| List of Countries | ||||
Next Country: Unknown - Spring 2012 |
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| Below is a list of what I consider to be every country in the world. Like the most dangerous country list, naming every country is also debatable and is something everyone will never agree with. This page includes dependencies, so at one point my list had 210 countries and once went as high as 235. I have continued to edit the list and now it seems stable at 224 until new nations are born. | ||||
| Country List Links |
1) Afghanistan II 2) Albania 3) Algeria 4) America Samoa 5) Andorra 6) Angola 7) Antarctica 8) Aruba 9) Argentina 10) Armenia 11) Australia 12) Austria 13) Azerbaijan 14) Bahamas 15) Bahrain 16) Bangladesh 17) Barbados 18) Belarus 19) Belgium 20) Belize 21) Benin 22) Bermuda 23) Bhutan 24) Bolivia 25) Bosnia & Herzegovina 26) Botswana 27) Brazil 28) Brunei 29) Bulgaria 30) Burkina Faso 31) Burundi 32) Cambodia 33) Cameroon 34) Canada 35) Cape Verde Islands 36) Cayman Islands 37) Central African Republic 38) Chad 39) Chile 40) China 41) Christmas Islands 42) Colombia 43) Comoros Islands 44) Congo 45) Congo DR 46) Cook Islands 47) Costa Rica 48) Croatia 49) Cuba 50) Cyprus 51) Czech Republic 52) Denmark 53) Djibouti 54) Dominica 55) Dominican Republic 56) Dutch Antilles |
57) East Timor 58) Easter Island 59) Ecuador 60) Egypt 61) El Salvador 62) Equatorial Guinea 63) Eritrea 64) Estonia 65) Ethiopia 66) Falkland Islands 67) Faroe Islands 68) Fiji Islands 69) Finland 70) France 71) French Guiana 72) French Polyensia 73) Gabon 74) Gambia 75) Georgia 76) Germany 77) Ghana 78) Greece 79) Greenland 80) Grenada 81) Guadeloupe 82) Guam 83) Guinea 84) Guinea-Bissau 85) Guyana 86) Haiti 87) Honduras 88) Hong Kong 89) Hungary 90) Iceland 91) India 92) Indonesia II 93) Iran 94) Iraq 95) Ireland 96) Israel 97) Italy 98) Ivory Coast 99) Jamaica 100) Japan 101) Jordan 102) Kazakhstan 103) Kenya 104) Kiribati Islands 105) Kosovo 106) Kuwait 107) Kyrgystan 108) Laos 109) Latvia 110) Lebanon 111) Lesotho 112) Liberia |
113) Libya 114) Liechtenstein 115) Lithuania 116) Luxemberg 117) Macedonia 118) Madagascar 119) Malawi 120) Malayasia 121) Maldive Islands 122) Mali 123) Malta 124) Martinque 125) Mauritania 126) Mauritius 127) Mayotte 128) Mexico 129) Micronesia 130) Moldova 131) Monaco 132) Mongolia 133) Montenegro 134) Montserrat 135) Morocco 136) Mozambique 137) Myanmar 138) Namibia 139) Nauru 140) Nepal 141) Netherlands 142) New Caledonia 143) New Zealand 144) Nicaragua 145) Niger 146) Nigeria 147) Niue 148) North Korea 149) Northern Mariana 150) Norway 151) Oman 152) Pakistan 153) Palau 154) Palestine 155) Panama 156) Papua New Guinea 157) Paraguay 158) Peru 159) Philippines 160) Pitcarin Island 161) Poland 162) Portugal 163) Puerto Rico 164) Qatar 165) Reunion 166) Romania 167) Russia 168) Rwanda |
169) Samoa 170) Sao Tome 171) Saudi Arabia 172) Senegal 173) Serbia 174) Sierra Leone 175) Singapore 176) Slovakia 177) Slovenia 178) Solomon Islands 179) Somalia 180) South Africa 181) South Korea 182) South Sudan 183) Spain 184) Sri Lanka 185) St. Helena 186) St. Kitts & Nevis 187) St. Lucia 188) St. Vincent & Grenadines 189) Sudan 190) Suriname 191) Swaziland 192) Sweden 193) Switzerland 194) Syria 195) Taiwan 196) Tajikistan 197) Tanzania 198) Thailand 199) Togo 200) Tokelau Islands 201) Tonga 202) Trinidad 203) Tunisia 204) Turkey 205) Turkmenistan 206) Turks & Caicos 207) Tuvalu 208) UAE 209) Uganda 210) Ukraine 211) United Kingdom 212) United States 213) Uruguay 214) Uzbekistan 215) Vanuatu 216) Venezuela 217) Vietnam 218) Virgin Islands US 219) Virgin Islands UK 220) Wallis & Futuna 221) Western Sahara 222) Yemen 223) Zambia 224) Zimbabwe |
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Almost all major governments agree there are about 195 official countries in the world. What territories are considered countries is when things begin to become debatable. Some have come up with strict definitions on when to consider a territory being a separate country which I believe is flawed. One example says any geographically isolated area that has a population of over 100,000. With these rules this would name Puerto Rico a separate country from the United States which I would agree with. But this also suggests that both Hawaii, Alaska, and even Canada's Prince Edward Island are countries which I would not agree with. With this is mind I look at each territory in a case by case basis but usually it comes down to three basics, culture, distance and size. In my opinion the easiest way to look at which territories should be considered countries is from a native travelers view. I don't think any American would fly from California to Alaska and consider themselves visiting another country since it is one of the 50 states and the language and culture is similar to the that of the mainland. With Puerto Rico, a different language is spoken, there are clear cultural differences, and even though it is a US territory for the most part Puerto Rico is run by its own local government. Cultural example: I wouldn't expect a traveler from Japan to go hiking in the French Guiana spending a week with tribal people living in the Amazon and return home talking about his amazing trip to France. Distance example: The cultural example was more straight forward but distance is harder to define. I consider the Falkland Islands a separate country because their location is on the other side of the world from the UK. Going back to Hawaii or Alaska you could argue the same but to me the difference is these are states that are completely part of the US government and not distant territories in opposite hemispheres. Size Example: It might sound easier to just include every territory as a separate country, but most of these are extremely tiny areas with small populations. Wake Island which is near Hawaii is a territory that I do not consider a country because it has only a small base of 50 people working on the islands. Another example is the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain which is considered British territory. Rebel Territories: This is one of the harder ones to define. Of course the rebels themselves consider them independent of whoever they are fighting while the mainland doesn't. I don't count rebel territories as independent countries because normally the rebels occupy a small area, and they rarely achieve independence. One exception is Taiwan which I consider separate from China. Taiwan is an island with an extremely large population that is not engaged in military conflicts with the mainland. Plus, it has been living independently for over half a century so it has earned itself on my list. If Taiwan was completely controlled by the Chinese government and recently broke away through fighting and a ong drawn out conflict then I wouldn't consider it an independent nation. | |||||
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