Up next in 10
Big Countries That Became Smaller
530 views
Mar 31, 2025
Check out the previous video here: https://youtu.be/NAzy4S4EOwc In this video I talk about some of the biggest territorial losses that countries have had throughout history! Become a member on Patreon & get exclusive content! https://www.patreon.com/funwithflags Join the Discord Server: https://discordapp.com/invite/uRTAdY9 Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GKonYoutube Business Contact: [email protected] Thanks for watching, remember to subscribe to catch future videos! Special mention to my patrons: Richard, Danny, Roy, MiFE, Rpgkillerspace, Wilhelm, Marius, Ryan, ou_lyss, Vlad, Javier, Ryan, Pete, Cesar, and Hendrick The background map used was made by freepik.com
View Video Transcript
0:00
Countries. Some are big, some are small, and most of them throughout history have changed size
0:09
as they conquered and or lost territories from their neighbors. Therefore, we have had countries
0:15
with great dimensions, which eventually lost part of their territories, becoming small or at least
0:21
smaller. Now, I'm not going to talk about colonial empires like the Portuguese, Spanish, British
0:27
or French, but I might mention a couple regular empires. So for instance, when it comes to the
0:34
French, I won't mention their loss of land in the Americas or Africa, but I will talk about their
0:40
continental European empire. I'm also not giving much importance to continuity, which you'll see
0:46
in this first example, starting with the one on the thumbnail, Mongolia. Now, while today's Mongolia
0:53
hasn't existed continuously since the times of the Mongol Empire, I think it is acceptable to say
1:00
that they are, in part, their cultural descendants. The Mongol Empire existed from 1206 to 1368
1:09
and emerging from Mongolia, it stretched all the way to Korea, southern China, the Middle East
1:15
and Eastern Europe, even having some vassal states in North Russia. It was the second largest
1:21
empire in history, behind only the British Empire, and it was the largest contiguous
1:27
land empire ever. Now, one can argue that there was little to none administrative rule over this
1:34
land, and the Mongols' control was simply imposed through tribute and vassalization of local
1:40
warlords, who were placed by the Mongols to rule certain areas, or who were subjugated by the hordes
1:47
by conquest. But still, it was enormous. However, like all empires, it didn't last forever. In their
1:54
early days, they suffered almost no defeats. And even when they did, for whatever reason
1:59
they would then return with a better general and a larger force to avenge their loss through
2:05
victory. But eventually, they started not to. The Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee in 1260 marked
2:12
the first time that the Mongols did not return to immediately avenge a defeat due to the death
2:17
of their Khan and other internal conflicts. These types of internal issues eventually led to the
2:23
separation of the empire into four separate Kanats, the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanat
2:30
and the Yuan dynasty who controlled Mongolia. In 1368, the Han Chinese Ming dynasty took over
2:37
the Mongol capital, and the Genghis rulers of the Yuan retreated to the Mongolian homeland
2:43
and continued to rule from there. And so, Mongolia was reduced to what it is today
2:48
Next, Turkey. Here we also have the evolution from an empire to a modern state. The Ottomans
2:53
came from the east, conquering Anatolia, then they crossed into Europe and conquered part of
2:59
the Balkans, stretching as far as Austria and Hungary, then also conquering parts of the Middle
3:04
East and North Africa stretching almost as far as Morocco. The Empire lasted a long time, from 1299 to 1922, but then after the end of World War
3:14
1, since the Ottomans had sided with the defeated Central Powers, the Empire collapsed and the
3:20
Allied forces picked apart its territories dividing them mostly between Great Britain and France Although there had already been previous issues before and during the war they were struggling with internal dissent
3:32
especially with the Arab revolt, there was also large resistance from the Armenians
3:37
Assyrians and Greeks. After the dissolution of the empire, the Turkish War of Independence led
3:42
to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland, where they remain today
3:48
Still a large country, but vastly reduced when compared to their imperial ancestors
3:54
Another example is France. In case you didn't know, the icon of the channel is modeled after Napoleon
3:59
And it was precisely during Napoleon's time that France saw its biggest continental expansion
4:05
the first French empire, which existed from 1801 to 1814. It's always hard to determine how to measure territory size
4:13
because in the case of all empires, the Mongols, the Ottomans, and the French
4:17
vassal states were commonly used, so in reality they didn't directly control certain areas
4:23
But since they controlled the controllers, I guess it's fair to say it was indirectly
4:28
their territory as well. With the rise of Napoleon, France began exerting its military
4:34
superiority in Europe at the time. A series of conquests, known collectively as the Napoleonic
4:39
Wars, extended French influence to much of Western Europe, even as far as Poland. And at its height
4:46
in 1812, the French Empire had 130 departments and ruled over 90 million subjects. We can see it in
4:55
the map. France stretched its direct rule into modern Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Catalonia
5:02
and parts of the Balkans. And its subjects and vassals were even more. Spain, Italy, German states
5:08
and even Poland. Eventually, Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. And throughout the
5:13
following years, their power in Europe diminished a lot, and their control became reduced to pretty
5:18
much the France we know today, although still counting with their colonial empire, which was
5:23
only ended about a century later. Then we have Armenia. Modern Armenia is reasonably small
5:29
but previous versions of the Armenian state were larger. We have to travel further back in time
5:34
for this one, to the Kingdom of Armenia, which existed from 331 BC to 428 AD. The kingdom was
5:42
much larger than the current state. It reached its peak under Tigranes the Great in 69 BC. Now
5:49
this map includes vassals too, but look at the size of it. It expands into the Caucasus
5:55
Greater Armenia, parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and even all the way down into Jerusalem
6:00
Apparently, the kingdom was very much caught between the conflicts of the Romans and the
6:05
Parthians. It even became a province of the Roman Empire for a brief period. Eventually
6:10
it became a client state or vassal of both the Romans and the Partians on and off between the two
6:15
and their successors. A fun fact is that in 301, Didi Datis III proclaimed Christianity as the
6:22
state religion of Armenia, making it the first state in the world to officially embrace Christianity
6:28
as its religion. During the Byzantine-Persian Wars, Armenia was partitioned between the two
6:33
sides. Byzantine Armenia was eventually incorporated into the empire and Persian Armenia paved the way
6:40
to the territory of the current state. All the way in Southeast Asia, Brunei. Brunei is considerably
6:45
small these days occupying a small portion of the north of the island of Borneo However its previous control and reach over the island was much larger From 1368 to 1888 the empire of Brunei exists and their control
6:59
was tremendous, reaching its peak in the 15th century. We can see it in this map. They controlled
7:05
at least all the coastal regions of Borneo, a lot of the surrounding smaller islands, and even
7:11
stretching into some small parts of the Philippines. However, by the end of the 17th century
7:16
Brunei entered a period of decline, brought on by internal issues over royal succession
7:21
and colonial expansion of the European powers. The empire lost much of its territory due to the
7:27
arrival of the Spanish in the Philippines, the Dutch in southern Borneo, and the British
7:32
in other surrounding regions. Eventually it became a British protectorate before recovering
7:37
independence in the small portion of land that they maintained as their own until today
7:42
Returning to Europe, Lithuania. Even if we set aside the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
7:47
which was very big, Lithuania itself was also gigantic at a certain point. From 1236 to 1795
7:55
it existed as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including what is now Belarus and parts of
8:01
Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century
8:06
it was the largest state in Europe. It eventually evolved into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
8:12
was invaded by Russia in 1792, then being partitioned between neighboring states
8:17
the Russian Empire itself, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria. All the way in North America
8:22
Mexico. Once a part of New Spain, in 1821, Mexico became independent, as the Mexican Empire
8:29
the only former colony of the Spanish to establish a monarchy upon independence. And its size was
8:35
absolutely enormous. Occupying current-day Mexico, but a significant, actually almost total part
8:41
of Central America, stretching from the border with Panama in the south to the current US states
8:46
of California and Nevada. But this large empire didn't last too long. It transformed itself into
8:52
a republic two years later and in that moment it lost Central America. In 1836, Texas declared
8:59
independence. Nine years later, it joined the US, something Mexico didn't accept, which triggered
9:04
the Mexican-American War. Mexico was defeated and so the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed
9:10
in which the Mexican session took place. Mexico agreed, as compensation for losing the war
9:16
to give away a significant part of its territory to the US. California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona
9:22
Colorado, and New Mexico. It's still a big country, but not as big as it once was
9:28
Moving southwards, in South America, Bolivia, which was also a little bigger than it currently is
9:34
Bolivia's initial boundaries included territories which now belonged to many of its neighbors
9:39
Throughout their early existence, they ceded these lands for a number of reasons
9:44
The first was the cession of two territories, one in the north and another in the east
9:49
to Brazil in 1867. In 1893, they lost part of their southern land to Argentina in a border dispute
9:56
And in 1903, Brazil took a bit more of the north, after the War of the Acre, where they
10:02
fought over a territory rich in rubber and gold, with Brazil emerging victorious
10:07
A year later, in 1904, they lost their access to the Pacific Ocean, becoming a landlocked
10:13
country as Chile took this area in red through their victory in the War of the Pacific And finally they lost a big chunk of land in the southeast to Paraguay which apparently makes up more than
10:24
half of Paraguay's current territory. Back to Europe, Luxembourg. Luxembourg is the last
10:29
remaining Grand Duchy in the world, and it's a pretty small country, bordering France, Belgium
10:34
and Germany. But throughout its history, it was, at times, a little bigger. At its peak
10:39
it had around 10,000 square kilometers. But through three partitions at different times
10:44
it became reduced to its current 2,500 square kilometers. And these three partitions were
10:50
precisely to its three neighbors. Although in Germany's case, it was still Prussia at the time
10:56
The first partition was in 1659, when Luxembourg was in a personal union with Spain. France was at
11:02
war with the Spanish, and the treaty that brought peace had France received three fortresses from
11:08
Luxembourg, as well as their surrounding territory. The second partition was because of the French
11:13
Revolutionary Wars. In 1795, France annexed Luxembourg entirely, but when Napoleon was
11:19
defeated, independence was restored. However, the Germans claimed the fortress of Bitburg
11:25
and so they took part of it as well. The third partition was the largest, through the 1839 Treaty of London. It has to do with Belgium's independence from the Dutch
11:34
At the outbreak of the Belgian Revolution, most Luxemburgers joined the Belgian rebels
11:39
and took control of most of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Eventually, they remained independent but lost a great deal of land to the Belgians
11:48
And finally, for this video, Hungary. Today, Hungary is a medium-sized country in Central Europe
11:53
But like all these previous examples, it was, at a certain time, much larger
11:58
Hungary has existed as a state in many different forms, from a number of duchies to a principality, then a kingdom, then a republic, in the meanwhile also
12:07
being part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And at some of these points in history, it occupied and
12:12
ruled over a much larger territory than it does now. I'll try to simplify it as much as possible
12:17
From what I understand, the peak territorial extension of Hungary was just before World War
12:23
I in 1914, when they ruled a pretty large territory within Austria-Hungary. However
12:27
However with their defeat in the war, the Treaty of Trianon took place and they lost
12:32
a lot of land. Apart went to Austria, Czechoslovakia took what is now Slovakia and a bit of Ukraine
12:38
Yugoslavia took the south which is now part of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia and Romania
12:44
took Transylvania and some other areas. They recovered some of it during the Second World War with their alignment with the Axis
12:51
Southern Slovakia, parts of Yugoslavia and Transylvania but after the war ended, their
12:56
territory was once again reduced to what it had been in 1920 as it remains today. In this propaganda
13:02
poster criticizing the territorial lost after Trianon, we can see them attempting to show other
13:08
countries the extents of the territory they lost in comparison to theirs. So, those are a few of the
13:15
greatest territorial losses that took place in history. There are many more and I didn't include
13:20
all of them because otherwise the video would be too long. In fact, it was probably long as it is
13:25
so if you stuck around all this time, thank you. If you have any other examples of territorial
13:29
losses that you would like to see me talk about in a possible part 2 of this video
13:34
leave a comment below. Thanks so much for watching, subscribe if you want, and I will see you next time for more general knowledge
#education
#Hobbies & Leisure