Chapter One
Why Do Strange Borders Exist?
Human society has dense bordersāeconomic, religious, and culturalāinculcated from an early age. We hate change.
āAlejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean director and performer
What is a border, really? In simple terms, a border is where one country ends and another country begins.
Many borders have quite obvious features. They may be rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, or any other substantial geographic barriers. But then there are very strange borders that at face value donāt appear to make a lot of sense. Letās begin by talking about countries that are entirelyāor almost entirelyāsurrounded by one single other country.
Lesotho: The Mountain Kingdom
The country of Lesotho is a strange oddity in our world. Itās a little smaller than the US state of Maryland, is home to over two million people, and is a completely independent country with its own government and King.
Despite its legal independence, the whole country is completely surrounded by South Africa. This strange situation occurred over a century ago in 1910, when what is today modern South Africa was formed by the British out of four of their colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony. Notably absent from this list of colonies, that became part of the Union of South Africa, was what was then called Basutolandāmodern day Lesotho.
Why Is Lesotho Known as the āMountain Kingdom?ā
If you were to travel through Lesotho, chances are youād mainly see mountains. Nearly two-thirds of the entire country consist of mountain ranges of every size and proportion you can imagine.
Lesotho also happens to feature the Highest Altitude Pub in Africa, which is aptly named, as it is nearly 2,900 meters above sea level. Located at the beginning of Sani Pass, it is an ideal place for a cold brew with a view.
The British attempted to include Basutoland within South Africa, but they failed due to the reluctance of the people within the colony. Basutoland would remain a British controlled colony even after South Africa achieved full self- governance in 1931, awkwardly placing a piece of British administered territory right in the middle of a self- governing former colony.
Basutoland finally gained independence from Britain in 1966, but its geographic situation means that the country has been severely influenced by South Africa ever since. All trade that comes into Lesotho has to first go through South Africa. Lesotho is completely landlocked and literally surrounded by South African territory on all sides, so all transportation to or from Lesotho must first go through South Africa. Even air travel has to venture through South African airspace first before it can enter Lesotho, which means that developments in South Africa will inevitably lead to the same occurrences in Lesotho.
But Lesotho isnāt the only landlocked country in the world that is entirely surrounded by another country. The next two happen to both be located in Italy.
Italian Frontiers
The first Italian border for discussion is Vatican City, which is a terribly complicated subject all on its own. Vatican City is the smallest internationally recognized, fully sovereign nation on Earthāsmaller than Central Park in New York City at 110 acres and having a population around 1,000 citizens. Despite this, however, itās...
