00:00Have you ever looked at a map and seen this tiny country called Nepal and wonder how does it even
00:06have a spot between two of the biggest nations on earth, China and India? With a land area so small
00:12you would think either China or India would have taken it, but Nepal still stands strong.
00:19This is the story of how Nepal survives between China and India, and to find out the answer,
00:25we need to take a deep step back. First off, Nepal is actually not that small. It's about the size
00:32of
00:32Greece, or roughly one-third the size of California, but compared to its neighbors, it's tiny. China has
00:39over 1.4 billion people, India nearly the same, Nepal around 30 million people. So how has it
00:47stayed independent? It starts with geography. Nepal is home to some of the most rugged terrain on earth,
00:54including Mount Everest. The entire country is basically inside the Himalayas, making it
01:00incredibly difficult to invade or control. Historically, that's been Nepal's secret weapon.
01:06In the early 1800s, the British Empire went to war with Nepal in what's now called the Anglo-Nepalese
01:13War. Nepal lost some territory, but it held onto its core land near the mountains and kept its identity.
01:20Even the British respected the Nepalese warriors, especially the Gurkhas, who are elite soldiers
01:26who are serving in the British army still to this day. Fast forward to the 20th century. As India
01:33gained independence and China underwent its own revolution, Nepal managed to stay out of direct
01:39conflict with either of them. It walked a careful diplomatic line, playing neutral but friendly
01:45with both neighbors. During the Cold War, Nepal declared itself a non-aligned country, refusing to
01:52take sides between the US and the Soviet Union, just like it refuses now to lean fully towards either
01:59China or India. And that strategy? It worked. Today, Nepal relies on India for trade and cultural ties,
02:07and China for infrastructure and investment. It plays the middle ground, just like Mongolia,
02:12between Russia and China, and that's what has made Nepal survive between China and India.
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