Interaction between nations.

[Bubblegum Knight]

Hi guys. Does anybody here know how long a group of relatively close nations could go without making contact with each other? Could two nearby nations not discover each other for more than a thousand years?

[Wolram]

Hmm, how close is relatively close? And how big are the nations? And also what kind of technology do they have? I think it would take quite specific circumstances. Most geographical boundaries could be overcome given time and some adventurous humans. Could you set the scene a bit more?

[xpian]

I'm with Wolram. It's all about the circumstances, and whether these nations have reasons to have NOT discovered each other yet. For instance, imagine a thick forest with tall trees and lots of undergrowth--maybe it's as lush as a tropical rainforest. In the trees live...elves! A civilization of elves who rarely set foot on the forest floor, if they can help it, and live in tree houses. Tall mountains pierce the forest in some places, sheer rocky cliffs climbing to icy heights, and a civilization of winged eagle-men live up here soaring above it all. In the depths of the mountain, and in tunnels that spread out below the forest, a city-state of dwarves make mighty halls and delve for precious metals and gems. Such peoples might rarely, if ever, interact with each other. They might believe that they come from entirely different worlds.

Also, keep in mind that "nations" is a somewhat loaded word. The concept of Nation-States has only been around for a couple hundred years. For most of human history you had tribal affiliations, family bonds, villages...then the occasional city, which was almost always a city-state, controlling a region around it (such as Carthage or Athens or Syracuse)...then sometimes Kingdoms or Empires, if some conqueror and his family had managed to place other villages and cities under subjugation for a time. Borders were fluid. A regime might lay claim to a land, but might have no way to enforce that claim. Whole generations could live and die without ever paying homage to the "ruler" who was supposed to be in charge of them. It's only since the 1700s or 1800s that we have the idea of a world that's completely divided up into notional national borders, taking up all the available land area. It's only in recent history that we expect a nation state to exercise governmental control over the whole of the territory they claim.

[Azélor]

If they are advanced enough to call themselves nations (either as a state or as a cultural group), it's obvious that they will trade with each other, directly or indirectly with foreign merchant passing by. They should at least be aware of the existence of the other.

[Applejack]

Could be.
Think of the Ancient Chinese Dynasties en the Roman Empire.
There was a large trade network, most notably, the Silk Road.
Which went from the far east to the Middle-East and Europe.

They were the superpowers of their time, but never directly interacted,
mainly because of the sheer distance.
If you have a fantasy series in mind, it would be an interesting to have to empires,
one expanding east (Imperial Russia) and the other going west (Mongols, Chinese Dynasties.)
It would make up for an interesting clash.

It doesn't have to be distance always, see above for other reasons.
Spain and Kievan Rus didn't have proper contact until 1519 in which
Russia sent an envoy to Spain.
That's really late, considering the many European countries, and their respective
wars and marriages. Also, the distance between Madrid and Moscow isn't really big at all.
Why didn't they have contact before? Well, Europe has (always) been a chaos since the fall
of the Romans. They had their own hands full, Mongol Hordes, Reconquista etc.

Another concept is if you have a colonial power discovering a new continent, making contact
with the native (empires/peoples).
Similar to Spain meeting the Mayans and Incas.

[Falconius]

It would take extraordinary circumstances of some sort for two nations to not have contact, or even more so be unaware of one another's existence, if they were a) attached in any way by land or b) safely in regular reach of a boat (ie not a canoe navigating its way from island to island across the pacific).

Political reasons of course are always possible, but by inference they do necessitate the knowledge of other political entities. It is foreseeable that there could be laws instituted for X reason, but the reason was forgotten in time and so too the knowledge of what lies beyond. Exploring the physical possibilities that could explain such separation within relatively close proximity could make for so interesting mapping opportunities though.

[Applejack]

I just noticed the dumb mistakes in my previous post.
Lol, I type way to fast and never do a grammar check afterward xD.
Unless it's important to do so of course....

[Falconius]

What are you talking about? It has the same line structure a poem, it's brilliant and awesome. Myself, I consider it a work of accidental genius...

[Applejack]

Haha what? Well, thanks. Shall I take it as a compliment?

[Falconius]

I don't think anyone but you noticed any mistakes, and I still can't see them. I still like the structure of your post up there, it is actually poetic. So compliment