When are adjective-modified proper nouns compatible with the definite article?

"**The** former Yugoslavia" seems fine, but "**the** Victorian England" does not.

**EDIT**: Note that "the former Yugoslavia" does not require a postmodifier like a relative clause (e.g. "that we know") or a prepositional phrase (e.g. "of 1920") to be valid. On the other hand, "the Victorian England" requires something like "that we know" to be valid.

As an example, the US House of Representatives has a publication, in which it says, "As of the late 1980s, the former Yugoslavia was a diverse federation of six republics, comprised of many different ethnic groups that were often based on religious affiliation."

Why does such difference exist?

Previous threads claim that "the" indicates that the thing or person in quesion comes in many versions, and that "the" picks out a particular one. However, this account does not address why post-modifierless"Victorian England" never naturally takes "the," even though it can be contrasted with other versions of England such as "Elizabethan England" or "21st-century England."