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Country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated peoples 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. Sometimes the word country is used to refer both to sovereign states and to other political entities,[1][2][3] while other times it refers only to states.[4] 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".[5][Note 1]
Topographical map of Europe

Contents
1 Etymology and usage 2 Sovereignty status 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links
Same area as above, showing sovereign states widely accepted by the UN

Etymology and usage

The word country has developed from the Late Latin contra meaning "against", used in the sense of "that which lies against, or opposite to, the view", i.e. the landscape spread out to the view.[6] From this came the Late Latin term contrata, which became the modern Italian contrada, and Provenal and French equivalents. In many ways this defined the agonistic world view of the early Christian identity in Europe.[7] Several different senses of the term developed in Middle English from the 13th century, all reflecting a sense of either opposition, or occupation.[6] In English the word has increasingly become associated with political divisions, so that one sense, associated with the indefinite article "a country" is now a synonym for state, or a former sovereign state, in the sense of sovereign territory or "district, native land".[8] Areas much smaller than a political state may be called by names such
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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.[9] The equivalent terms in French and 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 Search... Search Facebook Twitter YouTube European countries the words are used for sub-divisions of the national territory, as in the German Lnder, as well News state. France has very many "pays" that are officially recognised at some level, as a lessShopping formal term GNG for a sovereign and are either natural regions, like the Pays de Bray, or reflect old political or economic unities, like the Pays de la Loire. At the same time the United States and Brazil are also "pays" in everyday French speech. A version of "country" can be found in the modern French language as contre, based on the word cuntre in Old French,[9] that is used similarly to the word "pays" to define regions and unities, but can also be used to describe a political state in some particular cases. The modern Italian contrada is a word 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
See also: List of sovereign states The term "country" is used by some to refer to sovereign states. There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world, since a number of states have disputed sovereignty status. There are 206 total states, with 193 states participating in the United Nations, two observer states and 11 other states (if the Cook Islands and Niue are included, but there are only a few states have recognised them as sovereign). All are defined as states by declarative theory of statehood and constitutive theory of statehood. The latest proclaimed state is South Sudan. Although not sovereign states, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are sometimes paradoxically referred to as separate countries, even though collectively they form the country known as the United Kingdom.[10][11][12][13] Former states such as Bavaria (now part of Germany) and Venetia (now part of Italy) would not normally be referred to as "countries" in contemporary English, although they were in the past when independent states.[citation needed ] The degree of autonomy of non-sovereign countries varies widely. Some are possessions of sovereign states, as several states have overseas dependencies (such as the British Virgin Islands (GBR) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (FRA)), with citizenry at times identical and at times distinct from their own. Such dependent territories are sometimes listed together with sovereign states on lists of countries, and may be treated as a "country of origin" in international trade, as Hong Kong is.

See also
List of sovereign states and dependent territories by continent Lists of countries Constituent country Micronation Sovereign state
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Notes
1. ^ General information or statistical publications that adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison include:. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

References
1. ^ "Acts Interpretation Act 1901 - Sect 22: Meaning of certain words" (http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/ActCompilation1.nsf/framelodgmentattachments/C9CB248BCF47 2C8BCA257664002343B3). Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 2. ^ "The Kwet Koe v Minister for Immigration & Ethnic Affairs & Ors [1997] FCA 912 (8 September 1997)" (http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/cases/cth/federal%5fct/1997/912.html). Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 3. ^ "U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 2General" (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/84411.pdf) (PDF). United States Department of State. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 4. ^ Rosenberg, Matt. "Geography: Country, State, and Nation" (http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/statenation.htm). Retrieved 2008-11-12. 5. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook" (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/docs/notesanddefs.html#T). Retrieved 2012-02-16. 6. ^ a b John Simpson, Edmund Weiner (ed.). "country". Oxford English Dictionary (1971 compact ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198611862. 7. ^ John Burt Foster, Wayne Jeffrey Froman, Thresholds of western culture: identity, postcoloniality, transnationalism, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002, p.208 8. ^ OED, Country 9. ^ a b John Simpson, Edmund Weiner (ed.). Oxford English Dictionary (1971 compact ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198611862. 10. ^ "Legal Research Guide: United Kingdom" (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/uk.php). Law Library of Congress. 2009-07-23. Retrieved 2013-03-29. "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the collective name of four countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The four separate countries were united under a single Parliament through a series of Acts of Union." 11. ^ "countries within a country:number10.gov.uk" (http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20080909013512/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page823). 10 Downing Street website. 10 Downing Street. 2003-01-10. Retrieved 2009-09-22. "The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." 12. ^ "Commonwealth Secretariat Geography" (http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/139598/geography/). Commonwealth Secretariat website. Commonwealth Secretariat. 2009-09-22. Retrieved 2009-09-22. "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) is a union of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." 13. ^ "Travelling Europe United Kingdom" (http://europa.eu/youth/travelling_europe/index_uk_en.html). European Youth Portal. European Commission. 2009-06-29. Retrieved 2009-09-22. "The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales." 14. ^ "Greenland Country Information" (http://www.countryreports.org/country.aspx? countryid=96&countryName=countryid=96&countryName=Greenland). Countryreports.org. Retrieved 2008-0528. "The World Factbook Rank Order Exports" (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/rankorder/2078rank.html). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 15. ^ "Index of Economic Freedom" (http://www.heritage.org/index/countries.cfm). The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 16. ^ "Index of Economic Freedom - Top 10 Countries" (http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/topten.cfm). The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
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17. ^ "Asia-Pacific (Region A) Economic Information" (http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/chapters/pdf/index2007_RegionA_Asia-Pacific.pdf) (PDF). The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 18. ^ "Subjective well-being in 97 countries" (http://umich.edu/news/happy_08/HappyChart.pdf) (PDF). University of Michigan. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 19. ^ http://www.mercer.com/costofliving 20. ^ http://country.eiu.com/AllCountries.aspx

Further reading
Defining what makes a country (http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm? story_id=15868439) The Economist

External links
Canada Foreign Affairs Travel Advisories (http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/menu-eng.asp) The CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html) Country Portals (http://www.state.gov/misc/list/index.htm/) from the United States Department of State, including Background Notes Country Profiles (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/country_profiles/default.stm) from BBC News Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/) from the United States Library of Congress Foreign Information by Country (http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/foreigngovt.htm) and Country & Territory Guides (http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/foreignalpha.htm) from GovPubs at UCB Libraries PopulationData.net (http://www.populationdata.net) United Nations statistics division (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Country&oldid=563366766" Categories: Countries Human geography

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