Which country was never a colony or under foreign rule in its entire history?

[God of Kings]

This question kept stumping me. When I say foreign rule, I mean occupied, became a part of another country's territory, or was invaded successfully. Colonies are technically under foreign rule.

Countries that were invaded unsuccessfully still maintained complete autonomy and sovereignty.

Let me put this in Civ terms: which civilization in real life did not lose its capital and was never a colony?

 

[Samez]

Spain and San Marino come to my mind.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

There needs to be some defining of "entire history" there. If you say "the history of Spain starts after Carthaginian rule and Roman rule had ended then sure, Spain works. But if you apply such a loose interpretation most countries will work. The "entire history" of the US could be claimed to 'not have started' until that whole colonial business was over, for example.

 

[PhroX]

There needs to be some defining of "entire history" there. If you say "the history of Spain starts after Carthaginian rule and Roman rule had ended then sure, Spain works. But if you apply such a loose interpretation most countries will work. The "entire history" of the US could be claimed to 'not have started' until that whole colonial business was over, for example.

Even then, you could probably argue that, to some extent, Spain came under foreign rule with Charles I/V. It wasn't invaded or conquered, but it did become part of a greater territory under the rule of a foreign monarch (though Charles did try to become more "Spanish" as his life went on). Of course, things like this don't really work in Civ's rather simplified mechanics.

 

[Kyriakos]

Spain was sort of under French control during the peninsular war, no? They also lost most of their colonial empire as a direct result.

(before early modern times) Most countries/regions didn't have the same ruling entity for more than a couple of centuries. Maybe the only exception in Europe would be the Byz Empire, lasting a bit over a millenium, or a little less if one considers it ended in 1204 instead.

 

[Arwon]

The best candidate if you're looking for a part of the world never conquered by force of arms in all of its history back to the beginnings of complex society, might be Tonga.

In terms of direct rule it was never more than a British protectorate and it never lost indigenous governance, and its Austronesian inhabitants didn't displace or conquer anyone when they arrived. At most they had civil wars and wars of unification.

 

[Lexicus]

Japan comes pretty close.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

Sweden could be a candidate, if one doesn't view their membership in the Kalmar Union as colonization.

 

[Flying Pig]

You're onto a tough one with modern states - the problem is that we've redrawn the borders so often that it becomes a little arbitrary to say what counts as 'foreign' rule in a lot of cases. Liberia may be a good candidate - as far as I know, it was never formally owned by a foreign power, and the settlers issued a declaration of independence for their colony, which was previously considered a private enterprise. Since we don't normally say that Legoland in Windsor is a 'colony' of Denmark, there's an argument to be made that Liberia was never a 'colony' in the sense that Australia or New Zealand were, and it was certainly never brought under foreign rule by military force. Of course, you could well hit back that the claim of the (mostly American) settlers to form the government of the territory was itself foreign rule, but you'd have to do the same for the foundation of the USA.

 

[Plotinus]

Japan comes pretty close.

The Ainu might disagree. But then that raises the question again of what counts as a "country" or "civilisation" and what counts as "foreign rule".

 

[Yeekim]

Sweden could be a candidate, if one doesn't view their membership in the Kalmar Union as colonization.

This. Sweden is probably the only one.

 

[Kyriakos]

Wasn't Sweden de facto a puppet of the greater powers, following its defeats to Russia? I mean it sort of lost most of its own territory. Afaik it only got to be an important power following the 30 years war, so its significance didn't last all that long.

 

[Yeekim]

Never its capital, though...

 

[thecrazyscot]

What about Ethiopia?

 

[Flying Pig]

Italy occupied it under Mussolini, though it (uniquely, apart from the exceptional case of Liberia) managed to escape the general 'Scramble for Africa'.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Italy occupied it under Mussolini, though it (uniquely, apart from the exceptional case of Liberia) managed to escape the general 'Scramble for Africa'.

True, I guess I was simply interpreting that as a continuation of the war as Italy never successfully pacified the country.

Technically, yeah I guess it doesn't fit the bill...but 5 years of foreign occupation over 2,000 years of history is pretty good!

 

[God of Kings]

I meant to say in OP is within the entire recorded history.

Spain and San Marino were under Roman control earlier. Tonga was a British protectorate. The Kalmar Union happened, preventing Sweden from being entirely independent and autonomous within its sovereign territory. Liberia was settled by Americans. Japan was occupied by Americans twice. Ethiopia was occupied by Italy.

 

[daft]

To respond to the original thread: I say Russia.

 

[thecrazyscot]

The Mongols conquered Russia.

 

[Kyriakos]

Maybe some steppe land. Usually nomadic homelands don't get invaded, since there isn't much of a point in doing so. So maybe Mongolia, although it obviously got relegated to full-backwater protectorate after some time.