Ice ice baby. “In the late 1700s, Russia had been on a mission of imperial conquest for 600 years. One of the main reasons is because of ice, which makes Siberia inhospitable, so it was relatively easy for Russia to… Read More »How Ice Sculpted Canada
Just because something makes sense on paper, does not mean you should do it. “Until 2022, a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia was simply inconceivable. Then Putin did it. Things seem impossible until they aren’t—it only takes the right… Read More »Canada vs the 51st State
It is just a stupid war. “Although Iran is exposed to all these external threats given its location, it’s huge. With 1.7M km2 and a population of 90M people, it is 70% larger and has more population than Afghanistan and… Read More »Iran
Tough situation if there ever was one. “So Gazans are trapped.They are trapped by the religious goals of Hamas.They are trapped by their bitterness against Israel and the losses of the last century.They are trapped by a public opinion at… Read More »The Gaza Trap
No. “there was not a single Arab nation-state in the world before the 20th century. We have a hard time understanding this now, but nationalism didn’t really exist until the 1700s, it spread around the world in the 1800s, and… Read More »Do Arab States Support Palestine?
Won’t work in the long term.
Trade matters. “Now imagine that trade starts growing on a river. Naturally, you’re going to have bandits trying to steal your goods. This disrupts trade and makes everybody poorer. So the king pushes to enforce peace in their part of… Read More »Pax Mercatus
Travel times matter. “Levant was closer to Mesopotamia (mostly present-day Iraq) and Anatolia (mostly present-day Turkey) so Egypt could not hold that territory for long after empires emerged there. For example, the Achaemenid Empire (Persia) emerged close to Mesopotamia, conquered… Read More »How Transportation Technologies Shaped Empires
Your building would be considered a skyscraper a few decades ago. “Chicago’s Home Insurance Building is considered the first skyscraper in the world, completed in 1885 with elevators to reach its 12 floors. It was not the first building to… Read More »How Transportation Technologies Shape Cities
Some patterns emerge. “once sailing technologies developed, the sea had something special that none of the other lines had: It allowed to easily trade not just with cities connected to your roads or rivers, but with any city on the… Read More »Why Some Cities Thrive