How Many Countries ARE There!?

Last night Cole and I were watching wrestling, as we like to do, and something they always like to say in their promotional spots is that their show is viewed in so-and-so-many countries -- I think, like, 105. It made me wonder - how big of a deal is that? How many countries ARE there in the world who could possibly view Monday Night Raw or Friday Night Smackdown? Of course, I turned to ask Cole as for some reason unbeknownst to him I keep thinking he has all the answers, but he didn't know either. So, I decided to look into the matter. 

I had NO idea how tricky of a question this would turn out to be! Apparently, according to www.worldatlas.com, the number of countries varies depending on who you ask! About.com states that their official response to the question is 196, though there are only 193 member countries in the United Nations. Did you know that the Vatican City is considered its own country? And that its not a member of the UN? I thought that was intriguing. And Kosovo is not a member of the UN either! 

Interestingly, there are also several places I always thought were countries that actually aren't! It makes sense about Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England actually all being members of the United Kingdom - although I don't approve. They should all be sovereign entities! Its the zero-zeros people! But I had NO idea that Greenland isn't an official country! And I even did a project on Greenland in Grade 7! Another kid slips through the cracks of the education system.

In case you're curious, Greenland is actually a constituent country of Denmark! Did anyone in Greenland notice that they're country is a billion times bigger? Yeah, yeah, I know, Denmark has more people and less land mass to protect in case of war. But still.

And Taiwan is not considered its own country either! If Taiwan was a person and you asked it, hey, are you a country? Taiwan would answer yes. But for some reason, China insists that Taiwan is just one of their provinces! Apparently Taiwan was even its own member of the UN until China REPLACED it in 1971. How does something like that happen!? Poor little itty bitty Taiwan! *sad face*

And, I'm using a lot of exclamation marks because this is just all so interesting, I may explode.