It's in the curriculum because it's geography, wtf do you mean. We learned all the countries in the world, all seas, major lakes, mountains, highlands and lowlands across Europe etc. And no, I'm not British. There doesn't need to be a deeper meaning when there is none - people simply learn that shit over here.

We learnt about each and every country in the world at school. We had to be able to point it out on a blind map, remember the capital city, name the neighbouring countries, know the main mountains, rivers, economy, those sorts of stuff.