Vatican City
Government: Absolute monarchy, ecclesiastical and elective theocracy
Ruler: Pope Pius the XII
Area: 0.17 square miles
Population: 400
The Vatican was proceeded by the Papal States, The Papal States were an independent nation
that spread across central Italy from the 8th to 19th century. The Pope was under Byzantine
control during the 6th and 7th century. When the Byzantines launched their reconquest of Italy,
they quickly were unable to have direct control over the land and had the Pope, who was the
largest landowner and most prestigious figure. To control the land. A whole lot of history went on
and various controversies ended up with the Papal States having control over large parts of Central
Italy for a few hundred years. During the French revolution, parts of the papal states that still
existed in France were annexed and the remainder of the nation in Italy was created into the Roman
republic, a French client state. Napoleons main affect in Italy was the rise of Italian
Nationalism. Which hit a fever point in 1848 with the declaration of the Roman Republic. More time
went on and the only independent Italian nation, Piedmont and Sardinia, grew in power and land. By
1860 they had control of Lombardy. A Union between Pidoment and the Kingdom of Two silicies cemented
in controlling the North and South of the nation. Rebellions in the Papal States joined the new
Italy. The new nation quickly fought the Papal in 1870 once the French protection was gone and
pushed the Pope back to the walls of Vatican. For fifty years this created the Roman question. The
Pope and pretty much all subsequent Popes up until the 1920's refused to recognize Italy and the
then serving Prime Minister of Italy Mussolini, was finally able to get a peace treaty between
the two to be formed. The treaty of Lateran was signed in 1929 and gave the Vatican city complete
independence, Italy sent the Vatican a whole bunch of money and the Vatican was to be completely
neutral in foreign affairs. Because someone may have been thinking of doing a few things. Anyway
When the European War was about to begin in 1939, Pope Pius XII attempted to mediate
between the powers to maintain peace. He informed Mussolini of this intention,
and received Mussolini's agreement to proceed. A discussion was held with Vatican representatives
in the warring nations. The discussions resulted in the recommendation for Poland to
accept a German annexation of Danzig, to which Poland refused, thus accomplishing nothing.
On 20 May 1940, The Vatican newspaper began
to carry only war news published by the Italian government. In Aug 1940,
readers found that there were no more weather reports in this newspaper; this was stopped
after the Italian government complained that such reports were used by the British for
planning aerial attacks on Italy. The Vatican Radio followed suit. In Dec 1940, Vatican City
officially banned the Swiss Guard, the nation's small
defensive force, from discussing politics. During the war, the Vatican City never publicly
condemned the Nazi systematic extermination of various groups, which included many Catholics.
Speaking to American representatives who tried to persuade him to do so, Pius expressed
that he could not speak of the Nazi atrocities without also bring up similar Soviet practices.
It was also the Vatican's official stance that the alleged atrocities could not be verified. However,
Pius's Christmas address of 1942 did make mention of human aggression and the racial violence,
with language suggesting that he was targeting the Germans without specifically naming them.
Rome wasn't heavy bombed as the Allies did not wish to cause destruction within the Vatican.
After Italy switched sides in 1943, Rome quickly became occupied by German troops. In the case that
German troops were to occupy Vatican City as well, which never happened, The Popes decreed that the
government was to exile to Portugal, and if he became captured, the College of Cardinals would
elect a new Pope. During the Italian-to-German transition, many Allied prisoners of war were
released by their Italian captors, many of them headed for Vatican City as it was the nearest
neutral nation. The Vatican feared that housing such great numbers of former Allied fighters
would become a burden on its neutrality, thus the Swiss Guard prevented the former prisoners
from entering the country's borders. Many Vatican officials, however, acted independently to harbor
those who sought for assistance, regardless of their allegiance. At this time, there were also
reportedly thousands of Jews who were in hiding in Vatican City and at the papal summer residence