Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Liechtenstein (all in one)

nimbleranger52 said:We can all sit here and make jokes about how they're tiny, acting like size is the only thing that matters in a country. But seriously, just look at Monaco or Liechtenstein.

The people there are loaded. Honestly, most folks are probably thrilled to be living in these little microstates.
Sure, Monaco is basically the definition of glamour—it’s easily the place with the highest concentration of millionaires on the planet.
But then you take a look at Liechtenstein... talk about a transformation, going from some isolated mountain backwater to one of the wealthiest nations in the entire world.

They’re actually quite decent, too. I find their sense of order absolutely fascinating. The Prince has all this authority because the citizens actually voted for it during a referendum.
He’s essentially the reason they’ve become so prosperous...

You really just have to go see it for yourself. I’ve been to Liechtenstein three times now, and every single time I come back completely spellbound by its beauty. Monaco is just as stunning. San Marino was incredible, too... I still need to make it over to Andorra eventually.

So, what is the takeaway here?

That being a massive nation can actually be a curse. Look at the USA—despite all that wealth and a functioning capitalist engine, we are drowning in a pile of unsolvable, systemic problems.

“Less is more.” 😁

Just imagine if every country was as tiny as the ones mentioned in this headline. You might recognize the neighbors right next to you, maybe a few more in the next row, and then... nothing at all. 😁

electrictrucker82 said:Just imagine if every country was as tiny as the ones mentioned in this headline. You might recognize the neighbors right next to you, maybe a few more in the next row, and then... nothing at all. 😁

Think about it—if all those nations were actually that small, how long would it even take to introduce every single country at the Olympic Games? Would it take a full week?

Or what about the Eurovision Song Contest? Would we be stuck listening to introductions for an entire month?

It would be absolutely exhausting.

Robin Sanders75 said:Think about it—if all those nations were actually that small, how long would it even take to introduce every single country at the Olympic Games? Would it take a full week?

Or what about the Eurovision Song Contest? Would we be stuck listening to introductions for an entire month?

It would be absolutely exhausting.

For example, Monaco has one win at Eurovision

Luxembourg has five wins

The US has zero ☕

America (the US) had one

rowdytiger13 said:I'm just kidding. It doesn't really cross my mind to mock anyone who's clearly miles ahead of where I'm from.

This PDF could have easily been titled "The European dirty money laundry"—you might as well throw Luxembourg into the mix too—because there's no way they have the highest GDP in the world just by working themselves to death.
They say they're ahead of us, right? Well, if we're judging based on how they pull all this off so elegantly and polished, while we act like total thugs and highway robbers...

I bet they don't even have space to store Bio 45 and 91, let alone deal with them.

Larry Walker24 said:I bet they don't even have space to store Bio 45 and 91, let alone deal with them.

Even Liechtenstein had its own Nazi party back in the day, complete with their very own local mouthpiece for the movement—just a massive, aggressive push to align themselves directly with Adolf.

Luckily, the people there didn't just swallow that nonsense whole; instead, they stuck to the lead of their protector, Switzerland, and somehow managed to stay neutral and unconstrained through all the chaos.

Now, San Marino was also neutral, but even they weren't completely untouched, catching a few stray bombs from the Allies during that German retreat from the Apennines. 🍿

And yet, miraculously, they survived the absolute madness of WWII.

Then you look at Luxembourg, which tried to play the neutrality card in both World Wars, only to be absolutely steamrolled by the Germans both times. After that disaster, Luxembourg joined NATO as a way to guarantee they’d never again fall victim to such a treacherous strike from the Swabians...

It's a lot like how the Soviet Union swore they would never again suffer twenty million deaths at the hands of the Germans, yet here we are today with Russia sitting on thousands of nuclear warheads, supposedly kept "just in case" to act as a guarantor of peace... 🙏

Anyway, here is some info on the fight over San Marino.

The Battle of San Marino was an engagement on 17–20 September 1944 during The Italian Campaign of The Second World War , in which German Army forces occupied The neutral Republic of San Marino , and were then attacked by Allied forces. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Monte Pulito.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Marino

Andorra stayed untouched, but the Germans totally trashed Monaco

Adolf went after Luxembourg

This tiny little place, San Marino, is heading to the polls this Sunday to decide if they’re finally going to allow abortion in their mostly Catholic nation.

Pro-choice activists are basically hoping they can bring this scenic republic, tucked away in the mountains of central Italy, more in line with the rest of Europe by scrapping their total ban on the procedure. But man, the Catholic Church holds a massive amount of sway there, and Pope Francis just doubled down last week calling abortion murder.

Along with places like Malta, Andorra, and Vatican City, San Marino is one of the last holdouts in Europe where abortion is completely illegal—even if it's due to rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, or if the mother's life is at risk. This whole referendum was kicked off by the Women's Union of San Marino (UDS), and about 35,411 people have a say, though a third of them actually live abroad.

If they legalize it, it would be a massive shift for San Marino, since the ban has been around since 1865. It was reinforced by the fascist regime in the early 20th century and then locked back in again in 1974.

Data from Italy shows that not many women from San Marino are actually crossing the border to get the procedure done.

more info here:

July said:
Why did you group all these countries together into one topic?

Because they're tiny, plus we almost never hear anything about them.

So, my husband and I finally made it out to visit Andorra this August, and honestly, I’m just sitting here trying to find the right words because it is absolutely stunning. It’s like a little slice of heaven on earth, truly.

A 3.9 magnitude earthquake just rattled the Liechtenstein Parliament right in the middle of a heated debate about mandatory earthquake insurance, according to Euronews.

🙏 🙏