Welcome to Global Political History! My goal with this website is to provide human-produced and curated material on politics around the world, from the perspective of an amateur historian. This includes lists of heads of state and government for states past and present as well as members of cabinets and legislatures in some cases, as well as information and data pertaining to elections, and some of my own analysis.

Below you can find a directory of states as well as non-state organizations and institutions, as well as links to things that I’ve written and recent updates.

Hello! Today is Thursday, April 23, 2026. Here are today’s birthdays:

• 1791: James Buchanan | U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1821 – 1831); U.S. Minister to Russia (1832 – 1833); U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1834 – 1845); U.S. Secretary of State (1845 – 1849); U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom (1853 – 1856); Democratic Party presidential nominee (1856); President of the United States (1857 – 1861) | d. 1868
• 1897: Lester B. Pearson | Ambassador of Canada to the United States (1944 – 1946); Member of the Parliament of Canada (1948 – 1968); Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada (1948 – 1957); Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (1958 – 1968); Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada (1958 – 1963); Prime Minister of Canada (1963 – 1968) | d. 1972

Directory

Current States

This section includes the currently-existing sovereign states that have been added to the website thus far. Click on a country’s name to find the page for that country.

Albania

Argentina

Armenia

Australia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Belgium

Brazil

Bulgaria

Burundi

Cambodia

Canada

Central Afr. Republic

Chad

Chile

P.R. of China

R. of China

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Estonia

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland

France

Gabon

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Honduras

Hungary

Iceland

India

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Ivory Coast

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Latvia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malaysia

Marshall Islands

Mexico

Moldova

Monaco

Morocco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Nigeria

North Korea

Norway

Pakistan

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

The Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Qatar

Romania

Russia

Rwanda

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Serbia

Singapore

Slovenia

South Africa

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Syria

Tanzania

Thailand

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Venezuela

Vietnam

Zambia

Past States

This section includes states that no longer exist and have no successor states. The decision to include a particular state here is sometimes easy; for example, the Roman Empire clearly no longer exists. In other cases, however, I have judged that it makes more sense to include a past state under the heading of a currently-existing state. So, for instance, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union can be found on the Russia page; the Ottoman Empire can be found on the page for Turkey, and so on.

These are sometimes subjective judgements, and they do to some extent require taking a stance on the continuity between different regimes. Should the Holy Roman Empire, which was largely based in what is today Germany for most of its history, be regarded as a predecessor state of modern Germany? (In that particular case, I have chosen not to organize things that way). And many modern nation-states will make claims to great antiquity that assume an unbroken connection between the currently-existing state and the distant past that rarely have much basis in reality.

As a general rule, I have chosen to treat past states as the predecessors of modern states when there has been some sort of direct institutional continuity. Thus, for example, the Soviet Union becomes Russia, the Ottoman Empire becomes Turkey, and so on.

Confederate States

Czechoslovakia

German Democratic Republic

Hawaii

Holy Roman Empire

Prussia

Yugoslavia

International Institutions

This section covers a wide variety of institutions that are (in most cases) not states, ranging from international organizations such as the United Nations to central banks to religious institutions. In the latter case, religious institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Islamic Caliphate did indeed physically occupy territory in which they exercised sovereign authority (and still do, in the case of the Catholic Church). Nevertheless, their claims to spiritual authority extended well beyond the territory they physically occupied, and so they are treated here as international institutions rather than as states.

The Caliphate

Central Banks

Crusading Orders

Eastern Orthodox Church

European Union

League of Nations

NATO

Roman Catholic Church

United Nations

Updates

• April 19, 2026
  • Completed the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its predecessor committees (Public Buildings and Grounds; Rivers and Harbors; Roads; Flood Control; Public Works; Public Works and Transportation).
• April 15, 2026
  • Completed the Leaders of the Government in the House of Commons of Canada (1944 – present).
• April 6, 2026
  • Completed the U.S. House Committee on Small Business (1941 – present).
• April 5, 2026
  • Completed the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (1958 – present).
  • Completed the Speakers of the House of Commons of Canada (1867 – present).
• April 3, 2026
  • Completed the U.S. House Rules Committee (1849 – present).
• March 27, 2026
  • Completed Chairs of the U.S. House Oversight Committee (1927 – present).
• March 26, 2026
  • Completed Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom (1801 – present).
• March 23, 2026
  • Completed Prime Ministers of Spain (1975 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of Turkey (1923 – present).
  • Completed Vice Presidents of Turkey (2018 – present).
• March 21, 2026
  • Completed Deputy Heads of State of the People’s Republic of China (1949 – present).
  • Completed Premiers of the People’s Republic of China (1949 – present).
  • Completed Vice Presidents of the Republic of India (1947 – present).
  • Completed Kings of Italy (1861 – 1946).
• March 20, 2026
  • Completed Presidents of the French Fourth Republic (1947 – 1959).
  • Completed Presidents of the French Fifth Republic (1959 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949 – present).
• March 19, 2026
  • Completed Heads of State of the Republic of Belarus (1991 – present).
  • Completed Monarchs of the United Kingdom (1801 – present).
• March 17, 2026
  • Completed Kings of Saudi Arabia (1932 – present).
  • Completed Prime Ministers of Saudi Arabia (1953 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of the Republic of South Africa (1994 – present).
  • Completed Deputy Presidents of the Republic of South Africa (1994 – present).
• March 16, 2026
  • Completed Heads of State of Francoist Spain (1936 – 1975).
• March 15, 2026
  • Completed Presidents of the Sixth Brazilian Republic (1985 – present).
• March 14, 2026
  • Completed Heads of State of the People’s Republic of China (1949 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of the Republic of India (1947 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of the Russian Federation (1991 – present).
  • Completed Vice Presidents of the Russian Federation (1991 – 1993).
• March 13, 2026
  • Completed Leaders of Free France (1940 – 1944).
  • Completed Heads of State in Nazi Germany (1933 – 1945).
• March 12, 2026
  • Completed Prime Ministers of Japan (1871 – 1889).
  • Completed Prime Ministers of Japan (1889 – 1947).
  • Completed Prime Ministers of Japan (1947 – present).
  • Completed Presidents of the Republic of Serbia (2006 – present).
• March 10, 2026
  • Completed Kings of Spain (1975 – present).

Older updates are available here.