And just another FYI, but you need to remember that an SVG is a structured document, where the structure may or not be obviously reflected in how it is rendered. I'm not sure which SVG you were playing with, but for instance if I grab https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Politica... and then ungroup the top level (or 2nd level on some objects) I can easily select whole countries "colour" and manipulate and change them. And that particular file has grouped non-contiguous nations like Indonesia or Australia properly associating the islands. But as others have said here - your issue is nothing to with Inkscape but the SVG you have chosen and how you expect it to behave.