The 'The' Name Game

It all started innocently enough, with a botched coup attempt in The Gambia (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/07/gambia-failed-coup-encourage-president-jammeh). Not "Gambia," but "The Gambia." Why the "The"? Is it like The Ukraine? I resolved to resolve the question. And, no, as it turns out, it's not like The Ukraine, because The Ukraine hasn't been The Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union. It's now simply Ukraine. So The Gambia is more like The Bahamas, in that they are the only two countries that officially add the "The" to their names: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233844

   Now, the answer to why anyone would want to conduct a coup there is easier to understand ~ unfortunately so. The country has been in the hands of a ruthless dictator for two decades. So ruthless, in fact, that one observer calls it "the North Korea of Africa": http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-06/gambia-worst-dictatorship-youve-probably-never-heard