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, while other times it refers only to states. 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".
Read more about Country: Etymology and Usage, Sovereignty Status
Other articles related to "country":
... History of the Jews in Malaysia Although Malaysia presently has no Jewish population, the country has reportedly become an example of a phenomenon called “Anti-Semitism without Jews." The Malay-language Utusan ... best opportunity to interfere in any Islamic country," the newspaper said ... help foreign groups succeed in their mission of controlling this country." Prime Minister Najib Razak's office susbsequently issued a statement late Monday saying ...
... Best Female Country Vocal Performance Faith Hill for "Cry" Best Male Country Vocal Performance Johnny Cash for "Give My Love to Rose" Best Country Performance by a Duo or ...
... Skaters may represent a country of which they are not yet a citizen in most competitions, except the Olympics which require citizenship ... Each country may send one to a maximum of three entries per event, thus, even if a skater has a high season's best, he or she may not be sent to major events if their country has many good skaters in a discipline ... to circumvent this by switching to another country ...
... See also List of sovereign states The term "country" is commonly used to refer to sovereign states ... of countries, and may be treated as a "country of origin" in international trade, as Hong Kong is ...
... Mongolia i/mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ (Mongolian Монгол улс, literally Mongol country/state) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia ... The country came under strong Russian and Soviet influence in 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was declared, and Mongolian politics began to follow the same patterns as the ... the most sparsely populated independent country in the world, with a population of around 2.75 million people ...
Famous quotes containing the word country:
“This mesa plain had an appearance of great antiquity, and of incompleteness; as if, with all the materials for world-making assembled, the Creator had desisted, gone away and left everything on the point of being brought together, on the eve of being arranged into mountain, plain, plateau. The country was still waiting to be made into a landscape.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“[N]o country can squander itself to prosperity on the ruin of its taxpayers.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“The filth and noise of the crowded streets soon destroy the elasticity of health which belongs to the country boy.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)