On the seventh day of Christmas…
Seven eras ending
1. Lý dynasty of Vietnam
The last Lý emperor, Lý Huệ Tông, had no male heir, so he named his second daughter, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the empress and retired to a monastery. A court noble then married his own nephew to the empress and declared the nephew emperor on December 31, 1225— ending the Lý dynasty and beginning the Tran dynasty.
The Lý Dynasty had existed for 216 years. The era was marked by military expansion, stability and internal improvements.
The Lý fought back Chinese forces in the north and extended Vietnam’s borders southwards by advancing into Cham and Khmer territory. During the Lý dynasty, the military was differentiated into an army and navy, and a stricter hierarchy was introduced across government administration. Compulsory civil service examinations and training for minor officials began, and a national university was established. Chinese-language literature flourished, and Buddhism became an entrenched state religion. New public works were built too — like an embankment on the Red River, which protected rice fields from flooding.
2. The Central African Federation
On December 31, 1963, the Central African Federation officially dissolved into the countries of Malawi, Zambia and Rhodesia — ending a 10-year-old country.
In the 1950s–70s, the map of Africa transformed from great swathes of European control into splotches of independent nation-states. British colonies sometimes decolonized in stages. A colony would gain semi-independence and retain Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, and then a few years later reconstitute as a republic and/or splinter into smaller countries. (Read “Irish reconstitution” on the Fifth Day of Christmas for more on this.)
This was precisely the case with the Central African Federation. The economy of the CAF was strong, but the government structure was awkward since the federation was a mashup of three former colonies. Calls for full independence grew progressively louder, and the CAF split into three parts corresponding to the original three colonies.
Nyasaland became Malawi and kept the Queen for two years before becoming a republic. Northern Rhodesia skipped monarchical interlude and became the Republic of Zambia. Southern Rhodesia became the white-minority-ruled unrecognized country of Rhodesia and claimed Queen Elizabeth as its monarch. It’s now the Republic of Zimbabwe.
3. The Second Nigerian Republic
On December 31, 1983, a military coup ousted democratically elected President Shehu Shagari and installed General Muhammadu Buhari as head of state.
Nigeria gained independence from the British in 1960, keeping the Queen for three years until going full republic in 1963. This first Nigerian republic was overtaken by a military junta in 1966, and military juntas ruled Nigeria until 1998 — with the exception of 1979–83. This four-year period was the existence of the Second Nigerian Republic.
The new military dictator, Buhari, was himself ousted in 1985, but he returned to power in 2015 when he was elected president of Nigeria, an office he was re-elected to in 2019.
4. The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was officially dissolved on the Second Day of Christmas, 1991, but all lingering operations had ceased by the Seventh Day of Christmas — December 31, 1991.
The breakup of the Soviet Union is remarkable. It happened quickly, voluntarily and peacefully. Sure there were predictions of its collapse, but they weren’t mainstream. It’s a long-odds bet that a superpower will split up next Christmas.
Historians argue how/why this occurred. Some say that individuals in power decided to do it and that breakup wasn’t inevitable. Others say that internal structures and factors made dissolution inevitable. I don’t see how these are mutually exclusive, but I’m not a Russianist.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was comprised of Russia and 14 other Soviet socialist republics, and these each became independent countries. Russia inherited the USSR’s seat at the United Nations.
5. Czechoslovakia
December 31, 1992, was the final day of Czechoslovakia, a country that had existed since 1918.
Czecho-Slovakia was formed when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up at the end of World War I. Independent Czechoslovakia weathered Nazi invasion and occupation during World War II and then Soviet influence, invasion and subjugation during the Cold War. When other Eastern bloc countries were breaking up and going democratic beginning in 1989, Czecho-Slovakia started along this path too, and it broke up into— surprise! — the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The process that led to the breakup is called the Velvet Revolution, and the split itself is called the Velvet Divorce.
But 1989–92 wasn’t all smooth.
Czechs and Slovaks fought (with ink, not bullets) over what to call their newly independent country. While communist it was known as the “Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.” Slovaks felt that the new name ought to have a hyphen between “Czecho” and “Slovak” to reflect Slovaks’ equal status with Czechs, e.g. the “Czecho-Slovak Republic,” but this was syntactically awkward. The eventual solution was to avoid a hyphen entirely and use a coordinating conjunction instead. The official name of the country became the “Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.”
(As we all know, coordinating conjunctions such as “and” connects two equals. Can you imagine the outrage if the name used a subordinating conjunction — the “Czech but Slovak Federative Republic”?!)
6. Eleven independent currencies of Europe
December 31, 1998, was the final day of the existence of 11 different European currencies; their values were frozen, and they were replaced the next day by the euro.
It used to be that when you traveled from France to Germany to Italy you would have to exchange your francs for marks for lira. With the introduction of the euro in 1999, that was no longer the case. Eight more countries have since adopted the euro as their currency, extinguishing the Greek drachma, Spanish peseta, Portuguese escudo and other fun crossword answers.
7. US control of the Panama Canal
December 31, 1999, was the last day of US control of the Panama Canal — authority it had exercised since 1903.
Panama’s independence from Colombia in 1903 was achieved with backing from the US under the conditions that the US would pay Panama $10 million for the canal zone and $250,000 in annual rent.
Building the Panama Canal was one of the most difficult engineering operations ever. People had wanted to build it for a while since it would be such a big shortcut. For example, it saves New York — San Francisco bound ships about 7,800 miles. A French team had successfully completed the Suez Canal in Egypt in 1869, shaving off almost as many miles for European ships bound for Asia, so they went to work on the Panama Canal in the 1870s. They failed because it’s way harder to excavate through the malaria-ridden mountains of central American than to dig a ditch through sand.
The US project succeeded by constructing a lock system, rather than trying to reshape the landscape to sea level as the French had tried, and by controlling the mosquito-borne tropical diseases that afflicted the workers. Nevertheless, about 10% of those who worked on its construction from 1903–14 died. Upon completion, the canal was a big success and economic boon.
The US continued to control the Panama Canal through World War II. Events such as the Suez Crisis in 1956 — when Egypt forcibly seized the Suez Canal from British and French control — and Panamanian protests in the 1960s led to talks to hand over control of the canal to Panama. In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty with Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos that would transfer control of the canal to Panama by the end of 1999.
In 2004, terrorists who were angered by US military action in Egypt used WMDs to destroy the Panama Canal, spurring Team America to invade North Korea and kill Kim Jong-Il.
See you next year!
