Country
simple:CountryA country, a land, or a state, is a geographical area and an independent political entity with its own government, administration, laws, often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and people. Some countries are nation states - for example France or Israel. In these nation states one particular nation is dominant. Other countries, such as People's Republic of China, Spain or United Kingdom contain several nations (or, at least, some parts of the population call themselves a nation), in spite of some of them considering themselves as nation states.
Sometimes, parts of states with a distinct history or culture are called "lands" or "countries": England, Scotland and Wales - three nations on the island of Great Britain are sometimes called countries, even though they are administrative components of the State of the United Kingdom.
The terms country, nation, state and land are often used as synonyms, but in a more strict usage they are distinguished:
- country is the geographical area
- nation designates a people
- state is about government, and an entity in international law
- land may be used for "a country and its people" but also thought of as country belonging to a nation or a monarch
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Countries with exclaves
These countries consist of two non-contiguous parts, separated by land of one or more other countries. The smaller part (the exclave) is put in parentheses.
- Angola (Cabinda)
- Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan)
- Brunei (Temburong)
- East Timor (Ocussi-Ambeno region)
- Oman (Musandam peninsula)
- Russia (Kaliningrad)
- US (Alaska)
See also
- Nation state for the history of the development of the modern nation states
- List of countries
- List of country name etymologies
- Enclave, includes a list of enclaves.
External links
- The CIA world factbook
- The US Department of State Background notes on countries the US has relations with
- Lonely Planet Clickable map and information on the world's countries
- Nationmaster.com Allows sorting countries on all kinds of statistics
- United Nations statistics devision
- The World Bank Group Includes railway statistics
Country is also a short form for
