A Review of Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography
We were able to conquer the world despite the constraints of our natural prisons. This prison, is called geography.
I read a fascinating book earlier this year titled Why Nations Fail. The book talks about how the absence of inclusive institutions prevents a country from achieving its full potential. It suggests that a society is the collection of ideas battling for relevance. A society where institutions can discuss and test a variety of ideas, will succeed. In other words, the opportunity to share freely the contributions of ideas from all sectors enables the society take into account more factors, thereby increasing the chances of the society making a balanced decision. It is a fascinating and somewhat intuitive thought.
Where that book ends, the book Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall begins. Why Nations Fail talks about how the black death might have forced a nationwide revolution in the United Kingdom, thereby compelling the emergence of civil societies that opposed authoritarian rule; this led to the birth of the Industrial Revolution. But that thought has its limits. What isolated the United Kingdom and created the incubator for liberal democracy and (so far) the greatest civilisation humanity has ever seen? It was Geography. The United Kingdom was close enough for trade with Europe and to learn from the transfer of knowledge taking place across Eurasia. But it was protected by the English Channel and thus could control sovereignty from invading forces. It also had the ability to till the land, access to trees to build ships and (being an Island) the North and Celtic seas to act as barriers against potential attackers. Thus all rival factions within the United Kingdom of the 10th century (period of the black death) to the 15th century (when the Industrial Revolution took place)had no other choice than to cooperate as geography had locked them together. And that is what this book is about.
The book considers countries and regions and makes the argument that the type of decisions countries make are framed by their geography. It explored some large economic forces and how their geographical position has influenced their politics. There was how Russia’s quest for access to a warm water port has influenced its global policies and the primary reason for the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. In China, it discussed the strategic importance of Tibet. Both major Rivers in China, the Yellow River in the North, and the Yangtze to the South originate from the Tibetan Plateau. An independent Tibet aligning with a country like India that has questionable intentions from the Chinese perspective, could be a potential source of military threat…and most importantly could use the access to the water supply to their advantage. A chapter was dedicated to the United State and how its territories provide a competitive advantage in terms of access to oceans, navigable inland rivers. It explored Cuba and its proximity to the United States, which could be a source of access for an enemy attack on Florida.And thus the years of tensions and involvement with the Island.
National rivalry between India and Pakistan and also between Korea and Japan was discussed. These rivalries were the result of ideologies (like in India and Pakistan) and long game strategic play (like in North Korea and South Korea).
The book also discussed the implication of geography on the continents. The continents discussed are as follows:
- Western Europe benefited heavily from good weather, inland rivers, knowledge transfer across the Eurasia peninsula and access to warm water ports.
- It also touched on Africa and how its isolation is a cause of its current economic position. Sub-Saharan Africa is bordered to the North by the Sahara Desert, possesses few natural habours for ships to dock, and non-navigable inland rivers. The continent is also plagued with diseases and poor inland connections. These complexities isolated its inhabitants from one another and the world preventing the key to a society’s evolution: cross-pollination of ideas. The Europeans arrived and colonised the region. They settled around the coasts and overlooked the development of the hinterland. They further carved out nations to serve the resource needs without concern to the diverse histories people in the said regions. Upon independence, Africa nations had to construct nations out of the flawed institutions and structures not positioned to assist them collectively improve their lot.
- For the Middle East, the book’s main thrust was the disputes arising in societies where borders were drawn by people with limited knowledge of customs and ways of life: The Europeans. It makes an assertion that these borders according to the book, are being redrawn “in blood”. The middle East extends 1,000 miles west to east and is 2,000 miles long. But despite its size, the most prominent feature is the large Arabian Desert that creates some form of hallow centre pushing people to inhabit closer to the coastal regions. This unique geography exacerbated by diverse religious views, the Israel/Palestine dispute, the European efforts at drawing national borders contributed to the crisis in the Middle East present today;
- The last continent discussed was the Central and South America (Latin America). Like Africa, most of its political crisis resulted from isolation and its origins. Its big cities were developed by European settlers who chose to settle around the coastal regions as they were not as infected by mosquitoes and diseases. They also connected the coastal regions better to sources of natural resources for easier access to ports, and onward exportation. But they failed to connect inland regions, to one another. Serfdom resulted as the miniority rich European settlers,who resided on the coast, controlled a large share of land and governed the majority indigenous and post-slavery population. These past events combined with their (dis)advantages of geography, resulted in the Latin America we have today.
The book was good at illustrating the importance of geography in our economy and our lives. Countries constrained by rivers mountains and desert have used their political, human and natural resources at their disposal,to forge ahead and break free from the restraints of geography. Some got ahead and use that advantage to maintain trade routes, create markets and provide easier access to natural resources. But most of these progress has come at a cost. We now have global warming, desertification, deforestation of the Amazonian region, increase flooding and the melting of the Arctic. There is the possibility of water wars (Ethiopia vs Egypt and Syria vs Iraq). Mass migration might be the result of natural disasters that we are unable to find a solution to. The book ends brilliantly with a quote reminding the world to seek solutions to our global problems not as countries, but as humans. It is a reminder of our connectivity as ONE global civilisation all in a quest to use what is available to live better lives. And it is also an advice that the success of one nation should not be at the detriment of another.
“When we are reaching for the stars, the challenges ahead are such that we will perhaps have to come together to meet them: to travel the universe not as Russians, Americans or Chinese but as representatives of humanity. But so far, although we have broken free from the shackles of gravity, we are still imprisoned in our own minds, confined by our suspicion of the ‘other’, and thus our primal competition for resources. There is still a long way to go”.
