Independent Countries That Lasted Less Than 20 Years

According to the World Population Review, there are at least 195 countries in the world (if one goes by U.N. member status). But there have been countless countries, empires, and kingdoms that are now lost, having fallen or grown into something new. Many of these countries lasted at least a century. But some never made it that far. In fact, there are many that never even made it past two decades.

Many of the countries that had short lifespans may have been quite successful had they survived but were victims of their circumstances — namely war. Many places were born from conflict and in conflict they died, unable to forge a country while fighting expensive wars of survival. Others were strange creations — the product of nationalistic adventurers seeking glory. And then there are some that simply voted themselves out of existence, choosing to join larger federations. Here are some countries that failed to make it past the 20 year mark — and in most cases, didn't even make it to 10.

The Republic of Corsica arose in 1755 following a rebellion against the Republic of Genoa, according to Prussian historian Ferdinand Gregorovius' book "Wanderings in Corsica." To lead the island to independence, the revolutionaries turned to exile Pasquale Paoli, who was declared general and president of the republic.

The republic's chief achievement was the creation of a constitution based on the idea that authority was derived from the consent of the governed (in American parlance, We the People). It established a parliament that had the sole authority to pass laws with a majority vote and a judicial system. As Gregorovius also notes, Paoli established a school system co-opting the Corsian Clergy as instructors, along with a university

Corsica survived for 14 years despite Genoese attempts to retake the island. Hoping to profit off Corsica even in defeat, Genoa sold the island, which it still viewed as its own, to France in 1768. The French invaded the island soon thereafter. Despite a victory at Borgo, the outnumbered Coriscans suffered a decisive defeat at Ponte Nuovo, a Genoese bridge over the Golo River. Despite a valiant defense, the army fell apart when Prussian mercenaries fired on their own men. Paoli fled along with his confederates, and Corsica has remained a French possession ever since.

According to the Yucatan Times, when Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana abolished the federal constitution in 1835 and centralized power to Mexico City, a wave of separatism swept Mexico. Texas seceded first in 1836 (via History). Yucatan followed in 1840.

But in 1840, Mexico was not in a fighting mood. Having lost Texas, it wanted to limit further land losses. So Santa Ana sent Yucateco Andres Quintana Roo to successfully negotiate Yucatan's re-entry into Mexico. But when Mexico City did not honor its promise of Yucateco autonomy, Santa Ana sent soldiers to take the peninsula by force -– and was defeated. So Santa Ana settled on economically isolating Yucatan, which worked until a new agreement was worked out in 1843.

In 1846, the Mexican-American War broke out. Yucatan, according to Mexico's UNAM, declared itself neutral in the war, effectively setting itself up as an independent state once again. When it seemed Yucatan might maintain independence as Mexico was crushed, losing 55% of its territory to the U.S., per the Library of Congress, the indigenous Maya population threw Mexico a lifeline.

In 1847, a Mayan revolt against the mestizo and Spanish elites broke out in Yucatan. This war, known as the Maya Caste War, put the Yucateco elite in a bind. It was either surrender to the rebels or risk occupation by President James Polk and the U.S. military. The third option was re-integration into Mexico in return for crushing the revolt. They settled on this, and in 1848, the Republic of Yucatan came to an end.

When the USSR collapsed, the new Russian Federation struck deals with its numerous ethnic minorities to create autonomous enclaves, per the National Interest. Muslim Chechnya, however, refused and seceded from Russia in 1994.

According to Stanford University, the new state under President Dzhokhar Dudayev styled itself the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. But Boris Yeltsin's Russia was determined to crush the separatists and invaded Chechnya. With the Russian army understrength and demoralized from the USSR's collapse, the Chechens managed to win the war. Under the Treaty of Khasavyurt, the conflict ended, and Chechnya became de facto independent.

While Chechnya managed independence, governing the fractured state proved to be the real challenge. In addition to lacking a centralized governing body, the state gradually fell under the influence of hard-line Islamist warlords. Chief among these warlords was Shamil Basayev, who became confident enough to strike Russian positions in Dagestan in 1999, as per Radio Free Europe. In response, Vladimir Putin ordered a fresh invasion of Chechnya.

According to Radio Free Europe, by March 2000, Russia had concerted control over the republic, with the capital of Grozny leveled to the ground. While Chechnya was reincorporated into Russia, fighting continued — by 2009, when Russia claimed the conflict had ended, some 80,000 civilians were killed. However, as of 2022, some believe that Chechnya never lost its independence but rather is temporarily occupied by Russia (via the Kyiv Post).

In 1991, per the BBC, Yugoslavia was collapsing on itself. Among the new countries was the Republic of Macedonia. But there was a small village of around 2,000 people called Vevcani, which was in an interesting position that set it up to become a short-lived micronation.

As the BBC notes, Vevcani was located in the Struga municipality of Macedonia –- a majority-Muslim, Albanian-speaking region on the border with Albania. Vevcani, however, had remained Orthodox despite nearly seven centuries of Ottoman Muslim rule. So when Macedonia became independent, the villagers decided they did not want to be part of Struga and voted to secede from Macedonia.

Now, Macedonia never recognized the Republic of Vevcani. It seemed more of a ploy for attention than anything else. But there was a logic behind it. Macedonia was facing an Albanian separatist insurgency at the time, which sought to detach parts of Macedonia to join Albania. Christian, Macedonian Vevcani had no interest in joining Albania. The independence referendum was to draw attention to Vevcani's desire to separate from the Albanian-majority Struga and avoid becoming drawn into the conflict. It worked, as in 1994, Macedonia separated Vevcani from Struga.

Today, the story of the Republic of Vevcani is a bit of a tourist gimmick. The village sells passports, coins, and even has its own flag. Visitors can have these "passports" stamped by local authorities. Obviously none of this has any official meaning, but it's still a great way of attracting curious tourists to a place no-one would otherwise visit.

The Socialist Republic of Gilan emerged from the chaos that followed the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906. According to the Encyclopedia Iranica, a former religious student and local warlord Mirza Kuchak Khan began a guerrilla movement during World War I in the northern Iranian region of Gilan in opposition to Russian and British occupation.

In 1920, the Soviets attacked the northern Iranian port of Enzeli, per Russia Beyond, seeking to capture or destroy the Tsarist fleet stationed there and withdraw. Instead, however, they connected with Kuchak Khan, seeing that they shared a common foe in the British and an opportunity to introduce communism into Iran.

Thus, the Soviets decided to offer Kuchak Khan weapons, money, and support. In return, the warlord established a state called the Socialist Republic of Gilan, which was meant to spread its influence south until it eventually comprised an Iranian communist republic.

In the end, however, the gambit failed, mainly because Kuchak Khan was happy to govern his little slice of Iran without taking over the whole country. Thus, Soviet-backed Iranian communists deposed him and his followers and drove him into the mountains. The republic then attacked the government in Tehran and was heavily defeated. The Soviets withdrew support, concluded a treaty of friendship with the Tehran government, and the Gilan republic ceased to exist by May 1921.

The mountains of Eastern Slovakia and Southwestern Ukraine are home to the Carpatho-Rusyns. In 1918, according to University of Chicago Slavicist Clarence Manning, the territories of Carpathian Rus all fell inside the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. However, the Rusyns were culturally distinct from their Czech overlords and Slovak neighbors, being closer linguistically to Ukrainians.

In order to bring some sort of order to the country, the Czechoslovak government –- dominated from Prague -– promised to create a Carpatho-Rusyn autonomous zone, where the Rusyns would have some degree of self-governance. However, the agreement was never really enforced.

When Adolf Hitler's Germany dismembered Czechoslovakia in 1938, the Rusyn lands -– known as Carpatho-Ukraine –- declared independence. The independent Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine, per the Library of Congress, came into existence on March 15, 1939, electing Greek Catholic priest Rev. Auhustyn Voloshyn as president. The only problem? The country was already under attack from Hungary –- its old overlord from before World War I.

Although the republic was declared on March 15, fighting against Hungarian forces had already begun the day before, as Hungary, with Hitler's support, sought to regain territories it had lost in 1920. Germany had originally been sympathetic to the Rusyns. But in order to assuage Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's fears that the new state would encourage Ukrainian nationalism in the USSR, the Germans allowed Hungary to annex it. Hungarian forces overran the republic in less than a day. By the evening of March 15 -– the same day as Voloshyn's election -– the country was gone.