While other city-states were unable to maintain their autonomy in the face of various encroaching Empires, Monaco has remained independent for the most part of its long history. Officially the Principality of Monaco, this tiny country on the coast of the Mediterranean is a remaining vestige of the time when city-states were a common feature of the historic European political landscape. The Ligurians, who were ancient Indo-European people from what is today north-western Italy around the 2nd millennium BCE, referred to the colony as Monikos, meaning 'single house.' This is fitting, as Monaco has now the second smallest sovereign state in the world, and has been ruled by one family, the Grimaldis, for the last 700 years. In the 6th century BCE, Monaco was inhabited by Phocaean Greeks. Monaco’s name, like that of many countries, comes from Greek roots. Mauritania Saudique Grand Mosque, Nouakchott, Mauritania. Since 1983, the Islands have been independent in free association with the US, who remain responsible for external defence and provide financial assistance. A German protectorate before World War I, the islands were seized by Japan who administered the territory until World War II, when they were passed on to the United States. It is predicted by the UN that the Marshall Islands will be completely submerged in ocean water by the year 2030 due to the effects of global warming. For thousands of years before this, Micronesian people lived on the islands, which they first discovered around 2000 BCE and named Aelon Kein Ad, which means 'our islands.' The country consists of a chain of volcanic islands along with coral atolls located in the Pacific Ocean as part of the continent of Oceania, and got its English name when the British naval captain John William Marshall sailed through the area in 1788 with convicts headed to live in New South Wales. The Marshall Islands is a sovereign nation that was once under US control. The countries beginning with the letter M: Here is a look at where each country starting with the letter M got its name, and a very brief look at their history. Of course, not all of the countries on Earth that start with the letter ‘M’ are located next to large bodies of water, but some certainly are.

Some experts think the Semitic form of the letter might actually come from a very early sign used in human communication that represented waves on the water. Where does ‘M’ come from? As a most important letter and the 13th in the English alphabet, ‘M’ is related to the Semitic mem and also to mu in the Greek language. Marshmallows, marvelous, meaningful, and mournful: the one element these things all have in common is that, along with 18 countries on our globe, they all start with the letter ‘M’.

Things with letter m