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User:Alice/Kitchen/Island nations

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Pitcairn

Island nations and territories tend to defy a tidy geographical hierarchy. On a planet covered 70% by interconnected oceans, in a literal sense every place is an island. But the really big ones we think of as continents, leaving the smaller islands – scattered far and wide – as the "leftovers" of geography. Which often makes them some of the most unique and interesting destinations.

But what is a nation?

The most tolerant definition is any distinctive geographical territory that regards itself as a nation. Indicators may include issuing their own stamps, coins and banknotes; possessing a separate legal and or judicial system; having distinctive national costumes; speaking discrete languages from their neighbours or ostensible current rulers; a long-standing historically defined border or a frontier delineated by natural features such as a river, desert, mountain ridge, lake or gorge. Obviously being an island helps gives a head start with the latter indicator!

Please note that, on our definition above, whether a nation has achieved either de jure or de facto recognition as a state or is internally self governing or not is largely irrelevant for our purposes. That means that, although Scotland is clearly a nation, it is not included in these lists (since it shares the partly Scots island of Great Britain with the other "home nations" of England and Wales).

Our various region articles attempt to group these island nations logically for the traveller (sometimes bending official geography to do so).

However, for the purposes of this travel topic we don't include nations that share an island or islands (such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic which share the island of Hispaniola, or Indonesia) but we do include island nations that are wholly archipelagos (such as the Philippines or the Cook Islands). We also don't include nations that have a portion of their national territory on a continental landmass (consequently excluding such nations as Equatorial Guinea). Even despite these artificial exclusions, the list still extends to nearly one hundred:

Island nations of the Arctic Ocean

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These are the near-polar island nations north of 60°:

Island nations of the North Atlantic

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In the northern hemisphere are

Island nations of the Mediterranean

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Island nations of the South Atlantic

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In the southern hemisphere are

Caribbean island nations

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Caribbean island nations are often collectively called the West Indies and are near the Americas:

Island nations of the Indian Ocean

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Island nations of the South Pacific

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Many of these island nations are in Oceania:

Island nations of the North Pacific

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