Only because they're so deprived of it in their own country.

They should visit our thousand (nearly) year old door: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/history/explore-our-histor...

I'm a Brit and didn't realise until recently that England is one of the world's oldest countries (927 AD).

And as a Scot I should point out that Scotland is about a century older at 843 AD - but then neither have really existed as separate countries for centuries. ;-)

927 - 1066 doesn’t seem that old to me ;)

Show your working.

Cf. Bayeux tapestry

1066 was just another guy coming to claim the throne. You wouldn't say a company was abolished when it gets a new CEO, and you shouldn't say a country is no more when someone claims the throne.

I would if the new ceo quartered the old one.

So France only dates from 1945?

Gosh, that's a bit over a thousand years.

How do you define country? Continuous occupation and law?

I remember talking to David M as a kid about the works he kept touched up and the stories that went with them.

https://www.magabala.com/products/yorro-yorro

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/australia-s-oldest-k...

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21416

From when Æthelstan the Glorious created the kingdom.

//edit// Some of your links just show that some people lived on that bit of land. I think you need more to claim a country.

They establish continuous occupation by the same bloodlines, I asked what the definion of country is - there's oral history and law going back along with the paintings.

Bear in mind passports are only relatively recent objects.

Also worth pointing out the British tried that "I think you need something more" line with Terra Nullius .. and their own legal system ditched that as rubbish:

https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/unsettled/reco...

> How do you define country?

Not having anyone say you're a different country, aka sovereignty.

That's your "definition" of country?

These countries:

https://mgnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/map_col_high...

remained sovereign for tens of thousands of years.

Whereas, for example, the "United Kingdom" as a country (of four kingdoms) only dates back to 1801, prior to which there was a long history of contested sovereignty claims, there's some interesting paperwork declaring a King of Scotland as a the King of England, etc.

My OP specifically mentioned "England".

That might have some relevance were you 'relaxing' who I was replying to.

Do you have a definition of what makes a country yet?

This question of oldest country that you've laid claim to does rather rest on something that works about the globe so that we can compare.

The "definition" (as such) provided by 'relaxing' fails England as England has been claimed by a Scottish King to be his realm.

I'm with you though, I reject that definition.

I don't think that one works for England; see W. T. Conqueror.

Just because a country gets conquered, it doesn't stop being that country. England didn't change borders when the Normans invaded.

You might as well say France only dates from 1945 if we follow your logic.

Or world's oldest "cat flap", https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66665613

I think the best we have is a 300+ year door here in Massachusetts, USA that has scars from a Native American raid on the town:

http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/artifacts.do?sho...

> but Americans actually fucking love old stuff

to visit, absolutely. But you don't see the Americans insisting on getting their own ceremonial King as head of state in name only. They prefer to love that stuff at a visiting distance. This is also why "Downton Abbey" etc does so well in the USA.

Unlike the Brits, Americans only worship other peoples' landlords.