Love? Deuce? Advantage? This is what it all means
The Republic of West Florida survived as a nation for just over two and a half months during 1810. It occupied a region in what is now West Florida.
The region had recently been purchased by the United States from Spain as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The locals, however, were not at all taken with the prospect of a new government, especially as they were already in the process of kicking out the Spanish. So they declared themselves an independent nation in September 1810.
The West Floridians named their new capital St. Francisville, and a president was elected to run the fledgling country. But it wasn't to last. In December, the United States forcibly annexed the area and West Florida was no more. St. Francisville, meanwhile, ended up in Louisiana.
The Paris Commune was a seizure of power by a popularly-led socialist government that ruled Paris for three months, from March 18 to May 28, 1871.
Essentially an insurrection, it occurred in the wake of France's defeat in the Franco-German War and the collapse of Napoleon III's Second Empire.
Over the next two months, the Paris Commune governed the "City of Light" as an independent sovereign state. The Versailles government, however, was having none of it and, on May 21, 1871, instigated what became known as La Semaine Sanglante, the "Bloody Week." The barricades fell and the Paris Commune was no more.
On January 22, 1946, a man named Qazi Muhammad announced the establishment of the Republic of Mahabad, a self-governing Kurdish ethnic state located in Iran.
Qazi Muhammad had ambitious dreams of turning his new nation into a regional player, backed by Moscow. But then the unthinkable happed. The Soviets, under pressure from the United States, left the region. Iran moved back in and by December 1946 it was all over. For his trouble, Qazi Muhammad was hanged for treason.
The Republic of Mahabad, a puppet state of the Soviet Union, was located in northwestern Iran. Its capital was Mahabad.
The Republic of South Maluku was an unrecognized secessionist republic that used the Dutch withdrawal from Indonesia to declare itself an independent, sovereign nation in 1950. In the process, nearly 13,000 South Moluccans followed their former colonial rulers back to the Netherlands, where they settled for good (pictured).
Today, the Maluku Islands enjoy a reputation as an exotic tourist hotspot, helped by the fact that the destination was once known as the Spice Islands, famous for the nutmeg, mace, and cloves that were exclusively harvested there.
Out of the violence and turmoil that was Congo in the early 1960s was born the Republic of Katanga, which claimed its independence on July 11, 1960. The bold move was declared by Congolese businessman and politician Moïse Tshombe.
Katanga's independence came after Belgium had withdrawn from the Congo. The former colonial power wanted nothing more to do with the ethnic strife engulfing the African country. Tshombe saw an opportunity to fill the political vacuum left by Brussels. But Katanga's mineral wealth also played an important part in the secession.
The Katanga Republic, though, failed to be recognized as a state by the wider world. And as proxy Cold War conflict broke out across the region, people simply lost interest in Katanga. By 1963, Moïse Tshombe was languishing abroad in exile. His republic vanished the following year.
The tragedy that was Biafra began in 1967 when Colonel Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu established the breakaway Republic of Biafra as Nigeria tottered on the brink of civil war.
The Nigerian military immediately attempted to reclaim the territory, its actions precipitating the bloody and brutal Nigerian Civil War.
Biafra bore the brunt of the conflict. An estimated two million died in the conflict, many thousands from famine. In 1970, Ojukwu fled the country, his nation broken and beaten.
Few people realize that the short-lived Republic of Formosa existed on the island of Taiwan.
The republic came into being by default. In 1895, Guangxu, emperor of the Qing Dynasty, ceded Taiwan to the Empire of Japan through the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the First Sino-Japanese War.
The prospect of Japanese rule irked the locals to the point where on May 23, 1895, they proclaimed the establishment of a new country, the Republic of Formosa. Nonetheless, just 155 days after the birth of their nation, the Japanese waded ashore and took over the Republican capital Tainan.
Independence was restored in 2002. Suharto died in 2008. Today, the country is known as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
Sources: (USC U.S.-China Institute) (Britannica) (New World Encyclopedia)
See also: Independence days around the world
The Republic of Hatay is best described as a transitional political entity, such was its short-lived existence. For 10 months from September 1938 to June 1939, it survived as a completely sovereign nation within Turkey. Pictured is a telegram of congratulation sent by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (the first president of the Republic of Turkey) after the proclamation of the Hatay republic.
Nine months after declaring independence, the Hatay legislature had a change of heart. It voted to disestablish the state and rejoin Turkey.
The Republic of Hatay was actually located in territory controlled as part of the French Mandate of Syria, with the French and Turkish authorities overseeing joint military supervision.
After the war ended, the Slovene population were for the most part content with being integrated within a reformed Yugoslavia. In 1991, Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia and became an independent sovereign state.
The modern-day nation of Slovenia was once part of Yugoslavia. In April 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and immediately annexed the region of Slovene Styria as their own territory.
Independence was short-lived, however. With the Dutch having deserted, Indonesian authorities moved to take back control of the errant state. By 1963, South Maluku had been reintegrated into the Maluku Islands archipelago.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, declared its unilateral independence in 1975, a year after Portugal's Carnation Revolution that saw the country withdraw from all its colonial outposts.
By removing itself from East Timor, Portugal left the door open for Indonesia to invade the country and brutally stamp its authority on the islanders. In a vain attempt to govern themselves, the Timorese declared themselves independent. By early 1976, however, Indonesian strongman Suharto had effectively closed the country down.
The locals were enraged, but the German jackboot kicked in and Berlin prohibited the use of the Slovene language or any historically Slovene-related cultural relics. Many hundreds were executed. But the Slovene people fought back. They declared their homeland a sovereign state, the Republic of Slovene Styria, and over the next few years effectively engaged in guerilla warfare with their unwelcome occupiers.
Most countries in the world can boast a long and eventful history. But there are some nations whose sovereignty was so fleeting that independence only lasted a few years or, in some cases, just a matter of days. Despite their short shelf life, these assorted states and republics have a fascinating story to tell. Not all the endings are happy, but some did go on to fly a different flag many years later. So, what are the countries that weren't countries for very long?
Click through for quick glance at an even quicker existence.
Nations with a short shelf life
Countries that capitulated under conflict
LIFESTYLE History
Most countries in the world can boast a long and eventful history. But there are some nations whose sovereignty was so fleeting that independence only lasted a few years or, in some cases, just a matter of days. Despite their short shelf life, these assorted states and republics have a fascinating story to tell. Not all the endings are happy, but some did go on to fly a different flag many years later. So, what are the countries that weren't countries for very long?
Click through for quick glance at an even quicker existence.