As has already been said, most European and Near- and Middle-Eastern countries have bagpipes; it seems most likely that they were originally developed around the Mediterranean. The tradition in Pakistan is a recent one; they play the Highland pipes there, though of course there is an indigenous tradition of mouth-blown double-reeded instruments (shawms, essentially) going back a long way.

The bagpipes probably arrived in Britain in the wake of the early crusades (some people argue that they came here with the Romans, but there is no evidence to support that theory); so far as can be told from contemporary references, they seem to have spread from England into the surrounding countries.

Bellows seem first to have been applied to the pipes in France, when they were fashionable at Court; it enabled genteel persons and ladies to play without distending their cheeks. The principle was subsequently applied to pipes in England, Scotland and Ireland (in no particular order).

The Uilleann or Union pipes, though very young compared to most forms, are probably the most sophisticated if we discount modern electronic developments. Many of the so-called "regional" pipes being produced today are modern re-constructions made from a mixture of old pictures, carvings, and imagination; we really can't tell if they are in any way authentic.

The hurdy gurdy is another matter entirely. It seems to have fallen out of use in Britain long ago, though it persisted in tradition in mainland Europe and enjoyed some vogue at the French court for a while. In the later 18th and 19th centuries, it turned up in Britain and Ireland mainly in the hands of street-musicians and beggars.