The marked territories on this global map from the United Nations are mostly of countries which are sovereign states with full international recognition (brackets denote the country of a marked territory that is not a sovereign state). Some territories are countries in their own right but are not recognized as such (e.g. Taiwan ), some few marked territories are disputed about which country they belong to (e.g. Kashmir ) or if they are countries in their own right (e.g. Western Sahara (territory) or the state known by the same name ). A country state , a nation , a nation state , or other political entity . When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state , a state with limited recognition , a constituent country , or a dependent territory . Most sovereign states, but not all countries, are members of the United Nations . There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world, since several states have disputed sovereignty status or limited recognition, and a number of non-sovereign entities are commonly considered countries.
The definition and usage of the word "country" are flexible and have changed over time. The Economist
Areas much smaller than a political entity may be referred to as a "country", such as the West Country in England, "big sky country" (used in various contexts of the American West ), "coal country" (used to describe coal-mining regions ), or simply "the country" (used to describe a rural area ). The term "country" is also used as a qualifier descriptively, such as country music or country living . (Full article...
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards. Jordan Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia . Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and both Israel and Palestine (West Bank ) to the west. The Jordan River , flowing into the Dead Sea , is located along the country's western border within the Jordan Rift Valley . Jordan has a small coastline along the Red Sea in its southwest, separated by the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt . Amman is the country's capital and largest city , as well as the most populous city in the Levant .
Inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period, three kingdoms developed in Transjordan during the Iron Age : Ammon , Moab and Edom . In the third century BC, the Arab Nabataeans established their kingdom centered in Petra . The Greco-Roman period saw the establishment of several cities in Transjordan that comprised the Decapolis . After the end of Byzantine rule, the region became part of the Islamic caliphates of the Rashidun , Umayyad , Abbasid , and the Ottoman . Following the 1916 Great Arab Revolt during World War I , former Ottoman Syria was partitioned , leading to the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921, which became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan gained independence and became officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank during the 1948 Palestine war until it was occupied by Israel in 1967 . Jordan renounced its claim to the territory to the Palestinians in 1988 and signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. (Full article...
Tokyo , the capital of Japan , and the most populous metropolitan area in the worldA capital city capital , is the municipality holding primary status in a country , state , province , department , or other subnational division , usually as its seat of the government . A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the government's offices and meeting places; the status as capital is often designated by its law or constitution . In some jurisdictions , including several countries, different branches of government are in different settlements, sometimes meaning multiple official capitals. In some cases, a distinction is made between the official (constitutional ) capital and the seat of government, which is in another place .
English-language media often use the name of the capital metonymically to refer to the government sitting there. Thus, "London-Washington relations" is widely understood to mean diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the United States . (Full article...
The following are images from various country-related articles on Wikipedia.
Remaining countries not listed in the Recognized articles section at left are displayed here.
Dominica Commonwealth of Dominica , is an island country in the Caribbean . It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea . The capital, Roseau , is located on the western side of the island. Dominica's closest neighbours are two constituent territories of the European Union , both overseas departments of France: Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Dominica comprises a land area of 750 km2 (290 sq mi), and the highest point is Morne Diablotins , at 1,447 m (4,747 ft) in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.
The island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century. The Kalinago displaced the Arawak by the 15th century. Christopher Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493. It was later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French trafficked slaves from West Africa to Dominica to work on coffee plantations. Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War , and gradually established English as its official language. The island gained independence as a republic in 1978. (Full article...
Top 10 WikiProject Countries Popular articles of the month
Image 1 The
United States of America (
USA ), also known as the
United States (
U.S. ) or
America , is a country primarily located in
North America . It is a
federal republic of 50
states and a federal capital district,
Washington, D.C. The 48
contiguous states border
Canada to the north and
Mexico to the south, with the
semi-exclave of
Alaska in the northwest and the
archipelago of
Hawaii in the
Pacific Ocean . The United States also asserts sovereignty over five
major island territories and
various uninhabited islands in
Oceania and the
Caribbean . It is a
megadiverse country , with the world's
third-largest land area and
third-largest population , exceeding 340 million.
Paleo-Indians migrated from North Asia to North America over 12,000 years ago, and formed various civilizations.
Spanish colonization established
Spanish Florida in 1513, the first European colony in what is now the continental United States.
British colonization followed with the 1607 settlement of
Virginia , the first of the
Thirteen Colonies .
Enslavement of Africans was practiced in all the colonies by 1770, and it supplied most of the labor for the
Southern Colonies '
plantation economy . Clashes with the
British Crown over taxation and lack of
parliamentary representation sparked the
American Revolution , leading to the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Victory in the 1775–1783
Revolutionary War brought international recognition of U.S. sovereignty and fueled
westward expansion , dispossessing
native inhabitants . As more states
were admitted , a North–South
division over slavery led the
Confederate States of America to attempt secession and fight
the Union in the 1861–1865
American Civil War . With the United States' victory and reunification,
slavery was abolished nationally . By 1900, the country had established itself as a
great power , a status solidified after its involvement in
World War I . Following
Japan 's
attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S.
entered World War II .
Its aftermath left the U.S. and the
Soviet Union as rival
superpowers , competing for
ideological dominance and
international influence during the
Cold War . The
Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the U.S. as the world's sole superpower.
The
U.S. national government is a
presidential constitutional federal republic and
representative democracy with
three separate branches :
legislative ,
executive , and
judicial . It has a
bicameral national legislature composed of the
House of Representatives (a
lower house based on population) and the
Senate (an
upper house based on equal representation for each state).
Federalism grants substantial autonomy to the 50 states. In addition, 574 Native American tribes have
sovereignty rights , and there are 326
Native American reservations . Since the 1850s, the
Democratic and
Republican parties have dominated
American politics , while
American values are based on a democratic tradition inspired by the
American Enlightenment movement. (
Full article... )
Image 2 Nepal , officially the
Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal , is a
landlocked country in
South Asia . It is mainly situated in the
Himalayas , but also includes parts of the
Indo-Gangetic Plain . It borders the
Tibet Autonomous Region of China
to the north , and India
to the south, east, and west , while it is narrowly separated from
Bangladesh by the
Siliguri Corridor , and from
Bhutan by the
Indian state of
Sikkim . Nepal has a
diverse geography , including
fertile plains , subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten
highest mountains , including
Mount Everest , the highest point above mean sea level on Earth.
Kathmandu is the nation's capital and
its largest city . Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural state, with
Nepali as the official language.
The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the
Vedic period of the
Indian subcontinent , the era in
ancient Nepal when
Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC,
Gautama Buddha , the founder of
Buddhism , was born in
Lumbini in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of
Tibet . The centrally located
Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of
Indo-Aryans , and was the seat of the prosperous
Newar confederacy known as
Nepal Mandala . The Himalayan branch of the ancient
Silk Road was dominated by the
valley's traders . The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional
art and
architecture . By the 18th century, the
Gorkha Kingdom achieved the
unification of Nepal . The
Shah dynasty established the
Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the
British Empire , under its
Rana dynasty of
premiers . The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between
Imperial China and
British India .
Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951 but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. The
Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the establishment of a
secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last
Hindu monarchy. The
Constitution of Nepal , adopted in 2015, affirms the country as a federal
parliamentary republic divided into
seven provinces . In September 2025,
protests against a social media ban and economic inequality caused riots, resulting in casualties and resignation of the prime minister.
Nepal's foreign policy focuses on neutrality, sovereignty, and multilateral cooperation. Nepal was admitted to the
United Nations in 1955, and friendship treaties were signed with India in 1950 and China in 1960. Nepal hosts the permanent secretariat of the
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which it is a founding member. Nepal is also a member of the
Non-Aligned Movement and the
Bay of Bengal Initiative . Nepal's foreign relations also emphasise development assistance, trade partnerships, and promoting peace and stability in
South Asia . (
Full article... )
Image 3 Palestine , officially the
State of Palestine , is a country in
West Asia . It encompasses the
Israeli-occupied West Bank , including
East Jerusalem , and the
Gaza Strip , collectively known as the
Palestinian territories . The territories share the vast majority of their borders with
Israel , with the West Bank bordering
Jordan to the east and the Gaza Strip bordering
Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while
its population exceeds five million. Its
proclaimed capital is
Jerusalem , while
Ramallah serves as its
de facto administrative center.
Gaza was its largest city prior to
evacuations in 2023 .
Situated at
a continental crossroad , the
Palestine region was ruled by various empires and experienced
various demographic changes from antiquity to the modern era. It was treading ground for the
Nile and
Mesopotamian armies and merchants from North Africa, China and India. The region
has religious significance . The ongoing
Israeli–Palestinian conflict dates back to the rise of the
Zionist movement , supported by the United Kingdom during
World War I . The war saw Britain occupying Palestine from the
Ottoman Empire , where it set up
Mandatory Palestine under the auspices of the
League of Nations . Increased
Jewish immigration led to
intercommunal conflict between Jews and
Palestinian Arabs , which escalated into
a civil war in 1947 after
a proposed partitioning by the United Nations was rejected by the Palestinians and other
Arab nations .
The
1948 Palestine war saw the
forcible displacement of a majority of the Arab population, and consequently the establishment of Israel; these events are referred to by Palestinians as the
Nakba ('catastrophe'). In the
Six-Day War in 1967, Israel
occupied the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip , which had been held by
Jordan and
Egypt respectively. The
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
declared independence in 1988. In 1993, the PLO signed the
Oslo Accords with Israel, creating limited PLO governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the
Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel withdrew from Gaza in
its unilateral disengagement in 2005, but the territory is still considered to be under military occupation and
has been blockaded by Israel. In 2007,
internal divisions between political factions led to a
takeover of Gaza by
Hamas . Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the
Fatah -led PA, while the Gaza Strip has remained under the
control of Hamas . (
Full article... )
Image 4 India , officially the
Republic of India , is a country in
South Asia . It is the
seventh-largest country by area ; the
most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the
Indian Ocean on the south, the
Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the
Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with
Pakistan to the west;
China ,
Nepal , and
Bhutan to the north; and
Bangladesh and
Myanmar to the east. In the
Indian Ocean , India is near
Sri Lanka and the
Maldives ; its
Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a
maritime border with Myanmar,
Thailand , and
Indonesia .
Modern humans arrived on the
Indian subcontinent from
Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse.
Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the
Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the
Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200
BCE , an
archaic form of
Sanskrit , an
Indo-European language , had
diffused into India from the northwest.
Its hymns recorded the
early dawnings of
Hinduism in India. India's pre-existing
Dravidian languages were supplanted in the northern regions. By 400
BCE ,
caste had emerged within Hinduism, and
Buddhism and
Jainism had arisen, proclaiming
social orders unlinked to heredity. Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit
Maurya and
Gupta Empires . Widespread creativity suffused this era, but the status of women declined, and
untouchability became an organised belief. In
South India , the
Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian language scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of
Southeast Asia .
In the
1st millennium ,
Christianity ,
Islam ,
Judaism , and
Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts. In the early centuries of the
2nd millennium Muslim armies from
Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains. The resulting
Delhi Sultanate drew northern India into the cosmopolitan
networks of medieval Islam . In south India, the
Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture. In the
Punjab ,
Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion. The
Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace, and left a
a rich architectural legacy . Gradually expanding
rule of the British East India Company turned India into a colonial economy but consolidated its
sovereignty .
British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly, but
technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root.
A nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European
British Empire and an influence on other nationalist movements. Noted for nonviolent resistance after 1920, it became the primary factor in ending British rule. In 1947, the
British Indian Empire was
partitioned into two independent
dominions , a Hindu-majority
dominion of India and a Muslim-majority
dominion of Pakistan . A large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration accompanied the partition. (
Full article... )
Image 5 Gross domestic product (GDP) is the
market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, which are calculated at market or government official
exchange rates . Nominal GDP does not take into account differences in the
cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's
currency . Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference in the standard of living of its population.
Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made based on
purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. Other metrics,
nominal GDP per capita and a corresponding
GDP (PPP) per capita , are used for comparing national
standard of living . On the whole, PPP per capita figures are less spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
The rankings of national economies have changed significantly over time. For instance, the United States overtook the British Empire around 1916; Japan rose rapidly in the post-World War II period to become the world’s second-largest economy by the 1970s; China moved from ninth place in 1978 to second in 2010 following market reforms. These shifts reflect long-term changes in global economic output. (
Full article... )
Image 6 The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the
United Kingdom (
UK ) or
Britain , is a country in
Northwestern Europe , off the coast of
the continental mainland . It comprises
England ,
Scotland ,
Wales and
Northern Ireland , with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island of
Great Britain , the north-eastern part of the island of
Ireland , and most of
the smaller islands within the
British Isles , covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km
2 ). It shares
a land border with the
Republic of Ireland and is otherwise surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean , the
North Sea , the
English Channel , the
Celtic Sea and the
Irish Sea , while maintaining sovereignty over the
British Overseas Territories . The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is
London ;
Edinburgh ,
Cardiff and
Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Britain has been inhabited since the
Neolithic . In AD 43, the
Roman conquest of Britain began. The
Roman departure was followed by
Anglo-Saxon settlement . In 1066
the Normans conquered England . With the end of the
Wars of the Roses the
Kingdom of England began to flourish, resulting by the 16th century in the
annexation of Wales and the establishment of the
British Empire . Over the 17th century the role of the
British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the
English Civil War . In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland united under the
Treaty of Union to create the
Kingdom of Great Britain . In the
Georgian era the office of
prime minister became established. The
Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the
Kingdom of Ireland to create the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland
seceded from the UK in 1922 as the
Irish Free State , and the
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UK
became the first industrialised country and was the world's
foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the
Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The British Empire was the leading
economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by
its agricultural prosperity , its role as a dominant
trading nation , a massive industrial capacity,
significant technological achievements , and the rise of
19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s the empire encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the
largest empire in history . However,
its involvement in the First World War and
the Second World War damaged
Britain's economic power , and a global wave of
decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (
Full article... )
Image 7 Israel , officially the
State of Israel , is a country in the
Southern Levant region of
West Asia . It
borders Lebanon to the north,
Syria to the northeast,
Jordan to the east and
Egypt to the southwest.
Israel occupies the
Palestinian territories of the
West Bank in the east and the
Gaza Strip in the southwest, as well as the Syrian
Golan Heights in the northeast. Israel's
western coast lies on the
Mediterranean Sea , the southern tip reaches the
Red Sea , and the east includes the
Earth's lowest point near the
Dead Sea .
Jerusalem is the government seat and
proclaimed capital , while
Tel Aviv is Israel's
largest urban area and
economic centre .
The
Land of Israel is synonymous with
Palestine or the
Holy Land . In
antiquity it was home to the
Canaanites and later the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah . Its location at a
continental crossroads brought
demographic shifts under various empires. Nineteenth-century
European antisemitism fuelled the
Zionist movement for a
Jewish homeland .
Britain endorsed this goal in the 1917
Balfour Declaration and ruled
Mandatory Palestine from 1920.
Jewish immigration and
British policies intensified
Arab-Jewish tensions , and the 1947
United Nations (UN)
Partition Plan led to
a civil war .
Israel
declared independence at the
end of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948, and neighbouring
Arab states invaded the next day. A
1949 armistice left Israel with territory beyond the UN plan; no Arab state was created, as the
Gaza Strip and the
West Bank came under Egyptian and Jordanian control. Most
Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled during the
Nakba , leaving
a minority in Israel, while
the country's population grew in later decades as
Jews fled or were expelled from the Muslim world . After the 1967
Six-Day War , Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Egyptian
Sinai , and the Syrian
Golan Heights , later annexing
East Jerusalem and the Golan—actions that, along with
further expulsions of ~300,000 Palestinians and
settlement expansion, are considered
violations of international law . Peace was signed
with Egypt in 1979 (Sinai returned in 1982) and
with Jordan in 1994. The 1993
Oslo Accords with the Palestinians established mutual recognition and limited
self-rule , and the 2020
Abraham Accords normalised ties with more Arab states. The
Israeli–Palestinian conflict remains
unresolved , with
wars and clashes with
Palestinian militant groups . Israel's practices in its occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn sustained international
criticism , along with accusations from human rights organisations and UN officials that it has committed
war crimes , crimes against humanity, and
genocide against the Palestinians during the Gaza war. (
Full article... )
Image 8 China , officially the
People's Republic of China (
PRC ), is a country in
East Asia . With
a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the
second-most populous country after
India , representing 17% of the world population. China
borders fourteen countries by land across an area of 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), making it the
third-largest country by area . The country is divided into 33
province-level divisions : 22
provinces , 5
autonomous regions , 4
municipalities , and 2 semi-autonomous
special administrative regions .
Beijing is the capital, while
Shanghai is the
most populous city by urban area and largest
financial center .
China saw the first humans in the region arriving during the
Paleolithic era. By the 2nd millennium BCE
dynastic states had emerged in the
Yellow River basin. The 8th–3rd centuries BCE saw a breakdown in the authority of the
Zhou dynasty , accompanied by the emergence of administrative and military techniques,
literature and
philosophy . In 221 BCE, China was unified under
an emperor , ushering in two millennia of imperial dynasties. With the
invention of gunpowder and
paper , the establishment of the
Silk Road , and the
Great Wall ,
Chinese culture flourished and has
heavily influenced its neighbors and lands further afield. China began to cede
parts of the country in the 19th century, to European powers by a series of
unequal treaties . The
1911 Revolution overthrew the
Qing dynasty and the
Republic of China was established the following year. The country was unstable and fragmented during the
Warlord Era , which ended upon the
Northern Expedition conducted by the
Kuomintang to reunify the country.
The
Chinese Civil War began in 1927, when Kuomintang forces
purged members of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). China was invaded by the
Japan in 1937, leading the CCP and Kuomintang to form the
Second United Front to fight the Japanese. The
Second Sino-Japanese War ended in a Chinese victory; however, the CCP and the Kuomintang resumed their civil war. In 1949, the CCP
proclaimed the People's Republic of China and forced the
Kuomintang-led government to retreat to the
island of Taiwan . The country was split, with
both sides claiming to be the
legitimate government . Following the implementation of
land reforms , attempts by China to realize
communism failed: the
Great Leap Forward was responsible for the
Great Chinese Famine which resulted in millions of deaths, and the
Cultural Revolution was a period of turmoil and persecution. The
reform and opening up that began in 1978 moved the country away from a socialist
planned economy towards a
market-based economy , spurring an economic boom. A movement for political liberalization stalled after the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre . (
Full article... )
Image 9 Japan is an
island country in
East Asia . Located in the
Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the
Asian mainland , it is bordered to the west by the
Sea of Japan and extends from the
Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the
East China Sea in the south. The
Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside
14,121 smaller islands . Divided into 47
administrative prefectures and
eight traditional regions , about 75% of
the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating
its agriculture and
highly urbanized population along its eastern
coastal plains . With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the
11th most populous country .
The country's capital and
largest city is
Tokyo .
The first known habitation of the
archipelago dates to the
Upper Paleolithic , with the beginning of the
Japanese Paleolithic dating to
c. 36,000 BC . Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under
an emperor in
Nara and later
Heian-kyō . From the 12th century, actual power was held by military aristocrats known as
shōgun and feudal lords called
daimyō , enforced by warrior nobility named
samurai . After rule by the
Kamakura and
Ashikaga shogunates and
a century of warring states , Japan was unified in 1600 by the
Tokugawa shogunate , which implemented
an isolationist foreign policy . In 1853,
an American fleet forced Japan to
open trade to the West , which led to the
end of the shogunate and the
restoration of imperial power in 1868.
In the
Meiji period , Japan pursued rapid
industrialization and
modernization , as well as
militarism and
overseas colonization . The country
annexed Korea in 1910,
invaded China in 1937 and
attacked the United States and
European colonial powers in 1941, thus
entering World War II as an
Axis power . After being defeated in the
Pacific War and suffering the U.S.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , Japan
surrendered in 1945 and
came under Allied occupation . Afterwards, the country underwent
rapid economic growth and became one of the five earliest
major non-NATO allies of the U.S. Since the collapse of the
Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, it has experienced a prolonged period of
economic stagnation referred to as the
Lost Decades . (
Full article... )
Image 10 Russia , or the
Russian Federation , is a country in
Eastern Europe and
North Asia . It is the
largest country in the world , spanning
eleven time zones and sharing
land borders with fourteen countries . With over 140 million people, Russia is the
most populous country in Europe and the
ninth-most populous in the world . It is a
highly urbanised country , with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants.
Moscow , the
most populous metropolitan area in Europe , is the capital and
largest city of Russia ;
Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and
cultural centre .
Human settlement on the territory of modern Russia dates back to the
Lower Paleolithic . The
East Slavs emerged as a recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. The first East Slavic state,
Kievan Rus' , arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted
Orthodox Christianity from the
Byzantine Empire . Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated; the
Grand Duchy of Moscow led the unification of Russian lands, leading to the proclamation of the
Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of
Russian explorers , developing into the
Russian Empire , which remains the
third-largest empire in history . However, with the
Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule
was abolished and eventually replaced by the
Russian SFSR —the world's first constitutionally
socialist state . Following the
Russian Civil War , the Russian SFSR established the
Soviet Union with three other
Soviet republics , within which it was the largest and principal constituent. The Soviet Union underwent
rapid industrialisation in the 1930s , amidst the
deaths of millions under
Joseph Stalin 's rule, and later played a decisive role for the
Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the
Eastern Front . With the onset of the
Cold War , it competed with the
United States for
ideological dominance and
international influence . The Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the
most significant Russian technological achievements , including the
first human-made satellite and the
first human expedition into outer space .
In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the
dissolution of the Soviet Union as the Russian Federation. Following the
1993 Russian constitutional crisis , the Soviet system of government was abolished and
a new constitution was adopted, which established a
federal semi-presidential system . Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by
Vladimir Putin ,
under whom the country has experienced
democratic backsliding and become an
authoritarian dictatorship .
Russia has been militarily involved in a number of
conflicts in former Soviet states and other countries , including
its war with Georgia in 2008 and
its war with Ukraine since 2014. The latter has involved the internationally unrecognised
annexations of Ukrainian territory, including
Crimea in 2014 and
four other regions in 2022 , during
an ongoing invasion . (
Full article... )
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