A historical sovereign state is a state that once existed, but has since been dissolved due to conflict, war, rebellion, annexation, or uprising. This page lists sovereign states, countries, nations, or empires that ceased to exist as political entities sometime after 1453, grouped geographically and by constitutional nature.[note 1]
The criteria for inclusion in this list are similar to that of the list of states with limited recognition. To be included here, a polity must have claimed statehood and either:
This is not a list for all variant governments of a state, nor is it a list of variations of countries' official long form name. For purposes of this list, the cutoff between medieval and early modern states is the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Four of the homelands, or bantustans, for black South Africans, were granted nominal independence by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Not recognised by other nations, these effectively were puppet states and were re-incorporated in 1994.
These nations declared themselves independent, but failed to achieve it in fact or did not seek permanent independence and were either re-incorporated into the mother country or incorporated into another country.
These nations, once separate, are now part of another country. Cases of voluntary accession are included.