How Countries Were INVENTED

A video about countries, maps and borders; where they came from and where they might be going in the future.

* Chapters*

0:00 Countries! Maps! Borders!
02:09 1. What is a Country?
09:27 2. The Slow Growth of the State
15:23 Surfshark VPN Spot
16:59 3. The Invention of Nations
24:52 4. A World Without Countries?

*Some Copy about the Video for the YouTube Algorithm*

In this month's video, we're exploring the origins of countries. What is a country? What was the first country? And how did the particular model of country which dominates in the present day, the nation-state, come to be so widely accepted as the organising principle for human politics and governance?

We're going to be taking a deep dive into the scholarship on states, nations and nationalism from the earliest states in Mesopotamia and Xin Dynasty China, through the emergence of the imagined community of the nation following the French Revolution and the American War of Independence during the 19th century and into the present day.

If you've enjoyed this video and would like to see more including my What The Theory? series in which I provide some snappy introductions to key theories in the humanities as well as video essays and more then do consider subscribing.

Thanks for watching!

#countries #maps #borders

[Marcin_Pawlik]

A Brit named Tom can't even film on a beach without being compared to another Brit named Tom. Truly, we live in a nation-state.

[kuschelirmel]

Borders are an imagined construct to keep everyone literally and figuratively "in their place".

For me, the realization of how dumb this whole concept is hit hardest at the start of Covid last year, when all over Europe borders closed that had never been much more than a line on a map. I live in Germany, next to the French border. It is completely normal to cross the Rhine for groceries or a restaurant visit or to cross the border on foot where it "devides" the northern Vosges from the Palatinate forest. And suddenly, you couldn't. You could enjoy the view when standing on the edge of the Black Forest, where on a clear day France looks like you could jump over, but you knew you were not allowed to go there unless you had an exceptional reason to do so (same for the French the other way round of course). These reasons included caring for the elderly and going for work (with the addition of the border crossing now taking 2 hours instead of 2 minutes due to the border controls) and to a large extent what you were allowed or not allowed to do was super fuzzy and complicated. For example (as far as I remember) shared child custody of a couple one living on each side of the Rhine I think was fine, but not for the kid to see the grandparents or attend sports practice, .... So if you take away Europe / Schengen (though to be clear this has always been a border with little to know border control even before Schengen) then who exactly decides what you are allowed to do? Sure, the grandparents and the sports practice were forbidden mostly due to the pandemic in that case, but what if the reason for closing the border was something else?

[jackcavanagh]

Thank you for explaining this! I've heard from people before that the concept of countries as we know it has only been a recent invention, but nobody has ever bothered to explain what they meant until now. Very informative.

[maevemonroe]

Animations are infinity times better than the slightly higher budget versions involving speedboats. No one will convince me otherwise.

[chrilin]

In early Scandinavia some churches still have graffiti in runes...so despite having to go to church, mandated x amounts of times annually depending on such things as hours/days of travel required to arrive, so doubt some of them understood too much of the preaching (but there were illustrations). Later with protestantism bringing the translation/sermon in native languages....sure but from then on all the illustrations n fancy decor also was removed. My grandparents still had a "bomärke" that was used to signify their land/family. This could be used to sign documents, was also engraved into wooden shoe makers moulds etc.The early church especially in the previously mostly unsettled areas that the new nation builders wanted...was maiy a means of control. They registered the population, kept track of births, marriages n deaths. And collected money off course.

[jeyaramsathees]

In past identity was mostly language. Then if a major group factions it’ll become slangs and so on, just pointing on to China and some other doesn’t mean anything,

[raresmircea]

Quality content, great takes on interesting subjects 🤘

[ves]

I love your work and I’m glad you’re dispelling nationalist views. Keep up the good work, honestly!

[patrocluster]

Tom Nicholas and Tom Scott have reached a singularity

[fotnite_]

Strange how people often assume that the way things are right now is how they always have been. Even things we view as fundamental like the nation-state is only a modern invention; I wonder how long until the internet is treated similarly

[newsjunkie]

Funny that you released this on the "national" holiday of Quebec.

[appleslover]

Africa as a case study is a perfect example for this discussion.
Because African borders were not drawn based on religion, ethnicity, language etc.and not even by Africans themselves so It's hard for Africans to feel the sense of national identity like English or Irish people do.
But a poll found that there's was a huge increase in identification with the country as a whole in all African countries After major sports events, especially FİFA world cup.

[themroc]

5:02 as a french and argentinian double national who has spent many holidays in my teenage years in Madagascar when my mother used work for a UN agency over there this felt oddly personal.

[TheGoblinoid]

Free trade for the rich, nationalism for the poor. Accurate.

[cacapichi]

I am from Chile, we are on the verge of becoming a plurinational state over here. Countries become even more weird when states are plurinational. It’s like a recognition that we are a collection of nations that became a country due to accidents of history (I.e. war, conquest, colonialism, migrations, random bureucratic decisions). And that our different nations now share a state even if we were even at war before (and we still kind of are because of the legacies of colonialism and white supremacy ). It’s like a legal recognition and acceptance by the state of how random its existence is.

[HelloFutureMe]

This was a really fascinating look! Thanks for the work you do.

[devinfaux]

Uh-oh, Tom's gonna get himself cancelled for bad French impressions again!

[Itharl]

Started out thinking this was going to be a standard history lesson video, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it threaded a bunch of different ideas and concepts together (arguably something that a good history lesson should do anyway, but I guess I'm just used to a boring recitation of facts). Really enjoyed this and learned a lot!

[couchingzone]

I'm asking myself, why people came to England, saw it and said: "Hey, it's rainy and dull. What a great place, let's stay here"

[Pyro-Moloch]

I'm a Lezgi (yes, I know, you've never heard of us), it's a Dagestani ethnicity, but I was born in northern 'Azerbaijan', which is also our historical homeland, but I grew up in Russia with a Russian citizenship. Every time I introduce myself to people, I can't say "I'm Russian" because they assume Russian ethnicity, I can't say Azerbaijani for the same reason, and I can't say Dagestani, because they assume I'm from what's known as the Republic of Dagestan, which is a Russian province, but no, I've never really been there for a substantial amount of time. So yeah, people who look at the world exclusively in terms of nationalities piss me off. And if you wonder what do I say when people ask me where I'm from, I reply with: "it's complicated".