List of former sovereign states


A historical sovereign state is a state that once existed, but has since been dissolved due to conflict, war, rebellion, annexation, or uprising.
This page lists sovereign states, countries, nations, or empires that have ceased to exist as political entities, grouped geographically and by constitutional nature.

Criteria for inclusion

The criteria for inclusion in this list is similar to that of the List of states with limited recognition. To be included here, a polity must have claimed statehood and either:
For purposes of this list, the cutoff between medieval and early modern states is the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Ancient and medieval states

Africa

Morocco (Maghreb al-Aksa)

Central Asia

Afghanistan

Anguilla

Nordic countries

In the Nordic countries, unions were personal, not unitary

Canada

Argentina

Dismembered countries

These states are now dissolved into a number of states, none of which retain the old name.
Four of the homelands, or bantustans, for black South Africans, were granted nominal independence by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Not recognised by other nations, these effectively were puppet states and were re-incorporated in 1994.
These nations declared themselves independent, but failed to achieve it in fact or did not seek permanent independence and were either re-incorporated into the mother country or incorporated into another country.
These nations, once separate, are now part of another country. Cases of voluntary accession are included.