Liechtenstein is 62 Mi^2 with a population of about 37,000. It's been under the imperial umbrella of several different empires for hundreds of years, but has always been able to maintain its' relative sovereignty. How did such a tiny nation not become totally absorbed and assimilated into the fold of a larger nation I've read the Wiki articles and still haven't gotten the answer I'm looking for.
Thanks!
I love Liechtenstein!
The short answer is three parts: a late start, good alliances, not being a belligerent.
A Late Start
First of all, you wouldn't consider Liechtenstein to be a "country" or even an "independent principality" by contemporary European standards until 1719. Before that, the area was barely occupied, and variously controlled to different degrees by the Holy Roman Empire, and was also traded around various dynasties and families for a couple of hundred years. That's why we don't think about Liechtenstein being captured in the Swabian War in 1499, or the Thirty Years' War from 1618-1648, for examples, because it wasn't Liechtenstein then. It was a couple of little hamlets and a castle or two. It doesn't even get a mention in the Wikipedia articles on those conflicts.
Compare this with Vatican City---which was either trying to control the rest of the peninsula or the whole world since about the 8th century, being controlled by the locals, or getting booted out to France---or compare with Malta, which has been occupied for 7,000 years and conquered by every one with a boat from the Romans to the Muslims to the Normans to the French. Plus the British got Malta for a signature in the Treaty of Paris. So yeah, a late start is reason number one.
Good Alliances
Things are pretty quiet in Liechtenstein during from 1719 onward until Napoleon starts conquering much of Europe. Most notably for our story his victories at Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805 lead to the Treaty of Pressburg (aka Bratislava), which pretty much shatters Liechtenstein's hope of maintaining their Austrian friends. Within a few months Napoleon is building the Confederation of the Rhine. This is an agreement among a bunch of conquered/nervous German princes to provide taxes and troops for Napoleon's future conquests. But in order to get the princes to sign up, a process called German mediatization was conducted in which various states were merged and properties handed over. In short, "Ok, I'll join your confederation, but only if you declare my neighbor's house to be part of my house and you give me all their stuff."
Maximilian I of Bavaria wanted to mediatize Liechtenstein as part of his deal to sign up for the Confederation, but Napoleon refused. The reason was because Johann von Liechtenstein---who was part of the negotiations back at the Treaty of Pressburg---really impressed Napoleon. So, Lichtenstein got be a co-founder of the Confederation and maintain their sovereignty.
The Confederation collapsed within a decade because Napoleon stopped winning all the time. And technically the French occupied the country for a minute there, but again because Johann and Napoleon were buddies it still operated pretty independently.
Next up, Lichtenstein joins the new German Confederation until that starts to fall apart in the 1860s. The country gets a new constitution with some representative democracy, and officially declares itself permanently neutral.
So what about the 20th century? The Austrian ties do create problems during World War I, and the Allies impose an embargo. Lichtenstein forms a monetary alliance with the ever-neutral Swiss to stay afloat. After the war, they sign a treaty with the Swiss to let them handle tons of their diplomatic needs elsewhere.
In World War II, Liechtenstein's alliances also come in handy. They remain neutral, even when the dynasty's hereditary lands over in central Europe get claimed by Czechoslovakia and Poland as they are reclaiming territory from the retreating German army. Liechtenstein also gave asylum to about five hundred German-allied Russian soldiers in 1945. They got them permanently resettled in South America. For a country that was struggling to feed its own, this was considered a great sacrifice. Other German-allied Russian soldiers that were granted asylum elsewhere in the world were repatriated to the USSR, and often executed.
No neutral country in World War II got consumed into a larger country, but Liechtenstein wasn't even able to join the UN. That's because there was a fear that the Soviet Union would pressure small states to leverage their votes. This may have further helped secure their identity as an independent actor for the rest of the 20th century.
Not Being a Belligerent.
You asked "how did such a tiny nation not become totally absorbed and assimilated into the fold of a larger nation?" The answer is that it basically did. Geopolitically, Lichtenstein is pretty much Switzerland. Culturally, it's pretty much Austria. Most of the Lichtenstein's history it avoided being consumed by another Germanic state by participating in confederations. Then it declared itself neutral, and managed to maintain that into the 20th century.
Other modern micronations or would-be micronations have tended to get involved or traded about in conflicts. Andorra fought with the Moors, got passed around among various French, Catalan, and religious rulers, declared war on Germany in World War I, and got occupied by the French following unrest in their 1933 elections. In the Low Countries, only one of the Seventeen Provinces (Luxembourg) survives as its own country today. The rest variously split off to form the Dutch Republic, were divided up by feuding families, or became part of the kickoff for the Eighty Year's War. Most of the US Territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virigin Islands, Wake Island, etc.) were the results of conquests or land swaps or just purchases for the strategic military advantage.
The TL;DR Summary
Lichtenstein avoided becoming the name of a province in Austria because they got a late start being defined as a country by that name, because Johann I impressed Napoleon, because the confederations they joined held up long enough to keep them from getting conquered, and because they decided to stop picking sides well before the start of the 20th century.
P.S. I'm tempted to rewrite this entire post in a James Burke style "Because Johann was a smooth operator" but you'll just have to imagine that.
Sources:
Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City, by Thomas M. Eccardt
Metternich's German Policy, Volume II: The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815, by Krahe, E.E.
Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire, by Peter H. Wilson
i'd like to add on to your question. with all of these different umbrellas over the ages, how was Liechtenstein affected? were there large changes in infrastructure or culture during these times, and did anything stick to today?
This was actually the subject of my last master thesis stub (specifically the question why Liechtenstein remained a sovereign state). I want to add some things to the already excellent explanation by u/Robbyslaughter. Sorry for my terrible English.
There actually were a lot of countries questioning the Liechtenstein independence/sovereignty shortly after World War I. By 1919/1920 Liechtenstein tried to join the League of Nations. The small size of the country wasn’t a problem, but the narrow bonds with Austria (till WW I) and later Switzerland were seen as a reason to reject Liechtenstein’s application. (which was somewhat strange since “countries” like British India and Belarus (then part of the Sovjet Union) were accepted before.
In my opinion the main reason Liechtenstein is still an independent nation (and more sovereign than the other micro states (I will come back on that)) is it’s royal family. There were more threats to Liechtenstein’s sovereignty after the Bavarians tried to annex the country.
Papal Liechtenstein?
During World War I there was actually a plan to make the pope sovereign monarch over Liechtenstein. A German politician (Matthias Erzberger, later a minister during the Weimar regime) proposed it and the top of the Roman Curia (including pope Benedict XV) was quite enthusiast about the idea. Since the Papal State was annexed into the Italian state, the pope was a “prisoner” in Rome; he had no territory. Due to that, he couldn’t be invited to the peace talks, if he was made sovereign over Liechtenstein that problem would go away. Therefore some countries (like Austria-Hungary) and the papal administration put some pressure on the royal family of Liechtenstein to give up its sovereignty over the country and trade it in for a high title equivalent of a cardinal and the head of the Liechtenstein royal family would be a permanent regent of the country. The crown prince rejected that offer. There were quite serious negotiations going on in 1916 but after the rejection by the crown prince the Curia stopped its attempts.
Annexed into Switzerland or a neutral Tirol buffer state?
Shortly after the first world war, the British government had a serious plan for a neutral Tirol buffer state that would include Liechtenstein but the plans were terminated early on. After that there was a treat from Vorarlberg. Vorarlberg is the Austrian region that neighbors Liechtenstein, tucked in between Tirol and Switzerland. Economically and culturally the region has more ties to Switzerland than to Austria and in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland a small movement was formed propagandizing the annexation of the area into Switzerland. On November 3th 1918 the region declares itself independent, May 11th a referendum on the question whether the region should join Switzerland is hold and 80 percent of the population voted in favor of annexation. The allied victors of the first world war however didn’t recognize the declaration nor the referendum and drawed the new Austrian borders with the inclusion of the Vorarlberg region, mainly due to French objections and a lack of enthusiasm from the Swiss. If Vorarlberg was annexed into Switzerland Liechtenstein would be completely enclosed by Switzerland and it wouldn’t be unthinkable that in a later stage the country would be absolved in it too. (there still is an active secession movement in Vorarlberg)
But then came Fürst Hans-Adam II
Then we skip a few decades and end in the 1970s. Liechtenstein is mostly dependent on Switzerland economically as well as on foreign policy, since, due to several treaties with Switzerland, the country wasn’t allowed to sign treaties with other nations unless Switzerland approved. But then came then Crown Prince Hans-Adam II. He was a controversial figure, not the political correct type. He spoke his mind and was considered by many to be blunt. In a controversial speech in 1970 he said Liechtenstein was in the backpack of other nations, first Austria, later Switzerland, for ages and couldn’t really be considered a sovereign nation. He said like in the fairy tales a Prince should wake up Liechtenstein. (source: “Einen Fürsten als Touristenattraktion?”, Volksblatt (September 15th 1970))
Since then the country slowely becaume more and more active on the world stage. When the country wanted to join the European Economic Area and Switzerland didn’t, they broke the old treaty in which Liechtenstein wasn’t allowed to have its own foreign policy. Since then it joined a lot of international organizations, conducted treaties with the largest countries in the world (including Russia and the USA) and became much more confident.
But now I stop writing since this piece is already becoming to long and I skipped lots of information. If you are interested I will write more. For example on the accidental “Swiss invasions” and “bombings” which were really interesting since the Swiss military were condemned by its own people for not respecting Liechtenstein sovereinity.
Sources:
Maximilian Liebmann, ‘Der Pabst – Fürst von Liechtenstein: Ein Vorschlag zur Lösung der Römischen Frage aus dem Jahre 1916‘, in: Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins für das Fürstentum Liechtenstein 85 (1985), 229-250.
Dieter Petras, ‘Die Vorarlberger Frage‘, in: Historia scribere 1 (2009), 583-606.
David Beattie, Liechtenstein: a modern history (Triesen 2012).
Michael M. Gunter, ‘Liechtenstein and the League of Nations: A precedent for the United Nation’s ministate problem?’, in: The American journal of international law 68:3 (1974), 496-501.
Walter S.G. Kohn, ‘The Sovereignty of Liechtenstein’, in: The American journal of international law 61:2 (1967), 547-557.
Wilfried Marxer, ‘Nationale Identität: Eine Umfrage aus Anlass 200 Jahre Souveränität des Fürstentums Liechtenstein‘, in: Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins für das Fürstentum Liechtenstein 105 (2006), 198-237.
Christoph Maria Merki, Wirtschaftswunder Liechtenstein, Die rasche Modernisierung einer kleinen Volkswirtchaft im 20. Jahrhundert (Zürich 2007).