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".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by t8nin8
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 .
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.