Can the US/UK Get Out Before the Civil War Starts in Iraq?

(Interesting to see that both Kurds and Turcomans in turn are separated into Sunni and Shi'a Muslims...)

Equally interesting is that in both those groups, ethnic allegiance trumps sectarian difference.

To give you an idea how borders can change within one country within 150 years, here's a map of Germany with borders as of 150 years ago (1856).
The red-marked border is those of the Deutscher Bund or German Confederation (a merely diplomatic assembly of rulers or their representatives, created after 1815 as kind of successor to the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation), the black border is that since 1990:



.... and all those tiny and tiniest lines inside mark the borders of independent states resp. their land!

Not sure what you mean by "resp. their land"

Territories that is: some states had sprankled their territory like ink over a sheet of paper.

(Interesting aside: where I live, Lippstadt [=actually only the town, not my suburbian village], was a 'condominium' [= joint sovereignty over a dependent territory] surrounded by the Dukedom of Westphalia [which was part of the secular trritory of the archdiocese of Cologne and Prussian at that time, by the Prussian part of the secular dioces of Münster plus two small, seperated hamlets, which belonged to the princedom of Lippe.)

OOOOOOOOKAAAAAAAAY...

(I used to know the Prince of Lippe, or at least someone who acted like it.)

Interesting map, Walter. It's always a challenge when doing genealogy work to determine where someone born in the 1800's was born. Was it Poland then or Germany or Austria? If it was Austria then but not now, what do you put in the record?