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History
One of the ministates of Europe. It is the size of a large
park. Is it sovereign? Astonishingly, it joined the UN in May
1993. For monetary and foreign policies it is linked with France.
If the ruler has no male heir the country becomes part of France.
This kind of state is a fossil remaining from the time when
there were many such tiny states in medieval Europe. In Germany
they continued until the Napoleonic conquests but in France all
the others were incorporated into France during the Revolution
(from 1789). In Italy only San Marino and the Vatican remain.
Ministates of this kind were originally created by local powerful
men during the power vacuum which accompanied the collapse of
the Roman Empire and the trading system. (see feudalism) Monaco itself was once larger.
In France the former papal state at Avignon has gone, along with
Burgundy, a much larger entity at one time.
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