Land of Oz

Oz
The official map of Oz and its neighbouring kingdoms. The regions beyond Oz's surrounding deserts were introduced after the first Oz book.
Flag of Oz
The Oz series location
Other name(s)	Land of Oz
Created by	L. Frank Baum
Genre	Classic children's book
Type	Fairy country
Ethnic group(s)	Munchkins, Winkies, Quadlings, Gillikins
Notable locations	Emerald City (capital), Munchkin Country, Gillikin Country, Quadling Country, Winkie Country, Yellow brick road, , Deadly Desert
Notable characters	Dorothy Gale, Toto, Wicked Witch of the East, Good Witch of the North, Wizard of Oz, Princess Ozma, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, Glinda the Good Witch, Wicked Witch of the West
Population	500,000
Anthem	"The Oz Spangled Banner"
Currency	none

The fictional Land of Oz is a magical country first introduced in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). The US Library of Congress has considered it the best "home grown fairytale" and the original American fairyland. It is to the United States what Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and C.S. Lewis' Narnia are to the United Kingdom.

Oz consists of four vast quadrants, the North, South, East and West, each of which has its own ruler, sometimes a witch or sorcerer. However, the realm itself has always been ruled by one official dominant monarch, who represents the entire country as a whole.

Though Baum did not intend for his first Oz book to have any sequels, it achieved a greater popularity than any of the other fairylands he created, such as the land of Merryland in Baum's children's novel Dot and Tot in Merryland, written only one year after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Due to Oz's worldwide success, Baum decided to return to it four years after his first Oz book was published. For the next two decades, he described and expanded upon the land in the Oz Books, a series which introduced several fictional characters and creatures having adventures in a world where real magic exists, and marvelous things are possible. Baum's intention to end the series with the sixth Oz book The Emerald City of Oz (1910), in which Oz is forever sealed off and made invisible to the outside world, did not sit well with fans, and he quickly disregarded this attempt by writing more successful Oz books, even naming himself the "Royal Historian of Oz".