Originally Posted by
Henry III
They are not sovereign states but they are constituent countries of the United Kingdom (which is a sovereign state). I know of no institution or organisation in the UK that does not recognise them as countries.*
The title of this thread is not "How many Sovereign States have you Visited" but "How many Countries..."
As a British Citizen, with a Welsh mother, an English father and resident in Scotland, I would be shocked (and rather angry) if any legal document came into my purview that described any of them as anything other than a country. Just out of curiosity, CMK10, what would you describe England (or Scotland, or Wales) as, if not a country?
-- Henry
* Well, in the case of Wales, there is the Church of England and the Lawn Tennis Association, who still (occasionally) use the term "All England" for "England and Wales."
** In the case of Northern Ireland, there is an on-going dispute over its status (Dublin has a formal but non-belligerent claim that it is - or should be - part of the Republic of Ireland).
Different people have different definitions. For instance, why not calling Puerto Rico a "country" (or Hawaii, for that matter) when the historical, social, and political status is different from the "owner" country (in this case, the USA)? Who, in their right mind, would consider Mayotte, French Polynesia, or Mayotte as "France" when the relation with the motherland is, well, minimal and the geographic and cultural distance is abysmal?
Like always, common sense is warranted. I do not honestly follow the official UN count of countries in my list, because otherwise places like Taiwan are not considered countries and even Israel could be disputed as such as it is not recognized by everyone. A list like the one published by the
Club Internationale des Grands Voyageurs is IMHO much more pertinent.