It is not easy to be a country. Not after the 1993 Montevideo Convention to qualify as one. According to the convention, any country, to be called a country must fulfill at least these four points. It has to comprise a marked area, a stable population, a government, and a government competent of socializing with other states. That may not sound like a convincing checklist, but many unofficial countries still disqualify it. Here are the countries that are not actually countries.
Countries that are not Actually Countries
The countries that are recognized as such globally form a comparatively compact society. The United Nations officially recognizes 193 of them as members. While some countries are not yet approved by the United Nations.
Bermuda
If you plan your holidays on this North Atlantic island, you’re officially touring in the United Kingdom, kind of. Unlike self-governing and sovereign Commonwealth countries like the Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica, Bermuda is an overseas region of the United Kingdom, which regulates its foreign affairs, defense, and security.
Bermuda Premier David Burt, for one, would like to see that difference. In 2018, he announced the House of Assembly that it was “unacceptable in a modern democracy” to have “decisions made thousands of miles away that impact our customs, our institutions, and our livelihoods.”
Bosnia
We often point to the wonderful, hilly country to the west of Serbia as, simply, Bosnia, but that name actually refers only to the northern part of a bigger country known as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The composite moniker may not precisely roll off the tongue, which might be why most locals in Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities tend to leave out “Herzegovina” when talking about their country. If you do the same while vacationing in the region, almost everyone save for Herzegovina locals in the south probably will excuse you for it.
England
Elizabeth II is generally referred to as the “Queen of England,” but if that title were true, she’d be a sovereign without an actual country. England is a non-sovereign state in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
When Americans use “England” reciprocally with “the U.K.” and “Great Britain” (which refers to the island containing England, Scotland, and Wales), they’re wrong. England is actually just the dominant and highest-profile component of both.
Greenland
The world’s largest island that is not also a continent (almost 836,300 square miles) has been a region of the Kingdom of Denmark since the middle of the last century. Although they live on a separate landmass (North America) from Denmark and have their official language (Greenlandic) and sovereign (Queen Margrethe II), Greenlanders directs trade using the Danish krone while Denmark makes Greenland’s foreign and defense policy.
Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, who was quoted as declaring, “Greenland is not for sale” as US President Donald Trump showed interest in buying Greenland. Check out the world’s best islands to visit.
Korea
The U.S. Department of State recognized the whole East Asian peninsula of Korea as a country from 1882 to 1905, but since 1948, Korea technically has been not a country, but a region with two independent states: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) led by Kim Jong-un and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) led by President Moon Jae-in.
Not shockingly given the decades of turbulence since the Korean War in the early 1950s, they aren’t expressly peaceful neighbors.
North Ireland
When we speak of the country of Ireland, we’re usually speaking of the whole island to the west of Great Britain, but the northeastern part of the island is not part of the Republic of Ireland. Officially known as Northern Ireland, it’s one of the four non-sovereign nations comprising the United Kingdom, and hence its inhabitants, unlike those in the non-Commonwealth Republic of Ireland, all hail the Queen. The same is the case with Wales and Scotland.
But Brexit seems to be changing public sentiment. In 2013, a BBC survey observed that only 13 percent of people in Northern Ireland were in support of reunification with the Republic of Ireland. Last year, according to a survey cited by the Atlantic, that number had grown to 51 percent.
Taiwan
If something is “Made in Taiwan,” it’s officially made in China, at least by U.N for now. Taiwanese nationals can visit the world with Taiwanese passports and they imagine themselves as belonging to a separate country, but China maintains to oppose Taiwan’s sovereign status, and most of the U.N.’s member states support China’s notion.
According to a 2019 BBC News article, “China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will finally be part of the country again, but many Taiwanese want an independent country.
Tasmania
Tasmania as a state down under with its own status, at least among young children. In reality, Tasmania is one of Australia’s six states, located about 150 miles from the continent. It’s kind of like Hawaii, only a much shorter flight away from its origin country.
