I thought that the Western/Eastern Roman empire distinction came from Diocletian elevating Maximian to Augustus in 286?

Actually he later elevated two others to the status of co-rulers as well (tetrarchy for the win). I would not say that there was an Eastern Roman Empire until Constantine found the city of Constantinopolis (on top of the ancient site called Byzantium, hence the name of the Byzantine Empire).

Is there an official date then for the east/west split after the founding of Constantinople (eg the death of Theodosius)? I'm guessing that the east/west territorial division in 395 was very close to that of 285/86 between Diocletian and Maximian and in 313 between Constantine and Licinius.

Constantine's transfer of the capital to Constantinople in 324 is the closest to an "official" date that I can think of.

Iraq or Eygypt.

France is definitely in the top 3 I'd say, but not the most interesting probably.

Basically, my top three would be :

1. Turkey
2. China
3. France

Possibly even France/China tied up for the second place, with Italy coming fourth.

Of course as a french citizen, I mostly studied about France's history, or at least it's the one I studied in depth. It has many conflicts, many different cycles and each slice of the country's story you can pick has many layers. Studying WW1 and WW2 from the French point of view is quite absorbing, especially if you go in depth and bother to learn more about people like Pétain or Jean Moulin, which are unknown to most of the non-french people.

edit : Though, when you study France's history, once you get to WW1 and WW2 it becomes a bit hard to really split France and Germany, because the mutual relationship is also quite interesting and relevant.

Israel you fools.
Egypt-Fail
Assyria-Fail
Babylon-Pardoned
Rome-Temporary setback, Jewish sect converts them.
Islam-Steals monotheism, accommodates Judaism, gets conquered, fails to uproot current manifestation.
European states, Russia, Turkey, Arab states, Iran, Afghanistan-Temporary lodging with different degrees of hospitality.
USA-Biggest threat ever, first time loved to death. Unresolved.

I would select it more into an area

1. Arabian including Turkey , Iran, Egypt
2. Asia including japan , indonesia
3. Central europe including Italy, Spain, France, Germany ,Greece, England
4. South america
5. North America
6. Africa
7. Australia

Italy is pretty big time. Through the centuries it has played at least a small supporting role in so many important historical dramas. Think of all the characters & institutions you encounter when you study Italian history...

-Republican Rome & early democracy.
-The sieges of Syracuse (all six of them)
-The Roman empire.
-The rise of Christianity.
-Julius Caesar.
-Marc Anthony & Cleopatra.
-Hannibal & Carthage.
-Attila the Hun.
-The Ostrogoths.
-The Byzantines
-The Lombards
-The Maritime Republics (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, etc.)
-Warring City-States
-The Vatican & all the Papal drama.
-The War of Spanish Succession.
-The Habsburgs.
-The Boubons.
-The Kingdom of Naples.
-The Republic of Florence.
-The Duchy of Milan.
-The Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
-The Medici Bank.
-Machiavelli's written works.
-The Black Death.
-The Renaissance.
-Napoleon.
-WW I
-Mussolini & 20th century European fascism
-WW II
-Sicily, la Cosa Nostra

And I missed a ton I'm sure.

If it's western civilization you're targeting it doesn't get much better than Italy.

+1

Hey all,
i would definitively vote a country whose accomplishments influenced the values and the way of life our societies are structured today.So its difficult to choose one of the following:
-Greeceemocracy,arts,theater,maths,physics,geomet ry,astronomy,olympic games,philosophy
-Italy:Roman law system,Renaissance ,arts,architecture,engineering,sciences,modern military and strategy
-England:Industrial revolution,Scientists & philosophers,English language,Literature & Poetry,Economics (mercantilism, free trade, capitalism, liberalism)

England, US, China are my top 3 I believe. I'm really surprised we've had 6 pages and no ones mentioned a Latin American country. Peru or Mexico come to mind as great contenders.

How is it possible to consider the US as an interesting/vibrant history country?
They have 250 years of history and in half of that nothing real happened!
They are right there with Australia, Turks & Caicos and Burkina Faso as probably the most dull and boring...

I guess from a certain point a view from certain uneducated americans, that would be a normal statement "there's US and then mexico, canada, europe, china, japan, africa and the rest I dont even know"

But someone informed saying US history is one of the top 3 is just absolute rubbish!

My vote goes for Italy and Turkey!

Has anyone mentioned India or central African countries yet?

mongol empire gets no love?

Jesus Christ could you come off any more condescending? Most people are listing the countries they are most interested in studying. I listed mine. If you think questions like these have some kind of clear answer and everyone who doesn't share your opinion is an "uneducated American that thinks Africa is a country" You probably don't belong in the history forum. Go be an ******* somewhere else?

Do I think that people mentioning the US as one of the most interesting histories in the world, are uneducated and dont have a clue? Yes!

And the topic is called "Which country has the most interesting/vibrant history?", not "the country I would be more interested in studying"

You show a rather strange view of history - and Italy was not a uniform, consolidated country until about 1870. Previously, it was a disjointed conglomeration of states and city states and was under the heel of numerous other powers.

Turkey became a modern state in the aftermath of WWI (about 1920) out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

It is very true that the area of the Italian peninsula has had an interesting and vibrant history - so to for the Island of Sicily and Malta.

The area currently occupied by the modern state of Turkey has had a vibrant and interesting history.

In fact, so has the New World - ever since Asiatic peoples wondered into the place 12,000-14,000 years ago, when all those glaciers melted and opened up a land of opportunity.

Haiti

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I figure I might as well elaborate on my choice of Britain (with an emphasis on England; no offense intended to Scotland and Wales--they simply aren't the primary objects of my study), specifically in the period between the Wars of the Roses and the end of the Stuart Dynasty (1455 - 1714). The dynamism of Early Modern Britain drew me to the period and made me want to select it as my primary field of expertise in my graduate studies (though I've always been an awful specialist, drifting to whatever strikes my fancy from month to month, year to year).

That 250(ish) year span saw all of the following:
* The rise of several entirely new dynasties, especially the Tudors and Stuarts, who governed over some interesting times to say the least--all three children of a monarch sat the throne, a regent was deposed, a queen died childless, a king was executed, and another deposed.
* No fewer than three foreigners (a Scot, a Dutchman, and a German) sat on the throne of xenophobic old England.
* The English Reformation(s), attended by the rise of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Quakers, and so forth, as well as the return of Jews to Britain and the rise of something resembling our modern system religious toleration.
* The rise of modern institutionalized science under the auspices of the Royal Society, in part envisioned by Francis Bacon, and attended by such giants as Newton, Halley, Hooke, Boyle, Napier, Harvey, and Ray.
* Architectural wonders by Wren, Jones, and others: Kensington Palace, Trinity College Library, and St. Paul's Cathedral all hail from this period.
* International finance, trade, and nascent systems of capitalism arose via a stock exchange, national banks in England and Scotland, and the famous (and infamous) East India Company and Royal African Company.
* British North America was colonized, setting the stage for the American Revolution and the United States, which drew much of its legal and intellectual foundations from Britain.
* The transformation of a monarchy from a feudal despotism to a constitutional system, attended by a strengthened Parliament that has proven the most stable government in the world since 1688.
* Two fascinating civil wars that gave rise to a dysfunctional family (the Tudors) and a radical experiment in republicanism over a century before the American and French Revolutions (the British Civil Wars of the 1640s).
* Some of the best (or at least most widely-read) literature ever produced in the English-speaking world: Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, Dryden, Spenser, and Malory. This doesn't even factor in one of the most important translations in history, the King James Bible.
* A nearly unparalleled flowering of political philosophy and theory from Hobbes, Harrington, Winstanley, and Locke (not to mention the important contributions of Milton, Lilburne, and others).
* A thoroughly fascinating cast of strong female leaders--in a time when women were viewed as grossly inferior--including Elizabeth I, Gloriana herself, the gold standard for British monarchs.

These were just a few reasons that from the first time I took an undergrad course on Tudor and Stuart England I was captivated.

England

Very well done post and interesting write up; thanks Turn Prophet.


In 1714 David Hume was three years old. He was also a Scot. Can you still squeeze him in?

Sure, why not, Hume is awesome, too.

For me it's UK or Italy (or Rome if I'm being more specific).