How Did The Vatican Lose 99.9% of Its Land?

Allow me to start by saying the video you're about to see is only about the history of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm in no way equipped to even think I can discuss Catholicism in a theological way. That's really not the point of this post.

With this said earlier this month a new Pope of the Catholic Church was installed in Leo XIV. Not only is the Pope the visible head of the 2000+ year old church he's also a head of state - the microstate of Vatican City which is only 109 acres. It's an enclave of the Italian capital city of Rome.

And just bear in mind why is it the Roman Catholic Church because it's history started with the Roman Empire and guess where is the capital city of the Roman Empire - Rome. Either way we see that the Catholic Church and the Pope had significant influence throughout Europe. The Pope was said to be able to crown Emperors & Kings in addition to being involved with diplomatic disputes.

Let's also add that the Pope used to own more significant territory than Vatican City - which was established as an independent state thanks to the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The so-called Papal States was about the size of West Virginia and then in 1870 Italy eventually annexed the Papal States.

Up until 1929, the Pope considered himself a prisoner in the small area we now call Vatican City as a result of the loss of the Papal States.

The video below by GeoBro discusses how the Vatican lost 99% of it's land (the Papal States). I gave you the gist, the territory gave the Pope a lot of influence. Of course as we know thanks to the number of Catholics in the world the Pope still has a lot of influence [VIDEO]

In light of the historic events of the month of May 2025 I wanted to do a quick recap of what lead to the ascension of Leo XIV to the papacy. Who gets to select the new pope and what exactly is his role? And what is the history of the papacy. Hopefully I'll give myself the time to do that soon.