Name: A Geopolitical Tour of the World
Uploaded: 2022-07-30T08:57:39.000Z
Duration: 18 min 17 s
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Hello and welcome to ‘A geopolitical tour of the world’. In this video I’m going

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

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.

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,

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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A Geopolitical Tour of the World

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