Part of the Politics series |
Politics |
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A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.[1]
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources[2] or an administrative division is usually an area that is under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state.
As a subdivision a territory is in most countries an organized division of an area that is controlled by a country but is not formally developed into,[1] or incorporated into, a political unit of the country that is of equal status to other political units that may often be referred to by words such as "provinces" or "regions" or "states". In its narrower sense, it is "a geographic region, such as a colonial possession, that is dependent on an external government."[3]
The origins of the word "territory" begin with the Proto-Indo-European root ters ('to dry').[4] From this emerged the Latin word terra ('earth, land') and later the Latin word territorium ('land around a town').[5][6] Territory made its debut as a word in Middle English during the 14th century. At this point the suffix -orium, which denotes place, was replaced with -ory which also expresses place.[7]
Examples for different types of territory include the following:
Main article: Capital districts and territories |
A capital territory or federal capital territory is usually a specially designated territory where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in the federal model of government, no one state or territory takes pre-eminence because the capital lies within its borders. A capital territory can be one specific form of federal district.
Main article: Dependent territory |
A dependent territory is a territory that is not an independent sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the governing state's integral area.[8][failed verification][non-primary source needed] Presently, all dependent territories are either overseas territories or non-sovereign associated states. Only four countries currently possess dependent territories: New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[citation needed][dubious ]
Examples include:
A federal territory is an area within the direct and usually exclusive jurisdiction of the central or national government within a federation.
Further information: States and territories of Australia |
Australia has ten federal territories, out of which three are "internal territories" (the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Northern Territory) on mainland Australia; and the other seven are "external territories" (Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island, and the Australian Antarctic Territory), which are offshore dependent territories.
Canada
Canada has three federal territories in addition to its 10 provinces. The territories are officially under the direct control of the federal government and are created by statute (while provinces had constitutional jurisdiction), but in practice they operate similar to provinces.
Each territory has a premier, legislative assembly, and Commissioner (who performs a similar role to a lieutenant governor).
The territories are, from west to east, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
"Overseas territories" redirects here. For the designation of EU member state territories, see Special member state territories and the European Union § Overseas countries and territories. |
Overseas territory is a broad designation for a territorial entity that is separated from the country that governs it by an ocean. An overseas territory may be either a constituent part of the governing state or a dependent territory.
Examples include: