Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of countries by formation dates
but '''radically reform'''. The information here is highly useful, but the current format is not. This list is the result of a good-faith attempt at merging two previous articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries_by_formation_dates&oldid=161936790 List of countries by date of statehood and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries_by_date_of_independence&oldid=162790821 List of countries by date of independence, but unfortunately that attempt has failed to produce a list with any semblance of stability, leading up to this AfD. The former lists were far more useful, in my opinion, and were around longer than the current list in its present form and while controversial, were not nearly as unstable as the list is now. The problem, I think, stems from trying to define dates for "statehood", "independence", "acquisition of sovereignty", and "birth of government" in a manner that can be consistently applied to all countries worldwide. Such a task would inherently be based on |original research and will continually fail to maintain a |neutral point of view. I'm not even sure why "Date of most recent significant territorial modification" is in this list, as it was added after the merger and does not seem to me to have the same significance as do dates of independence or a union establishing a new country. However, I believe there is no doubt that most of the dates presented in the first two columns are significant nationhood events, and a list of those events presented chronologically would be extremely useful. I propose this list be reformed and renamed to List of significant nationhood events (I got the phrase "significant nationhood event" from the https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/faqs.html ''CIA World Factbook'' FAQs where it addresses how "Independence" dates are established). Please see Talk:List of countries by formation dates#This page needs to be radically reformed|the talk page for an example of how such a page might look
— User:DHowell, 03:37, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Stance: keep
Cited policy: WP:OR||WP:NPOV (Wikipedia:No original research)