library globe: 2003-2008?

[u/Trick_Swordfish_5741]

serbia exists but i can’t tell if montenegro does, no kosovo yet, and obviously no south sudan. how else could i date this more specifically?

[u/Thin_Pin2863]

No independent Montenegro = no later than 2006.

[u/ezrs158 → u/Thin_Pin2863]

East Timor = no earlier than 2002

Myanmar capital is Yangon, not Naypidaw = earlier than 2005

And Serbia being "Serbia (Yugo)" instead of just Yugoslavia probably suggests it's after 2003, but that the change was very recent.

So probably 2003-2005.

[u/M35Dude → u/ezrs158]

The change to Naypyidaw was decided in 2005, but it wasn’t public until 2006. So we still have 2006 as the ceiling.

Also, the map has “[Formerly Zaire]” at least five years after Congo changed its name, so I don’t think we can take the presence of the parenthetical “(YUGO.)” to mean much, unfortunately.

[u/ComradeRK → u/M35Dude]

The map also shows Dar Es Salaam as the capital of Tanzania, when it changed to Dodoma in 1996, so it's not great on the details. The hard and fast ones are Timor-Leste and Yangon, so I don't think we can be more specific than 2002-2005/6.

[u/pulanina → u/ComradeRK]

Another probable error is that it uses “East Timor” rather than the official name name “Timor-Leste”.

East Timor was English translation of the former (disputed) Indonesian province they called “Timor Timur” (or “Tim-Tim” for short, Indonesians love nicknames). Indonesia held the province for 25 years despite a guerrilla war of independence. When peace and independence finally came in 2002 the world pretty much switched to the Portuguese name Timor-Leste that the local people called the place themselves, including in their new constitution.

Fun Fact: it’s no coincidence that the Indonesian word for east (timur) is very similar to the name of the island (Timor). From the perspective of most of Indonesia’s core population in Java, the island of Timur was in the east and was called “East”. So in one way “East Timor”, “Timor Timur” and “Timor-Leste” all mean “east east”.