Federal territory

A federal territory is an area within the direct and usually exclusive jurisdiction of the central or national government within a federation. The territories are areas in a federation which are not part of the federated states. The federated states are the parts which comprise the federation itself and sharing sovereignty with the federal government, while a territory does not have a sovereign status.

Unlike a federal district, the territory may have some degree of self-rule, but the terms are used somewhat differently in different federations.

Federal territories include:

In India, the federal territories are formally called union territories. There are seven of these: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, and Delhi.

In Pakistan, the federal territories are the disputed territories of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, only two of these: Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

In Brazil, although mentioned in the Federal Constitution, currently there are no federal territories. Until, 1988 there were three territories: Fernando de Noronha (today a state-level district of Pernambuco), Amapá, and Roraima, now fully recognised states. From 1943 to 1982 Rondônia was also a federal territory (until 1956 under the name of Território do Guaporé).

The German Empire was a federation of monarchies and a few city-states. However, after the Franco-Prussian War, the newly created country annexed large parts of Alsace and Lorraine, two mostly German-speaking French territories which used to belong to the Holy Roman Empire. A large part of the local population was opposed to the transfer, meaning that granting statehood to the recently acquired territory would establish a state with a possible desire for secession which also was not used to German politics and German law. Incorporating the territory into Prussia, as it happened to Schleswig-Holstein and other states during the German Unification Wars, was opposed by the South German states which already felt diminished by Prussia. Hence, an annexation to Bavaria and Baden was also discussed, yet met with opposition by the military which opined that the crucial border territory had to be governed from Berlin. As a compromise, Otto von Bismarck successfully proposed to incorporate Alsace-Lorraine as a territory directly governed by the Imperial (federal) government, leading to the creation of the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen). The territorial status, common in the US, was unique within mainland Germany, as all constituent states were self-governing.

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