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Countries, States, Cities
Country may refer to the territory of a state, or sometimes to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. In another meaning of the word, the country (or countryside) is also a term used to refer to rural areas. Usually, but not
always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation and government. In common usage, the term country is widely in the sense of both nations and states, with definitions varying. In some cases it is used to refer
both to states and to other political entities, while in some occasions it refers only to states It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and
comparison. Some entities which constitute cohesive geographical entities, and may be former states, but which are not presently sovereign states (such as England, Scotland and Wales), are commonly regarded and referred to as countries. Another
example is the Basque Country, which has a number of possible meanings, but none coinciding with the borders of a state. Here it is the distinctiveness of the Basque nation which has preserved the use of the word; other former states such as Bavaria (now
part of Germany) and Piedmont (now part of Italy) would not normally be referred to as "countries" in English. The degree of autonomy of such non-state countries varies widely. Some are possessions of states, as several states have overseas dependencies
(such as the British Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles, and American Samoa), with territory and citizenry distinct from their own. Such dependent territories are sometimes listed together with independent states on lists of countries. In ancient
history, civilizations did not have definite boundaries as countries have today, and their borders could be more accurately described as frontiers. Early dynastic Sumer, and early dynastic Egypt were the first civilizations to define their borders.
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