“Unfortunately, most world political maps aren’t telling you the whole story. The idea that the earth’s land is cleanly divvied up into nation-states – one country for each of the world’s peoples – is more an imaginative ideal than a reality. Read on to learn about five ways your map is lying to you about borders, territories, and even the roster of the world’s countries.”

Source: www.polgeonow.com

This is a nice article to get students to look past the officialness of a world map to explore some of the complexities that make contemporary political geography so compelling.  In a nutshell, this article discusses 5 major themes:

  1. Missing countries
  2. Incomplete control
  3. Undefined borders
  4. Disputed territories
  5. Territorial seas

Tags: borders, mapping, political, territoriality, sovereignty.