Have You Always Wondered?

Countries that were bigger

We are going to talk about countries that were bigger in the past. We are not including countries that were part of another country or a country that split into 2 countries (Examples include Korea, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Wales, etc). Kingdom of England. Before the unification between Scotland and England, the entirety of Wales was under English control but Wales is now a country in the UK instead of part if England. Ireland. After Ireland gained independence from Great Britain, the entire island of Ireland was one country until Northern Ireland seceded to the UK. Russia. Russia is massive but it was bigger before, under the Communist regime between 1917-1989, Russia had Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, after the fall of the U.S.S.R Russia has well split to the Russian Federatiom and the 14 other nations. Republic of China. The Republic of China is NOT the People's Republic of China, ok, the Republic of China is the island of Taiwan, well the Republic of China had mainland China, Tibet, Taiwan, and Mongolia in their entirety until the Chinese Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War where these regions peacefully gained independence (Tibet was later annexed in 1949). Australia. Back then when Australia just gained independence and became a Commonwealth of the UK it had what is now New Zealand and Papa New Guinea until a lot of agreements happened and Papa New Guinea and New Zealand became independent from Australia. Sudan. In 2011 Southern Sudan seceded from Sudan because of religious differences, that's all. Morroco. Before the European Colonization of Africa Morroco controlled a chunk of West Africa until France and Spain colonized the area. Spain. Spain had control of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the southern half of Italy until the Netherlands (which included Belgium) fought against the Spanish and Spain lost Spanish Italy during the Napoleonic Era. Germany. Germany lost many of its land during WW1 and when Nazi Germany took power, same thing. Mexico. Mexico had control of mainland Mexico, Central America, California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and Colorado, until the Texan Revolution and Mexican-American War. Bolivia. If you read the Landlocked chapter you should know about the Pacific War but also Bolivia seceded land to Brazil and Paraguay. Haiti, After the Dominican Republic gained independence from Spain, the French speaking Haiti invaded the Dominican Republic and had control of it until the Spanish speaking populations fought back taking 2/3rds if the island of Hispanola in the Caribbean. See you next time.