Prisoners of Geography

#Things to consider

• The land on which we live has always shaped us.
• Russia is the biggest country in the world, 70 times bigger than the UK but has a relatively small population of about 144 million; fewer than Nigeria or Pakistan.
• Russia does not have a natural warm-water port, and that prevents the Russian fleet from operating as a global power. The only one is in Sevastopol, but getting out of the Black Sea and the Bosporus is limiting.
• Ukraine and its neighbors know that unless you are in NATO, Moscow is near, Washington DC is far away.
• If there’s one geographical jackpot you could have won it would have been the United States—there’s no place more geographically secure.
• America can be divided by three slices east to west. From the Atlantic to the Appalachian. Then the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains. Then the rest to the pacific.
• The Appalachian mountains became the natural barrier for further westward movement by the first settlers in America.
• Spain will always struggle because of its poor inland rivers and its blocked access to market because of the Pyrenees.
• Kenya is one of the biggest up-and-comers in Africa. China is investing heavily there.
• Bangladesh used to be east Pakistan.
• Latin America will never rise as fast as other continents. They’re trapped by their geography and Buenos Aires will always be far from Washington, Paris and London.

#Reading log

2024-09-14: 📚 Prisoners of Geography is one of the most impactful books I’ve read this year. Felt that I gained so much knowledge about the world from it. Much more meaningful to gather my worldview from a book like this than from the news.