"Name all the countries whose territory lies mostly on islands in the Atlantic Ocean." Well, Denmark owns the largest island in the Atlantic and Greenland is many times the size of mainland Denmark, so one could argue that Denmark lies mostly on islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
Jutland is the only part NOT on an islands. Greenland, Faroe Islands and all those other islands make it very much *mostly* an island country. Sort of. I tried Denmark. (And almost forgot about Ireland even though I had UK.)
Reading about the Danish Realm, it seems clear to me that Greenland and Faroe Islands are not sovereign countries and are part of Denmark according to the constitution, they also have regular representatives in the Danish parliament. They are countries only in the sense similar to British regions and the devolution is quite similar to Scotland, Wales and NI.
So I think we deserve a caveat if Denmark is excluded :)
It makes total sense to omit Denmark here as it's hardly ever considered to be a country of more than 2 million sqkm since no one ever includes Greenland's area in Denmark's. Adding Denmark wouldn't prevent a discussion either unless QM added a caveat explicitly saying that overseas territories are included (actually not even then would the discussions stop, as this situation shows). No, the quiz is fine the way it is in my opinion.
@JoshPen Fact check, Australia is technically the biggest island on the planet. Barely anybody lives in Greenland, and if you go there you don’t say "Guess what, I just got back from Denmark!" It is almost impossible to get there, and its population is not much bigger than the population of the Faroe Islands.
Well, I just got back from Greenland and, no, I haven't told anyone I was in Denmark. I am aware of the relationship between Greenland and Denmark (as well as the widespread belief in all-or-nothing sovereignty on this site!), but other than using Danish kroner, there really was no sense of being in Denmark.
Just for the record, Denmark proper (excluding Greenland and the Faroes), is narrowly a majority non-island country by area. The Danish-owned Jutland Peninsula covers around 25,000 km2 compared to a bit over 19,000 km2 for the combined area of the islands.
An interesting point is that in 1825 the balance tipped more in favour of the islands, when a flood permanently split off the North Jutlandic Island from the peninsula, adding about 4600 km2 to the island column. Still, in the absence of another such event, the mainland still wins over the islands.
Population-wise, it's a different story with a bit over 3.4 million of Denmark's 5.75 million living on the islands - 2.2 million on Zealand alone.
Except that no one includes overseas territories in the location of a country. The territory is always referred to as being part of its mother country, rather than the mother country being said to lie where its overseas territories do. For example, Hawaii, in Oceania, is a US state. The US is not in Oceania, though, it's in North America. The UK isn't a Caribbean country because the British Virgin Islands are in the Caribbean. France isn't a South American country because French Guiana is in South America. I could go on.
@MasterKenobi that isn't the greatest analogy though as Hawaii and French Guiana have a different status than overseas territories like the British Virgin Islands and Greenland. Technically, you could say that France is located in both Europe, South America, North America, and Africa, as its territories there are departments, with the same status as France's mainland departments, whilst its other territories span into Oceania and Antarctica. The same goes with Hawaii. Obviously one wouldn't typically consider France to be anything other than European, but there is still a political distinction between its overseas regions and overseas collectivities.
I don’t count the Mediterranean because it is connected by such a narrow passage(the Straight of Gibraltar). I also don’t include the Baltic Sea because it is only connected by tiny little passages through Denmark.
Man, I really need to start reading the fine print which is exactly what I love doing when I take a break to play online diversions. That's why I split my time between here and my rereading Visa cardholder agreement.
I can't believe the only one I forgot was Cape Verde! I was literally going to type that as my first answer but somehow I didn't, my ignorant brain of mine.
Nothing like getting all but the largest and third largest beating you head against the desk going "There is no island outside of Greenland in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Atlantic bigger than Cuba. Oh yeah there is THAT place."
Same thing happened to me. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was missing. I was thinking other than all the Canadian islands, which are way larger than Cuba, (but clearly not more than half of Canada) what else I was missing? I then started thinking that all the dutch islands plus their reclaimed land maybe counted, or all the UK islands ... oh wait...
I agree with you. The Mediterranean Sea is only connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a tiny passage way called The Straight of Gibraltar. I also don’t include the Baltic Sea because it is only connected by little passages through Denmark.
How about Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten? These are all seperate countries which, along with the Netherlands, make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Is that the reason they are not included?
Yes, the areas close to the north pole are way bigger than they actually are in a lot of projections(specially Mercator). Cuba is approximately 108.000km² and Iceland is 103.000km²
So I think we deserve a caveat if Denmark is excluded :)
An interesting point is that in 1825 the balance tipped more in favour of the islands, when a flood permanently split off the North Jutlandic Island from the peninsula, adding about 4600 km2 to the island column. Still, in the absence of another such event, the mainland still wins over the islands.
Population-wise, it's a different story with a bit over 3.4 million of Denmark's 5.75 million living on the islands - 2.2 million on Zealand alone.
(badum tss)