Question

Why the state borders of usa and canada are straight lines?

Answer 1

At the time the borders were set, those border regions had not been properly mapped and had few European settlers. Knowing very little about the terrain, the easiest way to set the border was by latitude. Because the lack of knowledge about these areas, the border ends up with a few anomalies like Point Roberts, Washington.


Had cartographers known at the time that a small bit of land, unconnected to the rest of the US, would fall south of 49 degrees latitude, they probably would have given it to Canada, much like the did with Vancouver Island, which was known to be partial south of 49 degrees latitude.

There is also the Northwest Angle, which is a small bit of US territory north of 49 degrees latitude. It was claimed as US territory due to a surveying error. This error would not have been allowed to stand had the region been more heavily settled or properly mapped.



Large stretches of the border with Mexico cross barren desert. When the border was set, the region was sparsely populated and there was little reason to believe that would ever change. It was simply easier to draw a straight line on a map than to survey the area. Similarly, the border between Alaska and Canada is mostly a straight line as it crosses sparsely populated tundra.

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