Aterritory (plural:territories, from the wordterra, which means 'land') is anarea which belongs to aperson,organization,institution,animal,nation orstate.[1]
Ininternationallaw, a "territory" is an area of land which is outside the borders of a nation, but owned by that nation.Examples are:Puerto Rico as aU.S. territory, orBermuda as a territory of theUK.
General examples of territories are states controlled by afederated government (such asGermany or thecounties of a state within theStates of the United States), aunitary state such asFrance, anoccupied territory (land which has beeninvaded by themilitary of another country) or adisputed territory (such asKashmir, which bothIndia andPakistan believe is theirs).
The word"territory" comes from the Proto-Indo-European rootters, meaning"to dry."[2] From this came the Latin wordterra, meaning"earth" or "land," and thenterritorium, meaning"land around a town."[3] The wordterritory first appeared inMiddle English in the 14th century. Over time, the ending-orium (which means "place") changed to-ory, which also means "place."[4]
Examples for different types of territory include the following:
- A capital territory or federal capital territory is a special area where a country’s main government is located. In a federal system, this territory doesn’t belong to any one state, so no state has more power just because the capital is there. A capital territory is one type offederal district.
- Adependent territory is an area that is not an independent country but is still controlled by another country. However, it is not considered a full part of that country.[5]
- Adisputed territory is a piece of land that two or more governments claim as their own. For example,Kashmir is claimed by bothIndia andPakistan, and each country sees it as part of their own land. Another example isTaiwan, which is claimed byChina, even though Taiwan has its own government.
- A federal territory is an area directly controlled by a country's national government, not by any state or province within that country.
- Maritime territory
- Occupied territory, a region that is under the military control of an outside power that has not gained universal recognition from theinternational community. Current examples areCrimea, occupied by theRussian Federation;East Jerusalem, theGaza Strip, theGolan Heights, and theWest Bank, occupied by theState of Israel;Western Sahara, partially occupied by theKingdom of Morocco. Other examples of occupied territory include the country ofKuwait after it was briefly invaded by Iraq in 1990, Iraq after the American invasion of 2003,Germany afterWorld War II, andKosovo after 1999.
- Overseas territory
- Anunorganized territory is a region that doesn't have a regular local government. However, this doesn't mean it has no government or that it's unclaimed. These areas are usually sparsely populated.
Anoverseas territory is a land area that is separated from its main country by anocean. It can be either a part of the country or a dependent area controlled by it.
Examples include:
