Question: When did the continent on which the largest country won the 2002 World Cup in Japan become a collection of independent states?

in the final, germany defeated argentina 1 -- 0 to win the tournament and secure the country's fourth world title, the first after the german reunification in 1990, when as west germany they also beat argentina in the world cup final. germany became the first european team to win a world cup staged in the americas, and this result marked the first time that nations from the same continent won three consecutive tournaments (following italy in 2006 and spain in 2010). <SEP> The Spanish colonies won their independence in the first quarter of the 19th century, in the Spanish American wars of independence. Simón Bolívar (Greater Colombia, Peru, Bolivia), José de San Martín (United Provinces of the River Plate, Chile, and Peru), and Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile) led their independence struggle. Although Bolivar attempted to keep the Spanish - speaking parts of the continent politically unified, they rapidly became independent of one another. <SEP> Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil Portuguese pronunciation: (bɾaˈziw)), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help info)), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers (3.2 million square miles) and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth - largest country by area and the sixth most populous. The capital is Brasília, and the most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world. <SEP> 2002 FIFA World Cup 2002 FIFA 월드컵한국 / 일본 2002 FIFA Woldeu Keob Hanguk / Ilbon 2002 FIFA ワールドカップ韓国 / 日本 2002 FIFA Waarudo Kappu Kankoku / Nihon 2002 FIFA World Cup official logo Tournament details Host countries South Korea Japan Dates 31 May -- 30 June Teams 32 (from 5 confederations) Venue (s) 20 (in 20 host cities) Final positions Champions Brazil (5th title) Runners - up Germany Third place Turkey Fourth place South Korea Tournament statistics Matches played 64 Goals scored 161 (2.52 per match) Attendance 2,705,197 (42,269 per match) Top scorer (s) Ronaldo (8 goals) Best player Oliver Kahn Best young player Landon Donovan Best goalkeeper Oliver Kahn Fair play award Belgium ← 1998 2006 → <SEP> south korea and japan were selected as hosts by fifa on 31 may 1996. initially, south korea, japan and mexico presented three rival bids. however, the two asian countries agreed to unite their bids shortly before the decision was made, and they were chosen unanimously in preference to mexico. this was the first (and so far the only) world cup to be hosted by two countries. the 2002 world cup was the tournament's 17th staging. it was also the first world cup held in asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was utilized. south korea and japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 2.5 spots open for competition between 40 teams. myanmar withdrew from the tournament after being placed in group 2 but before any matches had been played, therefore reducing the group to three teams. afghanistan, bhutan, north korea and timor - leste did not participate in the qualification process. asia's two remaining automatic qualifying berths were taken by saudi arabia and china pr. iran failed to become a third asian representative in the world cup after losing their afc / uefa playoff against the republic of ireland.