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List of island countries

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Borderless countries

This is a list of island countries. An "island country", also called a borderless country, is an insular territory over which a nation-state maintains sovereignty under international law, that does not share the land territory of any of its islands with other nation-states which are sovereign under international law. For example, the Republic of Ireland shares the island of Ireland with the United Kingdom (through Northern Ireland) and thus is not borderless. Madagascar, on the other hand, is defined as a borderless country because it controls an entire island. An island country does not have to be located on a single island and can spread over an archipelago, such as the Federated States of Micronesia and the Philippines which consist of thousands of islands.

Cuba is a disputed case of an island nation because the United States exercises effective sovereignty over part of Guantanamo Bay.Template:Fn Cyprus Template:Fn is no longer a disputed case, as the British Akrotiri and Dhekelia Sovereign Base Areas are currently accorded full status by nearly all relevant authorities as full-fledged sovereign British dependencies.

Current

By political status

Independent

Independence under dispute

Autonomous, colonies and semi-autonomous

By geographic configuration

Centered on one major island

Spread over group of islands (including parts of archipelagoes and island arcs)

Island shared between two or more states

See List of divided islands

Continental shelf

Oceanic ridges or atolls

Former nations

Historical

Former colonies, possessions, protectorates and territories

Micronations


Alphabetical list of island countries

List of borderless dependent territories

Notes

¹ The Cook Islands and Niue are in free association with New Zealand. See Niue Constitution Act 1974 (NZ). Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand.
² An associated state of or in association with the United States.
3 The Colony of Newfoundland covers the island of Newfoundland before 1808. In 1808, part of the peninsula of Labrador was transferred to Newfoundland from Lower Canada. In other words, before 1808, Newfoundland was an island colony. From 1808 onwards, the Colony of Newfoundland, and later the Dominion of Newfoundland, had been an island plus an area on the continent of North America.
4 The Crown Colony of Hong Kong covers only Hong Kong Island from 1841 to 1860. Kowloon south of Boundary Street on the continent was added in 1860, and extended to include the New Territories in 1898.
5 See also Chinese Civil War, political status of Taiwan and legal status of Taiwan.


Footnotes

See also

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