Geography
Great Starting Place:
Encarta Reference - Search the Encyclopedia for a particular country and find information on land and resources, population, education, economy, government, and history. Use the Dynamic Atlas to find country maps. Just be prepared to view a lot of ads.
Country Studies:
CountryReports.org - Brief information for each country concerning geography, people, government, economy, weather, maps, communications, history, and flag is given. For a slight fee, an expanded profile and the national anthem can be retrieved.
Country Studies - For the 101 countries and regions that are included, this site gives very detailed information. Physical environment, population and ethnicity, history, economy, government, transportion, and society are just some of the areas discussed. Sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Army, the series' original intent was to cover the lesser known areas of the world where U.S. forces might be deployed. Therefore, not all countries are included. Omitted are Canada, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, other Western nations and a number of African nations.
Atlapedia Online -
Useful for brief facts about countries covering the areas of geography, climate, religion, languages, education, modern history, economy, transportation, communication, and military. Full colors maps are provided, but they tend to be of a region and not of an individual country.
National Geographic - "Adventure and Exploration," "Animals and Nature," "History and Culture," and "Maps and Geography" are just some of the topics covered at this site. Guides are also included for kids, parents, students and teachers. An index to their publications is also included.
Portals to the World - This site, from the Library of Congress, provides links for individual countries, arranged by broad topics, such as Business, Culture, Education, Recreation and Travel, and Economy.
World Factbook - For each country, facts are provided in the categories of geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues. From the CIA.
Background Notes - From the State Department, this site includes only the countries with which the U.S. has relations. Information provided for the countries includes facts about the economy, geography, people, history, government, political conditions, foreign relations, and travel and business information.
United States:
50states.com - Just some of the facts that you can find here on each of the states include climate, economy, history, maps, media, population, sports, state parks, topography, and state motto, bird, tree, song, flower and nickname.
Geographic Names Information System - Contains information on almost 2 million geographical features in the U.S. and its territories. You can search by feature name or type, by state or county, and by elevation range. Types of features that are inlcuded are lakes, canals, glaciers, reservoirs, oilfields, swamps, valleys and many more.
Maps:
National Geographic Maps - They provide printer-friendly maps of the world and individual countries. There's also black and white maps, thematic maps, and recommended links to more maps.
Blank & Outline Maps - From About.com's Geography webpage, this lists maps from around the world. It includes continents, countries, and states.
Specialty Sites:
Worldwide Governments on the WWW - This site lists government officials and institutions for individual countries. Although it hasn't been updated since June 2002, it still has useful links.
Recipes - Provides background information about the cuisine of the country or region and usually provides a menu guide and recipes. A small number of countries are included.