Liechtenstein

Abstract

The Principality of Liechtenstein, situated between the Austrian province of Vorarlberg and the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen and Graubünden, is a sovereign state, whose history dates back to 3 May, 1342, when Count Hartmann I became ruler of the Principality of Vaduz. Additions were later on made to the count’s domains, and by 1434 the territory reached its present boundaries. It consists of the two counties of Schellenberg and Vaduz (formerly immediate fiefs of the Roman Empire). The former in 1699 and the latter in 1712 came into the possession of the house of Liechtenstein and, by diploma of 23 January, 1719, granted by the Emperor Charles VI, the two counties were constituted as the Principality of Liechtenstein. After the Treaty of Pressburg, John I, who had succeeded his brother, Aloys I, as seventh prince in 1805, seceded from the Holy Roman Empire on 12 July, 1806, and joined the Confederation of the Rhine under the Protectorate of the Emperor, Napoleon I, and after the fall of the French Empire joined the German Confederation 8 June, 1815. He was succeeded in 1836 by his son, Aloys II, whose son, John II, in 1858 began his long reign, which lasted until 1929. This prince, who was of age at his accession, saw the dissolution of the German Confederation in August, 1866, and thereafter maintained the political independence of the Principality.