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I reckon the current number is around the lowest level in history, taking into consideration the centralization of governments thanks to the speed of information travel increasing. At any previous point there probably were a lot more tribes/chiefdoms/just independent dudes that didn't answer to what we'd call a country but would technically be a government. Maybe excluding the peak of European imperialism when the lack of a substantial amount of current European, African and Asian states would bring down the number.