Enclaves, Exclaves, and Other Geographical Oddities

I'd like to visit Ceuta and Melilla someday.

Years ago, I actually read a book about the exclaves and enclaves of Europe.

I do think it was stupid that the U. S. didn't agree to an exception for Point Roberts to go to B. C.

Check out same along the Mississippi River, OP.

As the river's channel meandered and shifted, the states' boundaries often did not.

French Guiana being a part of France and the EU, the largest landmass outside of the European continent.

The borders between The Netherlands and Belgium are not so clear and easy to navigate. There are enclaves within enclaves in Baarle.

My favorite is Point Roberts, WA.

I love that there are two pieces of France right off of the coast of Newfoundland. The two islands are the leftovers of French rule in North America -- their inhabitants are all French citizens.

Kaliningrad Oblast. Belongs to Russia, but surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.

East of Andorra is a town called Llívia, which is an exclave of Spain, separated by a 1/2 mile corridor of France. In 2017, the Lliviencs voted overwhelmingly to split from Spain and become part of an independent Catalonia. Spain, however, declared that referendum illegal.

I've found the Delaware Wedge to be interesting. Sort of a no-man's-land between 3 states for a long time.

I want to live in an enclave. It sounds romantic.

Kaliningrad, mentioned by R7, was once called Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia. It's amazing how the name Prussia and the Prussians, who were once such a dominant force in European politics, have pretty much been erased from world maps and our spoken language. We still speak about the Bavarians, the Saxons, the Hessians, the Swabians, but rarely, the Prussians.

Junction 20 (near Dromad) of the A1/N1 motorway between Belfast and Dublin is interesting, and could become a huge pain in the ass someday. Assuming Google Maps didn't fuck up the GIS data, the road's northbound lanes pass through a ~1000 square foot triangle of the UK, and the northbound exit at J20 immediately enters UK territory.

I really hope Ireland has a bulletproof treaty pre-negotiated with the UK granting them perpetual border-free easement through that tiny triangular area, because otherwise, they're going to end up having to do some major expensive eminent-domain land acquisition and demolition to move the road 50 feet northeast.

The junction itself is kind of fucked up... you can't re-enter the road northbound at J20, and at the next junction to the north, you can only exit southbound and enter northbound, with ~3 miles of country road passing through both countries to get from one to the other. If they ever reintroduced full border control, one wrong exit from northbound N1 to L7902 could turn into a multi-hour delay to get back on the road (waiting in line to enter the UK from the exit, then waiting in another line to re-enter Ireland after turning right and driving 200 feet, then waiting in yet another line to re-enter the UK from R132 a mile north.

Truth be told, even with an open border for the past ~20+ years, it kind of blows my mind that the road situation along the UK-Irish border would be such a fucking mess. I mean, hell, in Miami alone, FDOT has literally bent over backwards and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the years doing its best to re-align roads and features (like curbs, ditches, drains, etc) to gradually eliminate things that are split between two adjacent cities, because it's learned the hard way that it's damn near IMPOSSIBLE to get two cities to agree or cooperate about ANYTHING, and both will almost always be dicks to each other just because they CAN be... refusing to spend a cent on anything they don't control 100%, while throwing permit roadblocks at the neighboring city for work done on even three square inches of their own holy land). If it's that hard to get adjacent squabbling cities that are both part of the same county and state in Florida to cooperate, I can only imagine the nightmares involved when you have two literal sovereign countries sharing right of way.

R12, I was looking at the area near Junction 20, and now I'm curious about the homes that straddle the dividing line/border between the UK and the EU. Can the residents pick which side they're on?

If they'd had any common sense, the UK and Ireland would have just negotiated a sensible sovereignty swap of comparably-sized adjacent triangular areas and neatly re-drawn that portion of the border. Ideally, doing it in a way that left Ireland with *just* enough room to fork the northbound exit ramp and shoehorn an alternate route (hugging the western edge of the northbound lanes, squeezed between the motorway and whomever's back yard has a fence 20 feet west of the motorway) directly to L7092 that remained entirely within Irish territory. That way, if the EU ever FORCED Ireland to "harden" its border there, it wouldn't make that whole area completely dysfunctional... people could still exit the motorway, then take the alternate exit ramp directly to L7092 without having to go through customs to enter the UK only to turn right and re-enter Ireland 30 seconds later.

[quote] I want to live in an enclave. It sounds romantic

We have scores of blue enclaves strewn across a sea of red.

Two Dakotas!

[quote] Two Dakotas!

I know of the one where Lauren Bacall lived and John Lennon died. Where’s the other?

Cabinda in Angola Cabinda, also spelled Kabinda, northern exclave of Angola, on the west (Atlantic) coast of Africa north of the Congo River estuary. It is bordered by the Republic of the Congo to the north and northeast and is separated from Angola by part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south and southeast. Its coastline extends for 56 miles (90 km), and its greatest width is 70 miles (113 km). With continued offshore oil discoveries, crude oil has become Cabinda’s dominant export. The production of timber, palm oil and kernels, cocoa, and coffee has declined since the rise of the local oil industry. The chief town, Cabinda, is an oil port on the right bank of the Bele (Lulondo) River.…

I had an oil well in Africa on the bank of the Lulondo River.

The South Sandwich Islands would like everyone to know that because of that M 8.1 earthquake, they would like to be known as the South Salad Islands.

Well, I learned some fascinating things last night.

* Apparently, like the British Constitution, there's no authoritative definition of the border between the UK and Republic of Ireland... just a literal crap-ton of deeds, court documents, semi-authoritative writings, and general tradition to determine the border's path. If the UK and Ireland ever had to literally agree to the path of a normal fortified border with well-defined crossing points, it could literally drag on for DECADES unless both countries literally tore up the original border settlement and started over.

* There are more paved border crossings between the UK and Ireland than there are along the length of the EU's entire eastern frontier with Russia, Belarus, etc. Literally EVERYONE is in total 100% agreement that the border between them can't be made "hard", and the best anyone can hope for is the situation like the one between neighboring states in the US (where transporting certain things across state lines is taxed or regulated... but really, there's almost nothing to physically stop someone from getting in their car, driving 5 miles across the border, and buying things like beer and cigarettes for half price, unless someone doing it gets pulled over for speeding and the cop discovers that he has WAY more than 1 gallon of hard alcohol or 200 cigarettes in his possession).

Put another way, as it stands today... if someone from Germany visits Dublin and buys a USB external battery pack for their phone from a Gypsy that was imported into Britain & smuggled into Ireland without filing the proper paperwork and paying the EU's "lifecycle fee"), neither Germany nor the EU can really do jack shit about it. The main difference between the EU's view of borders, and the view of open borders within the US, and between the UK and Ireland, is that Americans, the UK, and Ireland all figured out a century ago that sometimes, you just have to look the other way and say "fuck it, it's not worth the cost of trying to enforce every law 100%". In Europe, countries are still getting used to the idea, and aren't at all happy about it.

The Northwest Angle. That little piece of Minnesota attached to Canada, across Lake of the Woods. What's so special about this place that Minnesota wanted to keep it?

Brunei's Temburong District is separated from Brunei proper by Malaysia's Limbang Valley. Last year, the Chinese completed a bridge crossing over Brunei Bay, connecting the capital city to Temburong.

When I moved to Long Beach, California I was surprised and fascinated to find out that Signal Hill was an enclave. Before oil was discovered there, which became its primary industry, a movie studio filmed on location there and Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton made films there. It was once known as porcupine hill because of all the oils derricks sticking up on the landscape. When it was incorporated they were very progressive and had the first female mayor in the state.

All I know that if you want to get your mail out of Italy in a reasonable amount of time it’s best to wait and head to the enclave of Vatican City to mail it out. It makes all the difference.

Dubrovnik lies in a part of Croatia separated from the rest of the country by Neum, a short strip of coastline belonging to Bosnia. That's because when Dubrovnik was still an independent republic they gave Neum away to the Turks.

I somehow find it amusing that Australia’s Simpson Desert is named after a washing machine manufacturer.

R27, do you mean the Munga-Thirri Desert?

J’adore Ayers Rock!

Truly fascinating thread. xx

OP,

You can prattle about maps but your lack of any contextual interest shows the shallowness of your commitment to your "hobby." Of course all of East Timor, and Oecusse/Ambeno particularly, were historically hassled and worse by Indonesia. The region was invaded in the mid-1970s, as was the border with East Timor. It was only between 1999 and 2002 that Oecusse/Ambeno were firmly restored to East Timor, after much bloodshed and destruction, with the entire infrastructure ravaged. The East Timor war was in the news for years. The U.N. was heavily involved towards the end.

While you ogle cartographic peculiarities because of this line or that that catches your whimsy, it may be good for you, OP, to recall that people, cultures, societies and nations are, indeed, involved. I would have said nothing except for your appalling and half-interested "surprise" that Indonesia had not gobbled it up. Indonesia did, and thousands of lives were shredded and digested by that gobble. YOU brought it up.

R14

[quote] squeezed between the motorway and whomever's back yard has a fence 20 feet west of the motorway)

Oh Dear.

This is an interstate example, but two tiny parts of Delaware are located in NJ . . .