The world's oldest current states (WW2, Roman, Egypt, Great Britain)

[Lucidus]

Have you wondered what the world's oldest state is? I have too, and I have found that there are a number of different opinions on that. I couldn't find any answers that seemed satisfactory to me so I set out to answer the question myself. It should be noted however, that I am not a historian.

To begin with I decided that I would only consider existing states and I would take into consideration the date of last foreign subordination as defined by wikipedia here in the sortable list table;

List of sovereign states by date of formation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I also wanted to include any internal changes in government. As I started the processes of reviewing the histories of various states and documenting the changes, I notice that the most common change was a new constitution. So I made the decision to use the date when the current constitution of a state went into effect and/or the date of the last foreign subordination as the date of origin for each state. Most of the dates for current constitutions came from here:

List of constitutions by age - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The dates not provided there are the results of my own research.

There are some weakness to this methodology including:

1. Not all states have constitutions, so I tried to make the best determination that I could regarding which documents are relevant to the foundation of the state. It should be noted that I am not an expert in constitutional law.

Example

Libya and The Green Book.

2. Some states have constitutions but not as a single document. Again I had to use my judgement on which documents were most important to date the age of the state. I am sure that other people will have different opinions.

Example

UK dated to the union of 1801 since a new unitary state was created. Otherwise it would be considered much older.

3. Some governments are clearly not a continuation of the previous government but claim to be operating under the same constitution or are simply silent on constitutional issues. These states may appear to be older than they actually are by my methodology.

Example

Argentina had a coup in 1930 but the constitution of 1853 remains in effect.

4. Some governments create a new constitution every time even a minor change is made rather than amending an old constitution. These states may be older than they appear to be.

Example

The Dominican Republic has had 32 constitutions.

5. Some states have an old system of government but have recently adopted constitutions that describe the government as is rather than create a new one. These states too may appear to be younger by my methodology.

Example

Oman is an absolute monarchy that dates to the 1740's but has a constitution issued in 1996. The monarchy remains absolute and the constitution of 1996 doesn't change anything about it.

6. Some states have governments that were temporarily disrupted by foreign occupation and then restored. Some may view these as continuations of the old government, but for my purposes I considered them new governments.

Example

The Netherlands has a constitution dated to 1815 but was occupied by Germany in WW2.

7. Some states may still be under foreign occupation.

Example

Afghanistan presently occupied by coalition forces.

So with all of my explanations and excuses out of the way, here is the list.
It is almost certainly incomplete so feel free to suggest changes and if you have a question about why I picked a particular date just ask me.


United States of America 1789
United Kingdom 1801
Costa Rica 1838
Argentina 1853
Switzerland 1874
Mexico 1917
Liechtenstein 1921
Canada 1931
Ireland 1937
Lebanon 1943
Belgium 1945
Netherlands 1945
Luxembourg 1945
San Marino 1945
Denmark 1945
Norway 1945
Iceland 1946
Taiwan 1947
Italy 1948
South Korea 1948
Laos 1949
India 1950
Jordan 1952
Japan 1952
Egypt 1953
Germany 1955
Austria 1955
Hungary 1956
Israel 1958
France 1958
Indonesia 1959
Tunisia 1959
Cyprus 1960
Jamaica 1962
Monaco 1962
Samoa 1962
Malta 1964
Singapore 1965
Barbados 1966
Botswana 1966
Uruguay 1966
Mauritius 1968
Nauru 1968
Tonga 1970
United Arab Emirates 1971
Bangladesh 1972
Pakistan 1973
Syria 1973
Grenada 1974
Papua New Guinea 1975
Sweden 1975
Bahamas 1975
Libya 1975
Greece 1975
Madagascar 1975
Cuba 1976
Trinidad and Tobago 1976
Portugal 1976
Tanzania 1977
Sri Lanka 1978
Tuvalu 1978
Dominica 1978
Spain 1978
Solomon Islands 1978
Saint Lucia 1979
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1979
Kiribati 1979
Iran 1979
Chile 1980
Vanuatu 1980
Zimbabwe 1980
Cape Verde 1980
Guyana 1980
Belize 1981
Antigua and Barbuda 1981
Honduras 1982
China, People's Republic of 1982
Turkey 1982
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1983
El Salvador 1983
Guinea 1984
Brunei 1984
Guinea-Bissau 1984
Guatemala 1985
Australia 1986
Micronesia, Federated States of 1986
New Zealand 1986
Liberia 1986
Ethiopia 1987
Nicaragua 1987
Suriname 1987
Philippines 1987
Algeria 1988
Panama 1990
Benin 1990
Latvia 1990
Mozambique 1990
São Tomé and Príncipe 1990
Namibia 1990
Romania 1991
Mauritania 1991
Kuwait 1991
Croatia 1991
Equatorial Guinea 1991
Yemen 1991
Macedonia 1991
Zambia 1991
Slovenia 1991
Sierra Leone 1991
Georgia 1991
Colombia 1991
Bulgaria 1991
Gabon 1991
Burkina Faso 1991
Turkmenistan 1992
Mali 1992
Czech Republic 1992
Djibouti 1992
Ghana 1992
Estonia 1992
Togo 1992
Paraguay 1992
Saudi Arabia 1992
Burundi 1992
Vietnam 1992
Uzbekistan 1992
Mongolia 1992
Lithuania 1992
Lesotho 1993
Russia 1993
Cambodia 1993
Andorra 1993
Slovakia 1993
Seychelles 1993
Peru 1993
Haiti 1994
Tajikistan 1994
Moldova 1994
Palau 1994
Belarus 1994
Uganda 1995
Malawi 1995
Kazakhstan 1995
Armenia 1995
Azerbaijan 1995
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995
Malaysia 1995
Ukraine 1996
Oman 1996
Gambia 1996
Morocco 1996
Chad 1996
Cameroon 1996
South Africa 1996
Poland 1997
Fiji 1997
Eritrea 1997
Albania 1998
Brazil 1998
Sudan 1998
Nigeria 1999
Niger 1999
Venezuela 1999
Côte d'Ivoire 2000
Finland 2000
Vatican City 2000
Comoros 2001
Senegal 2001
Bahrain 2002
Congo, Republic of the 2002
Timor-Leste 2002
Rwanda 2003
Qatar 2003
Somalia 2004
Afghanistan 2004
Central African Republic 2004
Iraq 2005
Swaziland 2005
Marshall Islands 2005
Congo, Democratic Republic of the 2006
Serbia 2006
Thailand 2007
Montenegro 2007
Nepal 2007
Bhutan 2008
Ecuador 2008
Kosovo 2008
Maldives 2008
Myanmar 2008
North Korea 2009
Bolivia 2009
Dominican Republic 2010
Angola 2010
Kenya 2010
Kyrgyzstan 2010

[newhandle]

Perhaps San Marino meets your criteria. Founded in 257, it has the oldest constitution dating from 1600 and seems to be the oldest constitutional republic.

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by newhandle

Perhaps San Marino meets your criteria. Founded in 257, it has the oldest constitution dating from 1600 and seems to be the oldest constitutional republic.

I included San Marino in my list. It has a constitution dating to 1600 but it was occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces in WW2. By my criteria that constitutes a break in sovereignty and thus it can only be dated to 1945. But even with the 1945 date it is still one of the oldest states in the world.

[Tempranillo]

With that system you are not looking for the oldest country, you are looking for the oldest goverment system in force or something like that.

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by Tempranillo

With that system you are not looking for the oldest country, you are looking for the oldest goverment system in force or something like that.

Right, that is why I used the word state and avoided the words country and nation. But, state may not be the right word either, so I am open to suggestions. I could use the word government, but I was afraid that would cause confusion about what I meant, people would think I meant monarchy or communism or whatever rather than specific governmental entities.

[newhandle]

Using the criteria, I am not sure about using 1789 for the United States. From 1861 to 1865 part of it was not part of the US (I am not trying to start a discussion of the War). In addtion, most of what is now the US was not under US control in 1789. It gets mirkier and mirkier.

I would still say San Marino is the oldest. From what I can tell, The German and Allied occuptions lasted only a few months and though occupied, it appears both were too preoccupied with the battle to replace the govt. that was in existence since 1600. I think San Marino would follow Argentina's example using your criteria.

I am curious, why 1958 for Israel?

Great Britian presents an odd case. It has no written constitution of course, but the crisis of 1909 to 1911, fundamentally changed the government and society at large and set the stage for later more radical reforms.

[jtur88]

The list is based on such arbitrary standards, that it would make more sense to sequentially look at older and older maps, and list the countries found thereupon. If a country changes name (eg Ivory Coast = Cote d'Ivoire), does it become a new country? It's pretty obvious that Portugal is an older country than the USA. In fact, Portugal has the distinction of having been a country within it's current boundaries for the longest unbroken period of time (excluding a few islands). I think the Portuguese would be quite justified in their contempt for your list, and the Japanese and Indians as well.

Sadly, I think all your interesting scholarship in trying to form definitions has done little more than to dig you deeper and deeper into a hole that keeps backfilling.

[noetsi]

Andora existed in its present form since the late 15th century I believe. The Japanese monarchy goes back at least to the 12th century (that is its present monarchial family). China has been a unified state ruled by various groups since 300 bc.

[WIHS2006]

While not countries, some of the existing British, French, and Dutch possessions have been ruled by those nations since the 1600s. Bermuda for instance has been a self governing British colony since 1612, the 14 remaining British colonies are now known as British overseas territories in PC speak.

[ben86]

Is Germany in that list? October 3rd 1990 is reunification day but I couldn't see it. Also, why is Australia 1986? I believe January 1st 1901 is the generally accepted date in Australia for the birth of their country. I think your methodology throws up too many odd results - Bolivia and Ecuador might have brought in new constitutions or something rather than amend an old one but I doubt anybody from those countries would agree that their state is only 1-2 years old the way somebody from, say, Slovakia would agree with you on 1993. I think there's no definitive answer about when Great Britain/United Kingdom/England first came to be.