Sub-National Regions...But No Vowels Quiz

Answer: NRTHRN TRRTRY

When the colonies federated in 1901, there were six colonies. The Northern Territory remained a territory and a small amount of inland New South Wales was reserved for the Australian Capital Territory where Canberra was built and became the national capital in 1927. States had a high level of autonomy but the two territories were administered by the federal government. Over time both internal territories have been given much higher levels of self-government including their own parliament, and representation in the federal House of Representatives on the same population proportionality as the states.

They are also represented in the federal Senate but each territory sends only two senators whereas the states each send 12. The Northern Territory, the size of Mongolia, is the 11th largest country subdivision in the world by area. (Western Australia and Queensland are the second and sixth respectively).

Answer: SSKTCHWN

In February 1841, the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada merged to form the Province of Canada. Along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the federated Dominion of Canada was formed with the Province of Canada de-amalgamating into two separate provinces, Ontario and Quebec, in 1867.

Manitoba formed a province in 1880, leaving the most of the rest of Rupert's Land as the Northwest Territory. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island followed in 1871 and 1873 respectively. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 caused a relatively large increase in population of this area resulting in the the Yukon Territory becoming a second territory carved out of the western end of the Northwest Territories. Two more provinces were added on September 1, 1905 when Alberta and Saskatchewan became the eighth and ninth provinces occupying the remaining southern part of the Northwest Territories.

Until 1949, Newfoundland was a British dominion but on 31 March it became Canada's tenth province, later becoming Newfoundland and Labrador.

In 1999 the Northwest Territories to the east was further subdivided to make Nunavut the third territory of Canada.

Answer: CMBRDGSHR

There are 48 counties in England that act as the upper tier of local government. The County of Greater London contains the City of London but is administered separately. Greater London is in the south east of England.

Cambridge is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is 65 miles north of London. Hertfordshire separates the Cambridgeshire from Greater London.

West Yorkshire is the former West Riding of Yorkshire (Riding means "A third"), when Yorkshire, a huge county in area by British standards, was subdivided into three. Wakefield, a city, is the county town and is 190 miles north of London.

Devon covers a large area in Western England from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. London is 180 miles east of from Exeter (also a city), the county town.

Cornwall occupies the southwest tip of England - you must pass through Devon to reach any other part of England. The city, Truro, is the only city and serves as the county town. It is 265 miles west of London.

Answer: JHNNSBRG

On 31 May 1902, peace was signed in the Boer Wars in southern Africa, and Great Britain started the unification process for forming the four colonies including the two former Boer (Dutch) republics, into a single self-governed country called the Union of South Africa. This was created in 1910. The four colonies were Cape Colony, Natal (both British) Transvaal, and Orange Free State (both formally under Boer administration). Under legislation this Union became an independent Dominion of the British Empire, governed by constitutional monarchy, with the British monarch represented by a Governor-General as in the manner of government in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The Union ceased in 1960 when South Africa became a republic.

Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa but it is not one of the three capital cities of the country. It was part of the Transvaal colony and later the Gauteng province.

Answer: PRFCTR

Japan comprises 47 prefectures (Ken), four of which have special attributes. The largest city, Tokyo, whilst a prefecture, has the status of "Metropolis" (To). Two of the larger cities, Osaka and Kyoto are called Urban Prefectures (Fu) and Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island is an entire prefecture itself. It is Japan's largest in area but it is called a Circuit or a Territory [Do]).

Japan's high population density means every one of Japan's 47 prefectures have over half a million people while the largest two in population, Yokohama and Tokyo had over 9 and 13 million respectively in 2015.

Answer: FRNKFRT

After the reunification of Germany in 1990, existing states of the former East and West Germany remained intact but with some boundary changes. Three city-states were formed in Berlin, and Hamburg, the largest and second largest German cities in 2015. The third largest city, Munich is the largest and capital of Bavaria. Cologne was the the fourth largest city in 2015 in population in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia but Dusseldorf perpetually smaller than Cologne, is the capital and ranked ninth in population in 2015.

Frankfurt, in the western part of the country near Cologne, was the fifth largest German city in 2015 and the largest city in the state of Hesse in the same period but it is not the capital nor a city-state. Frankfurt is the financial hub of Germany as well as the main international aviation hub.

Bremen is the smallest of the three city-states and comprises the City of Bremen and the nearby port city of Bremerhaven. Bremen was Germany's tenth largest city in 2015 and Bremerhaven was a small port of just over 100 000. Both cities in the city-state are enclaves of the state of Lower Saxony.

Answer: STHLND

In 2016, Auckland, one of 16 New Zealand Regions, had over one third of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million. In fact the largest four cities dominate each of the four biggest regions. Also on the North Island, the third biggest region is Wellington dominated by the national capital and Hamilton was New Zealand's fourth largest city in 2016 and was the main reason Waikato was New Zealand's fourth largest Region.

Christchurch was New Zealand's second largest city in 2016 and the largest on the South Island. It is the main city in the Canterbury Region, New Zealand's largest in area which encompasses another city called Timaru.

Southland is the country's southernmost region with a coastline over 3400 kilometers yet is sparsely populated. The 2016 Region's 55 000 people lived mainly in the county seat, Invercargill, a city of 51 000, in the same time period.

Answer: NTHRLNDS

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with the over 98% of its territory in Western Europe and with three small island territories in the Caribbean Sea.

The four parts of the kingdom: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten are constituent countries and are considered equal partners in the kingdom. However, most of the kingdom's responsibilities and decisions are made in the central government in the European capital.

Netherlands, the western Europe constituent country of the Kingdom, comprises 12 provinces, all of which have a high population density as over 17 million people are crammed into 42 000 square kilometres.

Answer: SWTZRLND

Switzerland, infamous for its armed neutrality gained independence from the Holy Roman Empire in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It has not been at war since 1815 and, famously, did not seek United Nations membership until 2002.

The major administrative division of Switzerland is the canton, of which there are 26, each of which was a sovereign state in its own right until the Swiss federal state was established in 1848.

Luxembourg also uses canton as its major administrative subdivision, the country comprising 12 of them.

Nine other countries in Europe, Africa and Central/South America use cantons as administrative entities, usually at the municipal government level.

Answer: MN

Maine, a territory was ratified as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed following the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ending the American Revolution, though its borders with British North America were not confirmed until 1842 with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
The Maine Territorians wanted secession from Massachusetts in 1807 but the vote failed in the Massachusetts' legislature. It succeeded in its succession attempt in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 when Maine became the 23rd state of the United States.