Enclave
In human geography, an enclave is a piece of land which is totally enclosed within a foreign territory. If another country has sovereignty over it, it may also be called an exclave:
- it is an enclave of the foreign territory which surrounds it
- it is an exclave of the country which has sovereignty over it
The word 'enclave' crept into the jargon of diplomacy rather late in English, in 1868, coming from French, the lingua franca of diplomacy, with a sense inherited from late Latin inclavatus meaning 'shut in, locked up" (with a key, late Latin clavis). The 'exclave' is a logical extension created three decades later.
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2 Coastal territories 3 Coastal countries 4 List of enclaves 5 External link |
Countries
Some enclaves are countries in their own rights, and therefore not exclaves. Examples of these include:- the republic of San Marino
- Vatican City
- the Kingdom of Lesotho
Coastal territories
A coastal territory cannot correctly be called enclaves, since the sea is not a foreign territory, hence disqualifying it of the "enclosed on all sides by foreign territory" criteria.- Spanish towns Ceuta and Melilla
- UK territory Gibraltar
- Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave of East Timor in Indonesian West Timor
- Cabinda, an exclave of Angola
- Russian territory Kaliningrad (which, before World War II, was the German city of Königsberg, capital of East Prussia)
Coastal countries
Countries that border just one country and the sea:
- Bahrain
- Brunei
- Canada
- Dominican Republic
- Haiti
- Ireland
- Monaco
- Papua New Guinea
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Singapore
- South Korea
- The Gambia
- United Kingdom
List of enclaves
- West Berlin (prior to the unification of Germany)
- Baarle-Hertog, a Belgian exclave in the Netherlands.
- Büsingen, German exclave in the canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland
- Campione, Italian exclave in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland
- Llivia, Spanish exclave in France.
- Ormidhia and Xylotimbou in Cyprus, surrounded by the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia
- Nahwa, an Omani enclave within Madha, which in turn is an exclave of the United Arab Emirates in Oman
- The most embodied enclave in the world is an Indian exclave called Dahala Khagrabari, which is embodied in a Bangladeshi enclave called Upanchowki Bhajni, which in turn is an enclave to the Indian exclave Balapara Khagrabari which in turn is an enclave to Bangladesh.
Subnational examples
- Kitayama Village (北山村) and Wakayama Town Enclave (熊野川町飛地) of Wakayama prefecture are located in the border between Mie and Nara prefectures.
- the traditional borders of Flintshire includes a large exclave called Maelor Saesneg
- Cromartyshire traditionally has a large number of enclaves in Ross-shire
