User:Martin Baldwin-Edwards/Countries draft
There is no internationally-accepted definition of what constitutes a ‘country’.
However, all agree that it is a large geographic region defined by natural, political, or cultural boundaries.
American usage tends to emphasise political boundaries that are recognised by other political entities — somewhat ironic, considering the declaratory nature of the birth of America as a country which, at that time, had ill-defined natural boundaries to the North, South and West and who's cultural separateness from the colonial power had yet to develop. The irony with recent relationships is emphasised even more by the fact that it was only the French Republic that, at first, recognised the new United States.
Frequently, the term is taken as being synonymous with ‘state’, in line with legal conceptions of sovereignty which stem philosophically from Rousseau and practically from the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. However, not all states are recognized: thus, we can distinguish between states with de jure sovereignty [with full recognition by the United Nations] and states with de facto sovereignty, whose claim to statehood is contested by some parties. For the purposes of this article, a country is considered as such if it is an area of land distinguished by its political autonomy and whose population possesses a common or shared sense of identity. This broad definition covers many legal-political forms of country, whose different characteristics are shown by category in the table below.
The first category consist of countries with full sovereignty and, usually, direct control of their foreign policy and relations with foreign governments. 194 [check with UN] of these are recognized within the United Nations; four more constitute exceptional cases. These are the Holy See, which is granted Observer status within the UN; Kosovo, which is technically a constituent region of Serbia but is under UN administration; Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China) which is a de facto state not recognized by China; and the Western Sahara, which is territory occupied by Morocco. Arguably, Palestine and Northern Cyprus could be placed in this category of de facto states, but legally it is clear that they remain constituent territories of Israel and Cyprus, respectively.
The second category [Constituent Countries] consists of territories which are part of a larger state: the most important example is that of the constituent components of the United Kingdom, namely the countries of England, and Scotland, the principlity of Wales and the province of Northern Ireland. A distinguishing characteristic of such countries is that they are often part of a federal, or quasi-federal, system of governance and have more than a theoretical possibility of independence. The latter test means that, since the American Civil War may be said to have decided the question, none of the United States of America may be regarded as countries in the political sense, although some, such as Hawaii enjoy a cultural distinctiveness and natural boundaries.
The third category [Associated States] comprises a small number of countries with full sovereignty in domestic affairs, but in the international sphere the more powerful country of association – Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand or the UK – is responsible for foreign policy and defence. All of the countries in this category are small islands, which previously had been colonial possessions.
The final category [Dependent Territories] consists of territories which have the weakest claim to statehood and the status of ‘country’. All, apart from Gibraltar, are islands – although Greenland is a great landmass – and all were colonial acquisitions. Some have limited political autonomy, others do not: this category is a complex mix of legal arrangements.
Name |
Population 2005 [thousands] |
Capital |
Currency |
Constituent countries |
Associated states |
Dependent territories |
29,863 |
||||||
3,130 |
||||||
32,854 |
||||||
67 |
||||||
15,941 |
||||||
81 |
||||||
38,747 |
||||||
3,016 |
||||||
20,155 |
||||||
8,189 |
||||||
8,411 |
||||||
323 |
||||||
727 |
||||||
141,822 |
||||||
270 |
||||||
9,755 |
||||||
10,419 |
||||||
270 |
||||||
8,439 |
Porto Novo (official) |
|||||
2,163 |
||||||
9,182 |
||||||
3,907 |
||||||
1,765 |
||||||
186,405 |
||||||
374 |
||||||
7,726 |
||||||
13,228 |
||||||
7,548 |
||||||
14,071 |
||||||
16,322 |
||||||
32,268 |
||||||
507 |
||||||
4,038 |
||||||
9,749 |
||||||
16,295 |
||||||
1,315,844 |
||||||
45,600 |
||||||
798 |
||||||
57,549 |
||||||
3,999 |
||||||
4,327 |
||||||
18,154 |
||||||
4,551 |
||||||
11,269 |
||||||
835 |
||||||
10,220 |
||||||
5,431 |
||||||
793 |
||||||
79 |
||||||
8,895 |
||||||
13,228 |
||||||
74,033 |
||||||
6,881 |
||||||
504 |
||||||
4,401 |
||||||
1,330 |
||||||
77,431 |
||||||
848 |
||||||
5,249 |
||||||
60,496 |
French Guiana; French Polynesia; French Southern and Antarctic Lands; Martinique; Mayotte; New Caledonia; Reunion; St. Barthelemy; St.-Pierre et Miquelon; Wallis and Futuna |
|||||
1,384 |
||||||
1,517 |
||||||
4,474 |
||||||
82,689 |
||||||
22,113 |
||||||
11,120 |
||||||
103 |
||||||
12,599 |
||||||
9,402 |
||||||
1,586 |
||||||
751 |
||||||
8,528 |
||||||
7,205 |
||||||
10,098 |
||||||
295 |
||||||
1,103,371 |
||||||
222,781 |
||||||
69,515 |
||||||
28,807 |
||||||
4,148 |
||||||
6,725 |
Palestine |
|||||
58,093 |
||||||
2,651 |
||||||
128,085 |
||||||
5,703 |
||||||
14,825 |
||||||
34,256 |
||||||
99 |
||||||
22,488 |
||||||
47,817 |
||||||
2,687 |
||||||
5,264 |
||||||
5,924 |
||||||
2,307 |
||||||
3,577 |
||||||
1,795 |
||||||
3,283 |
||||||
5,853 |
||||||
35 |
||||||
3,431 |
||||||
465 |
||||||
18,606 |
||||||
12,884 |
||||||
25,347 |
||||||
329 |
||||||
13,518 |
||||||
402 |
||||||
2,034 |
||||||
62 |
||||||
3,069 |
||||||
1,245 |
||||||
107,029 |
||||||
110 |
||||||
4,206 |
||||||
35 |
||||||
2,646 |
||||||
31,478 |
||||||
19,792 |
||||||
50,519 |
||||||
2,031 |
||||||
14 |
||||||
27,133 |
||||||
16,299 |
[[Amsterdam but seat of govt. in The Hague]] |
|||||
4,028 |
Tokelau |
|||||
5,487 |
||||||
13,957 |
||||||
131,530 |
||||||
4,620 |
||||||
2,567 |
||||||
157,935 |
||||||
20 |
||||||
3,232 |
||||||
5,887 |
||||||
6,158 |
||||||
27,968 |
||||||
83,054 |
||||||
38,530 |
||||||
10,495 |
Madeira |
|||||
813 |
||||||
21,711 |
||||||
143,202 |
||||||
9,038 |
||||||
43 |
||||||
161 |
||||||
119 |
||||||
185 |
||||||
28 |
||||||
157 |
||||||
24,573 |
||||||
11,658 |
||||||
10,503 |
Vojvodina |
|||||
81 |
||||||
5,525 |
||||||
4,326 |
||||||
5,401 |
||||||
1,967 |
||||||
478 |
||||||
8,228 |
||||||
47,432 |
||||||
43,064 |
||||||
20,743 |
||||||
36,233 |
||||||
449 |
||||||
1,032 |
||||||
9,041 |
||||||
7,252 |
||||||
19,043 |
||||||
6,507 |
||||||
38,329 |
||||||
64,233 |
||||||
947 |
||||||
6,145 |
||||||
102 |
||||||
1,305 |
||||||
10,102 |
||||||
73,193 |
||||||
4,833 |
||||||
10 |
||||||
28,816 |
||||||
46,481 |
||||||
4,496 |
||||||
59,668 |
Anguilla; Bermuda; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn Islands; St. Helena; South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands; Turks and Caicos Islands |
|||||
298,213 |
American Samoa; Baker Island; Howland Island; Jarvis Island; Jonston Atoll; Kingman Reef; Midway Atoll; Guam; Navassa Island; US Virgin Islands; Wake Island |
|||||
3,463 |
||||||
26,593 |
||||||
211 |
||||||
26,749 |
||||||
84,238 |
||||||
20,975 |
||||||
11,668 |
||||||
13,010 |
||||||
|
|
|
||||
1 |
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|