Countries That Used To Exist In Medieval Europe

Support me on Patreon & get exclusive / ahead of time content! https://www.patreon.com/generalknowledge In this video I talk about countries that used to exist in Medieval Europe. To do this, I use a fantastic map made by reddit user ratkatavobratka, available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/nd10ka/oc_europe_1444_map_8k_x_5k_image/ . Through looking at this map we are able to identify some of these "countries" or at least personal domains (duchies, counties, kingdoms) that used to exist in the year 1444, but that no longer do today. Examples of such are the Kingdom of Algarve, the Kingdom/Crown of Aragon, the Emirate of Granada, the Duchy of Brittany or the Duchy of Burgundy. At his point in history, France was not yet unified, neither was Spain, and this fragmentation of what are today the territories of modern countries was also seen elsewhere: Ireland, Russia (which saw the independent states of the Republic of Novgorod or the Grand Duchy of Moscow), Italy (where the maritime Republics of Venice and Genoa were tremendously important, even having overseas domains throughout the Mediterranean), Florence, Milan, Naples, or the Papal State). But also the Holy Roman Empire, completely fragmented, with hundreds of semi-independent domains, such as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg which was larger at the time, or the Kingdom of Bohemia, or Moravia. On the other hand, many "countries" back then held more territory than their modern counterparts. Norway held Iceland, Sweden held Finland, and Denmark held Southern Sweden - all of them temporarily united through the Kalmar Union. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was also tremendously large, occupying parts of Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine - where an independent Crimean Khanate also existed in the Peninsula and Eastern part of the modern country. In addition to Hungary, that held a significant larger territory, as did Moldova, or the Ottoman Empire - when compared to modern Turkey. Some of these old countries were destroyed through conquest, as is the example of the Republic of Novgorod. Others evolved into modern versions of themselves, as is the case of the Grand Duchy of Moscow which became the Russian Tsardom, or the Teutonic Order which eventually transformed into Prussia, leading the way to German Unification. And others which were also eventually unified, as is the case of the Italian Republics. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 00:50 The Concept of A Country 01:21 Kingdom of The Algarve 01:59 Divided Spain 02:14 Emirate of Granada 03:01 Kingdom of Aragon 03:31 Fragmented France 04:06 Duchy of Brittany 04:51 Kingdom/Duchy of Burgundy 06:06 Map Overview 06:20 Countries That Had More Territory Back Then 07:22 Countries That Didn't Exist Yet Due To Fragmentation 07:34 Fragmented Ireland 07:55 A Divided Russia