Why Britain is the Center of the World

It has to do with trains, map makers, and politics.

whoops! I made a little error. I made it look like the North and South lines go up to 180 degrees which they don't. they go to 90 degrees north (North Pole) and 90 degree south (South Pole) sorry about that!

Here are some resources for timezones:

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Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.

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[johnnyharris]

whoops! I made a little error. I made it look like the North and South poles go up to 180 degrees which they don't! they go to 90 degrees north (North Pole) and 90 degree south (South Pole) sorry about that!

[jivati]

You forgot the most important point. The International Date Line was falling in the Pacific Ocean if we chose Greenwich as 0 degree. And so, it won’t cause trouble to any major settlement. No country would experience different dates on their land. Date would change seemlessly without creating a ruckus in any country.

[xypnosii]

Colonizer: knock knock
me: who's there
Colonizer: Europe
Me: Europe who?
Colonizer: Europart of our colony

[gregboi]

You have to admit, it's pretty convenient that the international date line goes through basically no inhabited land

[wazzupp]

The rest of the world: “Stop acting like you’re the centre of the universe Britain!”
Britain: “But I am the centre of the world!”

[rhodriowen]

We’re the centre of the world because we said so

[mell]

I think you missed an important part of time history. The reason GB was so good at sea was due to John Harrison, an English watch maker that made a watch so accurate that the problem with longitude was solved. This made the maps produced in the U.K. more accurate than everyone else’s. This together with the growth of the British Empire helped cement this notion which was why the US had already been using Greenwich as the PM (and most others).

[TheMarrification]

The map being like that with the UK in the middle means that the edges of the map cut through the least amount of land possible which is handy.

[bjoe]

World: “why is Britain the centre of the world?”
Britain: “because we said it is”

[Permilias]

Let's be honest here, this is also the most practical way to center a map, nobody wants to cut asia or america in half...

[robfer]

World: “why is Britain the centre of the world?”
Britain: "Because we invented the modern world"
Britain: "Your welcome"

[expressoevangelism]

The inventor of the clock that allowed for accurate navigation East and West by the vertical lines of latitude was English, and so as a consequence the point of origin started in England.

[ai-g]

I live in Greenwich it is not an outskirts town it’s a normal busy borough in South East London it’s like saying the Bronx is an outskirts town in New York

[theemperor]

"Britain was just really good at ocean" - Johnny Harris 2019

[Cythreill]

"It goes through a little outskirts town called Greenwich." 😂 Love your videos Johnny! But if you lived in Greenwich as a young person these days, it would be considered relatively central, and certainly part of the city proper.

[slocad]

The reasons I keep coming back to watch your videos is 1) cool and random topics 2) I like listening to you because you are natural teacher and story teller 3) it is easy to follow your logic as you lead viewers down a trail of crumbs 4) I can use your videos to teach a broad range of topics to my English language learning students in Belarus and Russia - as long as I slow the playback speed down to 0.75 cause, um, you speak pretty quickly for them to follow. Anyway, thank you, Johnny for doing a brilliant job on gathering an array of facts, graphics to explain them, keeping people focused and informed at the end.

[midimusicforever]

A US president that nobody remembers. That sounds like a good guy!

[mrgopnik]

Other countries: „you are not the center of the world!“
Britain: „actually...“

[whrkygod]

2019: Britain is the center of the world
1921: Britain is the world

[BobGnarley.]

I actually know this one! Bear with me because there are a lot of interesting factors leading to the prime meridian.

Sailors used to sail by latitude only as you could only use the stars to determine latitude - this led to of the disaster of the Isles of Scilly (one of the greatest British naval distasters in history). After this disaster (which was known to be a direct result of sailing via Latitude only), Royalty created a competition with a large monetary prize for anybody who could create an accurate time keeping device.

There were already time keepers but they were typically poor which is unacceptable in terms of tracking your position on the globe - this competition saw sailors take various devices on massive voyages to test their accuracy in the salt water etc and returrn with proof of an accurate seaworthy time keeper.

John Harrison won this competition to create an accurate timekeeping device (for which he was apparently never fully paid) and ended up creating the modern watch as we know it.

And accurate watches at that. These "watches" were used in conjunction with an arbitrary point - the Greenwich "meridian" to determine Longitude and enabled sailors to travel without sounding and with precision never seen before. The fact that Britain is the center is due to the genius of our creations - without which travelling the world was much more about guess work. Pretty amazing history

It's less about Britain saying "we claim the center of the Earth!" and more about Britain saying "we invented the method to determine your longitude at all". Other countries could of course disagree and use their own system, which would lead to their own issues. They agreed to go along with our innovation because it made sense, was universal and was appropriately lined up with the worlds greatest naval center.

Definitely look into it more would make a great video! would also inform a ton of people about history looking at the comments. It saddens me a little to think this history is lost, most people who know are history buffs when I believe it's important enough to be common knowledge.