From: esquel@sommarskog.se   
      
   Dan Tilque (dtilque@frontier.com) writes:   
   > My major problem with this question is what constitutes an interruption.   
   > After thinking about it, I concluded that occupation by a foreign power   
   > (e.g. Nazis, Napoleon) counted as an interruption. Hence I excluded   
   > Austria, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Japan and others.   
      
   Good point. I had longer interruptions in mind, like Portugal actually   
   being part of Spain for 60 years.   
      
   Then again, for several of the examples you list, were there really   
   any interruptions at all? When it comes to Spain, my main concern   
   was when Spain was actually formed. De facto it was when Fernando   
   and Isabella got married. My recollection is that it was early 16th   
   century, but Wikipedia says "de jure 1715".   
      
   No matter what, I can't think of any true interruption. Yes, Napoleon   
   controlled Spain, but it was not annexed to France was it? Same   
   goes for German occupation of Denmark.   
      
   But true, I could have specified a limit like "interruption for more   
   than ten years" or so to avoid this kind of confusion.   
      
   But there are so many other problems with this question that it's   
   impossible to make it a strict trivia question, so it felt sort of   
   meaningless to make specifications.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)