Lecture 1

The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line of demarcation on the surface of Earth that runs
from the North Pole to the South Pole and demarcates the boundary between one calendar day and the
next. IDL passes through the Bering Sea.
Nordic states are in the north of Europe: Sweden, Norway, and Finland, etc. Scandinavia can refer to
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
Continental Europe is a land-connected Europe.
The Caspian Sea is the world’s largest lake.
Three small deserts in North America are collectively called the Great Basin.
Sahara is the world’s largest desert.
A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost entirely surrounded by water but is connected to the
mainland on one side.
The highest peak in the Hindu Kush is Trench Mir. K-2, also called Mount Godwin Austen is the highest
peak of the Karakoram range. Mount Everest is the highest peak of the Himalayas.
Lecture 2

 Suez Canal (193.3 km): Construction began in 1859. Funded by British and France.

 Panama Canal (82km): Lock gate technology is used.

 Grand Canal (1776km): Constructed in 468 BC. Connects four rivers of China.

 Kiel Canal (98km): Construction completed in 1985.

 Gibraltar is UK’s territory.

 Andorra is a co-principality of France and Spain.

 Some rivers are Tagus River, River Seine, River Thames, River Shannon, Rhine River, and
Danube River.

 Pyrenees Mountain Range, Black Forest Mountains, Alps Mountains

Island is a piece of land surrounded by water.
A gulf is a portion of the ocean that penetrates land. Gulfs vary greatly in size, shape, and depth. They are
generally larger and more deeply indented than bays.
A strait is a narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water. A channel is a wide strait or
waterway between two landmasses that lie close to each other.
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land that connects two larger landmasses and separates two bodies of
water.
A cape is a high point of land that narrowly extends into a body of water.
An archipelago is an area that contains a chain or group of islands scattered in lakes, rivers, or the ocean.
The term, British Isles, is used by people of Continental Europe to refer to islands of Great Britain,
Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, and over six thousand smaller islands.
Lecture 3
The Bosporus, also known as the Strait of Istanbul, is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally
significant waterway located in north-western Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea with the Sea
of Marmara.
The Treaty of Sevres was a 1920 treaty signed between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman
Empire. The Treaty of Sevres marked the beginning of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the
dismemberment of the empire. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres,
ended the conflict and saw the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Turkey could not charge for use
of the strait of Istanbul for trade. The treaty is going to end in 2023.
To increase its influence in Eastern Europe, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, an area near the sea
of Azov, in 2014. Kerch Strait connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. These areas are oil and gas
trade routes to Eastern Europe for Russia.
Nord Stream is a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to
Germany. TurkStream is a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkey.
Balkanization, division of a multinational state into smaller ethnically homogeneous entities. The term
also is used to refer to ethnic conflict within multi-ethnic states. It was coined at the end of World War I to
describe the ethnic and political fragmentation that followed the breakup of the Ottoman Empire,
particularly in the Balkans.
The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula.
Following World War II, Yugoslavia began to gain more stability but by 1980 the different factions within
the country began fighting for more independence. In the early 1990s, Yugoslavia finally disintegrated.
The countries eventually created out of the former Yugoslavia were Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo,
Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Kosovo did not declare its independence
until 2008 and it is still not recognized as fully independent by the entire world.
Slobodan Miloševi pursued Serbian nationalist policies that contributed to the breakup of the socialist
Yugoslav federation. He subsequently embroiled Serbia in a series of conflicts with the successor Balkan
states. As Serbia’s president, Milošević had continued to dominate the new Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, which had been inaugurated in 1992 and consisted of only Serbia and Montenegro. Milošević
was arrested by the Yugoslav government in 2001 and turned over to the ICTY for trial on charges of
genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
There is a strong communist hold in Serbia.
The Three Seas Initiative, also known as the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea (BABS) Initiative, or simply the
Three Seas (in Latin, Trimarium), is a forum of twelve states in the European Union, along a north-south
axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea in Central and Eastern Europe. Initially,
Check Republic, Poland, and Romania started the initiative to counter Russian in the region.
The Nordic Region consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, as well as the Faroe
Islands, Greenland, and Åland.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is an autonomous territory, with separate parliament, within the
Kingdom of Denmark.
In English usage, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
The United Kingdom refers to England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Great Britain refers to the
whole of England, Scotland, and Wales in combination. The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown
dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. The head of state, Queen Elizabeth II,
holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a lieutenant governor. The United Kingdom is
responsible for the isle's military defense.
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April
1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had
ensued since the late 1960s. The agreement acknowledged that the majority of the people of Northern
Ireland wished to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
Belfast is the capital of Ireland and Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland.
The Acts of Union were two Acts passed by the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—
which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the
words of the Treaty, “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”.
The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes referred to as a single Act of Union 1801) were parallel acts of the
Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and
the Kingdom of Ireland.
Scotland Act of 1998 and Northern Ireland Act of 1998 established devolved legislatures for Scotland and
Northern Ireland respectively.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent.

Lecture 4

 Bay of Mexico

 Mississippi River

 Missouri River

 Great Plains

 Great lakes

 Niagara Falls in New York State

 Venezuela has the largest oil resources in the world.

 Brazil-China investment

 Angel Falls is the largest waterfall.

 Amazon River is the largest by volume.

  Andes Mountain range is the longest in the region.

 Atacama Desert, Chile is the world’s driest place.

 Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope

 The era of Exploration (1400-1800)

 In 1419, Prince Henry founded a Navigation school in Portugal.

 Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, sailed from Portugal to the Cape of Good Hope.

 In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian, left to search for the quickest route to Asia but
reached America.

 In 1497, Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian, voyaged to South America.

 In his 1497 voyage, John Cabot reached Canada and colonized it.

 In his 1497 voyage, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to reach India
by sea.

 In his 1519 voyage, Hernán Cortés, a Spanish, reached Mexico, Central America and led to the
fall of the Aztec Empire.

 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese, went around the world to prove that the earth is round.
Magellan strait is named after him.

 Hudson Bay is named after Henry Hudson, a member of the Dutch East India Company.

 The United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia in 1867.

 New York City is on the Hudson River. The American military academy is at Hudson River.
South America (4th largest) has 12 independent countries and 3 major territories. Three territories are
French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, and the Falkland Islands.
In 1835, Charles Darvin went on Galapagos Islands to study evolution because these islands have a lot of
diversity in wildlife. Darwin proposed variation in individual species, heredity, and survival for the fittest.
Falkland War was fought between Argentina and UK in 1952 over the Falkland Islands. In 1983,
referendum preferred the UK. British gave nationality to people of the area (the British Nationality Act,
1983).
Brazil started cutting its forests which might have a global impact.
UN Convention on Climate Change (COP-26) will be held in November 2021.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international
environmental treaty addressing climate change, negotiated and signed by 154 states at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development, informally known as the Earth Summit, held in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Pakistan is not invited to the climate change summit by the USA while India and Bangladesh are invited.
Pakistan is the 5th most infected country.
 Lecture 5

 The Ural Mountains divide Russia into regions of Asia and Europe.

 Named after Alexander the Great, Alexandria is a Mediterranean port city in Egypt.

 Casablanca is a port city in Morocco.

 Seven emirates are collectively referred to as UAE.

 Aden is a port city in Yemen.

 Mount Toor (or Mount Sinai) is the Sinai Peninsula, which a territory of Egypt.

 Age of Colonization accompanied Age of Exploration.

 Algeria was under the control of France after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

 French first attached Algeria in 1830.

 Arabs came to Algeria around 702 AD.

 Suez Canal was built during 1859-1869.

 World War I from 1914–1918. World War II from 1939–1945.

 The peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland, Treaty of Lausanne, was the result of a second
attempt at peace after the failed and unratified Treaty of Sèvres, which aimed to divide Ottoman
lands. The earlier treaty had been signed in 1920, but later rejected by the Turkish national
movement who fought against its terms.

 Algeria got independence from France in 1962 after a brutal and long war of independence. After
the outbreak of the independence war in 1954, Ahmed Ben Bella, a socialist leader, fought under
the banner of the National Liberation Front (FLN) against French colonists. Bella also became the
first president of Algeria.

 The elite class in Algeria has become secular. Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) arose to establish an
Islamic State ruled by sharia law. FIS was against Ahmed Bella.

 In 1988, FIS won the general election but the army intervened in favor of FLN. FIS again won in
reelection. The army started a crackdown which led to civil war. FIS was disbanded in 1992 but
the civil war claimed many lives.

 After winning the election in 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has the support of the French,
ruled as a president till 2019.

 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed the
Casbah of Algiers a World Cultural Heritage site. during the Algerian War of Independence,
French authorities launched operations in the Casbah to counter FLN.

 `Libya was colonized by Italy during 1911-1912.

 Omar al-Mukhtar, The Lion of the Desert, led an armed struggle against Italy for 20 years. He
was hanged by Italians.
 Axis forces (Germany, Italy, and Japan) fought with Allied forces (UK, France, US, and later
Russia) in World War II (1939-45). Libya became the setting for the hard-fought North African
Campaign that ultimately ended (Dec 1942- Sep 1943) in favor of the British and France who
defeated Italy.

 In 1951, Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya under King Idris al-
Sanusi, Libya's only monarch.

 In 1969, al-Fateh Revolution, a military coup led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, overthrew the
king. Gaddafi ruled from 1969 to 2011. Arab Spring, a democratic movement, started in
December 2010. Gaddafi was killed in Benghazi, Libya in 2011 by protesters. Civil war broke out
in Libya after his death.

 Cairo was declared capital of Egypt in 969 AD. In 1517, Egypt became part of Ottoman Empire.

 During the World War I, Central Powers (Germany, Hungarian Empire, and Ottoman Empire)
fought against the Allied Forces (British, France, and Russia).

 In 1914, Egypt became British protectorate. The UK unilaterally declared Egyptian independence
in 1922, abolishing the protectorate and establishing an independent Kingdom of Egypt. King
Fuad I was first king of independent Egypt.

 In Egypt, elite class had embraced a secular mindset. Hassan al-Banna (a school teacher and an
Iman) founded Muslim Brotherhood (Akhwan al-Muslimin). Muslim Brotherhood countered
secular mindset. Its activities were at first peaceful (established schools and madrassas) but later
became violent.

 In Egyptian revolution of 1952, Free Officers Movement (a military coup) demolished kingship
which was under British influence. British forces were ousted from Egypt.

 Mohamed Naguib became president in 1952. Gamal Abdel Nasser succeeded him in 1956 and
remained in office till 1970.

 Israel had invaded the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to reopen of the Straits of Tiran. In 1967, six-day
war was fought between Israel and Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.

 Anwar Sadat (president of Egypt during 1970-1981) participated in Camp David Accord 1978 to
sign a peace treaty with Israel. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem
Begin of Israel got Nobel Peace Prize.

 Muslim Brotherhood (MB) opposed Camp David Accords, and member of MB assassinated
Anwar Sadat.

 After Anwar’s death in 1981, Hosni Mubarak succeeded him. He remained in office till 2011 and
was deposed through a (so-called) pro-democratic movement.

 France ousted Ottoman and occupied Tunisia in 1881.

 Under the leadership of Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia got independence in 1939.

 The 1987 Tunisian coup d'état involved the bloodless ousting of the aging President of Tunisia
Habib Bourguiba, and his replacement as President by his recently appointed Prime Minister,
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (in office during 1987-2010).
 Mohamed Bouazizi got himself on fire in front of government building. Abidine had to step
down. It is referred as Jasmine Revolution.

 Western supported these protests calling them pro-democratic.