A territory is a clearly defined geographical area, usually considered to be a possession of a person, organization, or institution. An organism which claims territory is said to be territorial.
In politics, the term refers to an area of land under jurisdiction of a governmental authority.
Such jurisdiction can take many forms:
A legally administered territory, which is a non-sovereign geographic area that has voluntarily come under the authority of another government. For example, American Samoa is a territory of the government of the United States.
An illegally occupied territory, which is a geographic area that claims sovereignty, but is being illegally or forcibly subjugated to the authority of a foreign government. For example, the nation of Tibet is currently considered to be illegally occupied by the Chinese government.
A disputed territory, which is a geographic area claimed by two or more rival governments. For example, the territory of Kashmir is claimed by both the governments of India and Pakistan.
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
