While some countries like Japan have histories dating back to before the time of Christ, several were only founded in recent decades – and six of them are in Europe.
South Sudan is the world’s most recently founded country, having been formally established on July 9th, 2011.
It was officially recognised as an independent nation following a 2005 agreement to end a decades-long civil war, with the 10 most southern states breaking away from Sudan to form South Sudan.
The second-youngest is Kosovo in Southeastern Europe, having declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, as per Forbes. The country’s independence has so far being recognised by 104 nations around the globe, including the UK, out of 193.
Two years prior, the nearby State Union of Serbia and Montenegro split to form the separate states of Serbia and Montenegro in June 2006.
Timor Leste, also known as East Timor, is the fifth youngest nation, having officially become an independent nation on May 20, 2002.
Its establishment followed decades of hardship. After Portuguese colonial rule ended in 1975, Indonesia claimed the territory for itself and brutally suppressed the country’s independence movement, as per BBC News’ profile of the state.
After decades of struggle, the UN took over territory’s administration and supervised its move to independence.
Next up is tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, which until relatively recently was part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific, administered by the US following the Second World War, as per the United States Department of State website.
The country began the process of independence in 1978, gaining it in 1994.
Eritrea, a northeast African nation on the Red Sea coast is the seventh youngest nation in the world.
The country, which has a population of around 3.7 million formally gained its independence from neighbouring Ethiopia in 1993, following a decades-long war.
The eighth and ninth youngest nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, became independent nations on the same day, January 1, 1993.
What had formally been Czechoslovakia split into two countries following the dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation.
According to the Pew Research Centre, “In addition to their differences over religion and other issues, Czechs and Slovaks differ ethnically and culturally.
“These as well as political, economic and other reasons led Slovakian political leaders to push to break away from Czechoslovakia”, following the collapse of the Communism in the late 1980s.
Finally, Bosnia and Herzegovina officially came into being on March 3rd, 1992, becoming the final part of former Yugoslavia to proclaim independence, as per The Telegraph.
