The marked territories on this global map from the United Nations are mostly of countries which are sovereign states with full international recognition (brackets denote the country of a marked territory that is not a sovereign state). Some territories are countries in their own right but are not recognized as such (e.g. Taiwan ), some few marked territories are disputed about which country they belong to (e.g. Kashmir ) or if they are countries in their own right (e.g. Western Sahara (territory) or the state known by the same name ), while one UN General Assembly non-member observer state , Palestine , is not labeled due to non-recognition by the United States . A country world , such as a state , a nation , or other political entity . When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state , a state with limited recognition , a constituent country , or a dependent territory . Most sovereign states, but not all countries, are members of the United Nations . There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world, since several states have disputed sovereignty status or limited recognition, and a number of non-sovereign entities are commonly considered countries.
The definition and usage of the word "country" are flexible and have changed over time. The Economist
Areas much smaller than a political entity may be referred to as a "country", such as the West Country in England, "big sky country" (used in various contexts of the American West ), "coal country" (used to describe coal-mining regions ), or simply "the country" (used to describe a rural area ). The term "country" is also used as a qualifier descriptively, such as country music or country living . (Full article...
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. Wales Welsh : Cymru [ˈkəmrɨ] ⓘ country that is part of the United Kingdom . It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the east , the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic Sea to the south-west. As of 2021[update] coastline . It is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate . Its capital and largest city is Cardiff .
A distinct Welsh culture emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales was briefly united under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in 1055. After over 200 years of war, the conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England was completed by 1283, though Owain Glyndŵr led the Welsh Revolt against English rule in the early 15th century, and briefly re-established an independent Welsh state with its own national parliament (Welsh : senedd ). In the 16th century the whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism , exemplified in the late 19th and early 20th century by David Lloyd George , was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party . Welsh national feeling grew over the century: a nationalist party, Plaid Cymru Welsh Language Society in 1962. A governing system of Welsh devolution is employed in Wales, of which the most major step was the formation of the Senedd devolved policy matters . (Full article...
The Commonwealth of Nations British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth , is an international association of 56 member states , the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire from which it developed. They are connected through their use of the English language and cultural and historical ties. The chief institutions of the association are the Commonwealth Secretariat , which focuses on intergovernmental relations, and the Commonwealth Foundation , which focuses on non-governmental relations between member nations. Numerous organisations are associated with and operate within the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was created as the British Commonwealth of Nations through the Balfour Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference , and formalised by the United Kingdom through the Statute of Westminster in 1931. In 1949, the London Declaration allowed India to remain in the Commonwealth as a republic, marking a significant evolution of the association. (Full article...
The following are images from various country-related articles on Wikipedia.
Remaining countries not listed in the Recognized articles section at left are displayed here.
Thailand Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula . With a population of almost 66 million, it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,115 sq mi). Thailand is bordered to the northwest by Myanmar , to the northeast and east by Laos , to the southeast by Cambodia , to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia , and to the southwest by the Andaman Sea ; it also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the state capital and largest city .
Thai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 6th to 11th centuries. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon , Khmer Empire , and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang , Sukhothai , Lan Na , and Ayutthaya , which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of the 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during the 18th century, until it was destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese War . King Taksin the Great quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom (1767–1782), of which he was the only king. He was succeeded in 1782 by Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty . Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia , Siam remained the only state in the region to avoid colonisation by foreign powers, although it was often forced to make territorial , trade, and legal concessions in unequal treaties. The Siamese system of government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy during the 1868–1910 reign of Chulalongkorn (Rama V).
In World War I , Siam sided with the Allies , a political decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand, becoming an ally of Japan in World War II . In the late 1950s, a military coup under Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. During the Cold War , Thailand became a major non-NATO ally of the United States and played an anti-communist role in the region as a member of SEATO , which was disbanded in 1977. (Full article...
Top 10 WikiProject Countries Popular articles of the month
Image 1 Iran , officially the
Islamic Republic of Iran (
IRI ) and also known as
Persia , is a country in
West Asia . It borders
Iraq to the west,
Turkey ,
Azerbaijan , and
Armenia to the northwest, the
Caspian Sea to the north,
Turkmenistan to the northeast,
Afghanistan to the east,
Pakistan to the southeast, and the
Gulf of Oman and the
Persian Gulf to the south. Iran ranks 17th globally in both
geographic size and
population and is the
sixth-largest country in Asia. Iran is divided into
five regions with
31 provinces .
Tehran is the nation's capital,
largest city , and financial center.
A
cradle of civilization , Iran was inhabited by various groups before the arrival of the
Iranian peoples . A large part of Iran was first unified as a
political entity by the
Medes under
Cyaxares in the 7th century BCE and reached its territorial height in the 6th century BCE, when
Cyrus the Great founded the
Achaemenid Empire .
Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the 4th century BCE. An Iranian rebellion in the 3rd century BCE established the
Parthian Empire , which later liberated the country. In the 3rd century CE, the Parthians were succeeded by the
Sasanian Empire , who oversaw a golden age in the
history of Iranian civilization . During this period, ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanization, religion, and administration. Once a center for
Zoroastrianism , the 7th century CE
Muslim conquest brought about the
Islamization of Iran . Innovations in
literature ,
philosophy , mathematics,
medicine , astronomy and
art were renewed during the
Islamic Golden Age and
Iranian Intermezzo , a period during which
Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule and revived the
Persian language . This era was followed by
Seljuk and
Khwarazmian rule,
Mongol conquests and the
Timurid Renaissance from the 11th to 14th centuries.
In the 16th century, the native
Safavid dynasty re-established a unified Iranian state with
Twelver Shia Islam as the
official religion , laying the framework for the modern state of Iran. During the
Afsharid Empire in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, but it lost this status after the
Qajars took power in the 1790s. The early 20th century saw the
Persian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the
Pahlavi dynasty by
Reza Shah , who ousted the last Qajar Shah in 1925. Attempts by
Mohammad Mosaddegh to
nationalize the oil industry led to the
Anglo-American coup in 1953 . The
Iranian Revolution in 1979 overthrew the monarchy, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by
Ruhollah Khomeini , the country's first
supreme leader . In 1980,
Iraq invaded Iran , sparking the eight-year-long
Iran–Iraq War which ended in a stalemate. In 2025, Israeli strikes on Iran escalated tensions into the
Iran–Israel war . (
Full article... )
Image 2 Israel , officially the
State of Israel , is a country in the
Southern Levant region of
West Asia . It
shares borders with
Lebanon to the north,
Syria to the north-east,
Jordan to the east,
Egypt to the south-west and the
Mediterranean Sea to the west.
It occupies the
Palestinian territories of the
West Bank in the east and the
Gaza Strip in the south-west, as well as the Syrian
Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel also has a small coastline on the
Red Sea at its southernmost point, and part of the
Dead Sea lies along its eastern border.
Its proclaimed capital is
Jerusalem , while
Tel Aviv is
its largest urban area and
economic centre .
Israel is located in a region known as the
Land of Israel , synonymous with
Canaan , the
Holy Land , the
Palestine region , and
Judea . In
antiquity it was home to the Canaanite civilisation, followed by the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah . Situated at a
continental crossroad , the region experienced
demographic changes under the rule of empires from the
Romans to the
Ottomans .
European antisemitism in the late 19th century galvanised
Zionism , which sought to establish a
homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine and gained British support with the
Balfour Declaration . After
World War I , Britain occupied the region and established
Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased
Jewish immigration in the lead-up to
the Holocaust and
British foreign policy in the Middle East led to
intercommunal conflict between
Jews and
Arabs , which escalated into
a civil war in 1947 after the
United Nations (UN)
proposed partitioning the land between them.
After the
end of the British Mandate for Palestine , Israel
declared independence on 14 May 1948. Neighbouring Arab states invaded the area the next day, beginning the
First Arab–Israeli War . An
armistice in 1949 left Israel in control of more territory than the UN partition plan had called for; and no new independent Arab state was created as the rest of the former Mandate territory was held by
Egypt and
Jordan , respectively the
Gaza Strip and the
West Bank . The majority of
Palestinian Arabs either
fled or were expelled in what is known as the
Nakba , with
those remaining becoming the new state's main minority. Over the following decades, Israel's population increased greatly as the country received an influx of
Jews who emigrated, fled or were expelled from the Arab world . (
Full article... )
Image 3 The
United States of America (
USA ), also known as the
United States (
U.S. ) or
America , is a country primarily located in
North America . It is a
federal republic of 50
states and a federal capital district,
Washington, D.C. The 48
contiguous states border
Canada to the north and
Mexico to the south, with the
semi-exclave of
Alaska in the northwest and the
archipelago of
Hawaii in the
Pacific Ocean . The United States also asserts sovereignty over five
major island territories and
various uninhabited islands in
Oceania and the
Caribbean . It is a
megadiverse country , with the world's
third-largest land area and
third-largest population , exceeding 340 million.
Paleo-Indians migrated from North Asia to North America over 12,000 years ago, and formed various civilizations.
Spanish colonization established
Spanish Florida in 1513, the first European colony in what is now the continental United States.
British colonization followed with the 1607 settlement of
Virginia , the first of the
Thirteen Colonies .
Forced migration of
enslaved Africans supplied the labor force to sustain the
Southern Colonies '
plantation economy . Clashes with the
British Crown over taxation and lack of
parliamentary representation sparked the
American Revolution , leading to the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Victory in the 1775–1783
Revolutionary War brought international recognition of U.S. sovereignty and fueled
westward expansion , dispossessing
native inhabitants . As more states
were admitted , a North–South
division over slavery led the
Confederate States of America to attempt secession and fight
the Union in the 1861–1865
American Civil War . With the United States' victory and reunification,
slavery was abolished nationally . By 1900, the country had established itself as a
great power , a status solidified after its involvement in
World War I . Following
Japan 's
attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S.
entered World War II .
Its aftermath left the U.S. and the
Soviet Union as rival
superpowers , competing for
ideological dominance and
international influence during the
Cold War . The
Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the U.S. as the world's sole superpower.
The
U.S. national government is a
presidential constitutional federal republic and
representative democracy with
three separate branches :
legislative ,
executive , and
judicial . It has a
bicameral national legislature composed of the
House of Representatives (a
lower house based on population) and the
Senate (an
upper house based on equal representation for each state).
Federalism grants substantial autonomy to the 50 states. In addition, 574 Native American tribes have
sovereignty rights , and there are 326
Native American reservations . Since the 1850s, the
Democratic and
Republican parties have dominated
American politics , while
American values are based on a democratic tradition inspired by the
American Enlightenment movement. (
Full article... )
Image 4 Palestine , officially the
State of Palestine , is a country in
West Asia . Recognized by
147 of the UN's 193 member states , it encompasses the Israeli-occupied
West Bank , including
East Jerusalem , and the
Gaza Strip , collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories. The territories share the vast majority of their borders with Israel, with the West Bank bordering
Jordan to the east and the Gaza Strip bordering
Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while
its population exceeds five million. Its
proclaimed capital is
Jerusalem , while
Ramallah serves as its
de facto administrative center.
Gaza City was its largest city prior to
evacuations in 2023 .
Situated at
a continental crossroad , the
Palestine region was ruled by various empires and experienced
various demographic changes from antiquity to the modern era. It was treading ground for the
Nile and
Mesopotamian armies and merchants from North Africa, China and India. The region
has religious significance . The ongoing
Israeli–Palestinian conflict dates back to the rise of the
Zionist movement ,
supported by the United Kingdom during
World War I . The war saw Britain occupying Palestine from the
Ottoman Empire , where it set up
Mandatory Palestine under the auspices of the
League of Nations . Increased
Jewish immigration led to
intercommunal conflict between Jews and
Palestinian Arabs , which escalated into
a civil war in 1947 after
a proposed partitioning by the United Nations was rejected by the Palestinians.
The
1948 Palestine war saw the
forcible displacement of a majority of the Arab population, and consequently the establishment of Israel; these events are referred to by Palestinians as the
Nakba ('catastrophe'). In the
Six-Day War in 1967, Israel
occupied the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip , which had been held by
Jordan and
Egypt respectively. The
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
declared independence in 1988. In 1993, the PLO signed the
Oslo Accords with Israel, creating limited PLO governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the
Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel withdrew from Gaza in
its unilateral disengagement in 2005, but the territory is still considered to be under military occupation and
has been blockaded by Israel. In 2007,
internal divisions between political factions led to a
takeover of Gaza by
Hamas . Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the
Fatah -led PA, while the Gaza Strip has remained under the
control of Hamas . (
Full article... )
Image 5 Nine
sovereign states are generally understood to possess
nuclear weapons , though only eight formally acknowledge possessing them. In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons, these are the
United States ,
Russia (as successor to the
former Soviet Union ), the
United Kingdom ,
France ,
China ,
Israel (not formally acknowledged),
India ,
Pakistan , and
North Korea .
The first five of these are the
nuclear-weapon states (NWS) as defined by the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). They are also the
permanent members of the
United Nations Security Council and the only nations confirmed to possess
thermonuclear weapons . Israel, India, and Pakistan never joined the NPT, while North Korea acceded in 1983 but announced its withdrawal in 2003.
Israel is widely
understood to have nuclear weapons , with a medium-sized arsenal, but does not officially acknowledge it, maintaining a
policy of deliberate ambiguity . One possible motivation for
nuclear ambiguity is
deterrence with minimum political friction. (
Full article... )
Image 6 India , officially the
Republic of India , is a country in
South Asia . It is the
seventh-largest country by area ; the
most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the
Indian Ocean on the south, the
Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the
Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with
Pakistan to the west;
China ,
Nepal , and
Bhutan to the north; and
Bangladesh and
Myanmar to the east. In the
Indian Ocean , India is near
Sri Lanka and the
Maldives ; its
Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a
maritime border with
Thailand ,
Myanmar , and
Indonesia .
Modern humans arrived on the
Indian subcontinent from
Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse.
Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the
Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the
Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200
BCE , an
archaic form of
Sanskrit , an
Indo-European language , had
diffused into India from the northwest.
Its hymns recorded the
early dawnings of
Hinduism in India. India's pre-existing
Dravidian languages were supplanted in the northern regions. By 400
BCE ,
caste had emerged within Hinduism, and
Buddhism and
Jainism had arisen, proclaiming
social orders unlinked to heredity. Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit
Maurya and
Gupta Empires . Widespread creativity suffused this era, but the status of women declined, and
untouchability became an organised belief. In
South India , the
Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian language scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of
Southeast Asia .
In the early medieval era,
Christianity ,
Islam ,
Judaism , and
Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts. Muslim armies from
Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains in the second millennium. The resulting
Delhi Sultanate drew northern India into the cosmopolitan
networks of medieval Islam . In south India, the
Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture. In the
Punjab ,
Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion. The
Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace, leaving a rich
architectural legacy . Gradually expanding
rule of the British East India Company turned India into a colonial economy but consolidated its
sovereignty .
British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly, but
technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root. A
nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European
British empire and an influence on other nationalist movements. Noted for nonviolent resistance after 1920, it became the primary factor in ending British rule. In 1947, the
British Indian Empire was
partitioned into two independent
dominions , a Hindu-majority
dominion of India and a Muslim-majority
dominion of Pakistan . A large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration accompanied the partition. (
Full article... )
Image 7 Gross domestic product (GDP) is the
market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, which are calculated at market or government official
exchange rates . Nominal GDP does not take into account differences in the
cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's
currency . Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference in the standard of living of its population.
Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made based on
purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. Other metrics,
nominal GDP per capita and a corresponding
GDP (PPP) per capita , are used for comparing national
standard of living . On the whole, PPP per capita figures are less spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
The
rankings of national economies over time have changed considerably; the
economy of the United States surpassed the
British Empire's output around 1916, which in turn had surpassed the
economy of the Qing dynasty in aggregate output decades earlier. Since
China's transition to a socialist market economy through controlled privatisation and deregulation, the country has seen its ranking increase from ninth in 1978, to second in 2010; China's economic growth accelerated during this period and its share of global nominal GDP surged from 2% in 1980 to 18% in 2021. (
Full article... )
Image 8 The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the
United Kingdom (
UK ) or
Britain , is a country in
Northwestern Europe , off the coast of
the continental mainland . It comprises
England ,
Scotland ,
Wales and
Northern Ireland . The UK includes the island of
Great Britain , the north-eastern part of the island of
Ireland , and most of
the smaller islands within the
British Isles , covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km
2 ). Northern Ireland shares
a land border with the
Republic of Ireland ; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean , the
North Sea , the
English Channel , the
Celtic Sea and the
Irish Sea . It maintains sovereignty over the
British Overseas Territories , which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is
London . The cities of
Edinburgh ,
Cardiff and
Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.
The UK has been inhabited continuously since the
Neolithic . In AD 43 the
Roman conquest of Britain began; the
Roman departure was followed by
Anglo-Saxon settlement . In 1066
the Normans conquered England . With the end of the
Wars of the Roses the
Kingdom of England stabilised and began to grow in power, resulting by the 16th century in the
annexation of Wales and the establishment of the
British Empire . Over the course of the 17th century the role of the
British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the
English Civil War . In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland united under the
Treaty of Union to create the
Kingdom of Great Britain . In the
Georgian era the office of
prime minister became established. The
Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the
Kingdom of Ireland to create the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland
seceded from the UK in 1922 as the
Irish Free State , and the
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UK
became the first industrialised country and was the world's
foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the
Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The British Empire was the leading
economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by
its agricultural prosperity , its role as a dominant
trading nation , a massive industrial capacity,
significant technological achievements , and the rise of
19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s the empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the
largest empire in history . However,
its involvement in the First World War and
the Second World War damaged
Britain's economic power , and a global wave of
decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (
Full article... )
Image 9 Cyprus (), officially the
Republic of Cyprus , is an
island country in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea . Situated in
West Asia , its cultural identity and
geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly
Southeast European . Cyprus is the
third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean , after
Sicily and
Sardinia . It is located southeast of
Greece , south of
Turkey , west of
Syria and
Lebanon , northwest of
Israel , and north of
Egypt . Its capital and largest city is
Nicosia . Cyprus hosts the
British military bases
Akrotiri and Dhekelia , whilst the northeast portion of the island is
de facto governed by the self-declared
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , which is separated from the Republic of Cyprus by the
United Nations Buffer Zone .
Cyprus was first settled by
hunter-gatherers around 13,000 years ago, with farming communities emerging by 8500 BC. The late
Bronze Age saw the emergence of
Alashiya , an urbanised society closely connected to the wider Mediterranean world. Cyprus experienced waves of settlement by
Mycenaean Greeks at the end of the
2nd millennium BC . Owing to its rich natural resources (particularly copper) and strategic position at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia, the island was subsequently contested and occupied by several empires, including the
Assyrians ,
Egyptians , and
Persians , from whom it was seized in 333 BC by
Alexander the Great . Successive rule by
Ptolemaic Egypt , the
Classical and
Eastern Roman Empire ,
Arab caliphates , the
French Lusignans , and the
Venetians was followed by over
three centuries of Ottoman dominion (1571–1878). Cyprus was placed under
British administration in 1878 pursuant to the
Cyprus Convention and formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1914.
The island's future became a matter of disagreement between its
Greek and
Turkish communities. Greek Cypriots sought
enosis , or union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s. Turkish Cypriots initially advocated for continued British rule, then demanded the annexation of the island to Turkey, with which they established the policy of
taksim : portioning Cyprus and creating a Turkish
polity in the north of the island. Following
nationalist violence in the 1950s , Cyprus was
granted independence in 1960 . The
crisis of 1963–64 brought further
intercommunal violence between the two communities , displaced more than 25,000 Turkish Cypriots into
enclaves , and ended Turkish Cypriot political representation. On 15 July 1974,
a coup d'état was staged by
Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the
Greek military junta . This action precipitated the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July, which captured the present-day territory of Northern Cyprus and
displaced over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots. A separate Turkish Cypriot state in the north was
established by unilateral declaration in 1983 , which was widely condemned by the
international community and remains
recognised only by Turkey. These events and the resulting political situation remain subject to
an ongoing dispute . (
Full article... )
Image 10 China , officially the
People's Republic of China (
PRC ), is a country in
East Asia . With
a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the
second-most populous country after
India , representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and
borders fourteen countries by land across an area of nearly 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), making it the
third-largest country by land area . The country is divided into 33
province-level divisions : 22
provinces , 5
autonomous regions , 4
municipalities , and 2 semi-autonomous
special administrative regions .
Beijing is the country's capital, while
Shanghai is
its most populous city by urban area and largest
financial center .
Considered one of six
cradles of civilization , China saw the first human inhabitants in the region arriving during the
Paleolithic . By the late 2nd millennium BCE, the earliest
dynastic states had emerged in the
Yellow River basin. The 8th–3rd centuries BCE saw a breakdown in the authority of the
Zhou dynasty , accompanied by the emergence of administrative and military techniques,
literature ,
philosophy , and
historiography . In 221 BCE, China was unified under
an emperor , ushering in more than two millennia of imperial dynasties including the
Qin ,
Han ,
Tang ,
Yuan ,
Ming , and
Qing . With the
invention of gunpowder and
paper , the establishment of the
Silk Road , and the building of the
Great Wall ,
Chinese culture flourished and has
heavily influenced both its neighbors and lands further afield. However, China began to cede
parts of the country in the late 19th century to various European powers by a series of
unequal treaties . After decades of Qing China on the decline, the
1911 Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and the monarchy and the
Republic of China (ROC) was established the following year.
The country under the nascent
Beiyang government was unstable and ultimately fragmented during the
Warlord Era , which was ended upon the
Northern Expedition conducted by the
Kuomintang (KMT) to reunify the country. The
Chinese Civil War began in 1927, when KMT forces
purged members of the rival
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who proceeded to engage in sporadic fighting against the KMT-led
Nationalist government . Following the country's invasion by the
Empire of Japan in 1937, the CCP and KMT formed the
Second United Front to fight the Japanese. The
Second Sino-Japanese War eventually ended in a Chinese victory; however, the CCP and the KMT resumed their civil war as soon as the war ended. In 1949, the resurgent Communists established control over most of the country,
proclaiming the People's Republic of China and forcing the
Nationalist government to retreat to the
island of Taiwan . The country was split, with
both sides claiming to be the
sole legitimate government of China . Following the implementation of
land reforms , further attempts by the PRC to realize
communism failed: the
Great Leap Forward was largely responsible for the
Great Chinese Famine that ended with millions of Chinese people having died, and the subsequent
Cultural Revolution was a period of social turmoil and persecution characterized by
Maoist populism. Following the
Sino-Soviet split , the
Shanghai Communiqué in 1972 would precipitate the normalization of
relations with the United States .
Economic reforms that began in 1978 moved the country away from a socialist
planned economy towards a
market-based economy , spurring significant economic growth. A movement for increased democracy and liberalization stalled after the
Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989. (
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