Nations as People
This is a particular type of Anthropomorphic Personification that depicts a country (or some other sociopolitical or geographical unit) as one person, using that person's actions and foibles to make a comment on the country's politics and history. Sometimes this "person" is an animal or landmark (like the Statue of Liberty). This technique has been used in newspaper political cartoons for hundreds of years, and nowadays can be found in webcomics as well. As such, it may be considered a genre of comic, though it's been known to appear in other media (such as the anime of Axis Powers Hetalia) once in a blue moon.
Classic Characters of this Type:
- Britannia - Britain
- John Bull - Britain (or occasionally England, with his sister Lil representing Scotland and his brother or cousin Jonathan representing the USA)
- Johnny Canuck - Canada
- Rodina or Rodina Mat' or Mother Russia - Russia
- Uncle Sam - USA (representing the American government)
- Columbia - USA (representing the American state and nation)
- Marianne - France (Which eventually replaced the Gallic rooster as the symbolic embodiment of the country)
- Michel - Germany (see German Peculiarities)
- Germania - Germany (counterpart to Britannia, not normally seen nowadays)
- Bharat Mata ("Mother India") - India (this one's politicized even within India, so handle with care)
- Helvetia - Switzerland
- Hunnia - Hungary
- Cossack Marnay - Ukraine
Examples of Nations as People include:
Magazines
- Punch`s political cartoons helped popularise some of the classic personifications.
- Private Eye sometimes uses them.
Web Comics
- Afganisu-tan
- Axis Powers Hetalia
- And by extension, the fanworks the State-tan Project and I Am Matthewian, which expand on APH with personifications for the US states and Canadian provices, respectvley.
- Scandinavia and The World
- They aren't really that anthropomorphized, but the living countries from angusmcleod's "World War One: Simple Version", "World War Two: Simple Version" and "Cold War: Simple Version" probably count too.
- Not as people but, the Polandball comics follow this trope to a T with the countries being, well, balls
- The South American Way, which mainly followed the 2010 World Cup, although strips focusing on other topics like American colonisation exist. Notable for its crossovers with Scandinavia and The World, which the author cites as the strip's inspiration.
Web Original
- It's a pretty popular theme on Deviant ART, as seen in the this is our world [dead link] pictures.
Sketch Comedy
- Not quite nations, but in the Australian sketch comedy show News Free Zone, the "88 Australia Street" segment was about a share house occupied by anthropomorphic embodiments of the Australian states.
Other
- This art book (Link is NSFW due to advertisements and thumbnails in the sidebar) depicts 74 countries as teenage girls, including North Korea.