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Countries Inside Countries (Bizarre Borders Part 1)

Notes & Corrections:

  • If I didn't make it clear enough in the video, this is about land borders and thus doesn't include bridges. (Which is why Singapore isn't listed)
  • Lesotho is 70,000 times larger than Vatican City, not 70 times.

Script:

When it comes to neighbors, most countries have several options: like North to Canada or South to Mexico.

But there are countries that don't have this freedom of choice, not because they're islands but because they're trapped in another country. For example: tiny Vatican City, which fits inside of not just Italy, but also just Rome.

How Vatican City got surrounded is complicated, but not unique for there is also the Republic of San Marino, home to 30,000 citizens which Italy also completely surrounds. Italy, apparently, is a country that likes countries in its country.

But trapping nations is not just Italy's thing for there's also Lesotho, in South Africa which is both the largest encircled country at 70 times Vatican City's size and the most populated with over 2,000,000 citizens.

The thing that makes these three countries' borders bizarre is that any path in or out must go through the one and only neighbor they have.

But now take a look at The Gambia, which excluding that tiny ocean border, is as surrounded as any nation can get.

If we amend the previous rule to every land route, now we've made a category of single-neighbored nations. Which includes all four of these and countries like Portugal, where the only way in or out is through Spain. Who else is on this list?

Well, there's Monaco which must go through France, Qatar through Saudi Arabia Denmark through Germany, South Korea through North Korea (though South Korea might as well be an island nation for most practical travel purposes)

East Timor and Papua New Guinea both through Indonesia, Brunei through Malaysia

And there are two sets of twins: there is The Dominican Republic whose only neighbor is Haiti and Haiti, whose only neighbor is The Dominican Republic.

And the second set is: Ireland through the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom through Ireland.

A side note here:

While there are tons of 'British' places around the world, some of which border other nations -- these are not part of the United Kingdom. It's complicated.

Though if you wanted to, you could argue that the United Kingdom technically dug a land border under the channel to the continent, presumably to be closer to France, her best friend ever.

Finally, there's one more country in this category: Canada: the largest single-neighbored, nation in the world.

Credits:

Images: jamiejohn, Alaskan Dude, yeowatzup, little_frank, Di.Malealea

Music: Kevin MacLeod

Vatican City Explained

Script

Vatican City: capitol of the Catholic Church, home to the pope, owner of impressive collections of art and history all contained within the borders of the world's smallest country: conveniently circumnavigateable on foot in only 40 minutes.

Just how did the world end up with this tiny nation?

The short answer is: because Mussolini and the long answer is fiendishly complicated so here's a simplified medium version:

The popes used to rule a country called the Papal States that covered much of modern day Italy. It was during this 1,000+ year reign that the Popes constructed St. Peter's Basilica the largest church in the world -- and also built a wall around the base of a hill known as Vatican upon which St. Peter's Stood.

But the Kingdom of Italy next door thought Rome would be an awesome capital for their country and so conquered the Papal States.

His nation destroyed the Pope hid behind the walls of Vatican and conflictingly refused to acknowledge that the Kingdom of Italy existed, while simultaneously complaining about being a prisoner of the Kingdom of Italy -- which according to him didn't exist.

Rather than risk religious civil war by getting rid of the pope the Kingdom of Italy decided to wait him out assuming he'd eventually give up -- but religion is nothing if not obstinate -- and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 popes and sixty years later nothing had changed.

Which brings us to Benito Mussolini the then prime minister of Italy who was tired of listing to the Pope complain to Italian Catholics about his self-imposed imprisonment so Mussolini thought he could score some political points by striking a deal which looked like this:

1) Italy gave the land of Vatican to the Pope.

and…

2) Italy gave the Pope a bunch of apology money

In return

1) The Pope acknowledged that Italy existed and

and…

2) The Pope promised to remain neutral in politics and wars.

On the off chance that, you know, Mussolini thought this might be a thing.

The deal was signed and a new country, Vatican City was born.

And today the tiny nation on a hill has all the things you'd expect of a country: its own government that makes its own laws that are enforced by its own police, who put people who break them in its own jail.

It also has its own bank and prints its own stamps and issues its own license plates, though only its citizens can drive within its borders presumably because of terrible, terrible parking -- and as the true mark of any self-respecting nation: it has its own top-level domain: .VA

But, despite all these national trappings Vatican City is not really like any other country. Hold on to your fancy hat, because it's about to get weird:

To understand the Vatican: there are two people and two things that you need to know about: the famous pope, the incredibly confusing Holy See, The Country of Vatican City and along with that the almost completely unknown King of Vatican City.

But first the Pope: who gets a throne to sit upon and from which he acts as the Bishop for all the Catholics in Rome.

Actually all Bishops in the Catholic Church get their own thrones but because the Bishop of Rome is also the Pope his throne is special and has it's own special name: The Holy See.

Every time a Pope dies or retires there is a sort of game of thrones to see which of the bishops will next get to occupy the Holy See.

So while Popes come and go the throne is eternal. As such the name The Holy See not only refers to the throne but also all the rules that make the Catholic Church the Catholic Church.

When Mussolini crafted that aforementioned deal, technically he gave the land of Vatican City to The Holy See -- which, believe it or not, is a legal corporate person in international law. Basically every time you hear the words The Holy See think Catholic Church, Inc of which the Pope is the CEO.

Now back to the King. The King of Vatican City has absolute, unchecked power within the country's borders and his presence makes Vatican City one of only six remanning absolute monarchies in the world, including Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Swaziland. The King's absolute power is why Vatican City can't join the European Union because only democracies are allowed.

Through Vatican City does, strictly speaking, have a legislative brach of government -- staffed by cardinals, appointed by the pope -- the King of Vatican City can overrule their decisions and at any time for any reason.

So why do you never hear about the King of Vatican City? Because though King and Pope are two different roles, they just happen to be occupied by the same person at the same time -- which has the funny consequence that, because the Pope is elected and the King is all-powerful but they're the same guy it makes Vatican City the world's only elected, non-hereditary absolute monarchy.

It's this dual-role that makes untangling Vatican City so difficult because the Pope, depending on the situation either acts as The King of the country of Vatican City or the Pope of the Holy See.

Got it? No? OK, here's an analogy:

Imagine if a powerful international company, say Grey Industries, had a CEO who convinced the United States to give one of its islands to the Company which then made the island into a new country -- Greytropolis -- with an absolute monarchy as its government and the law that the King of Greytropolis is, by definition, the CEO of Grey Industries.

It's pretty obvious at that point that the CEO should move his corporate headquarters to the new nation -- so that the laws of the country can benefit the company and the company's global reach can benefit the country. As for the man in the middle sometimes it's good to the the CEO and sometimes it's good to be the king.

That is essentially Vatican City.

But if you're still confused, don't worry even other countries can't keep it straight. For example the United Nations has The Holy See the corporation as a member but not Vatican City the actual country. And The Holy See gives passports to Vatican City citizens that other countries accept even though those passports come from a company, not a country.

And speaking of Vatican City citizens, they are perhaps the strangest consequence of the Pope's dual role as religious leader and monarch.

While other countries mint new citizens with the ever popular process of human reproduction Vatican City does not. No one in Vatican City is born a citizen -- and that's not just because, within a rounding error, there are no female Vaticans.

The only way to become a citizen is for the King of Vatican City to appoint you as one. And the King only appoints you a citizen if you work for the Pope -- who is also the King.

And because the King is all-powerful your citizenship is at his whim. If you quit your job for the Pope, the King -- who is also the pope -- will revoke your citizenship.

These rules mean that Vatican City doesn't have a real permanent population to speak of: there are only about 500 full citizens -- which is fewer people that live in single skyscrapers in many countries -- and all these citizens work for The Holy See as either Cardinals or Diplomats or the Pope's bodyguards or other Catholic-related jobs.

So it's best to think of Vatican City as a kind of Sovereign Corporate Headquarters that grants temporary citizenship to its managers rather than a real city-state like Singapore: which has a self-reproducing population of citizens engaged in a variety of economic activities both of which Vatican City lacks.

But in the end, the reason the world cares about Vatican City is not because of the citizens within its walls but because of the billion members of its church outside those walls.

Credits

Images: Tony Perrottet, Marc Simonetti, chongeileen, Chris Wary, buzzwax, proimos (2), edwardlangley, duncanh1, sonofgroucho, phxdailyphotolady, antmoose, jetheriot, isa lias, kengz, joseag, erwin soo, jamiejohn, iamagenious, Toshio Kishiyama, Perrimoon, jeffd, gaspa, alecea, dgodin, & Mike Murphy

Music: Kevin MacLeod

The Debt Limit Explained

Script:

The debt limit is kind of a financial weapon of mass destruction chained to the United States government by the United States government.

Confused?  Then it's time for The United States debt limit Explained.  

To understand the debt limit you need to know the US splits financial responsibility between the president and congress.  

The president has two jobs when it comes to money:

1. Collect taxes and... 

2. Spend those taxes to run the government.  

This might give you the impression that the president, with regards to money, is all-powerful.  Especially when you hear news reports on 'the president's new budget' or his plan to 'raise taxes on haberdashers' or 'lower taxes on apiarists'.

But reality is just the opposite and the president is the one who takes orders.

From whom?

Congress.  

Congress has the jobs of setting the tax level and determining how much the government will spend by writing a budget.  

So while the president does get to submit budgets to congress, and asks for changes in the tax level, these are just requests that congress doesn't have to pay attention to.

Congress can add or subtract anything they want from the president's budget or throw it out entirely and write a new one.  The same goes for the level of taxes.

So congress decides what it wants: bridges, tanks, buildings, courts, robots on Mars, robots on Earth, National Parks, whatever and approves a budget with that stuff in it.

Once approved the president's is required by law to spend the money Congress listed in the budget and pay for it using the taxes that congress set.*

As long as more taxes come in than spending goes out everything is fine.

But, almost always, Congress puts more stuff in the budget than they cover with taxes which means the president must borrow money to cover the difference.†  

In most countries the story ends here because if their legislatures approved more spending than they have income, they've also implicitly approved the necessary borrowing -- but not in America.  Here Congress also limits the total amount of debt the United States can have.  

A debt limit sounds like a good idea until you see the real-world consequences of these two branches of government interacting.

As the total amount borrowed gets closer to the limit, Congress usually points to the president and acts shocked, shocked that his reckless spending has brought us so close to the debt limit that they, reasonable, prudent Congress have set.   

And while it's technically correct that the president has borrowed this money, congress has forced him to do it, by approving a budget that the president is legally obligated to spend without also approving the necessary taxes to cover that spending.  

So the debt limit fight is essentially the government version of the playground favorite: 'stop hitting yourself' except with added terror for everyone watching.    

For, it's important to note, the debt limit is not about future spending -- it's not a credit card on which the limit will be raised so a crazy government party can be thrown -- the debt limit is about paying bills already incurred.  

For example, the government hires a company to repave a federal highway.  But if the US is at the debt limit, when the company asks to be paid after the work has been done, the government can't.  This shakes trust in the US and since large parts of the global economy depend on the dollar being trust worthy, messing with that trust is a big deal.  

But there is a way out: Congress can raise the debt limit and, because of the aforementioned terror, they always have.  

So… if not raising the debt ceiling is potentially disastrous and the solution is simple and always taken in the end: why does this debate last months‽

Because: politics.

The debt limit isn't in the constitution, congress created it themselves and from their point of view, the debt limit is awesome because:

1. It creates a problem that...

2. Congress can (technically) blame on the president who... 

3. Needs the solution that only they can provide

Congress gets to use the threat of mutual financial self destruction as leverage in negations that they benefit from extending until the last… possible… second.  

Special Thanks:

Neil H. Buchanan & Kyle McMahon.

Credits:

Music: David Rees.

Images: The Noun Project, Jonathan Keating, Luis Prado, Andrew Forrester, Juan Sebastian Rickenmann & Anuar Zhumaev.

The Difference between Holland & the Netherlands

Script

Welcome to the Great nation of Holland: where the tulips grow, the windmills turn, the breakfast is chocolatey, the people industrious, and the sea tries to drown it all.

Except, this country isn't Holland. It's time for:

The Difference Between Holland, the Netherlands (and a whole lot more)

The correct name for this tulip growing, windmill building, hagelslag eating, container ship moving, ocean conquering nation is the Netherlands.

But confusion is understandable -- the general region been renamed a lot over a thousand including as:

  • The Dutch Republic
  • The United States of Belgium and
  • The Kingdom of Holland

But it's not just history that makes this country's name confusing because the Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces:

  • Groningen
  • Drenthe
  • Overijssel
  • Gelderland
  • Limburg
  • Brabant
  • Zeeland (Which, by the way, is the Zeeland that makes this Zeeland, new)
  • Friesland (With adorable little hearts on its flag)
  • Flevoland
  • Utrecht, and here's the confusion:
  • Noord (North) Holland and
  • Zuid (South) Holland

These provinces make calling the Netherlands 'Holland' like calling the United States 'Dakota'. Though unlike the Dakotas, which are mostly empty, save for the occasional Jackalope, the two Hollands are the most populated provinces and have some of the biggest attractions like, Amsterdam and Keukenhof.

Chances are if it's Dutch, and you've heard of it, it's in one of the Hollands.

Even the government's travel website for the country is Holland.com -- officially because it sounds friendlier, but unofficially it's probably what people are actually searching for.

Confusion continues because: People who live in the Hollands are called Hollanders, but all citizens of the Netherlands are called Dutch as is their language. But in Dutch they say: Nederlands sprekende Nederlanders in Nederland which sounds like they'd rather we call them Netherlanders speaking Netherlandish. Meanwhile, next door in Germany, they're Deutsche sprechen Deutsch in Deutschland. Which sounds like they'd rather be called Dutch.

This linguistic confusion is why Americans call the Pennsylvania Dutch Dutch even though they're Germans.

To review: this country is the Netherlands, its people are Dutch, they speak Dutch. There is no country called Holland, but there are provinces of North and South Holland.

Got it? Great, because it's about to get more complicated.

The Netherlands is part of a Kingdom with the same name: The Kingdom of the Netherlands -- which is headed by the Dutch Royal Family.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands contains three more countries and to find them we must sail from the icy North Sea to the Caribbean and Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten.

These are no territories, but self-governing countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and as such they have their own governments, and their own currencies.

Geography geek side note here:

While Aruba and Curaçao are islands, Sint Maarten is just the Southern Half of a tiny island also named Saint Martin the other half of which is occupied by France and also named Saint Martin. So despite being separated by Belgium on the European map, The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the French Republic share a border on the other side of the world on an island so nice they named it thrice.

But why does the Kingdom of the Netherlands reach to the Caribbean anyway? Because, Empire.

In the 1600s the Dutch, always looking to expand business, laid their hands on every valuable port they could. For a time, America's East Coast was 'New Netherland' with its capital city of New Amsterdam. There was New Zealand, as mentioned previously, and nearby, the king of the islands, New Holland. Though the empire is gone, these three Caribbean nations remain.

And while four countries in one kingdom, isn't unheard of, it doesn't stop there, because the country of the Netherlands, also extends its borders to the Caribbean and three more islands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

These are not countries in a Kingdom, but are cities of the Country of the Netherlands and they look the part. Residents of these far-flung cities vote in elections for the Dutch government just as any Hollander would. Though, weirdly, they don't belong to any province and they don't use the Dutch currency of Euros, they use Dollars instead. It's kind of like if Hawaii wasn't a state, but technically part of the District of Columbia, all the while using the Yen.

These cities of the Country of the Netherlands and these countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, are together are known as the Dutch Caribbean. And their citizens are Dutch citizens. Which, because the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a member of the European Union, means these Dutch Caribbeans are also Europeans.

So in the end, there are 6 Caribbean islands, four countries, twelve provinces, two Hollands, two Netherlands and one kingdom, all Dutch.

Notes & Corrections

  • The ç in Curaçao should be pronounced with an 's' sound.
  • Frieslanders will often claim that the little hearts on their flag are actually waterlillies, but that's only because they are embarassed by the little hearts on their flag.

Can Texas Secede from The Union?

I decided to make this video after the fuss about the latest petition let Texas secede from The Union. While these stories do pop up every few years the WhiteHouse.gov petition is interesting because it asks people when they sign for their state of residence.

I asked on Twitter if anyone could scrape the data and one of my followers, Ben Buchwald, came through. After shoving the raw data into a spreadsheet, here are the results:

The giant blue wedge is people from Texas, the big green wedge is people who didn't want to give their location, and the 2% to 1% wedges are the rest of the states, Puerto Rico and, interestingly, a few American military personnel overseas.

However, a graph like this isn't really very informative. The interesting question is which states most want Texas to go. Sorting by number of signatures isn't helpful because then you just end up with a graph of population. So I've divided the number of signatures by population to yield a graph of per-capita support for Texas secession in the other 49 states:

This graph was the exact opposite of my expected results: I guessed that Democratic states, such as New York and California would top the list and Republican States would be at the bottom, but the graph shows the exact opposite.

It looks like support for Texas leaving the Union is highest among those who a Texas exit would hurt the most politically.

Script

Can Texas Secede from the Union?

America's second most populated and second largest state is always first to remind you that it was once an independent nation: The Republic of Texas.

Unlike California's three-week, almost accidental flirt with independence (and a hideous flag) the Republic of Texas was a real country with its own presidents, and laws and currency for a decade from 1836 until 1846 when it joined the Union to become the 28th state, thankfully evening out the number of stars.

This happy marriage led pretty much immediately to the Mexican-American war over the question of over how big Texas was. America, as the victor, got to decide the answer: very big.

While Texas gave up its complete independence to join The Union, it didn't give up its independent streak -- and filed for divorce, along with several other states, a scant 15 years later. This domestic dispute was settled not with flowers but with force, something that many are still grumbly about today.

But History aside in modern times could Texas still be a real country? In other words: could Texas succeed if it secedes?

In terms of population, an independent Texas would be the world's 46th largest country with 26 million citizens. And, those citizens would make Texas the 13th largest economy. So the New Texas Republic would be comparable to Australia, except in the size department.

But what about the Federal money that goes to Texas? Those interstate highways don't build themselves, you know. For a majority of states, independence would be a financial problem. Mississippi, for example get two dollars from Washington for every one it sends in taxes so an independent Magnolia Republic would be bankrupt almost instantly.

But not Texas, which gives more money to the federal government in taxes than it gets back. There's no reason why independent Texas couldn't keep those highways paved and give its citizens a small happy-Texapendency-day Tax cut.

So from a financial perspective: The New Texas Republic gets a check.

Now the question is can Texas legally secede? And the answer is... no... not at all.

Despite popular belief, even by politicians who should know better, the Texas constitution does not include a get-out-of-The-Union-free clause no matter how much Texans, or citizens of other states, wish that it did.

However, the Texas Constitution does have a weird clause that allows it to divide itself into five states without the approval of congress. So Texas could, any moment, explode into the states perhaps named North Texas, South Texas, East Texas, West Texas and Austin -- which would quintuple its power in the Senate -- but not necessarily help it gain independence because there is no legal process for a state to exit The Union.

Though the constitution is mute on the issue, secession has come before the supreme court and, shockingly, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that States can't leave the United States.

But the legal question is, weirdly sort of moot. After all, the First Texas Republic didn't pop into existence out of nowhere -- Texas was originally a State of Mexico, which didn't allow Texas to leave, but leave Texas did anyway, though under less than harmonious circumstances.

While it's hard to imagine war between the New Texas Republic and the United States it isn't hard to imagine who would win that fight. Texas does have its own military, but seriously, nobody beats America in the war business.

So the only way Texas is leaving is if it can convince the United States to change its laws to let it leave. Which only as a chance of being discussed seriously if a majority of Texans want independence, which isn't remotely the case.

So while a New Texas Republic is interesting to think about -- particularly for some non-Texans, as of now it's a long way from becoming a reality.

Credits:

Images by rutlo and photoshop help from Larom Lancaster.