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Hello and welcome to a geopolitical tour of the world.
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In this video, I'm going to take you on a guided journey around the globe, talking to you about some disputes,
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oddities, complexities, or just some things that are good to be aware of in this complicated planet we live on.
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Some of the things I'll be talking about I already have entire videos on, if you want a deeper understanding.
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We'll start at the centre of the world, the Prime Meridian, which goes through Greenwich, England.
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This is because that's where the British invented time in 1884.
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Here we have two independent countries, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.
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The country of Ireland comprises the majority of the island of Ireland, while the northern part, called Northern Ireland,
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is one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
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Northern Ireland doesn't really have an official flag
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because its population doesn't exactly agree on whether they should remain British or unite with the rest of Ireland.
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The other three constituent countries are in Great Britain and surrounding minor islands, Scotland, England and Wales.
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Some people use the terms Great Britain, United Kingdom and England interchangeably.
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But please don't, us Scots really don't appreciate it.
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In fact, many Scots don't want to be part of the UK.
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Despite an unsuccessful referendum in 2014, there's still a very sizable independence movement… even more so since Brexit.
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So just remember, Great Britain, an island the UK, an independent country made up of 4 non-independent countries, and England, one of those 4 countries.
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Oh, and there's also the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, which are British, but not part of the UK for some reason.
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They're referred to as Crown Dependencies.
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Ok, we really need to move on, lots to cover.
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If we go into the icy north, we find the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
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Two places that you wouldn't think have much in common, but they do, they're both Danish.
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They're both autonomous territories of Denmark.
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And despite the immense difference in size between the two, they actually both have a similar population of around 50,000.
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Unsurprisingly, Greenland is one of the least densely populated parts of the world.
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The island is literally three-quarters ice.
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Moving on to land with a more… hospitable climate, mainland Europe.
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First thing to talk about is probably the European Union, an economic and political union of 27 European states.
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It used to be 28, but… you know… Brexit.
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The EU has what's called the Schengen Area, an area of free travel in which participating countries have abolished border controls.
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Not all members of the EU are part of this area and also some non-EU members are.
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Same with the Eurozone, a monetary union in which all countries use a shared currency, the Euro.
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19 of the 27 members are part of the Eurozone, 4 countries have agreements with the EU to officially use the Euro despite not being part of the EU,
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and then 2 others just sort of decided they wanted it too, without any agreement in place.
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Now given how much Europeans loved conquering the world for a few centuries, there are plenty of parts of European countries outside of Europe.
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Like the large part of France in South America, or smaller islands just off the coast of Madagascar.
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Of course, I won't be able to cover them all.
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Just a quick mention about the Vatican City, which is considered a country, the smallest in the world, entirely surrounded by Italy, but is not a member of the United Nations,
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although it is an observer state.
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OK, to Spain next.
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This region here is called Catalonia, it's one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain.
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Many Catalans have been fighting for independence from Spain over the last century, with things really picking up over the last decade.
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Catalonia sought permission from Madrid to hold an independence referendum.
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Spain said no. Catalonia said they'll do it anyway.
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Spain said wait no, that's illegal, but they did it anyway.
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The result was 92% in favour of independence.
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But everyone who wanted to remain part of Spain just boycotted the vote, so it doesn't really count.
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The president of Catalonia later declared independence… sort of?
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It was all very confusing and nobody really knows what happened.
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Catalonia is still part of Spain though, and the former president is currently living in self-imposed exile in Belgium.
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On the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, there's Gibraltar, an overseas British territory which was ceded from Spain about 300 years ago.
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And just across the Mediterranean, there's a couple of parts of Africa that are still part of Spain.
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Alright what's next?
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Ah yes, the Balkans.
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This is a part of Europe in which everyone hates each other.
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Probably the biggest point of contention is the self-declared, partially recognised state of Kosovo, or the autonomous Serbian province of Kosovo, depending on your viewpoint.
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The province declared its independence in 2008, after a war with Serbia a few years earlier, in which Kosovo received military support from NATO.
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The population of Kosovo is predominantly Albanian.
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As well as this, there was also the near three-decade naming dispute between Greece and North Macedonia, as it's now called.
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Basically Macedonia is a large geographic region, much of which is in Greece, and was named as such after an ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.
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So Greece wasn't too happy in 1991 when their neighbour declared independence from Yugoslavia as the Republic of Macedonia.
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Due to Greek objections, the country was referred to as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in diplomatic organisations like the UN.
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After 28 years, the insanity was finally ended and the country was renamed the Republic of North Macedonia.
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But I'm pretty sure neither side was really happy with the outcome and they both still hate each other.
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On to Russia now.
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This is the Crimean Peninsula.
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It was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, after a referendum of… questionable legitimacy.
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It was only actually part of Ukraine for about half a century, since it was transferred to Ukraine while both were Soviet republics.
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Western governments and the UN do not recognise the annexation and still consider the peninsula to be part of Ukraine.
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Nothing has actually been done about it though.
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One more part of Russia that's good to be aware of is the small exclave here called the Kaliningrad Oblast.
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It was originally part of the German state of Prussia, but the Soviet Union claimed it after the Allies' victory in World War II.
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And then after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became completely cut off from the rest of Russia.
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Revealing to Russia's southern border was Georgia.
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Georgia has a somewhat precarious political situation, as it has not one but two parts of the country that have declared their independence, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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Both states have control over the areas they claim, however they very much lack international recognition.
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Both states declared their independence in the 1990s with backing from Russia.
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There was even a brief war over the dispute between Georgia and Russia in 2008.
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No prizes for guessing how that turned out.
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Next we'll take a trip down to the Mediterranean, to the beautiful summer getaway of Cyprus.
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The political situation here, though, is a bit ugly.
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The island is currently divided between the country of Cyprus and the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
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There's a UN buffer zone separating the two political entities
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that was established after the inter-ethnic violence between the Greeks and the Turks of the island erupted in the 1960s, shortly after Cyprus gained independence from the UK.
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There was a Greek coup, followed by a Turkish invasion, and it all got very messy.
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Oh, and there's also some British bases on that island.
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I guess the strategic location was just too valuable to give up.
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Moving further south, and on to Africa.
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Probably the most noticeable geopolitical dispute in Africa is the area known as Western Sahara.
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The region is claimed and mostly controlled by Morocco, but the region has also been proclaimed as the independent country
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of the Sarawí Arab Democratic Republic by the indigenous rebel group the Polisario Front, which started off by fighting against Spanish colonial rule in the 1970s.
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In 1976, Spain just sort of noped out of the whole situation and divided the region between Morocco and another neighbouring country,
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Mauritania, who also claimed the region at the time… but not anymore.
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On the opposite coast of Africa, we have Somaliland, which, once again, is a dispute caused by the Europeans.
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Somaliland was controlled by the British, while the rest of what is today the country of Somalia was controlled by Italy.
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In 1960, the two were joined to make a new, independent country.
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Somaliland declared independence in 1991, and a civil war has been ongoing ever since.
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Now moving on to the Middle East… oh f*.
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Okay, so it's quite literally impossible to give any kind of explanation
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of what the hell is going on here in just a couple of minutes, so just keep in mind that everything I say is going to be way oversimplified.
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Before the beginning of the currently ongoing situation, there was an area called Palestine, which was under British administration.
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In 1948, the United Nations passed a resolution to partition the land between Jewish and Arab communities.
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The descendants of these Arab communities, in this region and in refugee camps nearby, are what we today call Palestinians.
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After the resolution was passed, the state of Israel was declared.
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This led to the first of several wars with its neighbours, in which Israel was often fighting against most, or all of them, at once.
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Territory in this region has bounced back and forth between different countries and organisations many times.
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Today, Israel is also in control of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967.
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As well as Israel, we also have the State of Palestine, declared in 1988, which is a partially recognised state with observer status at the United Nations.
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Its claimed territory is the West Bank, in which an interim division agreement was reached with Israel in the 90s, as well as the Gaza Strip,
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which has actually been controlled by Hamas since 2007.
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A Palestinian political party, and variously described as a terrorist organisation.
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Things are even more complicated in Jerusalem, an ancient city with profound significance to Jews, Muslims and Christians.
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The city is fully controlled by Israel, but claimed by both groups as their capital, though with different parts of the city being claimed by each group.
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On top of all of this, there's also the issue of Israeli settlements, which we don't have time to get into and I'd really like to move on now please.
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Staying in the Middle East, there's the situation in Syria, in which a devastating, multi-sided civil war has been ongoing for nearly 10 years now.
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This began with a series of anti-government protests, part of a broader movement known as the Arab Spring, which was violently suppressed.
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The conflict is one of the bloodiest of the 21st century, and has spilled over to several neighbouring countries.
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There's also the situation in Iraq.
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There is still ongoing conflict that stemmed from the US-led invasion in 2003 to topple the government of Saddam Hussein.
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With ISIS having mostly lost their territory in Iraq, the violence has continued in the form of an insurgency, featuring several rebel groups.
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ISIS was defeated in the civil war with help from the Kurds, a distinct ethnic group in northern Iraq that is seeking independence.
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The people People overwhelmingly voted in favour of independence, but the Iraqi government deemed the referendum illegal.
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Alright, let's move east of the… Middle East, and onto the Indian subcontinent, where we find the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.
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Basically this area was a princely state of India while under British control, and in 1947, when India was divided into India and Pakistan,
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disagreements about which country to join caused conflict, and a de facto partition of the region that remains unresolved to this day.
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Around here there's also several territorial disputes between India and China along their extensive border.
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All of which are controlled by China.
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And speaking of China, there's plenty here to talk about too.
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We've got Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and probably much more we don't have time for. So Tibet.
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Tibet is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China.
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The Tibetan people are ethnically distinct from the Han Chinese majority.
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But the area has been under Chinese control for 300 years.
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However, when imperial rule in China came to an end with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Tibet experienced a few decades of de facto independence.
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This is when China became a republic for the first time.
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However, when a civil war broke out between the government and a communist rebellion, the communists won, and proclaimed the People's Republic of China.
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The new communist government annexed Tibet in 1951, albeit with resistance from Tibet's 8,000 strong army.
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Now, that civil war that was won by the communists… the losing side, the Republic of China, didn't just disappear.
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In fact, this brings us on to our next stop, Taiwan.
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This is where the Republican-slash-Nationalist government fled to in 1949.
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While this country is commonly referred to as Taiwan, its name is actually unchanged to this day, the Republic of China.
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China still views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite the People's Republic never having any jurisdiction over the island in their history.
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Taiwan has its own government, president, military, etc, etc, and is just like any other country in most ways.
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However, given how powerful China is, officially acknowledging Taiwan means China cutting all ties, both diplomatic and, more importantly, economic.
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Taiwan is not a member of the UN, but plenty of countries have unofficial relations with Taipei.
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There's also Hong Kong, which is part of China, but has a special administrative status, under the so-called One China, Two Systems policy.
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Mass protests took place throughout much of 2019, when a controversial extradition bill was proposed.
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Even after the bill was withdrawn, protests continued for full democracy, with a list of five demands.
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Protesters were often subject to police brutality and arrest.
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Hong Kong used to be British until 1997, when it was transferred back to China,
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with a 50-year agreement that Hong Kong would not be subject to mainland China's economic system.
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Literally no one knows what will happen in 2047 when this agreement expires.
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Close by, there's also North and South Korea.
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Korea had been annexed by Japan in 1910, but With the Japanese defeat in World War II, the peninsula was to be… temporarily divided.
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The Soviet Union controlled the North, and the United States, the South, with the plan to unify Korea into one country.
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But then the Cold War happened, and suddenly the two countries controlling Korea hated each other and were less willing to cooperate.
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There was a three year war, which didn't really accomplish much, except massive casualties on both sides.
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North Korea is the most isolated country in the world, with its population unable to leave and with little knowledge of the outside world.
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North Korea has nuclear weapons though, hence the lack of intervention.
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Elsewhere in Asia to be aware of, there's a country that nobody really knows what to call it, Burma or Myanmar, and there's also the South China Sea,
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which is the most disputed part of the entire planet, claimed by like… 40 countries or something… probably.
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Where do we go from here?
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We can probably just skip over Australia and all that down there, they're pretty chill, not too much to talk about.
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Let's instead go all the way across the Pacific Ocean, which is mostly empty except for Hawaii, which is part of the United States but has a Union Jack on its flag for some reason.
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So now we're in the Americas, North and South America.
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Although some people, especially from Latin America, refer to them as one continent.
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America, singular.
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However, English speakers generally use this word to refer to the country, the United States.
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There's plenty going on in the Caribbean.
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There are 13 independent nations, most of which no one has ever heard of, as well as European colonies and territories, and also a random part of Colombia.
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Cool flag though.
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Oh, and Puerto Rico, that wants to awkwardly add a 51st star to the American flag.
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A particularly peculiar case is with a bunch of Dutch islands, Aruba, Curacao, and St Martin, which are actually countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands,
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making up four constituent countries along with the Netherlands itself.
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Somewhat similar to the UK.
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But within the constituent country of the Netherlands, there are three more Caribbean islands, Bonaire, St Eustatius and Ceiba.
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Here's a Venn diagram to help you out.
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Elsewhere in the Americas, there's the Falkland Islands, British islands with British people who near unanimously voted to remain a British territory, but for some reason Argentina claims them as their own.
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They even fought a brief war in 1982, when Argentina invaded the islands.
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But this only happened because the dictator was trying to distract his people from the country's failing economy.
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Let's see, what else?
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Well, there's Antarctica, which is mostly just ice and snow, but hey, it's land, so countries will try and stick a flag in it and claim it as their own.
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Because why not at this point?
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There are various claims to the continent, some of which overlap, as as well as some unclaimed land, but it's mostly irrelevant because of the Antarctic Treaty.
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The treaty has suspended all new claims, guarantees freedom for scientific exploration, and a ban of all military activity.
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Sometimes when we look at the world, the lines on a map don't fully do justice to the situation on the ground.
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You often have to look beyond the borders to see what lies beneath.
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Geopolitics can be both complicated and fascinating in equal measure, and it's always good to know what's going on in the world.
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A great way to keep yourself informed is by watching documentaries on CuriosityStream, an online streaming service with thousands of titles on science,
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technology, history, lifestyle and so much more.
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I recently watched a great documentary about tsunamis, and how scientists are trying to learn more and more about them to help better prepare for future disasters.
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You can start watching for just £2.99 a month by signing up at curiositystream.com forward With your subscription,
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you'll also get access to Nebula, a streaming service for independent creators.
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Nebula has a lot of original content, such as the multi-creator series Working Titles, a series dedicated to TV shows with great opening title sequences.
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Recently I made an episode about the greatest sitcom of all time.
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Go check it out.
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Again, that's curiositystream.com forward slash wonder why.
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Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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Thank you.
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Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione
Questo video contiene 198 frasi e 3180 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 18:15. Chi parla ha un ritmo naturale di circa 174 parole al minuto, vicino a una conversazione quotidiana. Il 83% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.
Vocaboli chiave di questo video
15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| dispute sostantivo | /dɪˈspjuːt/ | disputa, lite |
| communist sostantivo | /ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/ | comunista |
| ongoing aggettivo | /ɒnˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/ | continuo |
| divide verbo | /dɪˈvaɪd/ | dividere, dividersi |
| peninsula sostantivo | /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/ | penisola |
| referendum sostantivo | /ˌɹɛfəˈɹɛndəm/ | referendum |
| autonomous aggettivo | /ɔˈtɑnəməs/ | autonomo, indipendente |
| neighbour sostantivo | /ˈneɪbɚ/ | vicino, vicina |
| constituent sostantivo | /kənˈstɪtjuənt/ | elemento, costitutivo |
| complicated aggettivo | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | complicato, intricato |
| protest sostantivo | /ˈpɹoʊ.tɛst/ | protesta |
| province sostantivo | /ˈpɹɔv.ɪns/ | provincia |
| refer verbo | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | riferire |
| ethnic aggettivo | /ˈɛθ.nɪk/ | etnico |
| documentary sostantivo | /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/ | documentario |
I phrasal verb che sentirai
| Parola | Pronuncia | Significato |
|---|---|---|
| break out verbo | evadere | |
| give up verbo | arrendersi | |
| go through verbo | attraversare | |
| make up verbo | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | comporsi |
| turn out verbo | risultare |
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verbo — un’abitudine o uno stato passato che non è più vero | used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have abolished · has actually been done · have declared |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | is considered · is called · was ceded |
| Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa | Guernsey, which are · City, which is · everyone who wanted |
Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione
Chi parla usa 29 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come don't, they're, doesn't. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.
- I suoni “th”: ethnic /ˈɛθ.nɪk/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, withdraw /wɪðˈdɹɔ/
- I suoni “sh” e “zh”: organisation /ˈɔː.ɡə.naɪˌzeɪ.ʃən/, invasion /ɪnˈveɪʒən/, partially /ˈpɑɹʃəli/, partition /pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
- Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: peninsula /pəˈnɪn.sə.lə/, referendum /ˌɹɛfəˈɹɛndəm/, autonomous /ɔˈtɑnəməs/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, organisation /ˈɔː.ɡə.naɪˌzeɪ.ʃən/
Come esercitarsi con questo video
- Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
- Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
- Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come dispute, communist, ongoing.
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.