Quote Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy View Post
But Russian habitation is further west and north and and it's really productive agricultural areas are further south and southwest effectively there was no one there to trade with Iran and they faced west and east as a landpower both of them.
That is definitely not the case. Volga passes through major industrial and agricultural regions of Russia. It is quite easily the most important Russian river.

I never said you couldnt it's just generally easier to be rich if you have a maritime coast you can actually use, it doesnt take a genius to figure out a ship load of fur is worth more to a nation than a cartload.
Let's not forget that one can get lots of carts for the price of one ship.

I said later Canada integrated with the USA as in 19th century early 20th before that all trade went back to the imperial core from her expansive coastlinies and the Hudson river.
But my points stands: Canada was not a suitable trading partner for the U.S.