Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Errors on Globes and Maps 2: Somalia and Somaliland

Continuing on yesterday's theme of errors on maps, Somalia.

The error on the map of Somalia is based on an internal civil war. Normally, this would be a temporary item, not worth redrawing maps. But the basic outline and self governing political demarcations have now been around for three plus decades and it might be time to update the maps.

Somalia lies here on current maps.

In reality, a series of civil wars has blistered the country since the late 1990s. Two areas, Somaliland and Puntland, have obtained a functioning independence.  Of the two, Somaliland has declared independence and functioned as a separate country fro at least three decades.

It might be helpful here to look at colonization, in which much of this has its roots.  There were 3 colonial powers in Somalia: France, Britain and Italy. After WWII, Italian Somalia was given to Britain as a protectorate (something they did with the Axis' old colonies) and Britain gave a united Somalia independence.  In reality British Somalia and Italian Somalia had very little in common, different histories, didn't variants of Islam and differences in racial make up of Arabic versus African.


What held Somalia - as a singular country - together, for a long time was the cold war, in which Russia and America traded off as the backer of Somalia versus Ethiopia. At the end of the cold war Ethiopia broke into 2 parts (Eritrea and Ethiopia) - and Somalia is now doing the same

Major powers (like the United States and China) already treat Somaliland like and independent country with treaties and actions. Primarily because Somaliland support is key to stopping the pirate activities on the Horn of Africa. At some point, the maps will reflect this reality.