New Delhi: If Scotland votes for independence from the United Kingdom in Thursday's referendum, it will become the 35th nation to gain independence since the 1990. The end of cold war with the collapse of Soviet Union led to the creation of dozens of new countries in Europe and Asia.
Lithuania was the first to become independent in 1990. The last to become independent is oil rich South Sudan, which formally broke away from Sudan in 2011. Almost 1.5 new countries were born every year in the last 24 years.
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the ouster of several dictators in the Balkans in Europe. Both Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia collapsed giving birth to many smaller nations mainly based on ethnicity.
In the far east of Asia, East Timor finally got freedom from Indonesia in 2002. The only two exceptions are Germany and Yemen who have been reunited in 1990.
Here is a list of the independent nations since 1990:
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Fifteen new countries became independent with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Most of these countries declared independence a few months preceding the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991.
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Estonia
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s into five independent countries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 29, 1992
Croatia, June 25, 1991
Macedonia (officially the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) declared independence on September 8, 1991 but wasn't recognized by the United Nations until 1993 and the United States and Russia in February of 1994
Serbia and Montenegro, (also known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), April 17, 1992 (see below for separate Serbia and Montenegro entries)
Slovenia, June 25, 1991
Other new countries
Thirteen other countries became independent through a variety of causes.
- March 21, 1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.
- May 22, 1990 - North and South Yemen merged to form a unified Yemen.
- October 3, 1990 - East Germany and West Germany merged to form a unified Germany after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
- September 17, 1991 - The Marshall Islands was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.
- September 17, 1991 - Micronesia, previously known as the Caroline Islands, became independent from the United States.
- January 1, 1993 - The Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent nations when Czechoslovakia dissolved.
- May 25, 1993 - Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia but seceded and gained independence.
- October 1, 1994 - Palau was part of the Trust Territory of Pacific Islands (administered by the United States) and gained independence as a former colony.
- May 20, 2002 - East Timor (Timor-Leste) declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but did not became independent from Indonesia until 2002.
- June 3, 2006 - Montenegro was part of Serbia and Montenegro (also known as Yugoslavia) but gained independence after a referendum.
- June 5, 2006 - Serbia became its own entity after Montenegro split.
- February 17, 2008 - Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
- July 9, 2011 - South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan following a January 2011 referendum. Sudan itself was the first to recognise South Sudan and did so one day early, on July 8, 2011.
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