Over the past 12 years I have written many country reports for Global Gypsum Magazine, often googling the locations of cement plants, checking distances or otherwise snooping about. This has had an unexpected benefit that my ‘school book’ geography - country locations, outlines, capitals, populations - has become reasonably sharp.
However, looking too closely at individual countries, specifically their borders, is often confusing. They often do a terrible job at defining a country, frequently due to poor understanding and / or willfull negligence on the part of major powers. The results of badly drawn borders are clear today in places like Kurdistan - split between Turkey, Syria and Iraq - Russian-speaking Ukraine, West Azerbaijan and many locations elsewhere.
Even in Europe, there are some plain ridiculous arrangements. On the border of Belgium and the Netherlands lie Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau, two towns linked like conjoined twins. There are 22 Belgian enclaves - parts of a country entirely surrounded by another - located within the Netherlands and a further seven Dutch second-order enclaves within those. The border meanders about like a drunkard thanks to a series of medieval treaties and deals. While they function as one, the two towns are actually run by different authorities that take different taxes. If your house happens to cross the border, its location is wherever the front door is. One house even has two doorbells, one for the Dutch side of the door, one for the Belgian side.
Heading south west, we find the Spanish town of Llivia, entirely surrounded by France. Under the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War, France expected that Llivia, as other villages north of the mountain range, would be ceded to it. However, Spain pointed out that the Treaty only said ‘villages’ north of the Pyrenees would be ceded and, as Llivia was a ‘town,’ said ‘non!’ to the French. Further to the west, the same border switches to the Bidasoa river. In the middle of this lies the uninhabited Pheasant Island. Without a clear physical dividing line, the French and Spanish decided on a temporal one. To this day, Pheasant Island flips between Spanish and French jurisdiction every six months.
While confusing, the Schengen visa region allows free movement for the inhabitants of these enclaves, as well as many bemused tourists. However, this is not the case elsewhere. Prior to 2015, there were hundreds of multiple-order enclaves between Bangladesh and India, the result of Britain’s messy colonial exit in the 1940s. There was even a third-order Bangladeshi enclave, i.e.: a part of Bangladesh inside a part of India that was in turn, in a different part of Bangladesh that was itself surounded by India. For the 51,000 people living in the higher-order enclaves, this situation was far from an amusing geographical oddity. There would often be no local employment, government representation, shops or other resources. To get to any of these, they would need a visa to get to other parts of their own country through the other. However, to get the visa, they need to go to a major city in the main bit of...
...and you can see the problem. Thankfully, after decades of discussion, the situation was simplified in 2015, although several of the larger first-order enclaves remain. Another enclave mess exists between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, thanks to the break up of the USSR. There are four Uzkbek enclaves in Kyrgyzstan, a Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan, two Tajik enclaves located inside Kyrgystan and a Tajik enclave in Uzbekistan. Movement, in some cases, remains impossible. Today, the world’s only remaining secondorder enclave is the UAE town of Nahwa, which is completely surrounded by an Omani enclave, itself entirely surrounded by the UAE proper. Residents of Nahwa have to pass two international borders just to get back into their own country.
While border disputes often come about due to countries wanting more territory, there are also places around the world that nobody wants, like between Egypt and Sudan. Each observes a different border, again the result of British bungling, such that the vast uninhabited Bir Tawil region is assigned to neither. However, the borders also assign more desirable area called the Hala’ib Triangle, to both! Neither Sudan nor Egypt wants to give up its claim to Hala’ib, which means that neither claims Bir Tawil either. There is also unclaimed land between Croatia and Serbia. Croatia claims the border to be the historical path of the river Danube, but Serbia claims that the border should follow the river as it flows today. The shift means that a 7km2 area, known as Liberland, has ‘appeared’ that neither country claims. So, if you fancy being the ruler of an infrastucture-free floodplain or dusty desert, you could, theoretically start a new country. However, Bir Tawil remains unclaimed for a reason and the Croatian Army will arrest you before you even get to the badlymonikered Liberland, so good luck!
