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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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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