Co-Principality of Andorra Explained: Why the President of France is a Prince VanDeGraph 2017-01-10 | Andorra is a Co-Principality on the border of France and Spain. That means Andorra is ruled by two different Princes. The princes are the President of France and the Bishop of the Diocese of Urgell in Spain.A Principality is a monarchy, like a kingdom, but instead of being ruled by a king, a principality is rules by a prince. The title of prince is unrelated to be the child of a king, and is instead just a lower ranking title on the feudal ladder, but principalities are sovereign countries like any other.Andorra as a country is a relic of feudalism and a time when the catholic church would have lots of influence over the lands of europe. The Bishop of Urgell took control of Andorra in Medieval Times but required help in protecting it, so he enlisted the help of local feudal lords. Eventually Andorra was turned into a Principality with two co-equal princes, the Bishop of Urgell and the feudal Lord that protected it.As is the case with Feudalism, this responsibility was passed around to different feudal lords such as the count of Foix, the King of Navarre, and finally the king of France, who, because of Feudalism, was also the Count of Foix and King of Navarre and the prince of Andorra. During the French Revolution, the new Republic of France renounced its right to a co-princehood of Andorra because they were against the feudalism that made the co-principality of Andorra exist. However, Napoleon restored the title to himself. Since them the head of state of France has always been one of the two princes, and the other one always being the Bishop of Urgell. This lead to the awkward situation of the President of France being a feudal lord. In 1993, Andorra adopted a modern constitution which ended feudalism and made Andorra a constitutional monarchy, albeit a weird one where it has two princes, one being the head of state of another country and the other being a bishop.Thanks to M-Ray Usa for helping with pronounciations: youtube.com/channel/UCax6YbZeEqL3f17HsDd3otg?&ab_channel=M-RayUsaThanks to Jorge Romero for translating into Spanish youtube.com/user/The13Rome?&ab_channel=JorgeRomeroRussian Federation Explained: youtu.be/qVoHAyEwhBcWhy countries are landlocked: youtu.be/YtYoLLQTLFQ
Weird Borders: Middle East VanDeGraph 2017-08-28 | The borders in the middle east are almost as complicated as the politicsTwitter: twitter.com/vandegraaphFacebook: facebook.com/vandegraaphReddit: reddit.com/r/VanDeGraphMinds: minds.com/VanDeGraphPatreon: patreon.com/vandegraphEmail List: http://eepurl.com/csi__fThe middle east's borders can be quite strange, but perhaps the most complicated are the borders between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and between Egypt and Sudan.Not only is the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirate complicated, its not even in a single piece! Bizzare! There is a piece of the united arab emirate inside a piece of oman that is itself inside the united arab emirates, making it one example of a strange phenomena called a second order enclave. An enclave is when a part of a country is completely surrounded by another country, and with Oman and the United Arab Emirates there is an enclave which was another enclave inside it!The large outer first order enclave that is owned by oman is called Madha, and the interior smaller second order enclave is called Nahwa.Also noteworthy is the Musandam peninsula which is an exclave of Oman which strange because it is detached from the rest of the country.Another weird situation is the Hala'ib triangle, which both egypt and Sudan claim, and Bir Tawil which neither egypt nor sudan claim.This makes Bir Tawil one of the world's only Terra Nullius that is claimed by nobody. Even stranger is how that situation came about, because at that time Sudan was owned by both Egypt and the British at the same time, all while Egypt was technically a part of the Ottoman Empire, but practically a part of the British Empire.More Weird BordersWeird Borders: State Borders of the United States of Americayoutu.be/lXTEepNheVIWeird Borders: Why Countries Have Pieces Detachedyoutu.be/elybAzSVSHcMore Middle EastMiddle East Explained: youtu.be/0ZvYJmzvgLoWhere is the Middle East?: youtu.be/elSzWGAQS_0
Where is the Middle East? VanDeGraph 2017-04-08 | Here it is! Well it might be a much more complicated question than first thought. The Near East and Far East were both terms which described regions to the east of Europe in the 1800s. The Far East described places like China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia, while the the near east refereed to the ottoman empire, which includes modern day turkey, iraq, syria and the rest of the levant.The Middle East could therefore be somewhere in between, and starting in the 1900s it began to describe the area around the persian gulf, which was adjacent to the near east.After the ottoman empire fell, the term middle east began to expand to encompass what had been known as the near east, but some people still used the term near east.In the english languages the term middle east won because in world war 2 the British Army called their forces in the area the Middle East Command, while in other languages the term near east is still more popular.Patreon: patreon.com/vandegraphMiddle East Explained: youtu.be/0ZvYJmzvgLoSpain Explained: youtu.be/sjoHOSFBgt8
Middle East Explained - The Religions, Languages, and Ethnic Groups VanDeGraph 2017-03-29 | The Middle East is at the center of everything, and is home to many ethnic groups which don't always get along. The middle east is usually associated with muslims and arabs, but muslim arabs are only a part of the middle east. The middle east is also home to Turks, Persians, Kurds, Jews, Assyrians and many others. Most of the countries of the middle east are muslim, but Israel is jewish, and Lebanon has a large christian minority. But islam is dividing into two main groups, the sunnis and the shias. Shia muslims mostly live in Iran, southern Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, and Northern Yemen, while Sunni muslims are the most common muslims worldwide. Iran and Saudi Arabia take advantage of the sunni-shia devide to claim spheres of influence in the middle east, and many conflicts split down sunni-shias lines, such as the Yemeni Civil War and the Iraqi Civil War and the Syrian Civil WarNot all muslims are arab though. Turkey and Iran are definitely not Arab and speak Turkish and Persian respectively. Most arabic speakers are arab, though many non-arabs who live near arabs speak arabic for convenience such as the Coptic Christians of Egypt and Maronite Christians of Lebanon, and the Alawites of Syria.The President of Syria is a Shia Alawite even though the majority Syria is Sunni Arab, this contributes to tensions in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. One sunni group fighting in the Syrian Civil War called Daesh or ISIS or ISIL decided to invade neighbouring Iraq and started the Iraqi Civil War and fought against the Shia Arabs, and the Kurds in iraqi Kurdistan.More Videos:Spain Explained: youtu.be/sjoHOSFBgt8Why Countries Are Landlocked: youtu.be/YtYoLLQTLFQ
Spain Is Not A Federation: Autonomous Communities of Spain Explained VanDeGraph 2017-02-15 | Spain is divided into autonomous communities, but don't call Spain a federation or else the Spanish Constitution will get mad at you!The Autonomous Communities of Spain in the Iberian Peninsula are Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Castile - La Mancha, Madrid, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia. Spain also controls the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. One of the balearic islands is called Ibiza, which is a renown part destination. Spain also controls the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Morocco and the cities of Ceuta and Mellia in North Africa. The Autonomous communities of Spain can sometimes have powers that even exceed states in federations, such as collecting the taxes instead of the central government doing it. As well some of the communities have distinct nationalities and languages such as Catalan, Galician, and Basque. This situation arose because before the reconquista of the iberian peninsula, the northern christian kingdoms were separated and this allowed different languages to develop. However, Spain is extremely careful to make sure its communities cannot federalize because it wants to remain an indivisible single state, and being a federation means its easier to separate it apart. After spain transition to democracy the consitution said that autonomous communities could form with the choice of some powers in a list. This is similar to a federation, but important distinctions is that the communities have no say in reforming the constitution, the consitution itself does not establish or give these powers to the communities and is instead done by a statute of autonomy which is legislation from the central Spanish government. Russian Federation Explained: youtu.be/qVoHAyEwhBcAndorra Explained: youtu.be/cFWl5xkKjG0
Weird Borders: State Borders of the United States of America VanDeGraph 2017-02-04 | Ever wondered why Michigan has two pieces? How about why Alaska isn't connected to the rest of the United States?The state borders are a lot weirder than they first appear, and often simple river borders will have crazy zig-zags that seem to arbitrarily cross the river.When rivers shape, borders don't, leaving states with strange pieces on the wrong side of the river. Some states like Oklahoma and West Virgina have bizarre panhandles, and Kentucky even has a part cut off my Missouri. Its a strange border situation called an exclave, which is when a part of a the state is only reachable by land through other states or countries.Virginia also has the eastern shore which is strangley is on the other side of the Chesapeake bay. Other bizarre borders include New York and New Jersey, where Liberty island and Ellis island are weirdly part of New York but are surrounded by New Jersey waters. Even stranger is that New York only owns a small peice of ellis island. The island was expanded, but the new land was over New Jersey borders, so it stayed new jersey. Leaving New York with a bizzare enclave on an new jersey island. Another weird border is that Delaware has some land on New Jersey's side of the Delaware river. This strange situation is because inside Delaware's 12 mile circle, the border is the high water mark of the river, so when the river was filled in the new land became Delaware.Music: Star Spangled Banner - American National AnthemWhen Johnny Comes Marching Home - Civil War SongAmerica the Beautiful - 'Murica Weird Borders: Why countries have pieces detached: youtu.be/elybAzSVSHcWhy countries are landlocked: youtu.be/YtYoLLQTLFQ
Why Countries Are Landlocked + Canals VanDeGraph 2016-12-17 | Why are some countries landlocked? In the case of Bolivia its because they lost a war with Chile. Ethiopia and Serbia granted independence to the parts of their countries that had a coast. Some countries like uzbekistan, are so far inland that they are doubly landlocked, which means they are both landlocked and completely surrounded by other landlocked countries.When a country is landlocked it can be difficult for them to trade, and they often have to rely on their neighbours. In Europe, the danube river lets many landlocked countries have some access to the black sea. As well, many canals exist which lets small ships travel deep inland, providing some of the benefits of having a coast.Some countries may look landlocked, but when viewed closely you can see they have tiny coasts. You can watch this video I made which explores the weird borders in those situations:youtu.be/elybAzSVSHc
Russian Federation Explained VanDeGraph 2016-11-28 | Russia is the largest country in the world. To help run its vast lands it requires a complicated set of Federal Subjects that include Oblasts, Krais, Republics, Federal Cities, Autonomous Okrugs, and an Autonomous Oblast.These Federal Subjects of Russia are not all the same, and since Russia is an asymmetric federation, some of the subjects have more powers than others. The federal subjects of Russia explained:Oblasts, Krais, and Federal Cities are average Federal subjects, having the right to their own legislatures, while Republics, Autonomous Okrugs, and the Autonomous Oblast are meant to provide additional rights to Russia’s minorities.Republics get their own constitutions and official language status, while the Autonomous Okrugs and Oblast get some language rights. Additionally Autonomous Okrugs can, but not always, be divisions of other federal subjects.The difference between Oblasts and Krais is just a historic one where Krais were once the frontiers of Russia. The federal cities are like oblasts but they only have 1 city in them.The jewish autonomous oblast is perhaps the weirdest federal subject of Russia, since less than 1% of its population is jewish and its existence is a leftover from the soviet era.Kaliningrad Oblast is an exclave of Russia, completely detached from the rest. You can learn why Russia and other countries have exclaves in this video:youtu.be/elybAzSVSHcYou can learn why Crimea and Istanbul are so important to Russia in this video:youtu.be/uxWdmi4vsaUMusic:Instrumental Russian National AnthemFrom Russia With Love - Huma-Huma
Weird Borders: Why Countries Have Pieces Detached VanDeGraph 2016-11-14 | Ever wondered why a part of Russia is detached from the rest?There are a lot of weird borders in the world, and often the reason is that a country wanted access to the sea and fight like crazy to get it. They ignore any reasonable boundary between countries in exchange for a bizarre panhandle, or sometimes even cutting off parts of other countries to create a strange border situation called enclaves, which is when a part of a country is only reachable by land through other countries.This video goes over 3 bizarre border situations including why Russia has an the kaliningrad exclave, which is a result of a chain of events in world war 1 and world war 2 in which germany had a strange border where east prussia was an exclave cut off by the danzig corridor, which actually led to world war 2. There is also Angola's exclave of Cabinda cut off by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This weird border is a by product of the scramble for Africa. Finally there is Croatia, which looks like it is taking all of Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline until you look closely and notice a strange border strip which gives Bosnia ad Herzegovina a 20 kilometer coastline and detaches a piece of croatia. This weird border is a quirk of history, where the land in the balkans changed hands multiple times.Two Corrections: Poland was RE-created after ww1 as it was previously occupied by Germany and Russia. Also the video is a bit vague on who started ww2. It was Germany. As well Danzig is used as the name for the city of Gdansk because that is what it was at the time. Thanks to the Noun Project for the Oil Rigs: thenounproject.comWhy I think Istanbul Is The Most Strategically Important City in the World: youtu.be/uxWdmi4vsaUWhy Toy Channels Get Crazy Numbers of Views: youtu.be/m0Q5jO8I59wWhy Spanish Speaking Youtubers Are Taking Over Youtube: youtu.be/hfDHkH8QZbQ
Why Spanish Speaking Youtubers Are Taking Over Youtube VanDeGraph 2016-11-03 | Spanish Speaking Youtubers are growing rapidly and they may just be the only ones who can surpass PewDiePie. The top 10 youtubers in the world are:PewDiePie - 49.0 MHola Soy German - 29.9 MSmosh - 22.4 MElrubiusOMG - 21.4 MVanossGaming - 19.0 MNigaHiga - 18.6 MFernanfloo - 16.6 MJennaMarbles - 16.6 MYuya - 16.4 MVEGETTA777 - 15.9 MHola Soy German, ElrubiusOmg, Fernanfloo, Yuya, and VEGETTA777 are all Spanish speaking youtubers and they are some of the fastest growing channels.Fernanfloo in particular is the fastest growing youtuber, growing faster than even PewDiePie. While they have the potential to have more subscribers than PewDiePie, closing the substantial lead PewDiePie has accumulated won't be easy, but the Spanish speaking youtubers have many demographic advantages that means they could surpass PewDiePie in the future. I will eventually write an article expanding on this video to include other languages including Portuguese, please leave any questions you would like answered in the comments.Why Toy Channels Get So Many Views Explained: youtu.be/m0Q5jO8I59w
Why Istanbul Is The Most Strategically Important City In The World VanDeGraph 2016-09-20 | Istanbul is the most strategically important city in the world. It's located on one of the busiest waterways in the world, the Bosporus straight, which links the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, and a land route between Europe and Asia. Notes about the names of Istanbul:During the Ottoman Empire, the people of the city would call it Istanbul, while the government still referred to the city as the Turkish variant of Constantinople. The city's official name was not changed to Istanbul until Turkey became a republic. Byzantium was refereed to as the New Rome until after emperor Constantine's death, when it became Constantinople.Links:Extra History:Justinian and Theodora: youtube.com/watch?v=H_2E0RxVHH4&list=PLEb6sGT7oD8HLpPQ0N4UTmTtPlpXfJias&ab_channel=ExtraCreditsThe First Crusade: youtube.com/watch?v=HIs5B2U7US0&list=PLEb6sGT7oD8HbI-6NTBomKb8eD1mXSgKd&ab_channel=ExtraCreditsSuleiman The Magnificent: youtube.com/watch?v=JGZSkLq3Eng&list=PLEb6sGT7oD8HFRP3wjW62qtm9m61vTKRK&ab_channel=ExtraCreditsCrash Course:Byzantine Empire: youtube.com/watch?v=3PszVWZNWVA&ab_channel=CrashCourseCrusades: youtube.com/watch?v=X0zudTQelzI&ab_channel=CrashCourseOttoman Empire: youtube.com/watch?v=UN-II_jBzzo&ab_channel=CrashCourse
Why Toy Unboxing and Other Kid Videos Get So Many Views Explained VanDeGraph 2016-08-21 | Toy Unboxings and other kid videos like Nursery Rhymes like the Finger Family or live action skits with characters such as Elsa and Spiderman are a very weird class of videos on youtube. They can sometimes get hundreds of millions of views and it seems pretty baffling, but even this phenomena can be explained.Some channels that are really successful and get billions of views are Ryan ToysReview, LittleBabyBum, Toy Monster, Toy Freaks, and Masha and the Bear. These channels are getting billions of views spread out among there many videos, many of which are pretty indistinguishable from one another. Their best videos get hundreds of millions of views, but often there are so many dislikes on these videos. In order to understand why kid videos get so many views you need to realize that there are millions of kids on youtube swiping around randomly and they don't use the website like adults. They will click things by accident and have short attention spans which means they click on even more videos than adults. In the video I go over much of the data I collected which confirms that kid views last much less time than regular views, and I also expose the fact that these toy channels are doing the best on youtube since they are the channels gaining the most amount of views per month, even more than channels with lots of subscribers. If you are looking to start a toy channel for some reason, this video could also be for you since I go into what makes a toy channel successful and how you could get the youtube algorithms to work for you. This was not the purpose of the video but while making it I realized that some of this could be good advice for running a toy channel. If you've ever wondered why do toy videos get so many views then this is the video for you.Article I wrote an article that covers stuff I left out of the video:medium.com/@vandegraph/why-toy-videos-get-hundreds-of-millions-of-views-on-youtube-explained-da6629ac88fa#.lr6wpchymMore Youtube Analysis from someone else, worth the read: artoftroubleshooting.com/2015/11/04/tube-of-plenty-analyzing-youtubes-first-decadeWhy Gaming Channels are so popular by MatPat: youtube.com/watch?v=EgMqhEMhVV8Difference between San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area Explained: youtube.com/watch?v=KWrLj0f4Dgc
The Difference between San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area Explained VanDeGraph 2016-07-05 | What is the difference between Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area? Is San Francisco a city or a county? Where in the Bay Area are the headquarters of the largest tech companies in the world?This video explains the difference between San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area, gives brief overview of the history of Silicon Valley and how it came to dominate the tech industry, and gives you a tour of the Bay Area along with the companies headquartered there. Image Credits:Golden Gate Bridge: Rich Niewiroski Jr. - http://www.projectrich.com/galleryBay Bridge: Leonard GSan Francisco Skyline along Market Street from Twin Peaks: Vincent BlochSan Francisco Street Map: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMapGovernment Levels Responsibilities Sprites: FreecivGolden Gate Bridge driving away from SF: Weegee010California Central Valley: LTSLTSSV Family Tree/ Fairchildren graphic: IEEE Spectrum Magazine, October 2007San Francisco Bay Area County Maps: Wikipedia CommunityCalifornia Counties Map: Wikipedia CommunityMap of North America: NuclearVacuumLinks for mobile users:CGP Grey video which talks about Cities, Counties, and Incorporated vs Unincorporated places: youtube.com/watch?v=naDCCW5TSpUCrash Course Government video on the separation of powers: youtube.com/watch?v=J0gosGXSgsIMoore's Law: youtube.com/watch?v=rtI5wRyHpTgNumberphile: youtube.com/user/numberphileThe difference between UK, GB, and England Explained: youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn1010 Funny Trolley Problems (On my other channel): youtube.com/watch?v=yywd3bXfYAgWhy is San Francisco so expensive?: youtube.com/watch?v=AAlA4hZ94OIMistakes: Moore's first name is Gordon, not GeorgeLucasfilms moved to San Francisco in 2005, but much of the operation remains in MarinPronounciation
