Prisoners Of Geography

Prisoners Of Geography explains how the location of a country dramatically affects its success and the amount of power it has in the world, and how this has determined the outcomes of major world events for centuries.

If you look at Russia on a map, you might be surprised at just how enormous it is. The country spans 6 million square miles, making it the biggest country in the world by far. While the country is massive, there is one thing that keeps Russian President Vladimir Putin up at night.

It is a stretch of land bordering Russia that resembles a slice of pizza. It starts in Poland, and the wedge stretches to the foot of the Ural Mountains and northeast to Moscow.

What worries Russian leaders is that this land is part of the North European Plain. It stretches from France through Belgium, the Netherlands, Northern Germany, Poland, and then ends at the Ural Mountains. Because this area is flat, it makes Russia vulnerable and difficult to defend from Europe.

Hypothetically, any country in the North European Plain could fairly easily send an army across this flat region that leads directly into Moscow, Russia’s capital city. One of the reasons Putin is well aware of this is because it has happened throughout Russia’s history.

Since 1812, Northern European invaders have attacked Russia here an average of once every 33 years. So the Russian strategy has been to maintain control of Poland and the Baltic states. Because this takes a huge chunk of the vulnerable land, Russia can hold off potential invaders much more easily by maintaining a strong defense here. Sadly, this has meant a tough go for the Baltic states.

While most countries have to worry about invasions, for the most part, the United States doesn’t. Its unique geographical position renders it pretty much invulnerable to any invading army. The neighbors to the north and the south are on friendly terms, and what’s more, they are so large that any army attempting to invade through them would have to have impossibly long supply lines. On the east and the west, the United States has the advantage of having oceans as borders. This all but cuts them off from invasions in these areas because any invader would have to cross an entire ocean to get there. In addition to these natural defenses, there is one more thing that makes the US so secure-lenient gun laws. American citizens own an estimated 393 million guns, which allow every small town to have the ability to take up arms and defend themselves without the government, if necessary. The right to bear arms is part of the American Constitution and is so deeply…