Unknown Countries In Europe!

hey everybody following the success of countries that don't exist in europe i decided to make another video about countries in europe that are kind of small and unknown by a lot of people other than europeans now if you live in europe or just have an interest in these type of things these are probably all going to be very obvious and well known to you these are all official countries even though some of them have problems in the recognition of their independence by some other states so let's start with andorra andorra is a sovereign landlocked microstate in the iberian peninsula it's bordered by france in the north in spain in the south it was created under a charter in 988 but the current principality was formed in 1278 it's known as a principality and it is a diarchy headed by two co-princes the catholic bishop of urgell in spain and the president of france despite not having any day-to-day power this causes an interesting case where the reigning monarch of a sovereign state is technically elected by the people of the neighboring country its territory is really small having an area of 468 square kilometers and a population of around 77 000 people having joined the un in 1993 it's not a member of the eu but uses the euro as its currency probably due to the over 10 million tourists that it has every year next we have liechtenstein which is named after its ruling royal family the house of liechtenstein also a principality and a constitutional monarchy it's located in central europe boarded by switzerland to the west and south and austria to the east and north the official language is german it became independent from the german confederation on the 24th of august of 1866. it has an area of just over 160 square kilometers and around 37 000 people with its capital being the city of vados interestingly it has one of the highest gross domestic product per person in the world and one of the lowest unemployment rates probably due to the population being so small and the fact that it's sort of a legal billionaire tax haven it's a member of the un but also not the eu however it has a custom and monetary union with switzerland using the swiss franc as their currency moving to the south east we have kosovo kosovo is a bit of a sensitive subject for europeans in the balkans it's a partially recognized state but also a disputed territory which declared independence from serbia in february of 2008. it's a landlocked country in the territory of the balkan peninsula boarded by albania to the southwest the republic of macedonia to the southeast montenegro to the west and serbia to the north and east serbia doesn't recognize the independence of kosovo and continues to claim it as an autonomous province it's a region with a lot of history going from the romans to the battle of cazovo in 1389 which is considered to be one of the defining moments in serbian medieval history so the region was the core of the serbian medieval state which has also been the seed of the serbian orthodox church since the 14th century in 1998 the kosovo war took place which led to the beginning of a u.n mission today it's recognized by 111 members of the un it's not a part of the eu but it also uses the euro as its official currency moving just south of kozovo we have macedonia macedonia is also located in the balkan peninsula in southeast europe it's one of the successor states of the former yugoslavia from which it declared independence in 1991 having an area of around 25 000 square kilometers it became a member of the u.n in 1993 but as a result of an ongoing dispute with greece over the use of the name macedonia it was admitted under the provisional description of the former yugoslav republic of macedonia which still lasts until today the reason for this dispute is the ancient greek kingdom of macedon which occupied what is today the macedonia territory inside of greece the greeks essentially claimed ownership over the term there's also the issue of the greek macedonians which are a different ethnicity from the slavic macedonians and greece also accuses the country of macedonia of cultural appropriation of some of the ancient macedon symbols they have however agreed that the use of the macedonia name would be okay if it was completed by a geographical qualifier like northern macedonia it's also a landlocked country bordering kozovo serbia bulgaria greece and albania with over 2 million people a quarter of which are albanian having its capital in skopje it's a member of the u.n and in 2005 it began the process of applying to join the eu and nato a little to the north east we have moldova another landlocked country bordered by romania ukraine and the self-proclaimed republic of transnistria the capital city is cheesy now which i'm probably mispronouncing most of the moldovan territory was a part of the principality of moldavia from the 14th century until 1812 when it was ceded to the russian empire by the ottomans it was later integrated into romania and then the russians took it back then they were independent and then romanian again in 1940 because of the molotov ribbon drop pact romania had to cede basarabia to the soviet union which created the moldavian soviet socialist republic in 1991 with the end of the soviet union moldova declared independence having full control of their territory up to the day with the exception of transnistria it's a fairly large country with 33 000 square kilometers and a population of close to 3 million people but the fact that it's squeezed between romania and ukraine makes it not get a lot of attention to switch it up from all the landlocked countries we move to an island malta not to be confused with the military order of malta which we're going to talk about next malta is an island or technically an archipelago since it's two small islands in the mediterranean sea between italy tunisia and libya with an area of around 315 square kilometers and 450 000 people it's one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world their capital is valeta with only 800 square meters being the smallest capital city in the eu malta has always had a great strategic importance it's been inhabited since 5200 bc having been ruled by the phoenicians carthaginians greeks romans byzantines arabs normans sicilian spanish the knights of saint john the turkish the french and finally the british the british were the last rulers before independence in 1964. it became a british colony in 1815 and it was a very important station for the british fleet during world war ii it was also crucial in the fight against the germans its bravery against the axis attacks in siege which lasted for almost two and a half years resulting in an allied victory was worth the george cross medal which is still present in their flag today in 1864 they became independent as the state of malta and 10 years later in 1974 they consolidated their independence becoming a republic joining the eu in 2004 and the eurozone in 2008 malta has always had a close relationship with christianity it's even said that saint paul shipwrecked on the island and one of the rulers from 1530 to 1798 were the order of the knights of the hospital of saint john of jerusalem who were given the island by charles the first of spain now this is a good point to make the transition into the order of malta the order of malta is an independent sovereign state despite not having any actual land or country to call their own it's currently based in rome their full name is the sovereign military hospital order of saint john of jerusalem rhodes and malta the order of malta which is the common name was founded in 1099 in jerusalem by blessed jared and it's the world's oldest surviving chivalric order they are an elective monarchy with the motto defense of the faith and assistance to the poor they started as an order which aimed to provide medical assistance to pilgrims traveling to the holy land but when jerusalem was reconquered by the arabs they changed their purpose to defending persecuted christians after the fall of jerusalem they operated from cyprus until 1310 then roads until 1523 malta until 1798 and since 1834 they've been operating from rome the order maintains diplomatic relations with 107 states it has a permanent observer status in the u.n enters into treaties and issues its own passports coins and stamps its two hq buildings in rome are extra territorial which has a similar status to an embassy today they are essentially a humanitarian organization employing over 40 000 doctors and counting on 80 000 volunteers across several countries to assist those in need of assistance no matter their religion next luxembourg this is probably the most well known off of the list officially the grand duchy of luxembourg it borders belgium france and germany it has around 600 000 people 55 of which are from luxembourg 16 are portuguese and six percent are french the official languages being french german along with luxembourgish its capital is luxembourg city one of the three official eu capitals along with brussels and strasbourg also one of the smallest countries in europe it's about the size of the us state of rhode island luxembourg is the world's last remaining grand duchy with the technical head of state being grand duke henry the history of the country dates back to 1963 when count siegfried the first acquired a rocky promontory and its roman era fortifications known as this name that i can't pronounce which means little castle later on it got independence from the french empire in 1815 which was confirmed or redeclared a bunch of times until its definite independence after world war ii moving over to the east we have georgia georgia is a country in the caucus region of eurasia bordered by the black sea russia turkey armenia and azerbaijan with almost 4 million people in its capital city in tbilisi during the classical era several independent kingdoms became established in what is now georgia such as koki's later known as lazika and iberia which confusingly has nothing to do with the iberian peninsula the current flag is based off the standard of this first kingdom also being used by independence movements during the revolution the region adopted christianity in the 4th century the kingdom of georgia sort of peaked during the 12th and early 13th centuries and later on it declined being controlled by the mongols the ottomans the persians and finally by russia during the russian civil war they were briefly independent as the trans-caucasian federation but they were quickly invaded by the red army and became one of the republics in the soviet union with the decline of the ussr georgia declared independence in 1991 maintaining sort of a bad relationship with russia culminating in a war in 2008 and territorial disputes which last until today back to western europe we have the final two countries of this list first we have monaco officially the principality of monaco a micro state of the french riviera bordered by france and the mediterranean sea with an area of around 2000 square kilometers and a population of about 39 000 people it's a constitutional monarchy with prince albert ii as head of state he's a member of a really long dynasty the house of grimaldi have ruled monaco with brief interruptions since 1297 they became officially independent in 1861 becoming a u.n member only in 1993 however france is still responsible for their military defense with the exception of two small military units they're not a member of the eu but this close relationship with france sort of makes them an unofficial member using the euro as their currency monaco is known as a place for the rich and famous due to its tax laws in 2014 about 30 percent of the population was made up of millionaires and finally san marino a landlocked republic inside of italy also known as the most serene republic of san marino it's located on the northeast side of the abenine mountains its size is just over 61 square kilometers with a population of around 34 000 people the country takes its name from mourinho's a stonemason originating from the roman colony on the island of rav in modern day croatia in 301 a.d mourinho supposedly founded an independent monastic community on monte titano so san marino lays claimed to be the oldest extense sovereign state as well as the oldest constitutional republic their constitution is also incredibly old dating back to the 16th century the country is considered to have the earliest written governing documents or constitution still in effect today so those are a few of the lesser-known countries principalities or microstates in europe thanks so much for watching leave a comment with suggestions for the next videos and remember to subscribe if you want to catch those future videos i will see you next time you

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 762,169

Rating: 4.495944 out of 5

Keywords: general, knowledge, countries, that, don't, exist, unknown countries in europe, lesser known countries in europe, andorra, kosovo, liechtenstein, macedonia, moldova, malta, military order of malta, luxembourg, georgia country, monaco, san marino, smallest countries in the world, smallest countries in europe, former yugoslav republic of macedonia, macedonia name dispute, general knowledge

Id: OUyUNmbISxI

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2018