The Middle East is a place where the borders are as messy as the politics. One
interesting case is the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates,
where there is a piece of the UAE inside a piece of Oman
that is itself inside the UAE. Prior to World War one much of the Middle East was
controlled by the Ottoman Empire, but the British Empire had established many
protectorates along the Arabian Peninsula's coast. With few exceptions
the borders of these protectorates are the borders that remain today, including
Oman and the United Arab Emirates, which were called the Trucial States
because they were a collection of small states that signed a truce with the
British. To make things even more complicated the only way to access the
second order Enclave owned by the UAE is by a road that winds back and forth over
the border six times. Meaning if you traveled the full length you would start
in the UAE, enter Oman, leave Oman, enter Oman, leave Oman, enter Oman,
and finally end up back in the UAE. Not to mention the tip of the Musandam
Peninsula is owned by Oman despite being detached. The name United Arab
Emirates gives a clue as to how this bizarre situation came about. An emirate
is a monarchy ruled by an Emir. An emirate can be thought of as an Islamic
version of a principality the United Arab Emirates is a federation of several
emirates and one of the Emir's is elected by the
other Emir's to be president. The borders of these emirates make the situation
even more complicated as the second order enclave is owned by the emirate of
Sharjah which has territory all over the place within the UAE. All these small
emirates joined together in a truce with the British but the much larger
Sultanate of Muscat, which owned the peninsula and the large first order
enclave, remained its own protectorate which later became Oman. While the
situation near the Gulf is complicated, at least it's clear who owns what. The
same cannot be said for the border between Egypt and Sudan, with both
countries claiming the hala'ib triangle near the coast, and neither country
claiming Bir Tawil inland. Some ambitious viewers might be
tempted to take advantage of this situation to establish their own country
in the vacuum, but be warned many have already tried this, the place is barren,
and good luck getting either Sudan or Egypt to recognize your claim
as legitimate since both think the land belongs to the other. Egypt claims the border
is the one that was officially established at the 22nd parallel, while
Sudan claims it's the administrative border set by the British for
convenience which reflected the land usage by the native tribes. Believe it or
not the situation was even more complicated when it was established, as
at the time Sudan was under the joint control of Egypt and the British, all
while Egypt was technically a part of the Ottoman Empire, but practically a
part of the British Empire. In 1517 the Ottoman Empire conquered the Sultanate
of Egypt and established the Eyelat of Egypt which swore loyalty to the Ottoman
Sultan while keeping the local Mamluk rulers in control. The ottoman strategy
of keeping local rulers in exchange for their loyalty, which was similar to the
British Empire's strategy of establishing protectorates, allowed the Ottomans to quickly
gain control over large territories without lengthy occupations. However it
also meant that the power vacuum left by Napoleon's 1798 invasion created a
three-way Civil War Between the Mamluks Ottoman Turkish forces and Albanian
mercenaries who became their own faction when the ottomans couldn't afford to pay
them anymore. Surprisingly in 1805 the Albanians led by Muhammad Ali ended up
winning and the Ottoman Empire was forced to recognize him as ruler of
Egypt. But don't worry Ali was loyal to the Ottoman Sultan, don't mind him
greatly expanding the territory under his control.
Oh no! It's 1824 and Greece seems to be acting up again,
better send in Muhammad Ali and promise him Syria for his help.
Little did the Sultan know that Ali would actually expect to receive what he was
promised, and in 1831 he invaded Syria. By 1840 the Ottoman Empire was on the verge
of being overrun by Egypt, which was still technically a part of the Ottoman
Empire, so the European power stepped in to save
the Ottoman Empire, from the Ottoman Empire, and forced Ottoman Egypt to give
up Ottoman Syria but they let Mohammed Ali, an ottoman vassal and his
descendants keep control of Egypt to prevent the Ottoman Sultan from
regaining too much control of the Ottoman Empire. Now if you thought that
was complicated just wait. Ali's successors were much less
successful than him and became financially and militarily dependent on
European powers, who a great interest in the region due to the completion of the
Suez Canal in 1869. By 1875 the Egyptian ruler was
so indebted that he had to sell his shares of the canal to the British and
the European powers began to take direct financial control of the country. Anger
over the foreign influence culminated in the 1881 Urabi nationalist uprising,
which was put down by the british invasion and occupation of Egypt, which
meant that while Egypt was still technically a part of the Ottoman Empire,
it was now practically a protectorate of the British. Sudan was able to break away
from British control in 1885 since British forces were concentrated in Egypt.
During the 1898 joint egyptian and british reconquest of
sudan, the british took advantage of the situation and established a condominium
in Sudan, which meant it officially belonged to both Egypt and the British
at the same time. the official demarcation line was the 22nd parallel,
but in 1902 the British established the administrative border that Sudan claims.
Since Sudan was owned by both Egypt and the British, and Egypt was technically a
part of both the British and Ottoman empires no one really had any problems
with this arrangement
OOPS WORLD WAR 1
The Ottoman joined the central powers and were at war the British. Therefore the British put an end to the awkward
situation and formally made Egypt a protectorate. Shortly after the war in
1922, the British declared Egypt an independent Kingdom, though they
maintained almost complete control of the Sudan and of egypt's foreign policy,
so not that independent. In 1936 the British occupation officially ended, with
the exception of the Suez Canal Zone, but they continued to influence the king,
particularly throughout the world war ii and the Italian invasion, so again not
really that independent. Following the war nationalists angered over the
continued Western influence depose the king in the 1952 revolution, and declared
Egypt a fully independent Republic. Since British rule in Sudan was technically
tied to Egypt through the condominium in order to reduce British influence in the
region Egypt declared Sudan independent in 1956
which forced the British to withdraw. However with the independence of Sudan
the dual border definition suddenly became an issue as both countries wanted
to control the more valuable coastal region. A dispute which has yet to be
resolved to this day. Egypt troubles with the British were not
over though, since the British and French still owned the Suez Canal, and as of yet
unknown third player has burst onto the scene. It's probably best though to save
the most contentious border in the world for its
own video until then you can watch other videos about the Middle East or weird
borders. Also I'd like to be able to talk to you more often so follow me on
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