Why Nicaragua is Building Their Own Canal

look at this map all the ships in the world green for cargo red for liquid okay the liquid is mostly oil that's a ship ton of boats whoa these two almost crashed and look around you I'm sure almost everything you have was shipped on one of these dots so since it's so important you ought to know some Tails from the sea here are seven mini videos you should know about shipping like one we're building a new Panama Canal yep that's right a new Canal beside old Panama right here in Nicaragua blasting it through this path cheating by going through Lake Nicaragua except no I lied we are not building this canal that was some crazy American idea in the early 1900s when we were originally building an Atlantic Pacific Canal to bypass the whole continent down here Mexico and Colombia also lost their bids for the Canal Panama section was only really chosen because the French had already tried to dig a canal there but failed and gave away the half duck land for cheap but still the Americans had kind of promised their would build Nicaragua their own Canal too and by they would build I mean they would import laborers and work them to death until the stock market crashed in 1929 and then they said screw that and stuck to Panama until now the Panama Canal is fine for the modern day but there are three main problems a is too small fitting big tankers through it is like parking a Big Mac Truck right in a little garage just won't work for our bigger and bigger ships B it's too crowded it can take up to 10 hours to get through this canal not even including the wait time but hey nothing worse than New York traffic am I right fellow car lovers and see it's too American it was built by the US owned by the us until 1977 and the US will make sure the panamis government is always on their side they will make sure of it so in 2013 it was announced by a Chinese billionaire Wang Jing they'll pay for it with their new company hknd he pinky prom promise that the Chinese government had no involvement in the canal but I don't know with an estimated 50 billion dollar price tag four times Nicaragua's GDP it was not a cheap investment to be made by this one random billionaire but not unheard of and just like how Panama will never be anti-usa China would make sure Nicaragua would never be anti-china which is funny considering Nicaragua is one of the only countries on Earth to recognize Taiwan as the true glorious China until 2021 when they switched their China's anyways Wang never had to do business with a country that doesn't even recognize his homeland because he lost 85 percent of his wealth in a 2015 Chinese stock market crash Plus in 2016 the US just expanded the Panama Canal to meet demand instead of blasting a whole new Canal for the Americas so if there'll be any new American Canal it'll probably just be made in Panama two the Suez Crisis speaking of canals I know one in crisis let's kick it to Egypt sitting between the met and Red Seas it was the perfect place for a canal to be built but there's a problem a crisis one might say a Suez Crisis see in 1956 the Egyptian president Gamal Nasser decided to nationalize the Suez Canal taken away from the British who controlled it and the French who built it this caused Israel to invade the Sinai Peninsula starting a war which closed the canal weight this is the wrong crisis I'm so sorry about that what I meant to say was that in 1967 Egypt and Israel fought a war over the Sinai Peninsula again but they were beaten by Israel back to the Suez in four days they're in a pretty bad mood about it so their president resigned and they closed the canal for eight years until 1975. are you serious that's not the right Suez Crisis who's writing these videos I'm so sorry again I meant to say that in 2021 a big boat blocked the canal because it was too windy outside there are two lessons here one our boats might be too big for our puny canals I mean this ever given is a 400 meter long ship that's a track length go run around a track and tell me that that's a small boat tell me straight to my face it's not so if the boats keep getting bigger and bigger we'll have to make new canals like the new Suez Canal or start driving around Africa again and the second lesson for such a globally important area on Earth the Suez seems to shut down way more than we would like it to 10 of all trade goes through this tiny Canal the one ship getting stuck for six days caused around 60 billion dollars to be lost this one Economist James fire found that every 10 decrease in distance on the sea makes trade increase by five percent and that every dollar trade increases income will increase by 0.25 so relying on this tiny politically unstable Canal to stay open it's going to make everyone a whole lot more vulnerable to whatever [ __ ] is going on in Egypt three so just go over and what's faster than just go going over your problems like physically on Earth what I mean is what if we could avoid all these land masses all these political squabbles and all these crazy canals go over the planet through the Arctic wait isn't the Arctic full of ice yeah but ice is just water you haven't met yet plus we have satellite images showing that the ice is receding kind of like your hairline and for probably 95 of you is probably gonna suck coasts are rising and water patterns are changing but hey for the rare green landic or none of anybody businessman in the audience boy do I have an opportunity for you open up your own shipping Lane we got the first to melt the Russian route going along the coast of Siberia cutting the Suez lane from Europe to Asia in half only downside is European Russian business is not exactly in right now then we have the legendary Northwest Passage in Canada cutting the Panama route from Europe to Asia in half two in fact in 2007 was the first time when a ship carried cargo through the passage and in 2014 was the first time a ship did it without an escort a escort by an icebreaker the transpolar route going through the North Pole by Greenland and norwegian's svalbard well that's still probably gonna be too icy for a long time so does saval Barty traders in the audience better start admitting some more carbon the Arctic could be a great solution to the big boat small Canal problem we've been facing it just means you'll have to see more sad videos of polar bears falling off the ice for a couple of decades but as of right now they're only open for a couple weeks in summer and they won't even be open for two months a year until around 2040 plus you have the whole problem of nobody living here you know no ports along the way to drop off and pick up other goods and you know how these logistics companies love their efficiency so for now expect the only good seriously shipped through the Arctic to be raw materials basically just bulk loads of metal rocks and oil currently it's too expensive dangerous and frankly cold to really ship through it but hey maybe in the 2100s it'll be a bumping trade route and we'll have to worry about greenlandic Pirates raiding the North Pole trade or why don't the Americans use their River back to the map you'll see of course these boats cover the entire ocean after all boats float on water not land right right but look at China and Argentina and Brazil and Europe there are so many ships in land or on Rivers as the fancy people say but these aren't even the largest rivers on Earth this is wait no I meant this is Oops I meant to say the largest navigable Waterway on Earth that's here in the United States of America and if you watch any video on this channel he'll probably say something like the Mississippi Basin has more navigable waterways than the rest of the world combined I can't find anything that says that but it's definitely the largest on Earth it even connects to the great lakes and Saint Laurent River is through some canals even here the water is connected to the Mississippi Basin so when we zoom in why aren't there any boats on the American side when there are clearly ships on the Canadian side the first answer is there are ships here they're below Baton Rouge where this bridge stops them from passing but that seems like an easy fix either use that American Spirit and rebuild the bridge or just wait for one of these Louisiana hurricanes to come and destroy it the second answer is because of this old guy Wesley Jones who's a U.S senator over 100 years ago in 1920 he introduced The Jones act or the yeah the gist of the bill no cargo will flow from two American ports unless it's on a U.S built boat owned by Americans and has an American Crew operating it yes including Hawaii and other distant islands and yes most American ships do not fit this criteria Wesley did this mainly to give his state Washington a shipping Monopoly to the latest hip spot Alaska you and want these insane Canadians shipping there for you would you but look at what it's done to the USA all the boats in the Mississippi U.S U.S U.S in the Saint Laurent Netherlands Liberia Marshall Islands doesn't take a genius to tell you which side has more trade with this policy in place this bill effectively bans the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to ship in the modern day in favor of 1920s protectionism I mean one kilometer of barges is about the equivalent of 140 kilometers of semi trucks you tell me which seems more efficient but hey it might be over soon for the first time in over 100 years Joe Biden let a non-us ship go from U.S port to U.S port to give fuel to Puerto Rico after a hurricane in 2022 so you never know maybe we'll see a Mississippi full of green and red dots and a couple of decades after we refresh the map 5. why does everybody care about Djibouti let's go to the other side of the country power spec German look at tiny Djibouti if you don't know where that is I don't blame you it's a poor and Tiny African country sitting here but everybody loves Djibouti look at how many ships are sitting outside of it and by everybody loves them I mean everyone has a military base here the US UK France Italy Spain Germany China Japan Saudi Arabia and also India and Russia have looked into it why does a poor tiny country need nine foreign military bases because the mandem is here at the Babel mandeb let's look around it up here's the Suez Canal and as we've said before 10 of all trade goes through here and obviously has to go through the bab down here as well it's close to the Persian Gulf a place you're familiar with if you've ever turned on your lights and as close to Somalia which had a bit of a pirate issue recently doesn't help that this is a poor and corrupt Nation with a president who's been leaders since the 90s and boy does he ever love accepting more and more military bases to line his pockets with rent money a true land Chad so it's a great location for a base way easier to manipulate than Egypt is that's for sure why don't you apply for a base there they're not gonna deny you you know because of the implication 6. the most important trade route on Earth if there's two things American Presidents love it's Golf and the gulf why do they love it so much well it's a game you don't really have to spend that much effort in and can still work while getting some Leisure Time in oh and they love disc golf because it has a ton of oil about two-thirds of the planet's oil at least of all proven reserves it also has about one third of the world's natural gas and about one half of the world's Petty squabbles Persian golfer Arabian golf Sunni vs Shia and who gets to influence these tiny States there's a lot of instability in the Gulf which sucks because literally one half of all traded oil on Earth comes out of this tiny Corridor called the Strait of Hormuz go going back to our map there's a whole lot of red in the Arabian Gulf going where well let's trace it escaping the Persian Gulf Pastor Ron it bends around India having to deal with them and their Pakistan issues then past Sri Lanka going through the Strait of Malacca giving Singapore Indonesia and Malaysia bite of the power then through this sea with no political issues at all and everyone is happy to share past Taiwan to China or East Asia in general most energy in East Asia is imported from the Gulf which is why I say that this line is the most important trade route on Earth maybe ever in human history yes even more important than you no I'm sorry no it's my fault I didn't mean to Middle Eastern energy is what keeps the East Asian powerhouses alive the region that makes your iPhones Nintendo and all-knowing data spies and it's a huge reason why 7. China needs this ocean you might have heard about China claiming the entire South China Sea and thought that's weird why can't they just share this water and be best friends with their buddies China doesn't want friends though it wants money and power the South China Sea is one of the most contested areas on Earth right now everyone is claiming their parts of the sea like it's the hottest new craze and as an early trendsetter China gets to claim the entire ocean as theirs because without it they wouldn't have a safe access to this energy pipeline they are oh so worried about or at least have safe access after Singapore they uh still gotta worry a little bit before that without imported hydrocarbons they basically have no energy no non-coal energy at least they can't possibly power 1.5 billion people's gentian impact with a very very limited supply of fuel and materials found here and don't even think about renewable energy either look at the sky here without energy they can industrialize without factories they can't export and that's like their whole thing man you know made in China flooding the world with a bunch of cheaply made products that's what turned them from one of the poorest countries on Earth to one of the richest and without the success without constant building and constant exporting the people will be what we call unemployed and the nation won't be able to finance itself now I'm not saying China would collapse if everyone's unemployed but I am saying a lot of people would be unemployed if there was somehow cut off from this trade route so they're dumping sand in the South China Sea sticking a flag on it and calling it part of a Middle Kingdom oh the crazy things we do to keep our boats safe and our Goods shipped

Channel: hoser

Views: 1,088,527

Keywords: h0ser, hoser, geopolitics, geography, history, economics, economy, shipping, global shipping, shipping lanes, new panama canal, nicaragua canal, hknd, panama canal, suez canal, suez crisis, arctic, arctic shipping, arctic ocean, jones act, mississippi river, great lakes, djibouti, djibouti bases, persian gulf, strait of hormuz, south china sea, why china needs this ocean, seven seas

Id: ehcMpkCvY0E

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023