list of formerly prosperous countries (richest, rated, cities)

[paull805]

Well if we are going that far back then yeah.

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by yofie

I've just been thinking, also the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia, from what I understand, was one of the most prosperous of the Communist states in Eastern Europe, and it fell apart economically as well as politically in the 1990s wars.

Wrong. The parts of Yugoslavia that were doing well (Slovenia, Croatia) still are, and the parts that were having trouble still have trouble.

[Ethereal]

Greece (the first developed country to be "downgraded" and how it can't be compared to ancient Greece)
Iraq (it was rather prosperous before Saddam)
Iran (before the Revolution)
Mali (had a prosperous empire, like Greece)

[lexdiamondz1902]

Originally Posted by yofie

Here's a list of countries that used to be much more prosperous (or at least which held much more promise) - not so long ago - relative to now:

Argentina (plus Uruguay)
Cuba
Zimbabwe
Cote d'Ivoire
Lebanon
Sri Lanka
Burma/Myanmar

Any others come to mind?

Most of these countries were never truly prosperous. Except for Argentina & Uruguay, the rest of these countries on the list were plutocracies were a small élite extracted the bulk of the wealth out of a population which suffered in abject poverty.

Originally Posted by Davy-040

Until a couple hundred years ago India was one of the most prosperous countries in the world, can't say that today.

"India" didn't exist as a country a couple hundred years ago.

[Jesse44]

Originally Posted by lexdiamondz1902

"India" didn't exist as a country a couple hundred years ago.

Not only that, but how was it ever prosperous? If you refer to the Raj, exploitation does not equal wealth.

[Greysholic]

I know it's not a country technically, but Hong Kong.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by yofie

Here's a list of countries that used to be much more prosperous (or at least which held much more promise) - not so long ago - relative to now:

Argentina (plus Uruguay)
Cuba
Zimbabwe
Cote d'Ivoire
Lebanon
Sri Lanka
Burma/Myanmar

Any others come to mind?

That's a pretty comprehensive list, and I'm hard pressed to think of others. Maybe Cyprus, Kuwait and Kenya.

Not so sure about Sri Lanka, I think they might be about as well off now as they ever were. Cuba as a whole was not better off before Castro, It had net prosperity, but few Cubans felt any positive effect from that..

[Fabio SBA]

Venezuela was once a prosperous and democratic country, an example for a Latin America full of tyrants. Then, Hugo Chávez arose to the power. The rest of the history doesn't need further comments.

[improb]

Originally Posted by AntonioR

I think Costa Rica is another one, albeit their situation is not so much that they went off a cliff like Venezuela did, but rather they simply went to sleep and others are passing them. The huge illegal immigration problem they have with Nicaragua certainly isn't helping.

Really? It seems to me that the country is still growing and certainly the most developed one in Central America along with Panama

[improb]

Originally Posted by paull805

Yeah supposedly a lot of Syria was nice to visit - now it is the definition of hell. It saddens me the lose of life, but also the destruction of their culture and ancient cultural sites and art. Will never be the same again, and we stood by and done nothing. If we had got Assad out at the first sign he was cracking down we could have stopped the extremist nuts pouring into the country and had a moderate and inclusive government - now it is unfixable and we will feel the repercussions any day now on our streets.

You're wrong, the only way to avoid this would have been to support Assad, instead we just worsened the situation funding the rebels without even checking their backgrounds (some of them have/had links to Islamic extremism), we just destabilized the country further.