The Vatican, the world's largest small country, has an army of only 110 people, so why does no one dare to invade?
How large is the smallest country in the world? 0.44 km². What is this concept? Probably about the same size as Tiananmen Square, it can be said to be a real projectile land.
The country is the Vatican, and now their permanent population is only 618, the ratio of men to women is seriously imbalanced, reaching 19:1, and the number of troops is only 110. It stands to reason that such a small country is vulnerable to aggression, but in fact no one dares to invade them.
There is neither industry nor agriculture nor rich resources in the Vatican, but the people there are very rich, with a per capita GDP of 100,000 US dollars.
In terms of international relations, they have also established diplomatic relations with 189 countries around the world, more than the mainland. However, these 183 countries do not include us, which makes us wonder what kind of country the Vatican is? Why didn't anyone dare to invade them? Next, let's take a look at this small mini country.
Vatican City
The Vatican is a country located on the highlands in the northwest corner of Rome, Italy, and if you are not careful, it is easy to think of it as a small village in Rome.
His full name is Vatican City State, and as the name suggests, a city is a country, neither in terms of area nor population as large as our small village. Such a small place, surrounded by Rome, why not belong directly to Italy?
It starts with their history. In the beginning, the Vatican was a religious country, and the pope was their monarch.
In the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Empire occupied the Apennine Peninsula and established Catholicism as the state religion. As a sign of respect for the Bishop of Rome, they gave the city of Rome directly to the Pope. The Pope built St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Palace here, and there are rumors that Leonardo da Vinci was also involved in the design of the palace.
Since then, the pope has been living in the Vatican Palace, when the Catholic Church was very large in Europe, and the pope's influence was increasing, even surpassing the emperor. As the power expanded, the pope began to interfere in government affairs, and the relationship between the pope and the royal family began to crack.
By the beginning of the eighth century, Leo III had succeeded to the throne, who was not only non-religious, but also opposed to papal prerogatives. So during his reign, he repeatedly restricted papal rights and launched a campaign to destroy icons, officially tearing his face off with the pope.
The Pope was also dissatisfied with his actions, and in order to defend his rights, he directly expelled Leo III from the church and united with pepin, the minister of state of the Frankish kingdom.
He used his papal power to propel Pepin to become King of the Franks, and Pepin fulfilled his promise by sending troops to take the area around Rome and give it to the Pope.
The Pope then established the Papal States on these lands, and at this time their territory reached 40,000 square meters, which was the predecessor of the Vatican.
At the end of the 18th century, Napoleon attacked Italy, incidentally settling the Papal States, and the Pope was forced into exile. Napoleon was not remembered until he was about to be crowned. The Pope then regained his position.
In 1848, Italy invaded the Papal States, and the Pope had to flee to France. In 1870, Italy invaded France again, driving the Pope back to Vatican City. After that, their territory was left with only this one city.
In 1929, Italy officially recognized the vatican as a sovereign state and signed the Treaty of Lateran with them. The treaty provided for Catholicism as the state religion of Italy, but the Pope was to pledge absolute loyalty to Italy.
But why didn't Italy choose to annex them directly?
Don't be afraid of dangerous causes
This is because Catholics are a large group in the West, and the Vatican has been regarded as a holy place by believers since the 6th century. So it was easy to annex the Vatican, but the consequences were not so easy to bear.
Once the Vatican is threatened, it means that the Catholic Church is threatened, and it is bound to cause dissatisfaction among the believers. You know, some of the believers are extreme people, and if they shake their faith, they will die for each other.
In addition, the strength of their army should not be underestimated. Although there are only 110 people, it is important to know that they only have more than 600 permanent residents in the country, which means that one-sixth of the people in the country are soldiers, which is also an exaggerated proportion.
Of the more than six hundred people, in addition to more than a hundred soldiers, more than 360 were diplomats, more than thirty were members of the church, and the rest were ordinary people.
And their army is very special, all of them are not equipped with weapons, if you ask them what kind of defense, it is probably by faith. But the main reason is that they don't think anyone will attack them at all, so there is not much need for defense.
For some other countries, encroaching on them will not only not get any benefits, but will cause trouble, of course, they can only choose to get along with them. The Vatican has also used its religious advantages to successfully gain a foothold in the world, so although they are small, no country dares to despise them.
Relations with China
But if they have friendly relations with 189 countries in the world, why don't they have us?
There are many reasons for this. First of all, the first is the historical reason, Catholicism first appeared on the mainland in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when many missionaries came to the mainland, some of whom brought us knowledge of astronomy, calendar, etc., and some of them committed unforgivable crimes.
And for these people, the Vatican Not only did not punish, but posthumously canonized as saints, which is undoubtedly a kind of harm to us.
The second reason is religious reasons, the Vatican, as the center of Catholicism, controls Catholic affairs around the world, but the mainland's religious policy does not allow any foreign forces to interfere in religious affairs, which greatly arouses their dissatisfaction.
The third reason is related to Taiwan, which has maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan since the founding of the People's Republic of China, which is undoubtedly an act of violating our sovereignty.
However, in recent years, with the improvement of our national strength and the improvement of international influence, they have also begun to attach importance to their interactions with us, and have improved their relations with us in various ways, and want to establish diplomatic relations with us. Until now, though, it hasn't worked out.
In fact, our attitude in diplomacy has always been friendly, as long as we do not touch our bottom line, most of us are still willing to maintain friendly relations, so the Vatican wants to establish diplomatic relations with us is actually very simple, as long as we sever relations with Taiwan, recognize our sovereignty, and guarantee not to interfere in our religious affairs, we can achieve this goal.
High income reasons
In addition to international relations, the Vatican's economic strength is also very strong. Their per capita income is high, even ranking among the top five in the world. So, where did their high income come from?
Most countries' economic level is determined by the industrial base, but the Vatican is different, their industrial development is very backward, and there are not even any factories in the country.
While industry is not developed, their agricultural development is not good, because the land area is too small, there is no farmland at all, so grain also depends on imports.
Their income comes from three main sources. The first is tourism, the Vatican, although small in size, is a tourist mecca, where there are many classic Renaissance buildings, such as St. Peter's Basilica.
Moreover, it is also the only place in the world where the whole country is listed as a World Cultural Heritage, where many precious cultural relics and artistic masterpieces are preserved, attracting many tourists to come to see, so the tourism income is very high.
The second is to rely on real estate income. Despite the small size of the country, the Vatican people own a lot of real estate in Italy, and many of them are located in the bustling area.
But where did all this real estate come from? In fact, these are the properties they have accumulated over the millennia, which were previously occupied by them because of the Italian invasion, but after the reconciliation between the two sides, these real estate properties returned to their hands. Among these real estates are manors, palaces, etc. The annual rent alone is a significant amount.
In addition, there is another source of income is the donation of believers, because this is the center of catholicism, so every year many believers will come here to worship, during which a lot of donations will be provided, and these donations will eventually be nationalized and become one of their economic sources.
epilogue
Therefore, the reason why the Vatican has such a high status in the world and is not afraid of foreign aggression is not because of how strong they are, but because of their unique national nature.