For military buffs, it is undoubtedly the Roman republic/Empire

As a whole, i always like france and Mongolia.

United States

Quality over quantity.

Just kidding!

For reals though probably Iran/Persia, Italy, Egypt, or China are good candidates.

they had their independence war in the 18th century. then it takes them 100 years (!!!)to have another reasonably big conflict, which wasnt even a proper war but a civil war - meh.
then they somehow got themself into ww1+2, basically by jumping the bandwagon (twice!).
and in the next war they decide to do the complete opposite of what you are supposed to do in a war: they keep it peaceful, cold and boring

and you call that an interesting history????

[/troll mode]

sry, couldnt resist

(1) Lichtenstein
(2) Belize
(3) Madagascar

What about INDIA?

They have a ton of history and at least a couple thousand year head-start on Europe and definitely North America.

Rome (especially the transition from Republic to Empire).

bermuda

-Palestine or whatever the occupiers at each time called it.

-Italy

-England-Also the big links to the U.S.A and Australia.

-South Africa

Oklahoma ldo.

Ireland.

Name a city without an Irish pub lol

The most Vibrant histories have to belong to those countries which have been around the longest because they have had the most opportunity to absorb the cultures of others. That's how I perceive the word 'vibrant', anyway. So I'd say China is a good one. Mesopotamia as a whole would be a good one, but that may be too generalized. Greece and Rome are obvious choices.

But I'd probably say Egypt, seeing as how its history is entwined with that of virtually every other major civilization's on record. From their encounters with Africans to the Greeks, to the Romans, to the British (if only temporarily) they have been relevant on the world stage since antiquity. It also seems like we will never be able to even scratch the surface of what really went on in ancient Egypt. We'll never fully understand hieroglyphs or how the Sphynx or pyramids were built. We'll never uncover all the tombs out there. They seem like the ultimate historical enigma to me. So I'd say ancient Egypt, personally.

Great point!!
+1

Oviously Italy!

Two thoughts: "May you live in interesting times." (supposed Chinese curse). "Happy are the people whose history is dull." (paraphrase of Thomas Carlyle).

Rome.

Not a country, so no.

England, France, Spain for me.

Middle Earth and it´s not even close

Turkey by a mile...

Gobekli Tepe (the very first religious superstructure anywhere on earth, dating back to 10,000 BC, yes you read it right, effing 10,000 B.C when the Egyptians and Chinese were still eating dirt in the deserts and savannas) and Catal Huyuk (one of the first real human settlements on earth which deserves to be named a "town") are both there, not to mention the ancient city of Troy, the birthplace of pre-Socratic philosophy i.e. Ionia in the Aegean cost, the city of Konya in Central Anatolia (Iconnium) which was the capital city of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire, the city of Constantinopolis (later Istanbul) which was the capital city of three Empires, the Eastern Roman, Byzantian and the Ottomans. Most of the Crusaders saw their last day of life in the plains of Turkey too, killed by the defending Seljuk Turks. Mount Ararat (modern day Agri) is there too in Eastern Turkey, which supposedly was the landing place of the fricking Noah's Ark. St. Paul was from the city of Tarsus in Southern Turkey and the very first Christian Churches were also established in Turkey. I could go on and on, but there is no need, really. Turkey is the only correct answer here.

Good choice... but are the Eastern Roman and Byzantine Empires really two different empires? One is pretty much just a continuation of the other afaik... I think as late as 1453, the Byzantine Emperor still claimed "Emperor of Rome" as his title.

Ottomans are also cool for their influence in creating the modern military unit in the form of the Janissaries, which became the standard for European rifle units by the late 1600s.

i find it a little hard to call the history of ancient greece and the roman empire history of the country turkey.

It's the same locale (Anatolia). Modern Turkey has only been around since 1920, but most people would at very least include the Ottomans as part of Turkish culture. It we can't call Byzantium part of Turkey, we probably shouldn't call any part of Dynastic China as part of modern "China" either. "Countries" are a pretty vague category anyway.

Well the Western Roman Empire was destroyed in 476. So, the surviving empire in the east is generally called the "Byzantian Empire" from 476 to 1453. On the other hand, there was a certain period between the 310s (when Constantine built another imperial residence in Constantinople in addition to Rome) and 476 when we could legitimately speak of two Roman Empires. I would not necessarily object to using the terms "Eastern Roman" and "Byzantian" interchangeably though.

What? The capital city of the Byzantian Empire (476-1453) was the city of Constantinopolis, modern day Istanbul, which is in Turkey. In terms of the actual early Greek history, religious ideas, philosophical schools and ideas etc., Ionnia (in other words, western Turkey) was far more important than the mainland Greece.

Other cool facts about Turkey: The armies of Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire in successive battles there in Turkey. Fast forward, In 1492 when the united Spanish kingdom began to suppress, kill and expel the Jews and Muslims in Spain, both the Jews and Muslims were accepted in the Muslim Ottoman Empire (most of the Jews ended up in northern Greece or in Istanbul, Turkey. The city of Konya in central Turkey was the place where probably the greatest Sufi mystic of all time, Rumi spent most of his live (his family ended up in Turkey after coming all the way from Afghanistan) in the thirteenth century or so. Turkey is pretty much the only Muslim democracy today, and despite some problems here and there, people living there managed to preserve a pretty diverse and tolerant society in the Anatolian peninsula for the last ummm 12,000 years (give or take a few thousand years). That, to me, is pretty impressive. In other words, Turkey wins.

Thread saver: Hot Turkish girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DSB3Est3lQ