To all those of you saying that Europe doesn't have states, I swear to god... *State (noun) A nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government.* In other words, "state" can also refer to countries (i.e. "the member states of the European Union")
Fact that we have European Union doesn't mean that EU is a country and people in it leaves in states... It's like making a NATO a country. I know that you are talking about small countries near to bigger one but still you miss understood European side of the world. Also some of your examples are REAL COUNTRIES! and some of them are just a independent part of others. So... I still don't understand this mixed topic video. USA system seriously doesn't exist in Europe.
Given how polite and formal they are, it wouldn’t surprise me if we heard that the “war” consisted of two opposing generals deciding the winner over a game of Mortal Kombat.
Funny story: Lichtenstein got invaded by his neighbors serval times by accident. Due bad weather condition as example. But everyone in Lichtenstein was pretty chill about it. The solidiers got greeted with flowers and chocolate.
Another funny story: once Switzerland accidentally launched artillery shells over the border into Litchenstien, the only casualties of the incident were a couple chairs at a ski resort
Great video! The funniest thing about these countries is that unremarkable amateur football teams gets status as a national team and gets to play the big countries. Though the results are often not too balanced.
in case you're wondering why these states were never truly occupied and made to assimilate, most of them are very mountainous (difficult to invade) and have few natural resources (nothing to exploit anyway). The cost - benefit just isn't there. Many of these little nations were very poor until they became tax havens, tourist hotspots or established a casino.
@@TheFlyingDogFish I mean, I said "most" but.... "Straddled on the ridge of Mount Titano is the city of San Marino of the Republic of San Marino, the history of which dates from the early 4th century. According to the legend related to the Mount and its precincts, a small monastery existed on top of the Mount during the 8th century. The mountainous landscape provides excellent views of its surroundings, and its isolated location ensured the needed seclusion for San Marino to survive as a Republic over the past several centuries" straight from wikipedia. Monaco was completely impoverished and worthless till they built the casino, hence the "few natural resources" i mentioned. The vatican has a completely different history to all these other countries though, you're right about that.
@@crypt_ed 2 out of 5 is hardly most. Despite its impressive name, Monte Titano is less than 200m higher than its surroundings and can hardly be called a mountain. There rest of the country is hilly at best.
Historically the big countries, Britain France, Spain, Italy, Prussia spent a lot of centuries scraping it out and realised they could chip away at their rivals by supporting smaller states to keep independent. Belgium basically exists so Britain France and Germany can have a neutral ground to meet up without going to war.
@@idek7438Not even 2 centuries, Italy's official Unification date is set in 1861. Which means that Italy is 162 years old While Germany is just 5 years younger as a Nation
@@leonardocontin937 and Prussia is litteraly born in like the XVIth century which for a large European state, is laughably young Like the very Traditional powers were France HRE/Austria, and England, and even then England was mostly involved in France ^^'
What a stupid, uneducated simpleminded, oversimplified narrative that isn’t even true as the first world war saw the only real application of what you mean
while that would be interesting, I think its worth noting that the smallest of those countries, the Gambia, is four times the size of Luxembourg, and 22 times the size of Andorra (the second biggest of the microstates covered in this vid), and the largest of those countries, Lesotho, is 12 times the size od Luxembourg and 64 times the size of Andorra. As well as the countries covered in this vid, Lesotho is bigger than five other mainland European countries and is very close to the size of Belgium, which I don't think anyone would consider a microstate
*Timestamps:* 🇦🇩Andorra: 01:46 🇱🇮Liechtenstein: 03:24 🇱🇺Luxemburg: 05:20 🇲🇨Monaco: 06:09 🇸🇲San Marino: 07:55 🇻🇦Vatican City: 09:19 Why are there in general micro states in Europe?: 10:17
@@peterstroe1216 yes its nice enough. There’s the harbour with all the super yachts and you can see the Grand Prix circuit. It’s a tiny place but worth a day trip
@@FlagAnthem They may have embassies, since the order is a sovereign entity of international law , but no actual state territory. It's not really the same.
The key to surviving as a micro state, tax havens and money laundering. No national leader wants to invade the country where he’s stashed all the money he embezzled.
From the UK, they teach us literally none of this at schools here... We get the slave trade, and a very skewed recap of ww2 which only includes UK, France, and USA Vs Germany... In a country with such a rich history, they teach us so little of it
Andorra is the most interesting to me, it has two leaders, one of which is a bishop, which makes it the only theocracy in Europe (and also the only diarchy.)
@@PauxloE It does, but it's sure a weird one, as traditional European theocracies were usually picked by the pope, since he made priests bishops (which is the case for Andorra) but in the Vatican it's the cardinals (who were appointed by previous popes) who choose who'll lead them. It breaks the traditional molds, but I believe it still counts as a theocracy
I just noticed that I visit a micro state every half a year... summer 2019 Monaco, new years eve 2019/20 Luxembourg, summer 2020 Vatican city, last weekend Liechtenstein... those small countries are so easy to visit and beautiful! Next stop: Andorra and San Marino!
"Why? Mostly colonialism" That's indeed the right answer. I'd like to invite everyone to look up a map of the Native nations & states of the Americas, Africa, Australia (& even Asia). Small nations were the norm everywhere.
@@motajr1108 dude, the population of european part of Russia is greater that every european state...except Germany. In Germany there are 83mln people. In European part of Russia there are 78.8. The population of Moscow is greater than whole Nitherlands, greater than Hungary + Austria. This is only Moscow
When I was living in Germany many years ago, the press reported that the heirs of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg were engaged and that "they had Germany in the pincers." Not sure whatever came of that engagement, but Germany seems to have come through it all unscathed.
@@role6159 Lots of words are similar, but the grammatical structure is different. Studying the rules of latin grammar, I think italian grammar has different rules from it. For example, the latin verb "video" is similar to the italian one "vedo" and they both means "to see". But the passive form of the verb "video" (which is "videor") should be translated as "to seem", which in italian is translated with a completely different verb, "sembrare". Even some words are tricky: lots of words in italian looks like the latin ones, but sometimes those words have completely different meanings. But yes, italian language is the most similar language to latin.
@ALF but my point was that Hitler wasn't actually all to religious .He may have not like organised religion all together and was probably worried about its influence. many of the things he said and the actions he took were contradict each other Like him arresting certain church leaders for critiquing his policies.Especially the church leaders who were against his anti semitic rhetoric.Basically he liked Christians who supported his rhetoric and so he used chirstianity as a tool to get himself into power but he most likely didn't like them in a personal sense.
Mussolini was not loved in the start of his politic carreer so he needed the catholics for fight the communist people. So he gives more power to the Vatican and the Pope. In this way many catholics started love him
The funny thing about Lichtenstein is it's nearly Switzerland They use nearly everything from Switzerland But than the Republic of Austia came and now Lichtenstein uses the Austrian post and the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railway)
@@lazulithedragon No Switzerland doesn’t have a military nor are they part of NATO. Second, the reason why people put money in Switzerland is cuz they are a neutral country in War & like anonymity. The people that put money in Switzerland banks are majority corrupt people & ex-politicians of other countries so educate yourself. If the USA wants get someone in Switzerland they will get them!!!
The Middle east is literally the birth place of civilization and asia has china and india and the various kingdoms around them that existed for very long times too
@@Floppedd the Middle East has more history, but history has been whitewashed so we have more info on history involving white people than anything else.
@@Floppedd 😂 As a European who's family is quite into history.. That is a lie and many European's are aware that the whole of the Old world has quite the history. Best seen under "periods" But you can kind of notice that the oldest is African, then you get middle east. Then Europe and Asia. 😂and then again Middle East and Europe with some Asia... And then all three... Thematically speaking.
@@ghostarmy1106 you learn something new every day. I was fairly sure they would carry the maltese (that's what it's called) cross. fun fact 2: The Knights of Malta use a St.George's cross as their flag. Just like England, but inverted. (and even longer so)
Andorra quite often plays their home international football games in barcelona as the stadiums in andorra have such small capacities, but even more curious is that the stadiums they have used in spain have capacities larger than the population of andorra overall
@@dennisengelen2517 italy can make san marino do what ever it wants same with. Switzerland and lichenstien, if you say oceanias nations are colonys then microstates are too
@@viorangealgo No, I didn't. Along with the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man is not an independent country but a crown dependency. And Gibraltar is a British overseas territory and therefore part of the UK.
Haha great job I loved the video! Definite subscribing to your channel. As an Indian, it blew my mind away when I visited Vatican City a couple years back. The sheer smallness of that nation left me astounded. I've been to 10 countries in Europe in 2018-19 before covid, but after watching this video, I wish to travel to these small European countries soon. Very informative. Keep up the good job.
The video overlooked the by far smallest sovereign state in the world - and possibly the one with the longest name: Supremus Militaris Ordo Hospitalarius Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodiensis et Melitensis (or "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta" for those who don't speak Latin). Total area: 0 km2.
The Order of Malta is often described as a "sovereign entity" or a "sovereign subject of international law", rather than a country, because it does not have a defined territory over which it exercises full and exclusive sovereignty. Instead, its activities are focused on providing humanitarian assistance, medical care, and charitable works around the world.
Andorra has many similarities and a strong connection with Catalonia, it's the only country in the world with Catalan as an official language. It would have been an important part to point out! :)
Exactly. They evolved naturally, over many centuries. The EU is not a natural thing for Europe. It's an idealistic dream thought up in the 1920s by a very young Jean Monnet when he was in New York.
I saw Andorra in the thumbnail and clicked, my geography teacher mentioned it one time and I also did a project on it a different time and it's so pretty
@@Vogelfreie. nope, one map appeared in russian while he was talking about a german war, and while he was talking about monaco and italy the map was in polish
Leftover from a time when all non de jure posessions were that size or smaller Oh and they partitioned Luxembourg in 3 separate occasions used to be about Belgium sized, Clothariningian Heritage, Franconian pride and bane of French or Germans
Europe is really diverse because of the history so these small countries existed as bufferzones in between the empires but now they are UN recognized and they existed for so long that they build their economies this is maybe why all of them are soo rich
Don’t call Liechtenstein and Luxembourg Micro-state. Official Germany is still in war with Liechtenstein but in reality there is no war. Most people in the internet think that Liechtenstein is in Nato but they aren’t.
The only other relatively small non-island countries (Having a land border) that come to mind are protectorates and colonies that survived into the late 20th century, Hong Kong, Macao and Brunei, the former two are now swallowed up by China, the latter is just twice the size of Luxembourg and probably the only fully acknowledged non-island microstate outside of Europe. The only other country that would fit is Palestine, but that is, sadly, still a hot topic.
@@martonreisch6582 well, ive been living in Spain too and there is almost no difference... if any, al paper tramits are faster and everything is in better condition
1:00 I was playing Risk with my TV on mute while watching this video.. Wondering why there was risk background music playing without noticing its coming from the video
There are seven tiny nations in the Americas that are smaller than Luxembourg: They are from largest to smallest: Dominica (751km2), St Luicia (715km2), Antigua and Barbuda (442 km2), Barbados (430km2), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (389km2), Grenada (344km2) and Saint Kits and Nevis (261km2).
The Order of Malta is often described as a "sovereign entity" or a "sovereign subject of international law", rather than a country, because it does not have a defined territory over which it exercises full and exclusive sovereignty. Instead, its activities are focused on providing humanitarian assistance, medical care, and charitable works around the world.
Very interesting. Nevertheless the first part concerning Monaco is not showing Monaco but Nice... the port of Nice we can see on the video has been filmed from the castle hill at the end of the Promenade des Anglais
Imagine if Lichtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco included embassies of each nation with which they have diplomatic relations. There'd be no room for any residents! Actually, Lichtenstein's diplomatic relations are all handed through Switzerland. I once helped a friend hunt down the address of the Lichtenstein embassy in the U.S. It was a Lichtenstein desk within the Swiss consulate in New York City. Now there is a job I could handle -- running that desk. Staying up late to resolve all the crises that flareup between Lichtenstein and the U.S., doing security checks to detect bugging devices, and of course dealing with the defectors who want asylum in Lichtenstein. Never a moment's rest.
Well Europe has always been the main land, thus kings fought for it alot. Also, in the old days huge countries were very rare, except for mayby stuff like the Roman empire, Byzantian Empire etc. Secondly, it's easy for countries like the US to be bigger, since they were created as colonies when most of the Middle Ages history were done. And this was the period where small countries were normal. You can't compare the original world to the colonies of the new world.
The island of Tavolara was in fact independent til end of 19th century. You miss Mount Athos monastic republic, the island of Malta (3 islands in fact) which was a remnant of the Knight's Order of Hospitallers.
6:13 well, this isn't Monaco... And, concerning Monaco : before, it was also made out of some of the towns around (such as Roqueville or Beausoleil). But, as they wanted to be part of France, Monaco let them leave the country and become a french territory
@Aditya Chavarkar Because the Franks were a multi-ethnic kingdom. Origionally a Germanic tribe the Franks expanded eastwards until they covered an area made up of todays Germany, Belgium, France, Luxemburg & the Netherlands. "French, "German", etc. are modern inventions, which the Franks in their time didn't know.
@Aditya Chavarkar That's what I'm saying. They are there direct descendents, just like the Germans are. But at the time of the Franks the people withing the kingdom did not identify themselves in such a way. "French" just like "German" simply did not exist back then. Also large parts of todays Germany were indeed under Frankish control and had been at that time for centuries. That's where the Franks originally came from after all.
I'm from Greece, so I realised this mistake: instead of saying "μόνοικος" for Monaco, which is pronounced "mόnikos", the correct thing to say is "μονόικος", which makes the pronunciation to match that one in the video, "monόikos". ("oi" in Greek is pronounced "i") Edit: you said that "oikos" means house. But it's very wrong to pronounce it that! No offence, I understand that you don't know. It's called "ikos".
Damn it, Greece! It's not like you don't have thousands of I's and e's in your alphabet... ...and now you tell me an O next to an I is also Pronounced 'I' ...and then you tell me 'oi' doesn't have to be pprpnounce 'I' Damn Greece! Anyways Greece is a wonderful country, sorry if I offended anyone...
@@cerebrummaximus3762 😂😂 Here are the e's: η (long e), υ (high e), ι (regular e), οι (o next to i, if it's placed at the end of the word it's a weak e), ει (e next to i), υι (rarely used, high e next to regular i) I think there's more but I can't remember them all now lol
@@cerebrummaximus3762 well, a high e is sometimes regular and sometimes long, depending on the word! I also forgot an e, the ηυ which is only for past tenses. Despite the 10 years of greek language in school I still don't know all of the e's, and I think there are more! :)
SM here: My mama always said "mind your f*cking buisness and you'll live 100 years" Mama always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.
*I’d say it’s because we had monarchies and lots of agreements blah blah, but also Europe is like the only continent that’s gotten the opportunity to develope culture and kingdoms without getting invaded/colonized (yeah i know us europeans all fought each other but that is common in a continent lol and plus we are very similar people all around europe)...cause if we wouldn’t have colonized all the other continents i think they would have microstates with small populations/tribes too...sorry about that you guys* 🥴💕
To all those of you saying that Europe doesn't have states, I swear to god...
*State (noun) A nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government.*
In other words, "state" can also refer to countries (i.e. "the member states of the European Union")
We call them provinces, everyone makes mistakes, even you.
>People watch channel about history/geopolitics
>Don't know "state" can refer to any sovereign or suzerain polity
@@lemmymaster No we don't. Don't be a spaz.
@@lemmymaster Austria is a sovereign state that has states just like USA
Fact that we have European Union doesn't mean that EU is a country and people in it leaves in states... It's like making a NATO a country.
I know that you are talking about small countries near to bigger one but still you miss understood European side of the world. Also some of your examples are REAL COUNTRIES! and some of them are just a independent part of others. So... I still don't understand this mixed topic video. USA system seriously doesn't exist in Europe.
Because of the Vatican City’s small size it technically has two popes per square kilometre.
Technically has 4 popes per square kilometer (there are 2 popes in Vatican now).
@@nicoladc89 the other one is not in Vatican tho
@@AndyTrojaVevo Ratzinger is at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery sited into the Vatican Gardens.
it has a bunch more if you count dead ones.
@@ToabyToastbrot lmao
Two micro-countries go to war. Due to bad weather conditions, that war has been scheduled to take place indoors.
in the living room ?
@@thelvadam2884 No you silly, the bathroom.
wut
@@afdocumentaries 😳😳😳
Given how polite and formal they are, it wouldn’t surprise me if we heard that the “war” consisted of two opposing generals deciding the winner over a game of Mortal Kombat.
Funny story: Lichtenstein got invaded by his neighbors serval times by accident. Due bad weather condition as example. But everyone in Lichtenstein was pretty chill about it. The solidiers got greeted with flowers and chocolate.
That's nice and accidentally
Another funny story: once Switzerland accidentally launched artillery shells over the border into Litchenstien, the only casualties of the incident were a couple chairs at a ski resort
@@sammybeaver9130 No! Not the chairs!!
Wait is this true
@@sammybeaver9130 yeah and once they also accidentally started a bushfire here
Great video! The funniest thing about these countries is that unremarkable amateur football teams gets status as a national team and gets to play the big countries. Though the results are often not too balanced.
You make great content too Mr Spaghetti
Oh hey it’s another amazing geopolitical channel XD
just once, I'd like to see Liechtenstein kick Brazil's ass at soccer, just because. Or any other large nation for that matter
The San Marino national team has only ever won 1 match and it was against Lichtenstein.
@@Camarohill2 lol
in case you're wondering why these states were never truly occupied and made to assimilate, most of them are very mountainous (difficult to invade) and have few natural resources (nothing to exploit anyway). The cost - benefit just isn't there. Many of these little nations were very poor until they became tax havens, tourist hotspots or established a casino.
except vatican
Only Andorra and Liechtenstein are truly mountainous.
@@TheFlyingDogFish I mean, I said "most" but....
"Straddled on the ridge of Mount Titano is the city of San Marino of the Republic of San Marino, the history of which dates from the early 4th century. According to the legend related to the Mount and its precincts, a small monastery existed on top of the Mount during the 8th century. The mountainous landscape provides excellent views of its surroundings, and its isolated location ensured the needed seclusion for San Marino to survive as a Republic over the past several centuries" straight from wikipedia.
Monaco was completely impoverished and worthless till they built the casino, hence the "few natural resources" i mentioned.
The vatican has a completely different history to all these other countries though, you're right about that.
@@crypt_ed 2 out of 5 is hardly most. Despite its impressive name, Monte Titano is less than 200m higher than its surroundings and can hardly be called a mountain. There rest of the country is hilly at best.
@@TheFlyingDogFish San Marino too is on a rock
Fun fact, Andorra's border is the oldest in the world, not having changed a little bit since 1278.
Cool
Lol I live in Andorra and didn't even know this. Interesting.🇦🇩🇦🇩🇦🇩
Good fact, lord vader.
One mor fact: San Marino has its own calendar. It begins from date of San Marino independence proclaiming. So they live in 18th century
@@scandited2763 cool
2021’s Europe: has a lot of micro states
1500’s Europe: hold my beer
USA: soon...very soon..
HRE: hold my beer
Lol
I will start a micro state
Central Europe: *laughs in German*
The words in the thumbnail “why so small” is what I ask myself every day
Every day, tho?
@@funfoxvlad7309 every day
Eh, yours is still probably bigger
So you're a bodybuilder with dysmorphia?
@@defeatedink0544 they call me the one inch pinch
Historically the big countries, Britain France, Spain, Italy, Prussia spent a lot of centuries scraping it out and realised they could chip away at their rivals by supporting smaller states to keep independent. Belgium basically exists so Britain France and Germany can have a neutral ground to meet up without going to war.
Italy has only been a unified country for 2 centuries though?
Germany too.
@@idek7438Not even 2 centuries, Italy's official Unification date is set in 1861.
Which means that Italy is 162 years old
While Germany is just 5 years younger as a Nation
@@leonardocontin937 and Prussia is litteraly born in like the XVIth century which for a large European state, is laughably young
Like the very Traditional powers were France HRE/Austria, and England, and even then England was mostly involved in France
^^'
What a stupid, uneducated simpleminded, oversimplified narrative that isn’t even true as the first world war saw the only real application of what you mean
Liechtenstein? More like Switzerland's Switzerland.
ладно
@@cianzera can you translate?
@@10thDoctorWhoovez нет
@@cianzera Het?
@@dinoxman8584 да
Came for the feudalism, stayed for the tax haven
Lol that's a TLDR but also a great Saying that should be taught
Would love to see an Africa edition featuring the likes of: Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda & Burundi, Djibouti and Eswatini and Lesotho.
while that would be interesting, I think its worth noting that the smallest of those countries, the Gambia, is four times the size of Luxembourg, and 22 times the size of Andorra (the second biggest of the microstates covered in this vid), and the largest of those countries, Lesotho, is 12 times the size od Luxembourg and 64 times the size of Andorra. As well as the countries covered in this vid, Lesotho is bigger than five other mainland European countries and is very close to the size of Belgium, which I don't think anyone would consider a microstate
Mostly due to colonial borders, but some cases like Lesotho are due to a revolution or existing monarchy
Ecuatorial Guinea is the same size as Belgium.
bro those are way to big to be defined as a microstate. like lesotho is 70000 times bigger than the vatican
SAO tome and Principe crying
Simple answer: that is what over 1000 years of war does
*Timestamps:*
🇦🇩Andorra: 01:46
🇱🇮Liechtenstein: 03:24
🇱🇺Luxemburg: 05:20
🇲🇨Monaco: 06:09
🇸🇲San Marino: 07:55
🇻🇦Vatican City: 09:19
Why are there in general micro states in Europe?: 10:17
Say Na Na Na 😂
Legend.
I’ve ticked off every micro nation in Europe in the last few years. San Marino exceeded expectations - a very scenic place to visit
Very cool man!
Is Monaco a nice place to visit?
@@peterstroe1216 yes its nice enough. There’s the harbour with all the super yachts and you can see the Grand Prix circuit. It’s a tiny place but worth a day trip
Fun fact: Rome is the only city to have a country inside of its territories
Until you realize the SMOM has buildings with extraterritoriality
@@FlagAnthem They may have embassies, since the order is a sovereign entity of international law , but no actual state territory. It's not really the same.
Non è vero, Copenaghen pure
and ruled by Madonna
@@FlagAnthem Country ≠ sovereign international something.
The secret to surviving as a small nation: neutrality
That has never worked tho
@@uripoutiga8071 Switzerland? San Marino?
Luxembourg?
The key to surviving as a micro state, tax havens and money laundering. No national leader wants to invade the country where he’s stashed all the money he embezzled.
Luxemburg still exists because neither France nor Germany would allow the other to have it.
@@mattwho81 yes the country that is against the one who has their money stashed there
As a European I already knew the answer. We spent two frigging years in history class to study this shizzle. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Which euro country u from
@@amykj Deutschland
@@amykj from France, and I can say that here we get a shit ton of what this video says. especially in history
@@amykj From Polska, interesting west history...
From the UK, they teach us literally none of this at schools here... We get the slave trade, and a very skewed recap of ww2 which only includes UK, France, and USA Vs Germany... In a country with such a rich history, they teach us so little of it
Andorra is the most interesting to me, it has two leaders, one of which is a bishop, which makes it the only theocracy in Europe (and also the only diarchy.)
Vatican also counts as a theocracy, I guess?
@@PauxloE It does, but it's sure a weird one, as traditional European theocracies were usually picked by the pope, since he made priests bishops (which is the case for Andorra) but in the Vatican it's the cardinals (who were appointed by previous popes) who choose who'll lead them. It breaks the traditional molds, but I believe it still counts as a theocracy
@@PauxloE technically the vatican is a theocratic absolute monchary, just with an elected monarch. The pope.
Vatican politics are weird af
But there is also the Vatican and the Mount Athos Republic, both theocracies (although the last is also part of Greece).
We are the true diarchy
I just noticed that I visit a micro state every half a year... summer 2019 Monaco, new years eve 2019/20 Luxembourg, summer 2020 Vatican city, last weekend Liechtenstein... those small countries are so easy to visit and beautiful! Next stop: Andorra and San Marino!
Luxembourg isn't a microstate
@@cyrildewaha Exactly. And the guy forgot Malta. Poor research.
@@Nikioko He din't forget Malta, he said islands don't count for this video.
"Why? Mostly colonialism"
That's indeed the right answer. I'd like to invite everyone to look up a map of the Native nations & states of the Americas, Africa, Australia (& even Asia).
Small nations were the norm everywhere.
India was divided in few hundred almost thousands of princely states ..8000 to be precise
Same with Indonesia. If no one colonize the area, probably there are ~50 countries in the region.
Yeah the colonies are just too big
Meanwhile Russia:
"Why does Europe only have microstates?" **drops mic**
Russian is only ice the moment all that ice gone russia will be floded
Russia is in Europe too
@@motajr1108 dude, the population of european part of Russia is greater that every european state...except Germany. In Germany there are 83mln people. In European part of Russia there are 78.8. The population of Moscow is greater than whole Nitherlands, greater than Hungary + Austria. This is only Moscow
No it’s why is everything a micro state
@@schwammigergecko4664 and asia
Dude, I was triggered when you referred the HRE as the Ungodly Germanic Kingdoms, also that's true 😂😂
Indeed; I *do* prefer.
took me a minute to get that reference
It should be ungodly germanic duchies. The only kingdom in the hte was bohemia and they arent even germanic
@@richmont9557 Well you missed the fact that there were the Kingdom of Germany, the Kingdom of Italy/Lombardy and the Kingdom of Arles.
As a Byzantophile, I agree with the description of the HRE.
"Ever looked on a map of Europe?"
US-Americans: No
US-Americans: "Europe? Is that part of the UK?"
Ah, of course I've seen the country of Europe!
US-Americans: "Europe? Which state is that in?"
Remember we don’t take education seriously because if we did the conservative party wouldn’t exist.
While the US is just one of Europe’s former colonies.
When I was living in Germany many years ago, the press reported that the heirs of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg were engaged and that "they had Germany in the pincers." Not sure whatever came of that engagement, but Germany seems to have come through it all unscathed.
For now.
Did this dude just call Luxembourg a micro state
It's actually the entire world
Yep, it's clearly a ministate
Can't believe he'd make such a huge mistake
@@neroquin luxembourg is bigger then my city
I mean, tbh, Luxemburg is a very tiny country
The thing that makes me laugh about Vatican City is the fact it has as national language latin and then Italian as a second language
Latin for Holy See
Italian for Vatican
Difference between Italian and Latin is less than 3%
@@role6159 Lots of words are similar, but the grammatical structure is different. Studying the rules of latin grammar, I think italian grammar has different rules from it. For example, the latin verb "video" is similar to the italian one "vedo" and they both means "to see". But the passive form of the verb "video" (which is "videor") should be translated as "to seem", which in italian is translated with a completely different verb, "sembrare". Even some words are tricky: lots of words in italian looks like the latin ones, but sometimes those words have completely different meanings. But yes, italian language is the most similar language to latin.
@@role6159 where the hell did you get that from lol. That just not true
@@role6159 I know both languages and....no.
Wait, Mussolini gave the Pope his own nation? How, how should I put this, uncharacteristic.
"You're a bad guy, but it doesn't mean you're bad guy."
Did I help you?
He needed (more) church support
@ALF were they?I'm pretty sure that was just a ruse for them to get Catholic support.
@ALF but my point was that Hitler wasn't actually all to religious .He may have not like organised religion all together and was probably worried about its influence. many of the things he said and the actions he took were contradict each other Like him arresting certain church leaders for critiquing his policies.Especially the church leaders who were against his anti semitic rhetoric.Basically he liked Christians who supported his rhetoric and so he used chirstianity as a tool to get himself into power but he most likely didn't like them in a personal sense.
Mussolini was not loved in the start of his politic carreer so he needed the catholics for fight the communist people. So he gives more power to the Vatican and the Pope. In this way many catholics started love him
The funny thing about Lichtenstein is it's nearly Switzerland
They use nearly everything from Switzerland
But than the Republic of Austia came and now Lichtenstein uses the Austrian post and the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railway)
Where can I read about this?
@@moover123 Internet
No But really they use the Swiss franc They are protected by Switzerland
Ok if I think about it it's actually not that much
@@lazulithedragon Andorra, Monaco are protected by France. France is a relevant country Switzerland is a weak country & can’t protect anyone.
@@cheerbozz you know why Countries put money in Swiss banks
Because it's impossible to take
They have a strong military and the mountains
@@lazulithedragon No Switzerland doesn’t have a military nor are they part of NATO. Second, the reason why people put money in Switzerland is cuz they are a neutral country in War & like anonymity. The people that put money in Switzerland banks are majority corrupt people & ex-politicians of other countries so educate yourself. If the USA wants get someone in Switzerland they will get them!!!
Fascinating! I have wondered how countries come to be, so it was good to learn about these small countries 🤓
🤓🤓🤓
👆🤓
In short words "europe got history"
Middle east and asia noises
@@bastard-took-the-name-I-had europe has more
The Middle east is literally the birth place of civilization and asia has china and india and the various kingdoms around them that existed for very long times too
@@Floppedd the Middle East has more history, but history has been whitewashed so we have more info on history involving white people than anything else.
@@Floppedd 😂 As a European who's family is quite into history.. That is a lie and many European's are aware that the whole of the Old world has quite the history.
Best seen under "periods" But you can kind of notice that the oldest is African, then you get middle east. Then Europe and Asia. 😂and then again Middle East and Europe with some Asia... And then all three... Thematically speaking.
Greetings from Liechtenstein 🇱🇮
Fun Fact: A food is named san marino in philippines
I Didnt know
I'm eating one right now.
Argentina is a canned food too xd
@@jhowghow7277 oh please don't eat our neighbor country 😂
@@aintyours7470 you from Italy?
you could have also mentioned Malta
I know it's an island, but it's in Europe
Lol he literally said he isn't gonna count islands because... well they're Islands
I know right. Malta is a microstate tho. Doesn't mean since it's an island it's not one.
Malta isnt an Island, its brittains unsinkable aircraft carrier and the most heavily bombed place of ww2
@@kochkaplays1935 fun fact: on the maltean (its called like that, right?) Flag there is a george's cross, brittains highest civillian medal
@@ghostarmy1106 you learn something new every day. I was fairly sure they would carry the maltese (that's what it's called) cross.
fun fact 2: The Knights of Malta use a St.George's cross as their flag. Just like England, but inverted. (and even longer so)
Andorra quite often plays their home international football games in barcelona as the stadiums in andorra have such small capacities, but even more curious is that the stadiums they have used in spain have capacities larger than the population of andorra overall
The five smallest European micro-states can all fit in Luxembourg.
Oceania: Allow us to introduce ourselves.
The islands don’t count on this list, also places like Singapore are in asia
@@dinosaurking4566 no one cares
@Adolf Hitler no
That's just a colony, we're talking about the mainland. ;)
@@dennisengelen2517 italy can make san marino do what ever it wants same with. Switzerland and lichenstien, if you say oceanias nations are colonys then microstates are too
The first video when you were talking about Monaco is actually the harbor in Nice, they are close by and look fairly similar
Buddy have you seen a map of medieval Europe?
No 😉
i mean.
He showed such a map several times and explained the origin of these using medieval feudalism, showing that yes he has.
Modern Europe: 5 Microstates are to much!
Medival Europe: amateurs
Holy Roman Empire: Hold my Citystates
Actually, there are six microstates in Europe: Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City and Malta.
@@Nikioko you missed isle of man feroe islands and Gibraltar
@@viorangealgo No, I didn't. Along with the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man is not an independent country but a crown dependency. And Gibraltar is a British overseas territory and therefore part of the UK.
@@viorangealgo those are not regonized nation
Haha great job I loved the video! Definite subscribing to your channel. As an Indian, it blew my mind away when I visited Vatican City a couple years back. The sheer smallness of that nation left me astounded. I've been to 10 countries in Europe in 2018-19 before covid, but after watching this video, I wish to travel to these small European countries soon. Very informative. Keep up the good job.
10:57...was wondering when that was finally going to be mentioned
Vatican, Monaco, and Luxembeorg: We used to be Big, but now we're small
The video overlooked the by far smallest sovereign state in the world - and possibly the one with the longest name: Supremus Militaris Ordo Hospitalarius Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodiensis et Melitensis (or "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta" for those who don't speak Latin). Total area: 0 km2.
The Order of Malta is often described as a "sovereign entity" or a "sovereign subject of international law", rather than a country, because it does not have a defined territory over which it exercises full and exclusive sovereignty. Instead, its activities are focused on providing humanitarian assistance, medical care, and charitable works around the world.
Asia has a few too (Singapore, Bahrain, Qatar, Brunei, Timor-Leste)
Love it! Very well done
Idea for a video: Why does the US not use SI Units?
lets add myanmar and liberia in the mix, though liberia is considering the use of metric units, good for them
@@joaquingonzalez834 sure why not
@@joaquingonzalez834 Myanmar actually uses si units , they don't really have a national system , i am pretty sure
Andorra has many similarities and a strong connection with Catalonia, it's the only country in the world with Catalan as an official language. It would have been an important part to point out! :)
No. Nobody in Andorra wants to be catalan. You are not the centre of the World.
Short answer: Because those countries weren't created all of the sudden, fully organised in a new land of the newer world
Exactly. They evolved naturally, over many centuries. The EU is not a natural thing for Europe. It's an idealistic dream thought up in the 1920s by a very young Jean Monnet when he was in New York.
8:58 Yes, but it’s really because Garibaldi made a promise that in return for refuge, Italy would not incorporate San Marino.
when he pulled up a map labeled in Russian i got excited
Then he put map in polish)
I saw Andorra in the thumbnail and clicked, my geography teacher mentioned it one time and I also did a project on it a different time and it's so pretty
Luxembourg: I’m a microstate?
Love the fact that maps come in random languages rather than just boring English
The maps Come in the languages of the states he Talks about I think
@@Vogelfreie. nope, one map appeared in russian while he was talking about a german war, and while he was talking about monaco and italy the map was in polish
@@renzo00 okay that was just a guess. Thanks for telling me
Hmm ok? Weird detail to care about
@@renzo00 there was also french in the monaco part
I hope I can find the Box in Andorra.
Leftover from a time when all non de jure posessions were that size or smaller
Oh and they partitioned Luxembourg in 3 separate occasions used to be about Belgium sized,
Clothariningian Heritage, Franconian pride and bane of French or Germans
Europe is really diverse because of the history so these small countries existed as bufferzones in between the empires but now they are UN recognized and they existed for so long that they build their economies this is maybe why all of them are soo rich
I think they are rich because all the rich people move there to avoid high taxes
Just so you know, the clip at 6:24 of the port is not Monaco, it's Nice. I know because I live there :)
For a second I was mildly confused. Then I remembered Nice is a French city.
9:02 you have a polish editor, don't you
He also used map in Russian)
And German
There used to be a lot more when the "Holy" "Roman" "Empire" was around.
More than 300 at some time
> 5:36
@@295g295 "BUT THEN NAPOLEON HAPPENED"
Never seen that joke on aaaaaaany other history channel before. That one quote: “The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” :P
So how does it explain Sealand?
9:28 Good Lord he held nothing back there
Don’t call Liechtenstein and Luxembourg Micro-state.
Official Germany is still in war with Liechtenstein but in reality there is no war. Most people in the internet think that Liechtenstein is in Nato but they aren’t.
The only other relatively small non-island countries (Having a land border) that come to mind are protectorates and colonies that survived into the late 20th century, Hong Kong, Macao and Brunei, the former two are now swallowed up by China, the latter is just twice the size of Luxembourg and probably the only fully acknowledged non-island microstate outside of Europe. The only other country that would fit is Palestine, but that is, sadly, still a hot topic.
Greetings from Andorra
Wow
What is it like to live in a microstate?
@@martonreisch6582 well, ive been living in Spain too and there is almost no difference... if any, al paper tramits are faster and everything is in better condition
1:00 I was playing Risk with my TV on mute while watching this video.. Wondering why there was risk background music playing without noticing its coming from the video
Andorra: I'm the smallest :)
Vatican city: am I a joke to u?
Lichtenstein
There are seven tiny nations in the Americas that are smaller than Luxembourg: They are from largest to smallest: Dominica (751km2), St Luicia (715km2), Antigua and Barbuda (442 km2), Barbados (430km2), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (389km2), Grenada (344km2) and Saint Kits and Nevis (261km2).
But like he mentioned in the beginning of the video, he excluded island nations which is why Malta (316 km2) wasn't in it.
all those are islands
You forgot to mention S.M.o.M. (e.g.: The Sovereign Military Order Of Malta) -- tinier than even the Vatican, given that it's just a building
The Order of Malta is often described as a "sovereign entity" or a "sovereign subject of international law", rather than a country, because it does not have a defined territory over which it exercises full and exclusive sovereignty. Instead, its activities are focused on providing humanitarian assistance, medical care, and charitable works around the world.
Knowing Hetalia then realizing Russia could have sold Alaska to Liechtenstein back then really made it for me man
Where is that at 1:30? It's beautiful.
Edit: Given 8:08, I'm guessing it's San Marino?
Yup
When you are Micronesia and you seems a Gigachad compared to Vatican city 😂
Yeap, just liked, subscribed on your first video that popped out to me. Well done.
You forgot malta? Even though its an island. Its still in europe
it too big to be a microstate
Very interesting. Nevertheless the first part concerning Monaco is not showing Monaco but Nice... the port of Nice we can see on the video has been filmed from the castle hill at the end of the Promenade des Anglais
"But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked..."
Napoleon. He removed many micro states between the north sea and the alps
Imagine if Lichtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco included embassies of each nation with which they have diplomatic relations. There'd be no room for any residents!
Actually, Lichtenstein's diplomatic relations are all handed through Switzerland. I once helped a friend hunt down the address of the Lichtenstein embassy in the U.S. It was a Lichtenstein desk within the Swiss consulate in New York City. Now there is a job I could handle -- running that desk. Staying up late to resolve all the crises that flareup between Lichtenstein and the U.S., doing security checks to detect bugging devices, and of course dealing with the defectors who want asylum in Lichtenstein. Never a moment's rest.
Give me asylum in Liechtenstein, I want Pretzels and beer
But do you know German?
@@luke557 I've duly noted your request and forwarded it on to the Grandy Duchy.
@@lukasrba1 Ich spreche genug Deutcsh fur das Arbeit.
5:55 The land that Luxembourg lost to Belgium is now one of Belgium’s 10 provinces called the Luxembourg province.
There's an area in Iran called Azerbaijan, I wonder if that's the same situation
@@Polska_Edits It is also like how the United States has a state called New Mexico.
You forgot about Liechtenstein being invaded by switzerland on accident multiple times
when you get invaded on accident because you're so smol people forgot u exist
Liechtenstein and Switzerland share pool of postal zip codes and the money; nobody gives a hummingbird where LI starts and CH ends. :D
What about Singapore (which is basically Asia’s San Marino)?
Yeah what about it? How come Asia's San Marino is not discussed in a video about micronations in Europe? It's so weird...
@@pkeller3353 is this a joke?
@@definitelynormal6678 Yes, obviously...
I have been and Monaco and Luxembourg and these are the ones that really have those major cities within its small area
Well Europe has always been the main land, thus kings fought for it alot. Also, in the old days huge countries were very rare, except for mayby stuff like the Roman empire, Byzantian Empire etc.
Secondly, it's easy for countries like the US to be bigger, since they were created as colonies when most of the Middle Ages history were done. And this was the period where small countries were normal. You can't compare the original world to the colonies of the new world.
Why did you hide the risk game theme in the video, now it's stuck in my head!
The island of Tavolara was in fact independent til end of 19th century. You miss Mount Athos monastic republic, the island of Malta (3 islands in fact) which was a remnant of the Knight's Order of Hospitallers.
6:13 well, this isn't Monaco...
And, concerning Monaco : before, it was also made out of some of the towns around (such as Roqueville or Beausoleil). But, as they wanted to be part of France, Monaco let them leave the country and become a french territory
Minor correction: It wasn't "French" but Frankish forces who defeated the Muslim armies at Tours. I know it's similar, but it is not the same.
@Aditya Chavarkar Because the Franks were a multi-ethnic kingdom. Origionally a Germanic tribe the Franks expanded eastwards until they covered an area made up of todays Germany, Belgium, France, Luxemburg & the Netherlands. "French, "German", etc. are modern inventions, which the Franks in their time didn't know.
@Aditya Chavarkar That's what I'm saying. They are there direct descendents, just like the Germans are. But at the time of the Franks the people withing the kingdom did not identify themselves in such a way. "French" just like "German" simply did not exist back then.
Also large parts of todays Germany were indeed under Frankish control and had been at that time for centuries. That's where the Franks originally came from after all.
7:00 Fun fact is that Napoleon was actually somewhat Genoan. But was technically born French when Genoa gave Corsica to France.
The Bonaparte (then Buonaparte) family was tuscan
9:07 wow it's a polish map
I was wondering, too
I'm from Greece, so I realised this mistake: instead of saying "μόνοικος" for Monaco, which is pronounced "mόnikos", the correct thing to say is "μονόικος", which makes the pronunciation to match that one in the video, "monόikos". ("oi" in Greek is pronounced "i")
Edit: you said that "oikos" means house. But it's very wrong to pronounce it that! No offence, I understand that you don't know. It's called "ikos".
Damn it, Greece!
It's not like you don't have thousands of I's and e's in your alphabet...
...and now you tell me an O next to an I is also Pronounced 'I'
...and then you tell me 'oi' doesn't have to be pprpnounce 'I'
Damn Greece!
Anyways Greece is a wonderful country, sorry if I offended anyone...
@@cerebrummaximus3762 😂😂 Here are the e's: η (long e), υ (high e), ι (regular e), οι (o next to i, if it's placed at the end of the word it's a weak e), ει (e next to i), υι (rarely used, high e next to regular i) I think there's more but I can't remember them all now lol
@@CaptainElMapper Thanks :)
I can guess what long and Regular e's are...
...but what's a High e?
@@cerebrummaximus3762 well, a high e is sometimes regular and sometimes long, depending on the word! I also forgot an e, the ηυ which is only for past tenses. Despite the 10 years of greek language in school I still don't know all of the e's, and I think there are more! :)
Worth mentioning is also the smallest kingdom in the world called Tavolara Kingdom which is an island near Sardinia
It's not a independent state tho
well in europe we have some interesting shapes as countries
SM here:
My mama always said "mind your f*cking buisness and you'll live 100 years"
Mama always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.
Nice reference
Uh
KhAnubis: why europe has so much micro states?
Oceania: *Laughs*
Short answer: *The Concert of Europ*
*I’d say it’s because we had monarchies and lots of agreements blah blah, but also Europe is like the only continent that’s gotten the opportunity to develope culture and kingdoms without getting invaded/colonized (yeah i know us europeans all fought each other but that is common in a continent lol and plus we are very similar people all around europe)...cause if we wouldn’t have colonized all the other continents i think they would have microstates with small populations/tribes too...sorry about that you guys* 🥴💕
Nope mate. Just look a east Asia. China was always a big country with no small countries around it. Even before it was (kind of) colonized.
@@schievel6047 well they're rather an exception though
Spain was invaded by the moors
@@erenrathe4293 yea, 1,000 years ago
@@jakubondrus6064 so?
You forgot about Malta
in italy we don t have 2 microstates, we have 7904+2. every town and village is indipendent here😂
Iceland could also be classified as a micro state, if it weren't for all the waste land it has.
Great video, very informative 😁
10:08
*Benito Nomustacheollini*