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Former Countries by Capital

Name these former countries and empires based on their capital city.
Not necessarily the only capital
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 10, 2019
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First submittedMarch 3, 2013
Times taken96,928
Average score66.7%
Rating4.39
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Ended
Capital
Country
1992
Belgrade
Yugoslavia
1992
Prague
Czechoslovakia
1991
Moscow
Soviet Union
1990
East Berlin
East Germany
1975
Saigon
South Vietnam
1951
Lhasa
Tibet
1934
St. John's
Newfoundland
1923
Istanbul
Ottoman Empire
1902
Bloemfontein
Orange Free State
Ended
Capital
Country
1898
Honolulu
Hawaii
1871
Berlin
Prussia
1865
Richmond
Confederate States of America
1857
Agra
Mughal Empire
1846
Austin
Texas
1707
Edinburgh
Scotland
1533
Cuzco
Incan Empire
1521
Tenochtitlan
Aztec Empire
1453
Constantinople
Byzantine Empire
+1
Level 43
May 30, 2014
Allow Russia for Soviet Union please.
+27
Level 77
Jun 11, 2014
Russia was a part of the Soviet Union; they're not the same.
+13
Level 41
Jan 12, 2015
Exactly,! And, quite frankly, Russia is not a former country (:
+1
Level 31
Aug 2, 2015
Yeah thats right
+1
Level 31
Aug 2, 2015
There were many other countries in the USSR too
+1
Level 60
Oct 23, 2020
Russia was only one of the soviet republics within the USSR.
+1
Level 63
Aug 15, 2022
at the end of the life of the soviet union it was only kazakhstan that remained not russia but both are not the same as the soviet union
+10
Level 41
Jul 29, 2015
That would be like accepting Arizona for United States.
+5
Level 56
Aug 6, 2015
I refuse to accept Arizona.
+3
Level 57
Nov 9, 2020
Or accepting Virginia for the Confederate States
+5
Level 57
Aug 23, 2021
I'll be deep in the cold cold ground before I recognise Missouri.
+1
Level 28
Aug 28, 2014
Could boer or Dutch South Africa be accepted for the Orange Free State?
+1
Level 77
May 19, 2015
I tried Dutch South Africa. Not sure if it was a thing or not, but I knew Bloemfontein is a capital of South Africa...thought it was worth a shot.
+1
Level 46
Jan 14, 2024
I wonder why Orange Free State.....did they not have any oranges in that country??
+1
Level 75
Dec 12, 2014
Enjoyed this quiz. Are there enough to make another one?
+4
Level 82
Jun 23, 2015
+1
Level 82
Jun 25, 2015
Though, out of 25 answers on my quiz, only 8 are currently more-guessed that Newfoundland or the Orange Free State. And Only 3 guessed more than the Confederacy. So I guess most of the really easy ones were taken already.
+2
Level 69
Dec 25, 2014
Newfoundland never was an independant country. It was a british colony before joining Canada as a province in 1949
+2
Level 77
Nov 19, 2021
It most certainly was.
+1
Level 33
Dec 12, 2023
it was a British protectorate, but it was also a country
+2
Level 43
Mar 25, 2015
Right. It was a colony before becoming Canada's tenth province.

"A former colony and dominion of the United Kingdom, Newfoundland and Labrador became the tenth province to enter the Canadian Confederation on March 31, 1949, as Newfoundland." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_and_Labrador

+5
Level 85
Apr 18, 2015
Newfoundland was a self governing dominion in the same manner as Australia, New Zealand and Canada and thus independent in the same way as the above countries. During the depression, it lost its self government due to insolvency and was ruled directly by the UK and in the post war era it joined Canada.
+1
Level ∞
Apr 25, 2015
Exactly!
+2
Level 76
Jun 9, 2019
... although it remained a dominion until 1949, when it merged with Canada.
+2
Level 77
Nov 19, 2021
... although Canada was also technically a dominion at this time, too.
+2
Level 47
May 7, 2015
Hi everyone,

I'm french and i'm great fan to this game!

+2
Level 56
Jul 29, 2015
Can you accept Southern Vietnam and Eastern Germany please? I was so confused as to why I wasn't getting them right.
+2
Level 67
Jul 29, 2015
Neither "Eastern Germany" nor "Southern Vietnam" is correct. Those seemingly small details are significant: "Northern Ireland" means something different than "North Ireland," for example. Likewise "South America" and "Southern America," although Bo Diddley used to have fun with that distinction--listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh8tn4JmU4g at around 1:35.
+1
Level 66
Feb 3, 2019
You can give "examples" but it is basically the same thing every time. It doesnt make it clearer or explain anything.
+3
Level 74
Jun 9, 2019
In short: "eastern" or "southern" refer to topographic attributes ("being in the east of Germany"), while East Germany and South Vietnam a historic names of specific countries.
+4
Level 55
Jul 29, 2015
Roman, Eastern Roman, or Byzantine empire should all count, specifically Roman, considering all residents of the empire considered themselves just Romans.
+1
Level 31
Aug 2, 2015
Didn't get them all. Put Richmond as Virginia, St John's as Antigua and Barbuda (which I know is independent) and bloemfontein as the boer republic, which was pretty close
+1
Level 72
Jul 25, 2016
Good quiz
+1
Level 53
Nov 9, 2016
Never knew about Newfoundland... Good to learn!
+1
Level 53
Jan 21, 2017
Please accept Confederate.
+1
Level 44
Jan 21, 2017
I did not expect Tibet!!!!
+1
Level 76
Sep 6, 2018
Nobody did. It wasn't even recognized. A bit like Transnistria these days, but with even less recognition. But hey, politics.
+3
Level 71
Jun 14, 2020
Unlikely that Incan and Aztec empires had international recognition in its contemporary sense either. Surely that cannot be a criterium in a history quiz.
+6
Level 77
Sep 29, 2018
I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!
+2
Level 84
Jan 25, 2017
While Newfoundland did give up self rule in 1934, it didn't officially stop being the Dominion of Newfoundland until 1949. It 'de facto' ended in 1934, but 'de jure' ended in 1949.
+1
Level 46
Dec 7, 2018
Hey!

Great quiz but can you change so that DDR can be accepted as an answer to Berlin

+1
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2019
Okay
+1
Level 66
Dec 7, 2018
ok I so sucked at this one, I typed so many different countries...

Even though I did start with soviet union, after that I only typed excisitng countries and didnt think about old countries anymore.

Like, I typed czechia and slovakia...

And turkey, peru, mexico, ddr,westgermany, vietnam, north and south korea, south africa etc...

+1
Level 70
Jun 8, 2019
Why add only Scotland as a former country? England also lost its sovereignity in 1707 and this fact would definitively confuse some quizzers. ;-)
+1
Level 68
Dec 12, 2023
I agree. Adding England instead of Scotland would be fun!
+1
Level 70
Jun 9, 2019
Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 2003.
+1
Level 82
Jul 5, 2019
That was a different country.
+2
Level 80
Jun 10, 2019
Scotland is still a country, albeit one that is also part of a larger nation (which is the one that is considered a sovereign state). I wouldn't remove it, but I'd put a caveat in.
+5
Level 60
Jul 22, 2020
Why? Everyone on this site exept nitpickers knows that "country" means the same as "sovereing state" but is easier and faster to write.
+2
Level 80
Nov 17, 2021
Because the nitpickers are right, and this site, quite reasonably given its nature, chooses to pander to nitpickers and pedants in most areas. But not this one.
+5
Level 68
Dec 12, 2023
There's a difference between "nitpicking" and being wrong. Scotland is not a country in the same way all the other ones are - and those "nitpickers" who genuinely don't know it need to learn it. Scotland is a region of the UK. The fact that the UK calls its regions "countries" is irrelevant.
+4
Level 68
Dec 12, 2023
By the way: Germany also calls its regions "federal countries" (Bundesländer). You don't see Germans on here arguing that Lower Saxony is a country.
+3
Level 88
Jun 14, 2019
As a busy industry mogul I wasted too much of my valuable time tinkering with arbitrary spelling restrictions on what you see only as the "Mughal" Empire.
+1
Level 47
Jul 31, 2020
I agree, I came to say that Mogul should be accepted because... That's where the word comes from.
+1
Level 53
Feb 10, 2021
Agreed. I tried Mogul. More than once. Possibly hitting the keypad harder each time... It is a correct spelling.
+1
Level 60
Jul 1, 2019
Found St John's difficult as I couldn't get past the current capital of Antigua.
+1
Level 83
Jul 1, 2019
There are different acceptable spellings for 'Mughal'.
+1
Level 43
Jul 1, 2019
So I live in St. John's NL and I tried EVERY different permutation of Antigua & Barbuda I could think of before giving up and never getting the answer.

Shenanigans.

+1
Level 82
Jul 1, 2019
Why did the points reset? I don't notice any changes from the last version.
+1
Level 82
Jul 1, 2019
oh.. you must have added Agra/Mughal Empire for one thing. I had put that on my unofficial sequel before that's why it looked familiar. Was there something you took off?
+1
Level 63
Jul 1, 2019
Typed Boer Free State, didnt work :(
+3
Level 80
Jul 1, 2019
Please allow for more spellings of Mughal. I tried Moghul and that didn't work. Thanks.
+2
Level 56
Jul 1, 2019
Agree that you should have accepted different aspellings of Moghul/Mogul; Mughlai; etc. It is after all a change in transliteration

Hmm - Mughlai might be a type of curry? Oh well!

DW

+2
Level 67
Jul 1, 2019
+1
+1
Level 78
Dec 4, 2019
Seconded.
+3
Level 85
Jul 1, 2019
The Byzantine Empire was not politically separate from the Eastern Roman Empire, and therefore the Roman Empire, so

"Rome" or at least "Roman Empire" should work.

+1
Level 56
Jul 1, 2019
Can you please accept German Democratic Republic? I tried DDR, and then the English translation of the name before I tried East Germany.
+1
Level 70
Jul 1, 2019
DDR works.
+1
Level 50
Jul 1, 2019
Tibet has never being an independent country, Tibet has been part of China for hundreds of years, but has had and still has some level of autonomy. The "state" what is probably referred here was self proclaimed independence after Qing empire collapsed 1912 until Chinese regained the control after Tibetan theocratic leaders refused to abolish serfdom, in which most Tibetans lived in the most horrific conditions without any human rights. There was no single foreign country, who recognized this "independence", therefore it was never sovereign and thus not independent.
+3
Level 82
Jul 3, 2019
Sovereignty does not depend on international recognition.
+6
Level 66
Jul 11, 2019
How are their human rights doing now?
+3
Level 77
Nov 19, 2021
That's only what the Chinese government wants you to think, explorer.
+1
Level 15
Jul 2, 2019
You could do a part 2 of this as well, for example Kumasi was the Capital of the Ashanti Empire.
+1
Level 82
Jul 4, 2019
I made a part 2, linked above.
+1
Level 64
Oct 15, 2019
Scotland is still a country!
+2
Level ∞
Oct 15, 2019
Not an independent one as I'm sure you are aware.
+2
Level 67
Jan 4, 2020
I believe, neither the title (it just says “former countries”) and nor the caveat give any hint to that. In contrast to Tibet (for example), which is regarded as an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China, Scotland is still considered a country (although not a sovereign state) which is a part of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This is probably because the latter, unlike Tibet, never lost its independence on account of an annexation, but through a political union that created the Great Britain and subsequently the United Kingdom.
+1
Level 66
Jan 31, 2020
Agreed, it simply says former country, not former independent country.
+1
Level 68
Dec 12, 2023
Scotland is not a country - it's at best a "constituent country", which is a completely different thing. I'm all for Scottish independence, but Scots actually need to get this done - don't believe English propaganda that tries to tell you you're essentially already there.
+1
Level 51
Jan 31, 2020
Can you accept Mogul for Mughal?
+1
Level 79
Dec 28, 2020
Yes please!
+2
Level 73
Nov 9, 2020
It was called Yugoslavia even until the 2000s, though was just Serbia and Montenegro. The hint is still wrong, though.

Istanbul was officially called Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire.

And allow Rome/Roman Empire for Byzantine.

+1
Level 65
Nov 17, 2021
I don't know where that 1934 date for Newfoundland came from... The existed until 1949 when they became a canadian province. 1949 is the correct date.
+1
Level 77
Nov 19, 2021
You are wrong. I mean, Google it before putting up a correction. Anyway, the reason you are confused is that Newfoundland was independent, went bankrupt, and asked Great Britain for help. Britain took over Newfoundland's government and it became a British dependency. Once WWII ended, the debate raged for four years whether to join the USA, Canada, or to become independent again. Of course, they decided to join Canada in 1949.
+2
Level 29
Nov 17, 2021
the CSA was never a country
+1
Level 76
Nov 17, 2021
Can you accept Triple Alliance instead of Aztec? Most scholars today consider what we know as the Aztec empire, as the Triple Alliance since the area was the joined forces of the Texoco, Tlacopan, and Aztec people.
+1
Level 71
Nov 17, 2021
Maybe add some other countries like one of the Arab Caliphs or other more ancient countries
+2
Level 55
Nov 17, 2021
Hi! Well, by 1857 revolt Delhi had been for a while the capital of the Moghul state again. While the first Mughals did govern from Agra, Aurangzeb shifted all the court to Delhi by 1658, where it would continue amidst all the trouble and decandence of the dynasty until the exile of Bahadur Shah in 1857.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agra#Mughal_era

Regards!

+1
Level 56
Nov 20, 2021
+1. And if the Mughal empire is seen as just the latter years of the Delhi Sultanate, one can say that Agra was only a temporary capital for a few years in between
+1
Level 67
Nov 20, 2021
Got Mughal
+3
Level 53
Nov 23, 2021
The capital of the Ottoman Empire was Konstantiniye, not Istanbul.
+1
Level 76
Feb 12, 2022
Prussia stopped existing with the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867, not with that of the Empire in 71.
+1
Level 43
Jan 3, 2023
SCOTLAND IS STILL A COUNTRY
+1
Level 40
Dec 12, 2023
a country within a country
+1
Level 44
Oct 23, 2023
I guess Constantinople/Istanbul has an insane history, as the capital of Byzantium/Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire and the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
+1
Level 65
Dec 12, 2023
Constantinople was renamed to Istanbul in 1930, after the Republic of Turkey was created. It was not a generally recognized name for the city while the Ottoman Empire still existed.
+1
Level 78
Dec 14, 2023
It was officially renamed in 1930. The Turks had long called it Istanbul, including during the reign of the Ottomans.
+2
Level 77
Dec 12, 2023
Confederate States of America never was a country and shouldn't be part of this list.
+1
Level 65
Dec 12, 2023
Define "country" in a coherent way that excludes the CSA but doesn't also cut out things that are obviously countries, like North Korea. I understand and support getting rid of statues and ending the hero worship of Confederate figures and such, but to claim they weren't a country is silly.
+1
Level 82
Jan 3, 2024
I wish one of the US states would officially change the name of its subdivisions from counties to countRies so that a herd of Americans could flood every comment section with whining that "Elk Country, Pennsylvania is a country!!!!1!".

Watch the smug Brits' heads explode as they have to face the fact that simply calling your subdivisions countries does not make them so.