Hype for the Future 75J: The Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union

Introduction

Though the regions listed are not included within the general definition of the European Union, each region is identified as an overseas territory of a sovereign state in the EU, albeit with varying levels of autonomy depending on the specific case.

Not Part of the EU

Of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the Member States of the European Union, the regions that are included within the EU are referred to as the Outermost Regions, while the regions not included are referred to as the Overseas Countries and Territories. Therefore, the regions not already identified as Outermost Regions should be listed within the remainder of the article:

Regions

• Aruba 🇦🇼 (Netherlands)
• Curaçao 🇨🇼 (Netherlands)
• Sint Maarten 🇸🇽 (Netherlands)
• Bonaire 🇧🇶 (Netherlands)
• Sint Eustatius (Netherlands)
• Saba (Netherlands)
• Greenland 🇬🇱 (Denmark)
• French Polynesia 🇵🇫 (France)
• French Southern and Antarctic Lands (France)
• New Caledonia 🇳🇨 (France)
• Saint Barthélemy 🇧🇱 (France)
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon 🇵🇲 (France)
• Wallis and Futuna 🇼🇫 (France)

Hype for the Future 73B: European Subdivisions, Nation by Nation, with the United Kingdom Split (Part 1)

Introduction

The contents of this post intend specifically to represent the subdivisions of each European state, including the split countries of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Historic counties are to be preferred, if and when possible, but especially in the case of the British Isles.

Ireland 🇮🇪

• Munster
  • Kerry
  • Cork
  • Tipperary
  • Limerick
  • Waterford
  • Clare
• Leinster
  • Kilkenny
  • Wexford
  • Carlow
  • Wicklow
  • Offaly
  • Laois
  • Kildare
  • Dublin
  • Longford
  • Westmeath
  • Meath
• Connacht (Connaught)
  • Galway
  • Mayo
  • Sligo
  • Roscommon
  • Leitrim
• Ulster
  • Donegal
  • Cavan
  • Monaghan

Northern Ireland 🇬🇧

• Armagh
• Antrim
• Down
• Fermanagh
• Londonderry
• Tyrone

Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧

• Anglesey
• Caernarfonshire
• Denbighshire
• Flintshire
• Merioneth
• Montgomeryshire
• Cardiganshire (Ceredigion)
• Radnorshire
• Pembrokeshire
• Carmarthenshire
• Brecknockshire
• Glamorgan
• Monmouthshire (Gwent)

England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇬🇧

• Cornwall
• Devon
• Somerset
• Dorset
• Wiltshire
• Hampshire
• Surrey
• Kent
• Sussex
• Gloucestershire
• Oxfordshire
• Berkshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Bedfordshire
• Hertfordshire
• Middlesex
• Essex
• Suffolk
• Norfolk
• Herefordshire
• Worcestershire
• Warwickshire
• Northamptonshire
• Huntingdonshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Rutland
• Shropshire
• Cheshire
• Staffordshire
• Derbyshire
• Nottinghamshire
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Cheshire
• Lancashire
• Yorkshire
• Westmorland
• Durham
• Cumberland
• Northumberland

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇬🇧

• Wigtownshire
• Kirkcudbrightshire
• Dumfries-shire
• Ayrshire
• Renfrewshire
• Lanarkshire
• Roxburghshire
• Berwickshire
• Selkirkshire
• Peeblesshire
• West Lothian (Linlithgowshire)
• Midlothian
• East Lothian (Haddingtonshire)
• Buteshire
• Argyllshire
• Dumbarton
• Stirlingshire
• Clackmannanshire
• Kinross-shire
• Perthshire
• Fife
• Angus
• Kincardineshire
• Aberdeenshire
• Inverness-shire
• Nairnshire
• Morayshire
• Banffshire
• Ross-shire and Cromartyshire
• Sutherland
• Caithness
• Orkney
• Shetland

Other British 🇬🇧

• Jersey
• Guernsey
• Mann (Isle of Man)

Portugal 🇵🇹

• Faro
• Beja
• Setúbal
• Évora
• Lisboa
• Santarém
• Portalegre
• Leiria
• Coimbra
• Castelo Branco
• Aveiro
• Viseu
• Guarda
• Porto
• Braga
• Viana do Castelo
• Vila Real
• Bragança
• Azores
• Madeira

Spain 🇪🇸

• Galicia
• Principado de Asturias
• Castilla y León
• Cantabria
• País Vasco
• La Rioja
• Comunidad Foral de Navarra
• Aragón
• Cataluña
• Comunidad Valenciana
• Islas Baleares
• Comunidad de Madrid
• Castilla-La Mancha
• Extremadura
• Andalucía
• Región de Murcia
• Ceuta
• Melilla

France 🇫🇷

• Occitanie
• Nouvelle-Aquitaine
• Pays de la Loire
• Bretagne
• Normandy
• Centre-Val de Loire
• Île-de-France
• Hauts-de-France
• Grand Est
• Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
• Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur
• Corsica

Italy 🇮🇹

• Sardegna
• Liguria
• Piemonte (Piedmont)
• Valle d’Aosta
• Lombardia
• Trentino-Alto Adige
• Veneto
• Friuli-Venezia Giulia
• Emilia-Romagna
• Toscana
• Umbria
• Marche
• Lazio
• Abruzzo
• Molise
• Campania
• Apulia
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Sicily

Romania 🇷🇴

• Constanța
• Tulcea
• Călărași
• Ialomița
• București (Bucharest)
• Ilfov
• Giurgiu
• Teleorman
• Olt
• Dolj
• Mehedinți
• Caraș-Severin
• Timiș
• Arad
• Bihor
• Satu Mare
• Sălaj
• Cluj
• Maramureș
• Bistrița-Năsăud
• Mureș
• Harghita
• Suceava
• Botoșani
• Neamț
• Iași
• Bacău
• Vaslui
• Galați
• Brăila
• Buzău
• Vrancea
• Prahova
• Dâmbovița
• Covasna
• Brașov
• Argeș
• Sibiu
• Vâlcea
• Gorj
• Hunedoara
• Alba

Hype for the Future 52N: Portugal, the Beginning of Europe

Background

Portugal 🇵🇹 is the westernmost country in the European mainland, even further west than the western extent of Galicia within neighboring Spain 🇪🇸. While both share the Iberian Peninsula and possibly with the Pyrenees of Andorra 🇦🇩 occasionally included, the cultural traits of each nation are quite distinct, not just across borders, but often internally so as well. For Portugal, the southern part of the nation is quite far from the vast majority of the Portuguese population, and the same is generally true regarding Spain. However, the Portuguese culture relies on proximity to the ocean, whereas the Spanish culture often does not.

Cultural Influences

Though both Portugal and Spain have Mediterranean climate areas within the Iberian Peninsula, Spain extends into a mostly semi-arid region on the European continent and contains the driest areas within the entire continent. While common wisdom may suggest that no such desert exists in Europe, a small section located in Spain may be considered desert in proper terms.

Both Spain and Portugal face the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. However, Spain also has coastlines expanding in nearly every direction, with the obvious exception of the Pyrenees Mountains along the borders with Andorra 🇦🇩 and France 🇫🇷. The siesta culture is usually only in select parts of Spain and typically a cultural trait associated with the summer months, while Portugal lacks a similar cultural trait. Perhaps the seafaring identity of Portugal plays a major role in distinguishing the nation from neighboring Spain to the east and northeast.

Hype for the Future 50V: The Netherlands 🇳🇱

The Netherlands is notable in the modern European Union because of the significant legacy regarding access to the water as well as regarding the culture of land reclamation. While Amsterdam serves as the national capital, additional notable locations include Rotterdam and The Hague (Den Haag), as well as numerous smaller locations scattered throughout the nation. Regarding the smaller locations, Eindhoven and Maastricht are each located in the southeast, with Maastricht being the southernmost mid-sized national city in the Netherlands, at a latitude similar to Brussels further west and located within a province bordering the Walloon region of Belgium through Liège. Leiden is yet another locale identified within the Netherlands as a particularly formal location, largely because of the history of trade and access to the coast further south in the Netherlands.

Flag

The Netherlands matches the flag colors of numerous other flags across the globe, using the colors red, white, and blue. These three colors are also pan-Slavic colors as seen on the Russian flag; however, the Dutch flag colors are in the order of red, white, and blue, from top to bottom. For Russia, the colors are white, blue, and red from top to bottom, and for numerous other countries, such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Czechia, and Slovakia, these three colors are at least the primary colors of the national identity. In each of the immediately aforementioned cases, red, white, and blue are representative of Slavic pride and identity.