Depends what kind of things interest you I guess, like wars or revolutions or superpowers or....
For me it's gotta be the Iraq/the Sumerians for the emeregence of civilisation, the antiquity and the unknown element.

How can it not be Rome?

China. It's over 5000 years old. Just the first 250 years of Chinese history is as interesting and vibrant as the entire U.S. history. Then times that by 20. The formation of China, countless civil wars, royal family patricides, fratricides, and matricides, brilliant generals, timeless poets and artists, clever artifices and both successful and failed plots for power, famous beauties, works of art and writing, political systems, extravagant excesses, golden ages, civilization decay, social and military innovation, the list is endless.

i know a great deal about countries and world history but i find myself unable to answer cus i dont know what is meant by "vibrant"

I'm keen to not give credit to warmongerers.

I think that Armenia has a long, rich history. Turkey too.

I think the most obvious answer here is Iraq. The region between and around the Tigris & Euphrates in Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilisation and the Sumerians, Akkadians & Babylonians all thrived there long before any modern nations (except China which has been around a very long time indeed, as someone pointed out)

My answer though, without doubt in my mind, at least for the most intriguing history, is the today-unrecognised nation of Basque Country.

I would have to say Ethiopia, just because it has a rich history. Take a look at
http://www.easyethiopiatravel.com/et...-history.shtml for more detail.

Am currently in italy visiting and experiencing the main tourist cities and i have to say, i have been utterly stunned by places such as venice, pisa, florence, fiesole, siena, lucca and san gimignano.. This country and its history/culture has been breathtaking and i havent even gotten to rome yet

My vote must go to italy

The Pantheon is gonna blow you away when you see it.

China isn't really one country imo.

nothing blew me away as much as St. Peters. Just ridiculous.

Er, wait, here it comes - Wales ...

+1 on this!!!

1st century AD is simply amazing. Fall of the Republic is incredibly interesting. Battles for supremacy between Marius and Sula, Caesar and Pompey, Octavian and Anthony are just tip of the iceberg. Two social wars, Spartacus rebellion, Quintus Sertorius independent roman republic in Spain and many more...

2nd Punic war (Hanibal) is also interesting (around 218-201BC).

Mongolia

ITALY !
The most influential country with its most important history is by far Italy. Ancient Rome created what we now call "Western society" -- including our laws, our culture and our religion. After Rome fell and Europe spent 1,000 years in darkness, Italy reclaimed it with the Renaissance. To create a civilization is achievement enough -- but to save it 10 centuries later is truly remarkable . Today the influence from the Roman Empire is still here with its religion ,laws , architecture, and many important inventions, road system,concrete, aqueducts,Latin language,roman alphabet etc,etc I could use many many more examples .Secondly!!! the birth of an enlightenment ,new learning in Italy The renassiance where modern science was born ,art , music, mathematics .With the inventions of many a musical instruments,violin, piano, flute, cello .some of the most important inventions that changed the world, the telephone, the internal combustion engine , nuclear reactor, battery, electric generator , induction motor, spectacles ,wireless telegraphy ,first motorcar and motorcycle , arguably first photograph ( Leonardo da Vinci ) I could go on ,there are many more inventions ,and I'm not surprised considering Italy has the oldest university in the world .one of the most visited countries In the world , and is second to none in the amount of unesco protected heritage sites . Today Italians produce some of the best made motor cars, aircraft ,ships, designer labels, jewelry , cuisine , I could go on and on. Italy never had a large empire in the 1600s to the 1800s because the country of Italy did not exist, only in the 1900s did Italy gain a second empire in parts of Africa where they started to build, railways roads an infrastructure in parts of Africa where there was nothing . Italians were amongst the best explorers and discoverers that helped countries such as Britain and Spain discover other lands, they include Giovanni cabotto, Sebastian's cabotto, Christopher Columbus , Amerigo Vespucci , Marco Polo. As with every country Italy has had its past problems and embarrassments but from it's history to today ,Italy has lead and leads the world in many areas.

Turkey is a winner.

It is the only country having major stuff going on for the last 3000 years, they are in a "sweet" spot between europe, the arab world and asia.
They have been part of alliances with countries that used to be foes.

I'm french btw

To the topic... as a fact they're the largest countries ofc... though many smaller countries have their own share. Also many older civilizations are hard to come by just watching current states, ie. how should we think about Persia, Phoenicia, Carthage and newer countries like Austria-Hungary etc. Even Empire of Rome is impossible to think purely as an Italian history, especially after fall of Western Rome.

From large countries: UK, France, Spain, Russia, Italy... very eurocentric, I know. But US history is rather short, Japan has rather boring history partly because of deliberate isolation and other non-European empires had their golden ages come and go. Maybe China or India?

From smaller: Greece, Austria, Egypt, Portugal, Turkey, Iran (especially if we consider Persia as their history). Maybe Mongolia, too?

If we should look at just 20th century I'd bring my own country Finland as a top of a list from smaller though. Interesting century, but many smaller countries especially in Europe were brought to under Iron Curtain or US control. Beginning of 20th Centry saw Russia trying to Russificate Grand Duchy of Finland, which was thwarted once and delayed by WWI. After that Finland got independence in 1917, fought a bloody civil war, managed to build up democratic co-existence between the warring parties despite threats from both extreme right and left, fought succesfully on both sides on WWII, balanced between western and eastern block during Cold War and by the end of century came up as "Japan of the North".

Have to comment on this:

LOL!

"Second empire" which had greatest accomplishment of bringing Germany down in WWII... as an ally! And Italian "success story" in Africa during 20th century is a joke.

austria is pretty interesting.
huge(sun never went down in the empire)
then austrians started 2 world wars and now its tiny.

Well said. And you didn't even mention Henry VIII flicking the V's at the Vatican.

It's outside your favoured timespan, but I'm also partial to Boudicca as a fine old English female leader.

The problems with picking a country is that countries are a moving target, changing borders, appearing and disappearing, etc. It's hard to understand a country without understanding the countries around it, and so on and so on.

I would pick Europe, especially around the Mediterranean, and the middle east and Africa around the Mediterranean rim. So much interaction between peoples there, hundreds of wars, maybe a hundred ethnicities and cultures, many religions. Probably not a year goes by without some kind of conflict.

If I had to pick countries, then Italy/Roman Empire, Germany/Holy Roman Empire, Turkey/Ottoman Empire.

A good part of the reason for my choices, and the choices of many others, is that there is probably more written history available in these areas. The Americas, lower Africa and Asia have less written history to discover.

Poland

Possibly the most tragic, I don't know about most interesting though.

Easy India for me.

Rome/Greece/Turkey are all one-trick ponies compared to the depth and diversity of India's history. Not to say I don't love me some Roman history, but it's small time compared to India's past.

This is pretty much a dead thread so boredom is my main inspiration here, but seriously dude, this is a joke. Step out of your ethnic box and look around at a dynamic world with histories untouched by what you call "Italy" Who were these Italians who "created" a civilization (hint: they were Greek)? Certainly not the ones who "saved" it 10 centuries later, after mass displacements and repeated conquest by Germanic peoples. And how do you save something thats been gone for a millennium? As a descendant of Irishmen, i might point out that Renaissance Italy would have had nothing to restore if the Irish hadn't preserved it in the first place, not 10 centuries later but during and immediately after the so-called fall, and then re-introduced it to the illiterate and heavily Germanized Europeans. But that would be making the same mistake this poster did. The world is a bigger place than our individual heritages.

As to the original post, if i can't say Westeros, I'd have to say the general area of the Levant, from Egyptian times onward, always among the most strategically important and economically vibrant regions, not to mention a cultural and scientific crossroads for the great civilizations to the east, south, and west, in the days before modern communications.

That's not a country tho

Knights Templars' rule over the crusader states and islands maybe? A study of Knights Templars/Hospitaliers history involves pretty much all the major powers (other than China) at the time

Ok i didnt realize we were being so precise. But if thats the case then can we only consider "countries" in the modern nation state sense? So you can't say "China," you have to name a specific region/dynasty, or only Germany post 1876, or Italy post unification, etc? Surely if we can refer to Renaissance Italy rather than just Florence or Venice then we can just say the Levant?