Talk:List of sovereign states by date of formation/Archive 5

Central African Republic
This republic was established in 1979 replacing the Empire. Why is a 1960 date given ?Eregli bob (talk) 19:03, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The dates given in this article need to be double-checked with a good reference book to back them up, as some appear decidedly spurious.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 19:09, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The Central African Republic bgecame independent from France in 1960, and I have no reason to doubt the date in the table,  and it has been independent since that time.   However,  the first two columns of the table refer to the "most recent change of government form" ( or something like that, I can't read that page while I am writing on this one ).   Between 1976 and 1979,  the Central African state was an empire,  a comical one maybe,  but one which was recognised by other states.    Therefore,  the date of the most recent change of government form for this country,  was the re-establishment of the republic in 1979.  Compare to Ethiopia or Tunisia's entry.Eregli bob (talk) 19:24, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Why American dating style?
The American style of dating here is disconcerting, seeing as most other nations use the day before the month.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 18:36, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * (edit conflict) Yes, this page needs alot of help over here. Please consider helping out. Outback the koala (talk) 19:00, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

The USA doesn't consider 1781, as a founding date either. GoodDay (talk) 18:58, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Because it doesn't consider it itself, does not make it fact. The myth of independence is powerful, and the date of '1776' is apart of the myth. Outback the koala (talk) 19:02, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't tell that to the Americans. GoodDay (talk) 19:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * My teachers taught me that the good ol' USA became a nation in 1776! (Now why do I keep hearing a John Philip Sousa march playing over and over in my head?)--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 19:07, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I once had a professor teach a whole lecture on this subject alone(ie the mythos surrounding the 1776 date); if only I could pull the old bird on to wikipedia... Outback the koala (talk) 05:35, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

The date format with numbers like 1975-10-01 is disgusting. "November 1, 1918" looks good and should be used throughout the page but considering the number of problems with this article, basic presentation  should not be a priority. BritishWatcher (talk) 01:57, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree; it looks very sloppy and confusing. The full dates should be written out.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 07:01, 5 March 2010 (UTC)


 * The US standard is mm-dd-yyyy the commonwealth standard is dd-mm-yyyy. Personally the yyyy-mm-dd format is very appealing since it is the standard in computer related industries, the International standard date and time notation ISO 8601 and ignores many regional preferences that is often argued about on many wiki pages. Please see Date and time notation by country and ISO 8601 usage. -- Phoenix (talk) 08:25, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Iran
How is Iran a soverign state since 3000 years when it was subjugated by the Mongols for 150 years ?Eregli bob (talk) 19:20, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

First of all that is not 3000 years that is since 3200 BC which means 5200 years. Secondly, with this philosophy the date of establishment for all countries which have been invaded and occupied temporarily like Egypt, India, China, Georgia, Armenia, Greece and all countries which were occupied during WWI and WWII and all countries in soviet union (almost all countries) should change. Then Iraq and Afghanistan which have been invaded by US still do not exist!!! Furthermore, even during mongols occupation Iran was never separated or changed its name and has always been united and known as a country named Iran. During mongols occupation they only determined the ruler of Iran like whats going on now a days in Canada! with this reasoning then Canada still doesn't exist and is part of England because the Governor General of Canada is chosen by the Queen of England. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Behzad863 (talk • contribs) 17:46, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

-In fact, if we look close enough at the list we'll see it doesn't say that Iran has been a soverign state for 5200 years. But it says it's First Acquisition of Sovereignty dates back to 5200 years ago. If you want to see how long a country have been a soverign state you have to look at the Date of Last Subordination. So according to the list Iran has been a sovereign state for 510 years and is among the four oldest sovereign states.--Hame fan harif (talk) 05:08, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

-According to history books; such as "World History Atlas" by McDougal Littell; 2009. Civilizations started in the city of Ur in Sumur 3000 BC, while the Persian Empire flourished 550 BC, that was the first historical mislead. Furthermore, Persia had been occupied by Mongols for 150 year, and then it had been submitted under the Islamic Caliphate since 632, till it has soverign in 1935.

There are two points here:
 * The first one is about the first Iranian sovereign state. The fact is that the Persian empire was not the first government ever ruled over Iran. Persians are only one of the Iranian nations (see http://www.worldhistorymaps.info and http://www.thomaslessman.com/History/Maps.html also 1300 BC and 600 BC). Before Persians had come into power Iran was under the rule of another Iranian nation (Medes). Why don't you take a look at the article of Persian History and it's refrences? It was just a misunderstanding that western countries called the land Persia (maybe because Iran became a superpower twice under the rule of Persians). But since the time Aryans occupied the land, they called it Iran, Meaning the land of Aryans (or the land of nobles). And that's why on 1935 Shah of Iran asked the western countries to call the land "Iran".
 * The second is the fact that Iran has been invaded multiple times and been under the rule of Macedonians, Arabs and Mongols. Seleucids ruled over Iran for 200 years, then Iranians reunified it and Parthians came into power. And even Mongol's successors ruling over Iran just called themselves shahs of Iran! Even if you were right, that did not make any difference because we're talking about the "first acquisition of sovereignty" not the "date of last subordination". The date of last suordination refers to the last time a country was under the rule of foreigners, such as Arabs and Mongols ruling over Iran, or Iranians ruling over Oman, or Denmark ruling over Sweden. In the year 1935 absoloutly nothing happend with the Persian government & I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, ever since 1500AD, Iran has been under the rule of Iranians. --Hame fan harif (talk) 19:24, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

195 ONLY!
While in the first paragraph it is stated that it is a list of 203 States, what I have seen in the sorted list is only 195 States, missing 8 are: Would you like me to surprise you? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.131.120.28 (talk) 23:58, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Abkhazia
 * Nagorono-Karabakh
 * Northern Cyprus
 * Palestine
 * Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
 * Somaliland
 * South Ossetia
 * Transnistria
 * Those states are not recognised and therefore do not have formation dates because they have not been recognised as formed yet.  McLerristarr /  Mclay1  03:10, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't agree. The list contains other states with limited recognition like Kosovo and Taiwan. Either we list them all or none of them.
 * On substance. Most (all?) of these listed above claim to be formed, to have independence days, to have constitutions, and everything else. The difference with "normal" states is that in the case of these 10 some of the others "do not recognize" the claims of the 10. Alinor (talk) 15:20, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I have to agree too, though WP:I don't like it. We need to show the ten in italics or something, to show that their status is disputed, with reference to the SoLR list. --Red King (talk) 14:51, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
 * The lead sentence of the Sovereign state article says, "A sovereign state is a state with a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states, citing p. 187 of this book, quoting a snippet in a footnote there, and referring to the Montevideo Convention, Article 1 of which says,"The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states." (see this). Perhaps it might make sense to add another table titled something like Other governments asserting sovereignty, introduced by text explaining this and quoting that article of the Montevideo Convention, and containing entries for such governments. I'll note in passing that this could get messier;. One messy case which comes up here and elsewhere from time to time is the Philippines, which celebrates the anniversary of the June 12, 1898 declaration of independence from Spain as its independence day. Many Filipinos contend that the First Philippine Republic was a legitimate sovereign state, and some schools in the Philippines may teach that as fact. (see this) Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 01:50, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Kurdistan
The entry about Kurdistan is full of fallacies and errors. First of all, to this date, Kurdistan is still not a country, it is only a federal government which is part of the greater Kurdistan. Secondly, Kurds are not directly connected to Medes, as some scholars still believe that Kurds may have formed around an indigenous Mesopotamian substratum who adopted a north-western Iranian language over time, Maybe hundreds of years after the Medes' Empire. Thirdly, if even we agree that Kurds are the descendants of the Medes, still the Median Empire was something more general and not confined to Kurds, as an example Azeris, Gilakis, Mazanis and even the people of Tehran, Ghazvin, Isfahan, Balochistan and Semnan are historically Medes (In fact the whole of Iran except for Fars, Kerman, Yazd and Khorasan) so these people who are the larger stock of the Medes and today comprise the larger part of the Iranian population are also the heirs of the Medes' Country. Technically Kurds were only the nomadic pastorals remnant of northwest Iranian people who have recently settled in the last 400 or so years which contradicts the accounts given for Medes, which ruled over an agricultural society (Diako was first elected as the governor of a number of villages, which indicates that he was not a nomad). So in general, nothing can be asserted with certainty about Kurds or Medes, because of the lack of sources connecting these two entities or sources which address the essential continuity of these people. I suggest that for the sake of truth, let's just omit the entry about Kurdistan. I also wanted to say that I do not want to undermine the Kurdish Identity here, and also wanted to express how I love and admire their music and language along with the culture of other Iranian people.20:44, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Merger proposal
List of countries by statehood should be merged into the sortable section of this page: List of sovereign states by formation date. They are duplicate lists, but it will require a great deal of work to preserve the useful dates and notes from that page that are different from the information here. Goustien (talk) 22:19, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

-I don't think they are duplicate lists. The Statehood list is telling us the birthdates of the nations and the events. While the Sovereign States list is telling us the Birthdates of current form of governments. --Hame fan harif (talk) 21:30, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

-I agree, we should distinguish between the political and historical measures. The current list addresses historical issues while the Sovereign States list should address the political issues. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.212.207.142 (talk) 00:30, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

-The problem is, for example in the Statehood list the events about Iran and Germany is written by two people with different definitions of "formation date of nation". In the Statehood list what's written about Iran is acceptable but I don't think the formation date of Germany is the Unification date of West Germany and East Germany. Now look at Korea in the Statehood list, there's just one Korea, what can you do to merge this with the Sovereign States list? There's only one nation called Korea but two countries are Korean! The only thing we have to do is to correct formation dates of Germany and Britain and some others. I think to separate Sotland and England is the best one can do for UK (as they did the same in the Sovereign States list)--Hame fan harif (talk) 16:41, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

-No, I changed my mind. Because I see a lot of errors in the Statehood list that I have discussed them here. While errors in the Sovereign States List are much less, I still don't know the problem with neutrality of it! --Hame fan harif (talk) 11:27, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

———

Both lists are incomplete, incorrect, and contradictory. I think we should distinguish between three dates for each country and put them in one list. The dates are:


 * 1) date of first written record of the name of the country / nation / state;
 * 2) date of first establishment of a form of government;
 * 3) latest date of either establishment of the current form of government or definition in the current boundaries.

Example United States of America


 * 1) 1507 (word America first used on a map)
 * 2) 1776-07-04 (Declaration of independence)
 * 3) 1959-08-21,  (Accession of Hawaii)

Example Germany


 * 1) 100 BC (word Germania first documented by Romans (?))
 * 2) 1871-01-18 (German empire proclaimed)
 * 3) 1990-10-03 (German unification completed)

I believe it is possible to research all this from wikipedia, but it is a lot of work...

Shenhemu (talk) 10:17, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

__________

Both lists are incomplete, incorrect, and contradictory; but there's an Edit Skirmish out on the Statehood list! See it's history...

Well, I agree with you. But I think we should consider other definitions too. There was also a "Kingdom of Italy" Back to 9th cetury.
 * 1) The first time there was a government on the land
 * 2) The first time a nation had a government
 * 3) The last time a nation did't have a unified government of their own

After all I'm not sure about the examples, they are just examples.

I hope Wikipedia herself hire some people to do this important job. Hame fan harif (talk) 09:22, 31 August 2010 (UTC)


 * You are right we could and should consider other definitions. However, we should avoid dates that will end up with too many question marks, and favor ones that are not too difficult to research or cause too many Edit Skirmishes. I am not an expert on this, but I think first written mention of the name, first government on the land, and date of establishment of current form of state within the current boundaries would be a good, solid, researchable compromise that might cause as little dispute as possible. What'd you think? Shenhemu (talk) 10:49, 31 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I used question marks because I for one don't know if Celts or Saxons had a government. And if the culture and language of Italy is similar to the Romans, they are the same nation. I used question marks because I'm not good at ancient European history. But I agree that if it leads experts to so many question marks, we better not consider the definition (I knew an expert user on Wikipedia). Last subordination is important, it shows how long a country has been a unified single country, I don't think it's difficult to research. I think the definition of nation is not that complicated to cause edit skirmishes (as I mentioned about Italy). We should see how different "the first written mention of the name" and "the first national state" are, if they would be approximately the same, we can consider one of them. Hame fan harif (talk) 03:03, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Many lists
About the classification by continent vs. chronological - all can be merged in a single sortable table - so if the reader sorts the "continent" column he will get the first type, if he sorts the "date" column he will get the second type. No duplicating/synchronization of content needed.

I generally agree with the points raised above. I think that we should clearly distinguish (where we have the data): We should choose a place (article) where each of these events should be mentioned (as it seems too much for a single article) - of course with links to articles describing the relevant event in detail. Currently I find the following articles and propose the following arrangement:
 * "first date of establishment/mention of nation" (and here we have the problem of different nations with the same name and/or territory - Ancient Egypt vs. Current Egypt)
 * "first date of establishment/mention of state/monarch/government"
 * subsequent Succession of states
 * change of government (regular elections; coup d'etat without change of the system; monarchy->republic or similar)
 * change of ruling power (e.g. conquest by some Empire, independence from some Empire, various types of dissolutions - from monarch personal union; cases like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, USSR; etc. - here there are big differences for example between abandonment of a personal union vs. independence from a colonial power)
 * change of territory (loss or gain of parts) - special case here is the loss of all territory, but continuation of sovereignty in some way (often disputed) - like the Sovereign Order of Malta and government in exile (sometimes the exiled government later returns - double dates; other special cases like Palestine, Taiwan, other such states)
 * change of capital
 * adoption of first/new constitution
 * latest date of
 * establishment of the current form of government
 * definition in the current boundaries (but here the question is how big a boundary change is acceptable to be ignored - e.g. it is clear that minor border changes like single island in a river are not important/routine)
 * List of historical countries and nations - for historical cases like Ancient Egypt, Shumer, etc., that have no current descendant
 * List of countries by statehood - first mention of state/monarch/government (and maybe also separate date for nation in general, but only for current states - the rest should be in the historical article), linked to Predecessors article for the subsequent changes
 * Predecessors of xxx (xxx - continents) - dealing with most succession-of-states issues listed above - should be list of administrative bodies dealing with the territory currently occupied by the state in question - without taking in account succession/continuity (but discontinuity should be mentioned by some mark or color), for example Egypt: Ancient Egypt -> ... -> Egypt province, Roman Empire -> ... 'Villayet of Egypt', Ottoman Empire -> 'British ruled Egypt', British Empire -> Current Egypt; or Inca/Maya/Aztec/whatever Empire -> Governorate of Guatemala in Viceroyality of New Spain in Spanish Empire -> Spanish Empire administrative rearrangements -> independent Guatemala; Persia -> ... -> Shah 'dynasty' rule -> Religious rule
 * Predecessors of sovereign states in Europe - Predecessors of xxx article that currently don't go as deep in history as described above. To be expanded.
 * Predecessors of sovereign states in South America - Predecessors of xxx article that currently don't go as deep in history as described above. To be expanded.
 * List of sovereign states by formation date - latest date of establishment of the current form of government, linked to Predecessors article for previous forms
 * List of sovereign states in Europe by date of achieving sovereignty - either all continents should have separate articles, or its content should be merged in the appropriate common world list.
 * Decolonization-series - focus on the particular historical event of decolonization, not on every independence/formation/statehood/sovereignty (Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania)
 * List of national independence days - related article, but it is OK already - showing official independence holidays
 * Timeline of country and capital changes - The title seems to include all of the above, but I'm not sure it is done in practice. Maybe it should be changed (or make a new Timeline of country capital and territorial changes) to focus on territorial changes and changes of the capitals - the timeline format is suitable for these and they do not fit well into the rest of the articles. If possible new constitutions can also be listed there. Alinor (talk) 06:37, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

I am against merger since it will cause the loss of useful information and historical context. Anyway, even if we merge with all the info preserved, that would be no use since the article is going to become very long as all countries information is added and updated so we will have to split it again. It is better to rename these articles so that they reflect better what they contain also to link them with each other by providing a short explanation in introduction section of each one. My vote is no to merger. Thank You.--119.153.97.56 (talk) 11:12, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Too long: split
The should be split into a separate article (maybe merged with some other). The article is already to long with all continents together. -- Tomdo08 (talk) 21:58, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Afghanistan
Why on earth should 1989 be listed for Afghanistan? The Soviets acted in Afghanistan as allies of the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan. There's other pretty absurd inconsistencies. According to the list, Afghanistan first became sovereign in 1919 because before that it was an informal British protectorate. But Bhutan and Nepal, which were just as much informal British protectorates, have supposedly never been subordinated to a foreign power. This list needs some reworking. john k (talk) 00:57, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I think there is a difference between Afghanistan on the one hand and Bhutan and Nepal on the other. Britain did not recognize Afghanistan's sovereignty until the 1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi, and that date is still celebrated as Afghan Independence Day. Although Britain (and later India) had influence over Bhutan and Nepal's foreign policy, those countries were never occupied by foreign troops, and they remained independent. See the article "Protectorate" for the difference between colonial and international protectorates. Goustien (talk) 19:38, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * As for the Soviet occupation 1979-1989, it's true the Soviets were allies of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, but this government had limited recognition, and the occupation was the subject of a series of UN resolutions through the 1980s. The US military venture in Afghanistan appears comparable to the Soviet one, but in terms of international law it may not, strictly speaking, count as an occupation or loss of sovereignty. Goustien (talk) 02:16, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I've added a bit of info about this, with wikilinks to relevant articles. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 14:38, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Map Age?
This map is somewhat out-of-date. It has Czechoslovakia as one country and Sakhalin (island north of Japan) as part of Japan (the northern part of it never was)! Elium2 (talk) 00:42, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

Wales: a recognised state until the formation of "Britain"
With referance to the above discussion under the heading "Mexico", the fact is that Wales was a recognised sovereign state until Owain Glyndwr's defeat at around 1415. This needs to be shown. If there's no objection (and I've never read of a single historian contending this fact) then I'll change the map myself. Maybe we then need to discuss other sovereign states such as Scotland and Ireland after that. Llywelyn2000 (talk) 07:42, 22 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Well considering that this is talking about modern sovereign states, then there is no need to mention the component country of the United Kingdom which are technically nothing more then administrative divisions with strong regional identity and a relatively large amount of devoluted powers (the last point excluding England). The UK is a sovereign state, while England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not, thus, only the UK should be represented on this list. 91.85.170.200 (talk) 15:39, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Sort method
If the article is called, "… by date of formation," then why is it sorted alphabetically?—Markles 16:20, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I agree. This is annoying, I came to this page looking for a list of countries from oldest to newest (or vice versa), and in that capacity, this list is completely unusable. 121.127.221.198 (talk) 10:25, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

sortable table
I've reverted this edit, which made the table sortable. The rowspans in the table interfere with sortability -- click on the link to the reverted edit and try sorting the table various ways to see what I mean. I recently ran into this problem when I redid a table in another article, here, and worked around it in that case by using divs within cells instead of rowspans. That approach might or might not be workable here. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 20:28, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
 * For sorting, see the second half of this article, List of sovereign states by date of formation. Goustien (talk) 04:40, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

Colours of Map - What are US and Mexico doing on 1000 - 1200 range?
Hi. Could someone change the colours on the map so the US and Mexico can be shown in the right colour? Rui &#39;&#39;Gabriel&#39;&#39; Correia (talk) 10:34, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Criteria of datation of balkanic states
I don't see why should Bulgaria be considered as born in 681, when recognized by Byzantian Empire, and not in 1908 when its independence from Ottoman Empire, after five centuries of Turkish domination, was fully recognized by international community of nations. Otherwise, why wouldn't then Serbia be considered as founded in 1219, when king Stefan was crowned and Serbian church obtained autocephally. Considering Serbia, the date of 1835 can't be retained ; the independence of Serbia was only recognized by the Congress of Berlin in 1878. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.187.48.70 (talk) 13:33, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

MANY errors!!!
First of all, the islands of the Netherlands Antilles are not shown at all, and neither is their dependencies. (Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Curaçao, etc.)

South Sudan is also missing.

Please add these countries, and also remove Antigua and Barbuda as it's a country in THE CARRIBEAN (listed on this page as The Americas) not in Africa.

Thanks. Linux731 (talk) 00:34, 21 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I have now fixed the entry for Antigua and Barbuda, which for some reason had got added to the bottom of the table for Africa in addition to appearing correctly at the top of the table for the Americas.
 * As for the rest of your comments:
 * The Netherlands Antilles no longer exists as an entity. However, neither it nor its constituent islands have ever been sovereign states, so it's correct that they are not included in these lists.
 * South Sudan is to be found in its correct place in both lists.
 * The Caribbean is part of the Americas.
 * Andrew Gwilliam (talk) 03:21, 21 August 2011 (UTC).

United Kingdom date
The matter of when the United Kingdom was created has been fought over with reverts, but it is best brought into the open.

All of the historians who have been cited on the article are writing specifically about Scotland or about the 1707 union, uniting Great Britain, so of course each will be talking about 1707 and they are irrelevant to the point of the creation of today's United Kingdom.

On 1 May 1707 was created of the kingdom of Great Britain. It has been argued, fairly, that this was the major achievement in uniting the British nation and at the time Ireland was already a dependency (it became legally independent in 1782). It is argued that since most of Ireland has since seceded, the 1707 union is more relevant to today and that we should ignore the existence of nearly two million Ulstermen and 120 years when all Ireland was within the kingdom and strongly influenced its character.

No doubt in 1800 Pitt and his contemporaries thought that the union would effectively be absorbing Ireland, though later generations saw it was not so simple: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was far more, with a new and distinctive Irish flavour within it and Ireland represented in Westminster at long last and participating at the highest level.

However, all such positions are merely political and social emphasis. The article tries to answer the question "When was the United Kingdom created?" That is not about narrative and interpretation: it is a technical question with a technical answer determined purely by law.

The 1707 Acts of Union without doubt created a new kingdom, which no one has questioned. The 1800 Acts of Union have exactly the same formulation: they did not annex Ireland to Great Britain and rename the kingdom, but explicitly united Great Britian and Ireland into one kingdom using just the same wording as in 1707. In law a new kingdom was called into being on 1 January 1801.

Howard Alexander (talk) 18:19, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

New Zealand
Re the event/year for New Zealand, I think that Dominion Day, 26 November 1907, is the appropriate day for “birth of the current form of government”, as the Governor-General no longer had the power to disallow legislation of the New Zealand Parliament, as the Governor could do from 1856 (I think a few were disallowed, one I think being a Liberal (Seddon) Government law discouraging Chinese immigration). Re the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 (the “founding document of New Zealand”), the article on the Treaty of Waitangi says that in 1839 New Zealand was included by the British Government within the boundaries of the colony of New South Wales, not becoming a separate British colony until 1841, see Dominion of New Zealand. Hobson who had been appointed Lieutenant Governor under the Governor of New South Wales and also British consul was appointed Governor of New Zealand on 3 May 1841, although the Queen had signed the Royal Charter (for the Colony of New Zealand) in November 1840; see William Hobson. In addition, why is the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 (the title of the act and of the article) labelled the New Zealand Constitution Act 1947 in the table? Hugo999 (talk) 13:02, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

All tables are broken
When trying the sort these lists, the tables become irrevocably broken. ALTON  .ıl  19:12, 30 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Use of Rowspan breaks sortability. Two approaches to dealing with this are (1) eschew use of sortable tables where Rowspan is used and (2) use Div instead of Rowspan and sort by just the content of the initial Div where a cell contains multiple Divs (see the table in Conscription). Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 02:11, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Map
Though the map does give a broadly correct idea of what it is trying to convey, it requires a rigorous definition of 'nationhood', such as one of the columns used in the text, in order to avoid hypocrisy: from the dating of Iraq in grey as pre-1000 BC, it seems 'foundation of nationhood' is defined to be the first date an organised state appeared with sovereign territory in the present country, not the foundation of the current state - but then this does not agree with dating the foundation of Spain between 1200 and 1700, which would be accurate for the current state of Spain, but by the previous definition ignores the Visigothic kingdom of Spain which would require it to be coloured red... there are doubtless several other examples, but rather than specifics a uniform standard should be implemented.
 * The map was horrible and not even broadly correct. Portraying the PRC as 5000 years old and Russia as 20 is patent bias, but other inconsistencies and errors are also documented at its file talk page here and at wikicommons. I've removed it and nominated it for deletion. — LlywelynII  13:29, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

Europe and which islands
The list is split up by continents. They are the ususal ones (plus the transcontinental group) but for some reason, one continent is called "Europe and the islands" instead of Europe. I have not seen that anywhere else. Which islands are meant? Why isn't the other continents called "America and the islands", "Asia and the islands" etc., since both those groups have far more island countries than Europe? Does this have something to do with somebody in Britain not considering themselves part of Europe (despite the common continental shelf and swimmable distance)? I suggest "and the islands" be removed. /81.170.148.21 (talk) 15:30, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Single table, single date format
Seems to me this information would be much more useful in a single table (not divided by continental region) and with a consistent date format, so that it can be sorted by date. 202.156.10.10 (talk) 04:08, 21 August 2011 (UTC)
 * See bottom section, List of sovereign states by date of formation section. Goustien (talk) 03:02, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Iranica source
I undid the change that claimed to be based on Iranica (I assume Encyclopedia Iranica). I don't see that cited anywhere, and Reliable sources discourages citing tertiary sources such as encyclopedias. Superm401 - Talk 23:58, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Oman?
Oman is missing from the first list. (Kinda funny that a whole *country* got misplaced!) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.229.202.4 (talk) 05:47, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Someone fixed this. Superm401 - Talk 00:05, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Date in sortable list table.
Re this edit, the table column is headed "Date of last subordination". If the date is the date the subordination ended, it seems to me that it should be headed "Date last subordination ended", or perhaps "Date of acquisition of sovereignty". I don't have time right now to check whether the dates in the table for countries other than the Philippines are beginning or ending dates of their last subordination. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 04:12, 15 January 2012 (UTC)


 * It appears to be a mix of both, which is very problematic indeed. For example, 44BC is around the time Britain began to be conquered by the Romans (though I think it's a few years too early if I remember rightly) but 1781 is the date the British officially gave up on their claim to the United States. Both dates are listed.


 * Once we've worked out which date the page means, someone with a lot of time and a good history book needs to have a good look at this list! Thanks, PamukSoundystem (talk) 10:55, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Africa Table Broken
Africa table is broken (line under comoros. but doesn't appear from a quick glance to be related to comoros?) 124.171.115.108 (talk) 06:19, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Lots of inconsistencies
The dates of independence are being treated inconsistently. Sometimes there's a date of the first historical instance of a state existing (ie Bulgaria). Sometimes you have the actual date of independence of the modern state. Both of which have their place perhaps. But then there's some weirdness. Liberation from the Nazis is being taken as a date of independence (even if they were independent before and reverted to the old governments when the Nazis left) for several European states. So is "independence" from Russia in the case of Hungary, never mind that it was an independent state by the common definition in the Soviet era--whatever the evils of the Warsaw Pact era Hungary was not formally an SSR. Then Lithuania omits independence from the USSR, instead taking the tack that the state remained in existence 1940-1991. Bosnia has no date of independence at all, as some kind of political statement about the UN peace agreement. There's lots of quibbling that's unavoidable but clearly the point of the page is to list when today's states were founded, not to make some statement about "true sovereignty".

Don't get me started on the first column. I think it's supposed to be for constitutional changes more recent than independence--this would be an appropriate place to note the end of a communist regime. But sometimes it's used for important dates prior to state formation, like the provinces of South Aftica being united under British rule (rather than the end of apartheid). 169.231.55.10 (talk) 02:07, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

"Date" x3
Why on earth are there three headings, in the same table, all entitled "date" and nothing else? It took me a moment to realize they corresponded to the columns to their respective right sides. This is a very, very confusing system. If the three date columns are really necessary, I'd suggest combining each pair of columns into one. That new column's heading would read "Date of [x event]", and the column's entries would include both the date and any necessary elaboration or context. At the very least, the headings need to be clarified. Merpin (talk) 02:55, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Duplicates
Many countries are listed twice within the same list. For instance, South Africa and Nigeria. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.0.16.132 (talk) 13:16, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
 * They – at least those two and a couple of others I checked – are actually only listed once when the page is initially displayed. However, the "rowspan" table function – used for those that have two or more distinct event dates listed – does not interact well with the "sort" function; if the table is sorted, even on the default "Country" column, rowspan is broken and the affected countries appear as two separate listings. Doing a browser page refresh should restore the original correct appearance. Fat&#38;Happy (talk) 15:41, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Inconsistencies
I've noticed a few issues with statehood being born "when an occupation ends". As things stand we have the well-known Baltic three (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) but also Hungary, I've not checked others. Hungary gives 1991 as a most recent date and the note is that this is where 46 years of Soviet occupation came to an end. The problem is that with the Baltic countries giving similar descriptions it paints an odd picture. This post is not drafted to explore the legal aspects which have all too often been discussed but rather to work out a way of tidying this section. The difference between the Baltic states and Hungary is that to the Soviets, the Baltic lands were annexed and the status of occupation is entirely down to technicalities within international law - and as ever, is disputed by the opposing factions even today. Now save for the disturbances of WWII, Hungary's sovereignty goes back to its exit from the Austro-Hungarian but the presence of Soviet troops for 46 years was largely supervision, it was not a case of annexation and the Soviets rewriting their constitution. I gather 1991 was the year Hungary restored multi-party participation in political affairs. Although I haven't checked the other Warsaw Pact states, I can say Hungary's notes run contrary to the Baltic situation. What is the best course of action here? Evlekis (Евлекис) (argue) 06:12, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I would take that out, as Hungary was not as the other nations at that time, but like what you said is correct. Same could have been said of Poland, etc., but it was not the case.That-Vela-Fella (talk) 08:10, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

Europe
Iceland has two entries in the table. The first is the secession from Denmark in 1944 and the second is the departure of last United States occupation troops. I suggest that the second be removed since the US did not rule the country and the three branches of government carried out their operations throughout the occupation. Neither the UK nor the US ever contested/challenged Iceland's sovereignty during occupation. Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 18:05, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Sortable list
For the same reasons as stated above I suggest that the column "Previous governing power" for Iceland be changed from United States to Denmark. The occupying forces did not oppose Icelandic independence when it was declared during the war, under occupation, and the government was never dissolved. The occupying forces did influence foreign policy and handled defence but I think it's a stretch to say that they were governing powers. Compare it to the occupation of Iraq in 2003 where the leader was executed, government overthrown and a puppet regime installed. That's a governing power. Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 18:05, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

South Sudan
South Sudan is missing. No? --173.59.109.4 (talk) 01:16, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

East Timor
East Timor is missing from the list of sovereign states, although it is mentioned in connection with Indonesia. Treplag (talk) 01:20, 18 May 2013 (UTC)Treplag


 * East Timor = Timor-Leste Correctron (talk) 04:08, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Portugal and Others' First Dates
I think we ought to revise the sortable list and the dates for Portugal and others. It makes little sense that the United Kingdom's earliest date is 519 (Kingdom of Essex) yet Portugal's earliest date is 1139.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal: Formation - 	Foundation	868 - 	Re-founding	1095 - 	Sovereignty	24 June 1128 - 	Kingdom	26 July 1139 - 	Recognized	5 October 1143 - 	Papal recognition	23 May 1179 - 	Republic	5 October 1910 - 	Redemocratization	25 April 1974 - 	Current constitution	25 April 1976


 * The early date of 868 refers to the County of Portugal, which was subject to one of the Spanish kingdoms. Independence did not come until 1139. Goustien (talk) 06:08, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Spain /United Kingdom inconsistence
This is a matter set to interpretation, but the criteria must be consistent through the different nations. For exemple: United Kingdom. England and Scotland merged and formed the "Great Britain" in 1707. It turned into the "United Kingdom" in 1801 with the act of union with Ireland, and the current "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" in 1922. When the nation is born? It depends, of course, it is not a clear question. We can set 1922, 1707... or even get back to 1066 and 519 for England only, as the article does. But if we do, let's do the same for all. If the "core territory" of the United Kingdom dates back to 519, the core territory for Spain dates back to 718, not 1516. Spain is (like the UK) the union of previous kingdoms, but things get more complicated since it is the merge of several merges; Castile and Leon (1230) in one side, and Aragon and Catalonia (1164) at the other. Then these join in 1516, and finally with Portugal in 1580. It remains only a dynastic union until 1707-1716, with the assimilation of every kingdom to Castile. The current "Kingdom of Spain", as a simple continuation of Castile, is born as such in 1716, but it can be traced back to 1516 for the dynastic union, and to 718 for the "core" of the Kingdom (we can also discuss about Portugal, Navarre...). We can accept ANY of these dates, since it is not a simple question. But let's get consistent. If Spain is born in 1516, then the United Kingdom is born in 1707. If we cite 519 for the UK, let's put 718 for Spain. 88.2.248.177 (talk) 13:16, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Second sentence of first paragraph
"This list includes the 195 states which currently are undisputedly sovereign; it does not include former sovereign states or states with limited recognition."

This sentence is completely incorrect and unnecessary. Assuming "195" refers to UN members and observer states, they are not all undisputedly sovereign. The list also includes Taiwan, which is "with limited recognition". Since there is no criteria for inclusion, there is no point of including this sentence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Szqecs (talk • contribs) 20:41, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

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Confusing Column Headings
The column headings in all these lists are quite confusing. There are three columns entitled "Date", with no qualifier. Three others have "Date" with a qualifier, but the columns do not include dates. Treplag (talk) 01:12, 18 May 2013 (UTC)Treplag
 * I agree. It's very confusing. It should be changed. Fluous (talk) 16:08, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

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Israel - why 1948 in sortable list?
Israel existed in antiquity so I think it would be better 1020 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grillofrances (talk • contribs) 13:54, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

China - why 1912 in sortable list?
There was a lot of Chinese dynasties before. I think it would be better 2070 BC - the begin of Xia dynasty. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grillofrances (talk • contribs) 13:58, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Cape Verde & Cabo Verde
Cabo Verde Is Not The Name because it's cape or Cabo or is it. I'm sorry if I made mistake. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ExplodingPoPUps (talk • contribs) 02:17, 6 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Cape Verde is most commonly used in English. LordAtlas (talk) 06:46, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

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Australian Independence
The article states Australia's date of independence as the same as the date of Federation (1st of January 1901). In reality Australia was not independent until quite a bit after Federation. The topic of Australian independence is heavily discussed and debated, however the decision reached by the High Court in 1999 ruled that Australia was granted independence after the Australia Act was signed by the parliaments of Australia and the United Kingdom in 1985, and came into effect on the 3rd of March 1986. The commencement of the Australia Act would be the most accurate date to list as Australia's independence. 141.168.16.134 (talk) 09:28, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

the part about states included
"the 195 states which currently are undisputedly sovereign" false. while there are 195 UN members and UN observers total,palestine is a UN observer and not included,and taiwan is included despite being neither a UN member nor observer. in addition,china,armenia,both koreas,israel,and cyprus have limited recognition. countries that don't recognize china instead recognize taiwan. armenia is not recognized by pakistan. north korea is not recognized bt 3 Un members:france,south korea and japan. south korea is not recognized by north korea. cyprus is not recognized by turkey. afghanistan,algeria,bahrain,bangladesh,bhutan,bolivia,brunei,chad,comoros,cuba,djiouti,indonesia,iran,iraq,north korea,kuwait,lebanon,libya,malaysia,mali,mauritania,morocco,niger,oman,pakistan,qatar,saudi arabia,somalia,sudan,syria,tunisia,united arab emirates,venezuela,and yemen don't recognize israel. the countries that don't recognize china are as follows:belize,burkina faso,dominican republic,el salvador,guatemala,haiti,honduras,kiribati,marshall islands,nauru,nicaragua,palau,paraguay,saint kitts and nevis,saint lucia,saint vincent and the grenadines,solomon islands,swaziland,tuvalu,and vatican city. out of the countries that aren't members of the united nations,only cook islands,palestine,taiwan,and vatican city recognize israel.Masterball2 (talk) 00:01, 7 February 2018 (UTC)