@@wenterinfaer1656 I'm assuming it's a joke about how when the colonial powers (France, UK etc) withdraw from other countries throughout the 20th century, they often divided up territory with nice neat straight lines on a map. Which is why half the the world looks the way it does. The problem is that much of the time it was fairly arbitrary. Nothing to do with geography or cultures etc. So has create lots of issues since.
It kind of was. Because of him France lost most of their colonial holdings, which made the Bourbons really keen on acquiring land in Africa to make themselves feel better.
I love how History Matters has basically revealed every important global event or situation today can, within a few degrees of separation, be tied to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Fun Fact: The Gambia has a larger military than some NATO countries like Montenegro, Iceland and Luxembourg with over 4,000 Gambian troops, sailors and air men.
My late grandad always told me the borders were decided by sailing a boat up the river, firing cannons and marking where they landed. Great story but very unlikely to be true!
Quite possibly true, just not as described. You already know what range your cannons have, so there's no need to fire them. Unless you're into potentially killing people and destroying property and definitely wasting ammo.
To be fair France also takes any opportunity to annoy Britain as well. That was mostly what their involvement in American Revolutionary War was all about.
I doubt it's a modern problem they're both part of ECOWAS, Which is a regional more functional version of the AfrUnion (like East AfrUnion) and they have free travel
Great video! In terms of the theme of “why does X exist”, a video on San Marino, a teeny tiny European microstate located entirely within Italy and which somehow was never absorbed into Italy during its unification would be quite interesting.
Hello there, Portuguese historian here! I know you did it for brevity and hilarity's sake, but Portugal was not conquered by Spain nor did it stop existing; it was simply ruled by the same monarch as the rest of Spain, whilst mainting its autonomy.
Thanks for clarifying the fact that the joining of the crowns was not a "conquest." It took only three Spanish Philips as king before the Portuguese decided to unjoin the crowns and go their own way.
To be even more precise, Spain didn't even exist when the Iberian Union took place: the "Spanish Empire" was more like the Habsburg Empire, since Castile, Aragon, Flanders, Milan, etc shared the same king, but they didn't form an unified state.
Literally the same as the rest of Spain, "Spain" was a concept not a country, Aragon was also separate from Léon & Castile during this period and Navarre was also kind of separate. They simply shared the same monarch, Spain didn't actually become a country until the Bourbon reforms.
@@XcUtiOn96 Mentira. España existió en el momento de la unificación de las dos coronas y no era el "imperio habsburgo" porque estaba dirigido DESDE España por Habsburgo ESPAÑOL. Como siempre contando mentiras ustedes para descreditar a España, ya aburren. Incluso con Carlos I y su unificación del Imperio Germánico y el Hispano, Carlos I se identificaba plenamente como Hispano y aun asi las dos partes tenían autonomia tal como España y Portugal en su momento. Ya luego de la trágica división, ahi si que fue el imperio Habsburgo austriaco otra vez.
France: *being beaten badly by Germany, the capital is being encircled and starved to death + a revolution breaks out* England: So France, about Gambia I suggest...
I would love it if you'd do a whole series on Africa, like you've done with Europe. I've found your other videos to be not just informative, but tons of fun, and I don't know much about Africa. Seems like a win/win!
tbf there are some minor cultural and major linguistic differences between the 2 of us. My family for example is pretty much just soninke, many being able to speak mandinka. I do not think even a tenth of the senegalese population speaks a mande language natively or as a 2nd language. Then again these differences exist within and outside our borders. The vast majority of senegal for example is wolof, just like how there are many wolofs in gambia. Same with the southern bit of senegal, mali and like half of guinea have mande speakers. In conclusion: I personally believe there is neither a strong reason to why gambia should exist, nor to cease to exist
@@trollinape2697 Yeah. To outsiders, joining gambia with senegal looks like it makes sense because of geography. But if the borders in our region would change based on language or ethnicity, it would make more sense to take most of gambia, northeastern guinea bissau, and southern senegal and join them with mali, than to join gambia with senegal. For the reasons you mention. Then other mande areas like eastern guinea and northwestern ivory coast could join the new mande country too. Our tribe and its dialects are scattered across many countries right now.
Please do a video on the following subjects: 1. Why did the Revolutions of 1848 fail in Spain and the German states? 2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
@@theshlauf Thought left side was from the days of horse riding and jousting, where they'd ride from the left to attack? Similar reasons as to why shirts open a certain way. Thought that was due to right handed people being able to reach into their shirts to draw guns.
I would imagine it's because of the way nationalism and liberalism took route, not sure about Spain, but Germany was fractured into a bunch of states, same as Italy, so the revolutionary ideas were less liberalism democratic, and more nationalistic. Thus both Italy and Germany were dominated by more right wing politics until the cold war. You could even think of fascism as just the natural conclusion from the nationalism that formed Germany and Italy respectively after their government's were replaced briefly with more democratic ones after WW1 until reverting back to nationalism. Same with Japan too, as a disunited nation, nationalism dominated their politics, instead of liberalism. As for Spain, who knows why Spain does anything really. They did have quite a bit of nationalistic fever after Napoleon essentially invaded to install a puppet. So maybe that's why they were split between left wing and right wing politics.
Kelly Moneymaker won't budge on the free trade, so he'll have to work out a special economic zone with Senegal which eventually could lead to a separatist movement resulting in a war of independence led by Spinning Three Plates.
it's incredible how much information you're able to clearly communicate in only a few minutes. i've seen a video on this same topic that's over 10 minutes long, and it still didn't cover all of the same historical factors you mentioned
My wife asked me what I was going do tonight. I told her I had to figure out why Gambia exists. She looks me dead in the eye so confused and asks why I’m doing that. Obviously, because history matters.
The Gambia remains an independent nation because James Bissonette and Kelly Moneymaker teamed up to fully fund the country's war effort and bolster its self-defense. 😌 Fair play, all! 😎👍🏻
Every time I see a video like this, it reminds me of what an insanely impressive achievement it was for Bismarck to unite (almost) all of the Germanic world
Fun fact, Portugal was never conquered by Spain! For a while the rightful king of Spain was also the rightful king of Portugal. He was the king of both nations but Portugal was not conquered!
@@cloudynguyen6527 Well the difference is that the spanish king had to rule Portugal as a kingdom separate from Spain, being restricted by many laws and having to appoint portuguese to many governing places. The first spanish king of Portugal actually respected the treaties, keeping both countries separate, but the 2 next kings tried to integrate Portugal into Spain which led to resistance in Portugal culminating in a war won by the Portuguese
@@souoriomondego Technically the "Spanish king" wasn't really the king of Spain either. He was the king of Castille and totally coincidentally also the king of Aragon.
yes it was, the king of portugal died invading morocco and since the spanish king had a legitimate claim to the throne he sent an army under the duke of alba which won the battle of Alcántara and other minor skirmishes securing the throne for the king of Spain. It may not have been a bloody destructive invasion and spain gave portugal a great deal of autonomy but if it weren't for the spanish sending an army Portugal would likely have remained independent. It's funny that this is so not well known in both countries today and instead it is seen as a rather voluntary union, in spain because they feel better saying portugal wanted to integrate with them and in Portugal because they feel better saying their much bigger neighbour never managed to invade them.
Between the death of D. Sebastião in 1578 and the reign of Philip II of Spain (and I of Portugal), 1580, we had King D. Henrique who...was a Cardinal and therefore could not marry. When he died, the 2 grandchildren of D. Manuel I faced each other: D.António Prior do Crato (supported by the people) and D. Filipe II of Spain (supported by the Portuguese clergy and nobility). Therefore, we did not have a conquest but rather a battle between factions of legitimate successors to the throne. In fact, Portugal was never part of Spain, it was never annexed. What happened was a personal union in which a king reigned over two different countries
Loved this video! feel like we never see stories about Africa; would love to see a video on why the French did not colonize any parts of Southern Africa (beyond Madagascar) or how South Africa gained control over German Southwest Africa following WWI
The best part of your channel is listening to the very end of your patron list. Boogely-woogely, Calling Dr. Curly, Dr. Larry & Dr. Moe, YOU CRACK ME UP!!!!😂😂
It's interesting that they didn't merge after independence, I'm kinda surprised a country that consists mostly of just the river territory has the power to stay unentangled of it's much larger neighbor.
Man I havent seen History Matter videos for almost a year (Thanks youtube Algoritm for not putting him on my feed until now!). Great to see Jamez Bizanette still being the loyal supported after all this time.
One of the most fascinating features of the continuum of English accents is the additional rhoticity between an terminal and initial vowel. “Why does the Gambia exist?” Becomes “why does the Gambierexist?”
How else would you say it and still sound natural? Say the two words connected and you make a strange diphthong; make a gap between them and it sounds a bit stilted.
@@rosiefay7283 honestly as an American English speaker I elide (or the vowel equivalent) the sounds, so it comes out like “why does the Gam byexist” but if I were speaking to camera I would put a quarter second pause between them to give myself time to enunciate clearly like “why does the Gambia__exist?”
@@rosiefay7283 some languages make big pauses between words (for example Slavic languages that also devoice final consonants so my students pronounce "dog" and "dock" identically) and others connect them a lot (English and French would be in that camp). There are different strategies how to do this and actually English in many dialects started to put bigger gaps between words using glottal stops which is called "hard attack".
Could you posibly cite your sources in your videos? It'd make things easier when diving in a little deeper. With that said, It's obiously extra work, wich I don't really espect you to do as you put out such amazing content so often.
This was one I was excited to see! The Gambia is definitely one of the more obscure yet interesting countries to note on modern maps lol. Thank you. God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
Basically because the country is named after a river, and names of rivers require the definite article in English. The Thames, the Mississippi, the Gambia. The uppercase T is because the article is a legitimate part of the name, like in The Hague.
@@HTS123RKFrance only owned 90% of it, 10% belonged to Nigeria before it joined the country. Officially Cameroon is bilingual today, though the Francophones try to oppress the usage of English. Both areas were mandates taken from Germany.
@@HTS123RK actually they didn’t. The German’s owned Cameroon and the French got most of it after WW1, but the British got three portions of German Cameroon. Upon “independence”, all three British Cameroons were given the option of either A)Joining Nigeria, or B)Joining the now French portion of the former German colony of Cameroon. Anyway, the two northern British Cameroons were majority Muslim and voted to join Nigeria, while the southern most British Cameroon was majority Christian and voted to join the now country of Cameroon. There’s actually an independence movement for the southern formally British Cameroon to to leave the country of Cameroon, look up “Ambazonia” if your interested in learning more.
Portugal didn't ceased to exists. There was a throne vacancy that was claimed by the King of Spain, therefore uniting both Kingdoms for what was called the "Iberian Union" That "union" caused much ruckus around the globe since Spain was an enemy of it's former colony, The Netherlands, and Portugal was an ally.
Basically, there was just nothing really to be gained by joining Senegal in the eyes of the ruling class. They knew they would be marginalized in the confederation so the aristocracy of the Gambia ultimately turned it down, against popular support.
Nope it wasn't popularly supported. One of the main stumbling blocks was the use of CFA. The Gambian politicians also thought that they would be marginalized.
i was gonna say "hey cut them some slack, at least they didn't bring out the ruler this time" but... no, they did bring out the ruler. cut them no slack
So in short, British colonialism created two separate competing economic interests within Senegal and the Gambia and so reunification was against their mutual interest.
@@stephmod7434 There was the separate nationalities of each colonizer, but that's the only true difference. It's the same reason nations like Timor are still divided.
If the Gambia didn't exist a story with a modern country built almost entirely around a river of the same name would be mocked as unrealistic.
Like Egypt, if we ignore the Nile's name for a second
@@yochaiwyss3843 Ancient Egypt was but modern Egypt is a proper British rectangle
@@ssl3546what's British rectangle?
@@wenterinfaer1656 it refers to the way the British drew the borders of their former colonies
@@wenterinfaer1656
I'm assuming it's a joke about how when the colonial powers (France, UK etc) withdraw from other countries throughout the 20th century, they often divided up territory with nice neat straight lines on a map. Which is why half the the world looks the way it does.
The problem is that much of the time it was fairly arbitrary. Nothing to do with geography or cultures etc. So has create lots of issues since.
As a Gambian, I ask myself this very same question every single day.
Can you see the river from your backyard?
In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of unification with Senegal?
Lmfao
@@barakatohe can see Russia from his backyard
Do you want the countries to be unified?
If it’s Napoleons fault, I’m going to lose it
Beat me to it
It kind of was. Because of him France lost most of their colonial holdings, which made the Bourbons really keen on acquiring land in Africa to make themselves feel better.
You’d think so but fun fact: No.
Kinda, does Napoleon III getting baited by prussia count?
But it was the fault of one Napoleon, not many Napoleons.
The most unbelievable part of this video was that anyone would think that 19th century Britain would give support to France
Unless Russia was involved... 😜
From 1815 to 1914, the UK would have rather give up their queen and empire than support or even show support to the cursed froggies 🐸.
They would if it would piss off the Germans.
@@rashakor they had done it once doesn't mean they won't do it again
The Gambians defeated the British in 1831 but the French helped them come back in 1832.
“It follows the river of Gambia and not much else”
The name would be too unwieldy if it followed other rivers too
"The Gambia and The Gambia accesories", or "The Gambia and friends" for short
"The Gambia and Company"
The Gambiand
The Gambian Basin and the Kitchen Sink?
Gambia: Into the Gambi-verse
I love how History Matters has basically revealed every important global event or situation today can, within a few degrees of separation, be tied to Napoleon Bonaparte.
This time it was actually Napoleon III.
@@-haclong2366 If only there was some way to tie him to the other Napoleon 😐
@@pyrex-fission They are both French.
It's either the fault of the British or the French or both
Corsica
Fun Fact: The Gambia has a larger military than some NATO countries like Montenegro, Iceland and Luxembourg with over 4,000 Gambian troops, sailors and air men.
If I recall some of their generals have had leadership roles in the UN peacekeeping forces as well
Fun fact: Luxembourg is a little sh*t stain on the a*s of Belgium
Some nations like Iceland have no military, so basically the US and European nations fight in their behalf.
montenergin military is just bed section in IKEA
All 3 of those countries also have exactly 0 tanks and fighter jets. I'm surprised America doesn't pressure them into buying Abrams or F-16s.
My late grandad always told me the borders were decided by sailing a boat up the river, firing cannons and marking where they landed. Great story but very unlikely to be true!
It makes much more sense than the true history of many borders.
Alot of history is settled this way so while not true, it feels realistic.
I doubt that firing a cannon makes it land somewhere... 🤔😅
Sailing up rivers and firing guns did become quiet popular for awhile there.
Quite possibly true, just not as described. You already know what range your cannons have, so there's no need to fire them. Unless you're into potentially killing people and destroying property and definitely wasting ammo.
0:50 Nice mention of the Courlandian attempt to colonize The Gambia. Your attention to dettails is great as always
As in Latvia, Courland?
@@Yora21yes
Bro did a whole video about the Latvia (Courlandian) Colonial Empire. He’s a chad he is.
@@streamlinedengine😁
@@streamlinedengineit was the vassal of the Polish Commonwealth!
Short answer:Senegal was french, Gambia was british
U.S and Canada: We are both French and British
He was a French, she was a brit. Can i make it anymore obvious?~~
@@BrancovdBoomen
Eu referi a intendência.
uff that never works out. always leads to a linguistic berlin wall around any french part.
That doesn't answer anything
There is no greater reason to do something than to annoy France
To be fair France also takes any opportunity to annoy Britain as well. That was mostly what their involvement in American Revolutionary War was all about.
@@brandonlyon730the great irony of that is America came back to tower over both France and Britain and replace their role as the leading powers lol
@@FlameRiflex What's America? Never heard of it.
We love being annoyed because it means someone cares about us. 🥲❤
So can that be my excuse to have a flat muffin vs an omelet tomorrow too?
"It seemed like the only reason for keeping The Gambia would be to annoy France"
well that sounds like a perfectly good reason for keeping it to me!
Gambia exists to make Senegalese commutes more interesting
I doubt it's a modern problem they're both part of ECOWAS, Which is a regional more functional version of the AfrUnion (like East AfrUnion) and they have free travel
@@franciscoacevedo3036 there are still border check points there with long lineups
GPS: "Current route: 2 hours to destination. Alternative: 15 hours slower to avoid other countries en route"
@@franciscoacevedo3036 The Gambia exists to give the ECOWAS military intervention someone to practice on
Great video! In terms of the theme of “why does X exist”, a video on San Marino, a teeny tiny European microstate located entirely within Italy and which somehow was never absorbed into Italy during its unification would be quite interesting.
Check out his 10 minute video about the unification of Italy ;+)
He covered that in the 10 minute history video on Italy's unification
Yeah I think he has a 10 minute video on Italy? why is nobody talking about this
I love how it's name is The Gambia instead of just Gambia, because it isn't so much a country as an independent river.
They don't want to get mistaken for just being _a gambia._
The Gambia sounds like the final boss.
Putting The in front of your countries name makes it more badass.
Petition to change Chad's name to The Chad
@@ChaffyExpert 💯🤣
I've read somewhere that THE was officially added because their mail kept getting sent to Zambia
It's nice to have a video about history outside of europe every now and then, great work
If it's not europe, it's european colonies
@@jwnomad everywhere was a european colony..
@@fabvz5436 everwhere was an african colony first
Hello there, Portuguese historian here! I know you did it for brevity and hilarity's sake, but Portugal was not conquered by Spain nor did it stop existing; it was simply ruled by the same monarch as the rest of Spain, whilst mainting its autonomy.
¡Exactamente! ¡Gracias por decir LA VERDAD! .... no como OTROS que nos han mantenido divididos por 1000 años. Unión NO significa totalitarismo.
Thanks for clarifying the fact that the joining of the crowns was not a "conquest." It took only three Spanish Philips as king before the Portuguese decided to unjoin the crowns and go their own way.
To be even more precise, Spain didn't even exist when the Iberian Union took place: the "Spanish Empire" was more like the Habsburg Empire, since Castile, Aragon, Flanders, Milan, etc shared the same king, but they didn't form an unified state.
Literally the same as the rest of Spain, "Spain" was a concept not a country, Aragon was also separate from Léon & Castile during this period and Navarre was also kind of separate. They simply shared the same monarch, Spain didn't actually become a country until the Bourbon reforms.
@@XcUtiOn96 Mentira. España existió en el momento de la unificación de las dos coronas y no era el "imperio habsburgo" porque estaba dirigido DESDE España por Habsburgo ESPAÑOL. Como siempre contando mentiras ustedes para descreditar a España, ya aburren. Incluso con Carlos I y su unificación del Imperio Germánico y el Hispano, Carlos I se identificaba plenamente como Hispano y aun asi las dos partes tenían autonomia tal como España y Portugal en su momento. Ya luego de la trágica división, ahi si que fue el imperio Habsburgo austriaco otra vez.
France: *being beaten badly by Germany, the capital is being encircled and starved to death + a revolution breaks out*
England: So France, about Gambia I suggest...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Apparently the borders between the gambia and senegal were decided by someone shooting cannons out of a ship down the river
The best way to draw boarders I believe
@@treatyofwindsor when Europeans do gunship diplomacy
It was UK was it?
@@nikel- yh
Turns out a very good way of drawing borders is "how far away can I shoot you"
I would love it if you'd do a whole series on Africa, like you've done with Europe. I've found your other videos to be not just informative, but tons of fun, and I don't know much about Africa. Seems like a win/win!
I'm honestly shocked that "annoying France" wasnt seen as a legitimate reason for keeping the territory by the British.
I'm sure it WAS....
They just couldn't use it as an OFFICIAL legitimate reason.^^
See also France and 'annoying Britain'.
That's been English and British foreign policy for the last 1,000 years.
This man does not miss. Every video he makes answers the burning questions I never knew I needed answers to.
I'm a Gambian and I ask myself this everyday
tbf there are some minor cultural and major linguistic differences between the 2 of us. My family for example is pretty much just soninke, many being able to speak mandinka. I do not think even a tenth of the senegalese population speaks a mande language natively or as a 2nd language. Then again these differences exist within and outside our borders. The vast majority of senegal for example is wolof, just like how there are many wolofs in gambia. Same with the southern bit of senegal, mali and like half of guinea have mande speakers. In conclusion: I personally believe there is neither a strong reason to why gambia should exist, nor to cease to exist
@@trollinape2697 Yeah. To outsiders, joining gambia with senegal looks like it makes sense because of geography. But if the borders in our region would change based on language or ethnicity, it would make more sense to take most of gambia, northeastern guinea bissau, and southern senegal and join them with mali, than to join gambia with senegal. For the reasons you mention. Then other mande areas like eastern guinea and northwestern ivory coast could join the new mande country too. Our tribe and its dialects are scattered across many countries right now.
Please do a video on the following subjects:
1. Why did the Revolutions of 1848 fail in Spain and the German states?
2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
2. Left side because Rome. Right side because Napoleon.
1: Because we respect our faith unlike OTHERS.
@@theshlaufalways knew British listened to the better empire
@@theshlauf Thought left side was from the days of horse riding and jousting, where they'd ride from the left to attack?
Similar reasons as to why shirts open a certain way. Thought that was due to right handed people being able to reach into their shirts to draw guns.
I would imagine it's because of the way nationalism and liberalism took route, not sure about Spain, but Germany was fractured into a bunch of states, same as Italy, so the revolutionary ideas were less liberalism democratic, and more nationalistic.
Thus both Italy and Germany were dominated by more right wing politics until the cold war. You could even think of fascism as just the natural conclusion from the nationalism that formed Germany and Italy respectively after their government's were replaced briefly with more democratic ones after WW1 until reverting back to nationalism.
Same with Japan too, as a disunited nation, nationalism dominated their politics, instead of liberalism.
As for Spain, who knows why Spain does anything really.
They did have quite a bit of nationalistic fever after Napoleon essentially invaded to install a puppet. So maybe that's why they were split between left wing and right wing politics.
Nice, more frequent uploads!
Im sure James Bisonette could unite Gambia and Senegal once and for all!
maybe, but Kelly Moneymaker can just bribe everyone
Kelly Moneymaker won't budge on the free trade, so he'll have to work out a special economic zone with Senegal which eventually could lead to a separatist movement resulting in a war of independence led by Spinning Three Plates.
@@WaterShowsProdBoogly Woogly could broker a deal between them
it's incredible how much information you're able to clearly communicate in only a few minutes. i've seen a video on this same topic that's over 10 minutes long, and it still didn't cover all of the same historical factors you mentioned
My wife asked me what I was going do tonight. I told her I had to figure out why Gambia exists. She looks me dead in the eye so confused and asks why I’m doing that. Obviously, because history matters.
To annoy the French...
“The only reason to keep The Gambia would be to annoy France”. Sounds like a good reason to me.
Hooray, the “Why does Country Exist” series is back! 🎉
The Gambia remains an independent nation because James Bissonette and Kelly Moneymaker teamed up to fully fund the country's war effort and bolster its self-defense. 😌 Fair play, all! 😎👍🏻
The 1950s have called, they want their joke back.
@@oenrn You would know, Boomer. 🙄
I was a teacher there for seven week. It's an interesting country and the people are very laid back. Recommended.
Yo this new upload speed is amazing!
Senegal: Let's merge into one country
The Gambia: Yeah that's not gonna work for me, love.
Every time I see a video like this, it reminds me of what an insanely impressive achievement it was for Bismarck to unite (almost) all of the Germanic world
Fun fact, Portugal was never conquered by Spain! For a while the rightful king of Spain was also the rightful king of Portugal. He was the king of both nations but Portugal was not conquered!
Still feel like being conquered to me
@@cloudynguyen6527 Well the difference is that the spanish king had to rule Portugal as a kingdom separate from Spain, being restricted by many laws and having to appoint portuguese to many governing places. The first spanish king of Portugal actually respected the treaties, keeping both countries separate, but the 2 next kings tried to integrate Portugal into Spain which led to resistance in Portugal culminating in a war won by the Portuguese
@@souoriomondego Technically the "Spanish king" wasn't really the king of Spain either. He was the king of Castille and totally coincidentally also the king of Aragon.
yes it was, the king of portugal died invading morocco and since the spanish king had a legitimate claim to the throne he sent an army under the duke of alba which won the battle of Alcántara and other minor skirmishes securing the throne for the king of Spain. It may not have been a bloody destructive invasion and spain gave portugal a great deal of autonomy but if it weren't for the spanish sending an army Portugal would likely have remained independent. It's funny that this is so not well known in both countries today and instead it is seen as a rather voluntary union, in spain because they feel better saying portugal wanted to integrate with them and in Portugal because they feel better saying their much bigger neighbour never managed to invade them.
Between the death of D. Sebastião in 1578 and the reign of Philip II of Spain (and I of Portugal), 1580, we had King D. Henrique who...was a Cardinal and therefore could not marry. When he died, the 2 grandchildren of D. Manuel I faced each other: D.António Prior do Crato (supported by the people) and D. Filipe II of Spain (supported by the Portuguese clergy and nobility). Therefore, we did not have a conquest but rather a battle between factions of legitimate successors to the throne. In fact, Portugal was never part of Spain, it was never annexed. What happened was a personal union in which a king reigned over two different countries
The fact that "keeping it would annoy France." wasn't reason enough for the Brits to hold onto it is somewhat of a surprise.
Loved this video! feel like we never see stories about Africa; would love to see a video on why the French did not colonize any parts of Southern Africa (beyond Madagascar) or how South Africa gained control over German Southwest Africa following WWI
I believe it had something to do with Cecil B. Rhodes' dream of an empire that stretched from Cape Town to Cairo.
Because James Bissonnette loved swimming in the river so much, he decided to make it his personal property all to himself
i think i speak for all us viewers when i say please bring back the ten minute history series
No, these short ones are fine.
I simply love this channel
The best part of your channel is listening to the very end of your patron list. Boogely-woogely, Calling Dr. Curly, Dr. Larry & Dr. Moe, YOU CRACK ME UP!!!!😂😂
I'm surprised "to annoy France" wasn't a good enough reason
James Bisonnet is probably the reason the Gambia exist
The rivalry between James Bisonnet and Kelly the Moneymayker over Africa really shaped the continent
Nope
@@jamesbissonette8002🗿
@@thebanana4263 NB that probably isn't the real JB
@@Steeyuv I know. The names are spelled differently
"The only reason to keep it would be to annoy the French"
Yes, that sounds like a decent enough reason.
TL;DW: The Gambia was colonized by James Bissonette whereas Senegal was colonized by Kenny Moneymaker.
Dang 2 videos in a week? I hope u manage to keep this up so I can keep watching these great videos
It's interesting that they didn't merge after independence, I'm kinda surprised a country that consists mostly of just the river territory has the power to stay unentangled of it's much larger neighbor.
This is one of my favourite UA-cam channels!
This channel has turned me into the guy from Ancient Aliens but instead of aliens it's Napoleon
I’ve been waiting for this one since I found the channel
Portugal was not conquered by Spain, we were under a crown union (Iberian Union)
Another amazing video
Gambia: exists
History matters:but WHY
That is an extended of one of my requests for another African video I made months ago. Thanks, @HistoryMatters
Ah yes. The famous reason for nations not unifying. Deciding who gets to be in charge.
Interesting video as always 👍🏻
Bro asks questions I never knew I needed answers for
Even better: he then answers them!
Thanks because of you ik about this country i was so confused while playing RON
Fun Fact! NASA upgraded an airbase in Gambia so the space shuttle would have an emergency landing strip.
The best part of your video is you reading out names of Patrons with funny names.
I agree 😂
I would like to offer a video suggestion:
“How did Mexico, and the world, react to the assassination of Trotsky?”
1:21
“ this feels wrong”
I appreciate this very much
You should do a video on Eritrea.
Glad I was glued to my phone for the drop of this video. ❤
So, to summarise, “This is too difficult to deal with, we’ll sort it out later,” and repeat for circa 300 years?
once roads were invented people kicked cans down them
“Welcome to The Gambia. Home of The Gambia.”
Please tell me that’s a “Good Burger” reference.
Only heard of The Gambia because it was the homeland of Alex Hayley's ancestor Kunta Kinte in the book and tv mini series Roots
you really believed all that shit?
Had a classmate from The Gambia. Cool guy, always smiling
They call it the Smiling Coast😊
it's james bisonettes fault
Man I havent seen History Matter videos for almost a year (Thanks youtube Algoritm for not putting him on my feed until now!).
Great to see Jamez Bizanette still being the loyal supported after all this time.
One of the most fascinating features of the continuum of English accents is the additional rhoticity between an terminal and initial vowel. “Why does the Gambia exist?” Becomes “why does the Gambierexist?”
How else would you say it and still sound natural? Say the two words connected and you make a strange diphthong; make a gap between them and it sounds a bit stilted.
it's called "the intrusive r". It's one of the best kept secrets for mastering nice pronunciation in those dialects.
@@rosiefay7283 honestly as an American English speaker I elide (or the vowel equivalent) the sounds, so it comes out like “why does the Gam byexist” but if I were speaking to camera I would put a quarter second pause between them to give myself time to enunciate clearly like “why does the Gambia__exist?”
@@TheoEvian cool! Thanks for the info.
@@rosiefay7283 some languages make big pauses between words (for example Slavic languages that also devoice final consonants so my students pronounce "dog" and "dock" identically) and others connect them a lot (English and French would be in that camp). There are different strategies how to do this and actually English in many dialects started to put bigger gaps between words using glottal stops which is called "hard attack".
I love your content keep it up!
“This enraged Senegal, who punished Gambia severely.”
As always, fun succinct video. Have you ever thought of doing an audio bloopers reel?
Portugal wasnt conquered by spain. It was annexed via personal union, due to the death of its king D. Sebastiao, and a sucession crisis.
Could you posibly cite your sources in your videos? It'd make things easier when diving in a little deeper. With that said, It's obiously extra work, wich I don't really espect you to do as you put out such amazing content so often.
This was one I was excited to see! The Gambia is definitely one of the more obscure yet interesting countries to note on modern maps lol. Thank you.
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)
I could’ve sworn you already did this one.
Yes! A return to the *"Why hasn't this small country been conquered?"* series. 😉
I think Gambia is the only state that managed to curb its carbon emissions in line with the Paris accords, so nice going Gambia!
I think the bigger question is why is it called "the" Gambia and not just Gambia?
Basically because the country is named after a river, and names of rivers require the definite article in English. The Thames, the Mississippi, the Gambia. The uppercase T is because the article is a legitimate part of the name, like in The Hague.
@@r8rgtrsThe Hague, The Netherlands
@@geoffreyherrick298 Those have articles for reasons different from the one why The Gambia has one
the israel
Why'd i click this video to just immediately minimize it and look for something to watch. Why am i like this.
Funny how the British Cameroons weren’t allowed independence, but the Gambia was.
France owned Cameroon or do u mean something else
They voted to join the French Cameroons.
@@HTS123RKFrance only owned 90% of it, 10% belonged to Nigeria before it joined the country. Officially Cameroon is bilingual today, though the Francophones try to oppress the usage of English. Both areas were mandates taken from Germany.
@@HTS123RK actually they didn’t. The German’s owned Cameroon and the French got most of it after WW1, but the British got three portions of German Cameroon. Upon “independence”, all three British Cameroons were given the option of either A)Joining Nigeria, or B)Joining the now French portion of the former German colony of Cameroon. Anyway, the two northern British Cameroons were majority Muslim and voted to join Nigeria, while the southern most British Cameroon was majority Christian and voted to join the now country of Cameroon. There’s actually an independence movement for the southern formally British Cameroon to to leave the country of Cameroon, look up “Ambazonia” if your interested in learning more.
@@EpicgamerwinXD6669 thanks I didn’t know about that I look it up
You asking the real questions my man
Portugal wasn't conquered. It was a dynastic union!
I'm expecting several pronunciations of "Gambier". Don't disappoint me.
Cheers! I counted 5 Gambiers.
Portugal didn't ceased to exists. There was a throne vacancy that was claimed by the King of Spain, therefore uniting both Kingdoms for what was called the "Iberian Union"
That "union" caused much ruckus around the globe since Spain was an enemy of it's former colony, The Netherlands, and Portugal was an ally.
Gambia became a separate nation so that Thomas cook could build loads of lovely resorts along its coast and give british people a nice holiday.
Kelly moneymaker
👋
Basically, there was just nothing really to be gained by joining Senegal in the eyes of the ruling class. They knew they would be marginalized in the confederation so the aristocracy of the Gambia ultimately turned it down, against popular support.
Nope it wasn't popularly supported. One of the main stumbling blocks was the use of CFA. The Gambian politicians also thought that they would be marginalized.
Hey, he fixed the patron read and "Books About Podcast" only appear once.
Where’s Gambia?
Africa you say?
Oh, then it’s just the British doing British things.
i was gonna say "hey cut them some slack, at least they didn't bring out the ruler this time" but... no, they did bring out the ruler. cut them no slack
Somewhere in Senegal.
Would love to see your videos on StoryFire
We all knew what the answer would be, we just wanted to know in exactly which year were the British responsible for it.
I always stay and listen to the funny patreon names.
So in short, British colonialism created two separate competing economic interests within Senegal and the Gambia and so reunification was against their mutual interest.
What do you mean with reunification? They were never in the same country.
Thx for covering this, it's one of the highest entries on my list of countries that shouldn't exist
I understand Vlad P has a similar list.
To summarise it in 1 word: colonialism.
Yeah, but that's not really enough.
@@DTD110865 that's basically it. Colonizers drawing random lines in a map.
@@stephmod7434 There was the separate nationalities of each colonizer, but that's the only true difference. It's the same reason nations like Timor are still divided.
@@DTD110865 I know
Is kinda funny that a river country actually exists and is rare than people talk about it