I suppose I should define nation: nation as how we know it… obviously not including the colonized lands. I know studies vary on this but if anyone can point me to the right direction, that would be great. Thanks.
53, according to the Check List of Sovereign Countries of the World contained in a rather ancient version of the Guinness Book of Answers (1976 edition) that I still have.
Here’s the list of countries, with the respective date of each one’s “achievement of sovereignty”. Personally I’d question some of the entries on the list, but I’ll just give them as they appear in the Guinness Book. It states that “the date selected for a country’s achievement of sovereignty is usually the earlier date if there is a difference between a *de facto * date and a *de jure * date”.
- Iran 529BC
- China 221 BC
- Ethiopia AD c150
- Japan c300
- France 843
- UK 927
- Denmark c960
- Sweden c1000
- Portugal 1109
- Austria 1156
- Andorra 1278
- Switzerland 1 Aug 1291
- Monaco 8 Jan 1297
- Turkey c1350
- Thailand c1420
- Spain 1479
- Netherlands 1581
- San Marino 1631
- Bhutan c1650
- Afghanistan 1747
- Oman 1749
- Kuwait 1756
- Nepal c1770
- USA 4 Jul 1776
- Haiti 1 Jan 1804
- Liechtenstein Aug 1806
- Chile 18 Sep 1810
- Paraguay 14 May 1811
- Norway 14 Aug 1814
- Luxembourg 9 Jun 1815
- Argentina 9 Jul 1816
- Colombia 17 Dec 1819
- Peru 28 Jul 1821
- Mexico 24 Aug 1821
- Brazil 7 Sep 1822
- Bolivia 6 Aug 1825
- Uruguay 25 Aug 1825
- Greece 3 Feb 1830
- Ecuador 11 May 1830
- Venezuela 11 May 1830
- Belgium 21 Jul 1831
- Costa Rica 1838-9
- Guatemala 1838-9
- Honduras 1838-9
- Nicaragua 1838-9
- El Salvador 1838-9
- Dominican Republic Apr 1844
- Liberia 26 Jul 1847
- Italy 18 Feb 1861
- Hungary 29 May 1867
- Canada 1 Jul 1867
- Germany 18 Jan 1871
- Romania 13 Jul 1878
This is all of the sovereign countries in 1900, because there’s a 23 year hiatus after Romania until the next entry in the list, Australia, on 1 Jan 1901.
This list should cause a few arguments! 
Well, some of those are definitely dubious. The UK certainly wasn’t founded in 927 - though England arguably was. The UK dates from 1801.
I agree. The UK was one that looked weird to me.
And another thing - should Austria and Hungary both be on that list, given that in 1900 they were a single country, the Austro-Hungarian Empire?
And what about countries that were sovereign in 1900 but have since lost sovereignty? I suspect there are a few of those, though none spring to mind just yet.
: 1. Iran 529BC
- that’s a couple of thousand years before the Sumerians, who in turn had nothing to do with the current Iran.
Count the digits, there.
Two that come to mind are Montenegro and Newfoundland. I think Newfoundland had enough independence as a Dominion to be considered a nation in 1900, and of course Montenegro only recently regained independence after being subsumed into Yugoslavia after World War I.
Also, an odd omission from the list–Russia (or more properly in 1900, the Russian Empire). Apparently the Guinesses considered the Soviet Union sufficiently different from the tsarist empire as to be a new nation.
And I agree, by any reasonable definition, Austria-Hungary was one nation in 1900, although the Hungarians probably would have argued differently.
So so far, three additions and one deletion.
And, I’d argue differently. The Compromise of 1867 gave Hungary its independence. It just shared a head of state with Austria, but it had its own parliament, its own prime minister, and autonomy over domestic affairs.
And Newfoundland didn’t get dominion status until 1907.
Good cite- Cunctator, but It misses several nations that were around in 1900.
Add:
Serbia
Montenegro
Bulgaria
Croatia/Slavonia “Croatian autonomy was restored in 1868…” Wiki
Crete "Turkish forces were expelled in 1898, and an independent Cretan Republic, headed by Prince George of Greece, was founded. " Wiki
Mongolia
Ottoman empire (you can argue that’s Turkey now)
Maybe Norway? (it was “the Kingdom of Norway-Sweden” then)
And several semi-nations such as:
Emirate of Jebel Shammar
Sanusiyah Brotherhood
Tripoli
Bosnia-Herzgovinia
Freddy the Pig- Newfoundland was a colony and part of the BritishEmpire in 1900. Well, at least according to Wiki.
The Dominion of Newfoundland began in 1907, the same time as New Zealand.
Digits, hell. I think Rune got mixed up with the last letter too.
According to my mother, who was born in 1931 in Muskgravetown, Newfoundland, she was born a British subject and later became a Newfoundlandian (?) and then a Canadian, but I don’t have the dates when Newfoundland was sovereign.
Also, wasn’t China part of the British Empire at that point, or had it already been given up? I know one of Queen Victoria’s titles was Empress of China.
FWIW,
Rob
Well, I was born in Australia before 1949, and so was not born an Australian citizen, but was a British subject. However, Australia did become indepent for all practical purposes in 1901. (I became an Australian citizen in 1949, along with all other British subjects that had been born in Australia). So having citizenship iis not an essential part of independence.
Are you thinking of India? The British controlled Hong Kong, but thats it.
Yes, that seems to be the case. The USSR is listed at no 62 on the list, achieving sovereignty on 14 Sep 1917.
Newfoundland doesn’t get a mention anywhere.
That old Guiness book evidently was basing itself on some criterion of “continuity” – BTW I don’t think I would consider Croatia-Slavonia or Bosnia-Herzegovina “independent” as per the thread title in 1900, they may have had nominal autonomy but were occupied by Austria-Hungary.
Egypt, IIRC, was in a sorta pseudo-independent status at the time. Dunno about Mongolia, the Chinese Empire claimed it was theirs to the end (even the RoC and PRC did, for a while) but they had lost control of it.
What was the status of South Africa at the time? Transvaal, Orange Free State, still in business in 1900?
Another addition: Korea, which was independent until 1910, before being annexed by Japan and disappearing for 35 years, after which it was reborn as two nations.
Manchu control over Mongolia waxed and waned, but Mongolia didn’t achieve independence until after the fall of the Empire in 1912. (As you say, China didn’t recognize it for some time after that, but the rest of the world did.)
The usual definition is to define British colonies as “nations” when they achieved dominion status. This definition isn’t perfect; the colonies were somewhat independent from the time they achieved “responsible government” (as early as the 1840’s, for the provinces of Canada), and weren’t completely independent even as dominions, since Great Britain still controlled their foreign policy. But we have to draw the line somewhere, and by the dominion yardstick, South Africa didn’t become independent until 1910.
That isn’t right at all! Russia became a socialist country in 1917, but the Soviet Union wasn’t actually founded until 1924.
They started the year in business, but, after the falls of Bloemfontein and Pretoria in mid-1900, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State basically devolved into governments on the run.