The world has just over 200 countries. Many are represented in the Guide, and many are represented here by citizen researchers.

It's a more malleable term than you might think. Does it mean an area with an independent government? An independent economy? Independent laws? Do you have to have your own economy or just your own flag? Membership of the United Nations or a fifa recognised football team? In practice some countries are only semi-autonomous, and many governments run 'countries that no longer have borders!

The Encyclopaedia Galactica ¹ allows two distinct meanings for 'Country':

1. The territory of a nation, with it's own government; a state.

2. A territory possessing it's own language, people, culture etc.

So defined by social boundaries as much as geographic ones, we can see how central the idea of 'nationhood' is to that of the country, above and beyond being an artificial Political structure countries are it seems a political need

The desire for a 'nation-state' can both create and deny the existence of countries. It was Jewish nationalism (or Zionism) which lead to the establishment of the state of Israel, creating a homeland for a nation people who had long since dispersed around the globe. A nation whose people had neither land nor government. It was however only once this nationalist movement was ignited by the impetus of militancy, anger and fear generated by the genocidal crimes of the second world war that the drive for a state was achieved, and only due to these exceptional circumstances (and possibly no little guilt) that it was accepted by much of the outside world.

The Roma Gypseys were also subject to the pogroms of the Third Riech - however their susequent fate has differed massively to that of the Jews. A visiter to the Auswitz-Berkenau National Museum in Poland where thousands of Jews, Gypseys and Communists were murdered in the last years of the war is reminded by the guides to remmeber the attrocities commited against the Roma people "who are forgotten as they have no state to represent them". Prejudice and injustice against gypseys is as prevelent as ever, and even in these 'politically correct' times is seen as fairly aceptable, wheras anti-semitism is - thanks to the lobby of the Israeli state - both unacceptable and limited to fringe groups (or to those nations which Israel has chosen as it's enemies).

The Kurdish people have never left their homelands - yet their lack of power and influence has denied them their own state and their homeland is divided between a number of other countries.


The example of Israel is doubly relevant, for where the Zionist dream created a new state that same spirit of nationalism now withholds the status of 'country' from the Palestinians whose occupied territories Israel insists are not within it's own borders, the Palestinians then have both a people and a homeland, but are still denied 'country' status, this time by a nation.

A nation state is therefore power, legitimacy a place in history.

If government exists, but that government is not 'recognised' by outside countries and institutions - as was the case with the Afghani Taliban regime - the area does not cease to be a country - the name 'Afghanistan's was not removed from atlases and replaced by the legend 'to be confirmed'. Equally when a country involved in protracted civil war is divided by separate regimes - such as has been the case in Colombia for several years, with some half of the country being administered by the national Government and half (through mutual agreement) by the rebel guerrilla forces FARC - the world still views this as one country rather than two independent states, but a single country divided by a line of control separating two independent governments.

It is then as much the decision of the outside world, whether your nation is allowed to have a state, and whether that nation-state once won, will be allowed to be a country. The case of Taiwan is an interesting one, technically it remains part of China, and the People's Republic still lays claim to it, though US backing of the Nationalist movement their ensure the revolution never reached the island. While the US (and many of it's allies recognise it as independent, China, and perhaps most importantly, a good deal of Taiwan's own population regard it as part of a greater China.

'Virtual country'

East Timorese until recently had no domain on the Internet of their own. Anyone wishing to go online had to use Indonesia's domain (.id) or that of another country.
But just over a year ago, the 1996 Nobel Prize winners, Jose Ramos Horta , Bishop Belo initiated, along with Internet service provider Connect-Ireland an East Timorese Internet domain (.tp) - giving East Timor a presence as a 'virtual country' on the Net.

The site was soon forced to shut down when a highly organised attack, for which the Indonesian government was blamed, brought down the East Timor virtual country domain.

Despite these problems, the site East Timor World under the wing of the Free East Timor site is up and running and gives an extensive range of links to East Timorese sources on the Internet. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/263169.stm

So what makes nations powerful? The Russian Federation covers an area of 147,386,000 Km2, the largest country in the world, with all the natural resources and population that great size brings with it, being the seventh most populous country, and the fifteenth richest (GNP). In it's time this has brought great prestige and power upon the world stage - however, to consider the GDP per-capita

So any country that seeks to be economically autonomous must have enough area (therefore resorses) to sustain its population.

The UN has 189 member statesFor a list of members, non-members and 'entities' view www.un.org , recognises 2 non-member states (Holy See and Switzerland) and 1 'Entity' (Palestine). Does this make Palestine a country - or by being designated this special status is it denied it by a trick of the tongue? Taiwan however has no separate status in the UN. And yet almost all governments treat it as such.

The world of sport on the other hand seem far more inclusive. The International Olympic Committee recognises 199 committee countriesFor a list IOC's view the page at the Official Website of the Olympic Movement www.olympic.org , and FIFA recognises 203 national teamsFor a list of competing nations and their world rankings view the international league table at the official fifa website www.fifa.com, both including Palestine (Fifa ranking 147) and 'Chinese Taipei' (172), while neither has representation from the Holy See, despite Pope J-P2's goalkeeping past.

Here however is a list of all the major countries of the world, along with a few interesting statistics regarding Life (population), the Universse (landmass) and Everything (wealth) and referenced guide entries: