Curated category
Republics
- AlgeriaStone artifacts dating to approximately 1.8 million years old were discovered at Ain Hanech in northern Algeria, representing the oldest archaeological…
- Marshall IslandsRadiocarbon dating suggests that Bikini Atoll may have been inhabited as early as 1200 BCE. Archaeological digs on other atolls found evidence of human…
- GaṇasaṅghaThe Sanskrit word gana means group or community. It can also refer to a body of attendants. The term sangha translates as association, assembly, company, or…
- DjiboutiCut stones dated about 3 million years old have been collected in the area of Lake Abbe. In the Gobaad plain, between Dikhil and Lake Abbe, the remains of…
- UzbekistanThe 8th century BC saw Eastern Iranian nomads known as Scythians establish kingdoms across the region now called Uzbekistan.
- Burkina FasoArchaeological excavations in 1973 uncovered scrapers, chisels, and arrowheads dating back to the period between 14,000 BC and 5,000 BC.
- North KoreaThe Korean Peninsula rises like a sea in a heavy gale, according to early European visitors who marveled at its successive mountain ranges.
- SenegalIn 1444, the Portuguese explorer Dinis Dias stepped onto Gorée Island, marking the first European contact with what is now Senegal.
- LatviaThe name Latvia derives from the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of modern Latvians.
- El SalvadorThe Pleistocene epoch left behind the bones of giant ground sloths and rhinoceros-like Mixotoxodon in what is now El Salvador.
- GuatemalaThe first evidence of human habitation in Guatemala dates to 12,000 BC. Archaeological sites like Sipacate and Escuintla on the central Pacific coast reveal…
- HaitiOn the 6th of December 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the northeastern coast of Hispaniola and named the area Môle-Saint-Nicolas.
- PeruThe ruins of Caral rise from the arid Supe Valley, dating back to 3000 BCE. This site marks the earliest known civilization in the Americas.
- Democratic Republic of the CongoThe Congo rainforest stretches across the central basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, covering most of the country's vast territory.
- ItalyIn 753 BC, a settlement named Rome emerged on the banks of the Tiber River in central Italy. This small community would eventually conquer the entire…
- MoldovaIn 1359, Prince Dragoș established the Principality of Moldavia along the Moldova River. This medieval state became a vassal to the Ottoman Empire in 1538…
- KazakhstanThe Botai culture thrived between 3700 and 3100 BC in the region now known as Kazakhstan. Archaeologists credit this group with the first domestication of…
- LaosIn 2009, archaeologists recovered an anatomically modern human skull from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains of northern Laos.
- Georgia (country)The oldest traces of archaic humans in what is now Georgia date from approximately 1.8 million years ago. These remains belong to the Dmanisi hominins, a…
- FinlandThe first people arrived in the land that is now Finland around 8500 BC. They were hunter-gatherers who used stone tools to survive the harsh environment…
- PortugalThe Cave of Aroeira in central Portugal yielded a 400,000-year-old skull of Homo heidelbergensis in 2014. This discovery proves human presence on the Iberian…
- ArgentinaA Venetian map from 1536 bears the word Argentina, marking one of the earliest written uses of the name for this South American region.
- FranceThe name France comes from the Latin word Francia, meaning realm of the Franks. This tribal identity emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of the reconstructed…
- LithuaniaThe name Lithuania first appeared in written history on the 7th of May 1009, recorded in the Annals of Quedlinburg. A Latinized form called Litua described a…
- TaiwanThe island of Taiwan lies in a complex tectonic area between the Yangtze Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, and the Philippine…
- AzerbaijanThe name Azerbaijan traces back to Atropates, a Persian satrap under the Achaemenid Empire who was reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander the…
- IndonesiaThe name Indonesia derives from the Greek words indos and nesos, meaning Indian islands. This term dates back to 1850 when English ethnologist George Windsor…
- ChileChile stretches over 4,300 kilometers from north to south, yet at its widest point it measures only 200 kilometers across.
- ColombiaColômbia exists as a quiet municipality in the northern part of São Paulo state, Brazil, yet its population of 6,216 people in 2020 remains largely unknown…
- EstoniaThe Pulli settlement dates to around 9000 BC, marking the earliest known human habitation in Estonia. Glaciers of the last ice age melted between 13,000 and…
- MongoliaIn 209 BC, Modu Shanyu united the Xiongnu tribes to form a confederation that would challenge the Qin dynasty. This empire stretched across the steppes and…
- NepalThe Indian plate began drifting northeastward 75 million years ago, colliding with the Eurasian Plate to create the Himalayas.
- Ivory CoastPortuguese merchant-explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries divided the west coast of Africa into four regions based on available resources.
- ChinaIn 221 BCE, King Zheng of Qin conquered six rival states to unify China under the first emperor. This ruler enacted legalist reforms that standardized…
- IsraelThe Merneptah Stele, an ancient Egyptian monument dated to the late 13th century BCE, bears the earliest known archaeological reference to Israel as a…
- GreeceThe year 776 BC marks the first Olympic Games, a moment that signaled the end of the Greek Dark Ages and the beginning of recorded history for these…
- PhilippinesThe first human bones found in the Philippines date back 709,000 years to a site now known as Callao Cave. These remains suggest an unknown species of early…
- PolandIn 966, the ruler of the West Slavic tribe known as the Polans accepted Western Christianity under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church.
- South KoreaIn the early seventh century BC, Chinese records noted Gojoseon as the first kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. This ancient polity expanded to control much of…
- TurkeyGöbekli Tepe stands as a stone monument older than Stonehenge, with some henges erected around 9600 BC. This site in southeastern Turkey predates the…
- VietnamStone artefacts excavated in Gia Lai province have been claimed to date to 780,000 years ago. This claim remains challenged because tektites are often found…
- IcelandThe island of Iceland sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a geological fault line where the Eurasian Plate and North American Plate drift apart.
- RomaniaRomania sits at the intersection of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Its borders touch Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to…
- CubaCuba is an archipelago of 4,195 islands, cays and islets located in the northern Caribbean Sea at the convergence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic…
- MaldivesThe Maldives stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. This chain of 26 atolls covers roughly 90,000…
- BelarusThe name Belarus appears in German and Latin medieval literature, with the chronicles of Jan of Czarnków mentioning the imprisonment of Lithuanian grand duke…
- UkraineStone tools discovered in Korolevo, western Ukraine, date back 1.4 million years, marking the earliest securely dated hominin presence in Europe.
- CroatiaThe name Croatia emerges from a linguistic puzzle spanning centuries. Medieval Latin records show the term Croatorum on an 8th-century church inscription…
- Czech RepublicArchaeologists uncovered the Venus of Dolní Věstonice in 1925, a ceramic figurine dating to approximately 29,000, 25,000 BCE.
- SloveniaIn the Divje Babe cave near Cerkno, archaeologists uncovered a pierced cave bear bone in 1995. This artifact dates back to approximately 43,100 years before…