This video was made possible by Brilliant. Learn with Brilliant for 20% off by being
one of the first 200 to sign up at Brilliant.org/HAI. You know what would make a bad video? One on, “what’s the longest border in
the world,” because it’s this one—the US-Canada border. Done. You know what would make a slightly less bad
video? One on “what’s the shortest border in
the world” since the answer’s a bit more complicated. Alright let’s beat that bush… or around
it or something. There are plenty of small countries with short
borders such as Monaco which shares a 2.7 mile, 4.4 kilometer long border with France
and the Vatican which shares 2 mile, 3.2 kilometer border with Italy but there are bigger countries
that share shorter borders such as the UK and Spain. Of course the British Isles are nowhere near
Spain but the British territory on the Iberian Peninsula is. Despite how it may look I’m not talking
about Malaga, I’m talking about Gibraltar. This British overseas territory shares a 0.8
mile, 1.2 kilometer border with Spain which is not the shortest international border in
the world. Down in Africa, there exists a pretty unique
border where Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia come close to forming the only place
on earth where four countries meet at one point. In the past it was thought that this was maybe
a quadripoint but nobody was really sure. Many of the post-colonial era borders were
not super well defined. Right here, at this point, Namibia, which
was controlled by South Africa at the time, said that the border was a quadripoint with
four countries meeting at one point while Botswana said that the border looked like
this with them having a tiny little border in the Zambezi River with Zambia which was
important to them since there was a ferry across the river which served as the only
direct connection between the two countries. If the border did indeed look like this as
South Africa said it did, every ferry trip would illegally be entering into their territory. So, South Africa/Namibia shot some guns and
everyone lived unhappily ever after, until around 2007 when the four countries sat down,
did some diplomacy, and decided that Botswana did indeed share this tiny, 500 foot, 150
meter border with Zambia which made everyone happy, except for this guy. What’s more, they decided to build a bridge
to link the two countries which will be done in 2019 and will take this big old curve in
order to very decisively stay out of Namibia and Zimbabwe’s territory. Now, this tiny border does qualify as the
shortest overall border between two countries, as in, the total border distance two countries
share, but as I’m sure you can tell by us being only halfway through this video, there
are shorter single portions of borders between two countries. Exclaves, territories of a country surrounded
by that of another, are the key to shorter border portions. You can look at a place like Baarle-Nassau. The easiest way to describe this town is like
this—this is Belgium, this is the Netherlands. It’s just a messy puzzle of exclaves the
smallest of which is this one. This strange Belgian portion of an empty field
has a border length of 800 feet or 250 meters making it a very short border, but still longer
than that Botswana-Zambia border. But, remember that time back at the end of
the 19th century when Europe decided it’d be cool to just take all of Africa? Then, do you remember that time 50 years later
when Europe decided it’d be cool to just leave all of Africa? See, look Spain is doing a great job at leaving. Nice job Spain! There you go! Almost done! Oh wait, Spain, you forgot a bit. Spain? Spain what about these bits? Spain? Half a century later, in two-thousand-now
Spain still holds these territories in Africa. Ceuta and Melilla are fairly well known as
they’re decently sized cities but there are more Spanish territories in North Africa. Six islands just off the coast of Morocco
are controlled by Spain. It’s worth noting, all of the Spanish Territories
in North Africa are disputed territory with Morocco but each of them is controlled by
Spain. In addition to those six islands Spain has
another bit of territory in mainland Africa—Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. This tiny rock was once an island but a huge
storm in the 30s formed this thin strip of sand that connected it with mainland Africa. The Spanish territory is only inhabited by
a few dozen Spanish soldiers who’s whole purpose is to sit around and make sure the
Moroccans don’t take it. It’s not that this peninsula is strategically
important at all anymore—it’s just that the Spanish believe that giving this territory
to Morocco would open the political floodgates for them returning Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco. The Spanish soldiers can’t cross into Morocco
and Moroccans can’t cross into this bit of Spain so all supplies and personnel are
flown in by helicopter to this heliport. Because this was formally an island, the border
just spans over the sand strip which makes it exceptionally short. The distance from here to here is just 278
feet or 85 meters and this is therefore, almost certainly, the shortest international border
in the world. You probably don’t need an advanced understanding
of geometry to figure out how long this border is but you probably do to answer this: how
many times greater is the green area than the blue area in this image? If you think you know the answer leave it
in a comment but if you don’t, you should take Brilliant’s geometry course. It teaches you the intuitive concepts behind
geometry so you don’t just learn how to answer questions, you understand it. If geometry isn’t your thing, Brilliant
also has tons of superbly designed courses on topics like logic, statistics, waves and
light, and more. To learn more about Brilliant, go to https://brilliant.org/HAI/
and sign up for free, and also, the first 200 people that go to that link will get 20%
off the annual Premium subscription.
They guy that makes this also has a channel called Wendover Productions
And that winning border at the end also separates 2 time zones which can occasionally differ by 2 hours depending on how they are feeling about daylight savings time on the south side!
Spain? ...Spain? ...Spain? ...SPAIIIIIIIIN!
espanha
What about embassies?