View source for Renamed countries

Some '''renamed countries''' are well known in the West:

*[[Persia]] => [[Iran]] - the language is still called [[Persian]]
*[[Siam]] => [[Thailand]] - they speak Siamese or [[Thai]]
*[[East Pakistan]] => [[Bangladesh]] - formed after the partition of [[India]], over [[Gandhi]]'s protest, and independent from [[Pakistan]] in 1971.

Others may have escaped all but the best [[geography]] students

==Middle East==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250" | Former name
! width="250" | Current name
! width="125"  | Year of change
|-
| [[Muscat & Oman]] || [[Oman]]|| 1970
|-
|[[Transjordan]] || [[Jordan]]|| 1949
|-
|[[Trucial States]] || [[United Arab Emirates]]|| 1971
|}

==Africa==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250" | Former name
! width="250" | Current name
! width="125"  | Year of change
|-
| [[Abyssinia]] || [[Ethiopia]]||
|-
| [[Basutoland]] || [[Lesotho]]|| 1966
|-
| [[Bechuanaland]] || [[Botswana]]|| 1966
|-
| [[Belgian Congo]] || [[Zaire]]|| 1960
|-
| [[Congo Free State]] || [[Belgian Congo]]|| 1908
|-
| [[Dahomey]] || [[Benin]]|| 1975
|-
| [[German East Africa]] (part) || [[Tanganyika]]
|-
| [[German East Africa]] (part) || [[Ruanda-Urundi]] ||1923
|-
| [[Malgasy Republic]] || [[Madagascar]]||1960
|-
| [[Northern Rhodesia]] || [[Zambia]]||
|-
| [[Nyasaland]] || [[Malawi]]||
|-
| [[Rhodesia]] & Southern Rhodesia || [[Zimbabwe]] || 1980 (Rhodesia 1965)
|-
| [[Ruanda-Urundi]] (part)|| [[Burundi]] ||1961
|-
| [[Ruanda-Urundi]] (part)|| [[Rwanda]] ||1961
|-
| [[South West Africa]] || [[Namibia]] || 1990
|-
| [[Spanish Sahara]] || [[Western Sahara]]||
|-
| [[Tanganyika]] & [[Zanzibar]] || [[Tanzania]]
|-
| [[Upper Volta]] || [[Burkina Faso]]||
|-
| [[Zaire]] || [[Democratic Republic of Congo]]||
|-
|}

==Asia==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250" | Former name
! width="250" | Current name
! width="125"  | Year of change
|-
|[[Burma]] || [[Myanmar]]||1989
|-
|[[Ceylon]] || [[Sri Lanka]]||1972
|-
|[[Dutch East Indies]] || [[Indonesia]]|| 1949
|-
|[[East Pakistan]] || [[Bangladesh]]||1971
|-
|[[Siam]] || [[Thailand]]||1939-45 and again in 1949
|-
|[[French Indochina]] || [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[Vietnam]]||1953
|-
|[[Malaya]] || [[Malaysia]]|| 1963
|-
|[[Malaysia]] (part)  || [[Singapore]] ||1965
|-
|[[Kampuchea]] (1975) || [[Cambodia]]||1991
|-
|}

==Pacific==
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! width="250" | Former name
! width="250" | Current name
! width="125"  | Year of change
|-
|[[Gilbert and Ellice Islands]] || [[Tuvalu]] & [[Kiribati]] || 1978 & 1979
|-
|[[New Hebrides]] || [[Vanuatu]]|| 1980
|-
|}
[[Category:Former Countries]]