| For the curious, here's the watersheds of Europe map I had in mind: http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-c... The borders especially of Spain, France, the former Austro-Hungarian (better described as the Danubian) Empire, and much of Germany and Poland are reasonably well evidenced. The Balkans are as fractured hydrologically as they are politically. Currently contiguous peninsular regions are defined in significant part by their coasts rather than rivers, probably showing the significance of sea-borne transport. Norway and Sweden are divided along their fall line, as are Spain and France by the Pyreneese Mountains. Switzerland is an identifiable mountain valley. What's impressive about Russia is how unified it is by waterways. The Volga-Baltic Waterway provides contiguous maritime communication from the Black Sea to the Baltic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga–Baltic_Waterway A comparable watersheds map of the US, showing the immensity of the Mississipi-Missouri-Ohio-Arkansas-Red river system: https://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-... (Also the utter insanity of most current US state boundaries. At least if you're a fish.) And the comparable watersheds map of China: https://web.archive.org/web/20190825155610/https://s3.amazon... |
