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A boundary is a division between two places. Sometimes the division is a physical boundary, such as a river or mountain range, other times a boundary is invisible, such as those between countries, linguistic groups, economies, or social groups (e.g., ethnicity, gender, religion). When these invisible boundaries separate cities, counties, provinces, states, or countries we call them political boundaries. Sometimes physical boundaries align with political boundaries, such as the Ural Mountain range separating the continents of Asia and Europe or the Rio Grande River forming part of the boarder between the United States and Mexico. Overtime, political boundaries change when treaties are created, or wars are fought. For example, the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991 becoming 15 independent countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Not every government agrees with every political boundary, so not all boundaries are clearly defined or peaceful. These contested boundaries are often represented by a dotted line on a map. Some areas in dispute include the East China Sea, Kuril Islands, the Korean peninsula, Western Sahara, Antarctica, Israel/Palestine, Somaliland, Kashmir region, and Taiwan.
This 2020 political boundary data is from Garmin International and the United States Central Intelligence Agency The World Factbook and compiled by Esri. One layer includes the boundary lines for countries and another for states and provinces. These layers do not include contested boundaries and any you see are likely on the basemap you have chosen.