Which country laid claims to land in North America?
Until 1600 Spain was the only European power with colonies in North America. France claimed the northeastern region of North America in the 1530s based on the explorations of Jacques Cartier in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The first permanent French settlement did not begin until 1608. The Netherlands founded the American colony of New Netherland in 1609 on land that is part of present-day New York. The Dutch conquered the small Swedish colony of New Sweden. The English conquered New Netherland in 1664. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent his first colonization mission to the island of Roanoke (in present-day North Carolina). This was the first English settlement, although it did not survive. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to again attempt to establish a permanent settlement. Although there are a number of theories about the fate of the colony, it remains a mystery and has come to be known as the "Lost Colony". The English colonies continued to grow and develope. The English colonists, in 1776, declared their independence and the newly formed United States of America laid claim the all of the former English colonies. The first permanent European settlement in Alaska was founded in 1784, and the Russian-American Company carried out an expanded colonization program during the early to mid-1800s. New Archangel on Kodiak Island was Alaska's first capital, but for a century under both Russia and the U.S. Sitka was the capital. The Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable. Subsequently, Russian explorers and settlers continued to establish trading posts in Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and as far south as Fort Ross in northern California. Fort Ross, some 50 miles north of San Francisco, was founded in 1812 and closed in 1841. El Presidio Real de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks, was established at Sonoma, California in 1836 by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (the "Commandante-General of the Northern Frontier of Alta California") as a part of Mexico's strategy to halt Russian incursions into the region. William H. Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State, negotiated the Alaskan purchase in 1867 for $7.2 million. Alaska was loosely governed by the military for years, and was unofficially a territory of the United States from 1884 on. Alaska was officially proclaimed a state of the United States of America on January 3, 1959.
Which is the smallest country? Molassia Sealand or Vatican City?
I believe that of the three, Vatican City is the only officially recognized country. You can declare your private island to be a country all you want, it doesn't make you a "real" country. Some hallmarks of real countries are a currency that is tradable for other currencies on some market, having ambassadors, having a right to join the United Nations, and issuing internationally recognized travel documents.
How can a country claim land?
This is way too complicated for me to type everything here. Basically there are international treaties that allow countries to claim control over the seas up to 12 miles past their shores. Where you start measuring those 12 miles is where it gets very complicated and that's what countries are disputing in the Arctic right now. It basically goes through the UN and other international organizations, but check the link below for a little more detail. Warning - you have to really be interested in this to read much into it. It's very dreary stuff.
Does Afghanistan officially claim any territory in Pakistani control?
I don't know if there is an official claim. There are or were issues with the border. The British had a deal with the Afghans that Durrani line would be a temporary border between the two for a 100 years and then returned.Pakistan is said have inherited that deal and so it must be honoured. But some say that clause wasn't mentioned in the deal so no returns are needed etc.Technically though, a country may not have a claim and still have a claim. It all comes down to that security guard story I was told in childhood. it goes something like, there was a building and poeple were going in and out of it while a security guard stood there. A man went to the guard as asked if he could also enter the building and the guard replied with a 'no'.Upon asking why the rest of the poeple can go and he can't, the guard said 'the didn't ask me'It's the same with countries I guess. They may not have a claim but if you ask them if they do, they will say yes just for the sake of it.It's like countries demanding apologies from other countries for the past. If the country apologizes, the demanding country rejects it anyway. So no point in apologizing anyway.The same goes for territorial claims. Don't ask and they won't ask. Ask and they will make a claim.
To which country does Indian Ocean belong?
No single country owns the seas or oceans. There are regions around land where certain countries stake their claim, such as for fishing rights, or oil or gas drilling, but beyond those borders, the waters are considered international, and no single country holds claim to those areas. Agreement can be reached for oil fields or the like, but those are generally lengthy legal battles between the country which found the source, and the country closest to the source, and maybe some other countries getting in there as well. Of course, things like sunken ships still officially belong to the countries that owned them, even if they sank in international waters, but this is also a very grey legal area. You cannot expect to salvage a sunken Spanish galleon from international waters without Spain laying claim to it, but many people have gotten compensation for salvaging these ships.
Is there still land in the USA that is unclaimed?
Once upon a time there was land. It belonged to everyone and no one. Then we got people, and they began to claim the land, even from those who used to previously. Then we go government who regulated taking the land, including taking land itself. Once there was enough people and enough government, all the land was gone and since no more new land is being created, there is no more free land. Still, once upon a time, people who took land sometimes, abandoned the land. This abandoned land was free for the taking, until government decided that abandoned land was valuable and therefore they would take it. Still some abandoned land can be obtained from the government, but really there isn't much of it.So no Virginia, there is no more free land.There is a minor amount of free land left in the world. Mostly places no one wants. Marie Byrd Land and Bir Tawil Triangle are the only two land areas on Earth not claimed by any country. Marie Byrd Land is in Antarctica and Bir Tawil is near Sudan. It is possible that there is an undiscovered land mass in our oceans - possible but not likely. It is also possible that new land could be created in the ocean as a result of volcanic activity.Finally, claiming land would be the easy part. Getting the rest of the world and the UN to recognize the claim is another matter. Lack of recognition is like peeing your pants while wearing a dark suit. It gives you a warm feeling inside, but no one notices.
How far back in history can a country use to claim its territory?
That's actually a good and deep question, which I've been pondering myself lately. I think it all comes down to your opinion about it, because it's probably another one of those issues where there'll never really be consensus.I, myself, am of the opinion that we do not inherit the achievements or guilts of our ancestors and that every wo/man should be able to distinguish himself without being pulled up or down by his/her parents or his/her forefathers. I don't think that people inherit the blame for the crimes or mistakes of those who came before them, or the glory from their accomplishments. This is the rule for individuals but also for larger groups. For example, I don't think that any white man inherits a guilt for slavery, although it's easy to blame them. I also don't think they inherit the glory from inventors and scholars who happened to be white. Following that logic, I don't think that you have a claim to territory, simply because your ancestor's lived there. If we were to suddenly give back the land to the people who had once in history been settled there, then there is no way to justify keeping other people of the historic lands of their ancestors. If we hand over, for example, Israel (I know it's a touchy subject) then what reason is there to keep Spain from the descendants of the Visigoths? They lived there for hundreds of years and so did the Iberians before them. And should we expel the Arabs from Egypt, because they seized it from the Greeks? And then, when we've replaced them with the Greeks, we'll need to replace them with the Persians and then replace the Persians with the original Egyptians. There are so many ethnic, religious and political groups that have occupied so much territory in the world that it's impossible to keep track of who was where.And I don't think that having a historical claim to a territory makes it yours, especially not if other people have been settled here for their entire lives. If other people have already established homes on the land, then it's their land and you can't expel them, no matter how long your ancestors lived there. They weren't you and you weren't them.
Is there any piece of land or area on Earth that does not belong to any country?
The short answer to this question is, yes. There are some pieces of land that are not claimed by any state, recognized or unrecognized.The first and most obvious is in the vast expanse of Antarctica. Although various countries have laid claim to areas of the continent there are still pieces of land that have not been claimed (meanwhile there are others that have overlapping claims from different nations, grumble grumble grumble).The second instance that I can recall is the case of Bir Tawil which is a small piece of land in between the African countries of Sudan and Egypt.The issue as somewhat seen in the map above is that Egypt considers the border to be straight and it has the Hala’ib Triangle meanwhile Sudan thinks the opposite and suggests that the border is jagged and it has the Hala’ib Triangle. Neither country wants Bir Tawil because it would nullify their claim to the triangle and so it is technically owned by neither country. Both countries want the triangle because it includes the city of Hala’ib also, it has access to the red sea and Bir Tawil is almost uninhabited wilderness which would not give either more power.Hopefully this was helpful.
Which continent has no countries?
Antarctica.