Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

by Tim Marshall

Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest producer of oil,

Nigeria is West Africa’s most powerful country.

Kenya’s economy is the powerhouse in the five-nation East African Community, accounting for about 40 per cent of the region’s GDP.

The Chinese Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) has already spent almost $2 billion modernising the Benguela railway line which links the DRC to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coast 800 miles away.

China is Sudan’s biggest trading partner,

consistently protects Sudan at the UN Security Council

South Africa’s economy is ranked second-biggest on the continent behind Nigeria.

Ottoman Empire (1299–1922)

‘Sykes–Picot’

Treaty of Sèvres (1920),

full independence via a referendum in 2017 backfired badly.

we know the area as Saudi Arabia – the rough equivalent would be calling the UK ‘Windsorland’.

In August 2014 the American-led coalition had begun air strikes against IS in both Iraq and Syria.

IS began losing territory in the summer of 2015,