World geography is something that we are introduced to very early on in life, as a kid in school, geography forms a vital part of our educational upbringing; it starts out with an introduction to our local area, expanding to the other areas of our country before finally encompassing all of the countries around the world.
There are officially 195 countries in the world, each belonging to the 7 continents but in reality it wasn’t always that way; what most people don’t realize is that some of the countries of old don’t exist anymore.
Scientists believe that before the formation of the various nations, the whole world was actually one single continent known as Pangea, or the supercontinent of the world; this theory is derived by the fact that all of the various continents that exist today, separated by oceans or seas actually fit together like a puzzle if you eliminated the water between them, especially North and South America, but then again, this isn’t the only reason why some of the countries of yesteryear no longer exist today.
Czechoslovakia
Can you just imagine if the country where you were born got split into two and formed as two new countries? It sounds pretty crazy but this is exactly what happened to Czechoslovakia, a nation now divided into two countries, namely Czech Republic and Slovakia.
From the years 1918 to 1992, Czechoslovakia was a single European nation, however, during World War II, it got split off into two with the remaining parts of Czechoslovakia going under the USSR or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic which is now known quite simply as the Soviet Union.
The Yugoslavian flag
Yugoslavia
Another former country in Europe was known as Yugoslavia whose name actually meant south Slavs because of the people in the 7th century who are in from Poland were residing there. From 1918 to 1928, it was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes but after the Second World War, it was renamed Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
It wasn’t until the 1990s when the republics and provinces of Yugoslavia started to become their own nations, namely Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Herzegovina and by 2006, the country ceased to exist, replaced by numerous separate nations. Some of the former country’s notable places can actually be seen in the hit HBO TV series Game of Thrones.
Tibet
Even though most people believe that there are no longer any lingering fundamental issues between new countries which used to be a part of one old country, there is still one nation that is waiting for independence; Tibet.
Tibet is an extremely religious piece of land which was claimed by the People’s Republic of China where monks are believed to have superhuman abilities making it a fascinating tourist attraction. Dalai Lama is one of the highest ranking spiritual leaders of Tibetan Buddhism who was forced to leave the country and reside in India when China took over in the 1950s.
There is still some controversial debate as to why Tibet must not be part of a China and be its own nation like it’s former years before China invaded Tibet back in the 1950s for its natural resources.
Abyssinia
Lastly there is one more name on this list that might not be familiar to most of our readers, mainly because the country existed many years ago, a piece of land that is now known as Ethiopia. It was actually an empire consisting of parts of Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.
It existed from 980 B.C. up to 1974 A.D. before it was overthrown by communists. It was known to be the longest-lasting government in the entire world at that time since it was one of the two nations in Africa that actually didn’t get colonized.
Most people believe that Ethiopia is a weak country, but it was actually one of the founding countries of the United Nations after the Second World War and is home to some of the oldest human fossils that have been discovered. Ethiopia is also home to the lava lake, known to be one of the most remote places in the entire world.
