gigglewhatsit:

chocoxnekochan:

voldemortoutbitches:

HOW

WHY ARE YOUR COUNTIES/STATES SO NEATLY DIVIDED!?

IN ENGLAND IT IS WIGGLY LINE WORLD:

AND THEN YOU LOOK AT AMERICA AND IT’S LIKE

BAM

BOXES

WHY

HOW

WHEN!?!?!?!??

like a boss B|

The New World, as it was called during the time of its discovery, was sectioned into regions by politics [and surveyors’ lines] rather than traditional boundaries and borders [formed by natural geographic features like rivers or mountain ranges]. While there were actually borders and boundaries in place prior to the European discovery of the Americas, the European governments regarded the native American peoples as barbarous, and ignored their cultural and political contributions.

Curiously, the Portuguese and Spanish were more inclined to follow boundaries and borders already set by the Native Americans and by the European wars of colonisation than the British and the French - which explains why the regions of Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, etc. have far less straight lines in their regional borders than the United States and Canada. It also explains why California, for instance, has a less grid-like organisation of counties than Kansas or Missouri.