Panama Recognizes China, Stops Recognizing Taiwan (Map)

There are newer versions of this map available. You can always find the latest version, and a list of all related articles, on our Which Countries Recognize Taiwan? page.

Click to enlarge. By Evan Centanni, modified from public domain blank world map.

"Islamic State" in the Philippines? Detailed Control Map & Timeline of the Marawi Conflict

Map by Evan Centanni. All rights reserved.

The Maldives' Withdrawal from the Commonwealth

Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain blank world map

UK Votes to Quit EU: Map of How Britain Voted in the Brexit Referendum

By Evan Centanni

Map of election results in the UK's "Brexit" referendum. Modified by Evan Centanni from Wikimedia map by Mirrorme22, Nilfanion, TUBS, and Sting (CC BY-SA).

Brexit by Constituency

The results are in for yesterday's referendum on UK membership in the European Union, and the winner is "Leave". Brits voted by a margin of 52% to 48% in favor of exiting the European Union, making a "Brexit" (British exit from the EU) more or less guaranteed in the coming years. Britain will become the first member country ever to leave the EU, and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar is expected to get pulled out with it.

Learn More: Brexit: 9 Geography Facts You Should Know About the Referendum and Britain's EU Membership

Who Voted to Stay

Voter tendencies varied a lot from place to place. Support for the "Remain" side was strong across Scotland, culturally Irish parts of Northern Ireland, the London area, and a handful of other cities in England (led by Cambridge, Oxford, and Brighton).

By far the greatest show of support for Remain was a win by 96% in Gibraltar - which isn't even in the UK proper, but got to vote because of its unique status as a British external territory that's in the EU.

Brexit: 9 Geography Facts You Should Know About the Referendum and Britain's EU Membership

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By Evan Centanni 

The European Union. Click for full map and list of members.

Today the UK is voting on whether to leave the European Union. If you've been paying attention to the news, you've probably heard about the intense debate over whether Brits should vote "Leave" or "Remain". But if you're like me and mainly in this for the geography trivia, here are some fun facts you might not know about the so-called "Brexit":

What Ever Happened with New Zealand's Flag Referendum?

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The proposed new flag: "Silver Fern (Black, White, and Blue)" by Kyle Lockwood (CC BY 3.0 nz)

Referendum Complete
PolGeoNow readers might remember that New Zealand's vote on whether to change its national flag was scheduled to continue until late March 24. So how did it turn out?

Preliminary results were released on March 24, with detailed final results coming out six days later. The answer: New Zealanders voted "NO" on changing their country's flag to the proposed "Silver Fern" design, by a margin of 57% to 43%.

Current flags of New Zealand (top) and Australia (bottom)

The result is that New Zealand will keep the same flag it's been using since 1902. Even though this design is confusingly similar to the Australian flag, and even though many New Zealanders liked the idea of a flag change, the government didn't suggest any designs that were popular enough to get a majority of voters behind them.

If you're curious how each part of New Zealand voted, you can see a color-coded summary and map of the results on Wikipedia. Be be aware that the blue just represents regions that voted just over 50% in favor of changing the flag: No area had more than 52% of voters supporting the Silver Fern, and some of the red-coded areas also had almost 50% support for the change.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About New Zealand's Flag Referendum

Current flags of New Zealand (source) and Australia (source) are in the public domain.

Map: Which Countries Recognize Palestine as Independent in 2016?

(Keep up with changes to Palestine's situation: view all Palestine updates.)

Click to enlarge. Palestine in magenta (circled). Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain graphic (source).

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New Zealand Voting on New Flag Design

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Updated 2015-12-16: Continue to the bottom of the article for the results of the flag referendum!

The five options for a new flag of New Zealand. Clockwise from top left: Silver Fern (Red, White and Blue) by Kyle Lockwood; Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue) by Kyle Lockwood; Koru (Black) by Andrew Fyfe; Silver Fern (Black and White) by Alofi Kanter; and Red Peak by Aaron Dustin. More information in article below. License: CC BY 3.0 nz

By Evan Centanni

A New Flag For New Zealand?
For decades, New Zealand has debated whether to change its flag, and now the country is finally putting the matter to a vote. A controversial initiative of Prime Minister John Key, the referendum officially began today, November 20. Over the coming three weeks, New Zealanders will choose their favorite from five contending flag designs. A final vote on whether to adopt the winner or stay with the old flag will happen next March. New Zealand's current flag has been in place since 1902, nearly fifty years before the country became fully independent from the UK. Its top left corner is occupied by the so-called "Union Jack", which is still the flag of the UK today.

Map: Seychelles Join WTO

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Member and observer states of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Map by Evan Centanni, starting from public domain blank map (license: CC BY-NC-SA).

Map: ALBA Has 2 New Member Countries

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The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). Map by Evan Centanni.

Portuguese Community Admits New Member & Observer Countries (Map)

Map by Evan Centanni, starting from public domain blank map (license: CC BY-NC-SA).

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Map Update: Kosovo Now Recognized by Every Country in Oceania (107/193 UN members)

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Countries recognizing the Republic of Kosovo in green, highlighting recent additions. Disputed recognitions in yellow. Kosovo in magenta. Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain graphic (source).

Maps of How Scotland's Regions Really Voted

Good geographers know that maps can lie to you. Every map emphasizes some aspects of a place at the expense of others, giving it a lot of power to lead careless readers astray. Maps of Scotland's recent independence referendum are misleading us about the reality, even if not intentionally.

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Map by Evan Centanni, based on blank map by TUBS and NordNordWest (CC BY-SA)

By Evan Centanni

Misleading Maps
By now you've probably heard the results of Scotland's independence referendum: voters chose "no" by a solid margin of 55% to 45%. Check out our previous article to learn more about what would have happened if Scotland had voted "yes".

Maps like this one from the BBC and this one from Wikipedia have popped up since the results came out, showing how each of Scotland's council areas voted. Most of the country is in red for "no", with a few "yes" areas in green.

But if one area went 51% for "yes", and another 51% for "no", those two areas actually voted almost identically - yet contrasting red/green maps make us feel like they're polar opposites (not to mention that one-in-thirty readers has trouble seeing the difference between red and green).

How the Councils Really Voted
Whether each area's people voted just over or just under 50% in favor isn't actually that important. What matters is how far the balance was tipped in each region. This is not the U.S. presidential election, where the final vote is actually made by delegates obligated to go by the majority in each state. All the votes across Scotland were pooled together to determine the result, so which side of the 50-yard line each area came out on has no effect .

Scottish Independence Poll: What is Scotland, and What Will Happen if it Votes to Leave the UK?

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Map of Scotland by Eric Gaba (source). License: CC BY-SA

By Evan Centanni

Scotland's Independence Vote

On Thursday (September 18), residents of Scotland will vote in a referendum on whether to leave the United Kingdom (UK). But is Scotland a country already? What will happen if voters choose "yes" in the referendum? And what other changes would this bring to Scotland and the UK's political geography? Read on for the answers to these questions and more!

Crash Course: History of Scotland

Scotland is the name of the northern third of Great Britain, the main island of the UK, which is shared with England to the south and Wales to the southwest. It originated as the Kingdom of Alba, an independent Celtic country that was unified around the year 900.

It remained an independent kingdom throughout the Middle Ages, gradually absorbing Anglo-Saxon culture from the south until it came to be ruled by English-speaking monarchs, who called it "Scots" or "Scotland" after the Latin name for the Gaels, the predominant Celtic people of the region.

Map Update: Kosovo Recognized by 3 More Countries in 2014 (106/193)

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Countries recognizing the Republic of Kosovo in green, highlighting recent additions. Disputed recognitions in yellow. Kosovo in magenta. Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain graphic (source).

Mayotte Enters European Union

"Outermost regions" are officially part of the European Union; "overseas countries and territories" are not part of the EU itself, but have special relations with it because of their connections to member countries. New outermost region Mayotte is located in southeastern Africa. Map from Wikimedia Commons © Alexrk2 (CC BY-SA)

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Article by Evan Centanni

EU Expands to Include Mayotte
You probably heard about Croatia joining the European Union last year, but did you know the EU expanded further this year...in Africa? The French overseas department of Mayotte, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean northwest of Madagascar, became officially part of the EU on January 1.

Madagascar Un-Suspended from African Union

The African Union as of March 2014. Map by Evan Centanni, from this blank map by Eric Gaba.
License: CC BY-SA

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ICYMI: Cape Verde's Name Change

In the following weeks, PolGeoNow will be publishing several short "in case you missed it (ICYMI)" articles on events from 2013. This is news that we weren't able to cover when it first broke, but that we thought our readers might still want to know about.

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Cape Verde, now officially Cabo Verde (click to enlarge). Map by Oona Räisänen/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA) (source).

By Evan Centanni

Cape Verde Changes Official Name
If you read our article on the year 2013 in political geography changes, you've already heard about the change to Cape Verde's official English name. But since keeping track of country name changes is one of the primary missions of Political Geography Now, we are now presenting this in-depth report on the topic.

Map: Palestine Recognized by Two More Countries (134/193)

(Keep up with changes to Palestine's situation: view all Palestine updates.)

Countries recognizing the State of Palestine in green, with most recent additions highlighted. Palestine in magenta (circled). Click to enlarge. Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain graphic (source).

No More Bangsamoro Republik: Philippine Rebel Occupation Defeated

Claims and territorial control of the MNLF rebels and Bangsamoro Republik during last month's crisis. Click to see full-sized map and article. Map by Evan Centanni.

Territory Retaken by Government
Last month, Political Geography Now mapped Moro rebel control in the Philippines' Zamboanga crisis. The rebels, drawn from a group which had declared independence from the Philippines as the Bangsamoro Republik, had occupied several neighborhoods of Zamboanga City in the country's southwest after an aborted attempt to raise their flag in the city center.

Ten days after we published that article, the government of the Philippines declared the crisis over, with all hostages freed and only scattered fighting occurring over the next two days as the surviving rebels attempted to escape the area. After nearly three weeks of chaos, the city of Zamboanga was once again fully under government control.

What of the MNLF fighters?
Though hundreds of rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were killed in the fighting, some did escape, and the attack's commander Habier Malik is still missing. Nur Misuari, the faction's leader and founder of the self-declared Bangsamoro Republik, was not present at the attack but is now wanted on charges of rebellion. But he may have more than just the government to worry about - Malik's surviving men from the Zamboanga attack are also said to be on the hunt for Misuari, who allegedly tricked them into participating. According to Mujiv Hataman, governor of the officially sanctioned Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Misuari promised Malik's men that U.N. peacekeepers would arrive soon after the attack to secure Bangsamoro independence and reward each fighter with 10,000 pesos (US $230) and a new weapon.

BIFF Attacks
Attacks by other Moro rebel groups in nearby regions continued until just after Zamboanga was secured. In particular, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Fighters (MILF) who are currently in peace talks with the Philippine government, continued launching attacks elsewhere in Mindanao into early October. The BIFF is not closely tied to Nur Misuari's MNLF, and these were apparently just opportunistic attacks taking advantage of the military's distraction during the crisis in Zamboanga.

More information: Bangsamoro Republik? Philippine Separatists Seize Territory (map)