Not every country is lucky enough to
have a coast. Some countries are
landlocked, which means they are
completely cut off from the sea, and
instead, they have to rely on the
goodwill of their neighbors for trade.
South America has two landlocked
countries, Bolivia and Paraguay. Bolivia
lost its coastline to Chile and to this day,
Bolivia is still just as salty as the
ocean they lost, since they maintain a
navy that sails exclusively in their
lakes and rivers. Bolivia and Paraguay
were once part of the Spanish Vice-
-Royalty of the Rio de la Plata, along
with Argentina, but during the war for
independence, Paraguay became an
independent landlocked state in 1811. Five
years before Argentina declared
independence, and Bolivia remained in
Spanish hands until it gained
independence in 1825, but with much more
land than it has today. In 1870, Paraguay
fought a war with Argentina, Brazil, and
Uruguay, where they lost territory and
300,000 lives, which is a lot considering
their pre-war population was only
500,000, meaning they were left with just
200,000 people, including only 30,000
adult males. In 1883, Bolivia and Peru
lost a war with Chile, which cost Bolivia
its coastline. Something Bolivia refuses
to forget, given that their flag contains
a star for every one of their nine
departments, and an extra one for its
lost coastal department, and their
previously mentioned Navy, which actually
does serve a purpose, since the Amazon
River and its tributaries are navigable
deep into the continent. A part of the
Orinoco river in Venezuela splits off
and flows into an Amazon tributary,
forming a natural canal, making it
possible to sail from Brazil to Venezuela
without going out to sea. The man-made
canals in North America achieve the same
thing, allowing ships to travel from the
St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and into
the Mississippi River. Similarly, China
has the 1776 kilometer-long Grand Canal,
that connects the Yangtze and Yellow
rivers. Asia is also home to one of the
only two countries that are not only
landlocked, but also surrounded by
countries that are themselves landlocked,
meaning they are doubly landlocked.
Uzbekistan is surrounded by Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and
Kyrgyzstan, all landlocked.
Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, and Laos are also
landlocked. Jordan and Iraq may look
landlocked, but they both have small
coastlines on the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf respectively. Armenia was given
access to the Black Sea as part of the
treaty of sèvres, but lost it in a war
of turkey, while simultaneously being
taken over by the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijan is considered landlocked, but
along with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan it has a
coast on the Caspian Sea. But the Caspian
Sea is an inland sea with its surface 28
meters below sea level, and it has no
connection to the ocean which prevents
large areas from being underwater. Small
ships can reach the ocean by sailing up
the Volga River and taking a Russian
canal to the Don River down to the Black
Sea. The canal is part of a Russian canal
and river system which provides water
transport to Russia's interior, and links
the Arctic Ocean with the Baltic, Black,
and Caspian Seas. From the Black Sea a
ship could then either travel through
the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, or it
could travel up the Danube and take a
canal to the Rhine river down into the
North Sea. Because this waterway is
international, many of Europe's
landlocked countries have some access to
the sea, such as Austria, Slovakia, Hungary,
Serbia, and Moldova, which the Danube either
flows through or borders. The tiny
country of liechtenstein is the only
other doubly landlocked country, along with
Uzbekistan, as both Austria and Switzerland
are landlocked. Though, small ships can sail
along the Rhone river through France from
Lake Geneva. The other tiny landlocked
nations in Europe are luxembourg and
Andorra bordering France, and the city states San
Marino and Vatican City enclaved by
Italy. After the disintegration of
Yugoslavia, the Republic of Macedonia
became landlocked. Serbia and Montenegro
remained together, until Montenegro voted to
become independent in 2006, which was
recognized by Serbia, which became
landlocked. Bosnia and Herzegovina looks
landlocked, but it has a tiny stretch of
coastline for complicated historical
reasons. However, it does not have a port
so it relies on Croatia for its shipping.
Slovenia also has a small coastline that
used to be part of the free city of
Trieste, which was established after
world war two, and was eventually split
between Yugoslavia and Italy in 1954.
Belarus is also landlocked, but it has
close economic ties with Russia, which
minimizes the effects.
Same goes for the Czech Republic with
Germany. Africa has 16 landlocked countries,
the most of any continent. It's also
where the effects of being landlocked
are most visible. A landlocked country is
dependent on the infrastructure of its
neighbors to transport its goods.
Unlike Europe, where there are many
canals and railroads, Africa's
infrastructure is undeveloped, and
there's little a landlocked country can do but
wait for their neighbors to improve. Or
even worse, if the country's transit
neighbors become hostile, or have a civil war,
it forces them to seek longer, costlier
trade routes. Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger,
Chad, and the Central African Republic,
were all once part of French Africa,
and became landlocked when they gained
independence. South Sudan is the newest
UN member, gaining independence from
Sudan and thus becoming landlocked in
2011. Ethiopia was one of the two
african countries to avoid European
colonization before world war one. Nearby
coastal areas were colonized as they were
both more valuable, and easier to take
over. Ethiopia was taken over by Italy in
the prelude to world war two, when
Mussolini, who dreamed of recreating the
Roman Empire, invaded ethiopia in 1936. It
was liberated by British and Ethiopian
forces in 1942. In 1950, the UN gave
Ethiopia the british administered, former
Italian colony of Eritrea, which gave it
a coast on the Red Sea, until nineteen
ninety-one when Eritrea gained
independence. Now Ethiopia relies on Djibouti
for its port. Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland were
all British colonies and all are
landlocked. The British took over the
interior of Africa, in part, because some
wish to see continuous british rule from
Capetown to Cairo. Rwanda and Burundi,
both landlocked, and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo were all Belgian
colonies. The Democratic Republic of the
Congo would be landlocked if it were not
for small strip of land that cuts off a
piece of Angola. Which is explained in
this video I made, along with why
Bosnia and Herzegovina has that tiny
strip of coast, discussed earlier. You can
also watch this video which explains all
the complicated relationships
Russia has with its federal subjects.