The first Starbucks outside of North America was opened in what country?

Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of November 2016, it operates 23,768 locations worldwide.

Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980's. Despite an initial economic downturn with its expansion into the Midwest and British Columbia in the late 1980's, the company experienced revitalized prosperity with its entry into California in the early 1990's. The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996; overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores.

Starbucks entered the U.K. market in 1998 with the $83 million USD acquisition of the then 56-outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company, re-branding all the stores as Starbucks. In September 2002, Starbucks opened its first store in Latin America, at Mexico City. Currently, there are over 500 locations in Mexico and there are plans for the opening of up to 850 by 2018. In August 2003, Starbucks opened its first store in South America in Lima, Peru. In 2007, the company opened its first store in Russia, ten years after first registering a trademark there.

The Starbucks location in the former imperial palace in Beijing closed in July 2007. The coffee shop had been a source of ongoing controversy since its opening in 2000 with protesters objecting that the presence of the American chain in this location "was trampling on Chinese culture."