Whether you believe that being a country means you must be part of the UN (193), or you follow a more liberal view on how many countries there are (Transnistria anyone). We can all agree that over the course of history there have been a lot of countries on gods green earth.
To read more about how many countries there are click here.
We could all probably agree that some states have been more successful than others. The fall of Rome might be well documented, but at its height it was quite the formidable empire. And then of course we have the British Empire from where the sun once never set. It now consists of the Falkland Islands….
So for every great state, there have to be some that were a little bit shit. We list some of our favorite and indeed shortest lived states….
Independent State of Catalonia
Following the independence referendum the leader of the Catalonian parliament declared independence and then 8 seconds later asked parliament to hold off on the actual declaration whilst he negotiated with Spain. Negotiations went terribly, people went into exile and Spain gave the Catalonians a big middle finger. Kosovo precedent anyone? Turns out it doesn’t count if your face doesn’t fit. Technically this makes this the shortest lived state in history, from what we can find anyway.
Peoples Republic of Korea
North Korea? What, but they still exist. No we are not talking about the DPRK (Democtatic Peoples Republic of Korea), but the PRK (Peoples Republic of Korea). Declared at the end of World War 2 before the yanks and the Soviets could arrive. The yanks did mot want to support anything vaguely socialist and the Soviets didn’t find them red enough! Lasted 3 months from September 12th – December 12th and as of now was the last unified Korean state…
The Provisional Government Of Hawaii
January 17, 1893–July 4, 1894
Did you know that Hawaii is the only US colony, I mean state to have a foreign flag as part of its flag? It has the Union Jack. That is because the former Kingdom of Hawaii looked up to the UK. Then a bunch of Americans moved there, took over the business of the country and decided to topple the popular monarchy. This new government formed of white people existed exclusively to get Hawaii annexed by America, which succeeded.
Central African Empire
4th December 1976 – 21st September 1979
This one is a relative success in comparison to our other entries, but deserves a fabulous mention simply due to how audacious it was. General Bokassa declared himself military dictator, then President-for-Life, before deciding that the only way to make his impoverished state stand out from the rest was by turning it from the Central African Republic into the Central African Empire. He spunked 1/3 of the countries budget and killed a bunch of kits before people decided he might be a bit “too jazzy”. Its back to being the Central African Republic now…
Democratic Kampuchea
April 17th 1975 – January 7th 1979
Another relative success when compared to the others, although Democratic Kampuchea was officially proclaimed on January 6th 1976, giving it just over 3 years. Pol Pot seemed like your average every day communist at first, then he emptied the cities and brought about policies that led to /14 of the population dying. The Vietnamese came to save the day, but the international community continued to recognize the Khmer Rouge until 1993! There was even a rump Khmer Rouge state until 1998. This is what gets the DK firmly on our weird list.
Honourable mention!
This does not really count so much as a country, but the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 196 lasted 38-45 minutes. Go Zanzibar!
