Blog Post #72 - New countries, new states - Geography for Mummies,Daddies and Dummies! #Geography

With Crimea as a new country(are we serious?) the last new country we added officially was 'South Sudan' on 9 July 2011.

Lets learn a bit a Geography.

Here are some interesting facts I learnt from a TED talk from Parag Khanna 

Let's start with the world of 1945. 1945 there were just 100 countries in the world. 

After World War II, Europe was devastated, but still held large overseas colonies:French West Africa, British East Africa, South Asia, and so forth. Then over the late '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s, waves of decolonization took place. 

Over 50 new countries were born. You can see that Africa has been fragmented. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South East Asian nations created.
Then came the end of the Cold War. The end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. You had the creation of new states in Eastern Europe, the former Yugoslav republics and the Balkans, and the 'stans of central Asia.

In short 100 countries before 1945

After 1945 we got 150 countries

After 1980 end of cold war another 30 countries..making them 180 countres.

Don't ask me to how we got another 20+ countries into the list.

We have around 200+ countries now.

Here is a split up for 194.

1. Africa    -      54 Countries

2.Europe -        47 Countries
3.Asia     -        44 Countries

4.N. America - 23 Countries

5.Oceania -      14 Countries

6.S.America      12 Countries

Total = 194. 

I didn't want to include all 200+ countries and cause more confusion including this questions - Is Palestine a country? (answer - lets use what UN considers as countries and stay away from controversies) 

Some Small countries in the world . I am surprised i have been to 2 of them Vatican city and Liechtenstein(it is near Switzerland)

1. Vatican City 
2. Monaco 
3. Nauru
4. Tuvalu
5. San Marino 
6. Liechtenstein
7. Marshall Islands 
8. Saint Kitts and Nevis 
9. Seychelles 
10. Maldives 
11. Malta
12. Grenada
13. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
14. Barbados
15. Antigua and Barbuda 
16. Andorra 
17. Palau 

So you can figure Turkey is in Asia. 

North America has 23 countries.

Russia and Turkey have a peculiar mix of both European and Asian culture. Turkey has been in the silk route for so long that it gets invited to EU and maintains strong Islamic traditions unheard of in the west!

With raising connectivity to web the world is becoming more and more nationalistic. From new states and new countries the changes are right in front of us.

Open the map - do you notice the small islands? Most are owned by European colonial powers of 20th century  and usa.

From Greenland owned by Denmark to Puerto Rico which is a us territory these regions always wanted their own independence. Read about Puerto Rico independence movements on the web to get more perspective.

Diego Garcia - I  paraphrase George Fernandes - the x-defense minister of India 

"India conducted nuclear tests because US base in Diego Garcia is filled with nuclear arsenals" .

Do you know where is Diego Garcia? UK gifted US this island and the natives were chased out - this island has a dark history and is currently a military base with strategic value.

If you cannot understand why Pakistan,India and Bangladesh are different you may not figure out why South and North Korea are different and US and Canada are different. 

Each  Country/Region has ethic background and these are getting more and more fine tuned with technology - we are not one big happy family. we are a big family and people want to find their 'dad' and 'mom' as they feel lost!

India is going to welcome Telangana as a new state on June 2 2014 while Crimera will become a new country soon while at it the Malaysian plane was speculated to have  landed close  to Diego Garcia.

Here is the list of countries just in case you  forgot

AFRICA  (54)	ASIA  (44)	EUROPE  (47)	N. AMERICA  (23)	OCEANIA (14)	S. AMERICA  (12)
Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sao Tome and Principe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe	Afghanistan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia China East Timor India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russian Federation Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City	Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States	Australia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela

and here is a video link of my son naming 50+ capitals Link here

Keep Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran