NationStates Jolt Archive

Who is the oldest nation still in existence?

Must be China :wink:

Must be China :wink:

*snorts* Clever.

I believe it is Iran. Iceland is the oldest democracy.

mongolia, definately

Iraq or China. I think Iraq, though, since the Fertile Crescent was the first instance of settled agricultural civilisation, and it it wasn't the first at that, it was the first to have recognizable nation-states. If we're talking about modern political system, then the oldest monarchy is definitely Denmark; and an unbroken dynastic lineage, too!

I think, however, that he meant what is the oldest nation HERE? Like, in the game.

San Marino. Its a fact.

Mesopotamia (Currently Iraq/Iran) in RL. On NS, I think Sketch, although Sniper Country is pretty old and so is the one that was claimed to have the population bug, can't remember their name though.

I am quite an old nation, but I am certain I am not the oldest.

Most of the oldest nations are gone, but there have to be older ones then myself. I believe The Silver Turtle is still around somewhere...

Well Italy if you consider. I mean it was Rome and then it was Byzantium but it was all of the same background.

NS: Thomasia
RL: "Egypt is unique, in that -- with the possible exception of China -- it may be the oldest nation on the planet with a continuous written history." Oldest without a continuous written history? Dunno.
Excerpt from Gamespy. (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/august02/ron2/) Because Google does not like to give me good results.
MesopotamiaIs a region.

I am quite an old nation, but I am certain I am not the oldest.

Most of the oldest nations are gone, but there have to be older ones then myself. I believe The Silver Turtle is still around somewhere...

Silver Turtle is gone, at least according to a world search.

NS: Thomasia
RL: "Egypt is unique, in that -- with the possible exception of China -- it may be the oldest nation on the planet with a continuous written history." Oldest without a continuous written history? Dunno.
MesopotamiaIs a region.Actually, Mesopotamia was a nation, way back when... *stares off into the sky, acting like he's remembering back then*

Mesopotamia was a region way before all you silly little kids with your big ideas came around. Actually, i think it was Circa 8 or 9 thousand B.C.E. It is current day Iraq/Iran

I am quite an old nation, but I am certain I am not the oldest.

Most of the oldest nations are gone, but there have to be older ones then myself. I believe The Silver Turtle is still around somewhere...

Silver Turtle is gone, at least according to a world search.


http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/39059/page=display_nation/nation=the_silver_turtle

oh, i forgot to put "the" into the search. Thank You.

In RL, I would say it's probably Egypt.

As for NS, normally I would say check the list for 'largest nations,' but the population bug affected some countries, and so it isn't quite accurate. But the oldest country would be within the top 100 I think.

its probably somewhere in the middle east. but it may also be somewhere deeper in africa. Because if i remember right that's where man first migrated from...or maybe that was neanderthals...cant really remember.

I think Kitsylvania is one of the oldest still kicking around NS.

Mesopotamia has NEVER been a nation.

First there were city states, collectively referred to as "Sumer". Ur eventualy came to dominate the city-states, and forged an empire out of them around the 3rd millenium BCE. They were pwned by the Babylonians, who were pwned by the Assyrians, who were eventually pwned by the Romans. This is not a single nation. Ergo, Iraq is off the list.
I would wager Greece as being one of the oldest still in existence, as it predates even Rome. Them or China.

Who is the oldest nation still in existence? if u mean the real world i think it would probably be israel 8)

Who is the oldest nation still in existence? if u mean the real world i think it would probably be israel 8)

Israel has been a nation-state for around half a century. That's not particularly old at all.

i have no idea

Mesopotamia has NEVER been a nation.

First there were city states, collectively referred to as "Sumer". Ur eventualy came to dominate the city-states, and forged an empire out of them around the 3rd millenium BCE. They were pwned by the Babylonians, who were pwned by the Assyrians, who were eventually pwned by the Romans. This is not a single nation. Ergo, Iraq is off the list.
I would wager Greece as being one of the oldest still in existence, as it predates even Rome. Them or China.

I believe that Raem is correct on everything except about Greece. I agree with his reasons against the Mesopitamian area, but not Greece.
So i agree with Moontian's opinion, Egypt has to be the oldest nation, not civilization necessarily because writting originated in both Mesopitamian area and Egypt arround the same time. And the Egyptians were pawned by several times towards the end of the 1st millenium BCE, the last time was also by the Romans after the suicide of Cleopatra.

Not sure about NS though, for I am still learning.

i cant even remember when i was founded! :lol: maybe sketch?

my cultural anthroplogy text defines a nation as: a stable, historically developed community of people with a territory, economic life, distinctive culture, and a language in common.

The Basque qualify. They were in the Pyrennes when the British Isles were still attached to the continent and flourishing at 3500 bce, antedating the Celts.

The ethnic Syrians qualify. Damascus is the oldest continuous city known, being a large city even before 3500bce. They have always mantained a distinctiveness of their own.

The Egyptians almost qualify, but they lost their distinctive culture when they lost their heritage and language and were assimilated into other cultures, the last being arab culture. If you hedge the definition a bit, they would also be one of the oldest, forming about 3400 bce.

Chinese culture formed about 2000 bce when the Chi'a (Xia) Dynasty began.

The Quechua of Peru go back before 3500 bce.

Isreal doesnt qualify. Abraham is considered to be the first Jew (2050 bce) but that wasnt until forsook Sumerian culture and left Urek. His grandson Jacob ben Isaac (Isreal) became the namesake of the Isrealites, but it wasnt for another 400-500 years--about 1600 bce when they were large enough to be considered a nation. (I am looking at a picture of a tax receipt dating to about 2000bce in the name of Abraham of Ur uncovered from one of the cunieform libraries. The footnote reads that he owned over 100,000 head of livestock, and several thousand camels, and owed several talents of gold, and grain in taxes--can anyone escape taxes?)

For some reason my book draws 3500 bce as the oldest definitive line.)

Nothing much about anyone else.

i think the first NS nation was maxtopia wasnt it? and then [violet], i think. werent those 2 merged or something?

NS: ThomasiaI think [violet] was never a nation.

It's gotta be one of the following:
Egypt
Italy
Greece

one of em

Oldest grouping of cities (nation, kindof) is pretty disputed. Early China or Iraq had the first farming communities, but im pretty sure farming started between the tigris and the euphrates (sp?) in Iraq.

With farming came the end of nomadic moving, and therefore villages and towns and such. and so came groupings of people, or "nations". but the first real nations came much later. i.e. Japan or Spain or England.

most european nations didnt become nations until the mid 1600s. Germany didnt become a nation-state until the 1800s.

if you meant the oldest nation on nationstates, i apologize for my previous post. :?

Who is the oldest nation still in existence? if u mean the real world i think it would probably be israel 8)

Israel didn't exist until about 1948.

Another example of a mess left by the British colonisers.

I'm quite old...but I'm not even in the top 100.

Oldest grouping of cities (nation, kindof) is pretty disputed. Early China or Iraq had the first farming communities, but im pretty sure farming started between the tigris and the euphrates (sp?) in Iraq.

With farming came the end of nomadic moving, and therefore villages and towns and such. and so came groupings of people, or "nations". but the first real nations came much later. i.e. Japan or Spain or England.

most european nations didnt become nations until the mid 1600s. Germany didnt become a nation-state until the 1800s.

The concept of a "nation-state" didn't arise until French Revolution. That was when the idea of a "citizen" was first applied to a "nation".

The Greeks has the idea of "citizens", but had "city-states" and their colonies.

Between Greeks and French Revolution, "subjects" lived in kingdoms, or dukedoms, etc, or "city-states" (Venice for example).

if you meant the oldest nation on nationstates, i apologize for my previous post. :?

That doesn't matter because everyone is posting in both RL terms and NS terms.

Hey, look what thread I found...

Hey, look what thread I found...

gravedigging! :x

Well, The people's rebublic of China was only formed last Century.
Isreal was only formed in 1947 out of British Mandate Palistine.
Italy was formed in the 19th century (think Gariboldi, whose name I can't spell).
Greese was Turkish territory until the 19th century
And Eygpt was co-owned by the British,
as was Iran (are you spotting a pattern here).

Q.E.D. Britain is not the oldest nation but certainly the best. :wink:

Oldest 'alive' NS nation would be Thomasia

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=Thomasia

Registered November 15th, 2002, and is #6 on the oldest total nations (although the other ones are dead). [violet] is not a nation, just a forum persona.

Oldest 'alive' NS nation would be Thomasia

http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=Thomasia

Registered November 15th, 2002, and is #6 on the oldest total nations (although the other ones are dead). [violet] is not a nation, just a forum persona.

"Last Hope" is the oldest nation. It's not listed properly because of an accidental DEAT.

Oh, and locked for gravedigging.