The WEIRDEST countries that used to exist

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Welcome to Geography Now! This is the first and only Youtube Channel that actively attempts to cover profiles on every single country of the world. We are going to do them alphabetically so be patient if you are waiting for one that's down the road.

Stay cool Stay tuned and remember, this is Earth, your home. Learn about it.

[GeographyNow]

If you're wondering, this video was uploaded at a weird time because I am currently sitting on an Ayvan in Uzbekistan 700 meters away from the Registan square ready to get footage for the #Uzbekistan episode and this was literally the only time I had enough Wifi to upload. Thanks for your patience. Stay tuned.

[boomscholock]

This should be a series, there are so many weird extinct states and micronations that Paul should cover. Rose Island, Kongsi Republic, Republic Of Pirates are great examples…

[evanstevens]

Fun fact: Richard Feynman, one of the world's all-time greatest theoretical physicists, took an extreme interest in Tanna Tuva after receiving one of their postage stamps. In his waning years, he made it his mission to get to Tanna Tuva- a mission made extremely difficult by the beginnings of the Cold War and his being an American. A book- Tuva or Bust! - was written about his adventure in 1991.

[y-europe]

Funny thing about Tannu Tuva. In the strategy game "Hearts od Iron 2" this country existed and in the unpatched version the game mostly crashed if you invaded it.

[seanmcloughlin]

I saw a video about the Bottleneck “free state, ” and how it’s kinda heartwarming that during this era of German political upheaval where everyone was trying to take power by force

This small Rhenish community gained autonomy didn’t want it and got it purely by accident and had the humor to recognize the absurdity despite the precarious situation they found themselves in.

[rkt]

I always think it would be cool of "countryless-peoples" got their own countries. Kurdistan, Hmong, etc.

[EpicgamerwinXD]

I really hope you get to talk about Karakalpakstan in the Uzbekistan episode!

[Jeffreypennings]

You should check Neutral Moresnet a country in Europe that existed from 1816 till 192, where even Esperanto was one of the official languages.

[ztn]

I've definitely heard of Tannu Tuva, and that's not even the strangest of the small states that were eventually absorbed into the USSR. Carpatho-Ukraine declared its independence from Czechoslovakia in 1939 (just before the Second World War) and existed for a single day before being occupied and annexed by Hungary.

[bebus]

Fun Fact: Every single country mentioned in this video is mentioned in the amazing book "An Atlas of Extinct Countries" by Gideon Defoe. Literally EVERY SINGLE ONE. Furthermore beat by beat nearly every point is mentioned is basically just a rewording of the entries listed in that book. This is nearing on plagiarism.

[Blaqjaqshellaq]

Macho Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio wanted the Croatian port of Fiume (Rijeka) to become part of Italy after World War I. But the Great Powers gave it to Yugoslavia, so he went in and seized it, setting up a rogue state that lasted a year. That must have been pretty weird too...

[adrianvannorsdall]

You’ve built a fantastic channel Barbs,

Very thankful for quality content

[davidebaso]

Please Barbs, do regions of Italy explained. They're so diverse from one another it would definitely be a great video

[HistoryHustle]

Love short-lived states. Haven't heard of most of them you presented. Cheers!

[taimunozhan]

What about the Republic of Rio Grande, which split from a large Latin American country for a time but was eventually reincorporated into it... except that happened twice, in different places: there was a Republic of Río Grande in Mexico and also a República Riograndense (also known as Republic of Rio Grande) in Brazil.

[MichaelSidneyTimpson]

You should do a "partially recognized states" episode where you give some of the details in brief that you give for the rest of the countries.

[CustardCream]

As a teacher I was very happy to hear the geography cover teacher using one of your videos as an introduction to their task. Heard the jingle through our wall and it was in my head all day <3

[cassianoneto]

Trindade’s a funny case, it randomly became the stage for a naval engagement between Britain and Germany during WW1. I usually think of it in relation with the Falkland Islands dispute between Britain and Argentina. Would be really easy to have a similar thing there between Brazil and the UK, but Brazil managed to enforce its sovereignty in the island and nowadays its not disputed. It has also become quite valuable recently as it extends Brazil’s EEZ far beyond its coastline, being part of the so called “Blue Amazon”.

[Cadmann]

If you ever do another one of these you should look up the "Italian Regency of Carnaro" that was established in the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) after WW1 by eccentric poet, war hero, and general lunatic; General Gabriele D'Annunzio, Prince of Montenevoso.

The city was supposed to have to Italy after the war in the agreements to have Italy enter as an Entantee power, but meddling from Woodrow Willson promising it to the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia to act as a main port city for the nation (the city had a slight Italian majority population with other Yugoslav ethnicities making up the rest of the population).

D'Annunzio's plan was to originally take over the city with his army of volunteer veterans and have the Italian government annex it immediately, but due to other issues such as the occupation of Turkish Adalia, and interfering with the Greco-Turkish war they had no intentions of getting into another international political mess.

So he ended up declaring an independent state, wrote a syndicalist constitution, then suspended elections, declared himself dictator, became the first state to receive recognize the Soviet Union, engaged in state run naval piracy and drug running, and eventually was invaded by Italy under the Treaty of Rapallo with Yugoslavia to establish the also short lived Free State of Fiume.

Mussolini took a lot of inspiration for his doctrines of fascism from this brief experiment in political theory, and it's one of the most influential nations of the 20th century due to that, but barely anyone has ever heard of it.

[theconqueringram]

Another example would be the Republic of Cospaia. Located in the hamlet of Cospaia, the territory came into existence when the territory was left out of a border treaty. Since no country was aware of this, the Cospaians decided to make their own. It existed from 1440 to 1826.