Having access to the sea in type of thing
countries will start world wars over, and
causes strange border situations like
these exclaves, which are parts of
countries only accessible by land
through other countries. Like this piece
of Russia detached from the rest.
To understand why, we need to go back to
World War one. Before the war, East Prussia,
a border region of the German Empire,
covered the land which became the
exclave. After the war
a Poland was re-created (As the Second Polish Republic), and given West Prussia,
so it could have a corridor to the sea.
The port of Danzig was
technically independent, but under the
economic control of Poland so it could have a
port on the Baltic, which was crucial for
its economic development. This made
for some unhappy Nazis, something never good.
(No soup for you)
The Nazis have been sudetenly
expanding their borders, claiming it was
for the good of Germans in those countries.
So in 1939, when the Nazis
demand the Polish corridor and Danzig,
the British and French assured Poland
that they had their support if it came
to war.
Poland told the Nazis, NO, and (the Nazis) started world war 2.
The Nazis and the Soviets
had a secret agreement to divide eastern
europe between them disguised as a
non-aggression pact. The Soviets received
the Baltics and eastern Poland and the
rest was the Nazis. The Nazis broke the
pact and invaded the Soviets but were
eventually defeated. East Prussia was
divided between the Soviet Union and
Poland and the German inhabitants were
expelled. The Soviet part was renamed
kaliningrad and was resettled by
Russians. Kaliningrad looked attached to
the rest of the country but the Soviet
Union was a Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics. Kaliningrad inhabited by
Russians was part of the russian soviet
federative socialist republic but the
surrounding area inhabited by Lithuanians
was the Lithuanian soviet
socialist republic. So kaliningrad was an
exclave of the Russian SFSR within
the USSR but there were no problems
since all the SSRs had the same central
government. That changed in 1991 when the
soviet union dissolved. Lithuania split
away but kaliningrad was a part of the
Russian Federation and remained. Leaving
Russia with the exclave it has today.
Control of Kaliningrad is crucial to
Russia and it is the home of their
baltic fleet. While Russia does have a
coast near St. Petersburg, the gulf of
Finland has a tendency to freeze over.
Kaliningrad isn't the only place like
this for example there's a tiny piece of
Angola cut off by the Democratic
Republic of Congo along the Congo River
If you think the borders of Africa don't make any sense.
you're right the borders on the
continent rarely follow any logical
pattern and instead reflect the
strategic goals of the European powers
that carved up the continent
at the end of 1800s.
The Portuguese began colonizing
the coast near the Congo in the 1400s
But did not move inland
until the Belgian King Leopold tried
to make the Congo his own personal property,
not even a colony of Belgium.
The French wanted a piece so they established
colonies on north bank of the Congo
The Portuguese, with the support of the British,
blocked access to the mouth of the river.
To resolve this situation and others,
the European powers met at Berlin conference of 1885
and agreed to split up the continent.
The congo free state became
the personal property of the Belgian
king and was given a strip of land near
the mouth of the river splitting the
Portuguese territory into a small area
around the city of Cabinda and the rest of Angola.
They were separate colonies until 1956,
when Portugal gave control of Cabinda
to the colonial government of Angola.
Angola gained independence in 1975
but it was plagued by civil wars.
Cabinda often tried to achieve independence,
but Angola does not want to lose
its vast offshore oil reserves,
which Angola relies on for two-thirds of its production
Back in Europe
Croatia looks like it is blocking Bosnia
and Herzegovina from the sea
But if you look closely
you'll see a 20 kilometer strip (of coastline)
which connects it to the Adriatic,
detaching a piece of Croatia.
To understand why, we need to go back to 1699.
After a war the republic of ragusa
and the Dalmatian possessions of Venice
Were separated by a small strip of the Ottoman Empire
Venice would remain in
control of Dalmatia until its defeat
by napoleon in 1797.
By 1809, the French Empire controlled all of Dalmatia
including the republic of ragusa,
except for the parts controlled by the Ottoman Empire
After Napoleon's defeating 1815
the Austrian Empire gained the French
the French territories.
The 1878 treaty of Berlin
created the Kingdom of Serbia,
and put bosnia and herzegovina under the control,
but did not make officially a part of,
the austro-hungarian Empire.
Serbia opposed the Empire annexing bosnia in 1908
because of its high serb population.
This dispute will be resolved peaceful-
- OOPS!! World War One.
Suddenly the kingdom of Serbia
became the kingdom of yugoslavia
and control all the lands. The internal
divisions of Yugoslavia between the
world wars were different than the
modern states, but the partisan forces
that liberated Yugoslavia from the
axis favor the borders from 1878
so when yugoslavia split up in
1992, croatia was left with an exclave on
the coast. The need for the sea should
not be underestimated. Clean borders come
second to a country strategic goals
often to the detriment of the people who live there.
If you like geopolitics, you'll
like this video where I explain why i
think Istanbul is the most
strategically important city in the world
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