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The Middle of Nowhere · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: We all know what Egypt looks like on a map.
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  Speaker 1: It's a squarish country cut out of northeast Africa, easily
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  Speaker 1: distinguishable on a map by the Nile River delta at
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  Speaker 1: the north end. But if you direct your attention to
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  Speaker 1: the southern border, you may see something a little odd.
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  Speaker 1: On some maps, there's a strange bump on the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the Egyptian border, indicated by a dotted line that
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  Speaker 1: crosses into the territory of Sudan. This territory is called Bertuwill,
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  Speaker 1: which means tall water well in Arabic, and it exists
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  Speaker 1: in a fascinating legal gray area. Beertu Will is the
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  Speaker 1: only habitable land on planet Earth not claimed by one
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  Speaker 1: country or another. Egypt claims it's Sudanese territory, and Sudan
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  Speaker 1: claims that it's part of Egypt. With neither country claiming
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  Speaker 1: proper ownership, it's left to become a true no man's land.
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  Speaker 1: It has no capital and no major cities. According to
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  Speaker 1: most sources, the population consists mostly of nomads and miners
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  Speaker 1: who pass through the land. That's people who dig in
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  Speaker 1: the earth, not little kids. Just to clear that up. So,
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  Speaker 1: how does something like this happen? What causes a territory
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  Speaker 1: with no ruler to appear in the middle of North Africa? Well, unsurprisingly,
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  Speaker 1: birtu Will exists because of borders drawn in the early
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  Speaker 1: twentieth century by the British Empire. The original border between
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  Speaker 1: Egypt and Sudan was drawn during the British occupation of
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  Speaker 1: Egypt in eighteen ninety nine without consideration for the actual
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  Speaker 1: geography and the cultural borders of the region. Three years later,
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen oh two, the British administrators of Egypt amended
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  Speaker 1: this oversight, creating the squiggly border that ceded some land
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  Speaker 1: to Sudan and created two new territories in the process,
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  Speaker 1: the Halaid Triangle and beer to Will. After Sudan declared
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  Speaker 1: independence in nineteen fifty six, the debate over the border began.
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  Speaker 1: Both Egypt and Sudan wanted control over the Halaid Triangle
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  Speaker 1: because it touched the Red Sea and was thus more
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  Speaker 1: valuable as a piece of land. Beer to Will, meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: was mostly desert habitable and larger in area than London
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  Speaker 1: or New York City, but without any specific geographical advantage.
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  Speaker 1: This is the limbo that Beer to Will has existed
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  Speaker 1: in ever since. It is perhaps not a surprise that
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  Speaker 1: the liminal space has attracted attention from all sorts of interests.
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  Speaker 1: It's not easy to get to, but self styled adventurers
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  Speaker 1: are eager to visit any land with no designated government.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, for example, a man from Virginia named
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah Heaton took the pilgrimage in order to plant a
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  Speaker 1: flag there and declare the Kingdom of North Sudan, with
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  Speaker 1: himself as its king. This was allegedly in order to
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  Speaker 1: give his daughter a birthday present the official title of princess. However,
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  Speaker 1: sincere his reason, it was ultimately a cynical move, prompting
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  Speaker 1: eager press coverage and a crowdfunding campaign for his so
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  Speaker 1: called country. He even claimed to have sold the film
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  Speaker 1: rights to his story. In an interview, he described his
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  Speaker 1: country not as a whim but as a dary new
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  Speaker 1: idea in the world of geopolitics and technology. He said
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  Speaker 1: that many companies had approached him about using the land
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  Speaker 1: for unregulated product development, but such claims have yet to manifest.
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  Speaker 1: Surprise surprise, and of course, micro nation enthusiasts love claiming
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  Speaker 1: the land for themselves, even when the land itself already
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  Speaker 1: has its own occupants. You see, the Internet might mislead
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  Speaker 1: you if you were to do a Google search for
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  Speaker 1: beer to Will, it's described as unclaimed land, but that
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  Speaker 1: land is very very much claimed. In twenty nineteen, the
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  Speaker 1: first official tour group entered the area, but in order
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  Speaker 1: to do so, they had to gain approval and protection
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  Speaker 1: from the land's inhabitants, the Abata people. They consider the
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  Speaker 1: land to be their homeland, and according to members of
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  Speaker 1: the twenty nineteen tour, they are quite protective of it,
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  Speaker 1: no matter what maps drawn by the British might say,
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  Speaker 1: or indeed what a man from Virginia might say. The
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  Speaker 1: world is a far different place now than it was
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  Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. Places like Beer to Will make people
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  Speaker 1: in extremely regulated countries salivate with the possibility of freedom
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  Speaker 1: and adventure, but much like the frontiers that our ancestors
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  Speaker 1: once trampled across. It's dangerous to assume that a place
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  Speaker 1: is up for the taking just because of a long,
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  Speaker 1: out of date treaty. If you try to become king
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  Speaker 1: of the hill without understanding the hill itself, you either
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  Speaker 1: start a war or gain a reputation for being ignorant.
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  Speaker 1: Neither reason, though, is worth building a whole career around,
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  Speaker 1: no matter how nicely that crown might fit on your head.
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  Speaker 1: By the early twentieth century, women's rights had experienced significant
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  Speaker 1: ups and downs throughout Europe, where the Middle Ages and
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  Speaker 1: the Latter Enlightenment had seen women taking positions of leadership
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  Speaker 1: and owning property. The late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen
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  Speaker 1: hundreds saw many setbacks, with women being given the same
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  Speaker 1: legal status as children, which is to say, they had
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  Speaker 1: to defer to their husbands in all matters. Well. In
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  Speaker 1: nineteen oh three, in Great Britain, the women of the
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  Speaker 1: Pankhurst family had enough of these infringements on their rights.
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  Speaker 1: The family consisted of mother Emmeline and her daughters Cristabelle
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  Speaker 1: and Sylvia. Their father, Richard, was a wealthy lawyer who
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  Speaker 1: passed away in eighteen ninety eight, and Christabel wanted to
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  Speaker 1: follow in his footsteps in practiced law, but she was
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  Speaker 1: only allowed to take the courses. The law prohibited her
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  Speaker 1: from actually becoming an attorneying while was angered when she
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  Speaker 1: found out that women were barred from labor meetings at
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  Speaker 1: the local meeting hall, which ironically was named after her
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  Speaker 1: late husband, who had been a supporter of women's rights.
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  Speaker 1: The women took matters into their own hands, forming their
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  Speaker 1: own political group, naming it the Women's Social and Political
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  Speaker 1: Union or WSPU for short. It was one of the
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  Speaker 1: earliest groups calling for women's suffrage, and from the beginning
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  Speaker 1: their motto was literally deeds not words, meaning they were
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  Speaker 1: done asking nicely for their rights. In nineteen ten, hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of their members stormed Parliament after they refused to grant
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  Speaker 1: women the right to vote. The police completely turned on them,
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  Speaker 1: beating them and even sexually assaulting some of them, but
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  Speaker 1: this didn't stop the women. In fact, it only emboldened them.
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  Speaker 1: They began a militant campaign across England, smashing windows and
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  Speaker 1: setting buildings on fire. They took every opportunity to accost
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  Speaker 1: politicians in the streets and insult them demanding the right
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  Speaker 1: to vote. The police kept up the pressure, arresting as
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  Speaker 1: many as they could and imprisoning them in small, crowded
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  Speaker 1: cells so that they were as uncomfortable as possible, and
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  Speaker 1: in turn, these suffragettes, as they were known, went on
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  Speaker 1: hunger strikes, refusing to eat while in prison. Their jailers
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  Speaker 1: tried to force feed them, but this often led to injury.
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  Speaker 1: A law was actually passed allowing the release of the
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  Speaker 1: prisoners so that they could go eat again, but then
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  Speaker 1: making it so that they could be re arrested once
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  Speaker 1: they were healthy. Things reached ahead in nineteen thirteen at
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  Speaker 1: the Epsom Derby, a horse race that remains a significant
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  Speaker 1: English tradition to this day. The King himself doesn't race
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  Speaker 1: in the Derby, but he has a horse ridden on
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  Speaker 1: his behalf by a jockey. Well during the race in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, WSPU member Emily Davidson ducked under the railing
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  Speaker 1: on the side of the racetrack and jumped toward the
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  Speaker 1: King's horse. It hit her full on, fracturing her skull
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  Speaker 1: and sending the jockey and horse tumbling to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Emily died shortly after. It's unlikely that she was actually
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  Speaker 1: trying to throw herself in front of the horse. It
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  Speaker 1: seems that she wanted to quickly plant a WSPU flag
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  Speaker 1: on it, but this was not a great plan. The
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  Speaker 1: horse was moving pretty darn fast. Her death caused even
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  Speaker 1: more strife. The WSPU held a parade in her honor,
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  Speaker 1: but the government and even the Queen herself denounced Emily.
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  Speaker 1: Queen Mary actually called her a horrid woman. Now, she
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  Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily opposed to women's rights, but she was as
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  Speaker 1: privileged a woman as there could possibly be, and she
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  Speaker 1: didn't understand why the average woman would be willing to
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  Speaker 1: die for a cause. World War One began the following year,
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, and changed everything. Suddenly, all the men
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  Speaker 1: were fighting and dying in Europe, and the women were
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  Speaker 1: the ones left to work jobs that had previously been
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  Speaker 1: denied to them. By the end of the war in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, attitudes had changed significantly, and women finally won
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  Speaker 1: the right to votes in Britain. Germany joined them the
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  Speaker 1: same year, and the US passed the Nineteenth Amendment granting
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  Speaker 1: women the right to vote in nineteen twenty. Today, the
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  Speaker 1: WSPU and Emily Davidson had become a curious anecdote in history.
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  Speaker 1: Some historians say that they actually damaged the cause by
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  Speaker 1: making suffragettes look bad in the press, while others argue
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  Speaker 1: that many social movements require a radical component to make
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  Speaker 1: the moderates look more reasonable. Essentially, radical groups like the
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  Speaker 1: WSPU make the establishment wake up and realize people are
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  Speaker 1: willing to die for the cause in question. They can
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  Speaker 1: either give in to the more moderate groups asking nicely
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  Speaker 1: for their rights, or they can ignore them and drive
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  Speaker 1: them into the arms of the radicals. Looking back, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: it's worth keeping in open mind about the tactics of
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  Speaker 1: the WSPU. Their methods may seem curious to us today,
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  Speaker 1: but without them women may not have ever gained equal
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  Speaker 1: status in the Western world. I hope you enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show is
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: researched and written by the Grim and Mild team, and
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  Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and
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  Speaker 1: the people who make it over at Grim and Slash Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
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  Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book available in bookstores and online, as well
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  Speaker 1: as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
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  Speaker 1: same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
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  Speaker 1: Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com.
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  Speaker 1: Slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.