Eli5: why does the country Liechtenstein exist? It’s an incredibly small country in Europe, why isn’t it just part of Switzerland or Austria?
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The short answer is because neither wanted it. Liechtenstein was part of the Holy Roman Empire, then became independent again when that ended. It joined the German Confederation, then became independent again when that ended. It got close to Austria, but then Austria got its teeth kicked in with WW1 and got busy elsewhere. Switzerland never made a move for it, so here they are today.
Originally, there were many, many such small kingdoms in Europe, ruled by powerful local families.
The land was bought by the House of Liechtenstein, and nominally ruled by the Holy Roman Empire, but became a sovereign state in 1806, as part of a loose German confederation
During the first and second world wars, many small states were eaten up by larger ones. However, Liechtenstein never really caused any problems for other countries, and kept itself to itself, and so there were always bigger fish to fry, and it remained self sufficient. It didn’t have any great wealth or natural resources.
It was just too much effort for any other country to bother annexing it.
What would be the point of not having small countries? Liechtenstein isn’t even the smallest, think of Monaco for instance, or San Marino. Why shouldn’t they exist?
Switzerland annexing Liechtenstein was never even on the table.
After the Napoleonic war was over the german states formed a confederation called the Deutscher Bund (which means German confederation). This included modern Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein but also german states in what’s now Luxemburg, Czech republic, Slovenia and also parts of what is today Poland, France, Italy, Hungary and Slovakia. Also, parts of Prussia are not a part of the bund but are germanic. That includes territories that are today parts of Poland, Russia and Lithuania (basically the coastline all the way to Klaipeda, that used to be called Memel, in modern Lithuania).
Aaanyway, the big contenders for who was going to be the dominant power in the Bund were Prussia and Austria. For a long time it looked like Austria was going to be the leader, but then a guy named Otto von Bismarck comes along and starts to play political 4D chess, so one by one the german states become aligned with Prussia and by the 1890s most of those state have become incorporated into the Germanic Empire (with the Prussian king becoming the germanic emperor). There are three exceptions. Austria (because Prussia couldn’t unify germany with their main political rival in it), Luxemburg (because Luxemburg is a financial powerhouse and inconveniently exposed to many of Germany’s rivals. It’s also not feeling those germanic vibes and would rather stay independent) and Liechtenstein.
The reason why Liechtenstein was never incorporated is because Liechtenstein is on the very edge of the Germanic Bund and borders Switzerland and…Austria. So rather than Liechtenstein becoming a politically inconvenient exclave (territory with no land connection to the main state) of Germany it was more convenient that it continued as a tiny Germanic microstate, a germanic state that is neutral and neither aligned with Germany or Austria.
It is because they are so fucking annoying that nobody wants to have anything to do with them.
“Oh really? That’s not how we do it in Liechtenstein.”
“My mother from Liechtenstein is coming over. Do you mind showing her around? I have to work. See you at 10.”
“Seriously? You think those are great films? Have you seen Lord of the Liechtenstein?”
“You call that coffee? In Liechtenstein you’d be arrested if you tried to sell that crap.”
It is Liechtenstein this or Liechtenstein that. They never let up. Nobody has the energy to put up with that shit.
Because the Liechtenstein family is rich AF, has been around for at least 900 years and they have been bankrolling royalty and aristocrats for just as long.
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When it was revealed at the 1365 World Josting Championships in London that Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein’s Patent of Nobility was forged by Geoffrey Chaucer, it caused a scandal in the Lichtenstein court. As a result Lichtenstein became isolated during the European Renaissance and remains so today. There’s a good 2001 documentary explaining the underlying events.
Fun fact about Liechtenstein.
They went to war once but came back with one extra soldier because they made a friend.
Seen a lot of semi-true answers. I’ll try to be the most ELI5 possible. Please excuse any mistakes, English is not my first language and some Details might be fuzzy because school was quite some time ago. If there are more questions, ask away, I quite enjoy telling people about my country.
Anyway, it exists because the Liechtenstein-Family (yes, they named their country after themselves or rather after their seat of origin near Vienna) wanted more influence in the HRE. They were already friends with the emperor, so wanted to make it official. They bought land and founded an independent principality in 1719.
Then Napoleon rolled around and he tried uniting most of Europe. The then Prince knew the country was too small and poor to resist for long. So he impressed Napoleon on the battlefield and earned his respect. Out of respect Napoleon didn’t dissolve Liechtenstein but made it possible for it to remain independent but part of the Rheinbund. When that one was dissolved Liechtenstein remained independent.
During the following wars they remained that way, even dissolved their army at the soonest because they knew: diplomacy is key. First they were close to Austria because of history and family ties, they were Habsburg after all. After WW1, repercussions hit them as well so they thought it might be smarter to be associated with a neutral country. In 1924, they made a pact with Switzerland. We’re still good friends today. Also with the UN.
TL;dr: we made a lot of friends and that’s why we’re still around
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