It was even more boring than that. The amount of food you need vs is available plus roads mean your pretty limited in what you can even try to do until engines.
I see they have that little Egypt strip there .... I do take your point and it's a good one but I still struggle with the Germany france comparison. Maybe like luxembourg and Germany or France.... or Avignon with the double pope -- How about that?
Or the Basques would be good if they ever had their own real country
that x marks it