Europe is home to a lot of small countries, not just small relative to huge countries like the United States or Brazil or India or other countries from which people are very likely to leave a comment on this video, but like, really tiny countries. The smallest fully sovereign country on Earth, in both area and population, is Vatican City, but it is hardly alone on this continent, so just why are there so many tiny, little microstates within Europe? So first, what is our general criteria for a microstate?
Well first off perhaps we should differentiate microstates from micro*nations*, which are tiny, unrecognized “countries” that someone or a small group of people might set up around their houses or farms or communes or unclaimed territories or disused helipads in the middle of the English channel, either for fun or to protest something, but since no one recognizes them as actual countries, they obviously don’t count here. No, we’re here to talk about real countries with an area of less than… let’s say 3,000 square kilometers. Now, dozens of countries actually fit this profile, very few of which are actually in Europe, but most of these countries are islands, which I‘m not gonna count because their size isn‘t exactly surprising; small islands, small country.
In order to best explain why all these European microstates even exist as separate entities though, perhaps it would be best to look at each of them one-by-one to see not only how they got so small, but also how they survived on such a… dynamic continent. [ANDORRA] High in the Pyrenees Mountains, nestled right between France and Spain, lies the Principality of Andorra. This little non-Schengen principality has a population of 76,000, and has no airports, no sea access, and the nearest railway station is in a French town literally called “the hospital near to Andorra”.
Really the entire reason for Andorra’s existence in its rather unusual form has to do with the fact that most of Spain was once Muslim. In the centuries after the Battle of Tours in 732, in which French generals had successfully prevented Muslim forces from expanding into modern-day France, the Marca Hispanica (Spanish Marches) were established as a kind of buffer zone between Muslim Spain and the rest of Christian Europe, with the newly created territory of Andorra under the protection of the Count of Urgell, in modern-day Spain. These powers however eventually transferred to the Bishop of Urgell, with several grants then being passed onto the Count of Foix in modern-day France, establishing him as effectively the secular ruler of Andorra.
To alleviate the power struggle between the Bishop and the Count, the Parèage of Andorra was enacted in 1278, establishing each of them as the two Co-Princes of Andorra. The Bishop of Urgell still holds his title, but when the County of Foix was incorporated into France the title of Andorran Co-Prince was transferred to the King of France, and then after France’s… very interesting 19th century was transferred to the President of France. This leads to the Andorran government’s rather interesting classification as a unitary parliamentary semi-elective diarchy, as they also have a Prime Minister… who’s actually from Andorra.
[LIECHTENSTEIN] Liechtenstein is as often forgotten as it is hard to find as it is hard to pronounce if you don’t know German. The Principality of Liechtenstein was first created in 1719 when Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire (or the Ungodly Germanic Kingdoms, if you prefer) declared that the communities of Vaduz and Schellenberg were now unified into one entity, named after Anton Florian of the House of Liechtenstein. Back then, the idea of there being a principality of this size in Central Europe really wasn’t anything special, seeing as there were about 1,800 others just like it, but what really sets Liechtenstein apart is how it avoided being absorbed into its neighbors over the next 300 years.
All was balanced until the Napoleon nation attacked at the end of the 18th century, with Napoleon dismantling the HRE and establishing the Confederation of the Rhine, itself quickly replaced by the German Confederation. Liechtenstein became independent again in 1815, narrowly avoiding becoming part of Bavaria, and continued to solidify its ties to its neighbors Austria and Switzerland. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (which was, interestingly enough, a war fought between Austria and Prussia in the year 1866) Liechtenstein manned an army of 80 soldiers to defend Tyrol from Italy, siding with Austria but with Prince Johann II forbidding his soldiers from fighting other Germans.
This by the way is where we get the popular legend of Liechtenstein sending out 80 soldiers and coming back with 81 because of their “new Italian friend”. From this point on, Liechtenstein would declare neutrality, though its economic ties to Austria-Hungary in WWI still led to it being sanctioned by the Allies. This led to a customs and monetary union with its other neighbor Switzerland, which would help it remain neutral yet again in WWII, because… Switzerland.
[LUXEMBOURG] The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is quite a lot bigger than the other countries in this video, but obviously a list of mainland European microstates isn’t quite finished without it, and it is still quite a lot smaller than its neighbors France, Germany, or even Belgium. Luxembourg dates back to the year 963 AD, originally established as a small town around a fort, which would become one of the many other small kingdoms and city-states within the Holy Roman Empire. That was all well and good, but then Napoleon happened and broke up the HRE, with Luxembourg being reestablished as a grand duchy under the German Confederation, originally being a fair bit bigger, but losing land to Belgium.
I actually made a video from Luxembourg about two years ago if you want to learn more about it, which is good because now I can give more attention to the other countries here. [MONACO] The Principality of Monaco, one of the world’s three true city-states, and the most densely populated sovereign state in the world at a staggering population of 35… thousand, Monaco has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi more or less since 1297, and no surprise has the highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the IMF and the UN. Monaco’s name actually dates back to the 6th century BC, as according to an ancient myth, the god Hercules had passed through the area, turning away from the other gods, and with a temple thus being erected near the modern nation.
Because the temple was the only one here, it inspired the name “monoikos”, from “monos” meaning one and “oikos” meaning house. The Grimaldi family set up shop in 1297, with the area of Monaco under the sovereignty of the Republic of Genoa. This lasted all well and good until 1797 when who else but Napoleon came in to mess stuff up as usual, conquering Genoa and its holdings.
Monaco was released from French occupation in 1814 but then became a protectorate of Sardinia under the Congress of Vienna the very next year, remaining in this position until the Treaty of Turin in 1860, with Sardinia backing out of Monaco, the regions of Nice and Savoy ceding to France, and Monaco becoming a French protectorate yet again. Monaco was occupied by Italy and then the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, with said forces being defeated and pushed back in 1944. More recently, Monaco became a full UN member in 1993 and a new treaty in 2002 was signed with France, stating that, should there be no Grimaldi heirs to the Monegasque throne, Monaco would still remain an independent country.
[SAN MARINO] One of the oldest sovereign states in the world (and the oldest republic), the Most Serene Republic of San Marino was established all the way back in 301 AD by Saint Marinus, who established a monastic community far up in the Apennine Mountains in northeastern Italy in order to escape persecution under the Roman Empire-- like, right before they themselves became Christian, but oh well. From the 14th to the 19th centuries, San Marino was mostly left alone, save being briefly occupied a few times, and even managed to evade invasion by Napoleon thanks to Sanmarinese diplomat Antonio Onofri… literally just becoming good friends with Napoleon. Italy, like Germany, was divided into dozens of different little kingdoms and city-states for much of the 2nd millennium AD, only to unify around the mid-19th century, except with a couple small pieces scattered around.
During Italian Unification, San Marino became a refuge for those who had previously been persecuted for supporting unification, with a treaty between San Marino and the new Kingdom of Italy being signed in 1862, effectively guaranteeing their independence. At this point San Marino started just staying neutral in European affairs, including the Unification of Italy, World War I, and World War II, though the New York Times at one point incorrectly reported that they had declared war on the UK, to which they quickly reportedly told British authorities, “Um… no the hell we didn’t”. [VATICAN CITY] Finally, within the city of Rome lies what in my personal opinion might just be the weirdest country on Earth, the Vatican City State (as it’s officially known).
Home to the Pope and a higher average male-to-female ratio than most fantasy football websites, the Vatican is essentially the headquarters of the Catholic Church, and the only sovereign country not to be a member of the United Nations. Throughout the Middle Ages, from 754 AD up until its conquest by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy in 1870, much of Central Italy was dominated by the Papal States, basically a kingdom whose king happened to be the Pope. Of course this all ended in… well technically 1861, but for sure in 1870.
This however began a 60-year period of the Pope (actually five Popes) acting essentially as “prisoner” of the Kingdom of Italy that they didn’t recognize, with Benito no-mustachio-lini giving the Pope a small plot of land around the Vatican, provided he didn’t try to get involved in international politics. So now that we’ve answered why all these microstates exist in Europe, now we must ask why all these microstates exist *specifically* in Europe. I mean, even if we don’t count island nations like Singapore or Bahrain or Tuvalu, why aren’t there really any mainland countries this small in Africa or Asia or the Americas?
Well largely colonialism, but also most of these microstates are holdovers of old feudal states from Europe’s middle ages. Essentially, as Europe was broken up and put back together so many times over the last 2,000 years, these little nations are kind of the crumbs left behind as remnants of when Europe had many more of these tiny little nations. And now they’re basically all independent tax havens.
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