10 Historical Facts You Should Know (But Probably Don’t)

5. Many Countries Are Far Younger Than You Think

You know those famous historical European countries with deep rich histories and which have existed forever? Yeah? Well most of them haven’t.

I feel like we all just assume Germany and Italy have always been there either in their current form or near enough especially with their prominent places in history considering the World Wars, Rome, the Renaissance… The reality in fact though is that both examples are merely as young as 150 years old or thereabout.

This makes Italy and Germany younger than steam engines, Queen Victoria and mainstream newspapers. It is quite common to consider the United States a relatively new nation but even the USA is far older than these countries that seemed to have been there since time immemorial.

The youth of these countries may not seem all that impressive to some but just to put things into context: Italy is only 28 years older than Nintendo and Germany is only 18 years older.