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Curated playlist

Former countries in Europe

  • SicilyA Byzantine commander's crimes helped start the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827.
  • East GermanyA picnic near the Hungarian town of Sopron helped bring down East Germany. The border opened there in August 1989.
  • Russian Provisional GovernmentIn 1917, Bolshevik Red Guards seized the Winter Palace and ended Russia's Provisional Government.
  • Crown of AragonThe Crown of Aragon began with a monk who never wanted to be king. Nobles pulled Ramiro II out of his monastery in 1134.
  • NorthumbriaOf Northumbria's 25 kings before the Danes arrived, only four died of natural causes.
  • Socialist Republic of RomaniaRomania's Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed after a trial that lasted an hour and a half. Days before, a crowd booed him.
  • Crown of CastileThe Crown of Castile never formally ended, yet it vanished into a new name: Spain.
  • Vandal KingdomThe Vandal Kingdom fell in just a few months in 533, after ruling North Africa for 99 years.
  • Kingdom of Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain began on May 1, 1707, with a signature, not a battle.
  • Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic began with one act of violence and ended with another.
  • Kievan Rus'In 860, a Rus' navy appeared without warning outside Constantinople. It devastated the suburbs and nearby islands.
  • Helvetic RepublicIn April 1798, 121 deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic "One and Indivisible."
  • Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire never called itself Byzantine. Its citizens called themselves Romans, and the name came later.
  • Nazi GermanyNazi Germany's leaders promised it would last a thousand years, but it lasted twelve. It ended in May 1945.
  • ColchisAccording to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in one city of ancient Colchis.
  • Ligurian RepublicThe Ligurian Republic came back to life for exactly three months in 1814. Napoleon's fall briefly restored it.
  • Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet RepublicThe Transcaucasian republic was born from a Soviet invasion and helped found the USSR.
  • Principality of TverThe Principality of Tver captured the khan's own sister in battle in 1317. Her death in Tver's hands doomed its prince.
  • Soviet UnionOn December 26, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev officially recognized the Soviet Union's dissolution.
  • Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire began as a republic run by elected officials. It still lasted, in one form or another, until 1453.
  • PrussiaPrussia began in 1525 as a monastery's land and ended in 1947 by Allied law.
  • Grand Duchy of FinlandIn 1809, Sweden handed Finland to Russia after losing a war. Finland then became a self-governing grand duchy.
  • Polish–Lithuanian CommonwealthIn the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one deputy's dissent could cancel a whole parliament's laws.

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