Tianjin

When Britain made South Africa a country by force, each of the preceding countries bar Natal (which got cash) was given a Capital. SA has three Capitals... Pretoria is where the Executive sits, Bloemfontein where the Judiciary sits, and Parliament is in Cape Town. Pretoria and Johannesburg are not the same city... but you wouldn't know it on the 60km drive. In China, Beijing is the Capital but just 130km away is Tianjin - also one of the biggest cities in the world with over 15 million people. In 1856, officials suspected a ship was engaged in piracy and dealing opium. They boarded and arrested 12 men. In response the British and French sent gunboats. The resulting "Opium Wars" allowed Britain to continue trading, but according to their rules rather than those of local authorities. Along with opening up to trade, the city also has numerous European style buildings in the concession areas. Architectural reminders of their rule in the form of Churches and Villas.

Church of Our Lady's Victory - 1869

Beijing

The borders of countries are tidal. What divides and rules us depends on the whims of the times, and the songs we happen to be singing. Cities tend to be renamed, swell, and shrink... but they don't move. The people do. Beijing was conquered in 1215 by the Mongol Empire. By 1240, the turn had come for Kievan Rus, and they were readying to destroy Vienna when the Khan died in 1241. They still returned to flatten Baghdad in 1258, at the time the world's centre of learning. Beijing was rebuilt between 1264 and 1293. It was called Bei (Northern) Jing (Capital) in 1403, with the Forbidden City constructed as the Imperial Residence. Beijing has remained the political centre of China for most of the last eight centuries. It now hosts the most Fortune 500 companies, and the world's four largest financial institutions. Very much connected to the rest of the world, as it has been for thousands of years.

Beijing

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country. It is bordered by five landlocked countries. The idea of Nation States wasn't built on what a Nation would need to thrive. The idea of a Nation State, is that a distinct cultural or ethnic group form a state that they self-govern. Some argue the State forms the Nation rather than the other way around, through standardisation. In 1789, only half of the 'French People' spoke some French and about 13% spoke the version in literature. When Italian unification started (1815 - 1871), even fewer 'Italian People' spoke Italian. Modern Uzbekistan was once inhabited by Iranian speaking nomads, and fell under Persian and Greek Empires before C7th Muslim conquests. Central Asia was then swallowed in the C13th Mongol invasions, and the area became dominated by mainly Turkic people. Later it was incorporated into the Russian Empire, until independence was declared in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. If Nation States are an attempt to define borders by a 'The People', they palpably fail history.

Russian Troops take Samarkand in 1868

Thailand

Ethiopia was the only African country never colonised by the Europeans. It is the reason so many flags in the world bear the Ethiopian colours once they gained independence. Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation which did the same. Modern Nations only became a real thing after French Revolution and when Napoleon decided to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire (in 1806) and crown himself, shifting power from the Church to 'The People'. Like the Muslim Ummah (a supra-national community), the Catholic (universal) Church aimed to include everyone. France and England aimed to rule, and 'civilize'. They continued their European rivalry in the attached colonial arms race of Nation building. Able Thai rulers were able to exploit those tensions, and Thailand became a buffer state between British and French interests. From the mid-C19th century Thailand began its own industrialization process, which included nation-building along western lines. As war industrialised, it was difficult/impossible not to. By the time of World War I, nations needed soldiers prepared to die in production line like trenches. In 1917, then known as Siam, Thailand joined its colonial neighbours as part of the Allies.

Territorial Losses

Tajikistan

Civil war has often followed independence from foreign conquerors. Tajikistan became an independent nation following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its Civil War lasted from 1992 to 1997. This was not because of ethnic diversity. The vast majority are Tajiks, an Iranian group of people speaking a variety of Persian. Like the Germanic Migration Period (375-568) and the Bantu Expansion (from 1,000 BCE reaching South Africa by maybe 300 AD), distinct 'Nations' of people are often connected by hints at the past in their word choices. Their primary language has Persian roots. The second language is mainly Russian. The religion is mainly Islam. Lingering reminders of the various powers that have come and gone. The majority of ethnic Russians left when the Soviet era ended. The Civil War was fought between regional groups with opposition parties seeing reduced Russian influence as an opportunity for their brand of ideology.

Tajik Girls celebrating Persian New Year

Philippines

About 10 million Filipinos live outside the country, making one of the world's largest diasporas. It sneaks into the 13 countries strong 100-million club, by population. Consisting of 7,641 islands, various competing maritime states have been set up there over time. With over 300 years of Spanish colonization, Catholicism became the dominant religion. After Spain lost the American-Spanish war, The First Philippine Republic was declared. In the peace treaty, Spain sold the country to America. The locals had successfully fought off the Spanish, but America asserted its colonial status in the Philippine-American war, which it won. The Catholic Church was disestablished as the state religion and English was introduced as the language of government, education, and business. World War I was an Empire slayer. 1916 brought the Philippine Autonomy Act which was the first formal declaration of the United States' intention to grant independence. World War II delivered the knockout punch. In 1946, The USA relinquished sovereignty and recognised the independence of The Philippines. The wave of independence and decolonization also started in Africa.

Philip II of Spain

Myanmar

The Mongol invasions that touched most of the Eurasian landmass also ended four centuries of power of the Pagan Empire in 1287. The area was later reunified by the Toungoo Dynasty in 1510, and then by the Konbaung. There were three Anglo-Burmese Wars before Burma became a British Colony. The first was fought by a company - The British East India Company (EIC). The EIC received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1600. Merchants and aristocrats owned the shares, and the government only had indirect control. Following the third war, Burma was made a province of the British Raj and rule was transferred from the EIC to Queen Victoria. Since independence in 1948, the renamed Myanmar has been involved in one of the longest-running Civil Wars between a vast number of smaller ethnic groups. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, but has one of the widest income gaps in the world with a large proportion of the wealth controlled by supporters of the former military government (which remains a powerful force in politics). 

British Occupation

Mongolia

Mongolia sits between Russia and China. It is the most sparsely populated fully sovereign nation in the world with around 3 million people (slightly more than Armenia). 30% of the population is still nomadic and horses play a large role in daily life. It has very little arable land but is well connected to the rest of Eurasia by the grassy steppe which forms an ancient highway across the continent from Romania to China. In 1206 Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Empire which would later conquer Baghdad (ending the Islamic Golden Age) and Kievan Rus, and establish the Yuan Dynasty in China. Mongolia declared independence after the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 (around the time various monarchies in the old world started falling). As a buffer state, this independence was supported by Russia, with it becoming a Soviet Satellite. Pax Mongolica describes the stabilising aftermath of the Mongol Hordes with the eased communication and commerce. European merchants like Marco Polo (1254-1324) made his way on well-maintain roads from Europe to China.

Eurasian Steppe Belt

Mongolian Rider

Expanding Mongol Empire

Laos

Due to its central trade location, wealth flowed in Laos. The present cultural identity is tied to a kingdom that lasted the four centuries to 1707. Internal conflicts led to a split into three kingdoms. In 1893 all three were joined in a French Protectorate. France's colonial aspirations in the Americas were lost in C18/19th European squabbles. After 1850, France locked and reloaded in Africa and Indochina. A 'moral mission' to bring Christianity and French Culture. A competition with Britain. Protectorates were different from colonies in that they remained 'ruled by local people' - but gave up some decision making (e.g. foreign policy) for defensive muscle. Effectively vassal states paying tribute. After punching itself in the face repeatedly, Europe lost its muscle. A Civil War erupted after independence in 1953, as part of the Cold War, and the Communist Party came to power in 1975. It remains a one-party state.

French Empires

Kyrgyzstan

Colonial legacies include language, religion, food, mannerisms and other deep cultural ties. Independence doesn't mean unrelated. The word 'independent' would be unnecessary if there was nothing in common. Kyrgyzstan is geographically isolated, but is right at the heart of the Silk Road from which ideas and armies have flowed from China, India, Persia to the Mediterranean. Kyrgyz is one of at least 35 Turkic languages. The country also had more than a century of Russification as Russia implemented cultural assimilation. Extensive contact, evidenced by language traits, existed between Proto-Turks and Proto-Mongols. 'Kyrgyz'  derives from a Turkic "we are forty" which came from a legendary character who united forty regional 'independent' clans. They had been fighting, but to fight - you have to care about something in common. As Nomadic people, the Kyrgyz tend to move back and forth over the mountains depending on where life is perceived as better. Better rain or better government.

Turkic Languages

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Muslim World

Asia including Turco-Mongol Nations - 1335

Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate

North Korea

The Korean War was fought in 1950-1953. The North was supported by China and the Soviet Union, and the South by the United States. All of Korea had been ruled by Imperial Japan from 1910, but like the Iron Curtain in Europe, the spoils were split between the victors of World War II. North Korea was subjected to a massive bombing campaign, and the land war became one of attrition. No peace treaty has ever been signed. Sino-Soviet relations split because of doctrinal differences in interpretation of Marxism-Leninism influenced by national interest. From 1961 on Chinese Communism referred to Soviet Communism as "Revisionist Traitors". In 1972, Nixon was able to visit China to begin thawing that part of the Cold War. More than one million soldiers and civilians were killed in the Korean War. It is viewed as one of the first armed confrontations in the Proxy Wars (e.g. Angola) that complicated other issues like Decolonization and Nationalism.

Korean Demilitarized Zone

Indonesia

When thinking of colonialism and imperialism, I know far more about European adventures than the spread of Islam. I don't know much of the central control structures of the 'ummah'. Like Catholicism (Catholic from Greek katholikos means Universal), there was a belief in a community that was all inclusive as distinct from nation (Sha'b - common ancestry/geography). Much of Africa speaks Arabic, a European Colonial Language, and a very local home language. Even in South Africa, our worst, very local, swear word has Islamic roots. Indonesia is a country that was full of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in the 2nd century, Islamic sultanates by the 13th century, European Company rule from 1602, and Colonial rule from 1800. After Japanese occupation in 1942, independence was only secured after World War II in 1945. Today the country of 260 million people is 87% Muslim. There are 300 distinct ethnic groups and 742 different languages. Indonensian has been promoted as the national language since independence but is only the native language of 43 million people. 142 million can speak it as a second language.

Borobudur

The world's largest Buddhist Temple

Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) is just to the north of Australia, separated by the Timor Sea. The first humans arrived 42,000 years ago with at least three major waves of immigration following before Europeans arrived. Today, 97% of the 1.2 million population are Roman Catholic. Used as an underdeveloped trading post, it was known as Portuguese Timor until it declared independence in 1975. Nine days later, it was invaded by Indonesia (with British, US and Australian support) and declared that country's 27th province. The fear was of a new communist country. Two decades of conflict followed until a United Nations-sponsored Act (the Cold War now over) based on 'self-determination' finalised independence. Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign nation of the 21st century. It is part of a free trade zone called the Timor-Leste-Indonesia-Australia Growth Triangle (TIA-GT), but is labelled by the IMF as "the most oil-dependent economy in the world". Nearly half the population lives in extreme poverty.

Statue of Saint Mary

Balide Church, Timor-Leste

Brunei

Brunei is a sovereign state, with just less than half a million people, on the north coast of Borneo. Two-thirds of the population are Malay, and the country is surrounded by Malaysia (bar the coast). After centuries of religious conflict with Spain, the larger island of Borneo had driven out the Spanish but was rife with internal Civil War over who should rule. In 1888, Britain made a treaty with a Sultan taking control of its foreign affairs. It 'could not cede or lease any territory to foreign powers without British consent'. Providing muscle to the ruler. Oil was discovered in 1929 becoming the basis of a century of development. The whole of Borneo was occupied by Japan during WWII. The British had anticipated this, but the war in Europe meant they didn't have resources to do anything about it. The Japanese surrendered in 1945. Brunei gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. Brunei is an absolute Hereditary Monarchy (one of six left). It has a parliament, but the last elections were held in 1962 and the Sultan has full executive authority. 

Hassanal Bolkiah

Sultan of Brunei

Afghanistan

In the 19th century, Afghanistan was a buffer state in 'the Great Game' between the British and Russian Empires. The area was thought unconquerable despite being the source of many empires, and many empires having a go due to its strategic positioning on the silk road. Arab Muslims brought Islam to the area in the 7th century, but the locals had been influenced by Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews and others. In 1219, Genghis Kahn's empire swallowed the area. There were three Anglo-Afghan wars (1839-42; 1878-80 and 1919), but Britain eventually gave up, and there was increasing influence from Soviet Russia. In 1978, the communist PDPA Party seized power and the area entered the Cold War. 65 countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979-1989). Some argue that it was this war that sapped the last strength from the USSR, brought down the wall in Berlin, and freed Nelson Mandela.

Mujahideen in Afghanistan

Istanbul

Hagia Sophia

Istanbul was once known as Constantinople and Byzantium. Its commercial and historical centres, and two thirds of its population, are on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait (which separates Europe and Asia, there, a little further North you have make up other play play divisions). Istanbul is the world's 7th largest city proper. It was founded in around 660 BCE as Byzantion, and reestablished as the Imperial Capital of Rome by Constantine (the first Roman Emperor to claim conversion to Christianity) in 330 CE. It stayed the Capital of the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the West, and became the capital of the Ottoman Empire when it was conquered in 1453. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants have come to the city in search of a better life.

Istanbul

Delhi

Delhi Map

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) is both a city, and a union territory of India. Almost 17 million people live there, and the urban area which extends beyond the NCT is home to over 26 million people. Delhi is home to an estimated 23,000 US$ millionaires, but half of the population live in slum areas with inadequate provision of basic services. Reading that reminds me of the challenges facing Cape Town. I love the idea of 'sister cities'. At city level - politics becomes less abstract given the obvious contrasts, and real world implementation challenges. Delhi is sister city to New York, London, Moscow, Ulaanbataar, Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Seoul and Fukuoka. The bigger things get, the more abstract they get. When it comes down to conversation, and listening, we can start to taste the common ingredients.