List of sovereign states by date of formation

Below is a list of sovereign states with the dates of their formation (date of their independence or of their constitution), sorted by continent. This list includes the 195 states which are currently member states of the United Nations or non-member observer states with the United Nations General Assembly. This does not include extinct states, but does include several states with limited recognition. For proposed states or various indigenous nations which consider themselves still under occupation, see list of active autonomist and secessionist movements. Nation-building is a long evolutionary process, and in most cases the date of a country's "formation" cannot be objectively determined; e.g., the fact that England and France were sovereign kingdoms on equal footing in the medieval period does not prejudice the fact that England is not now a sovereign state (having passed sovereignty to Great Britain in 1707), while France is a republic founded in 1870 (though the term France generally refers to the current French Fifth Republic government, formed in 1958). Around 60 countries gained independence from the United Kingdom throughout its history, the most in the world, followed by around 40 countries that gained independence from France throughout its history. Over 50% of the world's borders today were drawn as a result of British and French imperialism. Many countries have gained independence from other Western European empires, including 23 from Spain, 7 from Portugal, 4 from the Netherlands, 3 from Belgium, and 2 from Italy. An unambiguous measure is the date of national constitutions; but as constitutions are an almost entirely modern concept, all formation dates by that criterion are modern or early modern (the oldest extant constitution being that of San Marino, dating to 1600). Independence dates for widely recognized states earlier than 1919 should be treated with caution, since prior to the founding of the League of Nations, there was no international body to recognize nationhood, and independence had no meaning beyond mutual recognition of de facto sovereigns (the role of the League of Nations was effectively taken over by the United Nations after the Second World War). See Disputed territories. Many countries have some remote (or fantastically remote) symbolic foundation date as part of their national mythology, sometimes artificially inflating a country's "age" for reasons of nationalism, sometimes merely gesturing at a long and gradual process of the formalizing national identity. Such dates do not reflect the formation of a state (an independent political entity). The following list contains the formation dates of countries with a short description of formation events. For a more detailed description of a country's formation and history, please see the main article for that country.