Map on Monday: THE NATIONS AND THEIR EXPORTS

The color-coded map above divides the nations of the world by chief exports. While we will summarize below, a full article on this map can be read by following this link: See Which Commodities Make the World Go Round. See also our map on Sixteen Rare Earth Metals and Minerals.

The colors of the map are summarized as:

• Oil and Petroleum Exports (Blue): This color dominates the map. While we are all familiar with the Mideast oil exports, nations in central and west Africa along with some of the South American oil-exporters, may surprise us. The author of the original article wonders how much trading power OPEC would have if it included all blue-colored nations. 

• Minerals and Metals (Red and Orange): These nations offer the world rare or precious minerals and metals (Red) or large quantities of non-precious minerals and metals (Orange). Examples of the former include gold, platinum, and diamonds while the latter would include copper, uranium, phosphate, and iron ore.

• Foodstuffs (Light Blue): Major food exporters are found in the Horn of Africa (coffee, tea, livestock and grain), South and Latin America (soy beans, sugar, beef, coffee, and bananas), coastal nations that produce fish exports. 

• Machinery/Transportation and Electronics (Grey and Green): Canada, Brazil, Japan, and much of Europe comprise the industrialized nations who manufacture a large portion of the world's machines and automobiles. The green-colored nations, like China and the U.S., produce the advanced electronics of our tech-driven twenty-first century.

• Textiles/Apparel and Wood (Yellow and Purple): Whether it's producing cotton (Togo, Benin, and Mali), or using that cotton to make clothing and shoes, the yellow-colored nations help clothe the world. Meanwhile, the rich forests of southeast Asia produce much of the world's wood products.

Map on Monday: Sixteen Rare Metals and Minerals

The map above (click to enlarge) depicts the location and amount of sixteen of the world's rare minerals and metals. These sixteen minerals and metals include: Aluminium, Antimony, Chromium, Copper, Gold, Hafnium, Indium, Lead, Nickel, Phosphorus, Platinum/Rhodium, Silver, Tantalum, Tin, Uranium, and Zinc (click on the link for more information about how these resources are commonly used).

Some nations stand out for having a diverse amount of mineral resources. The United States and South Africa possess eight of the sixteen resources; with South Africa holding a third of the world's Chromium, 40% of the world's gold, and 88% of the world's Platinum/Rhodium. China and Australia are also blessed -- with Australia possessing ten of the sixteen resources, and China eleven. Brazil ranks fifth on this map with six of the sixteen resources found within its borders.

While some nations have a diverse collection of mineral and metal resources, others stand out for large quantities of one or two of them. Morocco and Western Sahara, for example, possess 42% of the world's Phosphorus. Other countries include: Poland (25% of the world's silver), Canada (33% of the world's Indium),  Chile (38% of world's copper), Brazil (48% of the world's Tantalum), Australia (52% of the world's Tantalum and 53% of the world's Hafnium), Kazakhstan (60% of the world's Chromium), and China (62% of the world's Antimony and 31% of the world's tin). The three top Uranium countries (with combined 50% of world supply) are Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada.

Map on Monday: THE HORN OF AFRICA

An Introduction to the Religious, Ethnic, and Geopolitical Makeup of the Horn of Africa

By A. Joseph Lynch

The "Horn of Africa" refers to the far eastern region of Africa which juts out into the Indian Ocean. Although Somalia comprises much of the horn itself - aptly called the Somalian peninsula - the region also includes Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia.

Christian Ethiopia is by far the region's dominant nation. Not only does it control 60% of the region's land area, Ethiopia is home to roughly 85% of the region's  people (2018 update pop Ethiopia=107mill). Ethiopia's Lake Tana provides the source of the Blue Nile flowing out of Ethiopia's highland core where the capital city of Addis Ababa sits at the foothills of Mt. Entoto. Ethiopia is, however, landlocked and dependent on its neighbors (mostly Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia) for transportation of its exports. Ethiopia is the continent's greatest supplier of coffee, and also exports agricultural goods and gold. Militarily speaking, Ethiopia has an army of roughly 135,000 men with another 3,000 in air forces. The landlocked nation has no navy. Ethiopia is also the third largest Christian nation in Africa (behind only Nigeria at #1 and the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the ninth largest in the world. Christian roots in Ethiopia run deep as the evangelist St. Matthew brought the faith to Ethiopia in the first century, and Scripture records St. Philip's conversion of the Ethiopian court official (see Acts 8:26-38). Christianity was made the state religion of Ethiopia around the year AD 330, but with the rise of Islam across north Africa in the seventh century, Ethiopia was cut off from its brethren in the north. The three least ethnic groups are the Oromo (35%) Amhara(27%) and Tigray(7%). The more populous Oromo have been lower in the social scale and less dominant politically than the Amhara. That ethnic divide is a frequent cause of violence. In 2007 Orthodox were 43% Protestants 16% and Muslim 33% of population. Much of the Protestant growth has come from replacing animists.

At around fifteen million people (2018) and about one third of the region's land area, Somalia is the second largest country in the Horn of Africa and the region's largest Sunni Muslim country. Where Ethiopia has no coastline, Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa and is situated near the geostrategic choke point of the Bab El-Mandeb strait (which links the Mediterranean-Suez-Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea). Despite its access to the sea and its strategic location, Somalia has been wracked by civil war for decades. While some stability is growing from its southern coastal region around the capital of Mogadishu, Islamic terrorists networks (like Al-Shabab) remain strong in the southern hinterlands while the northern-most region of Somaliland (the former British colony of 4.5 million ) has declared independence and is considered an autonomous region within the country. Dangers from Islamist forces have led to interventions by Christian Ethiopia (2006-2009) and Christian Kenya (2011's Operation Linda Nchi - "Protect the Country.") An excellent historical review by J.Peter Pham.

Eritrea (5mill-2018) is the region's other country with a substantial coastline. Unlike Somalia, however, Eritrea's coast is contained within the Red Sea, oriented toward Saudi Arabia and Yemen; and its southern-most point is located at the northern boundaries of the strategic Strait of Bab El-Mandeb. Eritrea is also torn between Islam and Christianity -- with Christianity holding a slight majority in the nation. Having been incorporated into Ethiopia in the years after World War II, Eritrea fought a 30-year war of independence from Ethiopia ending in 1993. From 1998-2000, Eritrea sparked (and lost) a border war with Ethiopia. With Ethiopia still holding lands in Eritrea, the region's two most populous Christian nations have relatively poor relations with one another. Eritrea also began a short border war with the Islamic nation of Djibouti, and yet holds an observer status in the Arab League. Eritrea, it seems, is thus neither integrated into the Islamic nor Christian worlds. Eritrea's strategic location and large copper, gold, granite, marble, and potash reserves, however, make it a potentially important regional ally to whoever can forge a lasting relationship.

With a population just under one million(2108) and amassing just one percent of the region's land area, Djibouti is the Horn of Africa's smallest country. The former French Somaliland has French and Arabic as official languages but Somali as the most spoken. The port city and capital of Djibouti City provides an important commercial hub at the entrance of the Bab El-Mandeb strait. Although Djibouti is 94% Sunni Muslim and only 6% Christian, it practices religious freedom and acts as a key partner of Christian Ethiopia as 70% of all port activities involve shipments for the landlocked nation. As a member of the Arab League, Djibouti also maintains strategic ties to the wider Sunni-Arab world.

Map on Monday: PHILIPPINES

A Map of the Philippines and an image of the nation's president, Rodrigo Duterte

Colonized and evangelized by the Spanish Empire, the Philippines declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. Spain, at war with the United States at the time, did not recognize its independence and ceded the Philippines to the United States the following spring. Almost one year to the day it declared independence from Spain, the Philippine Republic declared war on the United States. Ironically it was the anniversary of America's declaration of independence in 1902 that the war officially ended in a Philippine defeat. The brown-colored Catholic population, which lost around 200,000 men, women, and children in the war, faced harsh treatment by Protestant-majority, white America. Following the Japanese occupation of the country during World War II, the United States recognized the independence of the Philippines in 1946.

Today with a population of one hundred million people across seven thousand islands, the Philippines is the seventh most-populous nation in Asia and the twelfth most-populous nation in the world. Of its one hundred million citizens, around 80% are Catholic, 9% are Protestant, and 11% are Sunni Muslim. The green areas in the map to the right represents the majority Muslim regions of Mindanao, Palawan, and the Sulu Archipelago. Called the Moro (from the Spanish for Moors), Sunni Muslims in the Philippines seek to establish an independent province called Bangsamoro (roughly translated as the Nation of the Moors).

The scattered islands which comprise the nation make for a diversity of ethnic groups and languages. While Filipino and English are the nation's two official languages, the Philippines recognizes nineteen regional languages. Of its many ethnic groups, 75% of the nation's population are either Tagalog (28.1%), Cebuano (13.1%), Ilocano (9%), Bisaya (7.6%), Ilonggo (7.5%), Bicolano (6 %), or Waray (3.4%).

Situated along the Ring of Fire, the Philippines must contend with volcanic and seismic activity. Around twenty earthquakes - most too weak to feel - occur in the Philippines daily. The activity resulting from the Ring of Fire, however, has left the Philippines with gold deposits second in the world only to those of South Africa. The island nation is also rich in copper, nickel, chromite, and zinc. In addition to this, the Philippines is the second largest producer of geo-thermal power in the world, supplying 18% of the country's energy.

 Crops grown by terrace farming in the steep mountainous regions of northern Philippines

In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte, the law-and-order mayor of Davao City, was elected president of the Philippines on the campaign promise of fighting drug dealing.

Duterte is a tough-talking, no-nonsense nationalist who fits in well with the rise of strong male leaders across much of the globe.

Duterte was sexually abused by the Jesuit, Fr. Mark Falvey (who with his brother raped boys in California during the 60s and 70s. Between the two, the Church in Los Angeles and Sacramento has paid millions in settlement claims). He has had a stormy relationship with the Philippine hierarchy and advocates a much more punitive approach to justice than the bishops.

Since his election as president, Duterte has cracked down on drug dealing and reoriented itself away from the United States, seeking closer ties with China and a peaceful resolution to their territorial dispute in the South China Sea.


Stratfor Video on the Geographic Challenges for the Philippines

Stratfor - short for Strategic Forecasting, Inc. - is a private global intelligence company that offers geopolitical insight into the interplay of nations. Stratfor has developed an excellent series of short (~2-4 minute) videos which provide the viewer with a specific nation, along with its basic history, geography, culture, and geopolitical allies and adversaries. In the following video, they present the geographic challenges facing the Philippines. Pope Francis' January 2014 trip to the Philippines drew together a record-setting estimated 6-7 million Catholics for Mass.

This article originally appeared on Anthropology of Accord on January 19, 2015.

Map on Monday: SYRIA

The Physical Ecology, Communal Loyalties, and Geopolitics of Syria

by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

Physical Ecology: Natural Resources and Physical Geography

Syria is a nation about the size of Wisconsin but with four times the population (23 million vs. 5.5 million).  About a fourth of its land is fit for agricultural use. Syria is situated on the eastern end of the Mediterranean, wedged in between many contending powers of the Middle East. Syria is bisected into north and south by mountain ranges which run from its border with Lebanon to the Euphrates river in the east. In its far south, another mountain range anchors Syria's border with Jordan. The Golan Heights may be found along its border with Israel - but this area has come under Israeli control since the Six-Day War and annexed in all but name in 1981 (the western end of Golan Heights actually includes almost the entire eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee).

Syria's climate can be described in three zones. The western (coastal) and northern regions consist of cultivated land where fruits, olives, and tobacco are grown. Bordering this area to the south and east are steppe-lands where one may find nomads and sheep herders. As one travels further south and east, the steppe gives way to desert. The one exception to this is the Euphrates River which runs from the northwest through the southeastern corner of Syria into Iraq's Anbar province. Along the Euphrates are cultivated lands where sheep are raised and wheat is grown.

Among Syria's natural resources are petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, and hydropower. Sales of oil comprised 20% of Syria's GDP prior to the civil war with the vast majority of it sold to the European Union. With the spread of ISIS, there have been times that the Islamic State has produced and sold more Syrian oil than the Syrian government. Syria's top two oil refineries are today operating at less than 10% capacity. Syria's phosphate mines (located outside of Palmyra in the heart of Syria) were captured by the Islamic State in May 2015; and in June the Islamic State destroyed the gas pipelines to Damascus which were to heat its homes in the months ahead. The Islamic State is working hard to deny Syria access to its own natural resources.

Communal Loyalties: Ethnicity, Language, and Religion

The Arabic language is used across Syria, with several major dialects. The nation is a smorgasbord of ethnic groups (see map below). Approximately 60% of Syria is comprised of Sunni Arab Muslims. The rest of Syria's population is made up of various minorities like the Sunni Kurds (9%) in the north,  Shiite Alawites (12%) on the Mediterranean coast, Levantines - Arabic speaking Christians (9%) further inland from the coast, Druze (3%) in the south, and small Shia-Islamic groups (like the Ismaillis and Imamis) at a combined 3% of the population.

Colonial rule often employed ethnic and religious minorities opposed to the Sunni majority. The map reveals the disparate nature of this alliance. The Kurds are off in the extreme north and northeast while the Druze are located in the extreme south. Alawaites and Christians are located much closer to the Mediterranean coast, isolated from both Druze and Kurds.

Syrians also remember historical groupings of "Greater Syria." A term originating with Ottomans, it not only referred to present-day Syria, but it also included Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and the city of Antioch (the pre-Islamic capital of Syria now under Turkish rule). Syrian nationalist, Antun Saadeh, sought the creation of a pan-Syrian state to include the areas above along with Iraq. He grounded his vision in the region's physical geography by fixing the limits of Greater Syria with the following natural boundaries: the Taurus and Zagros Mountains in the north, deserts and the Persian Gulf in the east and south, the Gulf of Aquaba and Suez Canal in the southwest, and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in the far west. While the modern Syrian state has never expanded to this extent, the Hashemites of Jordan had been promised rule over a Greater Syria for  helping the British defeat the Ottomans during WWI. The Hashemites once controlled Iraq, the western edge of Saudi Arabia, and parts of what is today Israel.

Syrian Ethnic Groups (click to enlarge)

Geopolitics: Political Geography and Foreign Policy

Syria's internal communal loyalties define its geopolitics. If we were to divide Syria into four main groups - Arab Sunnis (60%), Shiites and other Muslim minorities (19% ), Christians (10%), and Kurds (9%) - we have a good idea which nations will be lining up to support these four ethnic and religious peoples. Here, religion is the key to understanding the current struggle.

President Assad is part of the Alawite Shiite tradition which has dominated the Syrian officer ranks for a half century.  His father was Hafez-al-Assad and the leader of the nationalist-socialist movement in the secular Baath party. He assumed rule in the “Corrective Movement “ of 1970.  The father ruled until 2000 and was succeeded by his son.  The predominance of Alawite Shia in the military was fostered during French rule which favored minority groups over the Sunni majority in positions of military authority. Check out this excellent short history of the Baath party, Arab nationalism, ethnic differences and the Sunni-Alawite rivalry in 20th century Syrian history.

President Assad has protected the minority Christians, Druze and Kurds. He also has a considerable number of Sunnis in his government. Shiite Iran and Orthodox Russia will support his state. The Lebanese Shiites (Hezbollah) and Maronite Christians will not want to see the Syrian government  fall. The Sunni majority in the East may reconfigure themselves with the Sunnis in the Western regions of Iraq. Among the rebels, the Salafist Sunnis are establishing control over the opposition forces. This is ISIS and Al Qaeda (al Nusra in Syria). They will be supported by Saudi Arabia (salafist Sunni) and the Gulf States. The Syrian civil war seems similar to the Spanish Civil War where the local conflict provided a battleground attracting foreign recruits eager to depose the “fascist Franco.” Those international recruits were predominately Communist while the Syrian foreign fighters are principally Salafist Sunnis. Both of these killing movements masked their claims as battles for popular democracy.

The alliance between Iran and Syria is multifaceted. A reliable American who's reporting and analyzing Syria is Oklahoma professor Joshua Landis.

The Turks along Syria's northern border are Sunni Muslims - but their Turkic ethnicity makes them stand apart from the broader Arab Muslim Middle East. Turkey sees Syria in a few different ways: 1) Syria is a place to show Turkish might and win a renewed place of leadership in the Muslim world (recall Turkey was at the heart of the last Islamic caliphate - the Ottoman Empire); 2) intervention in Syria is meant to keep the Kurds from controlling Syria's northern border since Turkey has long worked to control the Kurdish minority within Turkey proper; 3) Turkey, like the Saudis, would like to see President Assad toppled and replaced with a Sunni. The Kurds of Syria -- like those of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey -- seek autonomy, and then a nation.

A partition of Syria based on geographical religious and ethnic loyalties was proposed in 2011 by Fabrice Balanche, a French researcher, who mapped Syria's religious and ethnic communities long before the Arab Spring.

Update 11-20-2016:The election of Donald Trump and his advocacy of a Russian Syrian alliance will dramatically improve American strategy in the Mideast. We have advocated this change for several years.

Update (10/10/16): Syrian War Video: The short and excellent video below from Vox offers a concise overview of the Syrian War, the various factions, and a timeline narrative. It is well worth five minutes of your time to watch.



For more information on Syria, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.

For more information on the region, see the following previous Map on Monday posts:

• Map on Monday: JORDAN
• Map on Monday: TURKEY
• Map on Monday: IRAN
• Map on Monday: EGYPT
• Map on Monday: SAUDI ARABIA
• Map on Monday: THE GULF STATES

This post originally appeared on Anthropology of Accord on September 14, 2015

Map on Monday: CENTRAL AMERICA

An Introduction to the Geography and History of Central America

By A. Joseph Lynch

Central America is comprised of seven Christian (mostly Catholic) nations: Belize (335,000), Costa Rica (4.7 million), El Salvador ( 6.1 million), Guatemala (14.4 million), Honduras (8.5 million), Nicaragua (5.8 million), and Panama (3.6 million). Today's Map on Monday, however, will consider Belize and the five nations that had been part of the Federal Republic of Central America. Panama, due to its strategic importance as well as its historic ties to the nation of Columbia and the short-lived republic of Gran Columbia, will be treated separately.

The geography of Central America is that of a tapering isthmus, running from the northwest at its widest to its narrowest point in the southeast. While the region shares land borders with Mexico and South America, most of Central America faces the ocean: the Pacific to the west and south, the Caribbean to the east and north, and the Gulf of Mexico further north. Central America also sits on what is called the Caribbean plate, which it shares with the island nations of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico (Cuba sits on the North American Plate). Central America is also very mountainous with the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, the Cordillera Isabelia and the Cordillera de Talamanca as the three longest ranges in the region.

From 1523 to 1697, conquistadors brought the region under Spanish rule. In 1609, the area was given some autonomy in military and administrative affairs. Ruled by a governor-captain general, the region remained part of the Spanish Empire but was directed locally by a competent man with the crown's approval. Napoleon's intervention in Spanish affairs in Europe brought about independence movements in the region. On March 15, 1821, the region enacted the Act of Independence of Central America and spent the next two years as a member of the Mexican Empire. In 1823, it seceded from Mexico to form the Federal Republic of Central America, a representative democracy with its capital at Guatemala City. A lack of national identity eventually drove the region into civil war from 1838-1840 leading to the creation of five separate nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The land making up the nation of Belize did not become part of the Spanish Empire due to its lack of precious metal resources and its proximity to strongly held Mayan defensive positions. The British eventually began to settle the area for use in military engagements with the Spanish. Belize was called British Honduras from 1862-1973 before gaining its independence in 1981. It is strategically located between Central America, the Caribbean, and the Mexican/American north. Belize, thus, also acts as a cultural bridge between the Anglophone Caribbean/America and the broader Spanish-speaking world around it.

This post originally appeared on Anthropology of Accord on July 6, 2015.

Map on Monday: TURKEY

[first published on July 13, 2015]



Stratfor - short for Strategic Forecasting, Inc. - is a private global intelligence company that offers geopolitical insight into the interplay of nations. Stratfor has developed an excellent series of short (~2-4 minute) videos which provide the viewer with a specific nation, along with its basic history, geography, culture, and geopolitical allies and adversaries. In the following video, they present the geographic challenges facing Turkey.

Turkey: A non-Arab Sunni state resacralizing and reorienting towards the Islamic world 

by A. Joseph Lynch

Turkey has 80 million people and is the eighth largest military in the world-the largest (rated by Global Firepower) in the Mideast. It  is geostrategically situated at the crossroads of three civilizations: Orthodox Russia, the Islamic Middle East, and the atheist-superstate (and successor to the Soviet Union) that is the European Union. With one foot in Europe and another in Asia, Turkey controls the important waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Aegean. Occupying what has been called 'Asia Minor,' Turkey was once part of the ancient Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires before comprising the heartland of the Christian Byzantine Empire and thereafter the Muslim Ottoman-Turkic Empires. With its empire dissolved following World War I, the modern state of Turkey was forged by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk whose secularizing principles sought to incorporate Turkey into modern European society and away from its historically Islamic past. Turkey became a member of NATO in 1952 and today has the second largest standing military in NATO after the United States (all males are required to serve and conscientious objection is not accepted). Turkey has also long sought entrance into the European Union, but despite its efforts to mimic the atheist West, Turkey is still seen as an outsider and its entry has never been approved.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as Turkey's current President has spearheaded a movement to return to Turkey's Muslim roots and reorient itself towards the Islamic world. Here, however, Turkey is also somewhat of an outsider. Despite its Sunni Muslim faith, the vast amount of Turkey's population is ethnically Turkic rather than Arab. Turkey is thus not a member of the Arab League; nor, due to geography, the Gulf States. Egypt and Turkey are regional rivals and Turkey's Sunni faith puts it at odds with Shia Iran, Syria, and Yemen. Turkey also has centuries of bad relations and wars with Orthodox Russia to the north and its allies in the Caucasus (particularly Armenia). Turkey itself is comprised of around 20% Kurds, who have expressed a deep desire for autonomy. This has led to Turkey often turning a blind eye in regards to ISIS and even expressing worries over recent Iraqi-Kurdish gains against ISIS along Turkey's border with Syria.A key educational and cultural movement in Turkey is an Islamic global network called the Gulen. Understanding them and their relation to the present government is a key communal loyalty to decipher. The link is to their web page. There are many other perspectives on their role.  Here  was a good piece of reporting from 2010.

Map on Monday: SAUDI ARABIA

Stratfor - short for Strategic Forecasting, Inc. - is a private global intelligence company that offers geopolitical insight into the interplay of nations. Stratfor has developed an excellent series of short (~2-4 minute) videos which provide the viewer with a specific nation, along with its basic history, geography, culture, and geopolitical allies and adversaries. In the following video, they present the geographic challenges facing Saudi Arabia.


                                         A SHORT PROFILE OF SAUDI ARABIA
by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch




Saudi Arabia has a population of 30 million, with 8 to 9 million foreigners. Almost all the physical labor and service work in the kingdom is done by the foreigners. Most are from Muslim countries but there are over a million from the Philippines. Christians are not allowed to worship. Saudi Arabia has the fourth largest military budget in the world after the US, China, and Russia. They have the most oil reserves in the world and are the top oil producer. Over 15% of Saudis are Shiites, but they are clustered in the oil-rich Eastern Province where the Shiites are an oppressed majority (see map at right). Over 50% of Saudi oil is in the Eastern province with its Shiite majority and 20-30% foreign worker population. There is a Pakistani taxi-driver joke that the best proof that Islam is the true religion is that God gave it to the Arabs, and yet it is still here after all their years of misrule.  

Here is how the Saudi Embassy describes the three historical Saudi States:

In the early 18th century, a Muslim scholar and reformer named Shaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab (1702-1792) began advocating a return to the original form of Islam. Abdul Wahhab was initially persecuted by local religious scholars and leaders who viewed his teachings as a threat to their power bases. He sought protection in the town of Diriyah, which was ruled by Muhammad bin Saud.

Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud formed an agreement to dedicate themselves to restoring the pure teachings of Islam to the Muslim community. In that spirit, bin Saud established the First Saudi State, which prospered under the spiritual guidance of bin Abdul Wahhab, known simply as the "Shaikh." By 1788, the Saudi State ruled over the entire central plateau known as the "Najd." That State was displaced by the Ottoman Empire in 1818.

By 1824, the Al-Saud family had regained political control of central Arabia. The Saudi ruler Turki bin Abdullah Al-Saud transferred his capital to Riyadh, some 20 miles south of Diriyah, and established the Second Saudi State. Ottoman armies again forced them out in 1891.

Al-Saud sought refuge with the Bedouin tribes in the vast sand desert of eastern Arabia known as the Rub’ Al-Khali, or ‘Empty Quarter.’ From there, Abdulrahman and his family traveled to Kuwait, where they stayed until 1902. With him was his young son Abdulaziz, who was already making his mark as a natural leader and a fierce warrior for the cause of Islam.

The Modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The young Abdulaziz was determined to regain his patrimony from the Al-Rashid family, which had taken over Riyadh and established a governor and garrison there. In 1902, Abdulaziz – accompanied by only 40 followers – staged a daring night march into Riyadh to retake the city garrison, known as the Masmak Fortress. This legendary event marks the beginning of the formation of the modern Saudi state. After establishing Riyadh as his headquarters, Abdulaziz captured all of the Hijaz, including Makkah and Madinah, in 1924 to 1925. In the process, he united warring tribes into one nation. On September 23, 1932, the country was named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an Islamic state with Arabic as its national language and the Holy Qur’an as its constitution.

Abdulaziz is the father of all the subsequent kings of Saudi Arabia, including present-day King Salman and the Crown Prince Muqrin.

Oil was discovered on the Shiite majority island of Bahrain in 1932, but Standard Oil of California hit the motherload in 1938 just across the Persian Gulf in the Shiite eastern province of Saudi Arabia near the village of Dammam. Over the years the Sauds allied with SOCAL and then  eventually took over all the oil revenues. By 1988 Saudi Aramco completely controlled the country's resources. The Saudis have utilized their dominance in the market to boycott the US, Japan, Britain, and Canada after the 1972 Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, causing the energy crisis of 1973. The Saudis can also glut the market to punish their oil-producing enemies (Russia, Iran, and American fracking companies) as we see today in the precipitous 2015 oil price drops.

Smoke rises from the Grand Mosque in Mecca (1979)

The enormous oil wealth of the Saudis, their original bargain with the most intolerant of all Sunni religious traditions, and their admirable ability to negotiate betwixt allies and enemies -- all combine to place them at the center of the religious and national confusion in the Mideast. As one example of sorting out the confusion, two important events happened in November 1979. The Iranian Shiites began to hold US hostages in our embassy, and the mosque in Mecca was seized by Sunni Salafists.

In response to the mosque seizure, the control of daily cultural life by the Wahhabi clerics tightened throughout the nation. The long memory of the Iranian hostage crisis and the amnesia of the much more consequential Mecca event is a prime example of the Sunni-Shia confusion which has so perplexed American policymakers in the Mideast. Finally, policymakers who take Islam seriously as a religion must not forget that there is another claimant to the holy places in the Sunni world. The Hashemite story of the 1924 Saudi seizure of the Hajiz (the area of Mecca and Medina) is a different narrative than told on the Saudi embassy web page.

For the Jordanians, the story of the holy cities of Islam is not a triumphant  tale of the Saudi-Wahhabi concord. The emir of Mecca from 1908 to 1917 was Hussein bin Ali. The Young Turk revolution in 1908 set an increasingly nationalistic and secular movement against the Arab-friendly Islamic arrangements of the Ottoman empire. Hussein did not think of himself as an Arab nationalist, but he found the young Turkish nationalists to be the enemy of his Arab kinsmen and their religion. Hussein sided with the British against the Ottomans (who sided with the Germans and Austrians in World War I). After leading the great Arab revolt against the Ottomans, the Hashemite clan would be betrayed by the British in Iraq and Syria -- and usurped in the holy cities by the Sauds. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a very different Sunni civilization than their Saudi neighbors. They, too, have been longtime allies of the United States and represent an alternative approach to how Islam and the nations shall be configured.

Saudi Arabia is more than the Saudi clan and the Wahhabi clerics. It is Shiites in oil-rich provinces, as well as foreign workers who do the work but can neither worship nor speak freely. It is other Sunnis with different ideas of an Arab nation or Islamic caliphate. Those Sunnis love God and the Islamic ummah, but they may not feel the same about the House of Saud.  

See January 31st's Religion and Geopolitics Review for many articles examining Saudi Arabia, as well as our book review on the Kingdom.

Originally posted on February 2, 2015

Map on Monday: SOUTHEAST ASIA

The Physical Ecology, Communal Loyalties, and Geopolitics of Southeast Asia

by A. Joseph Lynch 

Physical Ecology: Natural Resources and Physical Geography

Mainland southeast Asia forms a long, north-south peninsula bordered by (from northeast to northwest) the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Strait of Malacca, the Andaman Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. Within the boundaries of these waters may be found the five nations of this regional post: Vietnam,(92mill) Cambodia(15mill), Laos(7mill), Thailand,(68mill) and Myanmar (or Burma)(52mill). At roughly the size of Texas, Myanmar is by far the largest nation in the region. The rest, compared to US states, fall into the following order: Thailand (larger than California), Vietnam (New Mexico), Laos (Minnesota), and Cambodia (North Dakota).

The physical geography of the region is marked by a mountainous north, with ranges extending southwards along Vietnam's border with Laos and Cambodia, and down the Kra Isthmus dividing Myanmar and Thailand. The region's lowlands are generally minimal, with Vietnam's low-lying coastal plains wedged in between the mountains and the sea. Myanmar's central valley region extends southward toward the Andaman Sea with mountain chains running along its east and west. Cambodia and south-central Thailand (the "rice bowl of Asia"), however, enjoy the benefits of the Mekong and Chao Phraya river systems and the low-lying areas for agriculture.

The region's climate is dominated by a monsoon cycle of wet, humid, hot summers and dry winters. Natural resources vary from nation to nation, with Thailand rich in tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, timber, lead, fish, gypsum, lignite, fluorite, and arable land; while Laos is relatively poor in resources beyond its dense forests, and some deposits of gypsum, tin, and gold. Vietnam's access to the South China Sea makes it a regional competitor for natural energy resources like gas and oil, but it is also rich in coal, iron ore, and copper. Cambodia's limited natural resources include its forests, energy resources in the Gulf of Thailand, along with some moderate amounts of mineral resources. Myanmar is a mineral-rich nation with an estimated ten trillion cubic feet of natural gas off its coast - but its state of extreme low development often leaves its resources untapped.


Communal Loyalties: Ethnicity, Language, and Religion

With the exception of Myanmar's 135 distinct ethnic groups, the region's nations are each relatively uniform in ethnicity. Roughly 96% of Thailand's inhabitants are ethnic Thais, while 90% of Cambodians are of Khmer descent. About 86% of Vietnamese are of the Viet ethnicity and 60% of the population of Laos are ethnic Laos. Myanmar, despite its vast ethnic diversity, remains 68% ethnic Bamar and 10% Shan (both peoples originate in south China's Yunnan region). Myanmar has seen years of internal conflict with the ill-treated Shan.  Myanmar does not recognize the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group from the state of Rakhine as indigenous natives deserving citizenship.  (See Buddhists expel "historical Muslim invaders" from AOA  and Burma profile Map on Monday of AOA)

The region's majority languages are formed by the Austro-Asiatic Languages ("austro" meaning "south") spoken in Vietnam (i.e. Vietnamese) and Cambodia (i.e. Khmer) and the Tai-Kadai Languages of Laos (i.e. Lao), Thailand (i.e. Thai), and part of Myanmar (i.e. Shan). Myanmar is also home to the Burmese language related to the broader Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The colonial history of Britain and France has also left a lasting French and English presence in the region. Beyond these languages, however, is a host of diverse languages rooted in the region's small ethnic groups.

Theravāda Buddhism is the most practiced religion in the region with 67% of Laos, 80%-89% of Burmese, 95% of Thais, and 97% of Cambodians adhering to the religion. The path to enlightenment and Nirvana in Theravāda Buddhism is marked by a seven-stage Path of Purification: (1) Purification of Conduct, (2) Purification of Mind, (3) Purification of View, (4) Purification by Overcoming Doubt, (5) Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What Is Path and Not Path, (6) Purification by Knowledge and Vision of the Course of Practice, and (7) Purification by Knowledge and Vision. This Path of Purification was written around the year AD 430 by Buddhaghosa, whose works comprise the orthodox understanding of Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and systematized summations of Buddha's teachings. {Update Oct 2018: See Our Map on Monday:Mapping Buddhism}

Almost half of Vietnamese practice "folk religions" while decades of Communist rule have left roughly 30% practicing no religion.There are 6million Catholics and 12 million Buddhists.


Geopolitics: Political Geography and Foreign Policy

Bordering the nations of this regional post are other important actors in the broader southeast Asia: Malaysia (and Singapore), Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and China.We will look at the geopolitics and military history  of each country in future individual postings. AOA on President Diem and the Vietnam War.

Some Additional Resources 

For more information on Cambodia, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.
For more information on Laos, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.
For more information on Myanmar, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.
For more information on Thailand, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.
For more information on Vietnam, visit its page on the CIA World Factbook.

See also the video from Geography Now! on Cambodia.

This post originally appeared on Anthropology of Accord on November 16, 2015

Map on Monday: YEMEN

The Physical Ecology, Communal Loyalties, and Geopolitics of Yemen

by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

Physical Ecology: Natural Resources and Physical Geography 

Yemen is a small middle-eastern country at the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, 1500 miles long and 500 miles north to south. Its location at the mouth of the Red Sea's egress into the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea via the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait makes it an important nation geostrategically in the region. Yemen has a hot and humid coastal plain with a young, rugged, and mountainous interior. To the north and east is the "Empty Quarter" of Yemen (Rub' al Khali) where the desert leaves no place for human civilization to prosper -- no water or vegetation, just Bedouin nomads herding camels across the desolate wasteland. Off its coasts, Yemen also controls five islands, some in the Red Sea and others in the Arabian.

Yemen is the poorest nation in the Middle East with few natural resources. It has limited oil and natural gas reserves. Roughly 60% of Yemen's inhabitants live off of agricultural production (25% of the overall Yemeni economy stems from agriculture). Coffee has been produced in Yemen for hundreds of years (in fact, "mocha" coffee is named after Yemen's historic Red Sea trade port town of Mocha just north of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait). Most agricultural production occurs in the Shia-dominant western Yemen. Despite not having any internal waterways or lakes, Yemen's proximity to the ocean gives it access to fish and seafood. Further inland may be found marble and minor deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper. Water scarcity is a rising problem for Yemen. The problem stems largely from a lack of natural water reserves above ground, illegal use of aquifers, and the 40% decrease in annual rainfall over the past decade. There is even a looming possibility that Yemen's capital, Sanaa, will run out of water by 2025. 

Communal Loyalties: Ethnicity, Language, and Religion

Yemen is home to roughly 24 million people, 63% of whom are under the age of 25. Yemen is dominantly an Arab nation (and Arabic is Yemen's primary language), though Monsoon trade brings some populations of South Asians and African-Arabs. Yemen is a Muslim country, but one that is divided between Shiites and Sunnis. About 40% of Yemen is comprised of Shiite Mulsims, and most of these live in the northwestern side of the country surrounding the capital of Sanaa (see map at bottom). A major tribe of the Shiites are the Houthi who recently (January 2015) displaced the American-backed Sunni president. They know they cannot run the whole country and have not organized a coup.

Geopolitics: Political Geography and Foreign Policy

Yemen has land borders with two nations on the Arabian Peninsula. Its northern border is with Saudi Arabia (29 million in 2013). Oman (3.6 million) is to its east. Yemen is also located in proximity to the Horn of Africa. Across the Red Sea from Yemen is the split Christian-Muslim country of Eritrea. Djibouti - which is 94% Sunni Muslim - sits astride the western side of the Bab-el-Mandeb. To Yemen's south, across the Gulf of Aden, Somalia (home to the Sunni Muslim terror group, Al-Shabab).

The eastern part of Yemen was called Southern Yemen (see map at right) in the decades it was ruled as a socialist state during the Cold War. That is where Al Qaeda is strongest. Northern Yemen was the western non-Marxist entity. These were united in 1990 but never achieved an integrated national communal identity. Muhammad is said to have told his followers to flee to Yemen as a last refuge because of its mountainous geography.

The reconstitution of Al Qaeda in Yemen by jihadists fleeing Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan is the theme of the best book on the country's last century. Gregory Johnsen, author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al Qaeda, and America's war in Arabia, believes Yemen (like Syria and Iraq) is set for a dramatic redrawing of its borders. The same author describes how the recent bombing campaign of Saudi Arabia against the Houthis of Yemen is helping Al Qaeda. The Sunni government of Yemen, in a similar way to the the Saudi monarchical families to their north, usually comes to some arrangement with Sunni Salafist purists like al Qaeda -- don't overthrow us and we will nod approval as you fight Shiites and Americans.

For more information on Yemen, visit its page on the CIA World Facebook. A Oct 2016 update on the bloody war waged by Saudi Arabia against the Shia Houthis.  The US has become implicated in a humanitarian  disaster which is becoming recognized for what it is-- a religious cleansing against Shia by the Wahhabists of Saudi Arabia. This has been a credential building exercise by the present King’s son  Prince Muhammad bin Salman  who is not the crown prince but is moving up in the line  of succession.  He is using this slaughter to prove his militancy to the Salafist clerics who will have some role in approving the next king.

This post originally appeared on Anthropology of Accord on January 26, 2015.

Map on Monday: RUSSIA (PART 3)

Russian Geopolitics: The Political Geography and Foreign Policy of Russia

by A. Joseph Lynch

Russia's regional military commands: the structure of Russia's military ground defenses (compare to a map of the US commands)

In this third article of a three-part series on Russia, we discuss Russia's political geography and geopolitics. To read the previous articles, follow these links: Russia: Part 1, Russia: Part 2.


Russia is the world's largest nation by land area, while also having the world's third longest coastline. This brings Russia into physical contact with fourteen different nations and makes it a major player across the northern hemisphere and Eurasia. The following sections will examine Russia's relationship to neighboring nations and regions.

I. RUSSIA AND JAPAN

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 witnessed a stunning defeat of Russia at the hands of the rising Japanese. The Battle of Mukden - Japan's most decisive land battle - inflicted some 80,000 Russian casualties; while the renowned Battle of Tsushima Straits - an equally decisive naval battle - annihilated the Russian fleet, sending eight Russian battleships to the bottom. These battles had many long-term consequences: the most fundamental was a sensibility among the dark skinned colonized people from Egypt to Vietnam to India that a white military power could be decisively defeated by one of them. It is striking how many leaders of national liberation movements that would come out of WWII pinpoint the defeat of the Russians by the Japanese as the battle that turned the world of white invincibility upside down.  Despite Japan's defeat in the Second World War, Russia and Japan never settled their border dispute (see a map of the disputed Kuril Islands from Stratfor) or signed a formal peace treaty. As Japan, today, reemerges from its pacifist slumber to face a nuclear North Korea and a growing China, its prime minister, Shinzo Abe, looks to end the border dispute with Russia and even help Russia re-enter the G8. Abe's forward-thinking policy towards Russia - like his policy towards re-armament - will necessitate the re-shaping of his people's views on Russia. A 2010 survey showed that 72% of Japanese hold an unfavorable view of Russia (thus making the Japanese the most anti-Russian people surveyed). For more information on Japan, see our previous Map on Monday: JAPAN.

II. RUSSIA AND CHINA (AND CENTRAL ASIA)

The relationship between Russia and China has improved since the near war of 1961. Both had sought at the time to be the leader of the communist world movement and their rivalry eventually drove China into closer relations with the United States. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China and Russia have forged stronger ties in the face of American power. Russia's smaller population 143.5 million versus China's 1.36 billion, and weaker economy (China exports four times the value of Russia's exports, and China's GDP is five times higher than Russia's GDP) mean that in the new Russian-Chinese partnership, Russia plays a junior role. China certainly values its relationship with energy-rich Russia, and a peaceable border allows both nations to divert military forces elsewhere. Russia does, however, fear Chinese influence in its Far East where Chinese immigration and investment could reorient Russia's eastern extremity towards its southern neighbor. China - seeking to build a "New Silk Road economic belt" - has become the largest trading partner of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Russia's history and current relations with the region (both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan belong to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union while Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russia's variant of NATO) bring Russia and China into some regional competition.

III. RUSSIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Russia is giving military support to the Assad regime in Syria, recognizing his legitimate rule over the nation. From their Syrian naval base and several air bases, Russia has launched air and missile attacks on ISIS and Syrian opposition forces. Russia sees itself as a protector of Christians and established states in the region. It, therefore, sees the bonds between Syrian Christians with the Assad regime as yet another reason to support Assad while attacking ISIS. Russia's involvement in Syria has led to some significant tensions for Russia with the region's Sunni powers opposed to Assad: Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in November 2015 (to which Russia has asked Turkey to return the Hagia Sophia to Christians), and overproduction of oil by Sunni regimes such as Saudi Arabia have driven the price of oil - along with Russia's oil revenues - spiraling downward. Russia has a strong regional ally in Iran. Russia has invited Iran to join its Collective Security Treaty Organization. Member nations have the same defense pact as NATO: an attack on one member is an attack on all - an undoubtedly alluring promise in the face of Shiite Iran's tensions with its Sunni neighbors waging a fierce religious persecution of Shiites. Here Russia has come to the defense of the Shiites in Yemen in addition to Iran and Syria, supporting the Houthi rebels (who are trying to fight off the Saudis and al Qaeda) by both diplomatic and military means. Russia is also very involved with the Caucasus region, Russia's land bridge to the Mideast. Here Russia has strong historic ties to the Christian nations of Armenia and Georgia. While Russia would undoubtedly side with Armenia in any dispute with Turkey or Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia have been at a loggerheads for years with Russia supporting breakaway regions within Georgia. Russia has also had to face counter-terrorism activities against Salafist Sunnis in the region, with fierce fighting in Chechnya. Russia stemmed the terror in Chechnya largely by winning the support and action of Chechen Muslim leaders like the Sufi-Sunni, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the current President of Chechnya (see also this story on Chechen support of Kadyrov and this BBC profile of Kadyrov)

For more information on the nations of the region, see our previous 'Map on Monday' posts on: IRAN, TURKEY, SAUDI ARABIA, SYRIA, YEMEN, JORDAN, THE GULF STATES, EGYPT, and THE NATIONS OF THE CAUCASUS.

IV. RUSSIA AND EUROPE

Russia's relationship with Europe has been deeply shaped by geography. As a land power with its core region on the European side of the Urals, Russia has sought to anchor its defenses in the south by the Caucasus and Carpathian Mountains, and in the north by the Arctic and Baltic Seas. The North European Plain to Russia's west, however, is a 300-mile gap in the this defensive arc. Having faced invasions through this passage from France in 1812, and Germany in both 1914 and 1941, the Russians occupation of eastern Europe during the Cold War was seen a geopolitical necessity by the Soviets. At the conclusion of the Cold War, Russia withdrew its military from eastern Europe with the promise that NATO would not spread to the east. Rather than accepting peace and partnership with Russia, however,  NATO broke its word and spread across eastern Europe. The spread of NATO to the Baltic states now puts NATO troops on Russia's borders. A future addition of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO would create three invasion routes into Russia in any future war between Russia and NATO. Russians universally view the era of President Boris Yeltsin not as the coming of democracy but as a national disgrace for the Russian nation when they were ruled by a drunk; and the economic assets of the state were stripped by capitalist opportunists from the national treasury. Russia has acted to secure influence in a special fraternity of Orthodox nations such as Ukraine (where the E.U. and the U.S backed a coup against an elected President sympathetic to Russia) and Georgia. For hundreds of years Russia has considered Crimea part of Russia as a Russian-speaking naval base with a long history of blood shed for the motherland (AOA on Russia, Ukraine, and Crimea) For an excellent examination of Russia European geopolitics, watch this short Caspian Report video.

V. RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES

Given the United States' role in NATO, tensions between Russia and the United States have increased significantly in recent years. In fact, Russia has named the US and its allies as a strategic threat to Russian security. Russia has given a decided "no" to Hilary Clinton's reset button - since "reset" meant a return to the days where a weak Yeltsin and a weak Russia were taken advantage of by Mrs. Clinton's husband. Indeed, the bombing of Belgrade during the Kosovo War was a major civilizational blow against the Orthodox nations poisoning any reintegration of  Russia and the European nations. American politicians on both the Left and Right generally speak of Russia as a threat to American security, and there are many who advocate increasing the tensions with Russia and use this position as proof of their strong leadership skills on foreign policy. Russia has retorted by announcing plans to build a memorial in front of the US Embassy in Moscow dedicated to those killed in the Native American Genocide.  Besides the war of words, America and Russia are competing in a physical theater: the Arctic. Americans may think of the world as a flat map, but the Russians have a keen understanding of a spherical world with a northern pole. As new waterways have opened in the far north, Russia has begun building up its Arctic defenses (see this map of Russia's bases across the Arctic) and naval presence (Russia has 40 icebreakers in the Arctic compared to the two icebreakers of the US). Russia has the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world with its total weaponry more than the combined forces of the seven other nuclear armed states.
(An AOA UPDATE ON US, RUSSIA ,UKRAINE).

VI. RUSSIA, AFRICA, AND SOUTH AMERICA

Russia has also looked beyond its neighboring regions to Africa and South America. Russian investment in Africa has quadrupled in the past decade from under a billion dollars to now over 4 billion dollars. Russian investment in Africa has also led to an expansion of Russia's control over European energy while also building up strong allies in the continent (many African countries, for example, abstained from voting for Russian sanctions over Crimea). In the face of American involvement in Russia's geopolitical neighborhood, Russia has decided to become more involved in Latin America. In 2015 Russia and Argentina entered into a strategic pact in which Russia offered support to Argentina regarding the Falkland Islands.

Map on Monday: RUSSIA (Part 2)

Russia's Communal Loyalties: Russian History, Ethnicity, Language, and Religion

by A. Joseph Lynch

An old ethnic map of "Soviet Russia" - but one that conveys a rough idea of Russia's ethnic diversity

I. A Brief History of Russia

The Russian nation has its origins in the confluence of Slavic, Viking, and Greek interaction in what is today Ukraine - a fact that will forever intertwine the brother nations in a shared history, culture, ethnicity, and faith. Russian history begins with the formation of the Kieven Rus in 882 by a Viking named Oleg, who conquered Kiev, declared it the "Mother of Rus' cities," and made it his capital. The Rus played an important role in trade and relations between Europe, the Byzantine Christian East, and the Islamic Middle East - a historic role Russia continues to perform to this day. Upon seeing the beauty of the Liturgy celebrated in the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople (which the Slavs called "Tsargrad"), Kieven ruler St. Vladimir (r. 980-1015) adopted Orthodox Christianity for the Rus in 988. Ruling with his twelve sons, St. Vladimir brought a Greek religion to a Slavic people under Viking rule.

The Kieven Rus came to an end with the Mongol invasion of 1223. Mongol dominance over the Rus left its inhabitants with a deep awareness of its geographic vulnerabilities - which would one day lead to a rapid expansion of buffer territory, once rid of Mongol rule. Leadership for this endeavor, however, would come not from Kiev but from Moscow. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church - which had already fled Kiev - settled in Moscow in the early fourteenth century, and Moscow led the way in dealing with Mongol rule culminating in a Mongol defeat in 1380 (The thesis of Lev Gumilev on the contribution of Mongol warriors to the Russian personality). The foundations of the Russian state were laid by Ivan III (r. 1462-1505) who tripled the size of Moscow's rule and became known as the "gatherer of the Rus' lands." Ivan married the daughter of the last legitimate claimant to the Byzantine throne - an act that, with the fall of Constantinople ("New Rome") in 1453, made Moscow in Russian eyes the Third Rome and protector of eastern Christians. Ivan IV ("the Terrible"), Russia's first formal Czar, expanded Russian lands eastward to the Urals and into Islamic lands, thus making Russia a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state. Russia soon faced problems from military incursions from Catholic Poland and the Islamic Crimea. Crimean Tatars razed Moscow in 1571 and the Poles conquered Moscow and placed their own appointed rulers over Russia in 1605.

The end of the Rurik dynasty (862-1598) led to the Time of Troubles in which
Poles and Polish imposters ruled. While aristocrats squabbled, a cross class alliance led by a  merchant Minin and a faithful Prince Pozharsky took back Moscow and saved Russia from the foreign occupation which followed the loss of a Tsar. This liberation was celebrated on National Unity Day, November 4, a holiday suppressed by the Bolsheviks and reinstated by President Putin in 2005.

In 1612 a popular national alliance liberated Moscow from Polish rulers

After the Poles were driven from Russia and a national assembly elected 16 yo Michael Romanov (son  of Moscow Patriarch Filaret) to the throne in 1613. Romanovs would rule Russia for the next 304 years, ending with the Communist Revolution of 1917. Under the Romanovs came an unprecedented expansion of Russia eastward (see map above). Russian rule reached the Pacific by 1689 and gradually expanded south and west during the 19th century. Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725) defeated Sweden to capture the territory on the Baltic upon which to build a new capital: St. Petersburg. With eyes to the west, in 1721 Peter claimed the title of emperor over a new Russian Empire, forging a new state based on the absolutist model of western Europe. Peter, however, sought to weaken the Orthodox Church. He abolished the Patriarchy and replaced it with a Holy Synod (comprised increasingly of Ukrainians rather than Russians) and declared that no man could enter the monastery until the age of 50. Russian wars with Persia and the Ottoman Empire continued Russian expansion south through the 18th century and 19th century. Russia's status as Christian protector state was challenged by France and Britain after the Russians destroyed the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Sinope.  Russia saw its war against the failing Ottoman empire as an expansion of Christian freedom (See our Dec 30, 2011, on the Crimean War and Religion). The British and French entered the war to challenge Russian naval expansion. The Crimean War (1853-56) in which Christian European states allied with a Muslim State to limit Russian predominance  reverberates today as Turkey flaunts NATO alliances when engaging the Russians.

Wars with Napoleon's France, Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, and Hitler's Nazis led to two major invasions and a Communist Revolution for Russia. In 1812, 1.5 million Russians (mostly peasants) died during Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Russia (and conquest of Moscow). Hitler would launch his own invasion in 1941, never capturing Moscow but leaving over 20 million Russians dead in the attempt. Around 3 million Russians died during World War I - which led directly to the atheist communist conquest of the nation by Lenin and Stalin (the latter of whom killed as many Russians as did the Nazis). Fearing a future invasion, the Soviets kept close control over eastern Europe. The end of the Soviet rule came in 1989 with an agreement that NATO would not inch its way towards the Russian border. After a decade of troubles under Yeltsin and the continued eastern encroachment of "the West" during the 1990s, the rise of Vladimir Putin in 2000 came as post-Soviet Russia seeks to reclaim its past while looking to the future.


II. Russian's Ethnic and Language Groups

Although Russia is home to over 185 different ethnic groups, Russia's overall population of 144 million is about 81% ethnic Russian. The Russian ethnicity is part of the Slavic ethnic group, with Russians worldwide comprising about 150 million of the world's 350 million Slavs. The top ten non-Russian ethnic groups include: Tatars (5.3 million), Ukrainians (1.9 million), Bashkirs (1.6 million), Chuvashs (1.4 million), Chechens (1.4 million), Armenians (1.2 million), Avars (900k), Mordvins (744k), Kazakhs (647k), and Azerbaijanis (600k). Of these, only one ethnic group (the Kazakhs) lives outside of European Russia or the Caucasus region.

Russia internal organization, however, gives political expression to its ethnic diversity. Russia is politically divided into 85 federal subjects. These federal subjects might seem at first akin to US states, but some federal subjects are cities (like Washington D.C.), others provinces - and 22 are considered semi-autonomous republics. These republics within the Russian Federation are rooted in an ethnic group which gives the republic its name (i.e. Chechnya or the Chechen Republic is named after its dominant ethnic group: the Chechens). Each republic has the right to institute its own official language and has wide latitude in establishing its own laws. These republics have been prone to separatist movements, but  some ethnic groups no longer fully reside within their geographic republic and thus diminish their capacity for union, organization, and revolution.

The map below (click here for a larger version) is demographically dated, but it does show the various republics within the Russian Federation while giving the reader a good idea of Russia's various ethnic groups and where they are to be found on a map. Unlike the map at the very top of this post (though also a good ethnic map), the map below connects ethnicity with polity. For an updated set of numbers pertaining to the modern population percentage of the titular nationality versus the ethnic Russian population, see this demographic chart (scroll down the page to see the demographics chart). The chart also includes information about each republic's language and dominant religion.

Dominant language groups in Russia, besides Russian itself, include Turkic, Caucasian, Uralic, and Mongolic languages. As their names suggests, the Caucasian and Uralic languages are prevalent in and around the Caucasus and Ural mountain regions. Turkic and Mongolian languages - both historically spoken by steppe peoples (the steppes running across Russia's south) - are found in the Caucasus region, along Russia's south, and in the Russian far east. Mongolic, for example, is dominant in the Caucasus region republic of  Kalmykia and the far eastern republic of Buryatia. See also our Map on Monday: The Turkic Peoples for a map displaying the broader Turkic-speaking world.


III. Religion in Russia

Religion in Russia is dominated by Russian Orthodoxy. Almost 60 million Russians identify as practicing Orthodox Christians (see this map of Russian Orthodoxy throughout the country). Although the Russian Orthodox faithful amount to only 41% of Russia's population, the faith is slowly rebuilding after decades under atheist communist rule. Rebuilding the faith also means more than simply bringing back the faithful - Putin is also seeking the reconstruction of two monasteries and a church within the Kremlin itself. Russia's 140,000 Catholics look to Pope Francis while the Orthodox in Russia are led by Patriarch Kirill. According to Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion, the two great Church leaders are getting closer each day to a future meeting.

Islam is the second largest religion in Russia. The 9.4 million Muslim Russians comprise about 6.5% of the Russian population (compared to 3.3 million Muslim Americans or about 1% of the US population). Most Russian Muslims live in the Caucasus region (click here for a map of Islam in Russia and note that all of the highlighted regions are semi-autonomous republics included in the ethnic-political map above). Within Russia's Islamic population, Sunni Islam is the most prevalent with Sufi Muslims found also in Chechnya and Ingushetia (both found in the Caucasus region). In September 2015, Moscow opened its largest mosque (with room for 10,000 praying pious Muslims). Putin himself was present for its dedication. While building a place of worship for Muslims, Putin and Russia's government have meanwhile reached out to Turkey about giving the Hagia Sophia back to the Christians.

Russia is also home to about 700,000 Buddhists (see population map) and 140,000 Jews.


In our third and final part of this series, we will address Russia's foreign policy and geopolitics. Click here to re-read part one of this series regarding Russia's physical ecology.