Landlocked country

A landlocked country or landlocked state is a sovereign state that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 49 landlocked countries, including 5 partially recognized states.

"Landlocked" redirects here. For property inaccessible by a public road, see Landlocked parcel.
Landlocked countries: 47 landlocked (green), 2 doubly landlocked (purple)

Generally, being landlocked creates some political and economic handicaps that having access to international waters would avoid. For this reason, nations large and small throughout history have sought to gain access to open waters, even at great expense in wealth, bloodshed, and political capital.

The economic disadvantages of being landlocked can be alleviated or aggravated depending on degree of development, surrounding trade routes and freedom of trade, language barriers, and other considerations. Some landlocked countries are quite affluent, such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Austria, all of which, excluding Luxembourg, which is a founding member of NATO, frequently employ neutrality in global political issues. The majority, however, are classified as Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).[1] Nine of the twelve countries with the lowest Human Development Indices (HDI) are landlocked.[2]

Significance
Bolivia's loss of its coastline in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) remains a major political issue

Historically, being landlocked has been disadvantageous to a country's development. It cuts a nation off from important sea resources such as fishing, and impedes or prevents direct access to maritime trade, a crucial component of economic and social advance. As such, coastal regions, or inland regions that have access to the World Ocean, tended to be wealthier and more heavily populated than inland regions that have no access to the World Ocean. Paul Collier in his book The Bottom Billion argues that being landlocked in a poor geographic neighborhood is one of four major development "traps" by which a country can be held back. In general, he found that when a neighboring country experiences better growth, it tends to spill over into favorable development for the country itself. For landlocked countries, the effect is particularly strong, as they are limited in their trading activity with the rest of the world. He states, "If you are coastal, you serve the world; if you are landlocked, you serve your neighbors."[3] Others have argued that being landlocked has an advantage as it creates a "natural tariff barrier" which protects the country from cheap imports. In some instances, this has led to more robust local food systems.[4][5]

Landlocked developing countries have significantly higher costs of international cargo transportation compared to coastal developing countries (in Asia the ratio is 3:1).[6]

Efforts to avoid being landlocked

Countries thus have made particular efforts to avoid being landlocked, by acquiring land that reaches the sea:

  • As result of a 2005 territorial exchange with Ukraine, Moldova received a 600 m-long bank of the Danube River (which is an international waterway),[7] subsequently building its Port of Giurgiulești there.
  • The International Congo Society, which owned the territory now constituting the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was awarded a narrow piece of land cutting through Angola to connect it to the sea by the Conference of Berlin in 1885.
  • The Republic of Ragusa once gave the town of Neum to the Ottoman Empire because it did not want to have a land border with the Republic of Venice; this small municipality was inherited by Bosnia and Herzegovina and now provides limited sea access, splitting the Croatian part of the Adriatic coast in two. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new country, railways and ports have not been built for its need. There is no freight port along its short coastline at Neum, making it effectively landlocked, although there are plans to change this. Instead the port of Ploče in Croatia is used.
  • After World War I, in the Treaty of Versailles, a part of Germany designated "the Polish corridor" was given to the new Second Polish Republic, for access to the Baltic Sea. This gave Poland a short coastline, but without a large harbour. This was also the pretext for making Danzig (now Gdańsk) with its harbour the Free City of Danzig, to which Poland was given free access. However, the Germans placed obstacles to this free access, especially when it came to military material. In response, the small fishing harbour of Gdynia was soon greatly enlarged.
  • Until the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austrians, Hungarians and that empire's other nationalities had served in that country's navy, but since then, Austria and Hungary have both been landlocked countries.

Trade agreements

Countries can make agreements on getting free transport of goods through neighbor countries:

  • The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to offer Czechoslovakia a lease for 99 years of parts of the ports in Hamburg and Stettin, allowing Czechoslovakia sea trade via the Elbe and Oder rivers. Stettin was annexed[8] by Poland after World War II, but Hamburg continued the contract so that part of the port (now called Moldauhafen) may still be used for sea trade by a successor of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic.
  • The Danube is an international waterway, and thus landlocked Austria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia, and Slovakia have secure access to the Black Sea (the same access is given to inland parts of Germany and Croatia, though Germany and Croatia are not landlocked). However, oceangoing ships cannot use the Danube, so cargo must be transloaded anyway, and many overseas imports into Austria and Hungary use land transport from Atlantic and Mediterranean ports. A similar situation exists for the Rhine river where Switzerland has boat access, but not oceangoing ships. Luxembourg has such through the Moselle, but Liechtenstein has no boat access, even though it is located along the Rhine, as the Rhine is not navigable that far upstream.
  • The Mekong is an international waterway so that landlocked Laos has access to the South China Sea (since Laos became independent from French Indochina). However, it is not navigable above the Khone Phapheng Falls.
  • Free ports allow transshipment to short-distance ships or river vessels.
  • The TIR Treaty allows sealed road transport without customs checks and charges, mostly in Europe.

Political repercussions

Losing access to the sea is generally a great blow to a nation, politically, militarily, and economically. The following are examples of countries becoming landlocked.

  • The independence of Eritrea, brought about by successful separatist movements,[9] has caused Ethiopia to become landlocked.
  • Montenegro's decision to abandon the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro caused the federal unit of Serbia to become a landlocked current independent state.
  • Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific and accepted it in treaties signed in 1884 and 1904. The last treaty gives port storage facilities and special treatment for the transit of goods from and to Bolivia through Chilean ports and territory. Peru and Argentina have also given special treatment for the transit of goods. A fluvial Bolivian Navy, which did not exist at the time of the War of the Pacific, was created later and both trains and operates in Lake Titicaca and rivers. The Bolivian people annually celebrate a patriotic "Dia del Mar" (Day of the Sea) to remember its territorial loss, which included both the coastal city of Antofagasta and what has proven to be one of the most significant and lucrative copper deposits in the world. Early in the 21st century, the selection of the route of gas pipes from Bolivia to the sea fueled popular uprisings, as people were against the option of laying the pipes through Chilean territory.
  • Austria and Hungary also lost their access to the sea as a consequence of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the Treaty of Trianon (1920) respectively. Previously, although Croatia had a limited constitutional autonomy within the Kingdom of Hungary, the City of Fiume/Rijeka on the Croatian coast was governed directly from Budapest by an appointed governor as a corpus separatum, to provide Hungary with its only international port in the periods 1779–1813, 1822–1848 and 1868–1918.
  • By 1801, the Nizam's dominion of Hyderabad State assumed the shape it is now remembered for: that of a landlocked princely state with territories in central Deccan, bounded on all sides by British India, whereas 150 years earlier it had had a considerable coastline on the Bay of Bengal which was annexed by the British.[10]
  • It is possible that one of the causes of the Paraguayan War was Paraguay's lack of direct ocean access (although this is disputed; see the linked article).
  • When the Entente Powers divided the former Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Sèvres at the close of World War I, Armenia was promised part of the Trebizond vilayet (roughly corresponding to the modern Trabzon and Rize provinces in Turkey). This would have given Armenia access to the Black Sea. However, the Sèvres treaty collapsed with the Turkish War of Independence and was superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which firmly established Turkish rule over the area.
  • In 2011, South Sudan broke off from Sudan, causing the former to become landlocked. There still remains conflict over the oil fields in South Sudan between the two countries.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea now gives a landlocked country a right of access to and from the sea without taxation of traffic through transit states. The United Nations has a programme of action to assist landlocked developing countries,[11] and the current responsible Undersecretary-General is Anwarul Karim Chowdhury.

Some countries have a long coastline, but much of it may not be readily usable for trade and commerce. For instance, in its early history, Russia's only ports were on the Arctic Ocean and frozen shut for much of the year. The wish to gain control of a warm-water port was a major motivator of Russian expansion towards the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, some landlocked countries can have access to the ocean along wide navigable rivers. For instance, Paraguay (and Bolivia to a lesser extent) have access to the ocean through the Paraguay and Parana rivers.

Several countries have coastlines on landlocked bodies of water, such as the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea. Since these seas are in effect lakes without access to wider seaborne trade, countries such as Kazakhstan are still considered landlocked. Although the Caspian Sea is connected to the Black Sea via the man-made Volga–Don Canal, large oceangoing ships are unable to traverse it.

By degree

Landlocked countries may be bordered by a single country having direct access to the high seas, two or more such countries, or be surrounded by other landlocked countries, making a country doubly landlocked.

Landlocked by a single country

Three countries are landlocked by a single country (enclaved countries):

Landlocked by two countries

Seven landlocked countries are surrounded by only two mutually bordering neighbours (semi-enclaved countries):

To this group could be added three de facto states with no or limited international recognition:

Doubly landlocked

A country is "doubly landlocked" or "double-landlocked" when it is surrounded only by landlocked countries (requiring the crossing of at least two national borders to reach a coastline).[12][13] There are two such countries:

After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Württemberg became a doubly landlocked state, bordering only Bavaria, Baden, and Switzerland. There were no doubly landlocked countries from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the end of World War I. Liechtenstein bordered the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had an Adriatic coastline, and Uzbekistan was then part of the Russian Empire, which had both ocean and sea access.

With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and creation of an independent, landlocked Austria, Liechtenstein became the sole doubly landlocked country until 1938. In the Anschluss that year, Austria was absorbed into Nazi Germany, which possessed a border on the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. After World War II, Austria regained its independence and Liechtenstein once again became doubly landlocked.

Uzbekistan, which had been part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, gained its independence with the dissolution of the latter in 1991 and became the second doubly landlocked country.

However, Uzbekistan's doubly landlocked status depends on the Caspian Sea's status dispute: some countries, especially Iran and Turkmenistan, claim that the Caspian Sea should be considered as a real sea (mainly because this way they would have larger oil and gas fields), which would make Uzbekistan only a simple landlocked country since its neighbours Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have access to the Caspian Sea.

List of landlocked countries and territories
Country Area (km2) Population Location Surrounding countries Count
 Afghanistan 652,230 33,369,945 Central Asia Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan 6
 Andorra 468 84,082 Southern Europe France, Spain 2
 Armenia 29,743 3,254,300 Western Asia Iran, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan 4
 Artsakh[c] 11,458 146,600 Western Asia Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran 3
 Austria 83,871 8,823,054 Western Europe Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland 8
 Azerbaijan[a] 86,600 8,997,401 Western Asia Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Turkey 5
 Belarus 207,600 9,484,300 Eastern Europe Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia 5
 Bhutan 38,394 691,141 Southern Asia India, China 2
 Bolivia 1,098,581 10,907,778 South America Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay 5
 Botswana 582,000 1,990,876 Southern Africa Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa 4
 Burkina Faso 274,222 15,746,232 Western Africa Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) 6
 Burundi 27,834 10,557,259 Eastern Africa Rwanda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo 3
 Central African Republic 622,984 4,422,000 Middle Africa Chad, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan 6
 Chad 1,284,000 13,670,084 Middle Africa Libya, Niger, Sudan, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Cameroon 6
 Czech Republic 78,867 10,674,947 Central Europe Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia 4
 Eswatini (Swaziland) 17,364 1,185,000 Southern Africa Mozambique, South Africa 2
 Ethiopia 1,104,300 101,853,268 Eastern Africa Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan 6
 Hungary 93,028 9,797,561 Eastern Europe Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine 7
 Kazakhstan[a] 2,724,900 16,372,000 Central Asia China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan 5
 Kosovo[c] 10,908 1,804,838 Southern Europe Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia 4
 Kyrgyzstan 199,951 5,482,000 Central Asia China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan 4
 Laos 236,800 6,320,000 Southeastern Asia Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand 5
 Lesotho[d] 30,355 2,067,000 Southern Africa South Africa 1
 Liechtenstein 160 35,789 Western Europe Switzerland, Austria 2
 Luxembourg 2,586 502,202 Western Europe Belgium, Germany, France 3
 Malawi 118,484 15,028,757 Eastern Africa Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique 3
 Mali 1,240,192 14,517,176 Western Africa Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania 7
 Moldova 33,846 3,559,500 Eastern Europe Romania, Ukraine 2
 Mongolia 1,566,500 2,892,876 Eastern Asia China, Russia 2
   Nepal 147,181 26,494,504 Southern Asia China, India 2
 Niger 1,267,000 15,306,252 Western Africa Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria 7
 North Macedonia 25,713 2,114,550 Southern Europe Kosovo [c] , Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania 5 or 4[c]
 Paraguay 406,752 6,349,000 South America Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia 3
 Rwanda 26,338 10,746,311 Eastern Africa Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo 4
 San Marino[d] 61 31,716 Southern Europe Italy 1
 Serbia 88,361 7,306,677 Southern Europe Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania (via Kosovo and Metohija[c]) 8
 Slovakia 49,035 5,429,763 Central Europe Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary 5
 South Ossetia[c] 3,900 72,000 Western Asia Georgia, Russia 2
 South Sudan 619,745 8,260,490 Eastern Africa Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic 6
  Switzerland 41,284 8,401,120 Western Europe France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy 5
 Tajikistan 143,100 7,349,145 Central Asia Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China 4
 Transnistria[c] 4,163 505,153 Eastern Europe Moldova, Ukraine 2
 Turkmenistan[a] 488,100 5,110,000 Central Asia Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran 4
 Uganda 241,038 40,322,768 Eastern Africa Kenya, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania 5
 Uzbekistan 449,100 32,606,007 Central Asia Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan 5
  Vatican City[d] 0.44 826 Southern Europe Italy 1
 West Bank[b][c] 5,655 2,862,485 Western Asia Israel, Jordan 2
 Zambia 752,612 12,935,000 Eastern Africa Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola 8
 Zimbabwe 390,757 12,521,000 Eastern Africa South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique 4
Total 14,776,228 475,818,737
Percentage of World 11.4% 6.9%
a Has a coastline on the saltwater Caspian Sea
b Has a coastline on the saltwater Dead Sea
c Not fully recognized
d Landlocked by just one country

They can be grouped in contiguous groups as follows:[16]

Note:

  1. If Transnistria (unrecognized) is included, then Moldova and Transnistria form their own Eastern European cluster, listed in parentheses in the table.
  2. If it were not for the 40 km (25 mi) of coastline at Muanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo would join the two African clusters into one, making them the biggest contiguous group in the world.
  3. The Central and Southern Asian cluster and the Western Asian cluster can be considered contiguous, joined by the landlocked Caspian Sea. Mongolia is almost part of this cluster too, being separated from Kazakhstan by only 30 km (19 mi), across Russian or Chinese territory.

There are the following 13 "single" landlocked countries (each of them borders no other landlocked country):

Notes:

  1. If Transnistria (unrecognized) is included, then Moldova won't be considered a single landlocked country.
  2. If the West Bank (partially recognized as a part of the State of Palestine) is included as a separate political entity, then Asia would have 6 single landlocked countries.
  3. If the Caucasian countries and Kazakhstan are counted as part of Europe, then Europe has the most landlocked countries, at 20. If these transcontinental countries are included in Asia, then Africa has the most, at 16. Depending on the status of the three transcontinental countries, Asia has between 9 and 15, while South America has only 2. North America and Oceania are the only continents with no landlocked countries (excluding Antarctica, which has no countries). Other than Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, all the other countries in Oceania are islands without a land border.
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See also

References
  1. Paudel, R. C. (2012). "Landlockedness and Economic Growth: New Evidence" (PDF). Growth and Export Performance of Developing Countries: Is Landlockedness Destiny?. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University. pp. 13–72.
  2. Faye, M. L.; McArthur, J. W.; Sachs, J. D.; Snow, T. (2004). "The Challenges Facing Landlocked Developing Countries". Journal of Human Development. 5 (1): 31–68 [pp. 31–32]. doi:10.1080/14649880310001660201.
  3. Collier, Paul (2007). The Bottom Billion. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 56, 57. ISBN 978-0-19-537338-7.
  4. Moseley, W. G.; Carney, J.; Becker, L. (2010). "Neoliberal Policy, Rural Livelihoods and Urban Food Security in West Africa: A Comparative Study of The Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107 (13): 5774–5779. Bibcode:2010PNAS..107.5774M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0905717107. PMC 2851933. PMID 20339079.
  5. Moseley, W. G. (2011). "Lessons from the 2008 Global Food Crisis: Agro-Food Dynamics in Mali". Development in Practice. 21 (4–5): 604–612.
  6. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2010). Review of Maritime Transport, 2010 (PDF). New York and Geneva: United Nations. p. 160. ISBN 978-92-1-112810-9.
  7. "Danube River Basin". International Waterway Governance. Retrieved June 30, 2018.)
  8. Martin, McCauley (2017). The Cold War 1949-2016. New York: Routledge. pp. 4, 5, 6. ISBN 9781315213309.
  9. Iyob, Ruth (1997). The Eritrean Struggle for Independence - Domination, resistance, nationalism 1941-1993. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 11–25. ISBN 0 521 47327 6.
  10. Chopra, P. N.; Puri, B. N.; Das, M. N. A Comprehensive History of India. 3. p. 298.
  11. UN Report Archived 2011-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  12. Dempsey Morais, Caitlin. "Landlocked Countries". Geolounge. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  13. "Landlocked Countries". About.com. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  14. "IGU regional conference on environment and quality of life in central Europe". GeoJournal. 28 (4). 1992. doi:10.1007/BF00273120.
  15. CIA World Factbook Uzbekistan
  16. MacKellar, Landis; Wörgötter, Andreas; Wörz, Julia. "Economic Development Problems of Landlocked Countries" (PDF). Wien Institute for Advanced Studies. p. 12.
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