Is Vatican City an actual independent country?
The world's smallest country doesn't often feel all that independent.
Vatican City is an interesting “country.” It’s incredibly small in terms of area at just a half square kilometer in size. It also only has a population of just 453 people as of 2019. I’m actually kind of surprised there hasn’t been a more recent official number released. It kind of feels like you could just run through a full population census in a day. Regardless, the country is technically and legally independent, but is a country that small truly able to be fully independent? The answer is… kind of!
Vatican City is legally independent
There really is no doubt that Vatican City is legally independent from Italy. Though it might not be as old a country as you’re thinking. Vatican City has only been a legal country since 1929 when the Lateran Treaty was signed between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Italy. And this was signed, basically, in order to get the remaining Papal States, which would consist of much modern day Lazio, Marche, and Umbria to join the unified Italy under then Benito Mussolini. Basically, it was a compromise with the fascist dictator: get independence and renounce the other territories, or don’t renounce the other territories and likely get forcibly annexed. The Pope obviously agreed with the former.
But here’s where things get a little interesting for the tiny country. It’s quite challenging being completely independent when you’re dependent entirely on Italy. This came to light pretty quickly after legal independence when, during World War II, Vatican City issued a policy of neutrality. Prior to war breaking out, the Vatican was fairly active in trying to mediate peace between the countries and was fairly vocal in its opposition to any potential war. But when you’re literally surrounded by a fascist dictator who wants war, that kind of messaging gets pretty dangerous.
Today, Vatican City is less involved in global politics. The city-state does not have full representation in the United Nations, something I’ve talked a bit about before, instead it exists as a non-member “observer.” A status it shares with just one other nation: Palestine. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t have recognition, however, just that it doesn’t have full representation in the global body of governments. How much that actually means is up for debate, but it does raise an eyebrow.
Perhaps the biggest tell over whether your country is truly independent is how much you rely on your neighbor for, well, everything!
Independent from infrastructure?
Here’s where things get a little less clear on whether the Vatican City is truly independent or not. After all, if you’re entirely dependent on Rome for everything, does it matter if you are technically independent? Probably not. But first let’s start with what Vatican City does have!
Transportation and communications
Surprisingly, Vatican City does have more than I would have expected in terms of infrastructure. It has its own railway, for example, with a rail station. It has roads as well as some, albeit minor, traffic roads and laws, and it has its own heliport. These are all maintained by Vatican City rather than by Rome, which is itself fairly impressive — though I’m unsure if there are any deals in place for Rome to provide technical assistance, which I’d assume there are.
Vatican City also has its own telephone and postal service! Once again, these are maintained and operated by the Holy See entirely without any outward interference or governance by Italy. This would, of course, also include high speed internet service, though, once again, I’m unsure if it’s entirely contained within Vatican City itself. I’d guess not.
But here’s where things get a little murkier. Vatican City, for all its impressive infrastructure that they have built and maintained themselves, they don’t have their own airport, their own source of water, their own water filtration system and sewer management (as far as I can tell), or their own power generation, or at least nothing outside of potentially emergency generators. As impressive as all of Vatican City’s owned infrastructure is, they lack as much or more.
And this is the big sticking point for whether you’re truly independent or not. Vatican City exists on the good graces of Italy not assuming control of it. Not that there’s any worry that Italy will take the area back (there’s really no reason to) but it gets at the heart of the question of independence. Are you, as a country, truly independent if that independence can be taken away on a whim, without interference?
This question gets at the very heart of what statehood even is. What does it mean to be a country? That’s not to say that every country need be fully independent in every respect. Many countries import food or other resources, for example, because they can’t make their own. But at the very least, those same countries can protect themselves, have some form of normal economy with industry, and have a population larger than the size of a small town high school. When placed under a microscope, one begins to wonder.
For now, Vatican City is independent on paper, less independent in reality, and exists somewhere in between. I originally began thinking about this question because Vatican City is often compared to Singapore because both are listed as city-states. But, in my opinion, the differences between the two are far larger. Singapore feels much closer to other countries than Vatican City.
And in all likelihood none of this really matters in the grand scheme of things. My national identity, global politics, and the very idea of statehood is a wildly popular topic right now. Vatican City just serves as one of the more unique kinds of countries that exist out there today.
I doubt the RC church will ever let this distinction go. Even if just observer status at the UN, it gives it the cred of a nation in some geo-political circles with oversees missions, diplomats and such. While the RC church is still legitimately huge, this allows it to cast an even larger flex on everything.