CHAPTER 1
WHY DO STRANGE BORDERS EXIST?
What is a border, really? In simple terms, a border is where one country ends and another country begins.
Many borders have quite obvious features. They may be rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, or any other substantial geographic barriers. But then there are very strange borders that at face value don't appear to make a lot of sense. Let's begin by talking about countries that are entirely — or almost entirely — surrounded by one single other country.
Lesotho: The Mountain Kingdom
The country of Lesotho is a strange oddity in our world. It's a little smaller than the US state of Maryland, is home to over two million people, and is a completely independent country with its own government and King.
Despite its legal independence, the whole country is completely surrounded by South Africa. This strange situation occurred over a century ago in 1910, when what is today modern South Africa was formed by the British out of four of their colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony. Notably absent from this list of colonies, that became part of the Union of South Africa, was what was then called Basutoland — modern day Lesotho.
Lesotho also happens to feature the Highest Altitude Pub in Africa, which is aptly named, as it is nearly 2,900 meters above sea level. Located at the beginning of Sani Pass, it is an ideal place for a cold brew with a view.
The British attempted to include Basutoland within South Africa, but they failed due to the reluctance of the people within the colony. Basutoland would remain a British controlled colony even after South Africa achieved full self- governance in 1931, awkwardly placing a piece of British administered territory right in the middle of a self-governing former colony.
Basutoland finally gained independence from Britain in 1966, but its geographic situation means that the country has been severely influenced by South Africa ever since. All trade that comes into Lesotho has to first gothrough South Africa. Lesotho is completely landlocked and literally surrounded by South African territory on all sides, so all transportation to or from Lesotho must first go through South Africa. Even air travel has to venture through South African airspace first before it can enter Lesotho, which means that developments in South Africa will inevitably lead to the same occurrences in Lesotho.
But Lesotho isn't the only landlocked country in the world that is entirely surrounded by another country. The next two happen to both be located in Italy.
Italian Frontiers
The first Italian border for discussion is Vatican City, which is a terribly complicated subject all on its own. Vatican City is the smallest internationally recognized, fully sovereign nation on Earth — smaller than Central Park in New York City at 110 acres and having a population around 1,000 citizens. Despite this, however, it's a fully legal, independent country inside the Italian city of Rome with its own borders, as well as its own police force, firefighters, and passports.
For centuries, the Papacy controlled their own country, known as the Papal States, which controlled a large territory in central Italy. The entire Italian peninsula was divided into dozens of small city-states and regional powers, but that reality began to change in the nineteenth century. Slowly but surely, a united Italian kingdom began to emerge and eventually it reached the point where all of Italy was united into the same kingdom, except for the stubborn Papal States and San Marino. The Kingdom of Italy ended up invading the Papal States in 1860, and then occupied and annexed the rest of the country in 1870, which essentially left the Pope a stateless entity. The Pope controlled no physical territory and, as a result, the relations between the Pope and the Italian government were openly hostile for the next sixty years.
This situation, dubbed "The Roman Question," was finally settled in the 1920's under Benito Mussolini's Fascist government. The Pope was to be granted an area within the city of Rome that would once again serve as hisown sovereign territory. The area became what is still today Vatican City and is the last remaining absolute monarchy within Europe. It is legally recognized within the borders of Rome and completely surrounded by modern day Italy.
The Most Serene Republic of San Marino, Italy
The other country completely surrounded by another country is also in Italy: San Marino. As legend has it, the country was founded in 301 AD by a Christian stonemason named Marinus. Its first constitution was written in 1600, making it one of the oldest in world history.
San Marino has a population of nearly 33,000 and is the world's fifth smallest country at 23.5 miles long. The capital? San Marino, of course, though the country's largest city is Dogbane. The country has its own stamp and coin systems — both of which are prized by international collectors.
The country must be doing something right in maintaining its independence from Italy, its adjacent border. It has a thriving tourism industry, receiving three million visitors a year. Best of all, the nation'saverage life expectancy is eighty-three years of age — the third best in the world behind Macau and Monaco.
Some Other Odd Border Facts
1. North and South Korea: It would be a grave understatement to say that these two nations do not get along. They have a long history of conflict, which we needn't get into here. While some of their borders are pretty heavily guarded, there is one location in Panmunjom where the countries aren't even separated by a street; they are in such close proximity that only a wooden plank is between them and their guarded blue building structures.
2. Ethiopia and Somalia: These two countries have a border that is separated by only a flimsy piece of string.
3. Canada and the United States: Most people think the Canadian and US border — the longest in the world, stretching over 5,500 miles — is pretty straightforward and peaceful, right? Think again. There are two points that remain in an unresolved state: Machias Seal Island and North Rock between Maine and New Brunswick.
4. The Mediterranean Sea bordering between Africa and Europe: This is perhaps the world's most dangerous border, as numerous refugee and migrant boats capsize in the treacherous waters each year. In 2016 alone, around 5,000 deaths occurred in the Mediterranean Sea.
5. New York Anomalies: We have room for one tidbit pertaining to American states. Liberty Island and Ellis Island, which symbolize American freedom and liberty, are in New York — right? Not exactly: They are actually located in New Jersey waters. Some of the areas that have been claimed by New York since 1834 were overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1998 and given to New Jersey because these locations had been created by landfill. New Jersey owned the waters and submerged lands around Ellis Island, so the Supreme Court ruled that anything created on those spots to expand the property — even as landfill — was part of their state.
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BORDERS?
1. What countries border Israel?
2. What state did the US buy from Mexico for fifteen million dollars?
3. What European nation with thousands of years of history only became officially known as a unified country in 1851?
4. Why did China build its famous Great Wall?
5. Was Korea ever unified?
CHAPTER 2
WHAT IF HISTORICAL EMPIRES WERE TO REUNITE TODAY?
Merrily sang the monks of Ely
As King Canute came rowing by.
"Row to the shore, knights," said the king,
"And let us hear these churchmen sing."
— English nursery rhyme
Countries and empires come and go throughout human history. Some last for only a brief period of time, such as Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire — which was essentially dissolved shortly after his death. Others, likethe Roman Empire, existed for well over 1,000 years.
Although many of these historic ancient empires no longer exist, theirgeographical space still does. From a geographical perspective, the world map doesn't change very much over the course of a few hundred years. On the other hand, human civilization changes often — sometimes quite dramatically in just a single year. Borders shift, people migrate, new cities are built, old cities are abandoned, new languages evolve from older languages, and so on. We're in a hyper-globalized world where modern transportation makes it quick and easy to get from here to there and the Internet keeps us connected 24/7 wherever we happen to be (as long as there is a Wi-Fi signal).
Human civilization is incredibly kinetic and prone to changes, so it's interesting to see what historical empires would look like today if they were recreated on their exact historic borders.
What would the Roman Empire look like today in comparison with how it looked in the time of Julius Caesar? How would the populations of past and present compare? How different would the ethnic and linguistic makeups be? Who would be the Emperor or President today in those locations?
The very notion of a "country" is a fairly recent phenomenon. For almost all of human history, the idea of a modern nation state — or even a state at all — simply didn't exist. People generally identified themselves more with their religion, tribe, or family than any notion of a nation.
People have migrated in different ways throughout history, which can significantly change how a particular area on our globe appears to us. For example, what we now consider to be Anatolia and Turkey used to be a largely Greek speaking and Christian practicing region of our planet. Beginning in the eleventh century, however, Anatolia began to be invaded by vast migrations of Turkish peoples.
Over the centuries, the Greek and Christian populations were gradually replaced by the new Turkish speaking and Muslim populations. Today, the land that was the Byzantine Empire circa 555 AD is now overwhelmingly populated by Turks, Arabs, and Muslims. If one were to go back in time to 555 AD, Islam hadn't even come into existence yet.
It's equally as fascinating to see how some regions of the world have changed over time as it is to find those few that have changed very little. In this chapter, we are going to examine three of these historical empires recreated today — the Roman, Vikings, and German empires — assuming no population changes or damage takes place beforehand. We will examine the modern day regions that would make up these empires and explain how the modern forms of these empires would function.
We can leave it up to you to decide whether or not these empires could actually survive as long (or as briefly) as their historical counterparts.
Empire 1: The Roman Empire
What can be said about the Roman Empire that hasn't been said already? Quite a great deal, actually, especially in terms of what a "Roman Empire" might look like today.
The important question is where to begin the investigation. The Roman Empire lasted so long — estimates range between 1,229 to 2,206 years — and encompassed so much territory — some 2,400 miles east to west — that any analysis is daunting.
With this in mind, I think it's best to start by listing the countries In existence today that the Roman Empire would encompass: Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine.
There are also other countries the empire would almost entirely cover: England (including Wales), Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt (with one province divided in three in one area).
And there's more — countries with partial territory in the Empire: the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania (over 90 percent), Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia (over 90 percent) Azerbaijan (over 90 percent), Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia (over 90 percent), Algeria, and Morocco.
You may be asking: What areas didn't the Romans conquer and possess to at least some degree? Here are just a few: China (though they did have a settlement here and there), Ireland, Scotland, and Japan.
This is an image of the Roman Empire at the height of her power in the year 117 AD when it owned approximately 10 percent of the world's territory. Despite such might, Rome was unable to sustain its forces over such wide areas of land, and the spread of Christianity was beginning to unravel the Roman way of life. She gradually lost power over time, suffering defeats in waves across Roman lands from invading Germanic Goths. Eventually, the Roman Empire faded, leaving a mountainous archaeological legacy throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
What would a country with the same borders as the old Roman Empire look like in the twenty-first century? What if all of the territory of the Roman Empire suddenly united tomorrow and recreated the country in a modern form? It goes without saying that this is outrageously impossible, as there is no way that you could possibly convince Spain, England, Turkey, Syria, and other countries to unite as the same country. Crimea would get a little more awkward than it already is, but let's suspend our disbelief for a moment.
So first off, this is a modern map and these are what the borders of the Roman Empire would look like were they to come back into existence. In total, fifty-three different countries would lose all or some of their territory to the Empire, which would span over six million square kilometers in size. This sounds really impressive, but the Empire would only be the seventh largest country in the world. It would be slightly larger than India, but smaller than Australia and Brazil. Russia, meanwhile, would be nearly three times the size of the Roman Empire. But size isn't necessarily everything.
If we examine the population of this hypothetical empire, it would be roughly 711 million or about 10 percent of the total global population. The original ancient Roman Empire had ten times fewer citizens at about seventy million people, but it is important to put this into perspective and note that back then this was 21 percent of the entire world's population! The modern Empire's population would be enough to place it third in terms of population size, but both India and China would retain higher populations. The empire would, however, have more than double the population of the United States and boast some impressive cities.
If we were to speculate on a hypothetical capital for the Empire, we might settle on Istanbul, which was a historic capital back when it was known as Constantinople. Today, the population of Istanbul is around 14,600,000, making it by far the largest city in this empire. At the height of the city during the actual Empire in 500 AD, the population was 450,000. Even earlier, in 100 AD, the city of Rome was the first city in world history to reach a population of one million people. Although Rome today has a population of well over two million, there would still be much bigger cities within the borders of the Empire today, such as Cairo, London, Baghdad, and Alexandria.
At first blush, it might seem like such a huge country would have the number one economy in the world today. While it would be a powerhouse, it wouldn't quite reach that level. All of the Roman territory combined would yield a GDP of $15.99 trillion USD, some $2 trillion less than the US, which has less than half of the population.
The differences in per capita income would be even more shocking. The modern Roman Empire would have territory in wealthier areas such as England, France, and Germany — but also in more impoverished areas such as Iraq, Armenia, and Libya. For this reason, the average income of citizens within the Empire would be around $24,623 dollars, which is toward the lower end of the spectrum at fifty-second in the world — ahead of Kazakhstan, but behind Latvia.
With a large GDP and population, however, the Empire would have a significant standing army. Averaging all of the active military personnel in the territories within the Empire and adding them together, it would total about 2,771,000 — making it the largest standing force in the world.
The final two big questions we have left to examine with this country are: (1) What would be the dominant languages? and (2) What would be the dominant religions?
The most widely spoken language within the country would be Arabic at 32 percent of the population. French would be the second most spoken language with about 14 percent of the population. Turkish would be third at about 9.5 percent, followed by Italian and English.
As for religion, Muslims would be the largest religious group inside the modern Empire, making up 44.6 percent of the total population (42.2 percent Sunni Muslims and 2.4 percent Shia Muslims). Interestingly, this would make the modern Roman Empire the largest Muslim nation in the world.
Christians would be the second largest group, collectively forming 39.3 percent of the population. Of that, Catholics would comprise 25.2 percent of the total population, while Orthodox Christians would be 8.2 percent and Protestants 5.6 percent. These numbers would make the modern Roman Empire the world's largest Christian nation as well. Jews would only form about 1 percent of the total population, while Atheists, Agnostics, and the non-religious would make up 10.5 percent of the country.
Phew — that takes care of the Roman Empire. Now it's time to turn our focus to another gigantic ancient empire, which happens to have the same name as a certain NFL football team in Minnesota.
