this video is made possible by
expressvpn start watching new shows
during your quarantine that aren't
available in your country for free for
three months by following the link in
the description this is pakistan a large
country in south asia that on paper
doesn't look like that hard of a
starting position to be in but make no
mistake if real life was like a game of
sid meier's civilization then playing
pakistan would be one of the most
difficult sieves in the entire game to
win as because their starting position
is absolute hot garbage and here's why
pakistan's political borders don't
really make a lot of sense when you
study them a bit more closely if we
switch map styles to a topographic map
you can see that none of pakistan's
borders really follow any clear
geographic boundaries like rivers or
mountains and when we switch to an
ethnic map you can also see that
pakistan's borders don't really appear
to follow any clear ethnic divisions
either what pakistan's borders do follow
instead is the religious border between
the majority muslim and majority hindu
areas of the indian subcontinent and
that's not by accident it was designed
that way from the beginning on purpose
and like most messy border problems
across the world it's all the fault of
the british a long time ago the entire
indian subcontinent was ruled by the
british but in 1947 they decided to let
it all go and grant independence but
when they did they decided to partition
the colony of india into two separate
newly independent states a majority
hindu country that became india and a
majority muslim country that became
pakistan the two were separated
exclusively based upon the borders of
the majority muslim and the majority
hindu areas in the empire without any
regard to natural geographic boundaries
and this has created hosts of problems
for both countries in the case of
pakistan this created a long border with
india from the arabian sea through the
salt marshes of the ran of kuch the vast
inhospitable tar desert the fertile
plains of the punjab and up through the
high mountains of the hotly contested
province of kashmir most of this border
is recognized and accepted by both
pakistan and india until it gets to the
kashmir area which is a territory
claimed entirely by both of them they've
both fought multiple wars against each
other for control over the whole thing
and as it stands now on the ground the
line of each other's actual de facto
control across the province looks like
this which is effectively the border
between them even though nobody actually
recognizes it as such this line was
created upon the ceasefire line that
concluded the 1971 war between them but
there was one incredibly stupid problem
with it it doesn't extend across the
entire province it literally abruptly
just ends right here which left a lot of
vague uncertainties as to who exactly
controlled what beyond it towards china
the reason that the line ended where it
did was because it was at the foothills
of the colossal karakoram mountain range
so all of the land beyond it was just
extremely inhospitable and effectively
impassable glaciers the u.n just assumed
that neither side would really care
about it but scare they did beginning in
1984 both sides realized that there was
an active geographic hole in their de
facto border that the other side could
take advantage of and so they both
attempted to plug it up with thousands
of troops trying to outmaneuver the
other in order to secure the strategic
high ground and mountain passes that led
into each other's sides the high
altitude combat 6 000 meters up above
sea level took place here in the sieshan
glacier area and the elements claimed
the lives of thousands of men from both
sides by the end of the conflict in 2003
india had secured the high ground in the
area and control over the main passes
through which gives them the geographic
advantage in the area to this day india
is without a doubt pakistan's biggest
rival on the world stage and the whole
border between the two is considered to
be one of the most dangerous places in
the entire world and if all-out war ever
were to break out between them pakistan
has really weak geographic armor for
defenses across the entire line as the
situation in kashmir stands today the
indian military occupies a line that's
only 83 kilometers away from the center
of the pakistani capital islamabad if
pakistan could control all of kashmir it
would push the indian lions far away
from the capital city and establish a
massively significant mountain shield
that the indian army would struggle to
punch through to get there this is
partially why kashmir is of such massive
strategic value to pakistan but as it is
now the indian army controls most of it
and is within striking distance of the
capital the only big mountains that
pakistan controls along the indian
border that could be used for defense
are all located in the far north of the
country far away from all of pakistan's
major population and economic centers
which means that any indian advance
could just simply ignore them the indus
river is one of the biggest rivers in
the world and would make a great
defensive line but unfortunately it runs
roughly through the middle of the
country which means that falling back
behind it would mean surrendering half
of the country by that point the system
of indus tributary rivers that runs
through the punjab province are somewhat
defensible but even still the indian
army could punch through all of these
highlighted areas without ever having to
cross a river and that includes some of
pakistan's most major population centers
like lahore faisalabad hyderabad and the
capital islamabad further complicating
things is that pakistan is a relatively
easy country to blockade she only has a
narrow stretch of coastline here in the
south on the arabian sea and only a
handful of significant ports on it that
if eliminated can effectively transform
pakistan into a landlocked state the
port of karachi alone handles 60
of all of pakistan's cargo owing to its
strategic location near the strait of
hormuz important trade routes in the
world where 25
of all the world's oil passes through
this heavy reliance on a single city for
supplies makes pakistan exceptionally
vulnerable if just karachi can be
blockaded or captured that immediately
halts 60
of pakistan's cargo and supplies from
getting inside of the country but the
border with india and the over-reliance
on a single port are not the only crappy
border situations that pakistan has to
deal with there is another and it's
another british created mess here with
afghanistan the british also created
this border back in 1893 as the boundary
between british india and afghanistan
and pakistan simply inherited the mess
for themselves upon independence in
1947. the main problem with it is that
it divides the ethnic territory of the
pashtun people between afghanistan and
pakistan which is awkward because the
pashtuns are the largest ethnic group
inside of afghanistan and they largely
rule that country so the pashtones of
afghanistan have long desired to be
reunited with the rest of the ethnic
pashtuns across the border and pakistan
and afghanistan often lays claim to an
extended border that stretches this deep
into pakistan to cover it as recently as
2017 the president of afghanistan has
stated that afghanistan will never
recognize the border with pakistan as it
stands today when pakistan joined the
united nations in 1947 there was only a
single country who voted against them
joining it and it wasn't india it was
afghanistan so because of these messy
borders left over by the british
pakistan faces enemies on both of her
flanks who openly claim territory that
pakistan also claims or controls this
means that the prospect of a two-front
war against both parties if they ever
allied with one another against pakistan
is a very real possibility therefore it
has always been within pakistan's best
interests to seek influence in
afghanistan and attempt to pacify their
government by any means necessary in
order to keep this from happening it
also doesn't help though that the border
runs right through the middle of the
extremely mountainous part of the
pashtun tribal lands which makes the
border extremely difficult to govern
police and control for both countries
drug smugglers terrorist groups like the
taliban and other seedy individuals
routinely cross it between both sides
which also makes this border one of the
most violent and unstable places in the
entire world meaning that pakistan has
two inherently unstable borders on
either side this only leaves pakistan
borders with two other countries iran
and china the border with iran is
through the sparsely inhabited arid
province of baluchistan which like the
pashtuns cuts the balooch people between
pakistan iran and afghanistan unlike the
pashtuns though the baloch don't have an
independent state of their own so they
can't pose an existential threat to
pakistan in the same way that the
pashtuns of afghanistan do iran and
pakistan cooperate to an extent on
squashing balu's separatism in their
respective zones of control but a
working alliance between the two is
severely complicated by iran's shia
government and pakistan's sunni
government this leaves only china as a
potential geographic ally for pakistan
in the region and sure enough china is
without a doubt pakistan's closest ally
on the world stage the geography of
pakistan is more challenging and
difficult than most but with strong
leadership shrewd alliances and careful
diplomacy even a difficult situation
like this can be made manageable
now difficult situations come in all
different shapes and sizes there's macro
difficult situations like pakistan's
geography and then there's micro
difficult situations like you being
trapped inside of your house all day
because of a global pandemic if you've
been struggling with your own difficult
situation by running out of shows to
watch or things to do then you should go
and check out expressvpn next expressvpn
allows you to change the location on
your devices to different countries so
that you can watch shows and movies that
aren't available in the country where
you're located for example i live in the
us and i was able to quickly change the
location on my pc to the uk and gained
access to shows in america that we don't
normally get on netflix like doctor who
star trek discovery brooklyn nine-nine
rick and morty and a bunch of other good
stuff meanwhile if you're in the uk or
europe or anywhere else you can change
your location to the us and get access
to netflix shows there like the walking
dead or mad men and all of that is in
addition to the fact that expressvpn
also provides an extra layer of security
to your internet experience by
preventing others from being able to
view what you're searching for and what
sites you're visiting if you're working
from home right now it's even more
important now than ever to ensure that
100 of your data being transferred
between your devices and the internet is
securely encrypted and that's just
something else that expressvpn will do
for you best of all though is that you
can get three entire months using
expressvpn and everything that comes
with it for free by clicking the link in
the description or by going to
expressvpn.com
real life lore it seriously helps me out
so much with my own boredom during my
own stay at home and you'll be
supporting real life lore at the same
time by checking them out and as always
thank you for watching