Online map with unrecognized countries?

[Little_Nemo]

Can anyone point me to a site with online maps that include unrecognized countries?

I was reading about Somaliland and I realized there are a number of other countries which exist in the real world but do not have widespread legal recognition: Abkhazia, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia, and the most famous, Taiwan.

I’m not interested in micronations or secessionist claims or governments in exile. I’m talking about places where there is a functional de facto government that is actually running the country it claims to control. (I’m also not interested in arguing over claims about whether or not these countries should exist.)

So can anyone direct me to a map that shows these countries?

[Markxxx]

Wikipedia has a good start with List of States With Limited Recognition

[Hallucinex]

I thought I remembered seeing such a map a while ago, but can’t spot much of anything apart from the one on Wikipedia that Markxxx linked to. Otherwise your best bet may just be to find lists of such regions (though you have most of the main ones anyway), and have to look up the maps of individual regions.

I do remember seeing mention a while back of the Viva World Cup, a soccer/football world cup played mostly among unrecognized territories (though I think some of them are just regions with groups calling for autonomy)

[A.Gwilliam]

@Little_Nemo

I was reading about Somaliland and I realized there are a number of other countries which exist in the real world but do not have widespread legal recognition: Abkhazia, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia, and the most famous, Taiwan.

I don’t think that Kurdistan belongs in this group; it’s “merely” an autonomous area within Iraq.

[Desert_Nomad]

Karakalpakstan too… it seemed quite independent when I was there… with a definite border check and customs.

[psychonaut]

@Little_Nemo

I was reading about Somaliland and I realized there are a number of other countries which exist in the real world but do not have widespread legal recognition: Abkhazia, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia, and the most famous, Taiwan.

Some of the entries on your list don’t actually fit your criteria. The recognition (among UN members, at least) for Taiwan and Kosovo may not be universal, but it certainly is widespread. Kosovo is officially recognized by over a third of UN members. While Taiwain has official recognition by only about a tenth, most of the remainder effectively recognize it, but stop short of “official” recognition only to avoid pissing of the PRC. In those cases ROC passports are accepted, all-but-official “diplomatic” relations established, etc.

[psychonaut]

@Markxxx

Wikipedia has a good start with List of States With Limited Recognition

Indeed. That one includes the very map the OP seems to be asking for.

[Little_Nemo]

@psychonaut

Indeed. That one includes the very map the OP seems to be asking for.

I had seen that map. But I was hoping for something a little better.

[Hallucinex]

@Desert_Nomad

Karakalpakstan too… it seemed quite independent when I was there… with a definite border check and customs.

I got the sense that on paper the regional government has a lot of autonomy, but practically is mostly under the control of the central Uzbek government (and is fairly reliant on the central govt anyway since the Aral Sea shrinkage has taken away much of its economic viability). I think there have been a couple of calls for separatism, but I wouldn’t think it in the category of ‘unrecognized country’.

Also, I don’t think I came across a specific border check with customs etc when I was there last year (there might have been more of an internal border check when you visited though). There were plenty of police checkpoints along the road between Bukhara and Nukus*, and I’m sure one of those probably would have been on the Karakalpak border…but didn’t seem to be a distinct border check that significantly differed from the other checkpoints by much (at least not that I can recall, pretty sure we didn’t have to show our passports along the way, let alone a proper customs stop)

*which was a 7 or 8 hour shared-taxi drive through the desert with my wife and I squeezed into the back of a car with an enormous Uzbek military guy…at least we seemed to stop every hour or two for watermelon and/or vodka

[Ludovic]

@Little_Nemo

I had seen that map. But I was hoping for something a little better.

The only thing wrong I can see with it is that the colors are too close to each other except for the dark beige.

[Little_Nemo]

@Ludovic

The only thing wrong I can see with it is that the colors are too close to each other except for the dark beige.

Technically, this is a map of the United States but most people would prefer something like this.

[psychonaut]

@Little_Nemo

Technically, this is a map of the United States but most people would prefer something like this.

Exactly. Everyone knows that line art should be saved in lossless graphics formats, not JPEGs!

[Desert_Nomad]

@Hallucinex

Also, I don’t think I came across a specific border check with customs etc when I was there last year (there might have been more of an internal border check when you visited though). There were plenty of police checkpoints along the road between Bukhara and Nukus*, and I’m sure one of those probably would have been on the Karakalpak border…but didn’t seem to be a distinct border check that significantly differed from the other checkpoints by much (at least not that I can recall, pretty sure we didn’t have to show our passports along the way, let alone a proper customs stop)

*which was a 7 or 8 hour shared-taxi drive through the desert with my wife and I squeezed into the back of a car with an enormous Uzbek military guy…at least we seemed to stop every hour or two for watermelon and/or vodka

I was there in 1998… stayed two nights in Nukus and went up to Moynaq in between to wander around the ships in the sand. From Bukhara, rains in Afghanistan had raised the Amu Darya and we had to take a barge across with our driver. Total rust bucket but our driver was willing to put the car on it so we went along with it. At the Karakalpak border we had to fill out a currency declaration, show passports and they searched the car.