Today in History—June 7: Vatican City Becomes a Sovereign State

On this day in 1929, the world’s smallest country was created. With a total area of 0.17 square miles, Vatican City is about one-eighth the size of New York City’s Central Park. It’s also totally surrounded by the city of Rome.

How did this happen? To answer that, we have to delve into the politics of the Roman Catholic Church and its relationship with modern Italy.

For centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy was a political patchwork of small states. The church became one of the biggest landowners and controlled territories in central Italy known as the Papal States, of which Rome was the capital. From 756 until 1870, the pope ruled these territories directly.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

When the movement for Italian unification got underway in the mid-19th century, the Papal States presented a conundrum. The “Roman Question”—the dispute over the status of these lands—became a central conflict in Italian politics. In a gradual process, the pope’s territories were annexed by the new Italian state, and Rome became the capital of Italy in 1870, while the Vatican remained the Catholic seat of power.

The pope at the time, Pius IX, however, refused to accept the loss of his political power. In protest, he and subsequent popes proclaimed themselves prisoners of the Vatican, never leaving its grounds. The standoff lasted for decades: The pope didn’t recognize Italy’s authority over him, and Italy didn’t recognize the Vatican as a sovereign state.

Over the years, political pressure built up to end the stalemate, but it took until the 1920s to reach a deal. It was Italy’s Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, who took the decisive step. Eager to shore up his support with conservative and Catholic forces, he entered into negotiations with the Vatican.

Under the agreement, the Vatican would receive financial compensation for its lost lands, and Italy would recognize Catholicism as its official religion. The standoff ended with the signing of the Lateran Treaty in Rome, which took effect on June 7, 1929.

The agreement created a country small enough to fit into the National Mall in Washington, D.C., yet one with outsize influence as the spiritual capital for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Famous Birthdays

1909: Virginia Apgar—American physician who developed an infant scoring system

1917: Gwendolyn Brooks—First African American poet to win a Pulitzer

1952: Sushila Karki—First female chief justice of Nepal

1979: Anne McClain—American astronaut and pilot who flew more than 200 combat missions in Iraq