There are a lot more countries that start with "R" if you're including "Republic of..." such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, etc.
The Congo's are a special case though, since the "Republic of the Congo" is recognized as a separate entity from the "Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Ok. So for the milionth and definitely not the last time. Countries have official "long" names, (eg. Commonwealth of Australia) and official "short" names (eg. Australia). We commonly use the short versions, because it is easier and faster. But some countries don't have the short version of the official name, so we have to use the long version. Both Congos are an example of this, F. S. Of Micronesia is another and probaboy others, I can't remember right now.
For me, I always remember smaller countries first. This could be because I had to work on memorizing Rwanda but didn't have to memorize Russia. Since I already knew Russia, maybe my mind doesn't associate it with the letter R.
Hmm that republic one threw me off I got in the last few seconds. I was expecting it to start with an r? You wouldn’t include china on a list of countries that start with a p for example. I wouldn’t count ‘republic’ as exactly being the start of a country’s name
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