Viewing meanings of exclave and enclave geography with case studies.

[Crista Brooks]

Exclaves and enclaves are an interesting mixture of physical and political geography.

The seas and oceans of the globe constitute most of the world’s area. Due to that impact, only a tiny amount of the world’s nations are landlocked. This also has the effect of reducing most of the world’s enclaves and exclaves to the status of semi-enclave and semi-exclave. Semi-enclaves generally only occur as separate states which have one land neighbour in addition to the sea, plus in this situation the land boundary needs to be larger compared to the sea boundary. Meanwhile, semi-exclaves are locations that have already been divided from their mainland by one country or even more, along with a body of water. This answers the popular question – is Alaska an exclave? No, it really is a semi-exclave. These kinds of territories are never as cut isolated as their landlocked counterparts, because the sea enables them to own greater immediate access to the outside world without relying on air or land travel.

We will find countless reasons behind each particular piece of land to belong to the territories they do, however they don't always lead to neat and tidy packages. Sometimes this could create a situation named an exclave, meaning that a territory has been isolated from the main bit of territory by a number of nations or states. This may take place at the international level, but in addition at the sub-national level within the exact same nation as there are numerous exclave state examples, such as the case of Ras Al Khaimah having an exclave separated by other areas of the same country. Frequently at the sub-national level, life continues on for the inhabitants of the area as there are no international edges to cross, and life is similar to living near just about any edge region between states of the same nation.

For much of human history, edges between countries and states were relatively fluid, with many bits of land changing hands between various rulers frequently over time. But, over the last 150 years or so, borders are becoming even more fixed, with territorial exchanges hardly ever occurring in the present day. Which means that if there had been any quirks at the beginning of this process, many have remained to this day. Probably one of the most uncommon border situations is that regarding the enclave. It's part of a territory that is wholly surrounded by the land of one other country or state. Consequently, the list of enclaves is very short. Sometimes, even entire nations can be enclaves themselves, such as San Marino, as a result of them being enclaved by one nation. Enclaves generally need certainly to negotiate trade deals with the encompassing territory, as their financial and governmental well-being is connected extremely closely to one another.