How to use my mnemonic order for South America and some other memorable stuff.
This article refers to another article I published recently, that presents the mnemonic in the form of a puzzle to be solved, together with the answer that you can scroll down to:
In this article I will try to sell and/or rave about my new and improved mnemonic (and lesson) for the map of South America.
Important note: I ignore islands throughout. Only the mainland is referred to.
Here’s the mnemonic as described in the article linked to above:
The primary principle and the original inspiration for the mnemonic is the memorable relation of the major meridians and parallels (those that are multiples of 15 degrees and visible on the map provided) that cut South America to the borders of the first eleven countries in the list. Besides that, there is the way that the first nine countries in the list form an unbroken chain.
All the nations in South America that are cut by the 75th meridian:
1. Colombia
2. Peru
3. Chile
All the nations in South America that are just missed on the west by it:
4. Argentina
5. Brazil
6. Venezuela
All the nations in South America that are between the equator and the 15th parallel north that haven’t been mentioned yet:
7. Guyana
8. Suriname
9. ‘France’
All the nations that are cut by the 60th meridian that haven’t already been mentioned:
10. Bolivia
11. Paraguay
All the nations in South America that are just missed by the the 60th meridian and haven’t been mentioned yet:
12. Uruguay
All the nations in South America that are just missed on the east by the 75th meridian:
13. Ecuador
In short:
On, near, snug between,
On, near, really near.
Or if you prefer a shorter, more precise-sounding, albeit harsh and even martial verse:
Cut, missed, flanked,
Cut, missed, missed.
You only need to learn by heart the former or memorize the latter to have the whole mnemonic with you in your memory.
Note that the nation I call ‘France’ for convenience is more commonly known by much harder and confusing, and arguably misleading names, which I would advise you to think about later, because they are SO confusing. I’ve put it in quotes to remind everyone that it’s not normally called that, and is only a part France.
Note that in English, ‘Colombia’ is pronounced like ‘Columbia’.
It can be used as a cryptomnemonic.
It isn’t obviously a mnemonic, when presented as a list of the 13 nations of South America, without the verses, and without any mention of meridians or parallels. Thus it would be allowed in a school that didn’t believe in memorization or mnemonics. Or it could be sneaked in under the radar.
You don’t even need to present the list at all. You could just start with Colombia, and talk about that for a while before mentioning that Peru borders Colombia and then talking about Peru, and maybe the relations between the two, and then teaching about Chile. Or you could describe a journey, real or imaginary, that starts in Colombia, and then goes through Peru, and then through Chile.
You could write an article or book, or make a documentary series about the countries of South America in the mnemonic order. The reader or student need not know about the reason for the order. It’s a bonus. A kind of mnemonic Easter egg. A hidden benefit. It could be revealed later.
You could casually mention that Colombia, Peru, and Chile are the only countries in South America to lie on the 75th meridian. You could focus on the coincidence of the meridian lying in just the right place to do that. You could mention it in connection with the interesting fact that the three countries include and connect the northern tip of the continent with the southern tip, as well as the western tip. The western tip is in Peru — that’s surprising isn’t it? I bet you thought it was in Ecuador. I know I used.
If you are going to tour the continent with your home-schooled students, you might make sure the nations are visited in the mnemonic order. Then the students would learn the list automatically, and revise it whenever pondering the journey. Plane journeys would be used to travel between consecutive nations that are not contiguous.
The order of the first five countries can be justified as the most direct path between the four tips of the continent, because the eastern tip is in Brazil.
A (home) school trip to first five on the list could be explained as a land journey taking in the four extreme points of South America. The sixth, could be visited on the way back to a boat at the Caribbean Sea.
Colombia, Peru, Chile.
I like to call them the ‘Chile triplet’, ‘Chile three’, or ‘the tall three’. The latter name reminds one that it contains both the northern and southern tips of the continent. Also I sometimes call it the ‘Chile-spoiled triplet’, because Chile spoils the pattern of areas getting larger as you go from Colombia to Chile, and, more importantly, from Colombia to Brazil.
By the way, ‘extreme points of Chile’ (for example) is a better search term than ‘tips of chile’, as the latter will lead you to ‘tips for visitors to Chile’. Chile in particular is not only remarkably tall, but also remarkably narrow and upright. The mainland fits into a box that is less than nine degrees wide.
Chile looks fatter on most maps for two reasons. First, the fattest looking part is not only mainland, but lots of islands that blend in with the mainland because they are so near to it. On many maps, they are drawn as one lump, and you wouldn’t even know there were any islands there. Second, the fattest part is very far south and is magnified by the distortion due to the projection of the globe onto the flat map. So the mainland of Chile is even skinnier than it looks. We don’t tend to hear much about the majority of the islands in Chile, because few people live there.
All this means Chile has a very remarkable and memorable shape.
Colombia is the nearest to the contiguous United States. It’s what Central American connects to at Panama. It’s famous for all sorts of exciting things. So it’s a great place to start.
To me it seems that Colombia, Peru, and Chile form a remarkable and therefore memorable set. They each contain a continental tip, and in each case it is somewhat surprising.
Colombia seems to be on the north west corner of the continent and so I was surprised to find that no part of Venezuela is further north, the latter being on the northern coast. A small tentacle of Colombia quietly reaches around Venezuela. Part of the illusion or sleight of hand is due to Colombia extending south across the equator with a large lump of land.
Peru likewise seems to extend to the east, but a small tentacle of land quietly snakes around Equador and grabs the victory.
And Chile tends to be thought of as being on the west coast of the continent. I would have guessed that the southern continental tip would have been in Argentina. The latter is huge, and to the south of Brazil and Uruguay. Next stop Antarctica, right? No. Chile is shaped like a snake and it slithers past andt to some degree around the southern tip of Argentina.
It’s remarkable that just three countries stretch so far from north to south.
It’s kind of a miracle that *any* one meridian cuts all three, given how little space there is for it, let alone a major meridian, i.e. a multiple of 15 degrees. So it’s good that this triplet starts the list.
Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela.
I like to call this triplet the ‘Venezuela triplet’, the ‘Venezuela three’, ‘the wide three’, or ‘the big three’. The widest and biggest member of the triplet is Brazil, and it is about as wide as it is tall. It almost reaches the Pacific Ocean. Part of it is actually north of the Pacific Ocean. Nearly all of Chile is due south of Brazil. About half of Peru is due south of Brazil. About half of Colombia is due north of Brazil. All the other countries except Ecuador are entirely due south or due north of Brazil. Ecuador is the one country with no part sharing a meridian with Brazil. Another good reason for it to be last in the list. Brazil’s extreme wideness is unusual for a large South American country. Most of them are more tall than wide. This is probably due the shape of the continent, which is narrow and tall, and the enormous mountain range that runs down it. Countries tend not to straddle mountain ranges, and especially not enormous, difficult-to-cross ones. This mountain range, which is called the Andes, is the reason Chile is shaped like it is, but Chile’s shape was not the only one to be affected by it. Chile’s shape is a dramatic and crystal clear case though.
Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, run from near the southern tip of South America, back to near the northern tip. These countries are all very famous, and indeed, by the time we get to Venezuela, the countries that are left are small and relatively unknown.
By Brazil we have covered almost all of the area of South America. Brazil is 47 percent of the area of the continent and fittingly, the center of the latter is just beyond Brazil’s border (in Paraguay, near the tripoint of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.
As mentioned, Brazil contains the eastern tip of the continent and so by Brazil we have all four tips under our belt.
Thoughts on the first two triplets.
Brazil is the middle and the biggest of this triplet, and Peru is the middle and the biggest of the Chile (spoiled) triplet. And Brazil contains the eastern tip of the continent while Peru contains the western tip. So there’s a memorable pattern there. And they share a border, which makes it easier to visualize the pair, as they stretch from east to west (or vice versa). And the two tips are about equally far south of the equator, with the eastern being further south.
Guyana, Suriname, ‘France’.
I like to call it the ‘tiny triplet’ since if it became a single nation, it would be smaller than nearly every other nation in South America. Equador and Uruguay would be smaller, maybe also Paraguay. I also call it the ‘“France” triplet’,
These three form a very natural group. Besides lying entirely between the equator and the 15th parallel north, they are all sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and Brazil. As described in detail in the article, linked to above, by a remarkable coincidence they are each due east of the other, and in addition this pattern includes Venezuela (and also Colombia except for Colombia touching the equator.
Few people realize that number nine (‘France’) in the list is an actual part of France. They vote in French elections, and are part of France in every way. Of course, it could break away from France, but there is not sign of that happening, at least for now.
A school trip might get on a boat or ship at the coast of Venezuela and visit these three that way.
Bolivia, Paraguay.
I call these the ‘Paraguay pair’, ‘the central pair’, or ‘the landlocked pair’.
Both are landlocked, and that usually makes for exotic cultures, unaffected by the rest of the world, because being inaccessible to ships they are largely isolated from the rest of the world. To get from ‘France’ to Bolivia, a plane needs to be taken. Likewise to get from Paraguay to Uruguay.
Paraguay contains the center of South America. It’s therefore convenient that Paraguay is the country that most looks like it is *at* the center of the continent. Bolivia is also landlocked, but is very near the west coast. Thus it is easy to recall.
Uruguay.
I just call it ‘Uruguay’, although I could call it ‘the penultimate one’.
Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay look like an exclamation mark that has gotten top heavy and fallen over to the side a bit, propped up by our old friends Peru and Chile.
Ecuador.
I call it ‘Ecuador’, but I could call it ‘the ultimate one’ or ‘the last one’.
To get to Ecuador, the third and longest flight is needed now, or a boat that doesn’t stop at Argentina, Chile, or Peru. A flight would be better than that, I think.
Ecuador is on the equator, and is, believe it or not, named ‘Equator’ more or less. The official name is ‘The Republic of the Equator’, in effect.
Wikipedia says:
[Ecuador is] officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador, which literally translates as “Republic of the Equator”[…]
Being last on the list might mean there is plenty of time for stopping here. If so, the students would do well to learn about Galapagos Islands and perhaps visit them. They are part of Ecuador, about 1000 km due west of the mainland. A few hours by plane, I guess. A few days by boat. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the mnemonic is about the mainland of South America. Nevertheless, I couldn’t in good conscience fail to mention the Galapagos Islands, made famous by the story (true as far as I know) that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection resulted from his years of research on the animals there.
The areas and shared borders of the Thirteen.
As described in detail in the article linked to at the top, by chance there is a pattern in the areas. Not a perfect pattern, and it only applies to the first nine members of the list, but it’s great. I call it the ‘Chile-spoiled pattern’ because Chile spoils it by being to small. If Chile were a bit bigger, it would be true to say that from first to fifth, the nations get bigger and bigger, and from then on, they get smaller and smaller, ending with ‘France’.
Questions.
1. Is Peru the widest member of the Chile triplet?
2. Is Paraguay bigger than the France triplet?
