there are many countries around the world with complicated an complex
borders some countries are unbelievably small while others are incredibly large
some countries have enclaves while others have strange panhandles having
access to the sea or ocean for a country is quite important both in terms of
trade and natural resources if we head over to Angola and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo we can see a small piece of angola's land is separated by
the Democratic Republic of the Congo the borders in Africa mostly reflect the
period of European colonization at the end of the 1800's but to understand this
border we need to head back to 1485 when Portuguese colonists settled along the
coast Portugal eventually moved inland when
other European powers began to colonize nearby areas the European powers met at
the Berlin conference in 1885 and divided up the land area the Congo Free
State became the personal property to a Belgium King and was given a strip of
land with access to the ocean Angola gained independence in 1975 but
this small piece of land is still strategically important as it has a
number of offshore oil reserves Afghanistan is one of the few countries
in the world which possesses a panhandle this panhandle connects Afghanistan to
China and separates Pakistan from Tajikistan to understand why Afghanistan
has this 350 kilometer long strip of mountains we need to head back to the
19th century where Afghanistan was of much interest of the Russian Empire and
the British Empire who were competing for territory in the region Britain had
invaded Afghanistan a number of times but was unable to truly gain control
over the region so both Russia and Britain agreed to respect Afghanistan as
an independent country it acted as a buffer zone between these two empires
the borders didn't exactly match what the two empires wanted so they gave
Afghanistan the strip of land to separate the two nations still today
Afghanistan owns this Panhandle but serves no real purpose
if we head over to North America and look at the borders between the United
States and Canada it seems pretty normal however in the
northwest of the United States is point robbers which is cut off from the United
States by Canada both countries agreed that the 49th parallel would mark both
countries territories unfortunately the small area that incorporated point
Roberts was overlooked questions about ceding the territory to Canada have been
raised since its creation but has remained unchanged Russia has an area
known as Kaliningrad which is separated from Russia by a number of countries
Kaliningrad's history goes way back to the 13th century but for this video we can
start off at World War one the German Empire occupied what is now Kaliningrad
but after World War one Germany's land size was reduced and Poland was recreated
and given West Prussia which had access to the sea in 1933 Hitler and the Nazis
gained power in Germany and slowly began expanding their borders annexing other
countries such as Austria and the Sudetenland
in 1939 the Nazis demanded the Polish corridor and a small free city known as
Danzig in September the Nazis invaded Poland and started world war two in
Europe when the Nazis lost world war two the Germans were relocated from the area
and was settled by the Russians and Kaliningrad was created as part the
Soviet Union but the Soviet Union was a lot more complicated the USSR was a
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Kaliningrad was an enclave to the
russian SFSR but it didn't matter as the soviet socialist republics were united
when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 several countries gained independence
but Kaliningrad remained with the Russian Federation it still remains
today as an important strategic point as it is the main port for the Russian
Baltic Fleet Italy also have an unusual border in the northeast of its region
this is the province of Trieste but why doesn't Slovenia own this 38
kilometer on piece of land it just doesn't seem logical for Italy to own it
and if we head back again to world war 1 we can understand why
Trieste used to belong to the austro-hungarian Empire austria-hungary
lost in World War one and Italy gained some of its territory while the
austro-hungarian Empire split during world war ii mussolini joined hitler in
the war against the Allies and lost Trieste became a free territory in 1947
until 1954 when the territory was divided between Italy in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia eventually split leaving Slovenia bordering Italy there are many
other places around the world of unusual borders however too many for this video
our borders will likely see more changes in the future new nations will emerge or
current ones will dissolve thank you for watching and if you want to stay updated
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