Have there existed smaller sovreign states than the vatican?

Wasn't there this crazy medieval German dude who tried to create this?

Vatican City occupies 0.44 km^2. I'm sure many if not most ancient city states had a smaller footprint. But I guess it gets fuzzy when you consider what is a "sovereign state" and what lands actually count as part of them. Well-defined borders have not always existed.

Does Sealand count?

>>1186781
Don't think its recognised by any country

>>1186757
>I'm sure many if not most ancient city states had a smaller footprint.
The walled part maybe. But no city state's borders stopped at the walls, they all dominated over the surrounding countryside too.

>>1186861
>they all dominated over the surrounding countryside too

Well sure, as the nearest settlement. But then how much of the countryside do you include? This is what I meant by lack of defined borders.

>>1187070
>But then how much of the countryside do you include?
For cities big enough to warrant being called sovereign states, surely more than 0.44km2.
I mean, come on, my hometown used to be exactly that and the earliest walls already include a bigger area than that, nevermind the countryside.

>>1185689

Anything smaller, historically, is either a meme-statelet that is not now recognized or taken seriously (Sealand), or else a tiny city-state from days of yore when these modern ideas were less precise (and hence a pain in the ass to pin down in terms of political geography). In particular, a tiny city state would even more so back then seem to be merely a vassal of someone else.

Find the wikis on microstates, unrecognized states, etc.

The best modern working definition for "Real Sovereign Country" is UN membership. There are 193 UN member states. The Vatican is NOT one of these states, but is instead simply one of two "UN OBSERVER States", with the disputed Palestine being the other. However, The Vatican's status as a real country is not controversial. The Vatican has diplomatic relations with almost all countries (UN member states), and is not a disputed state. After mild searching, I have not been able to find an example of a country that /does not recognize the existence of the Vatican/ in the earthly sense, although a few of the usual suspects do not maintain diplomatic relations with it.

Among European microstates, I usually think of a group of 7 or 8, being an expansion of pic related. (I always include Luxembourg and Malta because, I mean, c'mon. Iceland has a tiny population, but a sizeable country, OTOH). But in terms of area, only UN member state Monaco comes close in terms of tini-ness.

And no, Sealand doesn't count.

File: 553px-European_microstates_map.svg.png (102KB, 553x600px) Image search: [Google]

102KB, 553x600px

>>1187385

This picture. THIS one.

Most islands in the Pacific were microstates, although there were many oceanic empires.

>>1187385
Sealand may be a meme but it's a sovereign state.

>>1187391
There's the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, but it's existence as a state is ambiguous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta#International_status

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_possessions_of_the_Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta#Rome

>>1186757
They were certainly bigger than that. Even nomadic tribes had bigger "borders" than that wherever they settled.

Anyway, city states were seldom just the city, they generally included surrounding offshoots.

>>1188335
It's basically like a government in exile