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So, you clicked on this video because you want to know what the shortest-lived country
in history is.
And might be thinking, “well come on video guy, just tell us the answer, don’t stretch
it out to a whole video like a jerk.”
Well first of all, there’s no need for name calling.
And second of all, while I’d love to just tell you the answer, the answer is…complicated
(and great for watch time.)
That’s because what the shortest-lived country is depends on what’s considered a country.
For example, if I say right now—and let me get the clock ready—“I declare this
recording studio, with the consent of its people—which is me—as the free and independent
state of Halfasinteresting-stania!
Aaaand, never mind!
We’re dissolved” 4.2 seconds.
Did I just make the shortest-lived country ever?
Well, probably not, but to be fair to Halfasinteresting-stania, figuring out when something is a country can
be a bit difficult, because it’s tough to know when something actually is a country,
and when it’s just a group of people—or in my case, person—saying they’re a country.
It’s a debate we’re seeing right now about several states—such as Taiwan, which actually
now that I think about it, never-mind.
I should not have mentioned Taiwan forget about the Taiwan thing.
That’s like controversy avoidance 101.
Look at this fun meme instead.
So basically, there are two theories about what makes a country, a country.
One is called the constitutive theory, which says that being a country is based on international
recognition—basically a country is only a country when other countries say it is.
But how many countries have to recognize a country for it to be…well, a country?
The answer is that nobody seems quite sure and there are some very country-seeming countries,
such as South Korea, that are not recognized by all other countries.
If we consider membership in the United Nations as the mark of real international recognition,
then the shortest-lived country is the Sultanate of Zanzibar, winner of the first annual HAI
name awards, which was located here.
The Zanzibar Archipelago had been a protectorate of the British, but on December 10, 1963 was
declared independent and was recognized by the UN on December 16 as its own independent
country.
But only about a month later the two major Zanzian…Zanzibaranian….Zazaminian….the
two major political parties in Zanzibar came together to overthrow the Sultan and on January
12, 1964 they declared a new nation—The People’s Republic of Zanzibar, giving the
country a total of 33 days as a UN-recognized country.
Also crazy coincidence, the Sultanate of Zanzibar was where the shortest war in history, a 39
minute scuffle, was fought but that’s a story for another time.
But here’s a problem with the Zanzibar answer: membership in the UN feels like a pretty high
bar to be called a country—first of all, the UN didn’t exist until 1945, so any country
that was around before then couldn’t have been in it at all.
And second of all—there are plenty of places that are at least partially recognized as
countries but aren’t in the UN, like the Vatican City, Kosovo, and Taiwan.
So, maybe it doesn’t take the whole UN.
Maybe it just takes one other country.
If we consider one country’s formal recognition to be enough, then the shortest-lived country
is…drumroll please…the Republic of Crimea, which existed from March 17, 2014 to March
18 of 2014.
So about a day.
Basically, Crimea held a referendum and declared its independence on March 17, 2014, and Russia
immediately recognized it as a sovereign nation.
But then the next day, Russia annexed Crimea, and made it part of the Russian Federation,
thus ending the illustrious reign of the Republic of Crimea about 24 hours after it began.
But wait a minute, because this one is controversial.
First of all, Russia was the only one to recognize the Republic of Crimea—the UN even passed
a resolution saying that the referendum declaring independence was illegal.
So….maybe not.
Comment engagement is good so make sure to leave your opinion on Crimean independence
in the comments!
But like I said before, the constitutive theory is only one theory of what makes a country
a country.
The second is called the declarative theory.
It sets out four criteria for a country: a permanent population, a defined territory,
a government, and the capacity to enter relations with other states.
According to those criteria, allow me to present the actual shortest-lived country in history—The
Russian Federative Democratic Republic.
The Russian Federative Democratic Republic was formed around noon on January 19th, 1918,
when the democratically elected Russian Constituent Assembly drafted and adopted a resolution
that declared the Russian Republic was no more and that they were now a cool new, democratic
country.
They had a permanent population—the people in Russia.
A defined territory—you know…Russia.
A government—the Russian Constituent Assembly.
And the capacity to enter relations with other states—I mean…they could have sent letters
and stuff.
But then, around 6pm that same day, Vladimir Lenin dissolved the Assembly, and formed instead
the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, giving the Russian Federative Democratic Republic
a total existence time of 6 hours.
You couldn’t even finish all three Matrix movies in that time—not that you’d want
to.
But before we declare it the winner, we have one last contender to look at—Catalonia.
On October 1, 2017, Catalonia held a referendum and overwhelmingly voted to become independent
from Spain.
On October 10, the Catalan leader held a speech where he declared independence, saying “I
assume the mandate of the people for Catalonia to become an independent state in the shape
of a republic.”
But right after that, he asked Parliament to suspend his declaration of independence
so that he could negotiate with Spain, giving the independent nation of Catalonia a lifespan
of exactly…eight seconds.
This independent nation had no international recognition but, you know, he declared it
so make your own conclusion.
If you start your own country, you probably know that any good nation eventually progresses
into space exploration.
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