Alandlocked country is a country that has no territory connected to anocean or whose coastlines lie solely onendorheic basins. Currently, there are 44 landlocked countries, two of themdoubly landlocked due to being surrounded by other landlocked nations (Liechtenstein andUzbekistan), and three landlockedde facto states in the world.Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country,Kyrgyzstan is the farthest landlocked country from any ocean, andEthiopia is the world's most populous landlocked country.[1][2]
Generally, being landlocked creates political and economic disadvantages that having access tointernational waters would avoid. For this reason, nations large and small throughout history have fought to gain access to open waters, even at great expense in wealth, bloodshed, andpolitical capital.
On 19 September 2023,Azerbaijan launched a new offensive against theRepublic of Artsakh (de facto state) and achieved a decisive victory.[8] TheGovernment of Artsakh was officially dissolved on 1 January 2024. As a result, Artsakh ceased to exist as a landlocked de facto state and theNagorno-Karabakh region was reintegrated into Azerbaijan.[9]
Bolivia's loss of its coastline in theWar of the Pacific (1879–1884) remains a major political issue
Historically, being landlocked has been disadvantageous to a country's development. It cuts a nation off from important sea resources such asfishing, and impedes or prevents direct access tomaritime trade, a crucial component of economic and social advance. As such, coastal regions, or inland regions that have access to the World Ocean, tended to be wealthier and more heavily populated than inland regions that have no access to the World Ocean.Paul Collier in his bookThe Bottom Billion argues that being landlocked in a poor geographical neighbourhood is one of four major development "traps" by which a country can be held back. In general, he found that when a neighbouring country experiences better growth, it tends to spill over into favorable development for the country itself. For landlocked countries, the effect is particularly strong, as they are limited in their trading activity with the rest of the world. He states, "If you are coastal, you serve the world; if you are landlocked, you serve your neighbors."[10] Others have argued that being landlocked has an advantage as it creates a "natural tariff barrier" that protects the country from cheap imports. In some instances, this has led to more robust local food systems.[11][12]
Landlockeddeveloping countries have significantly higher costs of international cargo transportation compared to coastal developing countries (in Asia the ratio is 3:1).[13]
Historically, traveling between a landlocked country and a country which did not border said country required the traveler to pass border controls twice or more. In recent times the advent ofair travel has largely negated this impediment.
Countries have acted to overcome being landlocked by acquiring land that reaches the sea:
TheRepublic of Ragusa, in 1699, gave the town ofNeum to theOttoman Empire because it did not want to have a land border with theRepublic of Venice.[14] This small municipality was inherited byBosnia and Herzegovina and now provides limited sea access, splitting theCroatian part of the Adriatic coast in two. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new country, railways and ports have not been built for its need. There is no freight port along its short coastline atNeum, making it effectively landlocked, although there are plans to change this. Instead, thePort of Ploče in Croatia is used.
AfterWorld War I, in theTreaty of Versailles, a part ofGermany designated "thePolish corridor" was given to the newSecond Polish Republic, for access to theBaltic Sea. This gavePoland a short coastline, but without a large harbour. This was also the pretext for making Danzig (nowGdańsk) with its harbour theFree City of Danzig, to which Poland was given free access. However, the Germans placed obstacles to this free access, especially when it came to military material. In response, the small fishing harbour ofGdynia was soon greatly enlarged.
TheDanube isan international waterway, and thus landlockedAustria,Hungary,Moldova,Serbia andSlovakia have secure access to theBlack Sea. However, oceangoing ships cannot use the Danube, so cargo must be transloaded anyway, and many overseas imports into Austria and Hungary use land transport from Atlantic and Mediterranean ports. A similar situation exists for theRhine river where Switzerland has boat access, but not oceangoing ships.Luxembourg has such through theMoselle, butLiechtenstein has no boat access, even though it is located along the Rhine, as the Rhine is not navigable that far upstream.
Losing access to the sea is generally a great loss to a nation, politically, militarily, and economically. The following are examples of countries becoming landlocked.
Bolivia lost its coastline toChile in theWar of the Pacific and accepted it in treaties signed in 1884 and 1904. The last treaty gives port storage facilities and special treatment for the transit of goods from and to Bolivia through Chilean ports and territory. Peru and Argentina have also given special treatment for the transit of goods. A fluvialBolivian Navy, which did not exist at the time of theWar of the Pacific, was created later and both trains and operates inLake Titicaca and rivers. The Bolivian people annually celebrate a patriotic "Dia del Mar" (Day of the Sea) to remember its territorial loss, which included both the coastal city ofAntofagasta and what has proven to be one of the most significant and lucrative copper deposits in the world. Early in the 21st century, the selection of the route of gas pipes from Bolivia to the sea fueledpopular uprisings, as people were against the option of laying the pipes through Chilean territory.
It is possible that one of the causes of theParaguayan War wasParaguay's lack of direct ocean access (although this is disputed; see the linked article).
In 2011,South Sudan broke off from theSudan, causing the former to become landlocked. There still remains conflict over the oil fields in South Sudan between the two countries.[21]
Some countries have a long coastline, but much of it may not be readily usable for trade and commerce. For instance, in its early history,Russia's only ports were on theArctic Ocean and frozen shut for much of the year. The wish to gain control of awarm-water port was a major motivator of Russian expansion towards theBaltic Sea,Black Sea, andPacific Ocean. On the other hand, some landlocked countries can have access to the ocean along wide navigable rivers. For instance, Paraguay (and Bolivia to a lesser extent) have access to the ocean through theParaguay andParaná rivers.
Several countries have coastlines on landlocked bodies of water, such as theCaspian Sea and theDead Sea. Since these seas are in effectlakes without access to wider seaborne trade, countries such asKazakhstan are still considered landlocked. Although the Caspian Sea is connected to the Black Sea via the man-madeVolga–Don Canal, large oceangoing ships are unable to traverse it.
Some countries or important parts of countries have coastlines or river ports reachable by oceangoing ships, but only through a strait or river part of the territory of another country. The other country can put restriction on passage. Between 1429 and 1857Poland,Sweden,Russia and more Baltic countries were suffering from theSound Dues, a toll needed to be paid to reach Western European waters. Sweden bypassed it by conqueringScania in 1658.
Landlocked countries may be bordered by a single country having direct access to thehigh seas, two or more such countries, or be surrounded by other landlocked countries, making a country doubly landlocked.
A country is "doubly landlocked" or "double-landlocked" when it is surrounded entirely by landlocked countries (i.e. requiring the crossing of at least two national borders to reach a coastline).[27][28] There are two such countries:
With thedissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and creation of an independent, landlockedAustria, Liechtenstein became the sole doubly landlocked country until 1938. In theAnschluss that year, Austria was absorbed intoNazi Germany, which possessed a border on theBaltic Sea and theNorth Sea. After World War II, Austria regained its independence and Liechtenstein once again became doubly landlocked.
However, Uzbekistan's doubly landlocked status depends on whether theCaspian Sea is considered a lake or a sea. In the latter case, Uzbekistan is not doubly landlocked, since its neighbors Turkmenistan andKazakhstan have access to the Caspian Sea.[31]
List of landlocked countries and landlocked de facto states
If it were not for the 40 km (25 mi) ofcoastline atMoanda,DR Congo would join the two African clusters into one, making it the biggest contiguous cluster in the world instead.
The Central and Southern Asian cluster and the Western Asian group can be considered contiguous, joined by the landlockedCaspian Sea.Mongolia is almost a part of this cluster too, being separated fromKazakhstan by only 30 km (19 mi), across Chinese or Russian territory.
^Paudel, R. C. (2012)."Landlockedness and Economic Growth: New Evidence"(PDF).Growth and Export Performance of Developing Countries: Is Landlockedness Destiny?. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University. pp. 13–72.
^Moseley, W. G. (2011). "Lessons from the 2008 Global Food Crisis: Agro-Food Dynamics in Mali".Development in Practice.21 (4–5):604–612.doi:10.1080/09614524.2011.561290.S2CID153852580.
