Curated playlist
G20 members
- JapanJapan sealed itself off from the outside world for more than two centuries.
- Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia is named after one family, the Al Saud. King Abdulaziz made the name official by decree in 1932.
- United KingdomThe United Kingdom is one country made of four nations. Four capitals share the work.
- AustraliaAustralia's name began as a guess about a continent nobody had found. Mapmakers imagined Terra Australis Incognita.
- ItalyItaly contains two other countries inside its borders. Vatican City and San Marino are surrounded by Italian land.
- CanadaCanada's name began as a word for a village. In 1535, locals used it to point Jacques Cartier to Stadacona.
- ArgentinaArgentina's name was never Spanish, and it means made of silver in Italian. It first appeared on a Venetian map in 1536.
- FranceFrance may be named after a tax privilege. One suggestion says only Franks were exempt from taxes.
- GermanyGermany's Swabian Jura cave held the oldest musical instruments ever found.
- IndonesiaMore than half of Indonesia's people live on one island, Java. It is the most heavily populated island in the world.
- United StatesThe name United States first appeared in a 1776 letter. The country it named did not yet exist.
- ChinaChina gave the world papermaking, printing, the compass and gunpowder.
- European UnionThe European Union began as a pact over coal and steel. Six nations tied those war industries together in 1952.
- South KoreaSouth Korea is technically still at war with North Korea. No peace treaty ever ended the war that began in 1950.
- South AfricaSouth Africa built six nuclear devices, then became the first nation to voluntarily dismantle its arsenal.
- BrazilBrazil is named after a tree that produced a deep red dye. European textile makers prized pau-brasil, or brazilwood.
- MexicoMexico domesticated maize, the tomato and beans, three plants that feed much of the world.
- RussiaRussia spans eleven time zones, more than any other country. Its borders touch fourteen nations.
- TurkeyAlmost everyone in Turkey lives with some risk of earthquakes. Two major fault lines border the Anatolian plate.
- IndiaIndia is both the most populous country and the most populous democracy. More than 1.4 billion people live there.