Play

Countries don't last forever – they can be born, turn into other countries and even die. Some simply transmute into other countries, like Siam becoming Thailand, while others break up into many different pieces like the erstwhile Soviet Union. And there are the few that were so short-lived that few even remember that they existed, like the union between Egypt and Syria in the 1950s that was called the United Arab Republic. This video gives you some idea of how countries can turn up and die out.