A person walking on the street in Timor-Leste
Among armed conflicts and friendly divorces, the world map has already undergone 5 changes in this century, with the appearance of new nations.
In the last two decades, geopolitical changes have led to the formation of several new countries, each with stories and struggles for unique independence.
It compiled five of the latest nations in the world, all created since 2000, with three of them interconnected due to the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
South Sudan
South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, became independent of Sudan to July 9, 2011. The separation was motivated mainly by decades of cultural, religious and political tensions. While Sudan is predominantly Muslim and Arabic, South Sudan houses more than 60 ethnic groups with mostly Christian or animist beliefs.
However, the new independence did not bring a lasting peace. The internal conflict broke out in 2013 when the president and the vice president of the country confront brutal civil war marked by ethnic violence and instability.
Serbia
Serbia has become an independent nation em 2006after having separated from Montenegro. This separation marked the final dissolution of ancient Yugoslavia. Serbia lived a tumultuous period, especially during the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s, in which violence and widespread travel was recorded.
In 2003, a pact with Montenegro and the remaining countries of Jugoslavia launched the foundations for independence, which materialized when Montenegro voted its separation in 2006.
Montenegro
Montenegro, the former Serbia partner, declared independence on June 3, 2006. He had been part of the union with Serbia after the dismemberment of Jugoslavia, but was frustrated with the imbalance of power and with the economic difficulties of Serbia. After a tight referendum in which 55.5% of Montenegrines voted in favor of independence, the country emerged as a separate nation, contributing to the current remodeling of the Balkans.
Kosovo
Kosovo declared his Independence of Serbia On February 17, 2008, after years of conflict originating in the dissolution of Jugoslavia. The struggle for Kosovo sovereignty dates back to the early twentieth century, with tensions increased in the late 1990s.
The Serbian forces reacted with hardness to the request for independence of the Kosovo Liberation Army (Uck), which resulted in a lot of violence and in the intervention of NATO. Kosovo’s independence is recognized by many Western nations, although Serbia and some other countries do not yet recognize him as a sovereign state.
Timor-read
Timor-Leste officially became a sovereign state on May 20, 2002, after decades of conflict with Indonesia. The nation, located in Southeast Asia, declared the independence of Portugal in 1975, but was quickly occupied by Indonesia. The struggle for freedom was marked by much violence, but a referendum held in 1999 paved the way for independence under the supervision of the United Nations. Timor-Leste was the first new country of the 21st century.
