Answer to Question 1
Nigeria is a good example of an ethnically complex, unnaturally assembled nation. On the political map, it appears as an integral unit, but its boundaries have no logical basis in physical or cultural geography. Some Nigerians still refer to the mistake of 1914, when British colonial cartographers created the country, heedless of its ethnic rifts. The greatest divide is between poorer Muslim north and more prosperous Christian south, but there are at least 250 ethnic groups within the country. The British colonizers invested more in education and economic development in the south and built army ranks among northerners, whom they thought made better fighters; so the subsequent pattern is that the northern military leaders have tried to blunt the economic clout of southerners. Colonial administration and boundary drawing thus sowed seeds of modern conflict in Nigeria, a problem described in more detail in Section 9.6.
Answer to Question 2
East Asia
Japan
North Korea
South Korea
China
Mongolia
Taiwan
South Asia
Pakistan
India
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Nepal
Maldives
Southeast Asia
Myanmar
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
Malaysia
Singapore
Indonesia
Philippines
Brunei
Timor-Leste