1. China
   Australia
2. Denmark
   Peru

China introduced its one-child policy in 1980 when its leadership perceived that population growth was a threat to the nation's security. Chinese missile scientist Song Jian is credited for developing the decades-old policy. In 2013, China's government eased the restriction.

1. Chile
   Bolivia
2. India
   Libya

India has a history of peaceful ambitions, though China's attack on its army positions in Ladakh and NEFA in October 1962 thwarted primarily idealistic aspirations of the sovereign nation. The first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was known to lend conscience to international politics.

1. Botswana
   Canada
2. Morocco
   Finland

Harmonious relations between Canada and the U.S. have been tested. Canada was able to redirect defense funds to the domestic welfare of its citizens once the U.S. increased in military might after World War II. Yet, the U.S had expected greater alliance with Canada during the Iraq and Vietnam Wars.

1. Germany
   Japan
2. Brazil
   Vietnam

In 1969, student activist leader Jose Dirceu fled Brazil for exile in Cuba where he underwent plastic surgery. Then in 1975, he returned to Brazil under the false identity of assumed Jewish businessman Carlos Henrique Gouvela de Melo, whose wife didn't know of his true identity for four years.

1. Gabon
   Oman
2. Senegal
   United States

The United States is one of the developed world's youngest countries, and the third most populous country in the world, although the countries that outrank the US have over a billion more people! The United States ranks toward the top of a few rankings, though: wealth and trash.

1. United States
   Russia
2. Indonesia
   Greece

Since it gained independence in 1949, Indonesia has experienced a tumultuous history. Nonetheless, the country has survived the pitfalls that occur in the creation of a nation of several hundred ethnic groups, a feat that many believed would fail.

1. Venezuela
   Malawi
2. Iceland
   Pakistan

Archaeologists have unearthed massive quantities of Paleolithic tools made of stone in Northern Pakistan. A 30,000-year old unrefined shelter structure was also discovered in the region. It is believed that the shelter is from the final glacial epoch from the ice age.

1. Panama
   Nigeria
2. Cuba
   Dominican Republic

Nigeria struggled for independence from British colonial rule, which lasted in the unified state from 1914 to 1960. Nigerian youth began to lead the fight for the nation's emancipation after Britain, with its allies, declared victory at the end of World War II.

1. Bangladesh
   Croatia
2. Taiwan
   Kuwait

In the '90s, Bangladeshis began a movement to bring war criminals responsible for killing Bengali citizens and thought leaders during the country's War of National Liberation to justice. Many in the nation have called for a formal apology for crimes against humanity from Pakistan, its former ruler.

1. United States
   Russia
2. Georgia
   Kosovo

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian scholars have hastened to contextualize the deluge of information that has surfaced concerning tsars and Soviet history. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has undertaken elaborate campaigns to codify the nation's history, particularly concerning World War II.

1. Mexico
   Jamaica
2. Lebanon
   Luxembourg

Artist Frida Kahlo is one of Mexico's internationally renowned icons. Kahlo (1907-1954) married mural artist Diego Rivera, whom she features in many of her most famous portraits, along with some of her famous friends.

1. Algeria
   Mexico
2. Japan
   China

The nation of Japan emerged from being a secluded feudal state to a modern society during the 1800s. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 set this transformation in motion when nation-minded reformers seized power from the Tokugawa shogunate.

1. Brazil
   Indonesia
2. Philippines
   Argentina

Philippine Independence Day is celebrated on June 12 each year. In 1962, historians Milagros Guerreo and Teodoro A. Agoncillo convinced President Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines to change the date of the nation's independence from July 4 to the accurate June 12 date.

1. India
   Angola
2. Ethiopia
   Pakistan

The African nation of Ethiopia is roughly three times the size of California. Positioned at 8,000 feet in the country's Lasta Mountains are 11 churches that were carved from solid rock in the 12th century.

1. Zambia
   Pakistan
2. France
   Egypt

Egypt is the most populated nation in the Arab world. During turbulent moments of the "Arab Spring," mass protesters unseated the military regime of Hosni Mubarak at Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011.

1. Vietnam
   Spain
2. Thailand
   Sweden

Lieutenant General Nguyen Phuc Thanh helped to lead the successful Ho Chi Minh campaign that toppled South Vietnam. His unit was the first to seize Independence Palace where Duong Van Minh was captured, and they ultimately declared victory by raising the Liberation Flag over the building in 1975.

1. Ivory Coast
   Democratic Republic of Congo
2. Italy
   Guinea

Sovereign Democratic Republic of Congo emerged in 1960. It is the most populous Francophone country in the world and the largest country, by area, in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nineteen-sixty has been dubbed the "Year of Africa" since 17 nations on the continent gained independence during that year.

1. Morocco
   Germany
2. Paraguay
   Malaysia

The final fragile years of Germany's Weimar Republic arguably set the stage for the dogmatic, intrepid leadership style of Adolph Hitler. Historians have characterized the bureaucracy-laden Weimar Republic as "functional" and "impersonal."

1. Iran
   Ecuador
2. Belarus
   Nepal

Christianity is not foreign to Muslim-ruled Iran. The Armenians and the Assyrians are two ethnic groups of this type that have thrived in the country in varying degrees since biblical times. There are eleven books in the Old Testament that mention the region or people of Iran.

1. Turkey
   Kuwait
2. Qatar
   Kosovo

In 1923, the Turkish Republic was established and Turkey was designated as a Muslim state and culturally Turkish. Nonetheless, Istanbul remains a city rife with mostly European culture and ethnic diversity.

1. Cyprus
   Lebanon
2. France
   Eritrea

University of Paris was founded during the 11th century on the Ile de la Cite. In the 13th century, clerics left the school to form another in the area now known as the Latin Quarter. This is where theologian Robert de Sorbon established a hostel for indigents what would later become a university.

1. Thailand
   Austria
2. Panama
   Costa Rica

In August 2015, the ruling government of Thailand attempted to evoke nationalistic pride among its citizens. In Rajabhakti Park, General Prayuth Chan-ocha erected massive statues of Siam's former kings from the Ayutthaya, Thonburi, Rattanakosin and Sukhothai dynasties.

1. Poland
   Scotland
2. England
   Denmark

The English were of the first in the world to refine commercial cheese-making and marketing techniques in the 17th century. Then in the 19th century, the country's "cheese masters" developed a standardized system for producing the food that was adopted industry-wide.

1. Netherlands
   Denmark
2. Armenia
   Italy

The small provincial towns of Southern Italy have maintained a rustic appeal compared to modern northern cities like Rome and Milan. In many ways, the south has been isolated geographically, politically and ideologically from the rest of Europe.

1. South Africa
   Bhutan
2. Belize
   Bahrain

Founded in 1977, the History Workshop rooted at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa is comprised of social scientists and humanities scholars. The group's primary missions are to analyze accurately and popularize South African history.

1. Somalia
   Yemen
2. Tanzania
   Kenya

The Maji Maji Rebellion of Tanzania lasted between 1905 and 1907. The rebellion was the first of its kind in Africa, where various ethnic groups joined forces to resist colonial rule. The uprising was an acute response to forced labor policies of colonial Germany in the region.

1. Zambia
   Afghanistan
2. Myanmar
   Iraq

Situated between China and India, Myanmar is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world. Northern Myanmar has a particularly diverse climate and habitat that includes both low-level wetlands and highly-elevated Himalayan Mountains.

1. Norway
   Poland
2. South Korea
   Guinea

In 2015, South Korea's government decreed that all middle and high school students be taught history from government-issued, rather than private, textbooks. The order resulted from controversy in the country concerning the characterization of Japan's colonial rule during the early 20th century.

1. Kenya
   Japan
2. Philippines
   Senegal

Nairobi, Kenya was established during June 1899 when the British constructed the Uganda railway that commenced at Mombasa in May of 1896. For the sake of convenience, British railway officials decided to erect headquarters in Nairobi. Before 1920, Kenya was called East Africa Protectorate.

1. Guyana
   Laos
2. North Korea
   Spain

Inspired by philosopher Franciso de Vitoria, the School of Salamanca denotes a collective of natural law theorists and theologians that taught at Spain's University of Salamanca from the 13th to the 17th centuries. The group developed philosophies concerning international law and economics.

1. Colombia
   Paraguay
2. Thailand
   France

The third largest Latin American nation, Colombia is unique among its regional counterparts. In the 20th century, while countries like Cuba and Nicaragua experienced revolution, and military intrusion plagued Argentina and Chile, Colombia avoided fixed interventions and political upheavals.

1. Cameroon
   Argentina
2. Norway
   Finland

In 1816, Argentina won independence, which was a catalyst for other independence movements throughout South America. Yet, in spite of political instability Argentina reaped tremendous financial gains from 1810 and 1870, mainly from diverse export commodities.

1. Oman
   Algeria
2. Uganda
   Syria

Algeria is a sovereign Arab nation and former French colony. For 132 years, the French controlled all aspects of Algerian society, until Algerian Berbers resisted the regime during its war of independence that lasted for almost eight years, claiming the lives of over one million people.

1. Malta
   Guatemala
2. Armenia
   Ukraine

When the Communist Bloc dissolved in the '90s, entire academic departments surfaced at many universities for the purpose of accurately contextualizing several major aspects of Ukranian history. The Ukranian Revolution, the Insurgent Army and the Famine of 1932-1933 were more thoroughly investigated.

1. Portugal
   Jordan
2. Sudan
   Suriname

Sudan is a North African country that includes the Nile River. The city of Khartoum has experienced severe flooding issues from rain waters and the Nile since the start of the 19th century. Poor housing construction in the region has been identified as one possible cause of the flooding.

1. Vietnam
   Germany
2. Uganda
   Iraq

In 2012, Uganda's Nakasero Market, an economic necessity for native vendors of the region, was the site of violent clashes that many suspect was provoked by outside private interests. Established in 1927, the market is the oldest in Kampala, Uganda and employs more than 10,000 Ugandans.

1. Ivory Coast
   Ghana
2. Romania
   Iraq

After World War I, European powers sculpted geopolitical boundaries of Iraq, an act that some historians theorize was prompted by a desire for the region's oil. The move disrupted the balance of power among the region's inhabitants, and instability continues to endure in the country.

1. Uruguay
   Poland
2. Greece
   Serbia

Poland was the first country in Europe to establish a written constitution, some 250 years before the British devised its canon of laws. The Eastern European country had developed a parliamentary system that selected its kings, while absolute monarchy rule prevailed across the rest of the continent.

1. Honduras
   Eritrea
2. Morocco
   Hungary

In 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a secret meeting in Morocco, which had been a French protectorate since 1912. The two world leaders met at the luxurious Anfa Hotel in Casablanca to discuss war efforts.

1. Saudi Arabia
   Taiwan
2. Haiti
   Israel

Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Wahhabism, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that the country adhered to between 1744 and 1811. The Middle Eastern country now welcomes those it once considered infidels, as it has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.