List of sovereign states by date of formation

• [1] For proposed states or various indigenous nations which consider themselves still under occupation, see list of active autonomist and secessionist movements.

• Nation-building is a long evolutionary process, and in most cases the date of a country's "formation" cannot be objectively determined; e.g., the fact that England and France were sovereign kingdoms on equal footing in the medieval period does not prejudice the fact that England is not now a sovereign state (having passed sovereignty to the UK in 1707), while France is a Republic founded in 1789 (technically, France currently refers to the French Fifth Republic, formed in 1958).

• Many countries have some remote (or fantastically remote) symbolic foundation date as part of their national mythology, sometimes artificially inflating a country's "age" for reasons of nationalism, sometimes merely gesturing at a long and gradual process of the formation of an ethnic identity.

• In other cases, a sovereign state submitted to foreign military occupation or political subjugation for a period of time and later regained its independence.

• Dates refer to de facto rule or occupation of the major territory, whether or not legitimized by international recognition.

Here are some other news items:^{credits to u-sr33}

• 'Interference' as a state policy

• US not sanctioning Pakistan

• This

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