Which tiny European nation claims itself to be the oldest recorded sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world?
"became the Soviet Union after the Russian Civil War. A few of the smaller states survived: the independent principalities of Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, and the republic of San Marino. (Vatican City is a special case. All of the larger Papal States save the Vatican itself were occupied and absorbed by Italy by 1870. The resulting Roman Question was resolved with the rise of the modern state under the 1929 Lateran treaties between Italy and the Holy See.) ""Legitimate states that govern effectively and dynamic industrial economies are widely regarded today as the defining characteristics of a modern nation-state."" Nation states"
"smallest country in the world) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city: for this reason Rome has been often defined as capital of two states. Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The city's early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines. Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman"
"History of San Marino As the only surviving medieval microstate in the Italian peninsula, the history of San Marino is intertwined with medieval, renaissance and modern-day history of the Italian peninsula, starting by independence from the Roman Empire on 257 AD (Diocletian kingdom). Like Andorra, Vatican City , Liechtenstein and Monaco, it is one of the sole remains of the typical medieval city-states of Germany, Italy and Pyrenees. The country, whose independence has ancient origins, claims to be the world's oldest surviving republic. According to legend, San Marino was founded in 301 AD when a Christian stonemason Marinus (lit. ""from"
"Portugal Portugal (), officially the Portuguese Republic ( ), is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe. It is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Portugal is the oldest state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. The"
"European microstates The European microstates or European ministates are a set of very small sovereign states in Europe. The term is typically used to refer to the six smallest states in Europe by area: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City. Four of these states are monarchies (three principalities—Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco—and one papacy, the Vatican City), with all these states tracing their status back to the first millennium or the early second millennium, except for Liechtenstein, created in the 17th century. Microstates are small independent states recognized by larger states, unlike micronations, which are only self-declared and"
"of pre-modern origin; the kingdoms of the Netherlands and of Belgium were established in 1815 and 1830, respectively; the Kingdom of Spain, founded in 1479, was abolished in 1931, restored in 1947/69, before Spain transitioned to democracy in 1978 as a constitutional monarchy. The principalities of Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were restored as sovereign states in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The State of the Vatican City was recognized as a sovereign state administered by the Holy See in 1929. Ten of these monarchies are hereditary, and two are elective: Vatican City (the"
"awards by the World Golf Awards. Portugal Portugal (), officially the Portuguese Republic ( ), is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe. It is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Portugal is the oldest state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and"
"Parliamentary records The oldest recorded parliament still in existence is the ""Althing"", the ruling legislative body of Iceland. It was founded in 930 and originally consisted of 39 local chieftains. Abolished in 1800 it was restored by Denmark in 1843. The oldest continuous parliament is the ""Tynwald"" of the Isle of Man. Its exact formation date is generally believed to be 979 but some sources suggest that its origins lie in the early 9th century, which would predate even the ""Althing"". The first recorded legislative body on record is the bicameral ""ukkim"" found in Erech in Iraq that was founded"
"state as well as the oldest constitutional republic. San Marino is governed by the Constitution of San Marino (""Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini""), a series of six books written in Latin in the late 16th century, that dictate the country's political system, among other matters. The country is considered to have the earliest written governing documents, or constitution, still in effect. The country's economy mainly relies on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is among one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to the most developed European regions. San"
"of Luxembourg's population. As a representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, it is headed by Grand Duke Henri and is the world's only remaining grand duchy. Luxembourg is a developed country, with an advanced economy and one of the world's highest GDP (PPP) per capita. The City of Luxembourg with its old quarters and fortifications was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 due to the exceptional preservation of the vast fortifications and the old city. The history of Luxembourg is considered to begin in 963, when count Siegfried I acquired a rocky promontory and its Roman-era fortifications known"
"government and a branch of the national government at the same time. Most of the 15 statutory cities are major regional population centers with residents numbering in the tens of thousands. The smallest statutory city is barely more than a village, but owes its status to a quirk of history: Rust, Burgenland, current population 1900 (2017), has enjoyed special autonomy since it was made a royal free city by the Kingdom of Hungary in 1681; its privilege was grandfathered into the district system when Hungary ceded the region (later called Burgenland) to Austria in 1921. The constitution stipulates that a"
"are beyond the competence of government. The Constitution of May 3, 1791, which historian Norman Davies calls ""the first constitution of its kind in Europe"", was in effect for only a year. It was designed to redress longstanding political defects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its traditional system of ""Golden Liberty"". The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (""szlachta"") and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. Constitutionalist was also a label used by some independent candidates in UK general elections in the early 1920s. Most of the candidates"
"where it now hangs in the Royal Castle. The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a ""Government Act"" (Polish: ""Ustawa rządowa"") on that date by the ""Sejm"" (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It has been called ""the first constitution of its type in Europe"" and the world's second oldest constitution. It was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth's system of ""Golden Liberty"", which conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility, had increasingly corrupted the Commonwealth's politics. The Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's magnates with a"
"codified national constitution in Europe; the oldest being the United States Constitution. It was called the Government Act (""Ustawa Rządowa"") Drafting for it began on October 6, 1788 and lasted 32 months. Stanisław II Augustus was the principal author of the Constitution, and he wanted the Crown to be a constitutional monarchy, similar to the one in Great Britain. On May 3, 1791, the Great Sejm convened, and they read and adopted the new constitution. It enfranchised the bourgeoisie, separated the government into three branches, abolished liberum veto, and stopped the abuses of the Repnin Sejm. It made Poland a"
"History of the Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice (; ), traditionally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice (; ), was a sovereign state and maritime republic in northeastern Italy, which existed for a millennium between the 8th century and the 18th century. It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice, and was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The history of the Republic of Venice traditionally begins with its foundation at noon on Friday 25 March AD 421, by authorities from Padua,"
"villa, on 18 October 1797. History of the Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice (; ), traditionally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice (; ), was a sovereign state and maritime republic in northeastern Italy, which existed for a millennium between the 8th century and the 18th century. It was based in the lagoon communities of the historically prosperous city of Venice, and was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The history of the Republic of Venice traditionally begins with its foundation at noon on Friday 25 March AD"
"History of Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra (), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra (), is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. Andorra claims it is the last independent survivor of the Marca Hispanica, the buffer states created by Charlemagne to keep the Islamic Moors from advancing into Christian France. Tradition holds that Charlemagne granted a charter to the Andorran people in return for their fighting the Moors. In the 9th century, Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald, named the Count of Urgell"
"royal dynasty originating in Lithuania that reigned in some Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century. In 2011 the Jagiellonian Rooms were re-arranged to house the modern Gallery of Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts. From the 16th century onwards, Polish democracy started here. In 1573, amendments to the constitution of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were written here, with great religious tolerance. Also, during the Deluge in 1652, the liberum veto was established in these rooms, although not carried out until 1669. In 1791, the May Constitution, Europe's first modern codified national constitution as well as the second-oldest national constitution"
"world's sole constitutional diarchy or co-principality. Located in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, it has two co-princes: the Bishop of Urgell (a prince-bishop) in Spain and the President of France (inherited ""ex officio"" from the French kings, who themselves inherited the title from the counts of Foix). It is the only situation in which an independent country's (co-)monarch is democratically elected by the citizens of another country. In a personal union, separate independent states share the same person as monarch, but each realm retains its separate laws and government. The sixteen separate Commonwealth realms are sometimes described as being"
"advice of the Government. Constitutional monarchy originated in continental Europe, with Poland developing the first constitution for a monarchy with the Constitution of May 3, 1791; it was the third constitution in the world just after the first republican Constitution of the United States. Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the early years of the French Revolution, but much more widely afterwards. Napoleon Bonaparte is considered the first monarch proclaiming ""himself"" as an embodiment of the nation, rather than as a divinely-appointed ruler; this interpretation of monarchy is germane to continental constitutional monarchies. German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in"
"Poland such as King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, Stanisław Staszic, Scipione Piattoli, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj. It was adopted by the Great Sejm and is considered the first constitution of its kind in Europe and the world's second oldest one after the American Constitution. Another landmark document was the French Constitution, ratified on September 3, 1791. On March 19, the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was ratified by a parliament gathered in Cadiz, the only Spanish continental city which was safe from French occupation. The Spanish Constitution served as a model for other liberal constitutions of several South-European"
"Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages; next come the Finland-Swedes (5.3%). Finland is the eighth-largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. The sovereign state is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital city of Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and one autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which produces one third of the country's GDP. Finland was inhabited when the last ice age ended, approximately 9000 BCE. The first settlers left behind artefacts that present"
"August 1991. The sovereign state of Estonia is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn. With a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union since joining in 2004, the economic monetary Eurozone, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Schengen Area, and of the Western military alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy that has been among the fastest-growing in the EU. Estonia ranks very high in the Human Development Index, and"
"Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, faced a period of decline due to increasingly dysfunctional internal politics. In a belated attempt to rectify the situation, a constitution was adopted on May 3, 1791 – one of the oldest codified national constitutions in the world. The new constitution abolished the liberum veto and banned the szlachta's confederations, features that had crippled decision making the state. The constitution also provided for a separation of powers among legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, established ""popular sovereignty"" and extended political rights to the bourgeoisie. The peasantry saw"
"Great Sejm The Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm (Polish: respectively, ""Sejm Wielki"" or ""Sejm Czteroletni""; Lithuanian: ""Didysis seimas"" or ""Ketverių metų seimas"") was a Sejm (parliament) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw between 1788 and 1792. Its principal aim became to restore sovereignty to, and reform, the Commonwealth politically and economically. The Sejm's great achievement was the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May 1791, often described as Europe's first modern written national constitution, and the world's second, after the United States Constitution. The Polish Constitution was designed to redress long-standing political defects of"
"a decree issued by a ""Reichstag"" in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. In China, the Hongwu Emperor created and refined a document he called ""Ancestral Injunctions"" (first published in 1375, revised twice more before his death in 1398). These rules served in a very real sense as a constitution for the Ming Dynasty for the next 250 years. The oldest written document still governing a sovereign nation today is that of San Marino. The ""Leges Statutae"
"Monarchies in Europe Monarchy was the prevalent form of government in the history of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, only occasionally competing with communalism, notably in the case of the Maritime republics and the Swiss Confederacy. Republicanism became more prevalent in the Early Modern period, but monarchy remained predominant in Europe during the 19th century. Since the end of World War I, however, most European monarchies have been abolished. There remain, as of 2016, twelve (12) sovereign monarchies in Europe. Of these, seven are kingdoms: Denmark, Norway and Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are"
"History of Lithuania The history of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded many thousands of years ago, but the first written record of the name for the country dates back to 1009 AD. Lithuanians, one of the Baltic peoples, later conquered neighboring lands and established the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century (and also a short-lived Kingdom of Lithuania). The Grand Duchy was a successful and lasting warrior state. It remained fiercely independent and was one of the last areas of Europe to adopt Christianity (beginning in the 14th century). A formidable power, it became the largest state"
"active today and is the oldest surviving bank in the world. Republic of Siena The Republic of Siena () was a historic state consisting of the city of Siena and its surrounding territory in Tuscany, central Italy. It existed for over four hundred years, from 1125 to 1555. In the Italian War of 1551–59 the republic was defeated by the rival Duchy of Florence in alliance with the Spanish crown. After 18 months of resistance, the Republic of Siena surrendered to the Spanish Empire on 21 April 1555, marking the end of the republic. The oldest aristocratic families in Siena"
"or demographic constraints."" In line with this and most other definitions, examples of microstates include Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The smallest political unit recognized as a sovereign state is Vatican City, with 842 citizens as of July 2013 and an area of only . However, some scholars dispute qualifying the Vatican as a state, arguing that it does not meet the ""traditional criteria of statehood"" and that the ""special status of the Vatican City is probably best regarded as a means of ensuring that the Pope can freely exercise"
"in the world. According to a mid-June 2013 report by Dutch television station NOS, nineteen Dutch prisons will be closed due to a declining crime rate and budgetary cuts. As a result of the closures, a higher number of prisoners will be required to share cells and electronic tagging will become a favoured option during sentencing procedures for people convicted of crime/s. The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since 1848. Previously, it was a republic from 1581 to 1806, and a kingdom between 1806 and 1810 (it was part of France between 1810"
"Vatican City Vatican City (), officially Vatican City State (; ), is an independent city-state enclaved within Rome, Italy. Established with the Lateran Treaty (1929), it is distinct from yet under ""full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction"" of the Holy See (). With an area of 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of about 1,000, it is the smallest state in the world by both area and population. The Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state (a type of theocracy) ruled by the pope who is, religiously speaking, the bishop of Rome and head of"
"nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every 4 years. The administrative structure on the 3 BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is different. These islands have the status of ""openbare lichamen (public bodies)"" rather than municipalities and as administrative units are generally referred to as ""special municipalities"". They are not part of a province. The Netherlands has several Belgian exclaves and within those even several enclaves which are still part of the province"