The Gambia | A River that Became a Country

The Gambia, it's the African mainland's smallest country and has a border unlike any other. It's long and skinny - just 30 miles across at its widest points - and nearly splits another country (Senegal) in half. The Gambia, in fact, is surrounded by Senegal on three sides. The only bit of the country that doesn’t border Senegal is the very short Gambian coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Somewhat frustratingly for Dakar, this geographical arrangement has isolated a part of southern Senegal, known as the Casamance region, and given rise to separatism.
All this begs an obvious question: Why does The Gambia exist in the first place?
That's exactly what we'll be exploring: from Portuguese influence to British and French colonialism, independence, and the short-lived Senegambia Confederation.
#history #africa #thegambia #senegal #geography #ghostcountries
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro + Why does The Gambia exist?
00:52 It's all in THE name
01:51 Possible origins of THE name
03:01 Triangular Trade + British and French Colonialism
04:23 Gambia Colony and Protectorate and Establishing Bathurst
05:14 Proposed Cession of Gambia to France
06:52 Were cannonballs used to shape Gambia's border?
08:10 Independence, 1981 Gambian Coup, and the Senegambia Confederation
09:59 Casamance Conflict
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Intro Animation + Character Design: Emily Clearwater (iamprettyawesome.co.nz)
Background Music:
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[@GhostCountries]

Want to know the story behind another strange border in Africa 🌍: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGqvfIKXg9FqfLM

[@andy99ish]

Fun fact: Gambling is prohibited in Gambia.

[@Zdkk11]

That’s no fun

[@GLASSMOSCOWANDBEIJING]

Good to know that Gambia is a quitter nation

[@alessandrocomastri]

Gamblia

[@andy99ish]

​@@alessandrocomastri For Gamblia gambling is the economical basis. That is why its capital is Monte Casino.

[@VerkaterterStiefel]

Gammeln geht immer in Gambia.

[@Spinna720]

Love from a Gambian 🇬🇲

[@harry.flashman]

Love from uk. my first african friends are from Gambia. Lige long vriends with people crom your country. ❤

[@___gg421]

Don’t you mean love from a The Gambian?

[@harry.flashman]

@@___gg421 love Gambia 💪❤✌🙏

[@harry.flashman]

@@___gg421 and Gambian

[@KanyeWestLover2022]

Haaland

[@Artur_M.]

In the 1650s The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia - a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth located in modern-day Latvia (and with mostly German ruling class, including the Duke Jakob Kettler) tried to establish a colony in the Gambia.

[@undertaker9587]

They actually established

[@ruksis_dupsis]

they DID establish a colony

[@GhostCountries]

A video dedicated to Curonian colonialism definitely will happen at some point on the channel!

[@maxandlily6074]

@@GhostCountriesare you gonna talk about the 2016 “coup” by former president Yahya Jammeh which caused ECOWAS to intervene and invade, then Jammeh resigned

[@erik3371]

@@undertaker9587think they worded it like that because it isn't considered a success. As in they tried to establish a colony but had to abandon the project only a little more then a decade later.

[@salkoharper2908]

A large part of why the Gambian government and army do not want to have a customs union or free trade with Senegal is that they charge high tolls to cross the ferries over the Gambia river. Any Senegalese truck driver, car or foot passenger has to pay the tolls, (often with heafty bribes included), to cross over the Gambia territory. The govt and border guards make a lot of money from corruption this way. It prevents trade and business from being conducted efficiently and only makes trucks, traders and travellers lose money, but it is how corruption works there. This is why trade or travel is still so low and expensive, even though the countries are next to each other.

[@ousman997]

Unfortunately that was bad experience you had, but The Gambia is far better than that.

[@SC-uv5le]

As as Gambian I understand the economic benefit but you are right that it’s too expensive and corrupt. Even us Gambian are complaining about this hefty prices levied on us. The sad thing is the money collected is not invested back to the people. Stays with the elites in government. In fact the bridge is now under Africa50’s management.

[@salkoharper2908]

@@SC-uv5le Yes, if the money from the tolls was invested back into the economy it could do some good, and be used to pay for improved infrastructure, like a railway bridge. As you say however, it gets stolen through corruption. There is much scope for economic growth and development in Gambia, if only this corruption can be overcome.

[@ebrimajabbi5054]

Corruption in the Gambia is like a cancer of the heart. Take it from a Gambian.

[@benaempire939]

​@@ousman997bro they are whites trying to teach us 😅 he is lying all he knows about the gambia he knows it on this video's

[@MavroProductions]

Africa is so unique man.

[@bocjagne2878]

Good one! I learned about some of our history I never knew about but when all is said and done, Gambia and Senegal should be one country, because it is, literally!

[@BlueBuckJS]

Glad to see ghost geography made a comeback on the channel! I think your last one was about the Sarra Triangle, which was really interesting and there's so many other stories like that all over the world. I mean, I know the main focus of the channel is ghost countries, but I think these kind of episodes are great as well! Also, The Gambia has to get credit for a pretty cool flag design. 🇬🇲

[@GhostCountries]

Sarra Triangle was a personal favorite of mine and yeah, we've got plenty more planned for ghost geography going forward. I'm not exactly sure how regular they'll be in terms of content scheduling, but we'll figure something out.

[@GhostCountries]

Personally, I do like The Gambia's flag too! The continent honestly has more than a few nicely designed flags.

[@theemirofjaffa2266]

Yea.. we got the best flag in Africa..😉

[@mickeitachannel498]

Great content. Gambia and Senegal where all provice of the ancient Mali Empire of the mande or mandinka people and was the access source of the ocean for them.

[@DBT1007]

just like how Indonesia Malaysia Singapore Brunei Philippines should unite as one country, or.. how haiti and dominica need to be one country, or... Iran Iraq as one nation, or... China Hongkong Macau should be just one and give that taiwan island to the native austronesian to be austronesian nation, etc. so many family that broken because of the European powers...

[@Bambino8888]

@@DBT1007 people should name specific countries instead of saying "European powers colonised everybody". because I am European but we never colonized nobody 😂 anyway, I heard that Haiti and Dominican RP are pretty different in economics and crime rate and everything. Spanish was running the colony more wise and they created more equal society. Dominican RP is actually pretty decent economy. best in Caribbean and C.America and like 8th in Latin American countries. I mean, if you would give people to vote for unification, prbly they would vote no in Dom RP 🤷

[@tidianediallo6860]

very well rounded comment ! excellent . division in progress ! let’s unit back and create the Mali empire back .

[@kingbradley7731]

@@tidianediallo6860no

[@mouhamed42]

Fake !! Only the south of Senegal was in the mali empire, the south of Senegal IS populated in majority la mandenka people.. there were a kingdom and empire indépendant in the centre and the North : Jolof Empire, Tekruur etc ..

[@k-c]

I was always curious about Gambia's history when I explored the map. Thank you for making this video.

[@markc7884]

The

[@joe_lubinda]

Also, my country ZAMBIA 🇿🇲 got it's name from the ZAMBEZI River 😝☺️

[@GhostCountries]

That came full circle! 😅

[@joe_lubinda]

@@GhostCountries 😂 yessir

[@Biobele]

Nigeria also got its name from the River Niger.

[@andy99ish]

And the Niger from the Niger !

[@raheemjalloh1441]

The Gambia 🇬🇲 the smiling coast of Africa !

[@amadeus3165]

Great video! I have an idea for the next video. What about the history of Heligoland, a small German island that was once controlled by the British. Would be great to see that. And please keep making great vids.

[@GhostCountries]

I could've sworn I responded to this, but Heligoland actually makes a brief appearance in our latest video. I definitely think we'll do a more detailed video on the island in the future though!

[@mkmkmk9536]

Wow..fascinating history!😮

[@waffle6376]

could you do katanga next

[@GhostCountries]

Yes! I can't say exactly when, but Katanga is definitely on our list. It's kind of an interesting one, since it fits the criteria both for a regular ghost countries' (State of Katanga) and ghost geography (Katanga Province) episode; either way, we'll be covering it.

[@maxasaurus3008]

I like waffles, js

[@yao4964]

Very interesting country!! Thank you for sharing us!

[@jiayizhou323]

Good video as always!

[@kirbyward2001]

Nicely done. Complicated history made understandable

[@GhostCountries]

Glad you liked it!

[@davidtrail4731]

In 1816 the British founded what is now Banjul and built a battery of guns to stop the slave ships using the river . A few years later fort Bullen was built at Barra because the guns at Banjul didn't have the reach to control the full width of the river . These are the only structures in the world built to stop the slave trade .

[@jamesl.r.huddleston3225]

Nice,thanks.Please make a doc on (: the Aku speakers of The Gambia.

[@kroosbah3812]

Great video coming from a Gambian here 🇬🇲🙌

[@GhostCountries]

Thank you so much; it’s always great hearing from someone from a place cover in a video of ours!

[@kroosbah3812]

Pleasure is all yours 🙌 Hi from Gambia 🇬🇲

[@user-sh6tt2xx2h]

and so, this is such a great video

[@theculturedjinni]

Great video about this African country, Africa generally is so underrated.

[@GhostCountries]

Thanks man; yeah, there’s plenty more to explore and I can say we’ve got a few other ghost geography episodes set in Africa coming out soon-ish!

[@theculturedjinni]

@@GhostCountries will look forward to it!

[@Alphoric]

Did you just call a continent underrated 🤦‍♂️

[@theculturedjinni]

@@Alphoric Yes I did, as African history often is very overlooked in Europe and in America.

[@ringgame]

@@caspar9794he obviously knew. it’s just used as a slang and as you can see he did elaborate on it using the word.

[@vipza72130]

Really good ! I would have liked more detailled history after independance. Oh well, I'll search for myself. Thx for the video

[@lilomouradenilsonkaiowa5195]

I.d like to know more about Gâmbia. Is this a good country to expats?

[@vipza72130]

@@lilomouradenilsonkaiowa5195 For what I know you would prefer Sénégal

[@rosiefay7283]

The real strange thing is not that THE Gambia is a separate country, but how come Casamance (that area to its south) became part of Senegal, rather than any other country, even though that made Senegal a strange shape.

[@GhostCountries]

Oh, we'll definitely be further exploring Casamance's story in a future video!

[@lemonade_ib]

Casamass is Senegal

[@bubacarrjallow8061]

The truth is Cassamance is a stolen land by Senegal and eastern Cassamance which is Tambacounda was in effect detached and renamed Senegal orièntale

[@lemonade_ib]

@@bubacarrjallow8061 Cassamance was a colony of the Portuguese, it was handed over to by French, when Senegal got independence, the region was given too .

[@AdamaDiop-rh4ii]

Casamance, The Gambia and the rest of Senegal is all one country regardless of the name you give it. We were divided and conquered.

[@hans7856]

Hmm. The reason why The Gambia is surrounded, which was not the case at first, is because Portugal gave up its Casamance region in exchange for some territory further inland, nowadays part of Guiné-Bissau.

[@sharifmahmud111]

I hope Senegal and Gambia will be one country again.🇸🇳+🇬🇲

[@Asidders]

I like the Portal like sound effects for the arrows 😁

[@Gainde215]

Senegal and Gambia should be one country.

[@yankiefrenz1367]

no

[@Gainde215]

@@yankiefrenz1367 Yes. These countries and borders are French and British creation

[@mddi1420]

A confederation was tried and it did not work. I bet 5000$ if the population were consulted for a vote , the No would win. And as a senegalese I will vote No. Whatever happened happened

[@mohamadmansour7461]

Nice Video! Time goes fast while watching you!

[@waxingmiracle]

Crazy stuff!

[@SomasAcademy]

2:14 The Gambia region was never controlled by the Songhai Empire, that's just a commonly repeated mistake among online amateur mapmakers, who have a habit of treating Songhai as a bigger version of Mali when their territories didn't actually perfectly overlap.

[@JJ-si4qh]

Kind of meanly worded. I still appreciate the general knowledge being disseminated that wouldn't have happened otherwise

[@SomasAcademy]

@@JJ-si4qh I don't see how this is remotely "meanly worded," it's just a straightforward correction of a common mistake and an explanation of where the mistake comes from.

[@Njoofene]

You are absolutely correct. It has nothing to do with Songhai. In fact, parts of modern-day Gambia were tributary states to the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. Upper Saluum lies in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum was in modern day Gambia - who paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone, the capital of ancient Saluum, now in present day Senegal. Previously to that, it was briefly part of the Jolof Empire, and before that, part of the Mali Empire, and before that, part of the Ghana Empire.

[@SomasAcademy]

@@Njoofene The Ghana Empire? I've covered the Ghana Empire on my channel before, as far as I'm aware that one was also much further to the northeast of the Gambia, like Songhai.

[@Njoofene]

@SomasAcademy Modern day Gambia and Senegal were all part of the Ghana Empire in ancient times. These modern-day countries did not exist at the time. Our ancestors lived in kingdoms, including the ancient Kingdom of Tekrur, which lies in the north of modern Senegal. I know my history very well. I come from here. In fact, the old Wagadou Dynasty (Bagadadou in the Seereer language, the language of my tribe) was the reigning Dynasty of many Senegambian old kingdoms. In fact, in Soninke mythology of the sacred serpent Bidda and in the foundation of the Ghana Empire, it mentions the blood ties between the Soninke and Seereer people.

[@elianes5505]

Yooo I'm early so I guess I'll leave a comment to the algorithm for now 👍

[@GhostCountries]

First! 🥇

[@bluemarineboy3091]

Other countries: look there's a river here, this is mine and thats your ok? Gambia: I AM THE RIVER

[@nomad9135]

Great video! I'd personally be interested in hearing about Spain's few remaining outposts in Africa: Ceuta and Melilla.

[@GhostCountries]

That may be happening soon than you think! 😉

[@plusultra6199]

Why are you interested.? Don't even know why anyone would want to to be there.

[@Njoofene]

We ultra traditional and conservative Senegambians (especially the Seereer, to which I am) with a strong knowledge of our history, do not refer to ourselves as "Senegalese" or "Gambian" , but "Senegambian" because we believe in the unification of the two modern nations. These two modern nations were brought on by colonialism without regard for the inhabitants. Previously, our ancestors used to live in kingdoms, and I, for one, and many conservative Seereers, do not believe in the modern nations of Senegal or Gambia. Since the old Kingdoms are no more (with the Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum being the last to fall (1969), although the Seereers have recently brought back their royal dynasty), we traditionalists are more content referring to ourselves as Senegambians than Gambian or Senegalese. The late Senegambian artist Musa Ngum (of Seereer heritage) was one of the pioneers of this movement. Every Gambian has an ancestor from what we now refer to as modern-day Senegal and vice versa. Even parts of Gambia were tributary of the Seereer Kingdom of Saluum. The ancient Seereer Kingdoms of Siin and Saluum now lie in present-day Senegal. However, what was Upper Saluum is now in modern day Senegal, and Lower Saluum in modern day Gambia, who in ancient times paid tribute to the Seereer kings who took residence at Kahone (now in modern day Senegal). There is no such thing as Senegal or Gambia as far as we are concerned. Since our ancient Kingdoms have collapsed due to France, Britain, and Islamism, we are more willing to accept the notion of a Senegambian nation.

[@kevindevaojoo8882]

Divide and Conquer A British and France Strategy to control Africa

[@marklittle8805]

It is up to the Senegambian people to make it happen. It sounds like the people running The Gambia want to keep this control over this valley and the commerce through it

[@6ix800]

Gambia was part of Mali empire not what you saying

[@spaceguy20_12]

Senegal: please give me some river Gambia: nuh uh

[@boblordylordyhowie]

I got an ad on FB for a home there and I could watch it being built on a webcam. I live in Scotland and sweat a lot due to a medical condition and could never live there.

[@user-ul5pt1yb8z]

Thanks a lot

[@Gwarks337]

As i was in Gambia the ferries crossing the river Gambia a usually very congested you can wait for hours with proper bribes in place. Avoiding crossing the river may be worth it not only because of not wanting to cross the border.

[@adamajanneh1998]

The territory of The Gambia PROPER extends far beyond the current boundaries crafted by Britain and France. The subject of territorial boundaries is not much of a subject of discussion, because both countries share a common faith and human brotherhood.

[@drethi818]

No mention or curonian colonisation? I thought that would be a strange fact that would work well in this video.

[@GhostCountries]

Honestly, I should’ve mentioned it, but am thinking of just doing a stand alone Curonian colonization at some point now.

[@aissatoutraoreindian6282]

Wonderfully explained grateful for that 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲

[@TaiwanN0-1]

As a Korean, it is great to be the best ally with Gambia ❤

[@ebrimaceesay8345]

Your name is Taiwan no.1 and you are a Korean?😂 Actually i’m a Gambia and currently living in Taiwan. I love Taiwan

[@ESC_jackqulen]

Learned a lot from this video! One small correction: Newfoundland is pronounced like "Nu-fin-len"

[@atanasstoilov421]

Greetings cousin 🎉❤

[@yaadmantv7178]

Love ma country Gambia 🇬🇲 ❤️

[@deepalipundir4945]

I would like to visit the Gambia soon

[@outerspace7391]

I thought the country named itself The Gambia in order to distinguish the state from the river with the same name. Nevertheless, this is such an interesting video! One of the few times I actually learned something new

[@ousman997]

Love from The Gambia 🇬🇲

[@davidbrain283]

This guy sounds like Nate from the office. Great video though. Good facts

[@MuddafukhingdisKUST]

Fun fact: The reason the name was changed to the "Islamic" Republic of the Gambia is because Gambia was ruled by an insane neocolonial dictator named Yahya Jammeh. HE was president for over 20 years but lost the 2016 election to Adama Barrow. But he refused to step down, stating " I will rule Gambia for one billion years if I have to." ECOWAS issued an injunction against Jammeh demanding him to peacefully hand over power to Barrow but he refused. In January 2017 they issued an ultimatum that ECOWAS will militarily intervene in Gambia if he didn't step down. After the ultimatum expired and Jammeh failed to meet the demands, an ECOWAS coalition lead by Nigeria invaded to depose Jammeh and transfer power to Barrow. From what I read it the time, it was said to be a relatively bloodless invasion, as I'm guessing Jammeh was pretty unpopular in the general population and the rank and file of the Gambian military. But there were said to be minor skirmishes between ECOWAS forces and Jammeh loyalists. Within the next 48 hours ECOWAS had captured the capital Banjul, Jammah fled exile, and Barrow was restored to power. That year was when the removed the "Islamic Republic" from their official name.

[@Amitdas-gk2it]

Interesting

[@hassanhamid1213]

Ilove gambla from knowing many friends and colleagues in ghana and lesotho l hope to communicate with them if they read this message . Hamid . . Sudan .

[@effyourjeweler4277]

DIAMOND 💎 JEWELER........... support your boy

[@MSSLatvia]

Your history of The Gambia omits an important fact: in1651 the Duchy of Courland under Duke Jakob Kettler established its first colony in Africa, St. Andrews Island on the Gambia River, and founded Fort Jakob there. The Duchy also gained control of additional land, which happened to include St. Mary Island (modern-day Banjul) and Fort Jillifree. Courlanders also had a colony in Tobago. The Duchy's colonies exported ivory, gold, furs, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, ginger, indigo, rum, cocoa, tortoise shells, as well as tropical birds and their much sought after feathers. In the end, the Duchy would manage to retain control of these lands for less than a decade and the colonies were formally ceded to England in 1664. The Duchy of Courland was the only European power which treated the locals as equals and taught them to be merchants. It was the British who took over the Duchy's colonies who began the brutal slave trade in indigenous peoples.

[@LowestofheDead]

I had to google what Courland was - it was a vassal state of Lithuania. We never hear about Baltic colonies!

[@NIMAL-J]

The Gambia 🇬🇲 mama land

[@nisselarson3227]

I really don't mean to be offensive, but I'm genuinely curious. In my country, most of all Heroin trade is done by people from Gambia. I used to be a heroin addict so I'm not just making things up, but I admit it's anecdotal evidence, own experiences and not some serious study. Is it common for criminals to be exiled or something?

[@AlexVictorianus]

The whole country on one river. Like Egypt

[@Lucas_Antar]

So true 😁

[@cicimalik]

And South Sudan

[@esowe01]

Yes, that's my country!

[@mroof523]

As an American, i support Senegambian unification

[@NjieZiphougarth]

To late we now taking it to a higher level unitification of the hold continent of Africa

[@mroof523]

@@NjieZiphougarth that cannot succeed

[@NjieZiphougarth]

@@mroof523 they plan Allah plans surely Allah is the best of planner's

[@mddi1420]

@@NjieZiphougarthif it is difficult to unify 2 country, why would you go on a higher level with 52 more ?

[@NjieZiphougarth]

@@mddi1420 is call confederation have you ever hear about ecowas, west African block, it unit all west African countries. The nord, east and south also have there unification now we need to bring all this four together via Africa intracontinental free tariff zone.step by step u till we get what we want... United States of Africa

[@icreatedanaccountforthis1852]

I appreciated the Newfoundland connection

[@HikaruKiroe]

aint no way im the only one who cannot unsee a face when the senegal's flag is put in the middle at the beginning of the video

[@mummysprincess9791]

My homeland proud to be from the smiling coast of Africa.

[@ddlc_monika]

dunno if anyone ever told you but all I see looking at your Avatar is three japanese Katakana "e" and I can't unsee it エエエ

[@GhostCountries]

えー！？ Honestly, now that you pointed it out, I can’t unsee it. 😅

[@morelifemarcus4307]

It’s all to keep us divided. That’s all there is to it. Unite. Make it a town in the state of sinegal in the country of Africa

[@torisven]

The answer to most of these questions is almost always European Imperialism and/or Colonialism.

[@Doulliee]

Thats my homeland 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲

[@musatunkara4428]

The Gambia smiling coast of Africa 🇬🇲🇬🇲🇬🇲my homeland my proud. Greetings from Angola 🇦🇴 22/8/2023

[@felipemellosantos6308]

Random fact about languages. In portuguese, most country names must have articles in front of them. The article could be masculine, feminine, singular or plural. There are 5 grammar grups of countries therefore: A Argentina - feminine singular O Brasil - masculine singular As Filipinas - feminine plural Os Estados Unidos - masculine plural Portugal - no article

[@mishecknkhoma]

1:45 me watching from a country called Zambia

[@shamsulbahri81]

Great video. Same old modus of operandei of Europe and the west are applied today. Divide and conquer.

[@KiKfilms]

Well, that "The" only applies to English or other languages that use prefixes like that, so most people will not use it anyway.

[@davetye]

But English is the official language of The Gambia.

[@tulppp2826]

Hey friend, from where you gathered so much information. Love from India.

[@jimbeam7636]

Guerilla language lesson of the day: when using the past tense of a verb like "gather" it's the past participle. In this case the person you're asking has performed an action(like a verb). They're "doing" research, so your correct line of questioning is missing the past tense of the verb "do", which is "did". Small nuances like this make English a hassle to learn. The sentence has more direct question if you ask it as "where did you gather all this information?" - with love, A random native English speaker. (P.s. if I ever learn Hindi I'd hope you'd help to correct my language usage as to help further my understanding too)

[@norikofu509]

W Channel

[@ceesaydesignsolutions]

An avid follow from the video showcasing West Africa as a whole, only to be separated by the Europeans 🙄 love from 🇬🇲!

[@jamesl.r.huddleston3225]

Fancy a dip in River🐊Gambia❓If you were in 1970's Banjul,then you likely heard(:"Gambia,River Gambia /: you know sabi 🏊‍♂ swim,water dey carry you go‼"

[@glen1555]

Like how you used the flag of Great Britain and not the present flag until later in your video

[@lioneldemun6033]

Fun fact : the Gambia has a similar size as Lebanon, Qatar, Kosovo, Jamaica

[@lemonade_ib]

Also poorer than the rest

[@omarbandeh2989]

@@lemonade_ib how ignorant!!!

[@lioneldemun6033]

@@lemonade_ib maybe are they richer in the soul, isn't that the most important thing ?

[@soundcloudhq7863]

@@lemonade_ibWhat relevance does that have to the topic at hand?

[@theemirofjaffa2266]

​@@lemonade_ib km from Gambia, n you're not lying though

[@Master-mm1dm]

Very informative video but you missed out probably the most importaint factor. That is the 'Berlin conference' which took place from the 17th November 1884. All of the major European powers of the day were present by invitation of the then German Chancellor 'Otto Von Bismarck'. The main purpose of the conference, today known as the 'Scramble for Africa' was for the said European powers to reach amicable agreement on the division of the African continent by peaceful negotiation rather than by conflict & war. Over the next 107 days, the whole of the African continent was carved up into the seperate countries with most of the borders that we now know today including the Gambia/Senegal. As if the whole continent was a tasty cake being carved up for European consumption & not a single African leader of the day was either present nor invited. In fact King Leopold II of Belgium, who also was not invited. Turned up anyway stating that "I've come to get a piece of this magnificent African cake". He was rewarded by having his claim for the Begium Congo granted which he then proceeded to use as his own personal play ground. Over the next generation or so he literally halved the then 20 million population by killing over 10 million African men, women & children as a consequence of the worst colonial exploitation imaginable. At the Berlin conference, the French had laid a claim to the territory which became French Senegal but the British had insisted on maintaining access to the river Gambia in order to transport their plundered goods from the African interior to the Atlantic ocean then back to Brtain. Hence the Gambia was created in the middle of French Senegal to appease the British & allow them to have the access route they requred. This is also the reason for Gambia's unusual cigar shape being roughly 300 miles long but no wider the 15 miles either side of the river. The rest of Europeans powers then spent the next 30 years all claiming their own slice of 'the magnificant African cake' by persuasion, conquest or by whatever other means they could muster against the Africans. Secure in the knowledge that they would have no interference from any of the other European powers as it had all been agreed before hand at the Bertlin conference in 1884.

[@kevindevaojoo8882]

The British and France made Gambia to divide Senegal into two Divide and Conquer strategy

[@smiletvgambia1117]

My mama land bless country...

[@genghiskhan6809]

Now we just need Nambia to perfect the trio.

[@MLS5999]

Hmm

[@marym7104]

Within 4 days!

[@-Katastrophe]

I like how the lower half of Senegal looks like a happy gator or dragon.

[@marym7104]

19,277th viewer of this video!

[@eleidal]

In other languages such as German, there are many countries that get "the" placed in front of them, such as Turkiye (die Türkei) and the USA (die Vereinigten Staaten).

[@eleidal]

Oh and also Switzerland (die Schweiz).

[@Da__goat]

I always wondered why Senegal never just invaded to make transportation easier

[@ringgame]

Lives have value and conflict has consequences in reality, unlike in movies and games

[@abdulwahabjabang7095]

Ah who needs wisdom when we can just rely on such awe-inspiring brilliance?

[@mddi1420]

I speak on behalf of senegalese, we are not as barbaric as american or british who think that every problem is solved by invading and killing people. A benelux format was already tried and it did not pan out very well. In the state Senegal is currently (injustice, murdered officers without any investigation , corruption) I woul suggest gambian to move away from us.

[@6ix800]

You can take the lead! Fool 🙄🙄🙄

[@helloim3j]

Hold up. Did you say Kunta Kinte Island? Is Toby The Gambian?

[@benkamba8096]

I think he was Mandika.. large group of pipo from west Africa

[@saudadescheveres6840]

Why does the reference to Portugal show an image of a Spanish standard bearer

[@aped]

Gambia should unite with Senegal

[@sharduljadhav3189]

Can u make a video on Maratha empire from India. I like your videos 😊

[@GhostCountries]

Thanks and yes; we actually were considering a video about the Maratha Empire back when we did Sikkim, but I can definitely say it'll happen at some point!

[@sharduljadhav3189]

@@GhostCountries sikkim video was very nice, I am a indian but I didn't know very much about sikkim. Your video helps me to understand its history

[@cjshow-zp6nh]

Short answer, this is because the land which is now part of Senegal was under the French while the tiny strip of land which is now The Gambia was under British colonialism.

[@sextape_cisxs2105]

Imagine if Gambia were to be invaded by Senegal, see how the battle has already been decided. Before even being fought.

[@kefa83.]

not always written with a capital, but The Netherlands is also a country where 'the' is in the name.

[@alberttallam24]

It very easy for Senegal to annex Gambia

[@mddi1420]

we are not as barbaric as american or british who think that every problem is solved by invading and killing people. A benelux format was already tried and it did not pan out very well. In the state Senegal is currently (injustice, murdered officers without any investigation , corruption) I woul suggest gambian to move away from us.

[@superiagamingforlife]

Gambia should join Senegal

[@superiagamingforlife]

As of my opinion Gambia would be a river/state of Senegal and having Banjul as the state capital

[@user-nb5nm4ol8p]

both countries should be united in a single one, current situation is bad for both of them economically especially if its all caused by european colonialism

[@dondudu9066]

Gambia is Totally independent, Since 1965 unlike our noisy neighbour's who are still under there French masters😢.

[@Lucas_Antar]

That's because when the UK gives freedom it really does

[@andymirov2641]

all Africa has be under european rule

[@miahconnell23]

I hope The Gambia reconsiders its foreign policy decision regarding an important Asian nation. 😢

[@SC-uv5le]

@@miahconnell23Taiwan?

[@karinasnooodles_]

Both are independent lmao

[@ianshaver8954]

Ah, the British Empire, who wanted the river and the parts around the river, but not the other parts.