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These Countries Are Completely Surrounded By a Single Nation
The strange case of enclave nations
In a strange case of map malpractice, there are a number of independent nations on Earth that are completely surrounded by one other country. Imagine if Kansas was its own country but remained completely encased by the United States. That is how so-called enclave nations work. At first thought, that doesn’t seem to make much sense. How does a nation end up as an enclave? Why would the larger country not simply annex or absorb the smaller surrounded nation? In most cases, that is exactly what happens. That is why there are only three enclave nations left on the planet. The rest of the former enclaves were absorbed, destroyed, or merged with their surroundings to become new nations.
Before we go any further, it is important to point out that having any type of coastal border or coastline disqualifies a country from being a true enclave. For example, Portugal borders just one nation, Spain. It has a long border to the east and north, but the rest of the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Despite being surrounded by Spain, Portugal is not an enclave nation because of its coastline. True enclaves have no other border save for the land border of a single nation.
