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

## Contents

* 1 Middle East
* 2 Africa
* 3 Asia
* 4 Pacific

## Middle East[edit]

Former name  |  Current name  |  Year of change

|
|

Muscat & Oman |  Oman |  1970
Transjordan |  Jordan |  1949
Trucial States |  United Arab Emirates |  1971

## Africa[edit]

Former name  |  Current name  |  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[edit]

Former name  |  Current name  |  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[edit]

Former name  |  Current name  |  Year of change

|
|

Gilbert and Ellice Islands |  Tuvalu & Kiribati |  1978 & 1979
New Hebrides |  Vanuatu |  1980