When exactly in history did the Jews have a country called Israel where it is now? Not just religious places but a country with the land.

 In literal history?

OK -

From about 1200 to 582 BCE, the Jews had a country where Israel is now. The people were called ‘the children of Israel’, and the country was ‘the land of Israel’ but the nations existing there were called ‘the Kingdom of Judah’ and ‘the Kingdom of Samaria’ (sometimes also called ‘the Kingdom of Israel’). The people of the kingdom of Judah were called ‘yehudim’ (Judah-ites)

From 582 to around 165 BCE, the region was called ‘Judah’ (later, Judea) and it was a province ruled from elsewhere, but the Jewish people - the ‘children of Israel’ still lived there. The people who lived there were still ‘yehudim’ - ‘Judeans’ (Jews).

From 165 BCE to 4 BCE, the area was again an independent kingdom, called ‘the Kingdom of Judea’, with the subjects were still known as ‘Judeans’, and were still ‘the children of Israel’

From 4 BCE to 135 CE, the region was called ‘Judea’ and the residents were called ‘Judeans’ (Jews) and they were still the children of Israel - and Judea was a province of Rome, ruled by Rome.

In 135, the Romans reacted to a major rebellion by attempting to simply obliterate the entire province as an entity. They destroyed the capital city (Jerusalem), depopulated the province (partly through war, partly through capture and removal), and officially renamed Judea to something else.

The Romans re-organized the region into a new province of the empire, and officially called it ‘Syria-Palestina’ (Palestine).

The Judeans still lived there (much reduced in population) and they were still the children of Israel.

From 135 CE to 1948 CE, the region called Palestine saw a whole lot of foreign powers, was conquered and invaded by Muslims in the 8th century, was invaded by Crusaders in the 12th century, was retaken by Ottoman Muslims in the 13th century, then was conquered by the British in World War I. The British administered the area of Palestine and Transjordan until World War II.

In 1948, the British relinquished political control of Palestine, under a plan to partition the area between the resident Jewish Palestinian population and the resident Muslim/Christian Arab Palestinian population (at that point in time, they were self-identifying as Southern Syrians).

And in 1948, the Jewish population gained independence, and decided to lose the old Roman term which tried to obliterate their existence as a people, and renamed their piece of the area:

Israel.

Because they were still the children of Israel, and still Judeans (Jews).