws that stipulate the restoration of pre-socialist property rights and of the Treuhand's policy of rapid privatization.
Claudia Sadowski-Smith, University of Delaware: "Ostalgie: Revaluing the Past, Regressing into the Future", NPP > JOURNALS > GDR > Vol. 25 (1998) > Iss. 1. (PDF)

If the contention still hinges on "but annexation can only mean Illegal" (despite the copious explanation above:
In 1989/90 there were basically four options on the table: no German unity, very slow merger, fast merger according to article 146, faster merger according to article 23. Some West-Germans viewed option 23 as illegal, many East Germans saw option 23 as illegal, as an annexation or Anschluss. Most West-Germans and many East-Germans were perfectly fine with that: being the fastest option and illegal.

If anyone now wants to challenge the word "territory" I will give up and concede that most people have opinions and "reasons".

Italy

Perhaps the most extreme example – if not most bizarrely – is Italy celebrating Ferragosto. Introduced to celebrate the annexation of Egypt into the Roman Empire by emperor Augutus. As feriae Augusti on August 15, the day of his triumph when returning to Rome from conquering Egypt and annexing it, still a national holiday in Italy. (Of course, Christians say it is really the Assumption of Mary, but fascist Italy re-emphasised the conquest origin and most ordinary people today just make a holiday, any reasons disregarded).

Also ran and further elaborations

Hawaii celebrates being annexed, ahem, being admitted into statehood, on Statehood Day (3rd Friday in August) demonstrating once more that opinions might change over time.

It is not really useful to ask the question in this way. "Former owners" and "foreign territory" depend on definition that sometimes can be quite arbitrary. "Annexation" is a concept that became much easier in recent years. "That's what the enemy does!" Russia reunifying with the Crimea? Iraq reunifying with its province of Kuweit? China oogling on Taiwan? Japan on the Kurils?

Just look at the examples given under the broken definition listed at Wikipedia:

Annexation (Latin ad, to, and nexus, joining) is the administrative action and concept in international law relating to the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state. It is generally held to be an illegal act. It is distinct from conquest, which refers to the acquisition of control over a territory involving a change of sovereignty, and differs from cession, in which territory is given or sold through treaty, since annexation is a unilateral act where territory is seized and held by one state.

To get to the core of the question we probably have to ask something more along those lines:

Does any country celebrate regularly past military victories with the feature of territory added to the celebrating state?

That list might get quite long.

To perhaps better illustrate the ambiguities involved to answer such a question: we might look at the National Day of Catalonia. Spanish nationalists celebrate the loss of autonomy of that region and Catalonian nationalists mourn the exact same thing and date. Is there any objective way to decide who's right on that matter?

Or going again into history: Alsace-Lorraine was officially ceded to the German Reich in the treaty of Frankfurt in 1871. This was celebrated indirectly in Germany as Sedantag. France and many later victorious powers didn't like the result and called it an injustice and annexation. Yet, who were the 'former owners' and was the process illegal? In 1872 the inhabitants were given the choice of option and 90% seemed in agreement of the procedure, officially deciding to become Germans, and two thirds of those who declared their desire to stay French stayed put.
As a historian of antiquity I deny either France or Germany that title of "former" or even "original owner". Even Romans are not the original owners of that territory. That title goes to either the Neanderthals or the Old-Europeans that were driven away or assimilated by incoming Indo-Europeans.

"Former owners" is either just 'the state of affairs from last year' or a senseless abuse of history. Most often the latter.

LаngLаngС
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Not a complete country, but a faction within the country.

William III invaded Britain, with popular support from the majority-Protestant population. Northern Irish Protestants still celebrate the Battle of the Boyne, where William crushed James II/VII's army and ended any real opposition to his invasion.

Of course, this is an artifact of the fractured society of Ireland, and subsequently of Northern Ireland. Elsewhere in the UK you'd be lucky to find anyone who's heard of William III or that battle, because British colonial exploits have generally been rather badly taught in schools.

Graham
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  • If people elsewhere in the UK have heard of it, it's probably due to Northern Ireland. – gerrit Dec 03 '18 at 15:20
  • How have people from England, Wales, and Scotland not heard of the man who signed the English Bill of Rights, though? – Jonathan Cast Dec 04 '18 at 02:18
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    "Elsewhere in the UK you'd be lucky to find anyone who's heard of William III or that battle" eh? I'm not to hot on all the details of the Battle of the Boyne, but I'm certainly aware of it. And I'd be surprised if most people didn't know of William at least as part of 'William and Mary'. –  Dec 04 '18 at 12:39
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    "because British colonial exploits have generally been rather badly taught in schools." Regardless of the situation of Ireland (both sides of which were fighting for a British King in this battle of course), claiming people not hearing about William is due to not teaching British colonial exploits is somewhat Bizarre. –  Dec 04 '18 at 12:43
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    @JonathanCast Too little teaching, too much history to cover. To understand European history, you need to know the background going back to Roman history at the very least, and that's too much to teach. So typically at school we end up with a "greatest hits" compilation, with a lot of gaps in between. – Graham Dec 04 '18 at 13:25
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    @Orangesandlemons Good luck finding anyone who can tell you all the British kings/queens in sequence and even a halfway-accurate summary of what they did. I'm moderately interested in history, but I know I couldn't, and most of what I do know I've learnt since school. I'm middle-class, degree-educated, go to museums on holiday. Most people have been badly-educated in history, and aren't motivated (often because of that lousy education) to explore further. – Graham Dec 04 '18 at 13:33
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    @Graham Indeed, I'm bad at many, but William III is one of the better-known ones. Ask me about William IV and I start hemming and hawing beyond 'he was Hanoverian' –  Dec 04 '18 at 15:44
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    I'm in the US, and even I know that the Glorious Revolution was pretty darned pivotal in British history. – Adam Miller Dec 05 '18 at 15:03
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A lot of polities or part of them have been founded as result of the conquest of their territory. Therefore, commemorating the conquest mixes with commemorating the founding of the polity.

Istanbul Conquest Day, mentioned in another answer, is a great example - it does not commemorate the founding of the state, but the completion of the conquest of its core lands.

As another example, Valentian National Day commemorates the conquest of Valencia by James I of Aragon from previous Muslim holders and subsequent founding of the Kingdom of Valencia.

Australia Day is not very different from commemorating a conquest - just because of lack of serious resistance -, because it commemorates taking possession of a new land while disregarding previous inhabitants wishes and interests.

New Caledonia Day also commemorates the incorporation of New Caledonia as a French protectorate in 1853 - not exactly a conquest but not far from it.

Pere
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  • In this regards US states also conquested the land, and kind of falls to the same pattern as AU :) – Askar Kalykov Dec 03 '18 at 12:42
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    @AskarKalykov - As far as I know, US states tend to commemorate their admission day, not the day the US took the territory from somebody else. – Pere Dec 03 '18 at 12:59
  • Yeah, if you hadn't mentioned Australia Day, I would have done so myself. There's a reason why some Aboriginal activists refer to it as "Invasion Day". – nick012000 Dec 07 '18 at 09:52
  • Yes, those days are easy to reverse: for example, Columbus Day is also the Indigenous Resistance Day. In an extreme case some peoples commemorate losing an important battle (notably Catalonia and Serbia) without the winning side commemorating its victory. – Pere Dec 07 '18 at 10:54
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Spain's National Day is celebrated on October 12th, the day Columbus (re)discovered the American continent in 1492.

Given that every discovered territory was subsequently claimed by the Spanish Crown and promptly conquered/annexed, thus marking the birth of the Spanish Empire, this holiday can be seen as a celebration of the annexation of the American territories -- the date would hardly be a National Day if the Spanish Empire hadn't happened. In fact:

The chosen date, the 12th of October, symbolizes the historical event in which Spain, about to conclude a State-building process rooted in our cultural and political plurality, as well as the integration of Spain's kingdoms under the same Monarchy, begins a period of linguistic and cultural projection beyond European limits.
Excerpt from the law proclaiming the 12th of October as National Day (bold mine) (full text in Spanish)

This "State-building process" and "integration of kingdoms" would be the Reconquista, which ultimately ended with the Capitulation of Granada on January 2nd, 1492, just months before Columbus set sail.
So this territorial unification and expansion is officially acknowledged as the motivation of the celebration, although the text of the law using a milder language (the law is from 1987 after all).

walen
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  • You shouldn't say Columbus rediscovered the Americas. It's not like he knew they were out there somewhere beforehand. He was looking for a western route to Asia and accidentally discovered land previously unknown to Europeans. – EldritchWarlord Dec 03 '18 at 15:16
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    @EldritchWarlord There's a fair possibility that America was already known to the Nordic nations. Hence the parentheses surrounding (re): it is my way of allowing for both points of view. Sure, for all Columbus and the men and women of his time knew, he had just discovered a new land; but it was possibly not the first time someone had discovered it. – walen Dec 03 '18 at 15:31
  • Then you should add that he (re)discovered it for old world nations, because native americans knew about America too, way before vikings arrived. /s – user28434 Dec 03 '18 at 15:49
  • @user28434 The difference being that Vikings came also from Europe. – walen Dec 03 '18 at 15:57
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    I don't believe Norse knowledge of the areas beyond Greenland ever made it into the broader European community. – Gort the Robot Dec 03 '18 at 17:49
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    @StevenBurnap Obviously. We would not be talking about Columbus' discovery if it did... – walen Dec 04 '18 at 10:15
  • You might also add Jan 2, celebrating the catholic conquest of Granada. Aug 15 expelling of Moors… Spain is pretty full of such dates? – LаngLаngС Dec 04 '18 at 12:47
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    @LangLangC There's a lot of such dates indeed, we have a very eventful history -- but OP is asking for national celebrations, and only October 12th is regarded as a National Day in Spain. You made however a very good point about the conquest of Granada, which also happened in 1492. I may edit the answer later to mention that. – walen Dec 04 '18 at 13:47
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    @LuisG. Even if the Norse discovery of land in modern Canada was known to other Europeans (which seems very unlikely) Columbus discovered land in the Caribbean which was unknown to any European. I guess this is just a semantic disagreement, both are in North America so as you say they discovered the same continent. – EldritchWarlord Dec 04 '18 at 14:39
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    @EldritchWarlord, it's disputed whether Columbus knew that the Americas were out there somewhere. There's evidence which suggests that Basque cod fisherman were landing somewhere in North America to preserve their fish. And Columbus' major underestimate of the circumference of the world (and consequently of the amount of provisions he would need to reach Asia) might be explained if he didn't really intend to get to Asia and was covering up his true intentions. – Peter Taylor Dec 06 '18 at 09:39
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Italy also has a (not too much celebrated, not a bank holiday) official celebration for its unification, after Piedmont had "liberated" most of the peninsula. But a man's unification/liberation is another man's conquest/annexation, depending on how words and sides turn.

Federico Poloni
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Israel – Jerusalem Day

Another instance would be Jerusalem day:

Jerusalem Day (Hebrew: יום ירושלים‎, Yom Yerushalayim) is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City in the aftermath of the June 1967 Six-Day War. The day is officially marked by state ceremonies and memorial services.

Is that former owners taking something back or blunt annexation?

We observe an ongoing since then bloody conflict about the 'correct' opinion on that.

LаngLаngС
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