The Republic Of… Cospaia?

Okay, if you’ve spent any time reading stuff I’ve posted here, you will have picked up on the fact that I find certain quirky historical facts to be fascinating. This one I stumbled across while I was pulling together some wiki links for my recent post on my day in Monaco.

So, without further ado, allow me to present to you… The Republic Of Cospaia.

What caught my eye about this particular former microstate was the way in which it came to be. The six extant microstates in Europe all came into being via some sort of relatively straightforward process.

• Vatican City as the successor to the Papal States has preserved its independence through its spiritual significance and diplomatic engagements.

• Monaco has secured its independence by skillfully negotiating protective treaties with France and capitalizing on its status as a luxury tourist destination and tax haven.

• San Marino, the self-declared world’s oldest republic, has maintained its continuity by leveraging its historical narrative and strategic diplomacy with larger neighboring countries.

• Andorra has maintained its unique status as a co-principality governed jointly by leaders from France and Spain, a setup that has provided stability and neutrality, shielding it from external ambitions.

• Liechtenstein has preserved its sovereignty through a combination of low-key diplomacy and economic strategies, such as becoming a financial center while maintaining close ties with Switzerland.

• Malta secured its independence from British rule in 1964 through negotiations that led to its recognition as a sovereign state, and has since leveraged its strategic location and robust tourism industry to bolster its economy and maintain its autonomy.

So as you can see, those microstates all came into existence as a result of understandable (although in some cases odd or unlikely) situations.

Cospaia, though… is… different. Buckle up, this one’s a bit odd.

In 1440, Pope Eugene IV decided to sell some land to the Republic of Florence in order to raise money due to a struggle he was having with the Council of Basel. That seems straightforward enough, in a late-medieval, great houses maneuvering sort of way. However, an issue arose when the treaty was drawn up which defined the border of the lands being sold as being along certain stream, without actually naming the stream.

As a result, the Papal States and the Republic of Florence understood the border to be along two different streams. This meant that there was a small plot of land that the Papal States thought had been ceded to Florence while simultaneously Florence thought had been retained by the Papal States.

When the people living on this particular piece of land realized that neither Florence nor the Papal States was exercising sovereignty over them, they declared themselves independent, and formed the Republic of Cospaia, a microstate approximately two kilometres long and 500 meters wide, with a population of about 250 people.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the description of what happened from the wiki page:

The village became accidentally independent in 1440. When Pope Eugene IV ceded the territory of Sansepolcro to the Republic of Florence, by mistake a small strip of land was excluded from the treaty that delimited the borders. Having become no one’s land, the inhabitants promptly declared independence. As a result, the village was the Republic of Cospaia for some 385 years, but in 1826 it was absorbed into the Papal States by agreement with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

When the two treaty signatories realized what had happened, they decided the tiny piece of land wasn’t worth worrying about, so they left it alone… for 385 years!

For nearly four centuries the tiny village existed without a government, police force, army or interference from its much larger neighbors.

When the pope banned the growing of tobacco across Italy, the tiny village nation took advantage of what amounted to a tobacco monopoly and proceeded to make bank over the ensuing years. Not bad for a country that only existed because of a mapping error!

Of course, Cospaia hasn’t existed as a separate nation for almost 200 years now, but I think I’ll add this as a stretch goal on my “Tour Of The Microstates” bucket list.