to take you on a guided journey around the globe, talking to you about some disputes,

oddities, complexities, or just some things that are good to be aware of in this complicated

planet we live on. Some of the things I’ll be talking about, I already have entire videos

on, if you want a deeper understanding.

We’ll start at the “centre of the world”, the prime meridian, which goes through Greenwich,

England. This is because that’s where the British invented time in 1884.

Here we have two independent countries: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. The country of Ireland comprises the majority

of the island of Ireland, while the northern part, called Northern Ireland, is 1 of the

4 constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland doesn’t really have an

official flag because its population doesn’t exactly agree on whether they should remain

British or unite with the rest of Ireland. The other 3 constituent countries are in Great

Britain and surrounding minor islands… Scotland, England, and Wales.

Some people use the terms “Great Britain”, “United Kingdom”, and “England” interchangeably…

but please don’t. Us Scots really don’t appreciate it. In fact, many Scots don’t

want to be part of the UK. Despite an unsuccessful referendum in 2014, there’s still a very

sizable independence movement. Even more so since Brexit.

So just remember… Great Britain: an island, the UK: an independent country made up of

4 non-independent countries… and England: one of those 4 countries.

Oh, and there’s also the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. Which are British, but not part

of the UK for some reason. They’re referred to as Crown Dependencies.

Okay we really need to move on, lots to cover. If we go into the icy north, we find the Faroe

Islands, and Greenland. Two places that you wouldn’t think have much in common, but

they do, they’re both Danish. They’re both autonomous territories of Denmark. And

despite the immense difference in size between the two, they actually both have a similar

population of around 50,000. Unsurprisingly, Greenland is one of the least densely populated

parts of the world. The island is literally ¾ ice.

Now moving onto land with a more… hospitable climate: mainland Europe. First thing to talk

about is probably the European Union, an economic and political union of 27 European States.

It used to be 28, but, y’know Brexit.

The EU has what’s called “the Schengen Area”, an area of free travel, in which

participating countries have abolished border controls. Not ALL members of the EU are part

of this area, and also some non-EU members ARE. Same with the Eurozone, a monetary union

in which all countries use a shared currency, the Euro. 19 of the 27 members are part of

the Eurozone. 4 countries have agreements with the EU to officially use the Euro despite

not being part of the EU, and then two others just sort of decided that they wanted it too,

without any agreement in place.

Now given how much Europeans loved conquering the world for a few centuries, there are plenty

of parts of European countries, outside of Europe. Like the large part of France in South

America, or smaller islands off the coast of Madagascar. Of course, I won’t be able

to cover them all.

Just a quick mention about the Vatican City, which is considered a country (the smallest

in the world, entirely surrounded by Italy), but is NOT a member of the United Nations…

although it is an observer State.

Okay, to Spain next. This region here is called Catalonia, it’s one of the 17 “autonomous

communities” of Spain. Many Catalans have been fighting for independence from Spain

over the last century, with things picking up over the last decade. Catalonia sought

permission from Madrid to hold an independence referendum. Spain said no. Catalonia said

they’ll do it anyway. Spain said “wait no that’s illegal”. But they did it anyway.

The result was 92% in favour of independence, BUT everyone who wanted to remain part of

Spain just boycotted the vote, so it doesn’t really count.

The President of Catalonia later declared independence… sort of? It was all very confusing

and nobody really knows what happened. Catalonia is still part of Spain, though, and their

former president is currently living in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

On the southern coast of the Iberian peninsula, there’s Gibraltar, an overseas British territory,

which was ceded from Spain about 300 years ago. And just across the Mediterranean, there

are a couple of parts of Africa that are still part of Spain.

Alright, what’s next… ah yes, the Balkans. This is a part of Europe in which everyone

hates each other. Probably the biggest point of contention is the self-declared, partially-recognised

State of Kosovo. Or the autonomous Serbian province of Kosovo, depending on your viewpoint.

The province declared its independence in 2008, after a war with Serbia a few years

earlier, in which Kosovo received military support from NATO. The population of Kosovo

is prodimently Albanian.

As well as this, there was also the near 3-decade naming dispute between Greece and Mace-- uh,

North Macedonia, as it’s now called. Basically Macedonia is a large geographic region, much

of which is in Greece, and was named as such after the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.

So Greece wasn’t too happy in 1991 when their neighbour declared independence from

Yugoslavia as the “Republic of Macedonia”. Due to Greek objections, the country was referred

to as “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in diplomatic organisations like the UN. After

28 years the insanity was finally ended and the country was renamed the “Republic of

North Macedonia”. But I’m pretty sure neither side was really happy with the outcome

and they both still hate each other.

On to Russia now. This is the Crimean Peninsula. It was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014

after a referendum of... questionable legitimacy. It was only actually part of Ukraine for about

half a century, since it was transferred to Ukraine while both were Soviet Republics.

Western governments and the UN do not recognise the annexation, and still consider the peninsula

to be part of Ukraine. Nothing has actually been done about it, though.

One more part of Russia that’s good to be aware of, is this small exclave here called

the ‘Kaliningrad Oblast’. It was originally part of the German state of Prussia, but the

Soviet Union claimed it after the Allies’ victory in WWII… and then after the fall

of the Soviet Union it became completely cut off from the rest of Russia..

Now travelling to Russia’s southern border with Georgia. Georgia has a somewhat precarious

political situation, as it has not one, but TWO parts of the country that have declared

their independence – Abkahzia, and South Ossetia. Both States have control over the

areas they claim, however they very much lack international recognition. Both States declared

their independence in the 1990s with backing from Russia. There was even a brief war over

the dispute between Georgia and Russia in 2008. No prizes for guessing how that turned

out…

Next we’ll take a trip down to the Mediterranean, to the beautiful summer getaway of Cyprus.

The political situation here though, is a bit ugly. The island is currently divided

between the country of Cyprus, and the unrecognised Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus. There’s

a UN buffer zone separating the two political entities that was established after the inter-ethnic

violence between the Greeks and the Turks of the island erupted in the 1960s, shortly

after Cyprus became independent from the UK. There was a Greek coup, followed by Turkish

invasion, and it all got very messy. Oh, and there’s also some British bases on the island.

I guess the strategic location was just too valuable to give up…

Moving further south and onto Africa. Probably the most noticeable geopolitical dispute in

Africa is an area known as Western Sahara. The region is claimed (and mostly controlled

by) Morocco. But the region has also been proclaimed as the independent country of the

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, by the indigenous rebel group the Polisario Front, which started

off by fighting against Spanish colonial rule in the 1970s.

In 1976, Spain just sort-of noped out of the whole situation, and divided the region between

Morocco, and another neighbouring country, Mauritania, who also claimed the region at

the time... but not anymore.

On the opposite coast of Africa, we have Somaliland. Which, once again, is a dispute caused by

the Europeans. Somaliland was controlled by the British, while the rest of what is today

the country of Somalia, was controlled by Italy. In 1960 the two were joined to make

a new, independent country. Somaliland declared independence in 1991, and a civil war has

been ongoing ever since.

Now moving onto the Middle Eas-- oh ****... (SIGH) Why am I doing this?!

Okay, so it is quite literally impossible to give any kind of explanation of what the

hell is going on here in just a couple of minutes. So just keep in mind everything I

say here is going to be way oversimplified.

Before the beginning of the currently ongoing situation, this area was called Palestine,

and was under British administration. In 1948, the United Nations passed a resolution to

partition the land between Jewish and Arab communities. The descendants of these Arab

communities, in this region and in refugee camps nearby, are what we today call Palestinians.

After the resolution was passed, the State of Israel was declared. This led to the first

of several wars with its neighbors, in which Israel was often fighting against most (or

all) of them at once. Territory in this region has bounced back and forth between different

countries and organizations MANY times. Today, Israel is also in control of the Golan Heights,

which it captured from Syria in 1967.

Now, as well as Israel, we also have the State of Palestine, declared in 1988, which is a

partially-recognised state, with observer status at the United Nations. Its claimed

territory is the West Bank, in which an interim division agreement was reached with Israel

in the 90s, as well as the Gaza strip, which has actually been controlled by Hamas since

2007, a Palestinian political party, and variously described as a terrorist organization.

Things are even more complicated in Jerusalem, an ancient city with profound significance

to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. This city is fully controlled by Israel but claimed

by both groups as their capital - though with different parts of the city being claimed

by each group.

On top of all of this, there’s the issue of Israeli settlements, which we don’t have

time to get into and I’d really like to move on now please…

Staying in the Middle East, there’s the situation in Syria, in which a devastating,

multi-sided civil war has been ongoing for nearly 10 years now. This began with a series

of anti-government protests, part of the broader movement known as the Arab Spring, which were

violently suppressed. The conflict is one of the bloodiest of the 21st century, and

has spilled over to several neighbouring countries.

There’s also the situation in Iraq. There is still ongoing conflict that stemmed from

the US-led invasion in 2003 to topple the government of Saddam Hussein. With ISIS having

mostly lost their territory in Iraq, the violence has continued in the form of an insurgency,

featuring several rebel groups. ISIS was defeated in the civil war with help from the Kurds,

a distinct ethnic group in northern Iraq that is seeking independence. The people overwhelmingly

voted in favour of independence, but the Iraqi government deemed the referendum illegal.

Alright, let’s move east of the… Middle East, and onto the Indian subcontinent, where

we find the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. Basically, this area was a “Princely State”

of India while under British control, and in 1947 when India was divided into India

and Pakistan, disagreements about which country to join caused conflict, and a de facto partition

of the region that remains unresolved to this day. Around here, there’s also several territorial

disputes between India and China along their extensive border. All of which are controlled

by China.

And speaking of China, there’s plenty here to talk about, too. We’ve got Tibet, Hong

Kong, Taiwan… and probably much more that we don’t have time for.

So, Tibet. Tibet is an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China. The Tibetan

people are ethnically distinct from the Han Chinese majority, but the area has been under

Chinese control for 300 years. However, when imperial rule in China came to end with the

fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Tibet experienced a few decades of de facto independence. This

is when China became a republic for the first time. However, when a civil war broke out

between the government and a communist rebellion, the communists won, and proclaimed the People’s

Republic of China. The new communist government annexed Tibet in 1951, albeit with resistance

from Tibet’s 8,000-strong army.

Now, that civil war that was won by the communists… the losing side, the Republic of China, didn’t

just disappear. In fact, this brings us to our next stop, Taiwan. This is where the republican/nationalist

government fled to in 1949. While this country is commonly referred to as “Taiwan”, its

name is actually unchanged to this day, the Republic of China.

China still views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite the People’s Republic never having

any jurisdiction over the island in their history. Taiwan has its own government, president,

military, etc etc.. and is just like any other country in most ways. However, given how powerful

China is, officially acknowledging Taiwan means China cutting all ties, both diplomatic

and, more importantly, economic. Taiwan is not a member of the UN, but plenty of countries

have unofficial relations with Taipei.

There’s also Hong Kong, which is part of China, but has a special administrative status,

under the so-called “one China, two systems” policy. Mass protests took place throughout

much of 2019 when a controversial extradition bill was proposed. Even after the bill was

withdrawn, protests continued for full democracy, with a list of 5 demands. Protesters were

often subject to police brutality and arrest.

Hong Kong used to be British until 1997, when it was transferred back to China, with a 50-year

agreement that Hong Kong would not be subject to mainland China’s economic system. Literally

no-one knows what will happen in 2047 when this agreement expires.

Closeby, there’s also North and South Korea. Korea had been annexed by Japan in 1910, but

then with the Japanese defeat in WWII, the peninsula was to be… temporarily divided.