The importance of land, strategically, has increasingly diminished have we had proceeded through time. In the earlier ages of warfare, the minutiae of a country’s landscape were vastly important to warfare. A hill provided a more easily defendable location; a mountain, a fortress nigh-unkillable. A river could hasten the movement of troops tenfold or serve as a wall to those trying to cross it into a hostile territory. An ocean provides even more of a barrier; consider how infrequently Britain was invaded when compared to the rest of Europe.

But War has changed from the era of swords, and even from the era of guns. Now we have spy satellites, nullifying the shroud of secrecy provided by a treeline or a mountain range. Now we have aircraft carriers, allowing the most militarily powerful nations to project that power wheresoever in the world they choose. Now we have nuclear power, capable of leveling cities in seconds.

And so territorial sovereignty only matters as far as the people’s love for their homelands matters, as there is no longer much practical reason to hold a firm grasp over your territory as there once might have been.