Crossing the Line GIS Activity

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Splitting: Catalonia and Spain
Catalonia is located in the north eastern part of Spain. It is on the Mediterranean Sea with a lot of coastline. There are three main reasons why Catalonia wants to split from Spain. First, Catalan language and and culture in not understood, or accepted in Spain. Catalans have been facing linguistic and cultural discrimination for over 36 years now. Second, Catalans believe that a well defined political entity like themselves should be able to govern itself. With its own voice in the European Union or the United Nations and address problems specific to it. Lastly, Catalans believe that they would be better off economically by seceding. Including the fact that Catalonia believes that it pays more into Spain's central treasury than it gets back. Catalonia has a strong economy giving it finatial independence, in order to set up and support and independent infrastructure. Also, Catalonia is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea giving it a good port for imports and export along with abundance of tourism and fertile soil for agriculture. The boundaries of Catalonia are most likely established on cultural differences. With the diverse language and culture in the area they created their boundary to help, maintain their culture and language. An already troubled Spanish economy would be in even more trouble loosing valuable agriculture and tourism resources along the Côte d'azure. Spain would also loose a chuck of its border with France and valuable coast line real estate access.

Merging: Arabian Gulf Union
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and Qatar are located in what is known as the Arabian Penninsula in the Middle East. It is surrounded on both sides by large bodies of water that access the Arabian Sea. Yemen, Oman, and Qatar are relatively small countries that have limited resources to put towards a militaryfor defending themselves against an imperialistic and militant Iran. Yemen, being dysfunctional at the moment, would have trouble organizing a military or any form of an defense from Iran if something were to happen. Yemen, Oman and Qatar would benifit from joining the large, and powerful Saudi Arabia because they would be protected by the Saudi Arabian army. Saudi Arabia would benefit by gaining territory, and coastline for access to the Arabian Sea for exports and imports and being able to avoid the dangerous Strait of Hormuz. Gaining more coastline would also help increase tourism and give them more ocean front real estate that could be used for multiple different things, including beach front resorts, docks for importing and exporting, or beaches. The boundaries are partly geometric (Oman, and Yemen) and partly physical. The physical part being that it is surrounded by ocean. The formation of the Arabian gulf union could result in a very strong state both militarily and politically. It could possibly cause harsh or violent actions towards Iran or from Iran. The formation could also result in a more organized and less dysfunctional Yemen.