Random Historical Country Generator

How this list was compiled: Own selection of 189 former states, written for this page on 2026-10-01 and checked again on 2026-10-03. Rule: a state that governed itself and no longer exists because it was dissolved, merged with another state, partitioned or absorbed; a country that only changed its name is left out, and so are provinces, princely states and states whose recognition is disputed today. A state whose government was overthrown or replaced is listed only where its own article treats it as a state that ended and gives it an end year (the Russian Empire, the Hawaiian Kingdom, the Kingdom of Yemen and the Kingdom of Prussia are in on that ground); the test is the article, not a judgment of ours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_sovereign_states and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_date_of_formation were used for coverage only; the first carries a notice that parts of it need checking, so no fact is taken from it. Years, capital, present-day lands and the line on how each state ended come from the infobox and opening section of the state's own English Wikipedia article, read on 2026-10-01. Every year, the capital, each present-day country and the names in each line were checked against that text. Where the article gives a century, the word about, or two possible years, the card says the same. Where a state had several capitals the card names one of them. Present-day lands name the main countries or the region the article names, and are left blank where the article's opening names no present-day land. How a state ended is given as the article dates it, with no judgment; where the opening does not say how it ended, the card names the state the article's infobox lists as following it. Second source: 49 cards were also read on 2026-10-03 in a second encyclopedia and agree with it on the year the state ended, with nothing in it against the card's start year: 28 against the World History Encyclopedia (https://www.worldhistory.org/), where it has an article on the state itself, and 21 against Encyclopaedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/), which refuses scripted reads and was read on 2026-10-03 in the Internet Archive's copies (https://web.archive.org/) of these entries, each with the date of the copy: Asante empire, 24 July 2026; Austria-Hungary, 12 August 2026; Czechoslovakia, 7 September 2026; Delhi sultanate, 25 September 2026; Dutch Republic, 15 July 2026; East Germany, 19 July 2026; Far Eastern Republic, 31 July 2026; Free Territory of Trieste, 7 August 2025; Kalmar Union, 7 August 2026; Khanate of Kokand, 19 August 2026; Mali Federation, 8 September 2026; Marīnid dynasty, 10 June 2026; Neo-Babylonian empire, 10 May 2026; Orange Free State, 5 August 2026; Papal States, 1 October 2026; Russian Empire, 1 October 2026; South African Republic (SAR), 23 August 2026; Soviet Union, 6 June 2025; Sukhothai kingdom, 6 September 2026; Tanganyika, 6 July 2026; United Arab Republic, 3 September 2026. That day 28 states came off the list because the second encyclopedia gives another year for their start or end, Gran Colombia, the Aztec Empire and the Mali Empire among them, and the Ottoman Empire's start was corrected to about 1299, which both sources give. The other 140 cards rest on the Wikipedia article alone, and each of them says so. The Era groups go by the year a state ended; the Region filter lists every continent an empire reached. 16 ended before 500, 53 from 500 to 1499, 35 from 1500 to 1799, 37 in the 1800s and 48 in 1900 or later. Licence: own work