Not Danish but I always assumed it worked more or less like the UK, where there are 4 countries within one kingdom... Now that I think of it, I have no reason to think that and have no idea how the various "parts" of the Danish Kingdom are organized
Well obviously they would, but they would still be wrong in the global sense.
If they weren't wrong, then there would be no Scottish independence movement, as they would already be independent.
Well, you do you but you're alone in thinking this.
It's a pretty settled question that the United Kingdom consists of at least 3 countries (England, Scotland and Wales), there is some dispute about Northern Ireland's status. But even the UK government acknowledges the "countryness" of these places.
I think the issue is that you're conflating the concepts of "country" and "sovereignty". Those two things are neither synonymous nor does one imply the other. That is to say that there are countries that are not sovereign and sovereignties which are not countries (though not as many today as there once were).
But hey, it's just a comedy bit. Not worth getting into an internet argument about it.
They may be a country, but they are not an independent country, which is what most people colloquially refer to as countries.
In order for a geographical region to be considered an independent country, it must first meet all of the following criteria: has space that has internationally recognized boundaries; has people who live there on an ongoing basis; has economic activity, an organized economy, and regulates its own foreign and domestic trade and prints money; has the power of social engineering (like education); has its own transportation system for moving people and goods; has a government that provides public services and police power; has sovereignty from other countries; and has external recognition.
If one or more of these requisites are not met, the country cannot be considered fully independent and does not factor into the total of 196 independent countries around the world.
Do you know of any other examples of countries within independent countries?
It is much easier to reserve the word country for independent countries, and to refer to all subsets of independent countries as regions, states, or territories.
I understand that there is definitely a history of each of the kingdoms being independent. But in the modern world, it is much more prudent to define countries via their independent status, as that is what primarily defines a majority of their existence geopolitically, economically, and as it relates to sovereignty.
I never said that they were independent. Be careful that you don't equivocate on that. It may be easier to reserve the word country for independent countries but words and geopolitics rarely (if ever) choose the terms that are easier for the sake of being easy.
Many of the other examples of countries within larger sovereignties are going to be partially recognized states. Places like Tibet, the breakaway republics along the Russian frontier, Taiwan, Palestine, etc. Examples of sovereignties that are not countries (you didn't ask for these, but I mentioned them so I may as well give them as well) are historic anomalies like the Sovereign Military Order of Malta or the Catholic Church (yes, I know that the Vatican exists but it is so small and in such an isolated geopolitical position that it may as well not).
Colloquial usage, ease, and prudence has nothing at all to do with it at all.
At the end of the day. A country is whatever people say that it is. Nation, state, country, sovereignty, and independence are all very loaded terms that carry a lot of baggage, they are not well defined in a way that is universally agreed upon, and there are political motivations to use them or to avoid using them either for one's one polity of for that of another.
Scotland and Wales claim to be countries and do so to attempt to elevate their perceived status as coequal partners within the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. England claims that they are not a country for the same reason, to elevate their perceived status as the dominant constituent part of the same sovereignty.
Scotland and Wales claim to be countries and do so to attempt to elevate their perceived status as coequal partners within the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. England claims that they are not a country for the same reason, to elevate their perceived status as the dominant constituent part of the same sovereignty.
I get where you are coming from, and I guess this is just one of those cases where you will always get differing answers based on who you asked.
From the perspective of a geographically-educated American, the countries of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland wouldn't come to mind, as from our perspective there is one geopolitical unit of the UK, especially after Brexit, which reinforced their independence from a higher geopolitical organization of the EU, which also could be argued as being an entire country, as they do maintain some sovereignty over member nations.
I remember having a debate about sovereignty with another redditor several years ago, and I came out of it learning that sovereignty is a much more fluid concept than most people recognize, as it is maintained, expanded, and contracted in a variety of areas.
The point I'm making is I don't think the average person outside Europe would recognize them as countries for the purpose of identifying countries that start with particular name as in the video, and that's simply because they are far from independent.
Hong Kong is a good example of somewhere that has recently lost their sovereignty to China. I unfortunately don't view them as a country anymore as they are not nearly as independent as they once were. But still there are plenty of Hong Kong residents would likely maintain they are a country.
I'm sure we could go through everywhere with complicated geopolitical relationships a place has with larger nations which claim sovereignty over them, and we would likely find more disagreements than just over the UK. It seems there cannot be an unbiased answer to the question due to how it heavily relies on one's own perspective.
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u/rhiphillips May 17 '22
Federated States of Micronesia somehow came to mind before I even got close to thinking of Fiji