Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Little countries often have fascinating histories, which are not well known nor widely studies. Madagascar comes to mind. Madagascar had no indigenous population before the 7th century, was ruled by a despot that would make Hitler blush, and resisted European colonization until 1890 and didn't even have a postal service until then.
What small countries have you found yourself attracted to the interesting history of?
I was going to post this on a separate thread, but it seems to fit here. For those who enjoy learning about exotic and far off places, the relatively unknown and expired kingdom of Guge might be of interest. A link follows, but there are several other online sites available that give additional information and photos of this fascinating place in western Tibet:
Any country that's represented in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with one person walking into the stadium holding the flag and one person walking along behind him waving to the crowd with a big smile on his face has my interest.
Any country that's represented in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with one person walking into the stadium holding the flag and one person walking along behind him waving to the crowd with a big smile on his face has my interest.
I was in Malta watching the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Olympics. Maltese TV picked up the video feed from Italian TV, and provided Maltese commentary. Just as the one-man Maltese team (a skeet shooter) came into the picture with his flag and the commentators got all excited, Italian TV cut away for a commercial, so Maltese viewers didn't get to see it.
For a nation which has but six million people and 32 k square miles, Ireland has certainly held an outsized fascination.
And its history has been awfully damned interesting. It seemed like a very nice place, relative to its European neighbors, until the 12 Century. They had an advanced culture organized along tribal lines, and were ahead of most of the post Roman Europe in literature, metal working, jewlery making and sculpture.
Then came Henry II in 1171 and things went to hell in a handbasket, and then stayed that way until very recently. If you divided Irish history after the arrival of the Brits into chapter headings, they would present a picture of unrelived gloom. The Angeven Land Grab...The Tudor Atrocities....The Nine Years War....The Era of Bloody Chaos..The Age of the Martyrs..The Cromwellian Conquest....The Second Era of Bloody Chaos...The Potato Famine...and so forth.
Little countries often have fascinating histories, which are not well known nor widely studies. Madagascar comes to mind. Madagascar had no indigenous population before the 7th century, was ruled by a despot that would make Hitler blush, and resisted European colonization until 1890 and didn't even have a postal service until then.
What small countries have you found yourself attracted to the interesting history of?
Do you mean small in size, small in population, or obscure or little-known ones (at least say in the USA or much of the "western" world).
I see from a quick search that Madagascar has about the population of Australia -- would Australia be seen as a "small country"?
Some countries large in population (ie. Bangladesh or Nigeria, which are larger than Russia or Japan) are not well known perhaps by most Americans/westerners.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Little countries often have fascinating histories, which are not well known nor widely studies. Madagascar comes to mind. Madagascar had no indigenous population before the 7th century, was ruled by a despot that would make Hitler blush, and resisted European colonization until 1890 and didn't even have a postal service until then.
Madagascar's pretty interesting because it has mainly one "native language" (unsual for an African country) and that native language actually comes across the Indian ocean, along with a component of the natives' ancestry from around Indonesia (that language, Malagasy, belongs to the Austronesian family which is geographically pretty widespread and includes the Polynesian tongues like Hawaiian and New Zealand's Maori).
Last edited by Stumbler.; 02-02-2011 at 11:17 PM..
Paraguay has an interesting place in South American history considering its small population and relatively limited size. It has a "key" location at the top of South America's "southern cone" between Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil - which, of course, means war. Like the War of the Triple Alliance.
The country is largely overlooked even by South Americans. People don't really think of Paraguay, anymore than they think of Suriname or Guyana.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
