As a rule, we call a country a certain territory. But a country is a term that is used not only in the political sphere. It also applies to culture, history, and physical geography. What is a country? How is it different from the state?
Geographic concept
A country is a territory, a locality that has certain historical, cultural, political and physical-geographical features. Its borders can be blurry or strictly fixed.
In geography, there is the concept of "natural country." This is a piece of land, the mainland, which is characterized by a common geological structure and macrorelief. Such a division does not take into account geographical zones and zones, as well as the political borders of states. It divides the entire land into areas with a uniform structure and landscape.
There are a lot of geographic countries. Only in Russia there are thirteen of them. Inside each of them, smaller territories are distinguished - regions (in Russia - 71). The natural country is the Urals, Fennoscandia, Island Arctic, Central Siberia, etc.
Historical and cultural concept
A historical and cultural country is a locality within which a population with similar cultural and everyday characteristics resides. They develop under the influence of general social, historical and economic factors and are not always recognized by the population itself.
The term "region" is often used as a synonym for a cultural-historical country. Residents of such a territory have similar traditions, clothing, religious beliefs, folk art, material culture.
At a certain point in history, the peoples living within the same IR region followed a common path of development, which was reflected in their culture. Among the large areas distinguish Western Europe, South Asia, Latin America, etc.
Of course, the local population has a lot of differences and their individual characteristics. Therefore, within the regions there is a division into narrower units. For example, in Northern Europe there is Scandinavia, the Baltic states; in the West - Benelux, Gaul, etc.
Country and State
In a political sense, a country can mean a state. Very often, concepts are used as synonyms and mean a specific territory. However, in a broad sense, their meanings are different.
The state is usually understood as a structure of power, a system of government, which is fixed on a fixed territory. The term is used to mean a specific organization of a society that has its own mechanisms and principles for exercising control over a territory.
The country is a more capacious concept, which includes not only the apparatus of power, but also socio-economic and cultural-historical features. The term "country" is used more in relation to the people who live in it and have similar features of mentality, language, etc.