Historical Small Territories
The wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars caused the European map to be redrawn several times. A number of short-lived client republics were created, and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire gave sovereignty to each of its many surviving component states. The situation was not stabilized until after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Following World War I and World War II a number of territories gained temporary status as international zones, protectorates or occupied territories. A few of them are mentioned here:
- Couto Mixto, 10th Century-1864 (now divided between Spain and Portugal)
- Seborga, 10th Century-1729 (subsumed into Italy)
- Senarica, 14th century-end of 18th (subsumed into Italy) (smallest independent state to hold that distinction for so long)
- Gersau, 14th Century-1798 (now part of Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland)
- Republic of Ragusa, 14th Century-1808 (now Dubrovnik, Croatia)
- Cospaia, 1440–1826 (subsumed into Italy)
- Republic of Goust, 1648? – 1827? (now France)
- Free City of Kraków, 1815–1846 (now Kraków, Poland)
- Neutral Moresnet, 1816–1919 (now Kelmis, Belgium)
- Kingdom of Tavolara, 1836-1962 (subsumed into Italy)
- Principality of the Pontinha (1903 - ? – not recognized now, The Principality (Fort of Saint José) is located off the coast of the port of Funchal, capital of the Madeira Islands, an autonomous region of Portugal.
- Free City of Danzig, 1920–1939 (now Gdańsk, Poland)
- Free State of Fiume, 1920–1924 (now Rijeka, Croatia)
- Saar, 1920–35 and 1945–1956 (now Saarland, Germany)
- Free Territory of Trieste, 1947–1954 (now divided between Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia)
Read more about this topic: European Microstates
Famous quotes containing the words historical, small and/or territories:
“Yet the companions of the Muses
will keep their collective nose in my books
And weary with historical data, they will turn to my dance tune.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in words: the most primitive nations have poetry, but only quite well developed civilizations can produce good prose. So don’t think of poetry as a perverse and unnatural way of distorting ordinary prose statements: prose is a much less natural way of speaking than poetry is. If you listen to small children, and to the amount of chanting and singsong in their speech, you’ll see what I mean.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)
“For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and transient forays only, and my patriotism and allegiance to the state into whose territories I seem to retreat are those of a moss-trooper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)