A 'the' in the name

Rico says that he had a short argument (which he nicely let the ladyfriend win) after seeing Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, about the appearance (and Rico's awareness of same) of the word 'the' in the country's name. Sure, Rico knew about that. Rico writes about this shit all the time, because there's a bunch of countries that, used properly, carry a 'the':

The Cayman Islands
The Central African Republic
The Comoros
The Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Cook Islands
The Czech Republic
The Dominican Republic
The Falkland Islands
The Faroe Islands
The Gambia
The Holy See (aka The Vatican)
The Isle of Man
The Ivory Coast
The Republic of Moldova
The Netherlands (aka Holland)
The Netherlands Antilles
The Seychelles
The Solomon Islands
The United Kingdom
The Virgin Islands
The Western Sahara

oh, yeah, and The United States of America...