How Geography Made The US Ridiculously OP

แชร์
ฝัง
  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ส.ค. 2022
  • Watch the full companion video covering the entire Afghanistan War here: nebula.tv/videos/reallifelore...
    Please Subscribe: / @reallifelore
    Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images
    Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive
    Special thanks to MapTiler / OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3
    www.maptiler.com/copyright/
    www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
    aescripts.com/geolayers/
    Sources/Further Reading:
    The Accidental Superpower, by Peter Zeihan. Order your own copy here: www.amazon.com/Accidental-Sup... (this is not an affiliate link)
    The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations, by Daniel Yergin. Order your own copy here: www.amazon.com/New-Map-Energy... (also not an affiliate link)

ความคิดเห็น • 19K

  • @RealLifeLore
    @RealLifeLore  ปีที่แล้ว +4227

    I know this is a super long video, but there's really just too much to cover. I could've spent hours on this subject. Anyway, if you want to watch another 40-minute long video covering the entire US War in Afghanistan from beginning to end, you can check it out here on Nebula: bit.ly/3B05iUU. You can watch that one for free, and if you want to watch some of the other 15 episodes I have in the Modern Conflicts series, the best way to get access is just by signing up for the Nebula/CuriosityStream bundle for $14.79 a year here: curiositystream.com/?coupon=reallifelore New episodes in that series are releasing every single month on Nebula!
    Thanks,
    Joseph

    • @TryPie256
      @TryPie256 ปีที่แล้ว +86

      I apologize for spamming in your former video. I am a disgraceful troll. I am a changed man now.

    • @carrotepic
      @carrotepic ปีที่แล้ว +32

      Would love to support you and sign up but no option for paypal. :(

    • @TheDudeoflifee
      @TheDudeoflifee ปีที่แล้ว +26

      Finally I Could Do Something For 40 MINUTES!

    • @footballcountries
      @footballcountries ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Hi 😁 ur vids are cool

    • @TheProtagonistDies
      @TheProtagonistDies ปีที่แล้ว +17

      but super good! thanks joseph

  • @jjohansen86
    @jjohansen86 ปีที่แล้ว +9847

    21:55 I remember someone once saying that, while the US has many great allies, their staunchest, most reliable allies are the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

    • @christopherrosepink9290
      @christopherrosepink9290 ปีที่แล้ว +233

      Great quote

    • @theax40
      @theax40 ปีที่แล้ว +636

      In addition to that, Canada and Mexico. Canada is one of our greatest allies and while our relationship with Mexico isn't quite as stable, we really have no worries of being invaded by a foreign army through our northern or southern borders.

    • @TenOrbital
      @TenOrbital ปีที่แล้ว +1

      And the top allies from the US POV are the ones that act as bastions to guard the far shores of those oceans - NATO, Japan, Korea, Australia, dare I say Taiwan.

    • @chaost4544
      @chaost4544 ปีที่แล้ว +362

      @@theax40 the geography of the north and southern borders would make it a logistical nightmare anyways.

    • @kaleb5926
      @kaleb5926 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@theax40 Canada is the US's bitch. Not even worth calling an ally. Its basically wordplay to say theyre two different countries.

  • @GET1237
    @GET1237 ปีที่แล้ว +8172

    As a Canadian, I am incredibly thankful to border the USA. Despite its problems, I can't think of a better neighbour we could possibly have.

    • @email5023
      @email5023 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Soviet Canuckistan is a socialist hell.

    • @vyros.3234
      @vyros.3234 ปีที่แล้ว +761

      Canada will be a future American territory. Same with Greenland.

    • @ThatColtGuy
      @ThatColtGuy ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@sargonassarg4356 I hope your joking, Biden is an utter joke. You believe the news networks with their “MAGA extremists” push is pathetic. The US and the world are doing worse since Biden has taken office ffs.

    • @chendaforest
      @chendaforest ปีที่แล้ว +2086

      The USA is also lucky to have a small, friendly, stable neighbour to the north.

    • @UniquelyCritical
      @UniquelyCritical ปีที่แล้ว +161

      Aww... Sad Denmark here.

  • @kosakukawajiri5007
    @kosakukawajiri5007 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +487

    Don't forget about Alaska and Hawaii's importance for military, resources, and research: both states are considerably well placed far from the lower 48, but are also either gigantic landmasses naturally defended by extreme cold and mountainous terrain with tons of coal and gold in Alaska, or is isolated from the rest of the world in the heart of the Pacific Ocean in volcanic islands making for a perfectly placed Naval harbor or space research labs in Hawaii.

    • @seaneustace9838
      @seaneustace9838 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      It takes eight hours to fly from Fairbanks Alaska to Born Germany, over the pole as the condor airlines ad used to say. Alaska’s anchorage international airport was a major hub before the fall of the Soviet union, which led to the opening up of Soviet airspace.

    • @seaneustace9838
      @seaneustace9838 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      General purging said something to the effect of heating that controls Alaska controls the world.
      What he meant by this is that it’s location in the northern hemisphere, where most of the land is, makes it so you can go from a place like Fairbanks to almost anywhere quicker than you could across the Atlantic or pacific. By quicker I mean less mileage sorry flat earthers.

    • @DUFFAL02
      @DUFFAL02 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Also you can’t forget the monopolistic corporations that took over and fucked our social systems leading us down an endless capitalist path!🔥💯👍

    • @j.dunlop8295
      @j.dunlop8295 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Demographics for hard times that are coming, America and Canada have the energy, food and mostly the resources, but Europe is in trouble, Asia mostly China is going to be desperately challenged!😮 China, imports energy, food and most resources! Belligerent attacks on trading partners, zero sum game of Chinese CCP, that's not working?

    • @w8stral
      @w8stral หลายเดือนก่อน

      Alaska coal? ROFL. Yes, it has coal, technically. So? Compared to rest of USA it may as well not even be mentioned. Gold? Not worth mentioning. Yes, a pittance of gold. Copper, NG, and other minerals could be mentioned though.

  • @CaptainOverLoad
    @CaptainOverLoad 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +496

    I have been to all 50 united states and over 6000 towns and cities and almost all of the nation parks. This country is crazy from a geography standpoint. It is absolutely amazing that we where able to cross that on foot, wagon and horse only a few centuries ago. It is very hard to believe.

    • @troyjusticecabrera7284
      @troyjusticecabrera7284 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      If I were to ask you, which state would you say has the best/most beautiful city? In your opinion. And which state is the best/most beautiful as well?

    • @CaptainOverLoad
      @CaptainOverLoad 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      @@troyjusticecabrera7284 That is such a incredibly hard and complicated question. I'm actually not sure I could answer. I really like Florida but I've been here most of my life so my bais of Tampa FL is high. I think a better question would be what are you looking for in a city. How big do you want it. Do you want steeples for miles like new York, or something that isn't too grown. What night life's are you looking for. What laws are you concerned about exc.

    • @jrev2284
      @jrev2284 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Recently went out to the midwest and I was in awe at the beauty and was wondering how tf did people cross these mountains on foot

    • @sfdko3291
      @sfdko3291 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      This is Eden

    • @JohnTovar-ks8dp
      @JohnTovar-ks8dp 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      It'll be the same with the galaxy.

  • @kennethwright5664
    @kennethwright5664 ปีที่แล้ว +2600

    "Rivers are basically free to use." Every civil engineer hearing this immediately starts to twitch in disbelief.

    • @Go_40subscribers.
      @Go_40subscribers. ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@viper2148 True 😂

    • @kentuckyfan0619
      @kentuckyfan0619 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      @@Go_40subscribers.no you didnt

    • @Go_40subscribers.
      @Go_40subscribers. ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@kentuckyfan0619 I made one about Qatar Going to make more soon fam💯 it’s in the works

    • @Go_40subscribers.
      @Go_40subscribers. ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@kentuckyfan0619 gotchu bro preciate it 💯

    • @OccidentalonPurpose
      @OccidentalonPurpose ปีที่แล้ว +170

      And every indigenous person when they heard "given to the United States."

  • @oriontigley5089
    @oriontigley5089 ปีที่แล้ว +4885

    To be fair, if you get an nearly an entire continent as your country, with only allies and oceans sorrounding you, your geography tends to be pretty OP
    *Edit:* to all those saying Australia, I'm not counting it because it doesn't nearly have as much variety in biomes and natural resources. It's more one big island than a real continent. The Americas have every natural resource in one self contained landmass.

    • @Ninja-eh4cu
      @Ninja-eh4cu ปีที่แล้ว +195

      yeah, especially having an equally as big country thats hard to invade due to the snowy terrain as your ally and the uk n stuff too

    • @JosieCote
      @JosieCote ปีที่แล้ว +75

      What does OP mean?

    • @oriontigley5089
      @oriontigley5089 ปีที่แล้ว +204

      @@JosieCote "OP" stands for "Over Powered" in this context, though it can also mean "Original Poster" on online forums.

    • @JosieCote
      @JosieCote ปีที่แล้ว +40

      @@oriontigley5089 thanks for the explanation. It’s kind of confusing because “over powered” means that something/someone is weak and less powerful than others. So maybe it means “overly powerful”? That would make a lot more sense to me, because USA is rather quite powerful 🤔

    • @oriontigley5089
      @oriontigley5089 ปีที่แล้ว +85

      @@JosieCote When used as a verb, sure. But in this case, it's used as an adjective. I've never heard of anyone associating "over powered" in descriptive contexts with weakness.
      I've always compared it to words like "over clocked" and "over charged"
      I believe the original etymology comes from Video Game slang, where a player character would be unfairly "overpowered", as in given too much power by devs in comparison to others, thus making the game unbalanced.

  • @benjaminstiles
    @benjaminstiles 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +96

    I’ve not seen many of your videos, but so far I’ve never seen you take a side, or demonize one side of a conflict, you simply give us the facts, and I thank you so much for that!

    • @Bob-te3le
      @Bob-te3le 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      He does a great job at making his videos. I've watched a bunch of his videos.

    • @DUFFAL02
      @DUFFAL02 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I feel like there’s a pretty obvious right and wrong. I’ll give you a hint, as an American, there is zero question why our country is so dominant. It’s the same reason monopolies become monopolies. The USA doesn’t care about anyone besides it’s own well-being and the pockets of the elites.

  • @MatAK49
    @MatAK49 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +29

    This video showing the vast waterways within the continental US should have been made decades ago and shown in the US schools. There are too many of us here in the US who have zero knowledge of the river systems and their strategic importance. Well done putting this video together.

    • @christigoth
      @christigoth 22 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      LOL speak for yourself.

  • @ashkumar375
    @ashkumar375 ปีที่แล้ว +5757

    It makes total sense that any downfall of the United States would not come because of an external threat owning to its geographic, geological or geopolitical strengths, but instead because of its domestic weaknesses. The Roman Empire collapsed from within.

    • @frenchonion4595
      @frenchonion4595 ปีที่แล้ว +751

      We are a super spoiled society that has resorted to fighting each other out of boredom. Most we have ever been united was ww2 been going down hill ever since

    • @prabs1047
      @prabs1047 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@frenchonion4595 yea I wouldn't be surprised if the people of the USA got manipulated into voting for an another country's leader.

    • @abdillahfamilychannel8418
      @abdillahfamilychannel8418 ปีที่แล้ว +266

      Yes, i can see it very clear that American society is rotting and hard to make happy family.

    • @soccom8341576
      @soccom8341576 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      The radical left, the Big pharma, industrial complexes, the Tiktok subversion, the destabilization by the CCP and Russia, are all threats that everyone needs to wake up to and ostracize.

    • @Racko.
      @Racko. ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@frenchonion4595 Thank propaganda and the political parties that intentionally divided the ppl so they can be busy fighting each other as a distraction so the elites can get away with stuff like corruption and dishonesty

  • @jeepmega629
    @jeepmega629 ปีที่แล้ว +3010

    We always talked about the importance of the Nile or the Danube in school, but we really should have been talking about the Mississippi this whole time.

    • @nole8923
      @nole8923 ปีที่แล้ว +281

      Well, unlike the Nile the Mississippi doesn’t flow in the middle of a freaking desert and unlike the Danube it isn’t soaked in blood over thousands of years of international strife. Yes, the Mississippi may be the greatest river in terms of navigation and commerce, but its history other than the civil war is rather boring. Not too much drama to where the Nile and Danube have epic stories surrounding it.

    • @elliottparks8762
      @elliottparks8762 ปีที่แล้ว +104

      @nole 89 eh, they're all three important, just for different reasons. U.S. education just frequently fails to teach economics beyond specific events.

    • @mrbisshie
      @mrbisshie ปีที่แล้ว +126

      Talking about the Mississippi river would involve hours of talking about Mosquitoes.

    • @bruzote
      @bruzote ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@mrbisshie - And the Army Corps of Engineers.

    • @gwho
      @gwho ปีที่แล้ว +14

      History in us schools never cover Liberia. It's astounding that they do not, especially with so much race politics

  • @weirdo4959
    @weirdo4959 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    This is the longest I have actually water a video without skipping any part, I always loved history and this is amazing!

    • @butter7734
      @butter7734 29 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I love watering videos.

    • @Zalmoxesuwu
      @Zalmoxesuwu 27 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@butter7734remember to fertilize that subscribe button

  • @6teezkid
    @6teezkid 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +30

    What an excellent early schooling education. Compiled so as to explain things so easily. Even if you’re well aware of these issues, having the continent put together in one video like this is really interesting. LET YOUR KIDS WATCH IT!

    • @j.dunlop8295
      @j.dunlop8295 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Brexit was about banks and corporations keeping more, with less regulations, from EU, they corporate suits stoked the elderly conservatives with nationalism, and who votes the most? Cilodynamics, study of how civilizations collapse, disparity between the rich and poor, leads to collapse, along with too many entitled elites, and resources collapse! Prof. Peter Turchin! (Definitely going to get worse and worse, wage disparity!) Rich vs. poor! 3,000 year's of patterns, 400 civilizations! ↘️⬇️ Look at the military, not paid enough to matter?

  • @TheElizondo88
    @TheElizondo88 ปีที่แล้ว +6350

    You could have also mentioned the easy access to vast deposits of coal, copper and iron in Appalachia and Great Lakes which allowed for the quick and early industrialization of the region. And that even the parts of the county without navigable rivers (i.e. the southwest) has a vast mineral wealth to make up for it.

    • @animeturnMMD
      @animeturnMMD ปีที่แล้ว +350

      Also, the majority of the country is flat, making it easier to build roads, infrastructure and train rails. In a mountainous country, building this kind of transportation infrastructure can cost three or four times more, plus the seasonal weather causes less damage to infrastructures (this is an advantage of all countries with seasons). In an equatorial country, where one day can be sunny, another rainy, others cold or hot, these changes in weather and temperature severely punish the infrastructure, making it even more costly to build and maintain.

    • @matthewbostelman2487
      @matthewbostelman2487 ปีที่แล้ว +47

      among us

    • @MsGazpugh
      @MsGazpugh ปีที่แล้ว +35

      among us

    • @eanmillerphotos
      @eanmillerphotos ปีที่แล้ว

      @@MsGazpugh among us

    • @zeffery101
      @zeffery101 ปีที่แล้ว

      i swear the founding fathers made a deal w/ the devil or smthng. The US has vast amounts of every single profitable and essential resource like how?

  • @shibasurfing
    @shibasurfing ปีที่แล้ว +3605

    Incredible that people already have something to say about a 40 minute video 10 minutes after it was released

    • @Eagledelta3
      @Eagledelta3 ปีที่แล้ว +314

      It was posted on Nebula yesterday. So many of us have already seen it and maybe they just want to comment on what they say yesterday?

    • @brightBoss
      @brightBoss ปีที่แล้ว +20

      That's crazy bro

    • @shibasurfing
      @shibasurfing ปีที่แล้ว +93

      @@Eagledelta3 Ah good to know about 👍

    • @TOM7952
      @TOM7952 ปีที่แล้ว +125

      @@Eagledelta3 Possible but usually it's just people who want to immediately comment based on their initial perception of the video.

    • @CMVBrielman
      @CMVBrielman ปีที่แล้ว +39

      All us nebula subs just itching to comment.

  • @ProllyHot
    @ProllyHot 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    As a New Orleanian, I’m both proud and terrified of our strategic importance

  • @j.g.campbell3440
    @j.g.campbell3440 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    When you mentionrd the head of navihation being Minneapolis-St Paul, I reminded of one of Garrison Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" segments which featured the crackpot uncle of one of the regular character's, who built a pretty fair size sailboat in his barn. He became the laughing-stock of the town, until...a cataclysmic rainstorm came. As the flood waters backed up to his property, he demolished the end of his barn, and launched the craft into the lake. When the dam burst, the craft together with the uncle, sped downstream into the Mississippi River, into the Gulf of Mexico. He then navigated to an island in the Carribbean, where he began a new life!

  • @xxg3fallxx589
    @xxg3fallxx589 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1951

    The great ancient superpower - one of the first advanced civilizations - was Egypt. It's really interesting to look at the parallels between ancient Egypt and today's USA. While the United States is surrounded by oceans, all of Egypt's enemies first had to cross the desert to attack it. I always remembered that. But you have now shown me the parallel between the Nile and the Mississippi. Geography is sooo awesome for superpowers...

    • @ryanhofmann5077
      @ryanhofmann5077 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +77

      I think the point of the video is how there aren’t any parallels. Egypt borders the Mediterranean, and they have been attacked and conquered all throughout there history. Most of the Egypt you learn about today was when they were in fact under subjugation from other great powers. And the fact that they were so easily invaded and conquered kind of makes them not comparable.

    • @dsxa918
      @dsxa918 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      It's an impediment but getting a "military operation" worth of food/preparation would be difficult across an ocean, as opposed to said deserts or Meditarianian - from what I understand Germany trying to make association with Mexico circa mid-20th century was the closest conceivable option.

    • @Megatallica000
      @Megatallica000 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Kemet*

    • @sofa_king_kool
      @sofa_king_kool 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      It's why we have a city called Memphis, it's located on a river delta just like it's Egyptian counterpart. Also have a city named Cairo, though they pronounce it Kay-row.

    • @diddykangable
      @diddykangable 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@sofa_king_kool Cairo is also in an area of the mississippi river delta referred to as "Little Egypt"

  • @Yora21
    @Yora21 ปีที่แล้ว +2523

    The North Sea coast in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark also has barrier islands similar to the US. Except that Long Island alone is three times larger than all the Frisian Islands combined.

    • @draphotube4315
      @draphotube4315 ปีที่แล้ว +115

      And the Dutch once colonized it.

    • @Rytoast99
      @Rytoast99 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      @@draphotube4315 uh cool no shit

    • @TheGecko213
      @TheGecko213 ปีที่แล้ว +52

      Long Island ,NY , is bigger then most European Countries
      😆

    • @f0rth3l0v30fchr15t
      @f0rth3l0v30fchr15t ปีที่แล้ว +99

      @@TheGecko213 No it's not. Belgium is 10 times bigger.

    • @reddragon100
      @reddragon100 ปีที่แล้ว +67

      @@TheGecko213 67 times smaller than UK.
      10 times smaller than Belgium

  • @johnelias5609
    @johnelias5609 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Simply the best educational video I've ever seen on TH-cam. Incredibly amazing!

  • @tonyperez2703
    @tonyperez2703 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    Incredibly well done! I actually learned a lot even as an American!

  • @JDMB001
    @JDMB001 ปีที่แล้ว +4460

    I question if the civilisation start point in North America would still have inevitably turned into a global dominant super power (as you mentioned at the start of the video) if it were split into many countries like in Europe. I would argue that the geopolitical movement turning North America into the one nation is by far the greatest advantage.....complimented by a great piece of land.

    • @julioalvarez9650
      @julioalvarez9650 ปีที่แล้ว +688

      Very doubtful, especially if it was split into different countries with different languages and cultures. That's what's baffling about people calling for secession nowadays: They don't realize how vulnerable a fractured USA would be and how many benefits of being one nation would go down the drain, but the US's enemies are very aware of it and like to stoke the flames of discord.

    • @FirebirdPrince
      @FirebirdPrince ปีที่แล้ว +132

      Changing the civilization start point would just dramatically change so much. But i can see one constant being a strong power or two centered around the Mississippi throwing around a lot of weight

    • @Simboiss
      @Simboiss ปีที่แล้ว +57

      @@julioalvarez9650 I think the exact opposite. For the sake of cultural coherency and less conflict, I think the USA (and Canada) should break up into 4-5 countries. Each country would have their own sovereignty but also their own cultures and specialization. One single administration for 325 million people is untenable.

    • @CleverAccountName303
      @CleverAccountName303 ปีที่แล้ว +340

      @@Simboiss Generally speaking, a single administration over a larger amount of people is more stable than smaller divisions. It is more likely to be moderate in its social, political, and economic policies because it is harder for an extreme faction to dominate a larger population than a smaller one. It is also much less likely to be invaded and taken over by an outside power. The US government under its current constitution is at the top of the list for oldest continuous governments currently in existence, and if you look at longest uninterrupted forms of governments in historical times, most of them are the largest states/empires of their time.

    • @clarenceartman7487
      @clarenceartman7487 ปีที่แล้ว +89

      I've seen videos talking about the various high speed rail systems in Europe and how they stop at the border and you have to use trams or local links to get from one contry's high speed to the next - it prevents them from having a continental world class high speed rail system which they could if they had a single regulatory agency and bidding/contracting system and funding mechanism/subsidies

  • @MayorBrownn
    @MayorBrownn ปีที่แล้ว +1455

    I’d say North America In general is geographically incredible. Canada has 20% of the world fresh water and is rich in valuable minerals.

    • @pbinnj3250
      @pbinnj3250 ปีที่แล้ว +65

      That stat is amazing. Also, I don’t know if fresh water was ever as important as it is now. So many are running out of it.

    • @user-df2uu3qp3y
      @user-df2uu3qp3y ปีที่แล้ว +1

      *only 5 percent is habitable. 95% is useless.*

    • @mangos2888
      @mangos2888 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      🇨🇦 > 🇺🇸 always. And I'm not Canadian.

    • @saturn6563
      @saturn6563 ปีที่แล้ว +69

      @@mangos2888 Pfft. I’m American and i’ve never even been to Canada, yet I like Canada more

    • @deletenow3276
      @deletenow3276 ปีที่แล้ว +72

      @@saturn6563 Then go there

  • @JER1334
    @JER1334 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    What a great and interesting video. Awesome narration as well. I really enjoyed it!!

  • @VechsDavion
    @VechsDavion หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Thank you for your purchase of: Interconnected River Basin!
    Players like you also purchased: Farmland Interconnection DLC, and New Petrochemical Discovery DLC!

  • @the13gaming13
    @the13gaming13 ปีที่แล้ว +1245

    I work on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, they have a lot of traffic that comes through every day, it's just so remarkable to see so many ships and cargo moving along the big river.

    • @Mr_Careo
      @Mr_Careo ปีที่แล้ว +4

      First reply

    • @juzoli
      @juzoli ปีที่แล้ว +6

      It is much less important today than a hundred years ago.

    • @Racko.
      @Racko. ปีที่แล้ว +47

      The US geography is simply too good, it's so blessed with having the most arable land on the planet along with it's overall geography and access to bodies of water coast to coast making it almost impossible to attack

    • @jacob4920
      @jacob4920 ปีที่แล้ว +53

      @@juzoli Is it, though? America's heartland is still basically the center of its' entire industrial base. And shipping by boat is infinitely cheaper than shipping by any other method in the world, as the video points out. The Mississippi will never NOT be important. How the hell was it more important a hundred years ago, at a time when shipping out our food and industrial resources to the entire world was not yet a thing?

    • @BlStein9
      @BlStein9 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Even better is how much traffic can go through Louisiana and how the corruption can make it so poor.

  • @qwderfendrick9493
    @qwderfendrick9493 ปีที่แล้ว +652

    "The Americans are a very lucky people. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish." - Otto Von Bismarck

    • @Goober_80
      @Goober_80 ปีที่แล้ว +127

      Wait until the fish evolve into Gyrados

    • @seanmcgrady8688
      @seanmcgrady8688 ปีที่แล้ว +42

      @@Goober_80 Joke's on them-- America has the water stones.

    • @Goober_80
      @Goober_80 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@seanmcgrady8688 welp looks like no scary fish demons are attacking Murica today

    • @Kier_1
      @Kier_1 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      @@seanmcgrady8688 the fish evolve at level 20 without water stones

    • @ThatColtGuy
      @ThatColtGuy ปีที่แล้ว +43

      I mean and we’re arguably pretty close with both despite what the divisive media makes it seem

  • @adequatepipe8610
    @adequatepipe8610 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I about choked at the way he pronounced "Puget" 😂 Great video!

  • @i-likemy-space7729
    @i-likemy-space7729 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    The "OP" acronym should be defined in the title since google offers the definitions "Surgical Operation" and "Military Operation".

    • @zeldamaniac3188
      @zeldamaniac3188 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      I hate when gamer lingo makes it into serious things

    • @i-likemy-space7729
      @i-likemy-space7729 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@zeldamaniac3188 OP stands for Over Populated ?

    • @carlopoli9067
      @carlopoli9067 26 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      Totally agree with you. What the **** does the title mean, please?

    • @fractll
      @fractll 25 วันที่ผ่านมา

      overpowered

  • @MrDeepwatermarine
    @MrDeepwatermarine 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +729

    I am a tugboat captain on the Mississippi and Intracoastal Waterway, so I’ve known this for a long time. The leaders of our industry are always baffled that more Americans don’t know how important our waterways are to our economy. Great video.

    • @janniesneed4511
      @janniesneed4511 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

      damn, tugboat captain, that sounds like a pretty nice job

    • @xxxBradTxxx
      @xxxBradTxxx 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      They don’t teach it in school, I learned all this from this video at the age of 27. I also live in Arizona, so we don’t really think about rivers that much here.

    • @armadillolover99
      @armadillolover99 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      I always knew how historically important the river system was to our economy, but I wasn’t aware of the sheer scale (I always assumed the coastal ports, railways and interstate systems were the main factor in the modern day) or how relevant it still is until this day. As a “coastal elite” surrounded by business people I always hear about coastal ports when it comes to logistics and rarely, if ever, about the Midwest and when I do it’s mostly in reference to trains and trucking.

    • @greghannigan4702
      @greghannigan4702 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Also, The Great Lakes contribute to the US being a powerhouse also. It is the largest freshwater system on the planet.

    • @Weird04Life
      @Weird04Life 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@xxxBradTxxxya learn in AP US history

  • @TilveranWrites
    @TilveranWrites ปีที่แล้ว +375

    Another enormous boon is how quickly the USA was established as a single united entity. If the USA's history had been as long as Europe's, it would be as divided and multilingual as Europe, fractured into a myriad of states unable to even speak to each other. Having a common language across the continent is a MASSIVE boon. When I first went to the USA from the UK, the first relief I had was that I could speak the language. It's a total nightmare going anywhere else.

    • @alanparsonsfan
      @alanparsonsfan ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @Tilveran Good overlooked point. Also, the system where states could have some of their own policies that made them less likely to break away. (civil war notwithstanding).

    • @Roxadus460
      @Roxadus460 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      not excatly. the reason why Europe has so many language is because of its geography. linguistically speaking geography and isolation are what causes languages to develop and change. while at the same time in modern times the US is more diverse and multilingual. the US doesn't have an official language for a reason. and there's maps that show the 2nd and 3rd most spoken language in each state. and on another note majority of the world is bilingual or multilingual. so the odds that someone in another country speaks English or another language that you do are pretty fair. so to say that a united language is also what made the country what it is today is only partly true.

    • @randallturner9094
      @randallturner9094 ปีที่แล้ว +28

      @@Roxadus460 re: “the US doesn’t have an official language for a reason.” Okay, sorry but the official language of the US is English. It’s required at the federal level for all government business. It’s also required for private citizens in order to function and prosper in American society. If you move here, learn it.

    • @coreypayne9401
      @coreypayne9401 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      @@randallturner9094 OFFICIALLY the US does not list a national language. The CIA World Factbook and other government sources confirm this. English is the de facto language of the country, meaning it’s not official in a legal or legislative way, but in a “everyone just knows it” unofficial way.

    • @randallturner9094
      @randallturner9094 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@coreypayne9401 re: “not official in a legal or legislative way” - are you serious? Oh, there’s just a bit of legislation involved. You’re required to learn English to become a US Citizen, comrade. “Officially”. For a reason, as you put it. 🙄 The CIA factbook and all those “other government sources” are REQUIRED, by law, to be in ENGLISH, gomer. Officially.
      Dude, you’re basically dishonest. “Does not list a national language.” You’re arguing semantics. You’re a liar. And worse, frankly, but that’s off-topic and it’s too much work to do a proper fisking.

  • @davidkley5242
    @davidkley5242 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks so much for the great video. The music in this was fire.

    • @gifibaka3076
      @gifibaka3076 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Do you know the name of the music?

  • @Marximarks
    @Marximarks 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +39

    Great content. The enormous amount of research you’ve put in this video is very much appreciated.

  • @IntelVoid
    @IntelVoid ปีที่แล้ว +1285

    Basically the opposite of Australia. Our biggest river, the Murray, was only discovered in the 1800s and is so shallow at its mouth that ships can't enter from the sea.

    • @chungusmaximus526
      @chungusmaximus526 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Oh really, Murray? **SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC INTENSIFIES**

    • @slevinchannel7589
      @slevinchannel7589 ปีที่แล้ว +51

      @@chungusmaximus526 Everything about USA is ridiculous.
      Part 2 to this video here: "How The US Should Have Spent The Afghanistan War Budget" by 'Second Thought'.

    • @brianlong2334
      @brianlong2334 ปีที่แล้ว +56

      Australia still has some of the best geography and is effectly an island continent, and has large amount of almost every resource.
      Its location is probably arguably better moving forward past the 1900s and into the 2100s in the world.
      As mentioned a river system like the USAs is also a weakness, now at the moment/ in our life time's the usa is good, but things won't always be like they are now.
      Bad management can also effect a nation look at Argentina for an example.

    • @BasicLib
      @BasicLib ปีที่แล้ว

      @@brianlong2334 dude the US and Australia are on so fondamentally different planes this isn’t really an apt comparison
      I’d say the US has truly become one of the worlds great civilizational states.
      Over the course of their history they’ve built not just a state, but a country, not just a country, but a nation. And not just a nation but a civilization.
      Unmoored by ties of blood or faith or ancestry but bound by an Ideology, the most dominant political ideology of the Post enlightenment world.
      There’s an Americanism to the way the people of that continent live that makes them more comparable to say China than to most regular countries.
      Although I fear they might be tearing it apart.

    • @thomasgrabkowski8283
      @thomasgrabkowski8283 ปีที่แล้ว +39

      That’s why the US managed to have 14 times Australia’s population in a similar land area

  • @courierwalkthewastelandduc4700
    @courierwalkthewastelandduc4700 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +820

    This was my entire 8th grade history class condensed into around 40 minutes with a better step by step explanation

    • @happybobjr1
      @happybobjr1 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      I can tell you were not paying attention in class.

    • @Iosinyhrh
      @Iosinyhrh 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +47

      ​@@happybobjr1or the teaching is not up to quality

    • @fernandosapiens3871
      @fernandosapiens3871 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      @@Iosinyhrhalways someone else’s fault mentality

    • @iplxel7888
      @iplxel7888 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@fernandosapiens3871knowing the American education system, it might as well be true

    • @overbuiltlimited
      @overbuiltlimited 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Kudos to your 8th grade history teacher. I shudder to think what most kids are being taught in history classes today.

  • @kevinsayes
    @kevinsayes หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Cool video. I can’t do the hyperbole/delivery of it, but it was an informative video for sure.

  • @LucaSantarella1
    @LucaSantarella1 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Did bro use the CIV 6 resource icons in the animation? Haha Great video!

  • @omarthedeadaziz6756
    @omarthedeadaziz6756 ปีที่แล้ว +915

    i knew USA is amazingly diverse geography, & when i had small talk with a co-worker, i was like, "this country is massive", what i really meant was its got every climate, every geography, every everything, that other countries can dream of. what continents have, but not every countries have

    • @KountKristyl
      @KountKristyl ปีที่แล้ว +19

      edit: dear Americans. I get it, you have rainforests. I think at this point the entire population of the Mid-West has replied to tell me how wrong I am.
      For the record, and this is on me, I should have clarified that America doesn't have any *tropical* rainforests (like the Amazon, as an example). But I have learned there's more than one type of rainforest, so silver linings.
      hasn't got rainforests

    • @starlight4130
      @starlight4130 ปีที่แล้ว +54

      @@KountKristyl and soon nowhere will

    • @KountKristyl
      @KountKristyl ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@starlight4130 Sadly true

    • @grtwhtbnr
      @grtwhtbnr ปีที่แล้ว +4

      The size of Western Europe with a population to match

    • @grtwhtbnr
      @grtwhtbnr ปีที่แล้ว +9

      ​@@starlight4130 no, thankfully, contrary to belief rainforest soil actually is NOT fertile. Not for what we want to do with it our farmland

  • @pixeldragon6387
    @pixeldragon6387 ปีที่แล้ว +1340

    I remember moving cross country from west to east as a kid. I was absolutely *floored* by the sheer size of the Mississippi River. It is *insanely* wide

    • @moe4meswtdg
      @moe4meswtdg ปีที่แล้ว +29

      Yes me too! Never seen anything like it.

    • @johnbainbridge9034
      @johnbainbridge9034 ปีที่แล้ว +100

      I grew up next to it.
      The Rio Grande was not so grand in my estimation. It's a large stream.

    • @31webseries
      @31webseries ปีที่แล้ว +25

      I'd love to drive across country and see it someday. Check out the Great Lakes to. Even more so after this.

    • @matthewneddeau7993
      @matthewneddeau7993 ปีที่แล้ว +22

      @@johnbainbridge9034 the Rio Grande is hardly a river anymore. It sometimes goes completely dry by the time it reaches El Paso

    • @DaInfamous0ne
      @DaInfamous0ne ปีที่แล้ว +34

      I live in Memphis so... yea it is a big ass river.

  • @hexcellerateofficial
    @hexcellerateofficial 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I love how how you use the resource icons from Sid Meier's Civilization VI in these videos when talking about resources.

  • @PlaneShaper2
    @PlaneShaper2 ปีที่แล้ว +1545

    Two things. 1) On the topic of agriculture: during the Cold War, after the development of imaging satellites, the USSR thought it was nigh impossible for a geographic place to have so much agriculture, as it was so unlike anywhere else in the world. They had a number of theories, but one that contributed to Soviet policies was that several farms and rural towns were deception, and were actually biological weapons research facilities. This caused the USSR to overspend on biological warfare research in order to outdo what they thought was a massive US advantage. When in reality, the Soviet bio-warfare program was quite a bit more advanced than the US's.
    2) Even if a foreign military managed to land ground forces on US soil with millions of soldiers, the US has ~40% of the ~1 billion firearms in the world. ~70% of US adults have fired a gun, including more than half of those that have never even owned one. That's a bit beyond the geography topic of the video, but worth pointing out as an aside :p

    • @TheWontonsoup
      @TheWontonsoup ปีที่แล้ว

      YUP. even if they could wipe out our government and military, what followed would be the biggest, longest, bloodiest guerilla war of all time. Could you imagine? There’s actually declassified Soviet files that talk about this, and even they came to the conclusion that the US is unconquerable

    • @MrsBonniebarko
      @MrsBonniebarko ปีที่แล้ว

      Sadly most of the gun lunatic Americans are so vulnerable to misinformation they already support traitor trump and would support a joint Sino Russian invasion of America

    • @geordiejones5618
      @geordiejones5618 ปีที่แล้ว +101

      When I was a teenager one of my first stories was about a Latin American Hannibal/Napoleon persona who unites a huge part of Central/South America and then invades the US with surprising success and asymmetric tactics. He relies on support from disaffected political groups within the US to maintain his lines of supply and threatens to take the Mississippi and Great Lakes, splitting the nation in two. Instead of pouring resources into those areas he gets bogged down in the South (trying to take Texas and Florida) and he fights a Pyrrhic retreat back to Mexico City. I still think effort would ultimately fail much like Hannibal's own, for much of the same reasons. US Navy and Air Force allows the US to give up a lot of territory and hit you in the flanks when you overstretch.

    • @andoletube
      @andoletube ปีที่แล้ว +37

      @@travelhog lol🤣

    • @gfred2622
      @gfred2622 ปีที่แล้ว +101

      Not to mention that the geography of the US is extremely hostile to invading armies the Pacific Northwest is mostly forrests and mountains. The Southwest is mostly vast empty desert. The south is predominantly forrests and/ or swamps. The north east is fairly forrested, and the Appalachians in the area as well. Finally, the north is mostly wide open plains which means any potential invasion is not going to have anywhere to hide from the Air Force.

  • @Skaggs666
    @Skaggs666 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +544

    I’m an American, my wife and I live on a 60’ sailboat. We sailed from Cincinnati, OH to the Mississippi delta during COVID and ended up just continuing on up the coast and into the intercoastal waterway back to the Great Lakes. It’s a trip called the Great Loop. It was the most interesting trip we’ve ever made. I was blown away by all the infrastructure. We’ve sailed the Med and Caribbean and the Loop was easily the most logistically simple trip we’ve ever done.

    • @censored4christ162
      @censored4christ162 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      I want to do the great loop. Its craczy how nautical our land nation is. Way nore than places like mongolia. Plus we have alaska and hawaii so if you leave from the west coast you have entirely different options its a wholleee lotta freedom i can go to all thes eplaces without showing a passport or even an ID unless I get caught in violation of a law. If yiu try to go from britain to spain thsyre going to ID you. Its a whole different world. Theyll just search you for no reason just because. Im usa i can go from arizona to michigan to florida to texas and no one bats an eye

    • @Skaggs666
      @Skaggs666 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      @@censored4christ162 We are leaving for Hawaii (and then onto Nuku Hiva and Hiva Oa) from San Diego on Friday. But it is a much more difficult passage logistically. You should definitely do the Loop. Its an absolute blast.

    • @PappyNet01
      @PappyNet01 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      You are very fortunate. Good for you. Boating is very expensive; consequently, those who own boat and decide to live on the boat is because it is very expensive to own a boat in addition to owning a house. Ownership of most big durable items requires insurance and maintenance; thus, it becomes a lifestyle and a owner needs to develop maintenance skills unless one is very, very wealthy. However, I wish I could at least once in my life travel the United States riverways and coastal-ways and the Great Lakes.

    • @AndrewHeller-jn7dx
      @AndrewHeller-jn7dx 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @censored4christ162
      Please Note: A, Partial Listing of: your copious Typo Errata:
      1.: *crazy;...
      2.: *more;...
      3.: *Mongolia;...
      4.: *Alaska;...
      5.: *Hawaii;...
      6.: *options.It's;...
      8.: *freedom.I;...
      10.: *these places;...
      11.: *you;...
      12.: *Britain;...
      13.:*Spain;...
      14.: *they're;...
      15.: *they'll;...
      16.: *In the U.S.A.;...
      17.: *I can go from;...
      18.: *Arizona;...
      19.: *Michigan;...
      20.: *Florida;...
      21.: *Texas;...

    • @tept6007
      @tept6007 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Dude, that's incredible! I'm honestly quite jealous! 😂 Happy for you though. Keep livin' the good life!

  • @aviator7479
    @aviator7479 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Damn! That's a very high quality video.

  • @ken_9359
    @ken_9359 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

    My father told me this fact. America's real longest war was the conflict against Indigenous Americans, called the American Indian Wars, which most historians characterize as beginning in 1609 and ending in 1924 or 313 years, mainly over land control.

    • @wolvesetc
      @wolvesetc 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thats like a hundred separate conflicts against a hundred separate foes spread out over hundreds of years with lots of stops and starts and a lot of other things going on. Its really not accurate to call that one continuous conflict, although you might lump it together as a planned genocide

    • @McFish-ts5jj
      @McFish-ts5jj หลายเดือนก่อน

      Cooool…
      I have a cookie recipe:
      Granulated Sugar (1 cup)
      1 cup light brown sugar (packed) or 2 cups powdered sugar or 3/4 cup honey (reduce liquid in recipe by 1/4 cup)
      All-Purpose Flour (1 tablespoon)
      1/2 tablespoon cornstarch, potato starch, rice starch, or arrowroot starch or 1 tablespoon granular tapioca or 2 teaspoon quick-cooking tapioca
      Baking Soda (1 teaspoon)
      4 teaspoons baking powder or 1 teaspoon potassium bicarbonate
      Baking Powder (1 teaspoon)
      1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 cup sour milk, buttermilk, or plain yogurt or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice used with sweet milk to make 1/2 cup

    • @christigoth
      @christigoth 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      little by little , one or two tribes at a time. some we bought land from , made friends with, married them, made truces, made treaties, and some kept thousands or millions of acres of land... now are citizens of our nation as well a s keep thier sovereign tribal nations. they are still great warriors fighting for this country in the military. this land is their Mother, so they say. it's ours too if we've been here for many generations. we admire them and thier arts, wisdom, etc , they were a worthy foe back in the day. Glad we are at peace now all of us including all those tribes with each other. We are just their white brother, they are our red brother. i heard one of their sages say we need to keep our tech in check. i know that's true.

    • @christigoth
      @christigoth 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@McFish-ts5jj 😂😂😂

  • @PaulStewartAviation
    @PaulStewartAviation ปีที่แล้ว +496

    Just thinking out loud (and I'm Aussie)... maybe one of the reasons why the USA has done well is because it was a (mostly) united country? Europe also has great natural resources but they've just fought with each other the last thousands of years?

    • @sminturn1987
      @sminturn1987 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      Yeah that's a pretty good point. All the power we have from the geography would be useless if we weren't so united. But at the same time that unity wouldn't be as impactful in a less geographically rich area. So, I guess it's which ever you find more valuable

    • @johngutwald8454
      @johngutwald8454 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Can you list all of these natural resources or make a list of the natural resources?

    • @carteranderson5907
      @carteranderson5907 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @@johngutwald8454 Talking from the Northern mid-west (North & South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin) point of view, we have a vast majority of everything you need. Lumber, Coal, Oil, Gold, Iron ore, and some of the best soil for farming on Earth, etc...

    • @nyetzdyec3391
      @nyetzdyec3391 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      Oh yes... the (mostly) unified country aspect is every bit as important as the resources, Mississippi River basin, etc.
      So are other things... like NOT being communist/socialist.

    • @leskobrandon691
      @leskobrandon691 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      There's no doubt it was instrumental to our nation's development. If it was divided, say France never sold the Louisiana purchase & it survived potential subsequent wars, they would own have owned from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, partly controlling the river. This along with a portion of the oil & gas fields in parts of Texas & Oklahoma & that field located up along the Canadian border, plus all the great farmland in the west/upper midwest like Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, the Dakotas & part of Minnesota. That alone would have been a powerful country unto itself.

  • @Marthyboy88
    @Marthyboy88 ปีที่แล้ว +808

    I randomly started looking at the waterways in America... It's honestly broken af from a infrastructure standpoint. We can get goods basically anywhere with these systems. Crazy.
    Also, imagine what would happen if we found a huge cobalt area.

    • @TheSpecialJ11
      @TheSpecialJ11 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +38

      Unfortunately our current government policies make this harder than need be. If only we got rid of the Jones Act and made a continental version of Conrail.

    • @PakoDriver
      @PakoDriver 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @@TheSpecialJ11 What's the jones act?

    • @bynomial3542
      @bynomial3542 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      There is in Minnesota but has been protected from mining as its part of millions of acres of national forest/ recreational canoe water lands

    • @PakoDriver
      @PakoDriver 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@TigerWave01 Thanks!

    • @TravisJones812
      @TravisJones812 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      @@TigerWave01 Most of the people who gripe about the Jones Act are Hawaiians. 🏖

  • @romanator30
    @romanator30 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I'm from America and I approve this video. Quite an epic production. Keep at it

  • @tonics7121
    @tonics7121 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Incredibly factual, and conclusions as fair and reasonable as any I've read or heard. Thank you so much. We are all starved for this kind of reporting.

  • @CommonCommiestudios
    @CommonCommiestudios ปีที่แล้ว +1263

    The country's so op they had to nerf it with an education system that makes 16% of the population believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows
    Edit: the comment section makes the Russia-Ukraine war like a tea party, enter at your own risk

    • @lanceh.aguilar7982
      @lanceh.aguilar7982 ปีที่แล้ว +72

      At least thats something we can change. Geography is fixed.

    • @t0manderson571
      @t0manderson571 ปีที่แล้ว +49

      Where do you other 84% think it comes from?

    • @t0manderson571
      @t0manderson571 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      Just to clarify, not brown cows, they must be chocolate cows.

    • @rogelio7524
      @rogelio7524 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Lol is this real ? 😂

    • @cann5565
      @cann5565 ปีที่แล้ว +41

      That's because more weight is put on fairy tales like the Bible than real education.

  • @tomscott1159
    @tomscott1159 ปีที่แล้ว +488

    140 years ago, Mark Twain wrote extensively about the history of the Mississippi basin and how it was utilized and developed via emerging technologies of the time.

    • @kidfox3971
      @kidfox3971 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      That is the most boring thing I have ever read in my entire life

    • @diane9247
      @diane9247 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      And, what better reading could there be about this than Twain? 😊

    • @TrevorD19
      @TrevorD19 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      If you go up to Minnesota you can walk across it. I forgot the place

    • @diane9247
      @diane9247 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@kidfox3971 You mean about Twain, or about where to walk across?

    • @kidfox3971
      @kidfox3971 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@diane9247 Everything, I unironically killed myself while reading the above comment.

  • @stuartpearce694
    @stuartpearce694 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Voice over guy is competing in a word-stress competition.

  • @michaelmarrerowx
    @michaelmarrerowx 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thank you for making work pass by fast 🎉

  • @michealdrake3421
    @michealdrake3421 ปีที่แล้ว +502

    5:30 Don't forget economies of scale! Ships are one if the few modes of transportation that becomes more efficient the bigger it gets. The more stuff you can put on a boat, the cheaper it is to ship per unit. Whereas work land based transportation, the bigger it gets, the more engineering problems you encounter and the more expensive they get to fix, a bigger ship mostly just means spreading the operating costs out over more cargo. Physics is actually on our side on this one.

    • @milesdunstan-daams4855
      @milesdunstan-daams4855 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      trains also work that way. it could be that all forms of transport do if they are in a line.

    • @andrewjensen7454
      @andrewjensen7454 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Not only does a larger volume mean cheaper per unit shipping costs, but the longer (bigger) a ship is the faster it can go before the wake it produces starts to really create a lot of drag, so they can either use less fuel or can move the goods faster. The economies of scale benefits just compound and compound with ships.

    • @michealdrake3421
      @michealdrake3421 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@andrewjensen7454 That I didn't know, but makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

    • @vladimirmomperousse4340
      @vladimirmomperousse4340 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Amazing

    • @jaraza323
      @jaraza323 ปีที่แล้ว

      I learned a lot from your statement.

  • @JMurph2015
    @JMurph2015 ปีที่แล้ว +242

    The thing that made me truly appreciate that North American geography is absurdly favorable was the metric for steel production capacity immediately before World War 2: if I remember correctly it was vastly in the lead, potentially as much as every other combatant combined.
    And so long as the US keeps control of the Western Hemisphere, there is essentially no power on Earth that could win a war of conquest over the USA (which doesn't involve reducing the continent to rubble first).

    • @donaldduck9233
      @donaldduck9233 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I believe the majority of the steel was produced in the Hoover mason trestle located in Pennsylvania. It located right by the Appalachian mountains and on the Lehigh river.

    • @chaost4544
      @chaost4544 ปีที่แล้ว +25

      There's a time after WWII where the US literally produced half of everything in the world. It's production capacity is insane when it's needed to be.

    • @LunaticTheCat
      @LunaticTheCat ปีที่แล้ว

      I don't it's possible for another to "win" by turning North America into dust, as by doing so they themselves would certainly also get obliterated.

    • @Evanderj
      @Evanderj ปีที่แล้ว

      It’s been modeled that the US could fight conventionally against the rest of the world, simultaneously, on many fronts, and still win.
      It was demonstrated that logistics, the Navy, overseas bases/ballistics, surveillance, & self reliance on resources are the pillars of modern warfare. By surgically crippling adversarial capacity to wage war through disruption of fuel and supply chains to deployed militaries & their homelands, the only option is to sue for peace.
      The US has a lot of vulnerabilities, but all out conventional warfare isn’t one.

    • @luftwaffle3766
      @luftwaffle3766 ปีที่แล้ว

      “Vastly in the lead”

  • @user-dm8lq4vq6x
    @user-dm8lq4vq6x 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great video thanks!!

  • @sniperj808
    @sniperj808 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    Proud to be an American. So lucky to be part of this great story.

  • @friskyjesus
    @friskyjesus ปีที่แล้ว +304

    Logged in to Nebula about an hour ago to see if there were any new uploads to Modern Conflicts and was pleasantly surprised to see the latest video. After watching that I jumped over to TH-cam to see if there was anything new here and got to enjoy even more great content! Thank you for your amazing work!

    • @robertbones326
      @robertbones326 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      Jumping into Nebula isn't wise, no oxygen or water. Amazing you survived

    • @spiderman20088
      @spiderman20088 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@robertbones326 bro mightve just saved me my friends convinced me to go nebula diving later today 💀

    • @tehok
      @tehok ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@robertbones326 damn that's my weekend ruined

  • @johnshort5830
    @johnshort5830 ปีที่แล้ว +254

    Your content is some of the rare stuff that makes me excited to have the internet again, like when it was newer when we were younger. This is quite literally, the content I signed up for(your work as a whole, not just this particular video). Thank you for bringing some joy and knowledge into my life.

    • @realdreamerschangetheworld7470
      @realdreamerschangetheworld7470 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Beautifully said

    • @irBribe
      @irBribe ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Definitely one of the rare youtubers where you watch every single thing they put out because it's all so high quality.

    • @Racko.
      @Racko. ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Well said

  • @JosephHenryLuckinbill
    @JosephHenryLuckinbill 23 วันที่ผ่านมา

    This is incredibly well done 👍🏻

  • @discocloud6351
    @discocloud6351 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Hands down one of my favorite videos on youtube. ✌️

  • @What_Makes_Climate_Tick
    @What_Makes_Climate_Tick ปีที่แล้ว +271

    When discussing the Great Lakes as a transportation route, there was simpler engineering at an earlier time that provided a large portion of present-day capabilities. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and connected eastern Lakes Erie to the Hudson River, and thus the port of New York City and the navigable connections between Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. The first version of the "Soo" Locks were completed in 1855, adding access to Lake Superior

    • @carlcushmanhybels8159
      @carlcushmanhybels8159 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      And there's the Great Lakes' route through to the St. Lawrence Seaway and VS. So, e.g., Chicago has a water route to the Atlantic. And all the betweens and links such as the Ohio river to Mississippi River.

    • @bruzote
      @bruzote ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Not to forget the canals linking the Chesapeake to the Delaware and the Delaware to the Hudson, which of course led to the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes! Of course, one could also continue north from the Hudson entrance to the Erie canal, heading upstream the Hudson River to the Champlain canal, then heading across Lake Champlain and downstream to the St Lawrence Seaway. One could travel from Duluth to Norfolk VA via Albany NY, then head north to Montreal without ever facing an open sea. Those canals sure changed things. A lot of iron ore moved from the upper Midwest to smelters, foundries, and plants throughout the eastern US, helping the US economy to boom. I suspect you know that, but other readers might not know that. :-)

  • @paulmckean4583
    @paulmckean4583 ปีที่แล้ว +302

    You need to highlight the Panama Canal as well. This marval even though no longer under US control allows free shipping between the Atlantic and the Pacific effectively increasing the ease of trade from the Mississippi basin & intercoastal to the Western coast.

    • @Kaiserboo1871
      @Kaiserboo1871 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

      It wouldn’t exactly be difficult to take over the Panama Canal by force if necessary.
      I still think Carter made a mistake turning it over.
      I’d be ok with Panama and America co-owning it together.

    • @Captainaceguy00
      @Captainaceguy00 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      Panama and Suez Canal are by far the biggest man made structures to improve global trade. I agree that it should have been covered

    • @donaldmiller8629
      @donaldmiller8629 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Kaiserboo1871 ,
      You have to remember that Carter is a Socialist Liberal Democrat. The ONLY aim of that Party is to gain political and social power. If it comes at the expense of the United States , well.....

    • @AndrewHeller-jn7dx
      @AndrewHeller-jn7dx 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Captainaceguy00
      *covered.

    • @AndrewHeller-jn7dx
      @AndrewHeller-jn7dx 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @Kaiserboo1871
      You may be right, but, what you think or feel "OK about" the issue, is: totally -->>irrelevant; since, who are you; anyhow-????
      When you talk like that you communicate 1 thing: disgusting arrogance!!!.
      Why do you think that you are so darn important-????!!!!!!!!!!.

  • @Community_Guideline_Violator
    @Community_Guideline_Violator 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Your videos are fun.

  • @July41776DedicatedtoTheProposi
    @July41776DedicatedtoTheProposi 29 วันที่ผ่านมา +4

    Thank you Peter Zeihan for writing all your books and speeches over the last 20 years. He is the true source of all this information.

  • @katana4813
    @katana4813 ปีที่แล้ว +49

    I love how he uses Sid Meier's Civilization resource icons for crops and materials

    • @ilyasortor2084
      @ilyasortor2084 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Bro I used command F to find this comment

  • @JFabric500
    @JFabric500 ปีที่แล้ว +369

    Getting me hyped about geography is hard to do but wow. The amount of positive fun facts in this video is unmatched.

    • @roysmith3767
      @roysmith3767 ปีที่แล้ว

      Search . ' The Geopolitics of World War 3 . '

    • @niveklor1456
      @niveklor1456 ปีที่แล้ว

      Really governments can be bought and traded just like modern-day slave trade

    • @paulbabcock2428
      @paulbabcock2428 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Check out Atlas Pro. Everything he produces is based on geography basically and most is his vids are facinating.

  • @stoopifz
    @stoopifz 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    now this is some lore worth listening to

  • @tammyburke9453
    @tammyburke9453 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I could watch and listen for hours. Incredibly fascinating ❤❤❤

  • @lbradshaw316
    @lbradshaw316 ปีที่แล้ว +507

    This video has done more to help me understand American history and politics than any one source of information ever has. Thank you for helping put the pieces together. Wonderful video.

    • @hukphin740
      @hukphin740 ปีที่แล้ว

      Did this video help you understand why Biden's energy policies are historically stupid? Do you see a correlation between what is happening to the American economy today and the economy during the 70's oil embargo? It's like the democrats, and every voter who voted for him, have never read a history book🤓

    • @l.w.paradis2108
      @l.w.paradis2108 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      This is propaganda.

    • @ESkog
      @ESkog 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@l.w.paradis2108u jealous?

    • @l.w.paradis2108
      @l.w.paradis2108 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@ESkog Why? Is the producer married to someone I'm in love with?

    • @basketcaseface813
      @basketcaseface813 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@l.w.paradis2108YES

  • @TonyHanation
    @TonyHanation ปีที่แล้ว +239

    Was so curious if Mississippi river carries that much volume so I searched it up.
    The global cargo volume was 1.85 billion Tons in 2019 and the M. River carried 500 million tons in 2021. That's 27% of the GLOBAL cargo volume!
    Insane.

    • @billhicks6449
      @billhicks6449 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      I grew up in the twin cities mere blocks from the Mississippi. There's a constant stream of barges coming up and down at that point. And thats at the northernmost industrial point.

    • @TonyHanation
      @TonyHanation ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I gotta visit sometimes fascinating!

    • @loturzelrestaurant
      @loturzelrestaurant ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Part 2 to this video here: "How The US Should Have Spent The Afghanistan War Budget" by 'Second Thought'.

    • @steakfilly5199
      @steakfilly5199 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@billhicks6449 I’m from mn too

    • @dustinpuckett4802
      @dustinpuckett4802 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@billhicks6449 good ole Twin Cities. I'm down in Ste Genevieve where I can see the levee's from my livingroom lol

  • @Chris_Thorny
    @Chris_Thorny 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Thanks!

  • @KingAlanI
    @KingAlanI 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    As for water shipping being much cheaper, the Erie Canal was huge in the early 19th century development of New York state for the same reason

  • @dennishowell6430
    @dennishowell6430 ปีที่แล้ว +432

    Ok, major historical oversight about the opening of the Great Lakes to global commerce. While it is true that the St. Lawrence Seaway, which was completed in the 1950s, opened the Great Lakes to trans-oceanic commerce, the lakes themselves have been opened to global shipping since the 1850s. This development was made possible thanks to the completion of the following projects: The Erie Canal in the 1820s (Albany to Buffalo), The Illinois and Michigan Canal (connected Lake Michigan with the Illinois River via Chicago) completed in 1848, and the Soo Locks (Connecting Lake Superior to Lakes Huron and Michigan) in 1855.

    • @omadoutlaw4868
      @omadoutlaw4868 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      I was thinking something more like the 1850's!

    • @jasonreed7522
      @jasonreed7522 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      And even without the full Seaway trade was still possible, just using smaller vessels and either older canals or offloading cargo to bypass rapids.
      And after the seaway a ton of hydroelectric power became available to both the US and Canada. (The Moses-Sounders dam in Massena/Cornwall has 2 separate generation plants that combine to about 2GW of installed capacity) I assume the rest of the greatlakes region also have several GW of capacity from dams along the watershed (like how much of the niagra river doesn't go over the falls, only enough to be pretty as a tourist destination/heritage site).

    • @otm646
      @otm646 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      As an additional note sailing vessels stayed in commercial service longer on the Great Lakes than basically anywhere else in US because the lakes were so navigable. Steam tugboats were used to get these sailing vessels up the Detroit River across the St Clair flats and up the St Clair River.

    • @Racko.
      @Racko. ปีที่แล้ว +5

      The great lakes and Erie Canal paved another way for great trade

    • @j2174
      @j2174 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      It’s important to note that the US has two friendly neighbours.

  • @marcello7781
    @marcello7781 ปีที่แล้ว +302

    This brings me back so many memories of the geopolitics lessons I used to attend. Sometimes it's not just the size of the territory but also where it is located, which reminds me of the strategic locations the British Empire used to own during its maximum expansion.

    • @czdaniel1
      @czdaniel1 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Lol...Wuz this USED 2 OWN, English?
      Falklands, Gibraltar, Diego Garcia, Ascension...You may not have the Suez, A.T.M. but British bases are sitting upon a large swath of Cyprus nearby the Suez.
      You just need to own Singapore again and U instantly win at Super-Strategic Tiny Island BINGO

    • @yodorob
      @yodorob ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@czdaniel1 Montevideo could easily have been yet another such strategic point. It was captured and occupied by the British in 1807. Would have been a South American version of Halifax!

  • @mistereffyou8050
    @mistereffyou8050 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    6:27 I love how he used the icons from Civilization VI 😂

  • @marsmech
    @marsmech 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I really like the use of civ icons.

  • @MattBellzminion
    @MattBellzminion ปีที่แล้ว +410

    I'm embarrassed to admit that this video taught me a shit ton of facts I didn't know about my own country... and I've seen a lot of these coastlines, too.

    • @pdcdesign9632
      @pdcdesign9632 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      Welcome to America dude. It's huge.

    • @advancetotabletop5328
      @advancetotabletop5328 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      And welcome to the American school system. It‘s lacking.

    • @HR-td8iw
      @HR-td8iw ปีที่แล้ว

      Maybe if you didnt have to worry about getting shot in class then the teaching quality would be better, not so great america anymore

    • @Sophistry0001
      @Sophistry0001 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      I live on the Chesapeake, and I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that it has more coast line than India. Like I straight up called BS when I first heard that.

    • @nohandsman8475
      @nohandsman8475 ปีที่แล้ว

      😐

  • @killerkram1337
    @killerkram1337 ปีที่แล้ว +294

    I come from a Minnesota farm south of the twin cities. The Mississippi river is a mighty river indeed. Fuels everything, home to so many bald eagles. Been the head waters of the Mississippi river aa few times, nice area to hike. America is an amazing country and living here is kick ass. From that small farm in southern Minnesota to a software engineer this place lets you become anything you want. Family migrated here and in 1 generation we went from farmers to engineers, still got plenty of farmers in the family though. Never going to give that farm up.

    • @preussianblau5595
      @preussianblau5595 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Farmington?

    • @preussianblau5595
      @preussianblau5595 ปีที่แล้ว

      You don't live close enough yo diversity.

    • @naddarr1
      @naddarr1 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      I'm from Central Minnesota myself. My favorite thing about the headwaters of the Mississippi is just how humble it all begins. A normal person can jump across it. I've seen it multiple times where it's not more then a foot deep. It's really humbling to be reminded that the only reason the Mississippi is so big is because of all the other rivers that flow into it, 1 of which I myself live on currently. It truly would be nothing without all of the other rivers and lakes the feed it water.

    • @czdaniel1
      @czdaniel1 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I saw a Bald Eagle driving southbound in Texas' Rio Grande valley. Long strait open highway with VERY WIDE open medians between the North & Southbound lanes. The Bald Eagle swooped down to the deck, landed among the grass & shrubs in that wide open median space.
      I'm told it was probably a Mexican bald eagle that I saw, which is a little smaller than the American Bald Eagle you see around the Mississippi

    • @kwakudapaah115
      @kwakudapaah115 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@preussianblau5595 the shield

  • @progrocker2112
    @progrocker2112 17 วันที่ผ่านมา

    26:40 Barnett Shale mentioned...hey that's us! Thank you.

  • @EdwardJohnson-oy5cv
    @EdwardJohnson-oy5cv 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Knowledgeable!! Way to DRAMATIC!

  • @theobserver9131
    @theobserver9131 ปีที่แล้ว +406

    Wow. I've never looked at the world through this lens before. This is like the Rosetta Stone to geopolitics. Thank you for this well made and enlightening documentary.

    • @nickconner2101
      @nickconner2101 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Read “The Accidental Superpower” by Peter Zeihan

    • @timhaldane7588
      @timhaldane7588 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Read "Guns Germs and Steel." It goes a long way in explaining why the world's most powerful nations developed where they did.

    • @enderlegasov
      @enderlegasov ปีที่แล้ว

      Yay, 128th like!

    • @michaelmooshe5182
      @michaelmooshe5182 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      If you enjoyed this look up Peter zeihan he is a geopolitical analyst the information he puts out is extremely important and informative

    • @geoffreybrockmeier9218
      @geoffreybrockmeier9218 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I studied ancient history at university. I had something of an epiphany when my professor began explaining history from the perspective of economics. We often think of civilizations by their monuments, art, or battles they fought. But all that glory is rooted in the strength of its economy.

  • @KyleP133
    @KyleP133 ปีที่แล้ว +396

    I think its key for Americans who are intent on amplifying our internal differences to understand how weak we are when we are split apart. Our strength comes from our unity and connectedness across the continent. Our differences are not that important, our prosperity is assured and we can have a century of prosperity and peace if we just remember how important we are to each other. Consider how much our dissolution as a nation would benefit our mutual enemies, and you start to reconsider the motivations and allegiances of those who openly call for these things.

    • @AICW
      @AICW ปีที่แล้ว

      How about FUCK NO. Any American who calls himself a Socialist can go to hell.

    • @jdbb3gotskills
      @jdbb3gotskills ปีที่แล้ว

      No wonder the global elites want to divide and conquer us. We the people need to stand as one.

    • @robwaters8848
      @robwaters8848 ปีที่แล้ว +45

      It feels like a monumental uphill battle when so many of our elites in power appear to be compromised.

    • @HowIsAsh
      @HowIsAsh ปีที่แล้ว +25

      Would be nice for the US to continuesly stay in power and dictate world politics huh. Because yall definitely are good with politics and not being evil.

    • @LibertyGoose
      @LibertyGoose ปีที่แล้ว

      @@HowIsAsh if you did not intend sarcasm, I read it in anyways as it should be.
      The US isnt evil. MAN IS EVIL. power corrupts completely. Whoever has it, will follow in US steps. No question.

  • @bejtabej
    @bejtabej 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This guy makes the best videos with information and entertaining. We appreciate it my friend.

  • @michaelowino228
    @michaelowino228 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Good video.

  • @TheSanibelCaptivaGuide
    @TheSanibelCaptivaGuide 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    That was the Sanibel lighthouse at 7:25 unfortunately the houses next to it are no longer due to hurricane ian

  • @Sam-kq4zt
    @Sam-kq4zt ปีที่แล้ว +265

    Awesome video. I majored in economics and always felt like geography was overlooked. It truly sets the stage for evolution & adaptation.

    • @chideraesinaulo4095
      @chideraesinaulo4095 ปีที่แล้ว

      Honestly

    • @bgorg1
      @bgorg1 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      So does culture. The culture the USA inherited from GB, Netherlands, and Ancient Greece/Rome allowed it to loosely yet cohesively aggregate this land into a protected economy. I also think way too much direct links between Iraq and the the attack on the US by Al-Qaeda. There is far more complexity than that linkage and the thought that the US brought that on its own house is hyperbolic to outright untrue. And to us in the USA the disaster of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, rather than our military actions, is the nightmare

    • @brucearterbury1856
      @brucearterbury1856 ปีที่แล้ว

      Speaking of sea ports and their economic impact. I’m fascinated with a proposed Gulf of California to Laguna Salada to Salton Sea canal. Mexico’s president said that there isn’t enough benefit to Mexico to follow through with the bi-National agreement he signed. Maybe if the Laguna Salada project was expanded into sea port infrastructure it would get done. Btw. The Laguna Salada is below sea level for dozens of miles and the Gulf of California tides are 9 feet high where the proposed canal begins.

    • @anon2427
      @anon2427 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Geography shapes a people more than anything else. And people shape the places they live. In this way, the quality of a society is largely dependent on the quality of it’s people

    • @hollykm
      @hollykm ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Me too, just graduated. I think a course titled Economics of Geography would be really really interesting and useful general knowledge.

  • @EnriqueHernandez-zk7qc
    @EnriqueHernandez-zk7qc 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +61

    I can't thank you enough for making this video on American geography, Real Life Lore. It's currently my favorite thing on TH-cam and should be required viewing in every American high school. Great job!

    • @Bob-te3le
      @Bob-te3le 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Facts.

  • @The1Helleri
    @The1Helleri 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    14:27 New Orleans no longer being accessible would be bad and slow things down. But it wouldn't shut down the whole system. As you said it's a loop. That's before considering the great lakes and the St. Lawrence river. Which effectively makes it into a two lobed loop for the highest traffic areas of US water ways. New Orleans access going away means one lobe shuts down as a lobe. But things can still move the other direction and out through two other big accesses along the remaining lobe. There's also interstate highways, freight trains and the like that can alleviate some of the congestion. Albeit under such circumstances personal transportation would have to be curtailed in favor of mass public transit. There are also many abandoned canals that could be refurbished and expanded long term (cheaper then building new ones anyway) if need be.

  • @KR72534
    @KR72534 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Bravo. A masterpiece.

  • @Joseph-ax999
    @Joseph-ax999 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

    "The Americans are very fortunate. They're bordered to the north and south by weak neighbors, and to the east and west by fish". Otto von Bismarck , German chancellor

    • @dalepeto9620
      @dalepeto9620 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Didn't he also say "God protects bums, drunks and the US Army??

  • @joker6solitaire
    @joker6solitaire 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +193

    I was a Geography major in college nearly 20 years ago. I learned SOME of what you covered in this video, but not all of it--and only piecemeal. I've never heard such a clear, thorough explanation of how the USA's geography has influenced its prosperity. You do marvelous work! I followed your link to Nebula and subscribed. Thank you for the wonderful content!

    • @cjsawinski
      @cjsawinski 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Check out “How the States got their Shapes”… I think you would like it. It was on the History channel about ten years ago. It’s an awesome series like this video but broken down by all the states boundaries and how they came to be defined.

  • @travisproo87
    @travisproo87 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great video! One minor nitpick though. The "Pu" in "Puget Sound" is pronounced "pyew" and not "poo"

  • @choppe8228
    @choppe8228 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The civ6 references 🔥

  • @GalaxyFur
    @GalaxyFur ปีที่แล้ว +590

    *Another thing not mentioned besides the United States river system* is the fact that the U.S. has the world's largest road and rail network of any country on Earth. The United States has 4 million miles of roads that span across it today. And it has 140,000 miles of freight railroad track that spans across it as well. So you have the world's largest road system, the world's largest navigational river system, the world's largest railroad system, and the world's largest airplane and airport industry to move goods all across the U.S. and abroad.
    It's a whole ecosystem of transportation that the U.S has. 🙂

    • @cripple9860
      @cripple9860 ปีที่แล้ว +66

      Forreal, while U.S. passenger trains leave much to be desired, our freight train system is unmatched.

    • @anitablades6033
      @anitablades6033 ปีที่แล้ว

      All the reason we are so perfect to be, is the main reason China has been trying to steal America from with in !!!! Why we need to guard our Backs !!!

    • @BAPK1602
      @BAPK1602 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      @@cripple9860 Go look up the dynamics of passenger/freight rails -- they are directly competing with each other. The reason for passenger rails being no good is because they use the same rails as freight trains and freight takes priority over passenger rails. And often, there is only a small window of time allotted to passenger trains to run so when the time is up -- no more rides for the day. Only freight.

    • @triconehead
      @triconehead ปีที่แล้ว +29

      Road and rail systems are not mentioned because this video focuses on natural geographic features contributing to the USA's strategic and economic strengths.

    • @AsianDudeX01
      @AsianDudeX01 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      @@BAPK1602 It's a trade off between freight or passenger rail. The existing infrastructure works so well with freight that we might as well stick with it. In order to have high speed rail, you'll need completely new infrastructure to support it. Which is simply not justifiable considering there's not a big enough population density except for very certain parts of the country; the east coast, parts of the Midwest, a Texas triangle, and the Pacific Coast? Most of the country is just too big and empty for high speed passenger rail. Once you hit that 500 mile mark, you might as well fly. If you look at places with efficient passenger rail networks, you'll see that odds are, they're very densely populated.

  • @Bitterswoon
    @Bitterswoon 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I'm normally a big fan of RealLifeLore, but I really, really disagree with what he says at 2:47. The United States becoming a superpower was not 'almost inevitable' due to its geography. There are many examples of geographically blessed countries ending up as failed states. I believe that the main reasons for the USA's success are related to the properties of its dominant culture, as pointed out by de Tocqueville all the way back in 1835 when he wrote Democracy in America.

  • @Montanasummerfun
    @Montanasummerfun 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Thank you for making this eye opening video! I don’t remember learning much of anything in public school so now I am a sponge! I love my country and we are so much better and stronger than any news or media makes us out to be!! But it is not to be taken for granted! We all need to help and prevent disassembly…with the invasion of over 2-6 million illegal immigrants etc… help keep your local elections honest by volunteering, really knowing the candidates and the honest solutions at hand.

  • @TCAPChrisHandsome
    @TCAPChrisHandsome ปีที่แล้ว +72

    I live in South Mississippi, and I understand why we have huge naval shipyards here and military bases and training camps everywhere in the Southeast. My dad lives about 30 minutes from Ingalls, which builds a lot of naval ships, including the destroyer class that my father used to help build.

    • @aKzDViNePaCcO
      @aKzDViNePaCcO ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I lived in Gulfport for a year last year when my ship was being built.

    • @jesse73429
      @jesse73429 ปีที่แล้ว

      A1

  • @dumbe9567
    @dumbe9567 ปีที่แล้ว +139

    When you add the varied biomes within America. Any invader would need to have the gear for nearly every kind of terrain to get through.

    • @jamesadams893
      @jamesadams893 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@thedarkmajesty1773 that's pretty hilarious, Mexico annexing the usa. 400000000 guns in the hands of the American citizens might have something to say about that

    • @doomjuice.1652
      @doomjuice.1652 ปีที่แล้ว

      For sure the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian mountains act as a barrier and the Great Lakes so the middle would be most protected unless they invade through Mexico but they would not even reach us cuz Mexico would already alert the USA

    • @clownworld4655
      @clownworld4655 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      I believe I had read that nearly every biome on earth exists within the US border with a few exceptions such as tropical rainforest (Florida gets close being subtropical)

    • @PedroOrtega1993
      @PedroOrtega1993 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@clownworld4655 Hawaii has a tropical rainforest biome.

    • @pacotaco1246
      @pacotaco1246 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Does the US have Tundra?

  • @hi-nr6in
    @hi-nr6in 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    as someone born and raised in the US, I didn't realize how over powered we are..

  • @Neotenico
    @Neotenico ปีที่แล้ว +245

    One thing that confused me is at 13:15, you state that the Great Lakes and Atlantic weren't connected until the late 1950s. The Eerie canal, which connected the lakes to the Hudson River and thus New York City, was constructed in the 1820s. Also the subsequent, much deeper Barge Canal in 1918 allowed even larger commercial boats to pass through, keeping the passageway modernized for the craft that needed to traverse it.

    • @mrmoosetachio
      @mrmoosetachio ปีที่แล้ว +25

      I think he means *all* of the great lakes. Not *any* of the great lakes

    • @KCAlbak
      @KCAlbak ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@mrmoosetachio Yes. It connected the shallow Erie and Lake Ontario. But no connection to Mesabi iron Range, or the Chicago grain
      markets

    • @rosepol
      @rosepol ปีที่แล้ว +7

      With the St. Lawrence seaway, large ships could access Chicago. The Erie handled only canal barges.

    • @ryanmartin4602
      @ryanmartin4602 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      He's referring to navigable by large ships.

    • @galileocarandang7025
      @galileocarandang7025 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@rosepol