I invented the following trivia question for one of my friends, but after he gave an answer, it intensified the debate as to who is correct. The question was exactly as follows:
Which country, besides Canada and Mexico, lies closest to any of the U.S. states?
I invented the question believing that I had a good trick question. However, I am not certain of the correct answer anymore. We will leave it to the “teeming millions to decide”. Twenty dollars lies in the balance so please do not take this lightly.
Actually, Russia is only a couple miles away from Alaska. Find Big and Little Diomede Islands on your map of Alaska. They’re in the Bering Strait. Big Diomede is owned by Russia, Little Diomede is part of Alaska.
Ah yes, I see them there. So then I will definately go with Russia. The 51 miles is what I found as the closest points of land across the Bering Strait.
If you want to get technical, then I suppose any country with an embassy actually in the US. The UN could count, in a way, also. But the right answer is Russia.
Russia followed by the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, France and Belize. I’m not sure of the order but France appears to be a little closer than Belize. Look off the coast of Newfoundland and you will see St. Pierre and Miquelon (Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon), an Overseas Department of France.
I hang my head in shame for posting in haste. The correct order is (I think)[ul]Russia
Bahamas
Cuba United Kingdom (Cayman Islands)
Jamaica Honduras (Islas Santanilla)
France (Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon)
Haiti
Belize[/ul]
Since we’re not considering overseas possessions of the US, I figured we shouldn’t count overseas possessions of other countries. That would apply to both France and UK.
I can’t find Islas Santanilla, unless it’s what is called Swan Island in my atlas (roughly at 84 degrees W, 17.5 degrees N). I overlooked that when I came up with my list.
A portion of the Mohawk Nation claims its independence from both Canada and the United States. The St. Regis Reservation borders on New York.
The territory of the British Virgin Islands borders on the American Virgin Islands, but AVI ain’t a state. Similarly, every U.S. embassy in the world is considered sovereign territory and therefore the U.S. has a face-to-face border with every nation it deals with on that diplomatic level.
But I like the idea of the United States lying closest to any of the U.S. states. Unless of course you want to define “lying.” If you go with “untruthful,” I’d have to go with Iraq and their baby milk factories. That’s pretty close to our “budget surplus.”
St. Pierre and Miquelon is a French territorial collectivity not an overseas department. The closest French outpost to the US are the islands of St Martin and St Barthelemy in the Caribbean which are part of the department of Guadeloupe.
Also, my atlas doesn’t make it clear but it appears that the state of Hawaii shares a border with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, which would make them contiguous if you accept water borders.
I admit I was using an out-of-date reference (circa 1984) when I called Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon an overseas department of France. The Encyclopædia Britannic says