Liechtenstein

A principality bought as a qualification, whose ruling family did not visit it for over a century. The Liechtensteins were wealthy Austrian nobles who could not sit in the imperial diet because none of their many estates was held directly from the emperor, so in 1699 and 1712 they purchased two small lordships on the Rhine that were - and in 1719 the emperor merged them into a principality named after the family that had bought it. No reigning prince set foot in the territory until 1818. It belonged to the German Confederation, disbanded its army in 1868 as too expensive, and switched its alignment from Austria to Switzerland after 1918, adopting the Swiss franc and leaving Bern to handle its customs and diplomacy. Financial services and precision manufacturing made it extremely wealthy - Hilti tools are Liechtenstein - and banking secrecy drew scrutiny until reforms after 2008. Women received the vote only in 1984, the last in Europe, after two earlier referendums failed. The prince retains real political power including a veto, confirmed by referendum in 2003. It is doubly landlocked. Vaduz is the capital. The country has about 40 thousand people on 160 square kilometres between Switzerland and Austria. German is official and an Alemannic dialect is spoken. More people work in the country than live in it, with daily commuters crossing from both neighbours. Its princely art collection is among the largest in private hands. False teeth were long a notable export, from a single manufacturer that supplies a large share of the world market.

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