Stories.
The longer versions of my YouTube shorts. Each one has the short video at the top, then the parts that did not fit in a minute, and the sources at the bottom.
Europe's borders
Why is Kaliningrad Russian?A German city for 700 years, now a piece of Russia on its own.
How did Prussia disappear?The kingdom that built Germany, abolished by a law in 1947.
Why Poland moved westIn 1945 a whole country slid 200 km across the map.
How Portugal became a countryA prince, his mother, and a border older than most in Europe.
Britain and France, almost one countryJune 1940, and again in 1956.
Borders drawn by two kingsYork, Alcañices, and an island that changes country every six months.
Countries inside another countryVatican City, San Marino and Lesotho.
American borders
Borders nobody agreed toToledo, West Virginia and a piece of Minnesota you reach through Canada.
The strangest state bordersOklahoma's No Man's Land and Missouri's Bootheel.
Borders that make no senseKentucky north of its river, DC's missing corner, Vermont's river.
States that were almost oneMaine, Texas and Rhode Island.
States born from other statesKentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Named after people who never cameDelaware, Maryland and the wrong William Penn.
Empires, money and freedom
When countries paid cash for landLouisiana, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, and two deals told backwards.
Saved because the empire could not payCuba, Ireland and Vietnam.
Countries founded by the formerly enslavedHaiti, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Borders drawn from far awayBir Tawil, the Fergana Valley and Libya's straight lines.
More stories on the YouTube channel.