How Many Countries Are There in the World?

have you ever wondered how many countries that are in the world well let me seem like a fairly straightforward question it's actually quite complicated the problem is it depends on who you ask as to once you get and there isn't one generally accepted answer also the word country has no official meaning a good place to start may be an organization that knows what they're talking about the United Nations that are currently 193 members of the UN this is why this is the lowest number you'll ever hear as to how many countries there are along with 183 members the UN also has two permanent non-member observer States the Holy See representing the Vatican City state and the state of Palestine despite not being a member the Vatican City as a country and is recognized by everyone as such this is the state the fact that it's a country within a city within a country and small not only by a country or SETI standards but more compatible inside with that of a small village with a population of around 800 and a land area of less than half a square kilometer it is officially the smallest country in the world and compared to the largest country it is 38 million tane smaller than russia but size doesn't matter and the fact of the matter as Vatican City as a country so logic would dictate that the state of Palestine is also a country then right well no not yet anyway the state of Palestine does want to be a full member of the UN and submitted an application in November 2011 however the only reason Holy See is not full member is simply because it doesn't want to be possibly because it wants to remain neutral it seems on like Palestine well gain full membership for one reason the United States of America if you're unaware of the situation in the Middle East the Palestinians and the Israelis have been waging war on and off for decades and with Israel being a close ally of the United States who often provide financial and military assistance to Israel the US has always brought it against Palestine this is despite President Obama saying he does want a solvent Palestinian state the US didn't even want Palestine to become an observer state but they still won an overwhelming majority however an ordered in full membership that decision lies with the UN Security Council the Security Council is made up of 15 members five permanent members often known as the big five and ten non-permanent members who serve for two years a full member of the UN a country must attain a two-thirds majority vote the big five consist of China Russia France the United States and the United Kingdom all of whom have what's known as a veto power in which they can veto any UN resolution and it won't get passed even if all other 14 members are in favor of it therefore the u.s. can simply veto any membership application made by the state of Palestine the UN si though there are other reasons why you may hesitate it's called palestinian country first of all they don't actually have any legally defined borders and the lanes used to eight-lane their claim territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are actually lanes created in 1949 as part of an armistice agreement to end the violence of the arab-israeli war and were never intended to be used as international borders on top of this the Israeli army controlled huge parts of the land although this is widely considered by an entire international community as a breach of international law moving on the u.s. Department of State lasts 195 independent countries and these are 193 members of the UN that previously discussed Vatican City as well as the Republic of Kosovo Kosovo is a partially recognized country in Eastern Europe that declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 however Serbia rejects their independence and claims that cause of what was a province of Serbia currently 100 of 183 members of the UN recognized cause was a country according to causes well thanks to calm a website that thanks every country for recognizing them in their native language Kosovo hasn't made an application for UN membership this is because the UN Security Council spec 5 is split on the issue is cause for independence while the UK the US and France are recognized cause what would have death matic relations with them Russia and China did not if all five were asked as cause of our country you would get a variety of different responses but suffice to say the resolution would not get passed now I couldn't I would say I use quite a lot about calm there are 196 countries the less the same 185 at the u.s. Department of State plus one more Taiwan the situation with Taiwan is an incredibly complex one that basically boils down to whether Taiwan is its own country or part of China well it is officially considered part of China by the UN it effectively operates its own country and China has no jurisdiction with them tight taiwan's official name by the way as the Republic of China not to be confused with the People's Republic of China or is the more commonly known well China to fully understand the situation we need to go all the way back to 1895 when the Japanese Empire took control of the island of Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty after the fall of the dynasty in LD is 20th century the Republic of China was established in 1912 and the Nationalist Party related government in 1921 the Communist Party of China was founded with very different ideological views and in 1927 the Chinese Civil War began between the nationalists and communists Japan to civil wars an opportunity to invade China in 1931 and for years the civil war continues until 1937 when Japan became a full-scale invasion of China and to control of the city of Beijing civil war was temporarily put on hold so China could defend its line from the Japanese in 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor causing a media declaration of war on Japan by the United States and began their involvement in world war ii in August 1945 the United States dropped atomic bombs in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Allied forces assured Japan with a surrender ultimatum known as the Potsdam Declaration the agreement stated among other things that Japan must relinquish control of land that they had acquired via force and this included the island of Taiwan obtained 50 years previously from the Qing Dynasty the Allies gave two choices to Japan an unconditional surrender or face and I quote prompt and utter destruction on the 2nd of September Japan signed the agreement which put an end to the Second World War sovereignty of Taiwan was therefore handed over to the Republic of China later that year the United Nation was founded with the Republic of China as one of the founding members and one of the permanent members of the Security Council the original Big Five were effectively the same as today except with the Republic of China and the Soviet Union instead of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation respectively so when you're later and the Chinese Civil War started up again but let's say around the communist forces completely overwhelmed the nationalist forces and in 1949 the colonies party had total control of the mainland forcing the Nationalists to retreat to the a lose Taiwan this effectively ended the civil war and led to the creation of the People's Republic of China by the communist party desta increase is an incredibly complicated situation in which there were effectively to China's but both claiming the exact same land the whole of China the People's Republic of China controlled the mainland while the Republic of China controlled Taiwan but both cleaned each other's land thanks remain like that's for the next two decades well the Republic of China continued to represent China out of the UN this was until 1971 when the UN General Assembly voted to replace the Republic of China with the People's Republic of China as China's so representative including Taiwan despite their never having any jurisdiction on the island and their history in 1991 the Republic of China opted for a different approach and applied for you and membership under the name of the Republic of Taiwan Taiwan repeatedly reapplied but with China's veto power realistically it was never going to happen the current president of Taiwan however does not want independence and said in his inaugural address no reunification no independence no war her has since said he actually does one unification was chain relations between the Chinese and Taiwanese presence is good the both agree Taiwan should not be an independent country they both adhere to the one China policy unfortunately still can't agree on who actually has sovereignty over China so Taiwan is pretty much like any other country you have their own passports their own president their own government throw in military they even take part in sporting events such as the Olympics in the FIFA World Cup albeit under the pseudonym Chinese Taipei to keep China happy so well very few countries officially recognize Taiwan as a country or the Republic of China as legitimate government China most countries do recognize Taiwan unofficially and a half Taiwan embassies within their countries but countries tend to avoid officially recognized in Taiwan as a country as it passes off China this is the reason why the u.s. Department of State left 195 countries and its schools Taiwan because the United States really wouldn't want to pass off chain out for let's just shake political reasons so is everyone clear in the situation with Taiwan then no well no one really is but we need to move on to the place where I left the United Kingdom more specifically Scotland by as the United Kingdom I want to talk about the United Kingdom is generally referred to as a country of countries consisting of Scotland England Wales and Northern Ireland so as United Kingdom one country or four countries well first of all it's actually a misconception that is four countries in the UK there's actually only three see well Scotland England both have a history of being independent countries and Wales is a little more complicated as it was previously considered a principality but as never country but Northern Ireland is not nor has it ever been a country Northern Ireland is technically considered a province of the United Kingdom this newsletter from the International Organization for Standardization clearly left Northern Ireland as a province as well as the stasis of Wales been upgraded from our Principality to a country although it could be argued that the Principality of Wales ended in 1542 and that Wales is been our country for centuries a very brief breath is a lesson and 1707 the Kingdom of Scotland and the kingdom of England which included Wales joined to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1801 the kingdom of Ireland joined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland then in 1922 after the Irish War of Independence Ireland seceded from Britain and formed the Republic of Ireland believer not very briefly the whole ale in the violence seceded from Britain but northern and quickly unexpectedly rejoined to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland which is what is known as today so Northern Ireland was part of Ireland and is now part of the UK but has never been a country in its own right North Island doesn't even have its own official flag it's in Patrick's all pirates sometimes use unofficially to distinguish Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and the ultra banner is what's generally used in sporting events and is what the FIFA used to represent the national football team but then Allen only has one official flag the Union Jack so the UK is made up of three countries and one province and well those three countries are not independent countries or sovereign states they are still countries the term for a country within a country as a constituent country and it's not unique to the United Kingdom the Netherlands is a constituent country within the kingdom of the Netherlands which contains three other countries our River curaçao and Sint Maarten the Netherlands is in Europe or the other three ralien countries in the Caribbean some 5,000 miles away to further complicate matters the Netherlands is made up of 12 provinces in Europe as well as 3 special municipalities also and the Caribbean these are Bonaire st. Eustatius and sabor collectively referred to as the Caribbean Netherlands and the term Dutch Caribbean is used to refer to all the Caribbean islands within the Kingdom of the Netherlands all four countries in the kingdom are considered equal but in reality 98% of both population and land area are within the 12 European provinces another example would be the Kingdom of Denmark which holds sovereignty over the two autonomous countries of Greenland and the Faroe Islands Greenland being the world's largest island that's not continent and the Faroe Islands are a small archipelago off the Scotland but despite Greenland being over 1,500 times the size of the Faroe Islands both have a similar population of around 50,000 there's also French Polynesia which is an overseas country of the French Republic made up of several islands in the South Pacific most multiple of watches the island of Tahiti then we come to a slightly more complicated situation with New Zealand and the countries of Nui and the Cook Islands who are an agreement known as free association there are only three other countries in the world under free association and those are the Marshall Islands the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau all in free association with the United States the major differences the all three of these countries are members the UN while new a and the Cook Islands are not freely associated States can be thought of both in depends or not or even both it's kind of like a shortage cap situation in which a cat can be thought of was booked dead and alive simultaneously Nui and the Cook Islands could be considered both and dependent are not simultaneously so we could call these two Schrodinger's countries and finally we come to a category of countries and I use the term loosely that I have received little or no recognition one example would be Somaliland part of Somalia that cleared itself an independent country but is thus far she's absolutely no recognition whatsoever from any country even or otherwise of course there are other examples all of whom have received at least some recognition will be extremely limited and in some cases not even by any UN members external recognition is a key attribute to be considered the country and therefore I'd be a bit of a stretch to call any of them countries at the moment so how many countries are there in the world well there really are no right or wrong answers well I mean there are wrong answers five for example as a wrong answer but because of the ambiguity of the word country there isn't one generally accepted answer hopefully you understand that point in this videos that I wanted to provide you with the necessary information so that you could apply your own judgment to get an answer but if you really want some numbers some possible answers would be just the members of the UN painting the Vatican City since it's also a country captain Kosovo the most recognized country not in the UN counting Taiwan the unofficial country code in the state of Palestine the union of zero state and then we can count the unrecognized countries the constituent countries and NUI in the Cook Islands then things get better with handy we could start calling everything our country for example Hong Kong / - Rico and Bermuda none of which are countries forgiven the dictionary definition it wouldn't seem too far-fetched to call them countries then we could come up with a near infinite number of answers depending on how you apply the use of the word country but it seems the most widely accepted answer as 186 but it's important that you understand the answer of 186 so that something changes you can adjust the number accordingly or not for example if Kosovo hypothetically became 100 native fourth never of the UN there would still be 196 countries but if you used 184 as you answer then you would need to add one an important note to end on is that everything Nesta do is correct at the time it was uploaded in late June of 2013 and thanks me of change depending on when you're watching this well thank you very much for watching my very first youtube video and be sure to subscribe because I have dozens more ideas so the deals that I can't wait to start making thanks again [Music]

Channel: WonderWhy

Views: 4,653,016

Keywords: how many countries in the world, number of countries on earth, countries of the uk, countries of the netherlands, is taiwan a country, is kosovo a country, vatican city, state of palestine, wonderwhy, flags of the world, how many countries are there, history of ireland, british history, history of taiwan, ching dynasty, United Kingdom (Country), Netherlands (Country)

Id: 4vsPB_lbo94

Length: 15min 11sec (911 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 23 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/scarlotti-the-blue]

Ha.. that was good. I always like to throw in Cataluna just to mess with people...