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A landlocked country is one that has no coastline. There are 42 landlocked countries in the world.1 Significance of being landlocked
Historically being landlocked was regarded as a disadvantageous position. It cuts the country off from sea resources such as fishing, but more importantly cuts off access to seaborne trade which even today makes up a large percentage of international trade. Around the world coastal regions tend to be wealthier and more heavily populated than inland ones.
Countries thus have made particular effort to avoid being landlocked. The International Congo Society , which owned the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, was given a thin piece of land bisecting Angola to connect it to the sea by the Conference of Berlin in 1885. After WWI Poland was given the Danzig Corridor to give it an outlet on the sea. The successful separatist movement in Eritrea and the current one in Montenegro are of greater concern to their host countries than they would otherwise be as they control the nations' only coastline. The Dubrovnik Republic had once sold the town of Neum to the Ottoman Empire; this small municipality was inherited by Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina is a mountainous country in the western Balkans. Its capital is Sarajevo and it was formerly one of the six federal units constituting Yugoslavia. The republic gained its independence in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and due to the and it now provides it with limited sea access, splitting the CroatiaThe Republic of Croatia is a country in Europe bordering the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. Its capital is Zagreb. In recent history, it was a republic of Yugoslavia. History Main article: History of Croatia The Croats are a largely Slavicn part of the Adriatic coast in two.
Some countries may have a large coastline, but no readily usable one. For instance RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With in the sixteenth century can be said to be landlocked as their only ports were on the Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean located entirely in the north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Southern Ocean), and the shallowest. It occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an are and frozen shut much of the year. Gaining control of a warm water port was a major motivator of Russian expansion towards the BalticBaltic can refer to: The Baltic Sea Council of the Baltic Sea States an intergovernmental organization Baltic sea countries countries with access to the Baltic Sea The term Baltic countries is sometimes used more or less synonymously for Northern Europe (, Black SeaNASA MODIS The Black Sea (also known as the Euxine Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmara, and to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch. There is a and Pacific OceanFor other meanings of pacific see pacific (disambiguation). The Pacific Ocean (from the Spanish Pacifico meaning peaceful is the world's largest body of water. It encompasses a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 179. 7 million kmē (69. 4 mill.
Similarly, several countries have coastlines on landlocked seaSunset at sea A sea (pronounced see is a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean. The term is also used for large, usually saline, lakes that lack a natural outlet, such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is a small fress such as the Caspian and the Aral. Since these seas are sometimes considered to be lakes, and since they do not allow access to seaborne trade, countries such as Kazakhstan are still considered to be landlocked.
An island nation, a country completely surrounded by water, is the opposite of a landlocked one.
