There are about 196 countries in the world today (depending on how you count). Many other countries no longer exist. To find this puzzle cache you will need to match the country names below to their descriptions. If you are not familiar with some of these former nations then you can find out more about them on the internet, in an encyclopedia, or by asking a history nerd (besides me).
COUNTRIES
0) Byzantine Empire
1) Orange Free State and Transvaal
3) Czechoslovakia
4) Ottoman Empire
6) Yugoslavia
7) Austria-Hungary
8) Holy Roman Empire
DESCRIPTIONS
A) Successor to the Eastern Roman Empire. At its peak, this country encompassed most of the Mediterranean including modern Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Ruled from the capital at Constantinople. Conquered in 1453.
B) Considered to have been founded by Charlemagne in 800 and refounded by Otto the Great in 962, both of whom were formally crowned by the Pope. Beginning in the 12th century, prince-electors chose the emperor. Charles V was the last emperor crowned by the Pope (in 1530). Napoleon formally dissolved this empire in 1806 by which time it had ceased to be a true country.
C) Founded as a Muslim Turkish sultanate in 1299. Made the renamed city of Istanbul its capital in 1453. At its peak, this country included southeastern Europe, northern Africa, and most of the Middle East. It ceased to exist after World War I.
D) The Boer Republics, founded by Dutch settlers who moved inland from the Cape Colony to avoid control by the British Empire. They were eventually defeated and annexed anyway during the Boer Wars. The Boers developed a unique form of Dutch called Afrikaans. Now part of South Africa.
E) "The Dual Monarchy" which replaced a centuries-old single monarchy in 1867. Ruled by the Habsburg/Hapsburg dynasty, but with two separate regional governments. It broke up at the end of World War I. Included all of modern Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia plus a large portion of modern Romania.
F) Formed as a union of southern Slavs after World War I, it collapsed into a civil war in the 1990s on ethnic and religious divisions. What once was one country is now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, and the autonomous province of Kosovo.
G) Formed in 1918. It included Bohemia and Moravia and small parts of Silesia and Ruthenia. Prague served as the capital until it peacefully split into two countries in 1992.
FINAL
N 27 0A.BCD W 80 06.EFG
Congrats NFJK for FTF.