The Geography Blog focusing on all things geography: human, physical, technical, space, news, and geopolitics. Also known as Geographic Travels with Catholicgauze!
Written by a former National Geographic employee who also proudly served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The only good news is that Pakistan is turning the tide against the Taliban there. The denial of support bases in Pakistan's west could greatly harm the Taliban's ability to keep up the fight in Afghanistan.
On August 15, 1914 the Panama Canal opened up for use. The canal has changed and been the subject of geographical forces that impact us all.
The canal is fifty miles (about eighty kilometers) with three locks linking the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It is situated on the isthmus of Panama which is generally agreed upon as the physical dividing line between North and South America (due to it being the thinnest point on the American supercontinent).
The canal was a massive achievement of engineering. Before a ship travelling from New York to San Francisco would have to travel 14,000 miles (22,500 kilometers). After the canal's completion the trip was reduced to only 6,000 miles (9,500 kilometers). While it was possible to travel down to Panama, unload people and goods and then travel overland to the Pacific to catch a ship, it was generally considered too costly, time consuming, and dangerous due to tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever.
Originally the isthmus of Panama was the site of a French effort in 1880 to create easy sea access. However, tropical disease killed over twenty-thousand workers and the effort failed. Later, as the United States began influence-expanding operations around the world, the desire for a canal grew. Originally a canal through Nicaragua was sought. A story though tales that the canal-idea was defeated because of a stamp which showed active volcanoes in Nicaragua. The fear was that volcanoes and the related earthquake activity would be a constant threat of destruction to a Nicaragua canal. Because of this, Nicaragua's economic and global development has been handicapped while Panama received the benefits of foriegn investments in its economy and political structure.
So the United States turned its attention to the isthmus of Panama which was ruled by Colombia. After the Colombians refused to deal with President Theodore Roosevelt, pro-independence forces in Panama partook in a revolt which ended with Panama's freedom. A treaty was signed allowing not only for the canal but also giving the canal and adjacent territory to the United States. From 1903 to 1979 the Canal Zone was part of the United States and not Panama.
The construction took ten years to complete start to finish. During this time doctors like Walter Reed, who the military hospital is named after, made great improvements in combating tropical diseases. Today, many people's lives are still saved because of efforts first implemented during the canal's construction.
From 1903 to 1977 relations between Panama and the United States slowly got worse over the canal. The 1960s saw violence as Panamanians began demanding the canal back. In 1977 President James Carter signed a treaty with Panamanian military dictator that would establish a joint-control of the canal and give the canal to Panama in 1999.
Today the Panama Canal is owned and operated by the Panamanians. The globalized market has come to Panama with Chinese companies, businessmen, and even restaurants found all throughout Panama City. The canal's enlargement will continue to allow it to service the mega tankers that feed the world's economies.
Currently, and very oddly, one of the top-10 iPhone applications (aka 'apps') at this moment is a Sex Offender Locator. From where people are at, they can look up the whereabouts of the past-offenders, as well as see their picture and information on the crime committed. This app does cost money, even though this information is available for free through local jurisdictions.
This app was popular well-before the news story from Tech Crunch, and then picked up by other media outlets. This, as well as the other map/geography-related apps, proves that geography is not dead in this technological and interconnected age.
According to this news story, the apostrophe is disappearing from the map. The process of apostrophes being dropped dates back one hundred years. The reporter brings up the good point that the loss of the punctuation mark changes the meaning of the place from a humanizing place that belongs to someone to merely being a plural name. (Hat tip: GIS Lounge)
This is the way Russia sees the war and wants you as well
World War II is typically viewed as the ultimate "good versus evil" story. This narrative is muddled in the front where the German Reich fought the Soviet Union. Here two of histories mass killers, Hitler and Stalin, faced off. The ethnic groups caught in between have their own narratives concerning these events.
Ukrainians feel the pain from both sides. Before the war Joseph Stalin allowed famine conditions to spread which resulted in the deaths of up to ten million in an event known as Holodomor. The Nazis were viewed as liberators in Ukraine at first. However, the Germans viewed the Slavs as sub-human and began to cleanse Ukraine of Ukrainians. In other places like the Baltic States the Germans are still held in a higher regard. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were independent countries until the Soviet invasion in 1940. When the Germans invaded many of the Balts joined them due to long standing historic ties. Baltic SS groups formed and they aided the Nazis in fighting the Soviets and killings Jews. When the Soviets pushed the Germans out it was viewed by many to be something less than liberation.
The battle over history will only heat up as Ukraine slowly decides whether it wants to be closer to Moscow or Brussels, Moldova becomes more European, and Russia tries to organize pro-Russia populist movements in the Baltic states.
In the movie Contact the first signs of alien life are a broadcast from the Vega star system. The first broadcast is then revealed to everyone's horror to be Hitler opening the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. The main characters quickly decide something on Vega is bouncing back the Hitler broadcast to show they can see the broadcasts and are not endorsing Hitler. That scene was probably the first time many realized television signals travel into deep space.
Strange Maps features a map (below) which maps out what signals are where in deep space. Even though the universe is incredibly vast, the map gives the sense that are little sector is empty of any other species that is in an epoch of equivalent technology.
The eastern branch of the Roman Empire gets no respect. While many think the storied Roman Empire collapsed on September 4, 476; the Romans continued to have a thriving civilization centered in Constantinople until May 29, 1453.
Since then, a sort of unorganized campaign against the east has occurred in Western Europe. The causes of this campaign are varied from ignorance, to opposition to Greek Christianity from Catholics, to opposition to Greeks from the German Holy Roman Empire, or just flat out opposition to Christianity in general from people like Edward Gibbon in his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This campaign ignores many positive things about the eastern Roman Empire such as its role in defending Europe from Islamic invasion for over eight-hundred years, that it never went through the Dark Age, aided the development of Western Europe by building up Italy after the fall of the western branch of the Empire, and it saved many Greek documents for later western use like Plato.
12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth are eighteen podcasts based on his book, Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, about the Eastern Roman (Byzantine Empire: that term was invented to divorce Constantinople from Rome). The podcasts fit generally in history but geography plays a key role. Whether it be heretics in the far East threatening unity, Belisariusbringing Italy to back into the realm, or the general shift to Western powers; geography mattered to the empire. One gets this sense when listening to this excellent series.
Each podcast is about thirty minutes and well worth your time. Be sure to listen if you love history and want some geography thrown in as well.
