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Disputed and breakaway areas

Polygons Natural Earth flags as breakaway or disputed, a cartographer’s working set for contested land, not a court ruling and not a second world-countries layer.

World map with cream land and light-blue ocean; coral polygons mark only the Natural Earth breakaway and disputed areas, not a second country fill and not a court ruling
Natural Earth. 2024.
Political 2024 Natural Earth

What

Natural Earth’s Admin 0: Breakaway, disputed areas layer (10m cultural vectors) marks polygons the dataset treats as breakaway regions or disputed territories. Same public-domain family as the live World countries card; different object: contested / special-status polygons, not the standard sovereign admin-0 fill.

Why on this shelf

The Political hub already promises “disputed areas.” EEZ covers maritime claims; this card covers land polygons that are contested or breakaway in the Natural Earth coding, without pretending the shapefile settles sovereignty.

How to read it

Treat each polygon as “this dataset drew a special case here,” not as recognition of a state. For a legal claim, read a treaty or a court, not a 1:10m vector. Do not merge this into World countries as a second fill of the same admin-0 story.

Caveats

Natural Earth codes these polygons as breakaway or disputed so a world map can be drawn. That coding is a cartographic choice, not recognition of a state and not a court ruling. Do not merge this layer into World countries as a second admin-0 fill.

Sources

License

Natural Earth is public domain. The thumbnail recolors the Admin 0: Breakaway, disputed areas polygons only. A thumbnail is cartography, not a court ruling.

Open source map →