I don’t really know if there is a definitive answer to this, but is there an OLDEST country in the world?? Nation??
Thanks,
Ken
Some regions have been continuously inhabited since prehistory, so I assume that a “nation” implies a continuous regume. If so, then Japan must have a pretty good claim. From Schauwecker’s Guide to Japan: Japanese Emperors, http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2135.html:
Sorry, a continuous regime.
Egypt’s first dynasty began ca. 2920, but then it spent many centuries as a Hellenistic/Roman/Byzantine/Persian/English (leaving out a few) colony during which it wasn’t self governing.
China has changed borders more than I’ve changed my socks, but it’s Chou dynasty began in 1122 BC., which would probably make it the oldest self governing nation still in existence.
Iran (which used to be Persia, before which it was Iran) has been around almost that long.
If I understand kld3169’s question, it was which current country/ nation is the oldest.
The problem with a question like that is that the concept of a “nation” as we know it today isn’t terribly old… so can you clarify what you want, kld3169?
I think the US may actually have the oldest continuous government.
The cradles of civilization (i.e . the first places that could be called “nations”) were China, India, Mesopatamia, Central Mexico and Egypt.
We’ll eliminate Mexico, Mesopatamia, and India for not being continous nations. That leaves Egypt (which has changed hads too often) and China – which is my pick, evn though it was conquered by Mongols for a while.
If you want to be picky about continuous “Nationhood”, the Islands of Great Britain and Japan have been countries since about 500 or 600 A.D.
I would certainly say that England has had a continuous for longer that the states. I can’t think of anything in English history after the war of the roses that would be a discontinuity.
Iceland has had a government for a long time.
How about the Protectorate?
Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, is the world’s oldest continuously organized national assembly, established in 930. But Iceland was not a sovereign nation for most of that history, and the Althing’s functions have varied so much under different regimes that it is hard arguing that Iceland enjoyed continuous nationhood throughout that time:
Depends on your definitions, as noted above. The Japanese dynasty is ancient, but accept in the very earliest period ( and a few scattered years of contention much later ) it has never really held untrammeled power.
China is older as an entity and of all modern states has perhaps the most venerable tradition ( Egypt having been severed far more effectively - no native Egyptians were recruited into Egyptian armies between the ~3rd century B.C.E. and the 19th century C.E. ). But the Chinese communist state was a break with the old Imperial courts. ( Just as an aside, I don’t really consider the Mongol/Yuan dynasty as a break in Imperial tradition - Dynasties established by outsiders are quite common in Chinese history - The T’ang, Ch’in, and Qing dynasties to name a few were all founded by non-Chinese ).
As a coherent geographic unit, I’d probably list Egypt as the oldest still extant. Oldest coherent nationality ( variable definition ) that dominates a modern country? Maybe Han Chinese. Oldest government still kicking? Maybe Great Britain’s.
- Tamerlane
Ah, Iceland. Good one, even if pretty equivocal :).
- Tamerlane
San Marino has had a republican government continuously since the 4th
The Sassanid empire of Persia was taken in 637 by the forces of the Islam Caliphate governed by ‘Umar ibn al-Khattâb. Persia remained part of the Umayyad and ‘Abbasid caliphates until the 9th century, when the Buwayhid dynasty arose in Persia and overran Baghdad. After that, Persia was more or less self-governing until conquered by the Mongols under Hülegü. After the grandson of Hülegü converted to Islam, the Mongols there became completely assimilated into the Persian nation. Persia’s independence was seriously compromised by overbearing British influence in the early 20th century, and then Britain and Russia carved out “spheres of influence,” but she remained at least nominally independent. Iran’s national sovereignty was again compromised in 1953 when the elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, was overthrown by CIA intrigue and the United States forcibly reinstated the unpopular Shah on the throne to thwart the will of the Iranian people. So Persia’s continuity as an independent nation has had a checkered history, but she ranks with China as an entity whose existence can be traced back over 2,500 years.
China’s national sovereignty was also submerged by Mongol conquest (as in Persia, the Mongols became assimilated to Chinese culture to become just another Chinese dynasty), conquered by the Manchu (who followed a similar pattern), compromised during the 19th century, a time of British and other European interference in its affairs (similar to Persia), and outright conquest by Japan in the 1930s.
I would venture that China and Persia win for overall longest existence (except for the above-mentioned hiccups) … while San Marino wins for longest unbroken continuity of government.
I meant to say that San Marino dates back to the 4th century AD.
I left out mention of China being conquered and ruled by other foreign powers, such as the Kara Khitai and the Juan-Juan, in addition to the better-known Mongols and Manchu.
Jomo Mojo dear sir, please forgive the nitpicks :).
Not sure what you mean by this, but they weren’t necessarily governed by Persians. The last dynasty of Persian extraction in Persia before the Pahlavis were the Samandids, who were overrun by the Ghaznavid Turks in 999 ( there were also the Zand dynasty of Fars for awhile in the 18th century, but they were strictly regional and never claimed more than regency ). Further the Ghaznavids were submerged by the Seljuqs, who briefly reunited the Asiatic possesions of the old Abbasids into a single empire.
Ehhhhhh…Maybe, sorta. The Il-Khans certainly retained a sense of connection with the Mongol polity, right up to their dissolution. And the Mongol successor confederacies to the Il-Khans, like the Jalayrids, were ultimately pastoral-based Turcoman entities. Now you could say that by that time those pastoral Turks were a part and parcel of the Persian “experience” and I couldn’t argue. But I do think they represented a definitive break with the Sassanian past ( in a way the Samandids, originally a Sassanian noble house, did not ).
I agree Persia represents a venerable heritage, but I do think their break was more profound than the Chinese one. But it is a very subjective take and I can envision some good counter-arguments.
But San Marino is a good one :).
- Tamerlane
Oh, heh, one should porbably also mention my namesake, who also briefly turned Persia into just a section of a greater empire that included western Central Asia ( and subsequently eastern and western Persia went in separate direction for some decades as Timurid control held on in Khurasan and Transoxiana, but lapsed in the west ).
Hate to forget ole’ slaughter n’ stack 'em :p.
- Tamerlane
I wouldn’t rule out Ethiopia, which is the oldest independent country in Africa and is at least a contender for the World title.
Well I think that shows how much I know about English history. I was confusing the war of the roses with the English civil war.
I think the precise term you’re looking for is the country with the oldest continuously used (physical) constitution.
That was my first guess, but there actually are a hand-full that can vie for the title.