Exploring the historical greatest extents of European countries

Last week I made a video that was a little unnecessarily long and then this week I'm making a video about every European country because why not? Europe has about 50 countries and each of them has a specific size of course but at one point in history most of them were considerably bigger than they are today. Some of them were huge like Bulgaria which is pretty small today at around 110,000 square kilometers but used to be gigantic in the 9th century with its Balkan Empire which stretched to at least 400,000 square kilometers, conquering various lands throughout the Balkans, occupying entire modern countries like Romania, Moldova, Serbia, parts of Hungary, Greece, even stretching into Ukraine. Byzantine and later Ottoman conquests reduced it and Bulgaria lost most of its land. And just like it, a lot of countries went through similar processes. So in this video, we are going to take a look at every European country at its greatest extent. Let's do it alphabetically, starting with Albania. Their current size is only about 28,000 square kilometers. However, their largest modern extent was during their brief independence in 1912 when it included parts of modern Kosovo and western North Macedonia. They didn't keep it for long soon after the London Conference of 1913 officially drew Albania's modern borders, giving Kosovo back to Serbia at the time and western Macedonia to Serbia and Greece. Albania also lost the northern Epirus region, claimed by Greece as well, and so today it is slightly smaller than it once was. And since we're here in the region, maybe we can mention Kosovo straight away. It's a very recent country, and so it's essentially as big as it ever was. I guess you could connect it to the ancient kingdom of Tardania, which was centered around modern Kosovo in the 4th century BC, but it might be a little bit of a stretch. Next is Andorra, which in similar fashion is as big as it's ever been. Founded as a co-principality in 1278, the small and mountainous country has always had the same size of only 468 square kilometers. But up next is a big one and one of the best examples for this greatest extent to modern size comparisons, Austria. Their current size is 83,879 square kilometers, but it used to be much bigger. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which existed from 1867 to 1918, covered over 676 thousand square kilometers. And even if we want to argue that most of that was the kingdom of Hungary within the empire, the Austrian empire alone included Austria proper, Czechia, Galicia, Tyrol, Slovenia, and parts of Croatia. Before that, the Habsburg monarchy controlled even more land, including Spain and parts of the Holy Roman Empire at various points. The Habsburgs gained territories through dynastic marriages, diplomacy, and wars, controlling much of central and eastern Europe. After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved. Austria became a small republic, never being as big as it used to be. Now, if you're from the US and you're watching this video, imagine visiting one of these countries. While doing so, getting a local SIM card for your phone to avoid ridiculous costs might be a little bit of a hassle, but with the sponsor of today's video, it doesn't need to be. Saeli is a new eSIM service app, brought to you by the creators of NordVPN, great friends of the channel. They offer a one-time installation for seamless connectivity across 190 plus countries, eliminating the need for multiple eSIMs. It provides affordable plans to reduce roaming fees. You save time at the queues that you often find at airports to buy SIM cards, you avoid the risk of being scammed, and you also enhance your privacy with their security features. The service endures constant connectivity without relying on public Wi-Fi and is compatible with both iOS and Android. 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When it comes to Belgium, their current size is around 30,000 square kilometers. Belgium was also never any bigger within Europe. The only exception we could make to that statement is the territories that it held during their revolution to break away from the Netherlands briefly holding Luxembourg and the Dutch Limburg province during the war. Belgium's overseas empire, however, peaked in the early 20th century with the Congo Free State at 2.3 million square kilometers. But my point here isn't to include colonial empires, because they were precisely that, colonies, not integral parts of this country. So, for the sake of this video and this greatest extent concept, we're going to stick to continental Europe. I'm sorry, Portugal. Moving on to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The current country is about 51,000 square kilometers, but the medieval kingdom of Bosnia, which existed in the 14th century, covered parts of Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro too. However, their largest extent didn't last long. The Ottomans conquered it in 1463, fully incorporating all of Bosnia into their empire. It later became a part of Yugoslavia until gaining independence under its modern borders. It's even arguable that today Bosnia proper is only actually half of the country, with the Serbian-controlled Srpska holding a de facto rule on the other half. And we already covered Bulgaria at the start of the video, so now we can move forward to the seas, starting with Croatia. Croatia's size today is 56,594 square kilometers, but its largest extent was hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the Kingdom of Croatia in the 11th and 12th century, which was independent before joining Hungary. It controlled Dolmatia and parts of Bosnia. It then lost its influence due to neighboring powers taking over, such as the Habsburgs, the Hungarians and the Ottomans. Technically outside of continental Europe, but in the continent of Europe, is the island of Cyprus. Its current official size is 9,251 square kilometers, but arguably it's less, about half, since the Turkish northern Cyprus breakaway state takes up half of the island. But between the 12th and 15th centuries, they had more land. Not only did it control the entire island, but also some small territories in the Middle East coast. It was ruled by the Lusignan dynasty after the Crusaders took over the island from the Byzantine Empire in 1191. It was later conquered by the Ottomans in 1571. With Czechia, we immediately think of Czechoslovakia, which was of course larger, the current size of the country is 78,000 square kilometers while the union was 140,000. However, I believe their largest extent was during the 13th and 14th centuries when the medieval kingdom of Bohemia held Czechia proper plus lands in what is now Austria to the south and Germany to the north. Regarding Denmark, its current size of 42,933 square kilometers seems pretty small when we compare it to the greatest extent of the Kalmar Union, which existed between 1397 and 1523. It united Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Greenland. It was achieved by Queen Margaret I of Denmark and controlled a territory of over 2.8 million square kilometers. Sweden left the Union in 1523. Denmark lost Norway to Sweden in 1814 but retained Greenland and the Faroe islands which it holds until today and will continue to because they're not for sale. Estonia and Latvia we should actually cover together because their greatest extent in the past actually happened when the two countries were united, or rather the two regions. Estonia is 45,000 square kilometers today, Latvia is slightly bigger at 64, but they used to be bigger both of them, if nothing else because they existed together through the medieval Livonian confederation which stretched across these two Baltic regions. it was absorbed by Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and later Russia. They regained independence in 1918 and then again in 1991. And I think we have to interrupt the alphabetical order a little bit more because since we're here we might as well cover Lithuania. Its current size is 65,300 square kilometers but its largest extent, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th to 16th centuries was 132,000 square kilometers. It then united with Poland into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which took up a gigantic 1 million square kilometers. Eventually it became weakened and partitioned between Russia, Austria and Prussia. And I would say that is also the greatest extent of Poland itself, although at other points in history it was also bigger than it is today. For instance, interwar Poland had 387,000 square kilometers, it was slightly larger than the modern one, which only has 322. Finland's case isn't as noticeable as Poland's, but it also used to be a little bit larger. Its current size is 338,000 square kilometers, but it also used to control a larger part of Karelia, Sala and Petsamo up north. The winter war against the Soviets in 1939 led to these territorial losses to the Soviet Union, which weren't recovered when it collapsed in 1991. But with France, we go back to a case of a gigantic contrast. Its current size is quite large already, at 551,000 square kilometers, but during the early 19th century, as Napoleon conquered most of Europe, France's direct and indirect territorial control grew a lot, arguably to 860,000 square kilometers, ruling Spain, Italy, the Benelux, Western Germany, and Poland. Napoleon's defeat in 1815 ended its European dominance and brought France back down to its current borders. And Germany is, as you probably know, another big one. Its current size is 357,000 square kilometers. It used to be slightly bigger under the German Empire between 1871 and 1918, which controlled more territories in Europe before losing them after World War I. However, its peak territorial control came under the Third Reich in 1942 during World War II. It essentially controlled all of Europe, with the exception of the UK, neutral states like Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, and other allied powers. The direct control of their territory was about 633,000 square kilometers, which they lost entirely after the war. Further south, and also starting with a G, we have Greece, currently at 131,000 square kilometers. It's a little bit difficult to choose which former state we should take a look at when it comes to measuring the greatest extent of a Greek nation. I guess it would either be the Byzantine Empire or maybe Alexander the Great's empire at its whopping 2 million square kilometers, although many claim Alexander was Macedonian, attributing its predecessor status to northern Macedonia, which is now only 25,000 square kilometers. This is a point of great dispute between Macedonians and Greeks, which have their own region of Macedonia, arguably more connected to Alexander's original kingdom. modern Greece's largest extent, I guess, technically was in 1920 with the Treaty of Sèvres, which gave it Thrace and parts of Turkey, but this control never materialized, so I guess we could also say that Greece now is at its largest territorial extent. Hungary, however, is another fascinating example of a country that used to objectively be much larger. Today, it's 93,000 square kilometers, but the medieval kingdom of Hungary, stretched over modern Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and parts of Romania, Ukraine, Serbia and Austria and it controlled most of these lands within the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I. The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 reduced Hungary by about two-thirds, losing Slovakia, Transylvania and Croatia. Iceland, as is the case with almost every island, is as big as it ever was, controlling the entirety of its island at 103,000 square kilometers. And Ireland's case as a fellow island is pretty similar. It doesn't hold all of Ireland today, but it used to before British rule. There was a single united Ireland kingdom in the 12th century. Its current size is 70,000 square kilometers, but the whole island is larger at 84,000, so I guess it did used to be a little bigger. Italy's case is similar to Greece, and we need to go all the way back into antiquity to a debatable predecessor states to find the largest contrast. Their current size is 300,000 square kilometers. One could argue their greatest extent was the Roman Empire at its height in the 2nd century AD when they controlled much of Europe, but were the Romans really a direct predecessor of modern Italy? I think a fair comparison would be to look at the size of the Kingdom of Italy in the 20th century before losing their conquered land at the end of World War II. They came to hold Corsica, part of southern France, Istria, Trieste, part of Dalmatia, and Albania. And remember how Poland was eventually partitioned among its neighbors? Well, the next country on our list, Luxembourg, was as well. Today, Luxembourg is pretty small, at only 2.5 thousand square kilometers. However, it was much larger in the 14th century as a powerful duchy in the Holy Roman Empire. Over three times larger, in fact, than it currently is at over 10,000 square kilometers it eventually lost that land to its neighbors of France, Belgium and Germany. Malta, another island, is also at its current and largest possible extent of 316 square kilometers. Moldova is only 33,846 square kilometers today but the Principality of Moldavia was larger in the middle ages, including small parts of modern Romania and Ukraine, essentially doubling its modern territory. It was then absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Romania achieving independence at a smaller size. Monaco was also once slightly larger but lost land to France in agreements to remain independent. It's only 2 square kilometers today. Interestingly they've been using some land reclamation techniques and expanding further into the mediterranean ocean so their largest extent may be yet to come. Montenegro is another super small country at only 13,800 square kilometers but it is as big as it's ever been. Other instances of their existence as a sovereign state throughout history were much smaller. The Netherlands also had a gigantic colonial empire but that doesn't count here. Within Europe their greatest extent goes back to when it ruled both Belgium and Luxembourg under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1813. That size of 76,000 square kilometers of the entire Benelux was then reduced to the current 41,000 after the other two countries gained independence. Norway is another decently sized country, 385,000 square kilometers. One could argue their greatest extent came at different times, either at the Kalmar Union or the unions with Denmark and Sweden, but Norway wasn't in charge of any of those. And so I would say their true greatest extent came under the medieval kingdom of Norway in the year of 1263, when they held Greenland, Iceland, part of the Kolde Peninsula in Russia, as well as Northern Scotland, which brought them to around 750,000 square kilometers. Regarding Portugal keeping colonial empires out of this really hinders them because we've basically had the same border since the 13th century at a size of 92,000 square kilometers. I guess the most extra land we could include in Europe is the region of Olivensa, conquered by the Spanish and illegally held by them until today. Romania is another pretty big country too, at 238,000 square kilometers. However, during the early 20th century following World War I, Greater Romania existed and was larger, including Moldovia, Bessarabia and a little bit of what is now Bulgaria. It lost territories to the Germans and Soviets during World War II, recovering some at the end of the war, but not as many as before. Russia is already the biggest country in the world today, but it used to be a little bigger. The Russian Empire used to control even more territory, especially within Europe and also Alaska in North America. San Marino has always had the same territory, never increasing nor losing territory, a super small republic of only 61 square kilometers. Serbia, however, is a whole other story. Similar, in fact, to our first example of Bulgaria. Its current size is 88,000 square kilometers, but there have been many times throughout its history when it was bigger. You don't even have to go super far back. In 1992, they held Montenegro and Kosovo, but their largest extent was the Serbian Empire, which existed in 1346, which controlled Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and parts of Greece and Bosnia. Serbia was also a key part of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1992, which was much larger than the country is today, but other countries that were a part of it eventually gained their own independence. Slovakia only gained independence in modern history and was a part of Hungary from very early on, since like 1895. Its current size is 49,000 square kilometers and I think it is the largest extent of the country ever. We can of course include Czechoslovakia too, but it wasn't in charge of the union between the two countries, if anything it was under Czechia's stronger rule. And the neighboring and similarly named Slovenia has a similar situation. At 20,000 square kilometers, the only larger state I could find here were the Illydian provinces, a Napoleonic puppet state from 1809. Its capital, Laibach, is now Ljubljana in Slovenia. It's stretched into parts of Italy, Croatia, and Austria, but it's a little debatable if we could consider this a Slovene predecessor state. It was more of a Napoleonic creation. But we're followed by another very big example, which is Spain. Spain is pretty big today, at half a million square kilometers. It of course was gigantic overseas with its colonial empire, taking up half of both North and South America, plus Cuba, a bunch of other islands, and the Philippines, but even in our restricted European continent universe, it was also quite bigger than it is now at many points. In the year of 1600, Spain controlled the additional territories of Portugal, the two Sicilies, Sardinia, and additional territories in the Netherlands, France, and Northern Italy, all acquired mostly through dynastic unions. Arguably even bigger than that was the empire of Charles V a few years before in 1544, also known typically as the Habsburg Empire which in addition to those territories we just mentioned also technically ruled over the entire Holy Roman Empire with additional direct rule over Austria, Bohemia, parts of Hungary and the entire Burgundian Low Countries. Another great example of territory size contrast is Sweden. Today Sweden is 450 000 square kilometers. However, the 17th century Swedish Empire also controlled Finland, Estonia, Latvia and even parts of Germany, Poland and Russia. It conquered most of it during the Thirty Years' War and then following wars with Poland and Russia but eventually lost most of it in the Great Northern War in 1721. They kept Finland until 1809, then gained Norway in 1814 as a replacement, sort of, losing that too in 1905 and reaching their current size much smaller than they used to be. Switzerland was never much bigger than it is now, at 41,000 square kilometers, and it's maintained stable borders since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. However, at some point in its existence, when it was still expanding from the first groups of cantons which began uniting in 1385, it did have some associate states outside the current borders, like the French city of Mulhouse. Plus, some of its member states did have larger territories before, such as the Crisson Canton which stretched into modern Italy in about 1512. Getting close to the end of our list we have Ukraine. Their current size is 600,000 square kilometers including the enemy occupied territories. Their largest extent would perhaps be the Kievan Rus which existed between the 9th and 13th centuries and controlled much of Eastern Europe. It was then dissolved upon the Mongol invasions, but it might be wrong to call the Kievan Rus as a single state, while it did kind of begin as such it was more of an aggregation of principalities, their total size was about 1.3 million square kilometers. And finally, the United Kingdom. Its current size is 243,000 square kilometers, while the British Empire peaking in the 1920s was the largest in history, covering 35.5 million square kilometers, we are not including colonial empires here. So the greatest extent of the British Empire within Europe would have to be when they held all of Ireland, only briefly increasing their territory. We could however look at England individually and go back to the Angevin Empire in 1190 when they ruled England, parts of Wales and Ireland and basically half of France in the West, Aquitaine, Brittany, Normandy and a few more regions. So that is every European country at its greatest extent. Did you notice any mistakes and also would you like to see any of these countries go back to their larger size? Let me know in the comments. Thank you so much to my Patrons for supporting me over on Patreon. I'm going to upload all of the maps I used for this video to Patreon in high resolution so I don't know, if you want to print out a map of Serbia at its greatest extent to put up on your wall, you can join our community there, supporting the channel and getting that as well. If not, I hope you enjoyed just watching the video and I will see you next time for more general knowledge. Today's Moomin Cup is, I believe, a repeat. It is this one of a girl with a pan on her head and then she's like, she has a glowing orb and then some buttons. Maybe she found a palantir and she is looking into like Sauron's head or something. Oh, and she's holding another one. She has like a crystal ball on one hand And then she's just walking away because she heard me say all of this nonsense.