Believe it or not, there’s still land on earth that’s not part of any country.
Bir Tawil is that land.
This 800 square mile (2100 square kilometer) area between Egypt and Sudan is claimed by
neither Egypt nor Sudan.
To understand why this is, we have to go back, to 1899.
At the turn of the 20th century, Britain had a large and rapidly expanding empire across
the world.
A large part of this empire was in Africa, where colonialism had taken root.
Britain held a complex level of authority in North-East Africa, and through that got
to decide that the border between Sudan and Egypt was going to be the 22nd parallel.
The problem with this border was that it made no consideration to the placement of actual
people, it just put a big line in the sand and arbitrarily split up tribes and people.
In 1902, Britain decided to draw a new administrative boundary that put into consideration that
use of the land by various tribes.
That way, tribes wouldn’t be living in one territory and grazing their cattle in another.
Fast forward 114 years, and both territories are now fully fledged countries—no longer
under British rule.
The problem is, Sudan now recognizes the 1902 administrative boundary as the real border,
while Egypt recognized the 1899 border on the 22nd parallel as the real border.
What this means is that Bir Tawil is South of Egypt’s border—so Egypt thinks it’s
part of Sudan—while also north of Sudan’s border—so Sudan thinks it’s part of Egypt.
This doesn’t really create many problems though, because there’s a whopping zero
people living in Bir Tawil.
There’s not even any roads or buildings—it’s just 800 square miles of nothing…ruled by
nobody.
This same border issue does create issues in other places though.
The Hala’ib triangle is 10 times bigger that Bir Tawil, and, instead of being claimed
by no country, it’s claimed by two countries.
That’s because its North of what Egypt thinks is the border while simultaneously south of
what Sudan thinks is the border.
The two countries actually care about this piece of land because there are things.
There’s a road!
And sea access!
And 1,000 residents!
Currently, the land is administered by Egypt, but let’s get back to Bir Tawil.
In his 2014 book, Alastair Bonnett said that Bir Tawil is “…the only place on the planet
that is both habitable and unclaimed.”
The biggest unclaimed piece of land is the Marie Byrd land, but, that’s not considered
to be habitable land, since, you know, it’s in Antartica.
There’s one other area of technically unclaimed land on the Danube River between Croatia and
Serbia due to a similar border dispute, however, practically, the land, while on a map not
part of either country, is well-divided administratively.
So, Bir Tawil is the only place on earth where people might actually be able to create a
new country.
So what’s stopping people?
Well, not much.
Scores of people have claimed the land as their own country, but if my video on How
to Create a Country taught you anything, it’s that it doesn’t matter if you think you’re
a country, it matters if other people think you’re a country.
No recognized country currently recognizes any claim to Bir Tawil likely because nobody
has set up a government or permanent population in Bir Tawil.
While the land is habitable, there is no infrastructure to bring in supplies to support a settlement.
With it being a desert and all, agriculture doesn’t do so well, so any prospective country
founder would need to build a road or airport to bring in food.
In addition, there really aren’t any natural resources, so it’s unlikely that a country
established in the area would be self-sustaining economically.
However, if someone was able to set up a democratic government in the area with a permanent population,
its entirely possible that they would gain recognition, and there would be a 197th country
in the world—or 194th… or 193rd.. or, it really just depends on who you ask.