Definitions of country,
state, nation, possession

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Country
A group of people with their own customs and beliefs, permanently occupying a territory, form a country. A country can be a state, a nation, a commonwealth, or a region. For example, some people consider Quebec to be a country, even though it is part of Canada. Some others consider Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands to be countries; certainly the people that live in those places think of their lands as countries.

All countries have an identity. Identity is, among other things, a set of customs, beliefs and traditions. For example, take Kurdistan. There is no independent Kurdistan, but Kurdistan is a country, and it is under the administration of Iraq. The Kurds have their identity because they have their own culture and they occupy a definite space. A country can be under the mandate of another country, and Kurdistan is under the governance of Iraq.

State
A state is a country that either forms part of another or is independent. Hawaii is both a country and a state, because it has its own identity, and because it also forms part of the United States. The members of the European Union are states and nations at the same time. However, Bahrain is an independent state, as is Kuwait.

Nation
A nation is a country that governs itself in its entirety, and is usually in charge of its own external affairs (diplomatic relations) and defense, among other things. The majority of countries on the planet are, indeed, nations.

A country can form a pact a with another, to take charge of its diplomatic relations and defense. Such countries are usually called commonwealths. Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands are commonwealths of the United States.

However, a nation can also ask another nation to take care of its defense, but not its external affairs. Marshall Islands and Palau, for example, have asked the United States to defend them in case of war. Each of these nations is effectively responsible for its own diplomatic relations.

To have a flag, a coat of arms (great seal), and an anthem, is not reserved only for independent nations. States and countries have those symbols, too.

How can a country cease to exist?
For a country to disappear from the map is difficult. What often happens is that nations, not countries, fall apart at the seams. That's when people say such-and-such country "ceased to exist". What has happened is that the states that form a nation decide to break away or meld with another, or both. Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 1992, because the six countries that made up Yugoslavia each decided to take care of their own internal and external affairs, without help from another country. As a result, Yugoslavia disappeared from the map, and in its place emerged Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia & Montenegro. However, Serbia & Montenegro later divided itself into three separate, independent nations: Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo.

Federation
A federation is a union of states. The United States is a federation. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a federation, and so are Malaysia, and Brazil.

Possession
A possession (or territory) was formerly called a colony. Gibraltar is a British possession. It is not a state or a nation, but it is a country nonetheless. Gibraltar has its own government, which answers to England.

Republic
A republic is a form of government, headed by a president. Not all independent nations are republics; some are kingdoms, sultanates, or states.

Dependency
As the name implies, a dependency is a country that depends on another. Guam is a dependency of the United States, and Ascension is a dependency of Saint Helena.

All of the definitions above apply to most cases, but there are a few exceptions in each classification.


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