World's political map

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 557.

A political map is a map that shows lines defining countries, states or territories. It is unlike other maps in that its purpose is to show borders. A political map also makes a deliberate political statement about which areas of the earth belong to a country or state.

The political world map shows the boundaries of all independent nations as well as some dependent territories. Some of the largest independent nations in the world are the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Canada, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Australia, while the smallest nations include the Vatican City, Monaco, Andorra, and Singapore.

As represented on the world map, certain countries like Brazil, Australia, and Indonesia enjoy long coastlines, while others are completely landlocked like Bhutan, Switzerland and Lesotho.

The world political map shows dependent territories, like Greenland and the Faroe Islands of Denmark, as well as the French Overseas Territories, which are geographically and culturally distinct, enjoying some degree of autonomy but are not independent states.

The globe map also represents Special Administrative Regions like Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR that possess most of the characteristics of independent nations under the one country two systems' policy and enjoy substantial autonomous status but yet are integral parts of the People's Republic of China.

Formation periods of the political map. There are ancient, medieval, new and latest periods of forming the political map. Two of them influenced significantly on formation of the modern political map: new (from the XVII^th century to the First World War) and latest (from the First World War to the present day).

The Europeans began colonizing activities in the XV^th century from the moment of conquest of Ceuta and Melilla cities by the Portuguese which were important centers of trade and transport in North Africa.

But later European colonization spread on many territories of the New and Old Worlds. In accordance with these changes, there are new forms of governmental structure and management. Later UK, France, Netherlands, Germany joined Spain and Portugal that had large colonies and considered themselves as metropolises (a very large and densely populated industrial and commercial city) for some time. So, there were colonial territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. For example, 90% of Africa, more than 56% of Asia, 27% of America were occupied by colonies at the beginning of the XX^th century.

New independent states as Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Argentina, etc. have formed as a result of the national liberation movement that had developed in the early XIX^th century in Latin America.

A conflict for the territories of influence worsened among major metropolises of the world at the end of XIX^th - the beginning of the XX^th century. As a result, the First World War flamed the whole world.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991 by declaration № 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. This declaration acknowledged the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union following the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In November 1991, the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, led by Robert Badinter, concluded that the SFR Yugoslavia was in the process of dissolution, that the Serbian population in Croatia and Bosnia does not have a right to self-determination in form of new states, and that the borders between the republics are to be recognized as international borders. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 721 on 27 November 1991, which paved the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.

In January 1992, Croatia and Yugoslavia signed an armistice under UN supervision, while Negotiations continued between Serb and Croat leaderships over the partitioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On January 15, 1992, the independence of Croatia and Slovenia was recognized worldwide.

Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia would later be admitted as member states of the United Nations on 22 May 1992. Macedonia was admitted as a member state of the United Nations on 8 April 1993.

Thirteen other countries became independent through a variety of causes.

· March 21, 1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.

· May 22, 1990 - North and South Yemen merged to form a unified Yemen.

· October 3, 1990 - East Germany and West Germany merged to form a unified Germany after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

· September 17, 1991 - The Marshall Islands was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.

· September 17, 1991 - Micronesia, previously known as the Caroline Islands, became independent from the United States.

· January 1, 1993 - The Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent nations when Czechoslovakia dissolved.

· May 25, 1993 - Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia but seceded and gained independence.

· October 1, 1994 - Palau was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.

· May 20, 2002 - East Timor (Timor-Leste) declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but did not became independent from Indonesia until 2002.

· June 3, 2006 - Montenegro was part of Serbia and Montenegro (also known as Yugoslavia) but gained independence after a referendum.

· June 5, 2006 - Serbia became its own entity after Montenegro split.

· Febraury 17, 2008 - Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

· July 9, 2011 - South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan following a January 2011 referendum. Sudan itself was the first to recognize South Sudan and did so one day early, on July 8, 2011.