Africa, known as Afrika, has a total area of about 30.2 million square kilometers, accounting for about one-fifth of the Earth's total land area. There are many African countries with many peculiar borders.
For example, the border line between Egypt and Libya and Sudan is basically a straight line. The demarcation of Egypt's borders stemmed from British colonial rule. Historically, after the British controlled Egypt, in order to save trouble, they directly delimited Egypt's borders according to the latitude and longitude lines on the map.
In addition, Africa also has a four-country border, which is located in southern Africa and refers to the border zone of Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. From the map, the four countries appear to be next to each other, and there is a four-nation junction.
But in fact, this point does not exist, in fact, only Zambia, Botswana and other three countries are adjacent to each other, while Namibia and Zimbabwe are not neighbors, although the two countries are only 150 meters apart, but separated by Zambia and Botswana, and are not adjacent. So what's going on here? Namibia is only 150 meters from Zimbabwe, so why not become a neighboring country?
This peculiar border line is also related to Britain, but it was not drawn by Britain alone, but the product of a compromise between Britain and Germany. Britain was once the world's largest colonial empire, and at its peak, Britain controlled 34 million square kilometers of land worldwide, known as the empire that never sets.
Germany was not unified until 1871, when Germany began to colonize the outside world, and most of the world had already been partitioned.
For example, in Africa at that time, Britain had controlled a large area of land from Egypt to Uganda and Kenya, from South Africa to Zambia and Malawi, almost opening up communication lines between the north and south of Africa. Therefore, at that time, the British proposed the Cairo Cape Town Plan, which was to open the land route from Egypt to South Africa, but the rise of Germany broke this British plan.
After German reunification in 1871, German East Africa and German Southwest Africa and other colonies were established in Africa. German East Africa was now Tanzania and other places, and German Southwest Africa was now Namibia.
The establishment of the German East African colony hindered the north-south connection of the British colonies. In addition, after the rise of Germany, it also tried to open up land routes between German East Africa and German Southwest Africa. As a result, Germany and Britain have long been at odds.
In order to ease the contradictions between the European powers, in 1884, German Prime Minister Bismarck presided over the Berlin Conference to divide Africa, the German capital Berlin. At the Berlin Conference, Britain and Germany compromised with Germany trading more than 20 islands in German East Africa for British-controlled land along the Zambezi River.
This land acquired by Germany is now a narrow territory in northeastern Namibia. As you can see from the map, the northeastern part of Namibia is a long and narrow country that extends eastward, eventually bordering the Zambezi River.
The Zambezi is the largest river in southern Africa, and before the change of land between Britain and Germany, the Zambezi River flowed through German East Africa, but did not flow through Namibia. Knowing that it could not seize the British colonies, Germany decided to use the Zambezi River to open up waterways between German East Africa and German Southwest Africa.
However, the British were also very clever and would not completely give the Zambezi River to Germany, so the dividing line between the British and German colonies was the middle line of the Zambezi River. And Britain did not keep Namibia and Zimbabwe next to each other. Because Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana were all British colonies, if Namibia and Zimbabwe were to be next to each other, they would separate Zambia and Botswana under their control. The United Kingdom therefore maintains a border of about 150 metres for Zambia and Botswana. Although this boundary line is located in the middle of the river, it can also be connected by building bridges. In this way, Namibia and Zimbabwe, although close together, did not become neighbors.