According to the United Nations (UN), there are 191 countries. But there are some absences that list. The two most famous is Taiwan, whose independence is not recognized by China and the Vatican, which, despite being off the records of the UN, is "permanent observer" of the entity, a status that entitles the holder to vote at conference. Besides these two, the UN does not count possessions and territories. Greenland, for example, stands out because it is territory of Denmark. To make a card-carrying member, the country must have defined boundaries, economic support - a money helps a lot - and national sovereignty. And yet to be recognized by other members of the club. But the UN list is not the only one. Some associations also have their sport. This is the case of the International Olympic Committee, with 202 members, and FIFA, which has 205. Territories such as Aruba and the Cayman Islands, not recognized by the UN because they belong, respectively, to Holland and England, integrate the two entities. If you think the country and has very little to the world, know that this is a relatively new thing: in the early 20th century, there were only 57 nations. "After the first World War (1914-1918), the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Europe, and Turkish-Ottoman Middle East, has spurred new countries such as Austria and Iraq," says historian Maria Aparecida de Aquino, USP. Decades later, the independence of former colonies in Asia and Africa divided over the map. At that time India and Pakistan appeared (1947) and Mozambique (1975), among others. In the 1990s, with the end of the Soviet Union, the world took another batch of nations such as Ukraine and Uzbekistan. And new divisions are still drawn in conflict zones. Kashmir, the border between India and Pakistan, and Chechnya in Russia, claiming independence at bayonet point. Among UN members, 12 chose to show the extremes of the globe: the richest country, the poorest, the oldest and the youngest, among other categories that you can see on the side.
