As you may already know by now, international borders can be complicated.
If need proof of this, watch parts one and two of this series if you haven’t already.
Speaking of previous episodes, I actually wanted to start off part 3 of the series by
addressing some changes that have happened relating to some of the borders I talked about
in parts one and two.
In episode one, I talked about the border between India and Bangladesh.
Easily the single most complex international border in the world with nearly 200 enclaves,
24 of which are second-order enclaves, and the world’s only third-order enclave: part
of India, inside Bangladesh, inside India, inside Bangladesh.
Crazy stuff.
Now, in 2011, both governments agreed to sort out the enclaves, but when I released part
one of this series back in 2013, still nothing had been done.
However, that has now changed.
In 2015, the transfer of enclaves finally happened.
Tens of thousands of people who were living in a state of limbo who basically had no government,
were allowed to choose citizenship of either of the two countries.
So India and Bangladesh now have a completely normal border, and the world’s only 3rd-order
enclave is gone!
From a geography lover’s perspective it’s a little sad, but in reality it’s a very
positive thing since 50,000 were effectively trapped inside these enclaves, unable to live
a normal life.
Now moving on, but still sticking with borders from previous episodes.
In both episodes 1 and 2, I talked about unclaimed land.
Bir Tawil between Egypt and Sudan in part 1, and the parcels of unclaimed land caused
by the River Danube between Croatia and Serbia.
Well, both of these lands have since been claimed.
Two micronations have since been established.
In Africa, an American man has claimed Bir Tawil as the Kingdom of Northern Sudan.
In Europe, the largest parcel of land has been claimed by a Czech man and established
the Free Republic of Liberland.
Like most micronations, these two newly-established countries lack any sort of international recognition,
with most sovereign-states saying they have no legal grounds to claim the lands.
It does beg an interesting question, legally speaking.
Do they have a right to claim the land?
Yes, the land is technically unclaimed, but on the other hand it could be argued that
it’s an ongoing border dispute and that the land does belong to one of the countries,
it hasn’t been determined which one at the moment.
OK that’s enough about previous episodes, let’s look at some new borders now!
Continuing with tradition, let’s look at some enclaves and exclaves.
There are still some that I haven’t yet covered.
First we’re going to look at Spain.
Now Spain actually has 3 separate exclaves.
One of which is enclaved by France, and another two by Morocco.
The Spanish town of Llívia sits just 1500 meters from the Spanish-French border and
is completely surrounded by France.
The reason this small town with a population of less than 2000 is Spanish and not French
is basically because of technicality in a treaty back in the 1600s…
In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees which put an end to the Franco-Spanish War, ceded
to France “all villages north of the Pyrenees”.
Now, Llívia is north of the Pyrenees, however, it was technically considered a city, because
historically it had been the capital city of the Cerdanya, a country of Catalonia.
So today in the 21st century, this small town remains Spanish because a treaty 350 years
ago considered it a city because it had been a capital city of a county of a principality
which came into existence 900 years ago.
So moving onto Africa, just across the Strait of Gibraltar, where we find Ceuta, surrounded
by Morocco.
Historically, Ceuta has been a strategically important naval base, dating back as early
as Carthaginian Empire in the 5th century BC.
It changed hands many times and was actually destroyed in 740 AD, but later re-established
in the 9th century.
Before becoming a Spanish territory, it was actually Portuguese.
It was conquered from the Kingdom of Fez in 1415.
This can still be seen today as the flag of Ceuta uses the coat of arms of Portugal.
In 1580, Spain and Portugal were united under the Iberian Union as Portugal had a succession
crisis as their king died without any heirs.
This lasted until 1640 and the Portuguese Restoration War, which ultimately led to Portuguese
independence.
However, Ceuta remained loyal to Spain, and in the 1668 Treaty of Lisbon, the exclave
was ceded to the Spanish Empire.
Moving onto the other Spanish exclave of Melilla.
The enclave has a somewhat similar history to Ceuta in that it was settled millennia
ago has changed hands several times throughout its history.
Melilla was conquered by the Spanish in 1497, although at the time it was actually under
Portugal’s zone of influence.
The Portuguese however, allowed the Spanish to attempt to conquer it, which they did with
very little resistance.
Ever since the conquest, Morocco have made several unsuccessful attempts to take the
city, believing it to be rightfully theirs.
After a brief war between Spain and Morocco in 1859, which was decisively won by the Spanish,
Morocco recognised the Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.
The city limits of Melilla were also defined that year, and it was decided that the way
in which it would be done would be to fire a cannon from Spain’s fortress, and measure
how far away it landed.
The cannonball landed 2900 meters away from the castle, and that would determine the border
between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Melilla.
Morocco would later be colonized by Spain in the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin
Conference of 1884.
However, after Morocco’s independence in 1956, Spain held onto their two African exclaves,
claiming them to be an integral part of Spain.
Morocco still claims both exclaves to this day.
Let’s look at another border now and what was probably the most requested in the comment
section of the last two videos: the Kaliningrad Oblast.
The Kaliningrad Oblast is part of Russia that is separated from the mainland.
It has a coast on the Baltic Sea and is bordered by Lithuania and Poland.
By land you would need to travel through two countries to get the Russian mainland.
So how did the border end up like this?
For this, we need to go back to 1871 and the unification of Germany.
The German Empire, the Second Reich, was mostly dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, which
made up 62% of the nation’s population and 64% of its land area.
After Germany’s defeat in WWI, the Treaty of Versailles ceded much of Germany’s land
to bordering nations.
East Prussia became an exclave as it became separated from the rest of the nation.
In the aftermath of the war, the kingdom was abolished and became the Free State of Prussia.
This only lasted until 1933 though as the Nazi Party took control.
After the Nazis were defeated in WWII however, Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin demanded
that East Prussia be split between Russia, and Poland.
The exclave came into existence with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the bordering
nations became independent, leaving the Kaliningrad Oblast separated from the rest of Russia.
All surrounding nations have introduced strict border controls since joining the EU.
Moving on from enclaves and exclaves now as we travel to Africa, and the country of Namibia.
The country has a somewhat unusual shape, as it has a long salient, or panhandle extending
eastwards.
The is called the Caprivi Strip, and, unsurprising, has its roots in colonial European times.
Modern-day Namibia was a former German colony: German South West Africa.
Germany acquired the Caprivi Strip in a deal with Great Britain and its name comes from
the German chancellor who negotiated the acquisition - Leo von Caprivi.
The idea behind this was that Germany wanted access to the Zambezi River which would give
them a route to the east of Africa.
Unfortunately for Germany, this plan had one major flaw… see, just 60km or so down the
Zambezi River is the world’s largest waterfall, Victoria Falls.
So the Zambezi River was found to be not navigable, and Germany’s plan of a route to the east
was thwarted.
However, despite this, and despite Namibia since becoming part of South Africa and then
fully independent in 1990, the Caprivi Strip remains.
The population of the strip of land are ethnically and linguistically different from the rest
of the country and there is even a separatist movement with their own rebel group: the Caprivi
Liberation Army.
Sticking with Africa as we look at the next border.
An international border that has only existed for a few years - the border between Sudan
and South Sudan.
Having previously been the same country, South Sudan achieved its independence in 2011, but
a border dispute remains.
The region of Abyei was given a "special administrative status" and as such is considered to be simultaneously
part of Sudan and South Sudan.
Back when Sudan was a condominium between Britain and Egypt, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, it
was administered as two separate north and south provinces.
The politics were heavily dominated by the north, and the south had very little representation.
This continued throughout the independence of Sudan and led to a civil war and eventually
the independence of South Sudan.
A peace treaty was signed in 2005, which stated that an independence referendum would take
place after 6 years.
The referendum was nearly unanimously passed with almost 99% voting in favour of independence.
Another referendum, for the region of Abyei, was originally scheduled to take place at
the same time, however to this day it has yet to place due to various complications
and disagreements, and therefore is still stuck in a state of limbo and the "special
administrative status" that it was given as a temporary solution.
The region has been controlled by Sudan since 2012.
Now this next complex border is actually not even on land, but on a lake: Lake Constance,
between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
On this lake, there basically are no international borders.
The borders between these nations simply stop at the shoreline because no treaty exists
as to where exactly the borders are.
Austria believes the lake to be a condominium, i.e. the lake is simultaneously part of all
three countries.
Switzerland on the other hand, believes the international borders simply pass through
the centre of the lake.
Germany just doesn’t really an opinion on the subject.
Any legal disputes which may arise are simply handled on a case by case basis.
The final border I’m going to look at, and part of the world that has yet to be featured
in this complex borders series: South America.
The border between Chile and Argentina.
Now these two countries have a massive natural border between them - the Andes mountain range,
and should therefore have no problem deciding where their border is, right?
Well, both countries gained their independence from the Spanish Empire in the early 19th
century, but it wasn’t until the boundary treaty of 1881 that the official border was
to be established.
However, what seemed like a fairly straightforward treaty, turned out to actually cause a border
dispute between the two nations.
The treaty stated that the border between Chile and Argentina would be “the peaks
of the Andes mountain range which divide the water”
The division of the water referring to water that flows to the Atlantic, and water that
flows to the Pacific.
The problem though, was that the treaty stated two separate stipulations: the peaks of the
Andes and the division of the water.
The treaty assumed these two things were the same.
It assumed that all water to the west of the Andes would flow to the Pacific, while all
water on the east would flow to the Atlantic.
This however, turned out not to be the case.
Rivers can and do erode through mountains over many years, and the Andes is no exception.
Therefore some rivers that were west of the Andes would flow to the east and vice versa.
So this created a border dispute between the two countries, where both countries simply
claimed whichever gave them the most territory.
The dispute had to settled by a neutral party, and this was the British King, King Edward
the VII.
So Chile and Argentina, two countries which have two naturally occurring boundaries between
the,, the division of the waters, and one of the largest mountain ranges in the world,
have a border which follows neither.
Thanks for watching.