Country Facts - A Countdown.

 Hi Everyone, It has been a month since my last post. Sorry for the delay. I was having vacation at my paati's house.

We have seen countdown being used for many things. Well, today I’m using a count down for counting facts about countries. Without further ado let’s begin. 1, 2, 3, go!

One

Nauru is the  only country in the world that has only One Highway.  It is called Nauru
Ring Road, which circles the island nation. 

Nauru is the 3^rd smallest country in the world. It is a single island about 21 square Kms in the middle of pacific ocean.  It was once known for its phosphate reserves, which was due to birds pooping in the island for long time!!! The phosphate exports made Nauru very rich. But due to mismanagement, the money dried up quickly as soon as the phosphate reserves was exhausted. Now it is one of the poor countries. 

    

Two

 Italy is the only country in the world that has Two Countries contained within it.  San Marino and Vatican City are two countries that are fully contained within Italy. 

Vatican City which is formerly known as Papal state (ruled by Pope), is a small area within the Rome City, which is the capital of Italy. Papal state used to control most of central Italy. But in the 19^th  Century, Papal state was occupied by Italian kings, except for a small area in the hill of Vatican, where the Pope built a wall around it and stayed put.  This status Quo was maintained until the  20^th century, when in 1929, Italy agreed to recognize Vatican as an independent country.

San Marino is one of the oldest republic in the world (with its own constitution). Its constitution is dated from 12^th century. It was one of the many kingdoms that dotted the current Italian peninsula. It stayed neutral during many wars. When Italy unified to become a single country in the 19^th Century, San Marino did not take part in unification and remained independent. It was recognized as an independent country in 1862.

Three

South Africa is the only country in the world that has three capitals.  Cape town,  Bloemfontein and Pretoria.

The reason why South Africa has three capitals is because it wanted a balance of power between the four British colonies which later unified to become south Africa. The colonies were Orange Free State, Zulu Natal, Cape Colony and Transvaal.

•  Pretoria , in Transvaal is the Executive Capital.
•  Cape Town, in Cape Colony is the Legislative Capital.
•  Bloemfontein in Orange free State is the Judicial capital.

Zulu Natal was given monetary compensation in exchange for not having a capital.

Four

African Quad point, a point in the Zambezi river is the only place in the world, which acts as a border for four countries. They are Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. 

There was a ferry service between Botswana and Zambia on the Zambezi River, which passed through the Quad point. In 1970,  South Africa, which occupied Namibia at the time, claimed that the ferry service was illegal, as it went through South African territorial waters. 

So in 2007, the governments of Zambia and Botswana announced that they will build a bridge between them and the other two countries agreed to give 150 metre stretch of land to Botswana so that Botswana and Zambia share a direct border without any dispute and they can legally build the bridge.

 So in  a twist, now the Quad point has now become set of two tri-points 

Five

France is the largest intercontinental country in the world and  has territories in five continents.  Europe, North and South America, Oceania, and Africa. 

I have already written enough about France Overseas Territories, so I won’t bore you with the facts again.

United Kingdom has territory in all continents (including Asia), but it is smaller than France.

I hope you all enjoyed this countdown.  Thank you.