Landlocked.html

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Landlocked countries of the world according to The World Factbook.

A landlocked country is commonly defined as one enclosed or nearly enclosed by land.¹²³⁴ As of 2008, there are 44 landlocked countries in the world. Of the major landmasses, only North America and Australia do not have a landlocked country inside their respective continents.

Many countries also have constricted access to the sea. If a country's only coastline is on a sea that is almost landlocked, such as the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea, this may allow ocean access to be easily blocked. This may be of strategic importance, with one or two other countries controlling the entrance, and/or be relevant to tides and freshwater content. Areas without a warm water port will be landlocked during the winter months.

An island country can conversely be considered waterlocked⁵ as it is entirely surrounded by water, meaning one must cross water to reach land abroad.

History and significance

Bolivia's loss of its coast in the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) is a major political issue to this day. In the mural it is written; "What once was ours, will be ours once again", and "Hold fast rotos (Chileans), for here come the Colorados (Reds) of Bolivia"

Historically, being landlocked was regarded as a disadvantageous position. It cuts the country off from sea resources such as fishing, but more importantly cuts off access to seaborne trade which, even today, makes up a large percentage of international trade. Coastal regions tended to be wealthier and more heavily populated than inland ones.

Countries thus have made particular efforts to avoid being landlocked:

• The International Congo Society, which owned the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, was given a thin piece of land cutting through Angola to connect it to the sea by the Conference of Berlin in 1885.
• The Dubrovnik Republic once gifted the town of Neum to the Ottoman Empire because it did not want to have a land border with Venice; this small municipality was inherited by Bosnia and Herzegovina and now provides limited sea access, splitting the Croatian part of the Adriatic coast in two.
• After World War I, in the Treaty of Versailles, a part of Germany, designated "the Polish corridor", was given to the new Second Polish Republic, for access to the Baltic Sea. This was also the pretext for making Danzig (now Gdansk) with its harbour the Free City of Danzig. This made Poland a semi-landlocked country as described in the previous section, but Poland soon enlarged the small fishing harbor of Gdynia into a large one.
• The Danube was internationalized so that landlocked Austria, Hungary, Slovakia (and the southern parts of Germany, itself not landlocked) could have secure access to the Black Sea.
• Serbia became landlocked when Montenegro split from Serbia and Montenegro. By the Danube, however, the country has access to the Black Sea.

Losing access to the sea is generally a great blow to a nation, politically, militarily, and particularly with respect to international trade and therefore economic security:

• The independence of Eritrea and Montenegro, brought about by successful separatist movements, have caused Ethiopia and Serbia respectively to become landlocked.
• Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific. The Bolivian Navy still trains in Lake Titicaca for an eventual recovery, and 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 of Antofagasta and what has proven to be one of the most significant and lucrative copper deposits in the world. In the 21st century, the selection of the route of gas pipes from Bolivia to the sea fueled popular risings.
• Austria and Hungary also lost their access to the sea as a consequence of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the Treaty of Trianon (1920) respectively. Before, although Croatia had a constitutional autonomy within Hungary, the City of Fiume/Rijeka on the Croatian coast was governed directly from Budapest by an appointed governor as a corpus separatum, to provide Hungary with its only international port in the periods 1779–1813, 1822–1848 and 1868–1918.
• When the Entente Powers divided the former Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Sèvres at the close of World War I, Armenia was promised part of the Trebizond vilayet (roughly corresponding to the modern Trabzon and Rize provinces in Turkey). This would have granted Armenia access to the Black Sea. However, the Sèvres treaty collapsed with the Turkish War of Independence and was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne which firmly established Turkish rule over the area.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea now gives a landlocked country a right of access to and from the sea without taxation of traffic through transit states. The United Nations has a programme of action to assist landlocked developing countries,⁶ and the current responsible Undersecretary-General is Anwarul Karim Chowdhury.

Some countries may 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 the Arctic Ocean and frozen shut for much of the year. The wish to gain control of a warm water port was a major motivator of Russian expansion towards the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Pacific 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 by the Paraguay and Parana rivers.

Several countries have coastlines on landlocked seas, such as the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. Since these seas are in effect lakes, and do not allow access to seaborne trade, countries such as Kazakhstan are still considered to be landlocked. (The Caspian Sea, however, is connected to the Black Sea via a man-made canal between the Volga and Don rivers.)

List of landlocked countries

† Has a coast on the saltwater Caspian Sea

‡ Has a coast on the saltwater Aral Sea

° Disputed region with limited international recognition

¤ Completely landlocked by exactly one country

They can be grouped in contiguous groups as follows:

• Central Asian cluster (6): Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
• European cluster (9): Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo (partially recognized), Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia and Switzerland
• Central African cluster (5): Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Niger
• South African cluster (4): Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• East African cluster (3): Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda
• Caucasian cluster (2): Armenia, Azerbaijan
• South American cluster (2): Bolivia, Paraguay

If it were not for the 40 km of coastline at Muanda, DR Congo would join all three African clusters into one, making them the biggest contiguous group in the world.

There are the following 'single' landlocked countries (each of them borders no other landlocked country):

• Africa (3): Ethiopia, Lesotho, Swaziland
• Asia (4): Bhutan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal
• Europe (7): Andorra, Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, San Marino, South Ossetia (partially recognized), and the State of the Vatican City

If Armenia and Azerbaijan are counted as part of Europe, then Europe has the most landlocked countries, at 17. Kazakhstan is also sometimes regarded as a transcontinental country, so if that is included, the count for Europe goes up to 18. If these countries are included in Asia, then Africa has the most, at 15. Depending on the status of the three transcontinental countries, Asia has between 9 and 12, while South America has only 2. North America and Oceania are the only continents with no landlocked countries. (Oceania is also notable for having almost no land borders.)

Doubly landlocked country

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (November 2009)

A landlocked country surrounded only by other landlocked countries may be called a "doubly landlocked" country. A person in such a country has to cross at least two borders to reach a coastline.

There are currently two such countries in the world:

• Liechtenstein in Central Europe
• Uzbekistan in Central Asia

Uzbekistan has borders with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan that border the landlocked but saltwater Caspian Sea, from which ships can reach the Sea of Azov by using the man-made Volga-Don Canal, and thence the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the oceans.

There was no doubly landlocked country in the world from the 1871 Unification of Germany until the end of World War I. This is because Uzbekistan was part of the Russian Empire; while Liechtenstein bordered Austria-Hungary, which had an Adriatic coast until 1918. Nor was there one from 1938 until the end of World War II, as Nazi Germany had incorporated Austria and Uzbekistan was in the USSR.

Landlocked by a single country

There are only three countries that are landlocked by a single country – that is they are surrounded on all sides by just one country. Such a country is also called an enclave.

The three countries are:

• the republic of San Marino, an enclave in Italy
• the Vatican City, an enclave in the city of Rome, Italy
• the Kingdom of Lesotho, an enclave in South Africa

Nearly landlocked

The following countries are almost landlocked, because of their relatively short coastline:

• Iraq (Persian Gulf via Al-Faw Peninsula) 58 km (35 mi)
• Slovenia (Adriatic Sea via Koper) 43 km (26.8 mi),⁷ or by some 46.6 km (29.0 mi)⁸
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (Atlantic Ocean) 40 km (25 mi)
• Jordan (Red Sea-Gulf of Aqaba via Aqaba) 26 km (16 mi)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (Adriatic Sea via Neum) 21.2 km (13.2 mi)⁹

See also

• Enclave
• List of countries and territories by land and maritime borders
• List of countries by length of coastline
• List of countries and territories by maritime boundaries
• List of countries that border only one other country
• List of sets of four countries that border one another
• Navies of landlocked countries
• Pole of inaccessibility
• Landlocked developing countries

Notes