Do you know their
old and new names?

Many major countries and travel cities were renamed since the end of the Second World War (1945). Below are some of the most famous changes. I bold faced the old names.

I divide the changes into three categories.

Renamed countries

Renamed travel cities

National breakups

Renamed countries

Byelorussia   now Belarus
British Honduras   Belize
Burma   Myanmar
Ceylon   Sir Lanka
East Pakistan   Bangladesh
French Sudan   Mali
Gold Coast   Ghana
Portuguese East Africa   Mozambique
Northern Rhodesia   Zambia
Netherlands East Indies   Indonesia
Rhodesia   Zimbabwe
Siam   Thailand
South-West Africa   Namibia
Spanish Sahara   Western Sahara
Transjordan   Jordan
Upper Volta   Burkina Faso
Zaire   Democratic Republic of the Congo

Renamed cities

Bombay (India)   Mumbai
Calcutta (India)   Kolkata
Madras (India)   Chennai
Kristiania (Norway)   Oslo
Rangoon (Myanmar)   Yangon
Saigon (Vietnam)   Ho Chi Minh City
Leningrad (Russia)   St Petersburg

National breakups

USSR
Split into many independent
nations in the 1990s including:

Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia

Yugoslavia
Divided into these
countries in the 1990s:

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia (includes Kosovo)

Czechoslovakia
Split in 1993 into:

Czech Republic and Slovakia

Know these tips and insights

Know about names
How to pronounce country names
What country names mean
Renamed travel destinations
English vs. foreign spellings

Learn basic phrases
for travelers
Australian slang
Chinese
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German
Greek
Italian
Filipino/Tagalog
Spanish

 

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