07 July, 2023

Hans Island


One of my favourite YouTubers is The Tim Traveller. The lovely Tim travels to interesting places, and tells us interesting facts. Often it's about strange borders,, train lines, or even abandoned buildings.

One of the places mentioned was Hans Island. It is right in the middle of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait. When Canada and Denmark  (Greenland is one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of Denmark) were drawing up their maritime borders, they agree to the border being equidistant from both land masses. However, Hans Island lies right in the middle of the Nares Strait. Both countries have claimed this little bit of barren rock. 

From time to time, Canada would visit, hoist their flag, and leave a bottle of Canadian whisky. Later, Denmark would do the same, but leave a Danish equivalents. This has been been dubbed the Whisky War. No shots have been fired, only drunk.

On the 14th of June 2022, an agreement was signed to divide Hans Island roughly in half, along a rift. I haven't heard that it has yet been ratified, but once done, it will be the most northerly international land border, and will become the world's third shortest international border at 1,300m. It will also give Canada and Denmark two international land borders (Canada currently has the USA, and Denmark, Germany).

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