Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Ah, the beach, a nice, beautiful, fun and sandy barrier between the stressful cities,
and the dangerous waters. They're a common place for people to relax, get a tan, have
a BBQ, or just have fun, but not all countries have beaches.
[Intro] These nations are known as "landlocked nations",
and there are 43 of them, they are, in no particular order; Bolivia, Paraguay, Mali,
Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda,
Swaziland, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Laos, Andorra, Lesotho,
Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia,
Kosovo, San Marino, Vatican City, Moldova, and Belarus.
Now, you might notice a few things, for one, most of these countries you've never heard
of ([cough] central Asia). Second, a lot of these countries are in Africa, especially
in the sub-Saharan areas, likely because that's where the more desirable land when compared
to the Sahara, which pretty much entirely looks like this… Third, you might argue
that three of these, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, shouldn't be on this list
because, well, look; a sea! And while the Caspian sea is, indeed, a sea, (and a big
one, too!), it doesn't make the countries not landlocked, since even though they can
sail boats and open seaports, they can only do so to the countries bordering the Caspian.
Arguably even worse off are the two doubly landlocked nations in the world, the first
being Liechtenstein, bordered by Switzerland and Austria, and the second being Uzbekistan,
which is bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
It is entirely possible for a landlocked nation to only have one neighbor, in fact, there
are 3 examples; Vatican City, San Marino, and Lesotho.
So why does it matter? Why does it matter if whether or not you can offer your citizens
a nice day at the beach? Landlocked nations are, in reality, at a huge disadvantage, given
that they have severely limited maritime trade, which has a HUGE impact on a country. Throughout
history, kingdoms and empires often wanted to get as much coastline as possible, even
if it would endanger the entire nation, especially once oceanic trade caught on. In fact, it's
pretty clear that Bolivia REALLY WANTS the coastline Chile stole from them. In 1879-1883,
Bolivia and Chile fought the War of the Pacific, which saw Chile take all of Bolivia's coastline,
and even some of Peru's, and it is very clear that the now landlocked Bolivia wants it back.
Thank you for watching this video, if you liked it and/or found it informative, please
be sure to like this video and subscribe if you have not yet done so. If you have subscribed,
I will see you on Wednesday.