All language subtitles for Johnny Harris - Why Britain is the Center of the World (720p).English

(clicking and rattling)

- Here it is. Here's the original one.

I think there's this misnomer
that my orange coat is dead,

but no, it's just dying quickly.

There's just a good
amount of this going on.

But I think this thing has a
couple more years, for sure.

(dramatic music)

So this is my desk.

I sit here all day and I
work and I look at this map.

Whenever I'm daydreaming,
I just look at this map.

(dramatic music)

I bought this map off eBay

and it was in like an elementary school,

and now it's in my office.

I notice something every time I look at it

that kind of irks me.

That something is this, this zero.

This zero, which is not just one number,

but it's actually a corresponding
line that looks like this.

(rumbling)

Let's back up here for a second.

The earth is divided into lines.

(upbeat music)

Sometimes they're curved
like they are on my map,

and whether or not
they're curved or straight

has to do with this concept of projection,

which I'm not going to talk about here.

I've talked about plenty
using a knife and a globe

back in an old Vox video that I made.

But just know that the earth
is divided up into lines,

latitude and longitude lines.

Ones that go up and down and
ones that go from side to side.

All of these lines in the grid

have a number associated with them.

So for the up and down
lines, there's a zero point.

And then anywhere to the
right of that or east of that

starts to go up from zero to 180,

with a little E next to it
for east of the zero line,

and then everything to
the left or the west of it

has the same thing, zero
to 180 with a W for west.

Okay, that center point is the zero point

from which all east and
west things are measured.

The same thing for these
side to side lines.

If you go up from here,

you're gonna start to
get higher and higher

until you get to 180 degrees north.

Or if you go south, you
will go 180 degrees south,

which is the south pole.

Finding out where the zero point should be

for these horizontal lines
is actually quite easy.

The earth has these two natural poles,

which make for a natural
top and bottom of the earth,

and halfway in between those two poles,

you have this perfect
center point, the equator,

which is a very natural
place to put this zero point

and to measure everything from.

The up and down lines
are totally arbitrary,

where you decide them, like,
who's the say that, like,

it couldn't be right here in
Russia, and this could be zero,

and everything could go
west and east from here,

or Japan for that matter?

Well, in fact, a long time
ago, that's how it used to be.

These maps with these grids
were really, really important

for navigating the world.

And so everyone had to
choose a zero point.

And most would just make their capital

or their home base the zero point.

If you lived in Japan,

you would just make Japan the zero point

and the rest of the
coordinates would be measured

against that one zero
point, which was Japan.

And same if you lived in
France or Washington, D.C.

This was fine because back
then countries kind of just

fought wars and competed with each other.

They weren't really
collaborating or aligning

or trading as much as they do today.

And so everyone could
just have their own maps

centered around their place
and they did just fine.

But then around the 1800s, a
few things started to happen

that completely changed everything.

(dramatic music)

First, countries and empires,

instead of just competing
and fighting with each other

started to actually say like,

we should align with each
other and trade and be friends

because that's better for everyone.

Pair this with the fact that
map making and sea navigation

was becoming like a big industry.

It was no longer just
the king ordering maps

to be made for their like expeditions.

But now it was like private businesses

going out and doing things
that private businesses do.

(screeching)

And so there was now like a
demand for good seafaring maps.

In short, map making was trending.

Seems like a pretty good time to be alive.

Okay, and there was one more thing

that was happening around this time

that was super important, which is, this:

(upbeat music)

Trains, trains everywhere.

Trains will just like
popping up everywhere.

And trains were also trending.

People were now able to travel
like across the country,

not just like on their horses,

but on this whole system of trains

where you could buy a
ticket, get on a train,

and end up somewhere
hundreds of miles away.

And you know, what trains run on,

besides coal, is time,
timetables, schedules.

How do you know when your
train is going to arrive

and when it's gonna leave and
when it's gonna get there?

Time, some universal set time.

The problem is, back in the 1800s,

there was no universal set time.

Check out this piece of paper.

Today, all of these
cities and towns would be

just on Eastern Standard
Time, one time zone.

But back then, every
town had their own time,

depending on when it was noon for them.

If they were a little bit east
or a little bit west of here,

that would be different
than in Washington, D.C.

Total nightmare for trains.

The lifeblood of trains is time.

And this time mish-mash
just wasn't gonna work.

Okay, so what does all of
this have to do with this?

Look at this guy.

(dramatic music)

You probably don't know
who this person is.

I didn't know who this person was.

He was the US president
that no one remembers.

This US president in the late 1800s

saw a problem with all of this.

He realized that having
a bunch of different maps

with a bunch of different zero points

based on whoever was
making it was a problem.

And he realized that not
having a universal time zone

or some sort of universal way

of making the same time for
everyone was also a problem.

So he invited 41 countries to
come here to Washington D.C.,

where I live, and to sit around and think

and talk about where this
zero point should be.

Where should the center of the world be

so that we can measure
time as well as navigation.

All maps could be
normalized to this one spot.

So after a moment of
a bunch of white dudes

sitting around in a room
in Washington, D.C.,

which is kind of what's happening
today in Washington, D.C.,

they came to a vote.

And that vote almost unanimously said

that the zero line should be right here.

(dramatic music)

This line, if you zoom in,

goes right through London, England.

It actually goes through
a little outskirts town

called Greenwich.

Greenwich is the home
of the Royal Observatory

of the British Empire.

This would be the place
where the Prime Meridian,

or the zero point for the entire world,

east and west, would start.

Every country at the conference agreed

that this should be the case,

except for the Dominican Republic,

at that time called Santo Domingo.

They said, no, they were the one country

that didn't like this proposal.

And France and Brazil actually
abstained diplomatically,

which was kind of them saying like,

"Oh, we don't agree with this."

France continued to make their maps

with Paris as the center point,

but eventually they got on board as well.

So that gets to the
crux of my big question

of why the zero right there,

which is a bunch of people voted on it.

But why were they so down with
Britain having the zero point

being the center of the world?

Well, the answer is because it was 1884

and Britain was just
really good at the ocean.

The British Empire was by far the biggest,

most powerful navy that
had the most experience

with maps and ocean-faring.

And so it was kind of a
natural choice to let Britain,

the king of the ocean,
have this center point.

And from then on, maps started
to be drafted with Greenwich,

this Royal Observatory,
as the center point

for the east/west divide in the world.

Over time, this exact point,
exactly where it's drawn,

has shifted a tiny bit
because of better tools

to measure things.

And so it's actually like not literally

on the Royal Observatory anymore,

but it's effectively in the same place

that was drawn in this 1884 conference.

But they also established that
all time in the entire world

would be measured against
this same spot, Greenwich.

Noon at Greenwich, at
the Royal Observatory,

would be the peg against
which all other time was set.

They called this Greenwich Mean Time.

So you end up getting a
map that looks like this.

(dramatic music)

Zoom in and you see
Greenwich is right here.

That's GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, okay?

You go west of here and you
start to get GMT minus one

or minus two, minus three.

You can come all the way back

to the east coast of the United States.

And this time zone is Greenwich meantime,

minus five right now,
sometimes it's minus four,

if there's daylight savings,

and daylight savings is dumb and whatever,

but you get the idea.

The more you go west, you go
back from Greenwich Mean Time.

If you go east, it's the opposite.

You go forward of Greenwich Mean Time.

So if it's noon at Greenwich,
then this next time zone,

it would be 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm,
3:00 pm, 4:00 pm, et cetera.

So these time zones have been marked up

in these kind of strange shapes.

Eventually, if you go 12
steps away from Greenwich,

12 time zones, you'll end
up here, at this mess.

This mess is the International Date Line.

This is where Greenwich Mean Time,

plus 12 or minus 12 ends up at this line,

which is where a new day starts.

So let me give you an example
of what this would look like.

Imagine it's 4:00 pm
in Greenwich, England,

right here at this Royal Observatory.

It is 4:00 pm GMT on May 28th.

If anyone wants to send
me a birthday gift,

May 28th, May 28th.

It's May 28th at 4:00 pm
GMT, Greenwich, Mean Time.

Sitting, chilling in
the Royal Observatory,

which I've never actually been to.

I need to go to the Royal Observatory.

I need to go to the Royal Observatory.

I'm going to do that this
year, next year, at some point.

Okay. So it's 4:00 pm, May 28th.

Across the ocean here in
Washington, D.C., at that time,

you can see that we go from
4:00 pm minus five, so 11:00 am.

Okay, so it's 11:00 am
here in Washington, D.C.

at that exact time on May 28th.

Head across the United States

to the west coast of the United States,

to Seattle or Portland, and right there,

it's three hours earlier than it is here.

And you're now at 8:00
am. So it's 8:00 am here.

It's still 4:00 pm in Greenwich.

It's still 4:00 pm in London.

Now you head into the Pacific Ocean.

Keep going west until you
get to French Polynesia,

at which time it's five in the morning.

You're now at GMT minus 11.
It's five in the morning.

And then you get right
up to this messy line.

If you were to be in the Baker Islands,

which is like a US, like
random uninhabited island

in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean, you would be at 4:00 am.

So it's 4:00 pm over in Greenwich.

It's 4:00 am on this random
island in the Pacific.

So then cross this messy looking line.

It's still 4:00 am, but
now it's the next day.

It's May 29th at 4:00 am.

Here in Fiji at the same
time, 4:00 pm at Greenwich,

it's now 4:00 am the next day, May 29th.

So we went from being 12
hours behind Greenwich

to being 12 hours in front of Greenwich,

just by going over this
International Date Line.

You could do this exact same
thing going the other way.

Start heading east, and
you see that, you know,

it's 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

Head all the way over into Asia,

and now you're getting closer to seeing

how that 4:00 am happens
when you get over to Fiji.

Now, the caveat to all
of this is, of course,

is that some of these
countries switch by an hour

for like daylight savings
type things and whatever,

but ignore that.

Imagine there wasn't daylight savings.

Right now, in this moment,
where daylight savings is,

at least in the United States,

this holds across the whole world.

Someday I'll make a video
about this whole messy debacle.

But the point of all of this is to say

that because of this conference in 1884

to reconcile train timetables
and to make maps more uniform,

we now have this
navigation and time system

that rules our whole world.

And Britain is just sitting at
the center of it, of course.

The British Empire may have fallen

and the world has moved on

from Britain being the center
of the world in a lot of ways,

but it's still technically
the center of the world

in a lot of ways,

I'm gonna put some
links in the description

for some of these cool tools

that kind of help visualize time zones,

if you're interested
in that sort of thing.

But yeah, my question has been answered.

I actually didn't know the
answer to this question.

And I went on a deep dive and now I know.

So now I'll sit at my desk
and I will know the answer

to why the zero, and I
think that was worth it.

So thanks.

Big thank you to Skillshare
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Thank you, Skillshare, for sponsoring

and thank you all for watching.

I will see you in another
video sometime in the future.

(upbeat music)