Can you name the Oldest Current Countries? by nikki1810

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Oldest Current Countries Quiz

by nikki1810

Created Oct 2, 2009 in Geography
Game Plays 1,164

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	robriotuk:	Oct 2nd, 2009 at 15:14 GMT	-2 points
	Got 12/20. I was certain Egypt, Italy and Greece were ones. Though I suppose the Egyptians, Romans, and Ancient Greeks were all part of older incarnations of those countries. Good quiz though.

	anAmatuer:	Oct 2nd, 2009 at 17:22 GMT	3 points
	Sporcle Publish worthy, but how do you account for the Austro-Hungarian Empire then?

	Psyk:	Oct 2nd, 2009 at 18:23 GMT	3 points
	It's a cool idea but I think it's a bit ambiguous. For example the UK has had two significant changes of territory since 1707 (the union with Ireland, then the subsequent seccession of 26 counties of Ireland). Ok, the current UK state is the continuation of the one created in 1707. But compare that to China, which has had at least one complete regime change since 221BC.

	LinuxLinus:	Oct 2nd, 2009 at 21:40 GMT	8 points
	I'm also dubious about Autria, which was part of Austro-Hungary for a long while, and then was part of Germany for a short but not insignificant period just sixty years ago. I think it would be fair to say that Austria, in its current form, has only been autonomous since 1945.

	AtomicIce:	Oct 3rd, 2009 at 01:28 GMT	10 points
	There are a number of problems with this quiz. At the very least Hungary, Mongolia and Oman (and possibly others on the list) have not been continously independent since the date given. And if the date an independent country was established, regardless of subsequent dates of non-independence, counts, then Russia, Poland, Norway, Bulgaria (and others) were all in exisitence prior to 1719.

	johnlk:	Oct 3rd, 2009 at 23:17 GMT	7 points
	Hungary is a somewhat complicated issue, because the Habsburg monarchy was a bunch of personal unions, so arguably Hungary was as independent of the rest as Canada is of the UK. But that definitely doesn't apply to the period 1849-1867, so I'd only say Hungary counts since 1867. And if you're going to count it even from then, you have to count Norway as well, which has been its own kingdom since the high middle ages, even though it was ruled by Danish and Swedish kings for a while. Mongolia was definitely part of the Qing Empire (China) before 1912; Oman was a British protectorate until 1971 - if it's included, so should be Morocco, for instance. I agree that Austria should only count from 1945.

	tbwilson:	Oct 4th, 2009 at 23:52 GMT	4 points
	I for one love this quiz. For the people arguing with this, the quiz actually goes by the country's own traditional perceptions of its independence, whether realistic or idealistic. However, one country the quiz does legitimately overlook is Ethiopia, which claims to have been independent since the 10th Century BC is I remember the CIA World Factbook right.

	joewhitey:	Oct 6th, 2009 at 20:35 GMT	5 points
	Ethiopia is the oldest country in the world according to most estimates. Mongolia was not independent from China until the 20th century.

	Jason_H:	Feb 19th, 2010 at 14:02 GMT	3 points
	Ethiopia was, though, ruled by Italy for a while. I'm not sure about certain parts of this quiz for reasons stated above - Austria-Hungary for example. I was surprised not to see Egypt in there, although for the benefit of the first commenter, Italy didn't exist as a fully-fledged country until about 1871.

	gowhere:	Mar 10th, 2010 at 22:43 GMT	9 points
	@tbwilson - If it goes by the country's own perceptions than Russia should definitely be included in here. From the Russian perspective, the current Russia is a continuation of the Soviet Union, which was a continuation of the previous Russian empire. We don't exclude France because of its revolution and changes of various forms of government (monarchy, anarchy, republic, empire, occupied territory)and changes in territorial size so why should we exclude Russia. No, I am afraid that while this type of quiz is interesting, there are an awful lot of ambiguities and sensitivities that come into play for quite a few countries.

	yashcmarathe:	Apr 5th, 2010 at 10:10 GMT	3 points
	Both Austria and Hungary were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where both countries existed as separate entities. Hungary has existed since 896 AD. In 1001 it was recognized as a Christian kingdom. Austria, although it was independent for a very long time, it was part of Nazi Germany, and thus only achieved independence after World War II. Netherlands, too, was occupied by the Nazis. Mongolia, from 1696 to 1911 was part of China. Portugal was part of Spain from 1580 to 1640. Russia has existed since 1283 and should be considered. So should Turkey, which has existed in some form or the other since 1299. The UK has existed (as England) is 597 AD. As for Ethiopia, although it is one of the oldest countries, it was occupied by Italy during World War II.

	FelixtheBear:	Apr 7th, 2010 at 22:35 GMT	2 points
	@gowhere- I agree that there are too many ambiguities for this type of quiz. That said, i found it very interesting, so maybe stricter criteria could be included in the description. For argument's sake, I think that countries that were occupied against their will, and only for a few years, should still be considered independent. Like Ethiopia, which Italy never really controlled.

	Chipmunkdavis:	May 7th, 2010 at 14:42 GMT	1 point
	Mongolia is wrong, 20th century independent from China. Stick with UK there. Disagree with Austria and Hungary, Hungary especially. It only started governing itself just before WWI, when the hapsburg's divided it from Austria. Its current form is from after WWI, and even then it was a German Puppet state in WWII. And I think Ethiopia? You seem to let simply invaded countries count(Like France in WWII), so Ethiopia should count aswell.

	singaporean:	Jun 10th, 2010 at 03:51 GMT	0 points
	um,Chipmunkdavis,Mongolia's independence was in 1924, but it started its own empire in 1206. And also, 221BC was the year that the Qin unified China. But it only became independent in 1949.

	giraki:	Jan 7th, 2011 at 20:55 GMT	7 points
	This is probably the most inconsistent quiz I've ever seen. Some countries are dated to when they first became a country (otherwise Mongolia would be 1924), some to their last declaration of independence (otherwise Sweden would be 1050), and some to when they first used their current name (otherwise the Ottoman Empire would be 1299). Please fix this.

	MattAtkins:	May 4th, 2012 at 19:38 GMT	1 point
	Vatican or Holy See for at least a bonus, even though Vatican City started in 1929, The papal states ruled for nearly a thousand years before the creation of the Italian monarch in the 1870's