Political & Historical

Abkhazia

A Black Sea coast between mountains and memory, claimed by Georgia and backed by Russia

Aksai Chin

A high desert plateau administered by China and claimed by India

Alsace-Lorraine

The Rhine borderland Germany ruled as an imperial territory from 1871 to 1918

Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic)

A self-declared republic in the South Caucasus, never recognized by any UN member, dissolved in 2024

Austria-Hungary

The Habsburg dual monarchy of a dozen nations, dissolved at the end of World War I

Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog

Two towns, two countries, one village: the world's most intricate patchwork of Belgian and Dutch enclaves

Bactria

The ancient land of the Oxus, where Greek kings once ruled in Central Asia

Bermuda

Britain's oldest overseas territory, and a capital of global reinsurance

Bessarabia

The land between the Prut and the Dniester, traded among empires for more than a century

Biafra

The breakaway republic of Nigeria's southeast, 1967 to 1970

Bir Tawil

A wedge of desert between Egypt and Sudan that neither country claims

Bohemia

The mountain-ringed heart of Czechia, a kingdom for more than seven centuries

Bukovina

The beech-forested Carpathian land divided between Romania and Ukraine

Büsingen am Hochrhein

A German village surrounded by Switzerland that uses Swiss francs and Swiss customs

Cabinda

Angola's oil-rich Atlantic exclave, separated from the rest of the country by a strip of Congolese coast

Cabo Delgado

Mozambique's northernmost province, where an Islamic State-linked insurgency persists beside Africa's largest gas projects

Campione d'Italia

An Italian lakeside town inside Switzerland, famous for its casino

Ceuta

A Spanish city on the African shore of the Strait of Gibraltar, claimed by Morocco

Courland

The western Latvian duchy that once held colonies in Africa and the Caribbean

Crimea

A Black Sea peninsula held by Russia and claimed by Ukraine

Curaçao

A constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands off the coast of Venezuela

Czechoslovakia

The Central European republic of 1918 that ended in a peaceful Velvet Divorce

Dalmatia

The island-fringed Adriatic coast of Croatia, ruled in turn by Rome, Venice, and Vienna

Darfur

Sudan's vast western region, almost entirely under RSF control since the fall of El Fasher

Donbas

Ukraine's eastern coal-and-steel heartland, mostly held by Russia and the crux of peace talks

East Germany

The German Democratic Republic, the Soviet bloc state behind the Berlin Wall

Eastern DR Congo (the Kivus)

Volcanic, mineral-rich highlands on Rwanda's border where the AFC/M23 rebellion holds Goma and Bukavu

Essequibo

Two-thirds of Guyana, claimed by Venezuela as Guayana Esequiba

Faroe Islands

A self-governing North Atlantic nation inside the Danish Realm, and outside the EU

French Guiana

The European Union's rainforest frontier in South America, and Europe's gateway to orbit

French Polynesia

Tahiti and 117 other islands, a French collectivity on the UN decolonization list

Galicia (Central Europe)

The Habsburg crown land along the Carpathians, now divided between Poland and Ukraine

Gaul

The Celtic lands Caesar conquered, from the Pyrenees to the Rhine

Gibraltar

A British limestone rock at the mouth of the Mediterranean, claimed by Spain and newly open to it

Gibraltar International Airport

The runway on a disputed isthmus that a city street once crossed, now a Schengen entry point under the 2026 UK–EU treaty

Gran Colombia

Simón Bolívar's republic that joined Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama

Hans Island

The Arctic rock that Canada and Denmark contested with flags and liquor, then split in 2022

Isle of Man

A self-governing Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, outside both the UK and the EU

Kaliningrad Oblast

Russia's Baltic exclave between Poland and Lithuania, the former German Königsberg

Kashmir

A Himalayan region divided among three nuclear-armed states

Kazungula (the near-quadripoint)

Where Botswana and Zambia touch for about 150 meters on the Zambezi, a stone's throw from Namibia and Zimbabwe

Kosovo

Europe's youngest declared state, recognized by roughly half the world

Livonia

The crusader land of the eastern Baltic, now shared by Latvia and Estonia

Llívia

A Spanish town entirely surrounded by France, left behind by the wording of a 17th-century treaty

Macau

Europe's first foothold in China and its last to leave, now a casino city on the Pearl River

Manchuria

The Qing homeland of Northeast Asia, divided between China and Russia

Märket

A bare Baltic skerry split between Sweden and Finland by a zig-zag border drawn around a lighthouse

Melilla

A Spanish city on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, where Europe meets Africa at a fence

Moravia

The eastern Czech land of the Morava River, wine country, and an early Slavic state

Musandam

Oman's mountainous exclave at the tip of the Strait of Hormuz, with the Madha and Nahwa enclave-within-an-enclave

Nakhchivan

Azerbaijan's landlocked exclave between Armenia, Iran and Turkey

Neutral Moresnet

A sliver of shared land that existed for a century because of a zinc mine

New Caledonia

A French Pacific archipelago whose status is still being negotiated

Northern Cyprus

The Turkish Cypriot north of a divided island, recognized only by Turkey

Oecusse

Timor-Leste's coastal exclave inside Indonesian West Timor, birthplace of Portuguese Timor

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

A fortified Spanish rock off Morocco's Rif coast, tied to Africa by a sandbar and an 85-meter border

Pheasant Island

A tiny river island ruled by France and Spain in turn, changing hands every six months

Point Roberts

A corner of Washington State that can be reached by land only through Canada

Pomerania

The Baltic "land by the sea," divided at the Oder between Germany and Poland

Port-au-Prince

Haiti's capital, where armed gangs control most of the city and a UN-authorized force has begun operations

Puerto Rico

An island of US citizens who cannot vote for president, still debating what it should be

Rakhine State

Myanmar's Bay of Bengal coast, now mostly held by the Arakan Army and ancestral home of the Rohingya

Réunion

A volcanic French department and EU outermost region in the Indian Ocean

Rhodesia

A self-declared state in southern Africa that no country formally recognized

Serbia and Montenegro

The last remnant of Yugoslavia, from a 1992 federation to a loose union dissolved in 2006

Silesia

The Oder basin that passed from Bohemia to Austria, Prussia, and finally Poland

Somaliland

A self-governing Horn of Africa republic on the Gulf of Aden, recognized so far by one state

South Ossetia

A mountain enclave on the Caucasus crest where the 2008 war began

South Vietnam

The Republic of Vietnam, the southern half of a country divided at the 17th parallel

South Yemen

The Arab world's only Marxist state, built around the port of Aden

Svalbard

A Norwegian Arctic archipelago where a 1920 treaty lets the world come and work

Taiwan

A self-governing island of 23 million whose status two governments read differently

Tanganyika

The East African republic that joined Zanzibar in 1964 to create Tanzania

The Achaemenid (Persian) Empire

The first empire to rule from the Indus to the Aegean, held together by roads and satraps

The Åland Islands

A Swedish-speaking, demilitarized Finnish autonomy settled by the League of Nations

The Aztec Empire

The Mexica-led Triple Alliance that dominated central Mexico from an island city

The British Empire

The largest empire in history, covering about a quarter of the worlds land by 1920

The Byzantine Empire

Romes Greek-speaking eastern half, ruled from Constantinople for more than a thousand years

The Central Sahel

The Mali–Burkina Faso–Niger borderlands, epicenter of the world's deadliest jihadist insurgencies

The Chagos Archipelago

Indian Ocean atolls administered by Britain, claimed by Mauritius and the Maldives

The Diomede Islands

Two islands in the Bering Strait, Russian and American, 3.8 km apart and nearly a day apart in time

The Dominion of Newfoundland

A self-governing dominion that gave up home rule and later voted to join Canada

The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

A South Atlantic archipelago administered by Britain and claimed by Argentina

The Federal Republic of Central America

The short-lived union of five Central American states after independence from Spain

The Free City of Danzig

A League of Nations city-state at the mouth of the Vistula, 1920 to 1939

The Gaza Strip

A narrow Mediterranean coastal strip divided by a ceasefire line since October 2025

The Golan Heights

A basalt plateau held by Israel since 1967 and claimed by Syria

The Holy Roman Empire

A thousand-year patchwork of principalities, free cities and church lands in the heart of Europe

The Inca Empire

Tawantinsuyu, the Andean state that ran more than 4,000 kilometers along the spine of South America

The India–Bangladesh Enclaves

The 162 Cooch Behar enclaves, including the world's only third-order enclave, exchanged in 2015

The Kingdom of Hawaii

An island monarchy that held treaties with the great powers until its overthrow in 1893

The Kingdom of Prussia

The north German kingdom that unified Germany and then vanished from the map

The Kingdom of Sikkim

A Himalayan Buddhist monarchy that became India's 22nd state in 1975

The Korean Demilitarized Zone

The 4-kilometer-wide strip across the Korean Peninsula that has divided North and South since the 1953 armistice

The Mali Empire

The West African gold empire of Sundiata and Mansa Musa, centered on the upper Niger

The Mongol Empire

The largest contiguous land empire in history, forged on the steppe within a single lifetime

The Mughal Empire

The Persianate dynasty that ruled most of the Indian subcontinent and built the Taj Mahal

The Northwest Angle

The chimney on the map of Minnesota, the only part of the lower 48 states north of the 49th parallel

The Orange Free State

A Boer republic on the South African highveld, 1854 to 1902

The Ottoman Empire

Six centuries of rule from Istanbul over the Balkans, Anatolia, the Arab world and North Africa

The Qing Empire

Chinas last imperial dynasty, whose Manchu rulers more than doubled the land under Beijing

The Republic of Texas

The nine-year country between Mexico and the United States

The Republic of Venice

The lagoon republic that ran a Mediterranean trading empire for a thousand years

The Roman Empire

The Mediterranean state whose roads, law and Latin still shape three continents

The Russian Empire

The tsarist state that stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific and, for a time, into North America

The Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu Islands)

Uninhabited East China Sea islets administered by Japan and claimed by China and Taiwan

The Southern Kuril Islands (Northern Territories)

Four volcanic islands administered by Russia and claimed by Japan

The Soviet Union

The world's largest state for seven decades, spanning 11 time zones and 15 republics

The Spanish Empire

The first global empire, spanning the Americas, the Philippines and outposts in Africa

The Spratly Islands

Reefs and islets in the South China Sea claimed by six governments

The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus (Green Line)

The UN-patrolled strip that has divided Cyprus and its capital, Nicosia, since 1974

The United Arab Republic

The 1958 union of Egypt and Syria, the high-water mark of pan-Arab nationalism

The West Bank

Hill country west of the Jordan River at the center of the debate over a Palestinian state

Tigray

Ethiopia's northern highland region, back at war in 2026 four years after the Pretoria peace deal

Transnistria

A sliver of land on the Dniester that broke from Moldova and recognizes itself

Transylvania

The Carpathian-ringed plateau of Romania, once a principality between empires

West Germany

The Federal Republic of Bonn, from postwar ruins to economic miracle and unification

Western Sahara

A desert territory divided by a 2,700-kilometer sand wall and half a century of dispute

Yugoslavia

The South Slav state that held six republics together for most of the 20th century

Zaire

The name the Congo carried through a quarter-century of one-party rule