Extinct countries. I've done a lot of videos where I talk about countries that no longer exist
I've maybe even mentioned a few that I will hear, but I've never done it regarding one specific
region slash current country, and that's what we're going to do in this video. Understanding
which countries used to exist in the area where the United States now are, why they were created
and why they were eventually destroyed. If the video does well, I can do this for other countries
as well. There were at least 12 to 13 countries that used to exist in the current territory of
the United States. Some were incorporated as states, others were simply taken and destroyed
some were of native nations, others of colonizers, and some were serious attempts at establishing
sovereign nations, while others just lasted for a couple of months as a consequence of some
historic event. So let's first list out which these temporary countries were. They were the
Vermont Republic, Deseret, the state of Muscogee, the republics of East Florida, West Florida
and the Floridas, the Iroquois Confederacy, the Cherokee Nation, the Republic of the Indian
Stream, the Republic of Texas, the California Republic, the Great Republic of the Rough
and Ready and the Kingdom of Hawaii. First the Vermont Republic which existed between 1777 and 1791 The state was founded when delegates from 28 towns met and declared independence from the jurisdictions and land claims of the
British colonies of Quebec, New Hampshire and New York, due to the dissatisfaction regarding the way
they were ruled by the British. It was never recognized by any other nation, but they even
had their own currency, the Vermont Copper, known as the Vermont Republic, but initially as the
Republic of New Connecticut or the Republic of the Green Mountains. The US didn't recognize their
independence either because of some territorial disputes they had with New York. Then they tried
to join Quebec, which the British accepted and were willing to reward generously. But as the
British began to lose the fight against the US in the American Revolutionary War, they ended the
negotiations with the British and instead began them with the Americans to be able to join the
Union. And in fact, their proximity with the American Revolution was big. Their flag is said
would have been used by the Green Mountain Boys, a militia force from Vermont that supported
the New Hampshire claims and fought against the British. In 1791, it was admitted into the United
States as the state of Vermont, with the constitution and laws of the independent state
continuing in effect after admission. Next, Deseret, which could briefly call itself a
country from 1849 to 1850 But the purpose of its creators wasn to be a country but rather a state recognized by the US When Mormon pioneers settled in the area in 1847 it was a part of Mexico
Initially, the local church leader intended to apply for status as a territory or a state
The proposal encompassed nearly all of present-day Utah and Nevada, large portions of California and
Arizona, and parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Although the actual
area of control of Deseret did not include all of these regions. While attempting to be recognized
as a state, Deseret was, in fact, somewhat of an autonomous state slash country, and the US didn't
really agree to the creation of the state as the Mormons intended. They thought it was too big
too ambitious, and weren't too eager to hand the rule of a full state to a religious institution
Thoughts of uniting it with California as a single state were considered, but as a compromise
the Utah territory was created. In this map, we can see it in blue, compared to the dotted outline
which shows the territory the Mormons wanted to establish as their desert state. In addition
the idea of creating a state based on Mormonism began to fade away, after the coming of the
railroad, which opened the territory to many non-Mormon settlers. The flag they used is said
to have been this one similar to that of the United States but in blue I assume the bigger central star would be in representation of their desired statehood The name derives from the word for honeybee in the Book of Mormon and in the current Utah state flag we can still see a beehive in representation of
this historic temporary state. Before we keep going with the video, a quick message from sponsor
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discount if you choose to keep your membership after that. Now back to the video. Muskoji had
a little bit of a longer lifespan during four years, 1799 to 1803. The state of Muskoji was