Which province of Canada has the longest border with the USA? This happened because of a mountain range. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas. The road on the American side … Because people and communities rarely follow straight lines – when straight lines are used it is typically by colonial idiots (the Brits particularly) or because there is no major population there when the lines were drawn e.g. One-time estimated tax payment for windfall. One effect of this is that it creates/exacerbates modern regional differences. Additionally, there was a feeling in the US Congress that all new US states should be roughly the same size, which led to a lot of territories having relatively arbitrary lines drawn through them to make properly-sized states. How are states (Texas + many others) allowed to be suing other states? So after the War of 1812, the USA and the British agreed to simplify the border on the west side of the Great Lakes at the 49th parallel. There is a TV series "How States got their Shapes" with about 30 episodes that explains very nicely the history behind many of the surprising tidbits. rev 2020.12.10.38158, The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, History Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us. Is the stem usable until the replacement arrives? Later, … Was there an anomaly during SN8's ascent which later led to the crash? In this video Grey explains why the border between Canada and the US is supposed to be straight, why it isn't and some rather odd analogies. The 49th parallel had formerly been proposed by Britain as a formal border with French Louisiana as early as the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Most of the border west of the Lake of the Woods was first proposed in 1807, and decided in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 , with the Oregon section finalised in the Oregon Treaty . When the US and Canada mutually agreed in March to shut the border to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, no one predicted it would be closed this long. The shape of borders reflects the history and commerce at the time. When the border was set, the region was sparsely populated and there was little reason to believe that would ever change. It looks straight because most of it were fixed at the 141st meridian west under the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825. These resources generally don't have perfectly known boundaries. Where can I travel to receive a COVID vaccine as a tourist? Who inherited from the pre- World War II German states? It only takes a minute to sign up. It was simply easier to draw a straight line on a map than to survey the area. For instance the weird slanted lines a lot of states have tend to be due to historical incidents of incompetent surveying. The inaccuracy of surveys aside, the natural twists and turns of geographic features, especially rivers (which to make matters worse may change course) are source of major headaches. For instance, the straight-line border between California and Nevada runs just a bit east of the crest of the Sierra Nevada, so people on the east side (especially in the Reno/Tahoe area) tend to identify much more with Nevada than California: they do major shopping in Reno, get news from Reno sources (at least prior to internet & satellite TV), often go to college there, &c. Life would have been much less complicated if the border had been set at the crest. Originally (post-Louisiana Purchase), the USA claimed the entire Mississippi(/Missouri) watershed, while Britain claimed the Hudson Bay watershed. I was bitten by a kitten not even a month old, what should I do? It cuts across lakes, forests, glaciers, and towns. Was it worthwhile for Britain to side with the USA in the Canada-Alaska border dispute? This border in particular seems straight because a huge 3,500 km section of the Canadian-US border was somewhat arbitrarily fixed at the 49th parallel. Is there a difference between a tie-breaker and a regular vote? The rest of her family remained in the Buffalo area and she regularly visited them. It was simply easier to draw a straight line on a map than to survey the area. In parliamentary democracy, how do Ministers compensate for their potential lack of relevant experience to run their own ministry? No wars were fought with Britain/Canada after the War of 1812, at which point the far northwestern territories you are talking about weren't really settled. Canada US border remain closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Concerning "no-one had any idea where the lakes, mountains or forests were": an example of this is the Treaty of Paris (1783), which originally called for the border between the British Empire and the USA to run due west from Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi River. AFP via Getty Images. Why was it deemed necessary that the “average person… knows they are on the border”, which resulted in the creation of the US-Canadian border slash? Essential travel includes trade shipments through railways, truckers transporting essential goods, as well as people crossing the border to carry out essential work. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. So people sitting in offices found it easier to negotiate straight lines as boundaries, and let the settlers find out what was on either side of them, instead of deciding where to put the "fences.". For instance, much of the eastern end of the U.S. Canadian border was defined by the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. Some boundaries in the West still are determined by rivers, for instance the Colorado between Arizona/Nevada and California, or the Columbia between Washington and Oregon. Most of Alaska's border with Canada was inherited from Russian times. How was the first official geographical border established in Europe? A lot of the economy in the western US depended on resources such as gold, silver, later also oil etc. Were discrepancies from the 45th parallel in the US-Canadian border ratified? The border moved many times, sometimes by force, sometimes for profit. "No one" (in a policy-making position) had any idea where the lakes, mountains or forests were. We see this in many colonial borders, in America or elsewhere in the various European empires. Going further west, there are several factors that led to straighter borders. The US border with Canada is the longest in the world, stretching more than 5,500 miles across the continent with just 100 or so checkpoints. There's the Mississippi river, of course, but not much going west from there until you get to the Rockies. Canada-U.S. closure now extended until September. Im sure the Costco's in the US that are not close to the border ... And you'd better shoot straight, ... but we also shop at the Lynden WalMart and Safeway on our US trips to Bellingham from Canada. The western border of Massachusetts is straight except for the southernmost few miles. ", When the "straight" borders (49th parallel and 141 W longitude) were defined, there were no (white) people living around them. Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange! Interestingly, the treaty between the U.S. and Canada explicitly provides that either side may legitimately dissolve it with thirty days' notice; I wonder if the existence of provisions to dissolve a treaty helps prevent either side from giving the other cause to do so. Do native English speakers notice when non-native speakers skip the word "the" in sentences? The treaty established the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia as the boundary between the United States and British Canada. Archibald Campbell led the way for the United States , while Donald Cameron headed the British team. While it is a huge stretch of land, that’s not really what makes it bizarre. Most of the border west of the Lake of the Woods was first proposed in 1807, and decided in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, with the Oregon section finalised in the Oregon Treaty. Even straight lines didn't always help. When was the concept of the “border wall” between the United States and Mexico first proposed? Similarly, the border between Alaska and Canada is mostly a straight line as it crosses sparsely populated tundra. For instance, the recently settled long standing dispute between Maine and New Hampshire over islands in the Piscataqua River that forms their borders; Alabama and Georgia's dispute over their Chattahoochee River border; or Georgia and South Carolina's dispute at the Savannah River and its islands. Similarly, the border between Alaska and Canada is mostly a straight line as it crosses sparsely populated tundra. For the US states, generally borders tended to get set up while the areas were still territories (mostly uninhabited by American Citizens), so cultural communication/travel barriers weren't as much of a consideration. Zero Avenue, a flat, straight road that runs parallel to the border on the Canadian side, is known as a haven for smugglers. History Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for historians and history buffs. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed via Twitter that the Canada – U.S. border will be closed to non-essential travel until November 21. How exactly was the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit supposed to reverse the 2020 presidential election? Borders are straight lines when the people who drew them did not care about what they meant for the people on the ground. You can do so legally at any port of entry into Canada with the proper paperwork – namely a passport if you are a Canadian or US citizen – there are other forms of acceptable ID as well. Why was the bald eagle chosen as the national bird of the United States? Why is the border between US and Canada straight? @jamesqf: It sounds to me like those people have everything under control. How does the recent Chinese quantum supremacy claim compare with Google's? In the U.S., there are a lot of straight boundaries in western states that are sparsely populated, and have large chunks of desert or at least "deserted" land. Of course, it was meant to be the 49th parallel (or so) only until the Mississippi, at which point it would have (as far as I can tell) turned south and looped back (Territory west of the MS was acquired later as the Louisiana Purchase). The 49th parallel had formerly been proposed by Britain as a formal border with French Louisiana as early as the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. This was made to give Indiana access to Lake Michigan. Multiple wars might eventually readjust the border to more natural terrain features. CGP Grey has a video about this nice border between Canada and the USA, and how it isn't that straight as you think. However, the reality is that the United States had not fought any war against Canada (or British North America) since the borders were demarcated. You might be able to find some of it from your favorite streaming TV sources. Breadcrumb Trail Links. They only wanted to get it done with easily. In contrast, there is only one 42nd parallel (incidentally part of the border between New York and Pennsylvania, which is fixed, simple, and objectively determinable. @Mark - The weird semicircle at the top of Delaware is another example of this. The U.S. does not recognize the "A-B" Line as an official boundary, instead regarding it as allocating sovereignty over the land masses within the Dixon Entrance, [2] with Canada's land south of the line. Those borders were originally intended to extend all the way through the Continent. Weird result of fitting a 2D Gauss to data. It stretches 5,525 miles from Maine to Alaska, traversing land, sea, and untouched wilderness. 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