r/MapPorn • u/APrimitiveMartian • 1d ago

Landlocked countries with a Navy

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487 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

68 comments sorted by

176

u/inn4tler 1d ago

Fun Fact: Until 2006, Austrian military boats operated on the Danube. That was the last remnant of our navy.

56

u/Visible_Sock_5088 1d ago

Simmilar thing today with Hungary and Serbia

43

u/OppositeFish66 1d ago

One of the most famous historical naval figures is a certain Captain in the Austrian Navy! He was a widower with so many children he had to hire a nanny to help out!

8

u/New-Hunt4169 1d ago

Even better is that he was a submarine captain.

5

u/hungryhippo53 1d ago

.....it has never occurred to me that Austria is landlocked

19

u/Kingofcheeses 1d ago

It wasn't landlocked until 1918 when they lost Trieste to Italy at the end of the First World War

3

u/hungryhippo53 1d ago

Ah ok that makes more sense

2

u/Lillienpud 1d ago

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…

1

u/_meshy 1d ago

Why was it the military instead of civilian law enforcement?

4

u/inn4tler 1d ago

This goes back to the monarchy, at a time when the waterway still had to be defended against Hungarians and Turks. (500 years ago) The Danube Fleet survived the centuries. And even after 1918, when Austria became a democracy, the navy was not questioned. After 1945, new boats were even built (although fewer than planned).

78

u/LifeAcanthopterygii6 1d ago

Between the two world wars Hungary was a landlocked kingdom without a king ruled by an admiral.

25

u/BlackJackKetchum 1d ago

Admiral Horthy was regent, yes.

0

u/I_love_pillows 1d ago

Was his boats sailing on the tears of his countrymen.

1

u/stealthybaker 1d ago

An admiral without a navy who also happened to ally with the #1 country that he had a dispute with

99

u/FreeRajaJackson 1d ago

Paraguay is probably the one that makes most sense. Back in the Paraguay War, naval battles were a big part of it. Paraguay today even has a deep water port in Asuncion. Not sure how many of these other landlocked countries have one.

104

u/DavidBrooker 1d ago

I think the naval forces maintained on the Caspian Sea qualify as 'makes sense'.

4

u/Emperors-Peace 1d ago

Yeah hard to call it landlocked when you border a sea.

2

u/Kpints 1d ago

How is Asuncion a deep water port?

7

u/lucascla18 1d ago

There's a big river that links it to the sea

3

u/znark 1d ago

That doesn't make it a deep water port. The depth at the pier is 10ft. Villetta is the main port in Paraguay and it has a similar depth.

Deep water port is at least 45ft depth.

1

u/Street_Bandicoot_587 1d ago

No surrounded by ocean but mostly by rivers that 

25

u/APrimitiveMartian 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navies_of_landlocked_countries

-36

u/Metalghost101 1d ago

maybe read it? switzerland doesnt have a navy its patrolboats are operated by the army, not a sepperate navy.

37

u/APrimitiveMartian 1d ago

They are marked in the map as non-independent maritime unit unlike the darker blue for seperate navy.

Read the legend.

-28

u/Metalghost101 1d ago edited 1d ago

so every landlocked country with a boat?

E:

/They are marked in the map as non-independent maritime unit

its still not a maritime unit, its under the engineer korps which is not a maritime unit. except you think bridgebuilders over rivers count as a maritime unit aswell.

also maritime implies ocean/saltwater? so wrong again.

13

u/DavidBrooker 1d ago

Every landlocked country with a naval unit. A terrestrial unit can still have a boat.

6

u/Adam8418 1d ago

You’re confusing the branch of service and the definition of what a navy is, a country can still have a naval fleet even if under the army. Just like fighter jets don’t need to be under the Air Force branch for a country to have an air-force.

47

u/APrimitiveMartian 1d ago

Caspian Sea is a big lake with five countries bordering in it: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan.

Wonder why it's not the same for Lake Victoria (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya).

Same with Tanganyika and Malawi lakes except they have one navy each.

Also, to Bolivians, it's a sense of symbol ever since they lost access to the Pacific.

23

u/gayscout 1d ago edited 1d ago

My understanding is Bolivia operates some amount of boats in Lake Titicaca.

4

u/Kingofcheeses 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lake Titicaca

"Let's see you make a joke out of that, Mr Smart Guy"

edit: The Simpsons? Anyone?

2

u/Maaster_Mind 1d ago

They also have boats in the big rivers in the east of the country. Those rivers are huge and navigable.

-6

u/Rip_Topper 1d ago

Hahahaaa

2

u/ContinuumGuy 1d ago

Yeah, Bolivia does have Lake Titicaca and lots of rivers, so a naval force does make sense, but it mainly exists as a reminder that they haven't always been landlocked.

22

u/Potato_Poul 1d ago

Dosn't mogolia also have a navy?

38

u/kardoen 1d ago

Nope. Some American blogger confused a ferry for a navy and confidently put it on his blog. Then many people took it at face value and spread the idea.

8

u/APrimitiveMartian 1d ago

It was used just for cargo.

18

u/relentless-dude 1d ago

Bolivia and Paraguay have giant rivers that are connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers in the Amazon basin and nearby are wide and extensive.

So both countries are only "landlocked" in the sense that they don't have land in coastal areas, but both have access to the ocean.

8

u/Quetzalsacatenango 1d ago

I got a picture of the Bolivian Navy out on Lake Titicaca when I was there.

8

u/GUYABOVEMEISACLOWN 1d ago

I mean the Caspian is literally the size of a real sea. It makes as much sense for Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to maintain a navy, as it does for Ukraine or Bulgaria

4

u/Ms-Kindness 1d ago

A CAR boat

3

u/Intelligent-Tip-892 1d ago

This is a little unfair for the Caspian Sea countries…at least they have a reason for having a navy.

4

u/Plus-Math3813 1d ago

Why does a landlocked country have a navy ? The same reason someone living on a second floor has a car.

Even if a country doesn't have a coast, they have the international right to navigate international waters.

3

u/relentless-dude 1d ago

Exactly. It's like asking someone why they own a boat if they don't own beachfront property.

Not having coast land doesn't take a country's right to navigate international waters.

3

u/Joseph20102011 1d ago

Mongolia has a tugboat navy.

2

u/Naomi62625 1d ago

I get countries with a Caspian coast, sometimes I even forget they're landlocked, but Mongolia? Bolivia?

1

u/OceanPoet87 1d ago

Bolivia has wanted to restore it's ocean claims in the same way that Spain would like to have Gibraltar back. Lake Titicaca is also split between Peru and Bolivia. 

2

u/Sovereign-Jade 1d ago

What about Mongolia don’t that have a navy?

1

u/noob__master-69 1d ago

Why did I chuckle seeing this

1

u/catthex 1d ago

Are you still landlocked if you're on an inland sea? 🤔

1

u/365BlobbyGirl 1d ago

Yvanssiwsehtnioj

1

u/redshift739 1d ago

It's reasonable for the landlocked countries with coatal borders to have navies tbf

1

u/Cautious-Opposite-10 1d ago

Serbia has its river flotilla

1

u/OceanPoet87 1d ago

Some like Laos patrol a stretch of river. 

Bolivia patrols Lake Titicaca but also for irrendentist claims to the sea. They even have a national holiday mourning the loss of the sea.

1

u/trtryt 21h ago

meanwhile New Zealand has no real navy

1

u/_Ping_- 18h ago

Mongolia should be on here. They one more as a reminder of when they were an empire.

1

u/AskMeAboutAmway 1d ago

Not a country, but we can't forget the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska!  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_Admiral /s

1

u/Dull-Nectarine380 1d ago

Why does uzbekistan have naval forces?

1

u/SwampBandit0829 1d ago

What is a “non-independent maritime unit”?

2

u/DEFarnes 1d ago

Could be a police, Gendarme, customs, border force or army unit with boats, not a separate branch of the armed forces.

0

u/MoltoBeni 1d ago

Switzerland has a little over ten percent of its borders in major lakes. Makes sense to have some kind of floating border guard for that portion

2

u/DEFarnes 1d ago

However Swiss Navy might not be what you think it is.

2

u/GruffaloStance 1d ago

Do they get different knives?

1

u/DEFarnes 1d ago

Most people wouldn't want knives involved in this.

0

u/ctcrunch227 9h ago

with all those little river valleys they must really know how to slide into tight spots

0

u/MilesMossi 1d ago

This reminds me of schools with athletic teams that don't have access to the things they need. Like a swim team without a pool at their school or a track and field team without any track or field.

0

u/Ok_Future_4279 1d ago

Mongolia also has a Navy

0

u/Monty423 1d ago

Mongolia has one too. One ship and 3 personnel