2. North Yemen and South Yemen merged to
become a single country, Yemen.

3. Namibia gained its independence from South
Africa.

1991
4. The Soviet Union — by far the world’s largest
country — broke up into fifteen independent
countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

5. Yugoslavia began to break up when three of its
republics — Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia
— declared their independence. In 1992, a
fourth republic — Bosnia and Herzegovina
— followed suit. The name Yugoslavia finally
disappeared from maps in 2003 when the
remaining republics agreed to change the
country’s name to Serbia and Montenegro.

1993
6. Czechoslovakia split into two separate countries:
the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

7. Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia to become an
independent country.

1995
8. Bombay, India, changed its name to Mumbai.
The following year, 1996, the Indian city of
Madras changed its name to Chennai, and in
2001 Calcutta changed the spelling of its name
to Kolkata.

1997
9. Hong Kong, which had been a British crown
colony since 1842, was returned to China.

10. Zaire, the third-largest country in Africa,
changed its name to the Democratic Republic of
the Congo. This name change has lead to much
confusion, since a neighboring country is called
the Republic of the Congo.

1999
11. Macau, a small territory that had been
administered by Portugal for nearly four and a
half centuries, was returned to China.

12. Berlin replaced Bonn as the capital of Germany.

13. Nunavut came into existence as Canada’s newest
territory. Spreading across a vast area of northern
Canada that was formerly part of the Northwest
Territories, Nunavut encompasses the traditional
lands of the Inuit people.

2000
14. The Southern Ocean was recognized by the
International Hydrographic Organization as
the world’s 5th major ocean (along with the
Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans).
The Southern Ocean surrounds the continent of
Antarctica and extends northward to 60° south
latitude.

2001
15. Newfoundland, one of Canada’s 10 provinces,
changed its name to Newfoundland and
Labrador.

2002
16. East Timor was internationally recognized as
an independent country. In a referendum three
years earlier, the people of East Timor had
voted overwhelmingly for independence from
Indonesia.

2006
17. Serbia and Montenegro split into two separate
countries when Montenegro declared its
independence.