For me when it comes to Geography my knowledge is able to identify most country locations and I am able to recite over one-hundred capital cities from memory alone and many more I can pair up with the right country if it was a question-multiple-answers. But how did I come to acquire this knowledge?
In all reality I don’t even know how I managed to learn most of them, so it must have been down to just general research into my hobby interest that is countries and their capital cities, it is the most basic part of Geography, the more advanced stuff, such as the make-up of lands, tallest mountains, demographics, other places and cities I am not as good at, but still slightly above average and if I researched more into it I could probably easily learn this information, it is just I never really have, as my interest was much more solely based on countries and capital cities at the base level.
I pretty much taught it all to myself, I certainly didn’t learn the countries and capital cities I know now from primary school and I missed a good year and a half of secondary school, when I went to my special needs school geography wasn’t included in the curriculum as it isn’t a big required subject and we only did little bits of it every now and again.
For me the point I can really pin it down to is when I got a large map of Europe from my mother and had it put up in my room, from there I learned the countries of Europe, where they are located and their capital cities and from there my interest blossomed. The news and current affairs was another big factor in me learning capital cities and other countries, I really first got into news and current affairs back when the Arab Spring started and I began to learn about the countries in the Middle East, where they are located and their capital cities as the uprisings spread across the region and was reported on the news.
From there I simply just used the internet to learn more and more countries and capital cities and I would constantly make lists of countries and their capital cities as I found that fun and it very much likely drilled it right into my head. I really don’t know why I find the stuff that I am interested in as “interesting” but to me it just simply is, I honestly can’t say why it became my special interest, but it really must have had something to do with that European Map as well as BBC and Sky News and then just reading up about countries after that as I also like the history as well. I remember my dad also used to attempt to get me into football by taking me to a number of local games to watch, but I’m pretty sure the flags displayed in these places and during the World Cup had more influence on me than football itself and may have played a part in developing the interest early-on, perhaps planting the seed ready to germinate.
The United States is also a special case as I can name and locate all 50 states within 2 minutes and that is only a recent edition to my knowledge, that interest was sparked from the 2016 Presidential Election and how the electoral college works, where each state has a number of electors that go to either candidate based on which way the states vote. I say it probably took me only a month to learn the shapes and locations of the US states and commit it to memory. Perhaps I can learn the state capitals next. But I do like the system the US has, I know other countries also have federal state systems, but the US is by far the most interesting and big player in my mind and as it is English I clearly relate to it more.
Don’t get me wrong, other countries are interesting to, like Bhutan, my favourite country outside of my own, but as I say, I just identify with the US more than other countries due to culture and language and simply how much of an impact the US has on the world, it’s always there, in your face, given you watch or read the news enough.
I know my own country well, or should I say, I know the United Kingdom well, Scotland, Wales, England and of course Northern Ireland are countries within the union of the United Kingdom, also referred to as a country and I know each capital, Belfast for N.Ireland, Cardiff for Wales, Edinburgh for Scotland and London for England and the whole of the United Kingdom. I know that Great Britain only includes Wales, Scotland and England as it is the geographical name of that actual island and doesn’t include the island of Ireland. The setup of my country can also be quite a mind-bender given we still have remnants of the British Empire and there are a number of categories that our remaining territories and those former but still under our Monarch by ceremonial role come under.
These include crown dependencies which are the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, the British Isles that include the islands around Great Britain, of course the Republic of Ireland is independent here, but all the other smaller islands are under us, then there is the Commonwealth Realm, former colonies/territories that are now independent but still recognize our monarch as Head of State, being represented by Governor-Generals in each of these nations, which includes a number of Caribbean islands and a few other countries such as Canada and Australia. As well as all of our British Overseas Territories. It seems at first like quite a jumbled mess but given some time it is quite relatively easy to learn and there is a great video explaining it here.
As of late I am becoming interested in how countries and also the US states got their shapes, this information is harder to research on the internet so I plan to buy some books on it and perhaps one day I will make some blogposts related to it. But it really does interest me, the shape of countries are more easy to research online by simply reading up on history, but the shape of US states is more harder to put down, for example, the big long pole sticking out the top of Idaho, or the long corridor coming out of Oklahoma. I’m sure enough online research and digging can yield some answers, but I’d much rather read a book dedicated to it.
There are many natural boundaries that have defined a country’s borders and also a result of war outcomes and treaty agreements that have changed territories between neighboring countries for various reasons. To me it is all very interesting, exclaves are something that also peaks my interests, like the one Russia has in Europe and Angola’s Cabinda exclave. Some countries also have very messy borders, such as Bangladesh, have fun learning that in full and remembering it.
Then we also have more recently independent countries such as Moldova, East Timor and South Sudan and it is interesting to research into what led to them, there are also others that are not as widely recognized, such as Kosovo and they can be quite controversial, which can lead to trouble for the nation in its international relations, including joining international organisations as member-countries of these organisations who don’t recognize them will veto their entry, another controversial case is Taiwan, which is an especially touchy subject with China.
Sometimes a country’s name can also spark controversy with another country, this case was seen with Macedonia and Greece, as Greece was afraid the name of the country might cause successionist movements and territorial claims on its neighboring province also named Macedonia, the spat lead to Greece blocking the little nations entry into the European Union, in the end a deal was brokered that had Macedonia change its name to North Macedonia, calming tensions and allowing the country to now have talks to join the EU, no longer being blocked by Greece.
Then we have little city-states or tiny countries, I really have something for tiny countries, I don’t know why, but most often how they came to be is interesting, especially that of Andorra and we also have little Liechtenstein and San Marino and the city-state of Vatican City which has the Catholic Pope as its Head of State, these places have very interesting history in how they came to be. Of course, my favourite country included here is Bhutan! Hong Kong is a special case, a city once administered by the British until we gave it to be administered by China in 1997, which has led to problems since, as can be still evidenced now, but for now the city enjoys a degree of autonomy, but residents are increasingly afraid of this being slowly lost to China.
So yeah, that is Me and Geography. One of my big interests.
There is so much more to come from my Me and … series so make sure to stick around if you enjoy them. I can do them on pretty much anything.
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