"- There's a place where you can just build a new country" "- Cool, where is it?" "- Between Serbia and Croatia" "- Yeah, I'm good"

Defending an area and preventing people from entering its borders is literally the definition of ruling/ claiming that land. Seems to me Croatia has claimed it whether they acknowledge it or not.

The dispute in a nutshell: Serbia: ''Take this part!'' Croatia: ''I don't want just this part!'' Serbia: ''Take this part!'' Croatia: ''I don't want just this part!'' Serbia: ''Take this part!'' Croatia: ''I don't want just this part!'' Czech: ''Can i take it?'' Serbia: ''NO!'' Croatia: ''NO!'' Serbia: ''Take this part!'' Croatia: ''I don't want just this part!'' Serbia: ''Take this part!'' Croatia: ''I don't want just this part!''

There are only two fair options: 1. Just cut it in half 2. Like any river boarder in any other country: make the borders based on the current state of the river and measure it every year

I actually live in Osijek, Croatia, a town really close to this piece of land, like 30km southwest. I actually never knew of this!

“There we are, learn to live with it” - A mustachioed British man drawing a straight line on a map

the map shown at 3:06 shows a part of the modern Landkreis Dillingen, Schwaben (Germany). The city Dilingen is located at the danube river, but has nothing to do with croatia or serbia. My first appartment when I moved out of my mothers flat was in Dillingen. I worked for 6 years in the local court house (Landratsamt) there.

Similar thing in NYC. A whole bunch of years ago the redirected a small part of the Harlem River(not really a river) and cut out a tiny tip of Manhattan. It is now attached to the Bronx as the old part of the river was filled in. It is still legally part of Manhattan. It is called Marble Hill.

2:48 Serbia was NOT part of Austria-Hungary as is shown in the map. This area lies on the border of Bačka, small region that was in 1918 split between Hungary and Serbia. Because of this now it's one side of the river Croatian and the other Serbian. Edit: on the map, there is a complete Serbia in its current borders shown as being part of A-U. Simply nonsense.

2:15 Ah yes, starting a new country in the Balkans. What could go wrong!

"which means the British are for once not to blame" As a brit I am very relived.

*Honestly kind of sweet that they actually want to give each other land for once*

Someone mentioned it here in the comments, that the territories on the eastern side of the Danube are de facto controlled by Serbia, and similarly, the territories on the western side are in fact controlled by Croatia. I can confirm this is true as a foreigner, because I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks in Kupusina, Serbia. While there, we used a small backroad a few times to go from Kupusina to Apatin, which is the neighbouring city on the shore of the Danube (really nice city btw). This small backroad cuts right across one of those weirdly shaped bits of land, that Croatia claims on the eastern side of the Danube. (I can give you the coordinates: 45°42'37.3"N 18°55'00.0"E ). I went there knowing about this situation and was surprised that there was no official indication or whatever to tell us that we entered Croatia. I even remember seeing some farmers on their tractors doing their thing on what is supposed to be some Croatian land, but I highly doubt that they would pay their taxes to Croatia... Then, I asked the locals about the situation and they didn't really know what I was on about, until I showed them on Google Maps, what I meant. Then they went on to explain how much of a sh*tfest there was during the yugoslav wars in the 90s, and especially how horrendous it was for the people of Apatin. Oh and one more thing. We also went on a little walk starting from Kupusina and we wandered into some forest and got to a place called Štuka čarda. If you look closely on the map, it's supposed to be in Croatia, but as you can guess, there was no border control in the middle of the forest or whatever. So yeah, I can confidently say that the de facto border between the two countries is the main stream of the Danube. The only thing indicating that we were near Croatia, is that sometimes my phone would switch to the croatian network, but that's it.

2:35 Austria never fully controled Serbia,they only controled Vojvodina.

Also a nice idea, saying "A river is our boundary" and then manipulate the river, that it flows through your nieghbour "Now your land belongs to us".

I'm from Osijek. More precisely, Tenja, I've known about this for a long time and I applied for citizenship for Liberland 😊

Whole Serbia was not in Austria-Hungary,only Vojvodina (northern part of the Serbia).

You'd have to be mad to willing go and live on top of a mountain ~ a Dutchman.

Very cool and interesting for someone who lives in one of those 2 rivalry countries and never heard of this place! :D

The title: You can claim this land! The content: You can't claim this land!

Croatia: *"We want original borders"* Serbia: *"We want Danube as border"* Serbian land not claimed by Serbia: *Exists* Vit Jedlicka: *"So can I take it?"* Serbia and Croatia: *"Noooooooo!!!"*

RLL is honestly one of the only channels who delivers a lot of information in a short amount of time and makes us understand everything, and my little geo nerd inside me always loves his vids

And what about 2 sister lands of liberland (southeast of Liberland)? It maybe smaller than liberland, but if you can build a building there, it will become gambling/free party/etc haven..

well, economy of Slavonia (east part of Croatia) is quite in a poor condition. Because of that, a lot of people migrated from there to other countries. Vojvodina (north province of Serbia) is economically the most developed part of Serbia, but people migrate to other countries too. So problem with border is not the priority for this people. Building better economy is.

I also live 30km away from this location and I'm really surprised how this hasn't happened anywhere else on the planet. Rivers make up a LOT of international borders and they meander as well, it's weird that a dispute didn't happen anywhere else

I’m not sure “unclaimed” is very enlightening here. That word usually implies that nobody thinks it belongs to anyone. Here, two countries each claim the land belongs to the other. That, plus the whole country-using-force-to-exert-actual-physical-control-over-the-land thing. It’s hard to say a bit of land is unclaimed when there’s an army keeping people out of it.

The NDL has claimed this land

This is de facto a great video.

It's funny how I was just watching an older video of reallifelore and 3 minutes into the video this video popped up. Love your videos and always entertaining and educational.

"The British are not to blame for this" Me a Brit: "oh thank fuck"

This place has been claimed a couple years ago they are trying to build a town there but serbia & croatia prevent them from entering (atleast that was the last thing shown in one of plenty yt videos about this island)

I claim all of these pieces of land as the traditional lands of my people. I now wish to apply for financial aid to assist my country in these troubling times. I now wish to advise that our country will be disbanding due to insurmountable differences and to avoid a civil conflict that could lead to countless deaths, literally, so that we can follow our own destiny as a people. Who do I give my bank account details to for the financial aid deposit part :)

I like watching RLL videos, but as a Croat from Croatia, I have to write here that in this video you told incorrect data from history, biggest one shown on the map of Austro-Hungary Empire.

As a citizen of liberland is thank you for showing your support to our small nation and highlighting this issue to people outside our country

There is a journalist that went to Liberland and end up being a temporary government ambassador for Liberland. I forgot where I heard the podcast but if you can find it, it is worth a listen

I was in unclaimed land in Europe while visiting Croatia

Croatia: We don't own here Also croatia: **detains anyone that enters** Way to assert that you don't own it, Croatia

i really like these types of thing in the world because it has so much history with it that you can learn a lot of thing

That horse statue at 6:56 thou. Pure balkan art.

Şahane bir konu. Çok ilginç ve ilgi çekici bir konuda keyifli bir video olmuş Thank you so much

The first time I heard about that disputed land in Europe, I thought it was one of the most ridiculous things I'd ever heard; but that IS a significant amount of land to the east.

The Austro-Hungarians didn't draw the maps between Serbia and Croatia, all those lands were apart of the larger Kingdom of Hungary. The borders were decided after the Yugoslav wars in 1995.

Reminds me of Civilization PC Game where a single plot of land is not claimed by anyone due to the fact that it is surrounded by 1-2 nations, yet the 1-2 nations does not have enough influence to take the land.

Happens all the time with river borders. Theres an airport called rosecrans in saint joseph missouri that one day the river jumped over it and now kansas technically owns the airport.

In fact, Liberland is just one of a dozen islands located in the middle of the Danube between Croatia and Serbia. Liberland is one of the largest islands. You can see their location on Google Earth. I also know that on the other two islands, foreigners also tried to declare independence but failed. The biggest problem is that in summer the area has billions of mosquitoes and it is impossible to stay for a long time. Cheers from Croatia.

Yeah we learn about this border dispute in school here in Croatia. It's pretty cool to see it covered here.

It's like when your ex doesn't want you but don't want anyone else to have you neither 😅

On Google maps, the border of Croatia and Serbia is still the old river, but you can see the mordern river pass right through all of the border

I’ll save you some time. Border was originally set following the Danube river’s path at the time. Since then the river’s path has changed. Serbia recognizes the current river as the border, Croatia recognizes the historical path of the river.

Nobody wants it? Ok, I’ll take it

- Guards a piece of land, not letting anyone in - Says it's Serbia's land - Refuses to elaborate further Gigachad Croatia

"Every piece of land on earth is claimed we think" Antractica: I need to form the Republic of Penguin so i have mine's claimed?

The Balkans are so beautiful, I visited all over for half a year and life truly felt so comfortable there. I can’t wait to visit again and explore more

Croatia: we don't own it Also Croatia: We're arresting you for trespassing.

Somebody is caring for the land based off sat images, the unwooded portions have been sown with trees, presumably to keep it from shifting any more. Very interesting look around in Earth, you can still see many signs of the old river that the borders seems to de-facto follow.

The third place is actually claimed and it is called Liberaland. Only few countries worldwide acknowledge them. The person standing behind it is called Vít Jedlička from CZ.

I'm confused as to why you wouldn't mention de-facto control of the disputed territories or the Balkan wars.

Petition to ask reallifelore to make his own country called the kingdom of Reallifeloria.

Which city is that at 0:25?

for the first time i've seen someone foreign do history on Serbia(and Croatia), you even showed the part where i live in Serbia

I watch a lot of Ed. videos here on KZfaq, but man, you really do have a distinct signature in your style of editing and delivery. Thanks for the uploads.

Many states along the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the US have this exact same occurrence. And each and every one has done what Croatia wants done: ignore the current location of the river. There's a piece of Omaha, Nebraska that is on the West side of the Missouri River but is nonetheless part of Iowa. Because the border was drawn up when it was still on the East side of the river. Pieces of Kentucky are west of the Mississippi, pieces of Missouri are east of the Mississippi, and so on.

The map @2:36 claims that Serbia (but not Kosovo!!) once belonged to Austro-Hungary - any source for that?

Thanks a lot

I, on behalf of India, formally recognise Liberland as sovereign nation

I'm from Serbia and this is the 1st time im hearing about this Liberland. Fascinating how we haven't learned about this in school.

Good to know 👍🏻

"Why Nobody Wants This Part of Europe?" I thought for sure the answer was Newcastle.

Regarding weird borders, there's also the Ems estuary between Germany and the Netherlands. I never really understood that one. Could be somewhat of interest for a future video.

This actually made me think, how the other river borders are managed in Europe? Like Oder between Poland and Germany? Oh... OK, I think I know the answer

It's not really that Serbia and Croatia didn't claim the land. They just didn't claim it for themselves, but rather claimed it for each other. Therefore, according to both countries, the land is actually claimed to be part of a certain nation. They just don't agree on which nation it is.

I wanna claim Bir Tawil, Terra Nulliuse, Marie Byrd Land and Russian wastelands and will make a Empire called Empire Nobody Needs

This map at 2:35 made me die internally due to its inaccuracy Also back in Austria-Hungary times, both Serbs and Croats were minorities in that region since it was primarily inhabited by Germans and Hungarians

does anybody know what song is at 2:17 to 5:08?

2:08 australia* (captain cook who discovered australia said it was terra nulls even though it wasn't)

This is basically the same issue with bir tawil, if either nation claims it, then they lose they right to claim better land

You remind of LEMMiNO, just solid entertainment and always perfectly entertaining. I think you fill that hole in my KZfaq life sense he is like jontron now and does maybe a video a year…. Your channel is always uploading and taking over as my favorite

A friend of Barton Levenson: I believe the situation can be resolved: put the land under dual ownership. If it is on a floodplain, then it is useless for construction. But if the area were to be slowly reforested, with a cluster around the few remaining trees, then it might be stabilized. Perhaps with co-ownership, the two nations might use the land for rewilding, and even expand co-owned areas. It would benefit both of them, and dual ownership would nullify the area for squatting.

There was an article a few years ago about a guy they did claim that piece of land between Egypt and Sudan to verify to his daughter that she indeed was a princess!

1:13 I've never heard someone say Europe in such a weird way like the change in tone of voice is astounding

We respect your video's and we thank you much for all of the intelligence you gave us with all of your videos ❤ Keep it up!😁🔥

Geographically straight lines can sometimes cause problems too. There's a part of Washington State which is the lower part of a peninsula going out into the Pacific surrounded entirely by Canada or water. The kids there go to high school by a rather long bus ride through Canada. This caused problems when the megalomaniacal Castreau Administration on Canada sealed off all their borders during the Covid Panic. The only way for the Americans to reach the rest of the US was by helicopter, as they're too small to have even a private airport, or by boat. A regular ferry, really unnecessary until that time, was established. All thanks to a straight line on a map covering what, at the time, was land uninhabited even by the lical tribes. Another straight line issue for the US is the Bering Strait border with Russia. The line divides two immediately adjacent islands in the Strait, Big and Little Diomede. There wasn't an issue from the Alaska Purchase on 1863 until the Bolshevik Communists took over Russia. They landed on Big Diomede where most of the flat land and inhabitants were and started killing and deporting people to establish a military base. Those that could fled to Little Diomede. The rest were either murdered or have disappeared without a trace. After the fall of the Soviet Union attempts were made to locate any descendents by the US in Siberia where they were deported but none have ever been located. The largely Native Alaskan and ethnically mixed population lives in a village perched on the edge of Little Diomede and makes most of their living off subsistence hunting. They don't have a space for a landing strip so one has to be built every winter when the sea ice freezes to allow regular air flights. That's the most common form of transport in Northwestern Alaska. When the sea ice melts the sea voyage to and landing on the island can be quite difficult. This is compounded for both sea and air travel because the Russians shoot at flights that stray too close to Big Diomede, which is uninhabited except by Russian military, border guards and secret police. Amazingly the English speaking Little Diomede people cope with this, living in American style homes, having internet access, voting in elections, going to a local school, having a power and water treatment station and even a small infirmary and radio station. There have been a number of reality TV shows visiting the island. One of the best was several episodes of "Flying Wild: Alaska" which chronicled the routine transportation problems, including the regular school field trips to the "big city" of Nome for the Iditarod Dog Sled Race. Life would be a lot easier and safer for Diomede residents of both islands had been part of the nearby US. In fairness to the American negotiators in the 1860's the geography of the region was little known and the ancestors of the current inhabitants were usually by necessity migratory. Putin ain't going to give Big Diomede up anytime soon.

Me getting a 2minute ad about country's that are collapsing incuding Europe: "what the-"

Croatia: doesn’t recognize liberland being theirs to support their stronger claims Also Croatia: forget that; your arrested for claiming our land

A friendly comment, the name of that Czech guy has a wildly different pronunciation, so it would be nice to include the written form in the video, or checking up with someone who actually speaks the language. I personally had to listen three times just to understand what it might be. ;-)

I live near that place around 100km from there

I'm not surprised, I've never heard of You're Up.

I believe the exact same situation exists along the Mississippi between Louisiana and Mississippi. The problem here is that the river has moved. Riley, Mississippi, which is now abandoned and is far from the river, used to be an important river town. There are portions of Louisiana that are inaccessible by any road in Louisiana and are now separated from Louisiana by the river. I'm not sure how title to the land is handled; we just act as if the East side of the river is Mississippi, and the West is Louisiana.

I can't even explain to you how unimportant this "problem" is both for Croatia and Serbia

What’s the coordinates of Terra nullies

There is another piece of terra nullius in Eastern Europe. Interestingly, nobody seems to notice it. The 1920 Treaty of Trianon carved off the northern territories of Hungary to create Czechoslovakia. Although Hungary reclaimed some of it in 1939, the borders went back to mostly where they were in 1945. Treaty of Trianon was nullified and replaced by the Treaty of Paris, but it created the exact same borders, copied verbatim from the old treaty. Both treaties recognize the border between Czechoslovakia and Hungary along the river Danube. However, the Danube is divided into two branches at some point, roughly from the triple border with Austria, and creates a large island and several smaller ones, around 30 km long and 3 km wide, so around 90 square kilometers. Much larger than that little spot between Croatia and Serbia. Chapter II, Section 27 of the Treaty of Trianon, describes the border, going from east to west, from where the river Ipoly reaches the Danube as: "From here, upwards on the river [Danube], from Antonienhof [Austrian city] (east of Köpcsény) to a point to a distance of approximately 2 km, to be determined: the main navigable branch of the Danube." When this was written, the navigable branch was the southern one. However, a dam was built on the Danube at Gabčíkovo, the southern branch diminished, and now shipping is passing on the northern branch. This means that Hungary could claim the islands, and Slovakia must recognize the claim, according to the peace treaties. For some reason, although Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and later Slovakia had a serious international dispute about the dam, which went as far as the Slovakian government committing acts of terrorism in Budapest, neither government seems to have even discussed this border issue. The islands are still Slovakian territory, even if they technically lost them, and Hungary never raised a claim.

2:37 why is serbia included in Austria-hungary? That's like including Canada in a map of todays USA

Turn it immediately into a Transboundary Peace Park as a riverine freshwater wetlands reserve, co-mansged by Croatia and Serbia. Contact the UN and the IUCN. That way it will remain protected from both ecological and poliical destruction, while keeping a truce on the dispute and gaining green credits for both countries.

Only issue here is that people have already claimed that part.

That was adorable how WWE thought we'd actually believe Undertaker would challenge Bobby for the ECW title

There’s something very similar to this between Canada, and the U.S. except they’re fighting for a piece of the ocean with a little island for lobster fishing. You should check that out when you have time.

Has anyone else here been to the Liberland festival in Serbia called Floating man? If not then I'd recommend you coming, it happens in August and it's really nice for those interested in libertarian ideas and decentralization.

There is guy who "claimed it" and thousands of people arrested trying to claim it and get there, still the title says: "nobody wants this"

Watching on 2x Speed Playback is like being on ACID

After the last two years I'd happily take a slice of Antarctica.