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

Former name	Current name	Year of change
Muscat & Oman	Oman	1970
Transjordan	Jordan	1949
Trucial States	United Arab Emirates	1971

Africa

Former name	Current name	Year of change
Abyssinia	Ethiopia
Basutoland	Lesotho
Bechuanaland	Botswana
Belgian Congo	Zaire	1960
Congo Free State	Belgian Congo	1908
Dahomey	Benin
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

Former name	Current name	Year of change
Burma	Myanmar
Ceylon	Sri Lanka
Dutch East Indies	Indonesia
Siam	Thailand
French Indochina	Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam	1953
Malaya	Malaysia
Cambodia	Kampuchea	1975
Kampuchea	Cambodia	1991

Pacific

Former name	Current name	Year of change
Gilbert and Ellice Islands	Kiribati & Tuvalu
New Hebrides	Vanuatu