| The 0 and 1 border lists were relatively easy, but some of the higher ones fiendishly difficult - excellent quiz. @joebobs: I don't really think you can call it a trend; over the course of centuries countries have been independent, been conquered and become part of an empire, independent again once the empire collapsed etc. - several times over in some cases. The only time more than one country has split at roughly the same time has been the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and since the unifications of Germany and Italy occurred more than a century before than that they can hardly be going against a trend; indeed, since the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires controlled territory which is now split between about 20 countries, it was very much with the trend at the time. Many people in Germany and Italy still retain a strong sense of regional identity and would consider themselves first and foremost Bavarian/Ligurian etc. rather than German or Italian; it's just that Bavarians and Westphalians or Ligurians and Tuscans are apparently capable of maintaining their separate identities despite happily living in the same country as each other, whereas Montenegrins and Kosovans would prefer to live in their own countries rather than having to share one with Serbians. Of course, one could be cynical and claim that the current trend is in fact in the opposite direction: with border controls abolished between many countries, most using the same currency, and one parliament and court having jurisdiction over most of the continent, we're fast moving towards the United States of Europe. |
Largest Second Place Cities
World's Shortest Borders
Landlocked Cities
