As a result of both the wars that took place centuries ago and the continental movements that have been going on for millions of years, the borders on the world map have changed many times. Sometimes with the birth or collapse of an empire, the world map is redrawn; A detail that has not changed for years, inevitably arouses curiosity in people who do not know the story.
Let’s take a look at why the borders of the states in the African continent are smoother than the states in other continents and whether there is a similar event in other continents.
The story of Africa, which we still refer to as a colonial region today, is much older than we thought.
- African continent and regions dominated by colonial states
As we all know, almost every state in the African continent was exploited by imperialist states for years due to its rich underground resources. According to many sources, the exploitation activities in Africa were first initiated in 576 BC by Egyptian Pharaoh II. It was started by Amasis and this process was followed by Greek colonialism and Alexander the Great.
The more advanced colonial phase began in the 13th century, with the Portuguese occupation of the Moroccan coast around 1215, igniting the first fuse of colonization that would continue for years.
It would be appropriate to say that after Portugal, “the imperialist who broke his rope came to Africa”.
- The blues represent France, the reds the United Kingdom, and the brown lines denote the route of other colonial states.
After the coastal occupation of Portugal in 1215, especially the United Kingdom and France; European states such as Belgium, Spain and Italy began to exploit the manpower and underground wealth in the African continent.
When we came to the end of the 19th century, there was no region (except Ethiopia) that was not occupied by the imperialists in Africa, which is the second largest continent in the world in terms of both land size and population and has 24.4% of the world’s land. However, in 1876, the occupation rate was 10% across the continent. This rate rose to 90% in 1890, just 14 years later.
When the cake on the table was big and valuable, the European states wanted to compromise and prevent the cake from falling apart!
Let alone the potential and current workforce, Africa was perhaps the richest continent in the world in terms of underground wealth, and the imperialist states wanted to get the largest share they could get without fighting with each other. In this direction, King of Belgium II. At the invitation of Leopold, a conference was held in Berlin, Germany.
As a result of the Berlin Conference, the African continent was divided into 52 different regions. The primary and most important issue that was taken into consideration while making regional distinctions was the underground resources. In this direction, borders were drawn to the African continent by taking into account the lines of latitude and longitude.
These 52 regions (each a state on paper) were shared between the United Kingdom (20), France (18), Portugal (5), Spain (4), Italy (3) and Belgium (2) based on power and territorial importance. In addition, as a result of this conference, the state that occupied the region that had its share was obliged to have soldiers there. In the absence of soldiers, other states would be deemed to be allowed to claim the demilitarized zone.
The decisions taken that day have a very high share in the basis of the ongoing African problems.
The negative effects of the European states drawing borders with rulers according to their own interests at the Berlin Conference still continue even today. With these arbitrary border divisions, the same tribe was divided into 3 different states or two enemy and completely opposite tribes were given to the same state.
Due to this problem brought about by the border separation with the ruler, negative situations such as border wars, civil wars, political instability and popular uprisings constantly arise in African countries. This naturally causes problems such as financial, basic needs, education and industry that Africa is experiencing today.
Although Europeans seem to have withdrawn from Africa today, it is difficult to talk about the positive situation in Africa.
Although European states today state that they have withdrawn their soldiers from Africa and put an end to the colony, it is not possible to talk about the good general condition of Africa due to the steps they have taken in the past and the problems they inherited.
The African continent, of which 50% of its population consists of young people under the age of 19 and 54 different states, could have been one of the most developed regions of the world, with its young population and underground riches, if it had not been a completely exploited continent in the past.
If you look closely at the Americas after the world map, it is possible to see Africa there.
After explaining in details and reasons why the borders of African states are smooth, it would be impossible not to mention the United States of America, which, like Africa, had a colonial period and had no different fate in terms of borders. Although we refer to different administrative units in America as states, the expression “state” is also correct for these states. The name of the United States of America comes from the 50 states (states) in it today.
When you examine closely, the borders of the states in the USA, which was once a British colony, are as smooth as drawn with a ruler, as in Africa, because these borders are also borders drawn on the desk. While drawing the borders of the states in the USA, the latitude and longitude lines were drawn by paying attention to factors such as desert, highway, waterways and rivers.
If everything had continued as the European states wanted, the borders of our country would have been drawn by rulers today.
While the First World War was going on, the European states had taken a preliminary step in the division of land by making many secret agreements among themselves. One of these secret agreements, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, divided the borders of the eastern and southern parts of our country, just as if they were drawn with a ruler.
This secret agreement, signed between the United Kingdom and France and approved by Russia, was later disclosed by Russia, just like other secret agreements. We can easily state that the borders in the Sykes-Picot Agreement are clearer than in Sevres, but the maps in both agreements are now rags.
We wish to be able to combine the rightful pride of being a state whose borders were drawn by fighting with a bayonet on the ground, not with a ruler at a desk, with education and science, and transfer it to future generations properly…
Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 /
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