How could state borders equal major watersheds?
How can I explain, in a believable way of course, that country borders closely resemble drainage divides? They don't always match mountain ridges, which are natural borders "“Â as are the rivers themselves in our world.
In particular, with a point of divergence (POD) ±50 years around our calendar epoch (Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ), how could this have happened in Europe so that about a millenium later borders looked somewhat like the red lines in the map of drainage basins shown below? In some cases, especially for rivers draining into the Baltic and Black Seas, I would additionally use the gray lines. The white areas would belong to either neighboring area or be independent.
Note that the exact position of lines depends on how you define your water bodies (seas, oceans, rivers), so it could look slightly different in Denmark/Sweden, Greece, Italy and Scotland.
Just for the record, I'm planning to establish the following countries with somewhat Latin names for some degree of (partially anachronistic) familiarity:
- Atlantic Ocean
- Norvegia (Norway)
- Islandia (Iceland)
- Hibernia (Ireland)
- Britannia (Wales + Scotland + Cornwall): Severn
- Gallia (France): Seine (Belgica) + Loire (Lugdunensis) + Garonne (Aquitania)
- Lusitania (Portugal): Douro (Galicia) + Tejo (Castilia) + Guadiana + Guadalquivir (Baetica)
- Baltic Sea
- Suecia (Sweden + Finland)
- Baltica (Latvia + Estonia): Neva + Narva + Daugava
- Polonia (Poland + Lithuania): Oder + Vistula + Neman
- North Sea
- Anglia (England) Ouse + Trent + Cam + Thames
- Germania: Elbe (Saxonia), Weser, Ems (Frisia), Rhein (Alemannia), Maas (Belgica)
- Mediterranean Sea
- Catalania/Tarraconensis: Ebro, Baleares
- (Massilia): Rhône
- Italia: Tiber, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily
- Graecia: Vardar (Macedonia), Mariza (Thracia)
- Adriatic Sea
- Venetia: Po
- Black Sea
- Moesia/Istria (Bavaria + Austria + Hungary + Serbia + Romania etc.): Danube
- Dacia: Dniester + Bug
- Ucraina/Sarmatia: Dnieper
- Caucasia/Iberia: Don
- Caspian Sea
- Russia: Volga
- Polar Sea
- Lappia: Dvina, Pechora "¦
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/35289. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of mountains.
Prior to the invention of flight, mountains were often more than a little bit annoying to cross. Passes make traversing a mountain range easier, but the journey can be treacherous if the roads aren't good. In a society in a more medieval era, crossing the mountains is tough. Clearly not impossible by any means, but tough.
If you have trouble crossing a mountain range, it doesn't make sense to have more land on the other side be part of the same country. If the society has not yet figured out how to use telegraphs or telephones, messages need to be sent by land. This makes governing hard.
You can use mountains to separate watersheds. States will be reluctant to have regions separated by mountains be under the same government. If they are governed together, I predict that secession would be easier. It's tough to get an army over the mountains, and the existing army on the other side might not be big enough to suppress a rebellion.
The feasibility of this does depend on there being a low level of technology in the region.
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