Crossing the Line GIS Activity

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1.  The first country which is the one that is going to be divided is Somalia/Somaliland (Yellow). This region is located on the Eastern coast of Africa. The Second countries that are going to be combined (Arabian gulf union, Green) are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. These countries make up a large part of the region known as the Middle East.

2. Somalia/Somaliland - I believe that Somaliland will separate from Somalia due to Somalia's poor government. Somalia is in terrible shape, it doesn't even have control of the capital city, extreme poverty, and a lot of piracy going on in that area. Somaliland on the other hand is a relatively well-governed state with almost no partake in pirating. There would be no reason for the developing region of Somaliland to want to be apart of the poverty stricken Somalia.
Arabian Gulf Union - All the countries in this region have a high percentage of Muslims, making them culturally similar. Also, their are many oil/gas rigs in this area (purple dots). If these countries were to combine, they could create a booming economy with oil and gas exports and many jobs would be created. The more poverty stricken areas like Yemen could greatly benefit from combining, as it could help them get out of poverty.


3. Somalia/Somaliland - The boundaries separating these two states could be considered cultural. The people of Somaliland have a strong relation among each other culturally, and wanted to separate from Somalia as soon as their government collapsed.
Arabian Gulf Union - The boundary connecting these states is a cultural boundary. Every state in this region has a very high percentage of Muslims living there.


4. Somalia/Somaliland - Somaliland would be very unlikely to devolve because it is culturally unified, and has the potential to establish a well-functioning government. Somalia is likely to devolve and create a new region, Puntland, which would be almost identical of Somaliland.
Arabian Gulf Union - I don't think that the states that make up this region would be likely to devolve from each other because they could create a great economy, with being one of the world's top producers of oil/gas. The slight chance that they could devolve could be because of the different states have people that are members of different sects of Islam.