April 30, 2019 Tuesday
Bedtime Story
What is Really South?
The truth is that even for the Americans it
took a while - about a century of research and mutual understanding - to come
to a precise definition and agreement as to what comprises Southern United
States.
As you are aware that unlike say Japan and
India that are geographically stretched vertical both the United States and
Russia are stretched horizontally making a precise demarcation of north and
south a more difficult task than east and west.
Even “worse”, United States has nothing
geographically to demarcate even the east from west unlike say Russia which has
the Ural Mountains running from north to south which in a way demarcates the
European part of Russia from its Asiatic part.
Similarly Indian Subcontinent has the
Vindhya Range, a discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, escarpment, hills
formed as a result of differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, that can be
taken a landmark for dividing northern India from its southern part.
Both the Appalachians and the Rocky
Mountains either lie too much towards the east or too much towards the west to
form any meaningful physical and geographical landmark for dividing the
congruous mainland United States into two equal halves.
In general Southern States include those
states that lie on the eastern part of the United States but south of
Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic States that we had happened to have discussed in
our bedtime stories.
So for the United States the Southern
States largely include the Eastern States but those that lie south of
Mid-Atlantic States which for any alien or immigrant would not be natural to
assume.
On the other hand the states of New Mexico,
Arizona and for that matter even California that are geographically in the
south (the islands of Hawaii which are also a state lie much further down south
in the Pacific but then they are hardly taken into consideration as they are
non-contiguous with the main land) but they are not labeled as Southern States.
This means therefore that the states in the
south that lie west of Texas and do not border the Gulf of Mexico are not considered
as Southern States.
Another way of looking at the Southern
States is to view them historically and include those states that formed the
Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865 and had actually declared
themselves a separate country from that of the United States of America as the
name suggests.
It should not escape your attention that
the very name Confederate States of America of 1861 was built on the lines of
United States of America given to the nation in 1776 (just about 85 years ago)
by the Thirteen British Colonies that stretched as a thin and narrow strip of
land along the Atlantic Ocean from Province of New Hampshire in North to
Province of Georgia in South.
They were aptly called the secessionist
states as they were a part of one nation but wanted to separate themselves from
the “mainland typical American region” as Mid-Atlantic and New England or North
Eastern United States is often known as.
The root of the contention was economy of
the south that was heavily dependent upon agriculture – specifically cotton.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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