Prisoners of Geography

Prisoners of Geography
By Tim Marshall
Read in 8th Grade
Every nation on this planet has, and always will be, influenced by geography. First, Russia. It is the biggest nation in the world, albeit in an extremely cold region. Here, it faces its first geographic disadvantage. Since it is so far north, the only ocean it has access to is the Arctic. It has no warm-water ports, thereby preventing it from housing a decent navy. And, so that is why Russia has annexed Crimea, for a port. There is also a pizza-shaped piece of land in the west, the Northern European Plain. It is the only way Russia could possibly be attacked, and for all its history, Russia has been wary of it, trying to sway its border nations away from NATO. It does, however, have a strategic advantage in being Europes biggest, sometimes only, oil supplier.
It needs to keep Europe dependent to prevent attacks. China. Russia’s neighbor. The largest population in the world. For most of its history, it has kept to itself, but even it has fought wars to gain strategic ground. One of them is Tibet. It holds the source of China’s water source, and if neighboring India gained control of it, it would also gain a high point from which to potentially attack China. Another weakness. The sea. China is ringed by a belt of islands, mostly allies of the US which, in wartime, could prevent them from leaving the South China Sea. Hence its massive spending on a navy and the building of artificial islands. And at last, we arrive in the promised land, the USA. It seems that this nation can never go wrong. But even it was affected by North America’s geography. Most of its land beyond the Appalachians is flat, making for easy expansion. It did indeed get lucky in its early days, acquiring the Louisiana territory from France, containing a key port in New Orleans. This is getting kind of long, so let's head to Africa. It was the beginning of the human race, but its rivers were completely unsuitable for trade, and it harbored many diseases. In fact, Europe was the exact opposite, resulting in what it is today. It had long, calm rivers allowing for ease of trade between countries, causing higher development and its eventual conquest of Africa. There, it redrew state borders with no regard to geography and ethnicities, which were intertwined, causing to present-day Africa’s civil unrest. The same thing happened in the Middle East, and in part on the Korean peninsula. After World War II, the US couldn’t afford to simply allow Communist Russia to have control of the peninsula, and the two sides quarreled, with China eventually joining to struggle. Unable to conclude a costly war, they simply divided it on the 38th parallel, even though a more natural boundary would go longitudinally. And now, there is a new race to the Arctic. Attracted by its vast natural resources that would grant power, nations are scrambling for the last frontier. And ever-increasingly space. World leaders are continually struggling against the chains of geography, while it continues to shape diplomacy.