The marked territories on this global map 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 ), and 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 ). A country world , such as a state , nation , or other political entity . When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state , states with limited recognition , 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, limited recognition and a number of non-sovereign entities are commonly called countries.
The definition and usage of the word "country" are flexible and has 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. Australia Commonwealth of Australia , is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania , and numerous smaller islands . Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country . Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils . It is a megadiverse country , and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, tropical savannas in the north, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of
Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the
last glacial period . They settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing
artistic and
religious traditions in the world. Australia's
written history commenced with
European maritime exploration . The Dutch were the first known Europeans to reach Australia, in 1606. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the
penal colony of
New South Wales . By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing
British colonies were established, each gaining
responsible government by 1890. The colonies
federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the
United Kingdom , highlighted by the
Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 , and culminating in the
Australia Acts of 1986. (
Full article... )
List of Recognized articles
A national coat of arms independent state in the form of a heraldic achievement . While a national flag is usually used by the population at large and is flown outside and on ships, a national coat of arms is normally considered a symbol of the government or (especially in monarchies) the head of state personally and tends to be used in print, on armorial ware , and as a wall decoration in official buildings. The royal arms of a monarchy, which may be identical to the national arms, are sometimes described as arms of dominion or arms of sovereignty.
An important use for national coats of arms is as the main symbol on the covers of
passports , the document used internationally to prove the citizenship of a person. Another use for national coats of arms is as a symbol on
coins of the associated state for general circulation. (
Full article... )
List of selected articles to understand countries
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.
Tunisia Republic of Tunisia , is the northernmost country in Africa . It is a part of the Maghreb region of North Africa , bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares maritime borders with Italy through the islands of Sicily and Sardinia to the north and Malta to the east. It features the archaeological sites of Carthage dating back to the 9th century BC, as well as the Great Mosque of Kairouan . Known for its ancient architecture, souks , and blue coasts, it covers 163,610 km2 (63,170 sq mi), and has a population of 12.1 million. It contains the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains and the northern reaches of the Sahara desert; much of its remaining territory is arable land . Its 1,300 km (810 mi) of coastline includes the African conjunction of the western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Basin . Tunisia is home to Africa's northernmost point, Cape Angela . Located on the northeastern coast, Tunis is the capital and largest city of the country, which is itself named after Tunis. The official language of Tunisia is Modern Standard Arabic . The vast majority of Tunisia's population is Arab and Muslim . Vernacular Tunisian Arabic is the most spoken, and French also serves as an administrative and educational language in some contexts, but it has no official status.
Beginning in early antiquity, Tunisia was inhabited by the indigenous
Berbers . The
Phoenicians , a
Semitic people , began to arrive in the 12th century BC,
settling on the coast and establishing several settlements , of which
Carthage emerged as the most powerful by the 7th century BC. The descendants of the Phoenician settlers came to be known as the
Punic people .
Ancient Carthage was a major
mercantile empire and a military rival to the
Roman Republic until 146 BC when it was
defeated by the Romans who occupied Tunisia for most of the next 800 years. The Romans introduced
Christianity and left architectural legacies like the
Amphitheatre of El Jem . In the 7th century AD,
Arab Muslims conquered all of Tunisia (finally succeeding in 697 after several attempts starting in 647) and
settled with their tribes and families , bringing
Islam and
Arab culture to the local inhabitants. A later large-scale
Arab migration of
Banu Hilal and
Banu Sulaym tribes in the 11th-12th centuries rapidly accelerated this process. By around the 15th century, the region of modern-day Tunisia had already been almost completely
Arabized , establishing
Arabs as the demographic majority of the population. Then, in 1546, the
Ottoman Empire established control there, holding sway for over 300 years, until 1881, when the
French conquered Tunisia . In 1956,
Tunisia gained independence as the Tunisian Republic under the leadership of
Habib Bourguiba with the help of activists such as Chedly Kallala,
Farhat Hached , and
Salah Ben Youssef . Today, Tunisia's
culture and identity are rooted in this centuries-long intersection of different cultures and ethnicities. (
Full article... )
Top 10 WikiProject Countries Popular articles of the month
Image 1 Australia , officially the
Commonwealth of Australia , is a
sovereign country comprising the
mainland of the
Australian continent , the island of
Tasmania , and numerous
smaller islands . Australia is the largest country by area in
Oceania and the world's
sixth-largest country . Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile
soils . It is a
megadiverse country , and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with
deserts in the centre,
tropical rainforests in the north-east,
tropical savannas in the north, and
mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of
Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the
last glacial period . They settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing
artistic and
religious traditions in the world. Australia's
written history commenced with
European maritime exploration . The Dutch were the first known Europeans to reach Australia, in 1606. British colonisation began in 1788 with the establishment of the
penal colony of
New South Wales . By the mid-19th century, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and five additional self-governing
British colonies were established, each gaining
responsible government by 1890. The colonies
federated in 1901, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. This continued a process of increasing autonomy from the
United Kingdom , highlighted by the
Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 , and culminating in the
Australia Acts of 1986.
Australia is a
federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising
six states and ten territories : the states of
New South Wales ,
Victoria ,
Queensland ,
Tasmania ,
South Australia and
Western Australia ; the major mainland
Australian Capital Territory and
Northern Territory ; and other minor or external territories. Its population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard.
Canberra is the nation's capital, while
its most populous cities are
Sydney ,
Melbourne ,
Brisbane ,
Perth and
Adelaide , which each possess a population of at least one million inhabitants. Australian governments have promoted
multiculturalism since the 1970s. Australia is
culturally diverse and has one of the highest foreign-born populations in the world. Its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources: predominantly services (including
banking ,
real estate and
international education ) as well as
mining ,
manufacturing and
agriculture . It
ranks highly for quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights. (
Full article... )
Image 2 The
United States of America (
USA or
U.S.A. ), commonly known as the
United States (
US or
U.S. ) or
America , is a country
primarily located in
North America . It is
a federation of 50
states ,
a federal capital district (
Washington, D.C. ), and 326
Indian reservations . Outside the union of states, it asserts sovereignty over five major
unincorporated island territories and various
uninhabited islands . The country has the world's
third-largest land area , second-largest
exclusive economic zone , and
third-largest population , exceeding 334 million.
Paleo-Indians migrated across the
Bering land bridge more than 12,000 years ago.
British colonization led to the first settlement of the
Thirteen Colonies in
Virginia in 1607. Clashes with the
British Crown over taxation and
political representation sparked the
American Revolution , with the
Second Continental Congress formally
declaring independence on July 4, 1776. Following its victory in the
Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the country continued to
expand across North America . As more
states were admitted , sectional division over
slavery led to the secession of the
Confederate States of America , which fought the remaining states of the
Union during the 1861–1865
American Civil War . With the Union's victory and preservation,
slavery was abolished nationally . By 1890, the United States had established itself as a
great power . After
Japan 's
attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S.
entered World War II . The
aftermath of the war left the U.S. and the
Soviet Union as the world's two
superpowers and led to the
Cold War , during which both countries engaged in a struggle for
ideological dominance and
international influence . Following the
Soviet Union's collapse and the
end of the Cold War in 1991, the U.S. emerged as the world's
sole superpower .
The
U.S. national government is a
presidential constitutional republic and
liberal 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. Substantial autonomy
is given to states and several territories , with
a political culture that emphasizes
liberty ,
equality under the law ,
individualism , and
limited government . (
Full article... )
Image 3 India , officially the
Republic of India (
ISO :
Bhārat Gaṇarājya ), is a country in
South Asia . It is the
seventh-largest country by area ; the
most populous country as of June 2023; and from the time of 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 in the vicinity of
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, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human
genetic diversity .
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 evidence today is found in the hymns of the
Rigveda . Preserved by an
oral tradition that was
resolutely vigilant , the
Rigveda records the dawning of
Hinduism in India. The
Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern and western regions.
By 400
BCE ,
stratification and
exclusion by
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 based in the
Ganges Basin .
Their collective
era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity, but also marked by the declining status of women, and the incorporation of
untouchability into an organised system of belief. In
South India , the
Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages 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,
eventually founding the
Delhi Sultanate , and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan
networks of medieval Islam .
In the 15th century, the
Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture in south India.
In the
Punjab ,
Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion.
The
Mughal Empire , in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,
leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.
Gradually expanding
rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating 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 pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and became the major 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 , amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration. (
Full article... )
Image 4 Iran , officially the
Islamic Republic of Iran (
IRI ), also known by its Western-given name
Persia , is a country in
West Asia . It is bordered by
Turkey to the northwest and
Iraq to the west,
Azerbaijan ,
Armenia , the
Caspian Sea and
Turkmenistan to the north,
Afghanistan to the east,
Pakistan to the southeast, the
Gulf of Oman and the
Persian Gulf to the south. With a mostly
Persian-ethnic population of almost 90 million in an area of 1,648,195 km
2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran ranks 17th globally in both
geographic size and
population . It is the
sixth-largest country entirely in
Asia , the second-largest in West Asia, and one of the world's
most mountainous countries. Officially an
Islamic republic , Iran has
a Muslim-majority population . The country is divided into
five regions with
31 provinces . The
capital and
largest city is
Tehran , with around 16.8 million people in its
metropolitan area . Other
major cities include
Mashhad ,
Isfahan ,
Karaj , and
Shiraz .
Iran, a
cradle of civilization , has one of the longest histories of any country. It was first unified as a state by the
Median ruler
Deioces in the seventh century BC and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when
Cyrus the Great founded the
Achaemenid Empire , one of the largest in
ancient history .
Alexander the Great conquered the empire in the fourth century BC, dividing Iran into
Hellenistic states . An Iranian rebellion established the
Parthian Empire in the third century BC and liberated the country, which was succeeded by the
Sasanian Empire in the third century AD.
Ancient Iran saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, religion and central government.
Muslims conquered the region in the seventh century AD, leading to Iran's
Islamization . The blossoming
literature ,
philosophy ,
mathematics ,
medicine ,
astronomy and
art became major elements for Iranian civilization during the
Islamic Golden Age . A series of
Iranian Muslim dynasties ended Arab rule, revived the
Persian language and ruled the country until the
Seljuk and
Mongol conquests of the 11th to 14th centuries. In the 16th century, the native
Safavids re-established a unified Iranian state with
Twelver Shia Islam as the
official religion , marking the beginning of modern Iranian history.
During the
Afsharid Empire in the 18th century, Iran was a leading world power, though by the 19th century, it had lost significant territory
through conflicts with the
Russian Empire . The early 20th century saw the
Persian Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the
Pahlavi dynasty . Attempts by
Mohammad Mosaddegh to
nationalize the country's vast fossil fuel supply led to an
Anglo-American coup in 1953 . After the
Iranian Revolution , the monarchy was overthrown in 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established by
The Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , who became the country's first
Supreme Leader . The forces of
Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980, initiating the 8-year-long
Iran-Iraq War . Iran is
officially governed as an
Islamic Republic with a
Presidential system , with ultimate authority vested in a Supreme Leader, currently
Ali Khamenei since
Khomeini's death in 1989. The government is
authoritarian and has attracted widespread criticism for its significant violations of
human rights and civil liberties. (
Full article... )
Image 5 Palestine (
Arabic :
فلسطين ,
romanized : Filasṭīn ), officially the
State of Palestine (
دولة فلسطين ,
Dawlat Filasṭīn ), is a country in the
southern Levant region of West Asia. It encompasses two disconnected territories — the
West Bank and the
Gaza Strip , collectively known as the
Palestinian territories — within the larger
region of Palestine . The country shares its borders with
Israel to north, west and south,
Jordan to the east and
Egypt to the southwest. It has a combined land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while
its population exceeds five million people. Its
proclaimed capital is
Jerusalem while
Ramallah serves as its administrative center and
Gaza City was its largest city until
massive population movements began in 2023 due to the
Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip .
Arabic is the official language. The majority of Palestinians
practice Islam while Christianity also has a
significant presence .
The
region of Palestine has played an important part in world history. The
Canaanites ,
Israelites ,
Assyrians ,
Babylonians ,
Persians ,
Greeks ,
Romans and
Byzantines all left their mark on the land. In addition to its historical significance, Palestine holds profound religious importance for
Judaism ,
Christianity and
Islam . Throughout history the region has experienced periods of coexistence and conflict between different religious and ethnic groups. Notably, during the Middle Ages, when Jewish communities faced
persecution , they found refuge and protection under
Muslim rule and the wider
Islamic world . The
Ottoman Empire , which
controlled Palestine from the 16th century until its
collapse at the end of
World War I , provided a sanctuary for Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. The end of the Ottoman rule marked a new chapter in Palestine's history. Following World War I, the British Empire assumed control of the region under the
League of Nations mandate. The
British Mandate for Palestine , established in 1920, brought significant changes to the political and social landscape of the area, setting the stage for
the conflicts and struggles that would follow .
The establishment of the
State of Israel in 1948 was accompanied by a
war which led to the
forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and created a large
refugee population . Subsequent
Arab–Israeli wars , including the
Six-Day War in 1967, resulted in the Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip . On 15th November 1988,
Palestinian National Council , the legislative body of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by
Yasser Arafat , declared the establishment of the State. Signing of the
Oslo Accords in the 1990s, negotiated between Israel and the PLO, created the
Palestinian Authority (PA) to exercise partial control over parts of Palestinian territories. In 2007,
internal divisions between Palestinian political factions led to a
takeover of the Gaza Strip by
Hamas . Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the Palestinian Authority, led by
Fatah , while the Gaza Strip has remained under the
control of Hamas . Israel has built
settlements in both of the Palestinian territories since the start of the occupation. The settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled in Israel's
unilateral disengagement in 2005, and approximately 670,000
Israeli settlers live in settlements in the West Bank. The international community considers Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories
illegal under international law , but the Israeli government disputes this. (
Full article... )
Image 6 Israel , officially the
State of Israel , is a country in the
Southern Levant region of
West Asia . It is
bordered by
Lebanon and
Syria to the north, the
West Bank and
Jordan to the east,
Egypt , the
Gaza Strip and the
Red Sea to the south, and the
Mediterranean Sea to the west.
Tel Aviv is the country's
financial ,
economic , and
technological center. Israel's governmental seat is in its proclaimed capital of
Jerusalem , although recognition of Israeli sovereignty over
East Jerusalem is
limited internationally .
Israel is located in a region known historically as
Canaan ,
Palestine , and the
Holy Land . In antiquity, it was home to several
Canaanite city-states, and later,
Israelite and Judahite kingdoms , and is referred to as the
Land of Israel in
Jewish tradition . Situated at a
continental crossroad , the region subsequently came under the rule of
various empires . Amid
rising antisemitism in Europe , the late 19th century saw the rise of
Zionism , a movement which sought a
Jewish homeland , which received
British support during
World War I .
British occupation during World War I, led to the establishment of
Mandatory Palestine in 1920. Increased
Jewish immigration , combined with
British colonial policy , led to
intercommunal conflict between
Jews and
Arabs . The 1947
UN Partition Plan triggered
a civil war between the two groups.
The State of Israel
declared its establishment on 14 May 1948, the eve of the end of the British mandate. On the following day, the armies of neighboring Arab states invaded the area of former Mandatory Palestine, starting the
First Arab–Israeli War . Prior to and during this war, the
Palestinian population was
expelled or made to flee by paramilitaries and the
IDF , an expulsion known as the
Nakba . During and following the war, Israel received an influx of mass immigration from
Jews that were expelled or who had fled from the Muslim world . The
1949 Armistice Agreements established Israel's borders over most of the former Mandate territory. The rest, the
West Bank and the
Gaza Strip , were taken by
Jordan and
Egypt respectively. Both during and following the
Second World War , Israel
received many
European Jews displaced by the
Holocaust or World War II. The 1967
Six-Day War saw Israel occupying the
West Bank , Gaza Strip, Egyptian
Sinai Peninsula and Syrian
Golan Heights . The Israeli government has since established and continues to expand
settlements across the
occupied territories , actions which are deemed illegal
under international law , and has annexed both
East Jerusalem and the
Golan Heights , actions which are largely unrecognized internationally. Since the 1973
Yom Kippur War , Israel has signed peace treaties
with Egypt , returning the Sinai Peninsula, and
with Jordan , and into the 2020s has
normalized relations with several Arab countries ; however, international
efforts to resolve the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not succeeded. Israel has been the target of sustained international criticism in its occupation of the Palestinian territories, and has been accused of committing
war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people by human rights organizations and
United Nations officials. (
Full article... )
Image 7 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 . Northern Ireland shares
a land border with the
Republic of Ireland ; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean , the
North Sea , the
English Channel , the
Celtic Sea , and the
Irish Sea . The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km
2 ), with an estimated population of nearly 67.6 million people in 2022.
In 1707, the
Kingdom of England (which included
Wales ) and the
Kingdom of Scotland united under the
Treaty of Union to create the
Kingdom of Great Britain . 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 name, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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. At its height in the 1920s, the
British 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. British influence can be observed in the legal and political systems of many of
its former colonies , and
British culture remains globally influential, particularly
in language ,
literature ,
music and
sport .
English is the world's
most widely spoken language and the
third-most spoken native language . (
Full article... )
Image 8 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 world's
second-most populous country after
India . China spans the equivalent of five
time zones and
borders fourteen countries by land. With an area of nearly 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the
third-largest country by total land area. The country is divided into 33
province-level divisions : 22
provinces , five
autonomous regions , four
municipalities , and two semi-autonomous
special administrative regions .
Beijing is the national capital, while
Shanghai is
its most populous city by urban area and largest
financial center along with
Chongqing as the
largest city proper in the world.
One of the
cradles of civilization , China has been inhabited since the
Paleolithic era , with the earliest
dynasties emerging in the
Yellow River basin before the late second millennium BCE. The eighth to third 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 for the first time. Appointed non-hereditary officials began ruling counties instead of the aristocracy, 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 —including languages, traditions, architecture, philosophy and technology—flourished and has
heavily influenced East Asia and beyond. 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 struggle, the monarchy
was overthrown in 1912 and the
Republic of China (ROC) was formed, although the country in the
Beiyang era became unstable which resulted in the
Warlord Era , that later
concluded after the
Kuomintang (KMT) reunified the country while the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), purged after
1927 , were
fighting sporadically against the
Nationalist government , with a brief truce as
a united front when
Japan began invading the country. Despite China's eventual victory in the
Second Sino-Japanese War and the
Pacific War in general, numerous atrocities such as the
Nanjing Massacre left lasting effects on the country. After the war ended, it recovered the territories that Japan annexed but the second phase of the Chinese Civil War resumed shortly after, and by 1949, the CCP
had established control on most of the territories of the country. As
the KMT retreated to the
island of Taiwan , the country was split with
both sides claiming to be the
sole legitimate government of China. After
the land reforms , later attempts to realize
communism failed—the
Great Leap Forward led to
a massive famine of millions of citizens, while the
Cultural Revolution caused a chaotic period of persecution and zealous
Maoist populism. In 1971, the
PRC replaced the ROC as China's representation in the
United Nations (UN). Following the
Sino-Soviet split , the
Shanghai Communiqué in 1972 marked the beginning of
normalized relations with the United States .
Economic reforms that began in 1978 led by reformists within the CCP moved the country away from a socialist
planned economy toward an increasingly capitalist
market economy , spurring significant economic growth, although liberal and democratic political reforms stalled after the
Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. (
Full article... )
Image 9 Russia , or the
Russian Federation , is a country spanning
Eastern Europe and
North Asia . It is the
largest country in the world by area , extending across
eleven time zones and sharing
land borders with fourteen countries . It is the
world's ninth-most populous country and
Europe's most populous country . Russia is a highly urbanized country including
16 population centers with over a million inhabitants . Its capital as well as
its largest city is
Moscow .
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and its
cultural capital .
The
East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state,
Kievan Rus' , arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted
Orthodox Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire . Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the
Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the
Tsardom of Russia . By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of
Russian explorers , developing into the
Russian Empire , which remains the
third-largest empire in history . However, with the
Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule
was abolished and eventually replaced by the
Russian SFSR —the world's first constitutionally
socialist state . Following the
Russian Civil War , the Russian SFSR established the
Soviet Union with three other
Soviet republics , within which it was the largest and principal constituent. At the
expense of millions of lives , the Soviet Union underwent
rapid industrialisation in the 1930s and later played a decisive role for the
Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the
Eastern Front . With the onset of the
Cold War , it competed with the
United States for global ideological influence. The Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the
most significant Russian technological achievements , including the
first human-made satellite and the
first human expedition into outer space .
In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the
dissolution of the Soviet Union as the independent Russian Federation. A new
constitution was adopted, which established a
federal semi-presidential system . Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by
Vladimir Putin , under whom the country has experienced
democratic backsliding and a shift towards
authoritarianism .
Russia has been militarily involved in a number of
conflicts in former Soviet states and other countries , including its
war with Georgia in 2008 and
annexation of Crimea in 2014 from neighbouring
Ukraine , followed by the further annexation of
four other regions in 2022 during
an ongoing invasion . (
Full article... )
Image 10 Japan is an
island country in
East Asia . It is in the northwest
Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the
Sea of Japan , extending from the
Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the
East China Sea ,
Philippine Sea , and
Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the
Ring of Fire , and spans
an archipelago of
14,125 islands , with the four main islands being
Hokkaido ,
Honshu (the "mainland"),
Shikoku , and
Kyushu .
Tokyo is
the country's capital and
largest city , followed by
Yokohama ,
Osaka ,
Nagoya ,
Sapporo ,
Fukuoka ,
Kobe , and
Kyoto .
The Japanese archipelago
has been inhabited since the
Upper Paleolithic (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, the kingdoms of the region became unified under
an emperor and
the imperial court based in
Heian-kyō . Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (
shōgun ) and feudal lords (
daimyō ), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (
samurai ). After
a century-long period of civil war , the country was reunified in 1603 under the
Tokugawa shogunate , which enacted
an isolationist foreign policy . In 1854,
a United States fleet forced Japan to
open trade to the West , which led to
the end of the shogunate and
the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the
Meiji period , the
Empire of Japan adopted
a Western-modeled constitution , and pursued a program of
industrialization and
modernization . Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan
invaded China in 1937 and entered
World War II as an
Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the
Pacific War and
two atomic bombings , Japan
surrendered in 1945 and came under
a seven-year Allied occupation , during which it adopted
a new constitution .
Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a
constitutional monarchy with a
bicameral legislature, the
National Diet . Japan is a
highly developed country and a
great power , with one of the
largest economies by nominal GDP . Japan has
renounced its right to declare war , though it maintains
a self-defense force that ranks as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the
automotive ,
robotics , and
electronics industries , the country has made significant contributions to
science and technology , and is one of the world's
largest exporters and
importers . It is part of multiple major
international and intergovernmental institutions . Japan has over 125 million inhabitants and is the
11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the
most densely populated . About three-fourths of
the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its
highly urbanized population on narrow
coastal plains . Japan is divided into
47 administrative prefectures and
eight traditional regions . The
Greater Tokyo Area is the
most populous metropolitan area in the world. Japan has one of the world's
longest life expectancies but is experiencing
a population decline due to its very low birth rate. (
Full article... )
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