A country is described by a special document. This document contains a free text where you can provide general information about it. It also contains a few structured fields.

Properties

The structured properties associated to a country allow the system to analyze the data and present the data contained in in different applications like a map or a chart.

Existance Period

The date of the establishment and when the country might be abolished can be provided in the appropriate fields. The establishment date is mandatory because no country has been existing since the beginning of time. The abolishment date is optional. When left empty this means this country is still in existance.

Rendering

The color field allows you to associate a color that will be used for representing the country on maps or charts.

Every country within a time frame must have a distinct color and should contrast next to neighbouring countries. When posible it is prefered to use a color associated with the country like a color of the flag or the color of the national soccer team when possible but it should not compomise the previous conditions.

Succession

Using the predecessors field you can indicate which country this country has emerged from. The successors field lets you set which countries where succeding this country when it fell apart or which countries have taken significant territories from it.

Emblems

Emblems associated to the country like flags, coat of arms or standards should by put in the emblem field. You must provide the identifier of a file location in the system and an optional start and end date this emblem was in use. When a start or end date is left empty it is assumed to have been used since the start or upto the end of the countries existance.

Geograpic Extent

One or more geographic extents can be associated with the country. You can edit the geometry of the country using the internal GIS Viewer. An optional start and end date can be associated with each geometry. When a start or end date is left empty it is assumed the geometry was applicable since the start or upto the end of the countries existance.

Dependency

The dependency field allows you to define a dependency of this territory upon another country. You can use this to indicate a formal dependency like a colony, protectorate or overseas teritory that are not incorperated into the mainland but client states, occupations and so on.

You must provide the identifier of a country and an optional start and end date. When a start or end date is left empty it is assumed that the country was dependent since the start or upto the end of the countries existance.