Everipedia Logo
Everipedia is now IQ.wiki - Join the IQ Brainlist and our Discord for early access to editing on the new platform and to participate in the beta testing.
Country

Country

A country is a region that is identified as a distinct entity in political geography.

A country may be an independent sovereign state or part of a larger state,[1] as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, a physical territory with a government, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics. Regardless of the physical geography, in the modern internationally accepted legal definition as defined by the League of Nations in 1937 and reaffirmed by the United Nations in 1945, a resident of a country is subject to the independent exercise of legal jurisdiction. There is no hard and fast definition of what regions are countries and which are not.

Countries can refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities,[2] while other times it can refer only to states.[3] For example, the CIA World Factbook uses the word in its "Country name" field to refer to "a wide variety of dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities in addition to the traditional countries or independent states".[4][Note 1]

Etymology and usage

The word country comes from Old French contrée, which derives from Vulgar Latin (terra) contrata ("(land) lying opposite"; "(land) spread before"), derived from contra ("against, opposite"). It most likely entered the English language after the Franco-Norman invasion during the 11th century.

In English the word has increasingly become associated with political divisions, so that one sense, associated with the indefinite article – "a country" – through misuse and subsequent conflation is now a synonym for state, or a former sovereign state, in the sense of sovereign territory or "district, native land".[5] Areas much smaller than a political state may be called by names such as the West Country in England, the Black Country (a heavily industrialized part of England), "Constable Country" (a part of East Anglia painted by John Constable), the "big country" (used in various contexts of the American West), "coal country" (used of parts of the US and elsewhere) and many other terms.[6]

The equivalent terms in French and other Romance languages (pays and variants) have not carried the process of being identified with political sovereign states as far as the English "country", instead derived from, pagus, which designated the territory controlled by a medieval count, a title originally granted by the Roman Church. In many European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the national territory, as in the German Bundesländer, as well as a less formal term for a sovereign state. France has very many "pays" that are officially recognized at some level, and are either natural regions, like the Pays de Bray, or reflect old political or economic entities, like the Pays de la Loire.

A version of "country" can be found in the modern French language as contrée, based on the word cuntrée in Old French,[6]*Oxford%20English]]hat is used similarly to the word "pays" to define non-state regions, but can also be used to describe a political state in some particular cases. The modern Italian with its meaning varying locally, but usually meaning a ward or similar small division of a town, or a village or hamlet in the countryside.

Sovereignty status

The term "country" can refer to a sovereign state. There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world since a number of states have disputed sovereignty status. By one application of the declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood, there are 206 sovereign states; of which 193 are members of the United Nations, two have observer status at the UN (the Holy See and Palestine), and 11 others are neither a member nor observer at the UN. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan since 2011.

The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely.

Some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas territories (such as French Polynesia or the British Virgin Islands), with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own. Such territories, with the exception of distinct dependent territories, are usually listed together with sovereign states on lists of countries, but may nonetheless be treated as a separate "country of origin" in international trade, as Hong Kong is.[7][8][9]

A few states consist of a union of smaller polities which are considered countries:

  • The Kingdom of the Netherlands comprises four separate countries: Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten.

  • The United Kingdom comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, though the latter is sometimes considered a province rather than a country. The Crown Dependencies, which are not part of the UK itself, are also sometimes referred to as countries.

See also

  • City network

  • Constituent state

  • List of sovereign states and dependent territories by continent

  • Lists of countries and territories

  • Micronation

References

[1]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgJones, J. (1964). What Makes a Country? Human Events, 24(31), 14.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[2]
Citation Linkwww.austlii.edu.auTjhe Kwet Koe v Minister for Immigration & Ethnic Affairs [1997] FCA 912 (8 September 1997), Federal Court (Australia).
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[3]
Citation Linkgeography.about.comRosenberg, Matt. "Geography: Country, State, and Nation". Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[4]
Citation Linkwww.cia.gov"The World Factbook". CIA. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[5]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgOED, Country
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[6]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgJohn Simpson, Edmund Weiner (ed.). Oxford English Dictionary (1971 compact ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8. Missing or empty |title= (help)
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[7]
Citation Linkthuytiencrampton.com"Made In The British Crown Colony". Thuy-Tien Crampton. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[8]
Citation Linkwww.delcampe.net"Matchbox label, made in Hong Kong". delcampe.net. Archived from the original on 1 April 2014.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[9]
Citation Linkwww.contractortalk.com"Carrhart Made In Hong Kong?". ContractorTalk.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[10]
Citation Linkwww.cia.gov"Greenland Country Information". Countryreports.org. Archived from the original on 21 December 2007. Retrieved 28 May 2008. "The World Factbook – Rank Order – Exports". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[11]
Citation Linkwww.heritage.org"Index of Economic Freedom". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[12]
Citation Linkwww.heritage.org"Index of Economic Freedom – Top 10 Countries". The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 January 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[13]
Citation Linkwww.heritage.org"Asia-Pacific (Region A) Economic Information" (PDF). The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[14]
Citation Linkumich.edu"Subjective well-being in 97 countries" (PDF). University of Michigan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[15]
Citation Linkweb.archive.orgMercer's 2012 Cost of Living Survey city rankings Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Mercer.com (18 December 2008). Retrieved on 2013-07-12.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[16]
Citation Linkcountry.eiu.comEIU Digital Solutions. "Country, industry and risk analysis from The Economist Intelligence Unit – List of countries – The Economist Intelligence Unit". eiu.com.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[17]
Citation Linkwww.cato.orgHanke, Steve H. (May 2014). "Measuring Misery around the World". Cato Institute.
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[18]
Citation Linkwww.economist.comDefining what makes a country
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[19]
Citation Linkwww.cia.govThe CIA World Factbook
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM
[20]
Citation Linklcweb2.loc.govCountry Studies
Sep 24, 2019, 6:40 PM