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Europe · The modern states

Irish Free State

1922–1937

The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) was established on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, following the Irish War of Independence. The Treaty's terms — dominion status, an oath to the Crown, and the partition of six northeastern counties as Northern Ireland (which remained in the UK) — split the nationalist movement and triggered the Irish Civil War (1922–23) between pro- and anti-Treaty forces.

Existed
1922–1937
Shown on the map
1922–1937
Peak area
74k km²
Region
Europe

Overview

The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) was established on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, following the Irish War of Independence. The Treaty's terms — dominion status, an oath to the Crown, and the partition of six northeastern counties as Northern Ireland (which remained in the UK) — split the nationalist movement and triggered the Irish Civil War (1922–23) between pro- and anti-Treaty forces.

Common questions

What was the Irish Free State?
The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) was established on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, following the Irish War of Independence. The Treaty's terms — dominion status, an oath to the Crown, and the partition of six northeastern counties as Northern Ireland (which remained in the UK) — split the nationalist movement and triggered the Irish Civil War (1922–23) between pro- and anti-Treaty forces.
When did the Irish Free State exist?
The Irish Free State existed 1922–1937. On this map it is drawn 1922–1937.
How large was the Irish Free State?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Irish Free State covered about 74,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each state as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the ICTY and the 2004 Wiesel Commission for genocide and atrocity figures, and current news reporting (Reuters, AP, BBC, and others) for 2025–2026 political developments, which should be verified against live sources. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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