Enclave and exclave
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"Enclave" redirects here. For other uses, see Enclave (disambiguation).
C is A's enclave and B's exclave.
D is an exclave of B, but not an enclave of A since it also shares a border with C.
In political geography, an enclave is a country or part of a country mostly surrounded by the territory of another country or wholly lying within the boundaries of another country,[1] and an exclave is a part of a country which is geographically separated from the main part by surrounding alien territory.[2] Many entities are both enclaves and exclaves, but not all are simultaneously both.
Origin and usageThe word enclave crept into the jargon of diplomacy rather late in English, in 1868, coming from French, the lingua franca of diplomacy, with a sense inherited from late Latin inclavatus meaning 'shut in, locked up" (with a key, late Latin clavis). The word exclave is a logical extension created three decades later. Although the meanings of both words are close, an exclave may not necessarily be an enclave or vice versa. For example, Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia, is not an enclave because it is surrounded not by one state, but by two: Lithuania and Poland; it also borders the Baltic Sea. On the other hand, Lesotho is an enclave in South Africa, but it is not politically attached to anything else, meaning that it is not an exclave. In British administrative history, subnational enclaves were usually called detachments. In English ecclesiastic history, subnational enclaves were known as peculiars (see also Royal Peculiar). A country almost surrounded by another but having access to the sea is not considered to be an enclave. For this reason, The Gambia is not an enclave of Senegal. Usage in other fieldsIn medicine, an exclave is a detached part of an organ, as of the pancreas, thyroid, or other gland. CharacteristicsEnclaves may be created for a variety of historical, political or geographical reasons. Some areas have been left as enclaves simply due to changes in the course of a river. Since living in an enclave can be very inconvenient and many agreements have to be found by both countries over mail addresses, power supply or passage rights, enclaves tend to be eliminated and many cases that existed before have now been removed. Many exclaves today have an independence movement, especially if the exclave is far away from the mainland. True enclavesThis refers to those territories where a country is sovereign, but which cannot be reached without entering one particular other country. The best-known example was West Berlin, before the reunification of Germany, which was de facto a West German exclave within East Germany, and thus an East German enclave (many small West Berlin land areas, such as Steinstücken, were in turn separated from the main one, some by only a few meters). De jure all of Berlin was ruled by the four Allied powers; this meant that West Berlin could not send voting members to the German Parliament, and that its citizens were exempt from conscription. Most of the enclaves now existing are to be found in Asia, with a handful in Africa and Europe. While administrative enclaves are found frequently elsewhere, there are no nation-level enclaves in Australia or the Americas. Enclaved countriesImage:LocationLesotho.png
Position of Lesotho within South Africa
Some enclaves are countries in their own right, completely surrounded by another one, and therefore not exclaves. Three such sovereign countries exist:
See also List of countries that border only one other country. Related constructs and terms"Practical" enclaves and exclaves and inaccessible districtsSome territories, attached to the motherland by a thin slice of land or territorial water, are more easily accessible by traveling through a foreign country. These territories may be called "practical exclaves" or "pene-exclaves". Areas that are not geographically separated from the rest of the mother country, but do not have adequate transportation links between the territory and its mother country without going through a foreign country are called inaccessible districts.[citation needed] Conversely, a territory that is an exclave but does not function as one (instead functioning as a contiguous part of the main nation) is deemed a "quasi-exclave".(Robinson 1959) Subnational enclaves and exclavesSometimes, administrative divisions of a country, due to historical or practical reasons, caused some areas to belong to a division while being attached to another one.
Ethnic enclavesEthnic enclaves are communities of an ethnic group inside an area where another ethnic group predominates. Jewish ghettos and shtetls, barrios and Chinatowns are examples. These areas may have a separate language, culture and economic system. ExtraterritorialityEmbassies and military bases are usually exempted from the jurisdiction of the host country, i.e., the laws of the host nation the embassy is in do not typically apply to the land of the embassy or base itself. This exemption from the jurisdiction of the host country is defined as extraterritoriality. Areas of extraterritoriality are not true enclaves as they are still part of the host country. In addition to embassies some other areas have extraterritoriality. Examples of this include:
Land ceded to a foreign countrySome areas of land in a country are owned by another country and in some cases it has special privileges, such as being exempt from taxes. These lands are not enclaves and do not have extraterritoriality. Examples of this include:
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