Can you name the Oldest Countries? by theboeyinks2

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Oldest Countries Quiz

by theboeyinks2

Created Jul 17, 2010 in Geography
Game Plays 4,202

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	Pit_trout:	Jul 17th, 2010 at 23:18 GMT		87 points
	Could you give a link to your source? It's hard to tell what your criteria are for the age of a country – since the dates you give, many of these have gone through periods of non-independence (India, Vietnam, Georgia, Armenia), others have split up (Korea), or have flowed and changed borders and hands many times over the centuries (India, Israel). And several other countries seem to have just as good a claim to be on this list (Nepal, Tunisia, ...)

	packsoldier:	Jul 17th, 2010 at 23:38 GMT		33 points
	Pit is exactly right. Some of these countries are political entities that didn't even exist til the 20th century (see Iraq).

	johnlk:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 00:56 GMT		36 points
	Israel was founded in 1500 BC? This is idiotic.

	Hamburger:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 08:52 GMT		23 points
	by the seemingly loose standards you employ here, then you should also include Syria, Lebanon, Denmark, Norway, Mali, Ghana, Mongolia, (Saudi) Arabia, Lithuania, Russia and perhaps others. Not a terrible idea, but the game was not named accurately.

	joebobs:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 10:15 GMT		27 points
	Iraq as 2340 BC? Really? Israel as 1500BC? I could have sworn it was 1948. And didn't the French Fifth Republic form in 1958? Also, my map seems to be wrong as there's no Korea on it. (facetiousness ftw!)

	daniday:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 17:22 GMT		2 points
	The comments above are a bit harsh. The main thing the quiz requires is a source, but it is broadly accurate. Israel does date back to 1500BC (although has obviously not existed in perpetuity since then), and Iraq was founded in 2340BC as the state of Babylon, which made up 95% of the modern day country. But a bit of clarification is probably warranted - and a source would help to achieve this.

	mehmeh53:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 17:24 GMT		2 points
	Israel? Is this some kind of joke quiz...

	sabresfan:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 17:33 GMT		10 points
	One would think that the standard for how old the country is should be how old its current government is.

	xyz789:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 17:39 GMT		9 points
	What is this based on? Israel was founded in 1948.

	Raynard:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 21:45 GMT		18 points
	Technically every country is the same age. I dont have a clue where you are going with this or what the point of this quiz is. Second of all, where is your source?

	sportsguyluke:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 23:15 GMT		13 points
	Define "country"

	Rooster:	Jul 18th, 2010 at 23:25 GMT		3 points
	Womp womp.

	kristofferjay:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 01:34 GMT		21 points
	I believe Kyrgyzstan was founded in the fifty-seventh century BCE.

Comment below threshold: show it

	WinnieNicklaus:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 06:07 GMT		40 points
	Interesting hypothesis, iceman. I'll have to thumb back through my Bible to find where it mentions the founding of Vietnam in 2879 BC.

	DJ_Donkeypunch:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 12:34 GMT		5 points
	I think this was a good idea for a quiz but like others have said, it needs some clarification on what criteria was used for the dates and then a source.

	Tahnan:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 12:43 GMT		4 points
	The source seems to be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_statehood , which (perhaps ironically) has a big box at the top noting that the information on that page doesn't list its sources. Seriously, though, people, stop taking this quiz; you're just keeping it on the most-played list. Report it as "wildly inaccurate/wrong".

	emanuel:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 16:52 GMT		-3 points
	he means modern countries that were around in ancient times. Israel was Canaan, Iraq was Mesopotamia, Vietnam was Siam-although it was actually Cambodia and Myanmar that was Siam. Some of those countries I cant believe tho. And how are Italy and Macedonia not up there

	darcy:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 17:45 GMT		3 points
	This quiz makes no sense! What are the grounds for this. If Israel was called "Canaan" and Iraq was called "Mesopotamia" in ancient times then they clearly aren't the same political entity. Also, Siam was Thailand, I don't think Siam was ever considered Vietnam. Parts of Russia were once called Scythia, so why not put Russia on there too? Everything had a name at some point...

	Deeisenberg:	Jul 19th, 2010 at 18:52 GMT		13 points
	Why is it that so many badly made quizes take off like this one, while so many good ones just die.

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	superfly:	Jul 20th, 2010 at 01:36 GMT		3 points
	@Deeisenberg because they have interesting titles and it is not readily apparent that they are terrible unless you check the rating before every quiz. plus it is sometimes amusing to play terrible quizzes to see what bizarre answers or non-answers are included.

	TerryWilhelmer:	Jul 20th, 2010 at 03:58 GMT		2 points
	Korea split, therefore it's no longer one country.

	Teary_Ennui:	Jul 20th, 2010 at 15:52 GMT		3 points
	I knew from the title the comments would be the most interesting thing about this quiz. @Mackey Romans were not Italians - Italy became a nation state in the 19thC

	rct:	Jul 20th, 2010 at 17:15 GMT		7 points
	Going by the incredibly loose standards of this quiz, aren't all countries equally old?

	elcrops2:	Jul 21st, 2010 at 02:21 GMT		2 points
	what about pakistan? It should be on here too since it split from india only 60 years ago.

	NickThomDavidTMN:	Jul 21st, 2010 at 14:00 GMT		1 point
	Damascus is the oldest capital city - so where is Syria? No Italy? I think Rome existed before Christ - otherwise was the heck was Sam Goldwyn making all those movies about???

	WackyZacky:	Jul 21st, 2010 at 16:07 GMT		1 point
	Pangaea was formed in the Late Permian and broke up in the Triassic Era. Also 2.5 million years ago: Pleistocene epoch (Quaternary period) begins; emergence of the genus Homo, which if I'm correct the Homo's need a soid landmass to survive which would be a country.

	mrt23498:	Jul 21st, 2010 at 20:27 GMT		2 points
	Israel first existed as a country c 1500 bc, but it has changed hands with the Babylonians, Persians, Medes, Macedonians. Some of those weren't really countries for most of that. Do you mean countries now which were once originally countries but lost their independence for a lot of history

	Who_Worldwide:	Jul 21st, 2010 at 22:07 GMT		-1 points
	Israel since 1500 B.C? Give me a break. Sounds like this game is politically motivated.

	duckie527:	Jul 22nd, 2010 at 23:41 GMT		3 points
	Standards are definitely needed. Newgrange was built about 3,000 B.C, so would that mean Ireland comes between Egypt and Vietnam? Clearly people were living there in organized groups.

	France:	Jul 23rd, 2010 at 18:07 GMT		2 points
	This quiz blows major ass.

	peterpan:	Jul 24th, 2010 at 01:05 GMT		0 points
	I don't think it matters if the entity changed hands over time but whether it stayed an entity, i.e., a country that was roughly the same size and roughly centered in the same location. This is the problem with Israel - it was entirely swept away by the Ottoman Empire, for example, and was no longer its own separate empire or country or whatever. This is also true of Iraq. A case could be made for Turkey, perhaps, or Italy with Roman Empire, or Saudi Arabia back to 7th century and the birth of Islam and spread of Arabs. Certainly France is problematic for the same reason Israel and Iraq are. For Korea we should get credit for either North or South Korea, at least. I'd tend to count India and Egypt even though they were colonized for a (relatively) short time by UK, they still stayed separate entities and still had their own governments that UK used (indirect rule). But the best thing would be to have a good source with strict criteria.

	Riko:	Jul 24th, 2010 at 09:19 GMT		0 points
	Found his source [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_statehood]. According to CIA World Factbook, the oldest nations are: Japan- Traditional founding 660 BCE/Modern founding 1873, China- Trad. 221 BCE/Mod. 1949, Ethiopia- Unknown, over 2000 years ago, San Marino- 301, France- 486/843, Austria- Trad. 976/Mod. 1918, Hungary- 1000, Portugal- 1143, Thailand- 1238, Andorra-1278, Switzerland- 1291, Monaco-1491, Spain- 1492, Sweden- 1523. SOURCE: [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2088.html]

	Caius:	Jul 28th, 2010 at 22:47 GMT		2 points
	Im sorry but Malta has been a country since before the times of Egypt and we have temples to prove it..

	theboeyinks2:	Aug 11th, 2010 at 19:01 GMT		0 points
	Thanks for the comments everyone! Glad you enjoyed the quiz!

	Sherry_t:	Feb 27th, 2012 at 00:15 GMT		1 point
	Can anybody explain to me what the "oldest countries" mean? Does it refer to the countries with the earliest year of formation the way we know them now? The countries with the oldest archaelogical vestiges? In spite of all, I got 13 guessed right.