The Republic of San Marino is the 5th smallest recognized country in the world. The entire country is 23.63 square miles (61.2 square kilometers) and is completely surrounded by Italy on Mount Titano. San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving republic in Europe, being founded in 301. The origin of San Marino is shaped by both fact and legend. It is said that Marinus and Dalmatian fled from the Roman Emperor and Marinus (Marino) founded a community of Christians at Mount Titano. It is possible that Saint Marino, who the capital city and country are named after did not exist in the 300s, but instead he was around between 500 and 700. It is also possible that the Saint Marino was not actually a saint and that this was added later to give legitimacy and help defend the monastery on the territory from being claimed by the Bishop of Rimini, because the territory was not referred as San Marino till 885. Regardless if San Marino's life story is partially made up the, country is named after him and have a celebration in his honor of his death, which is said to be in 366 on September 3rd.
Even though San Marino is not part of the European Union the country participates in many things with the EU. San Marino is part of the European Union Customs Union. San Marino made the Euro their official currency and are allowed to a set amount of Euros. San Marino's only neighbor is Italy and ever since Italian Unification in 1862 the two nations have had diplomatic relations. San Marino has a open border policy with only occasional checks made by police. However directly importing into San Marino is illegal and must go through Italy first before heading into San Marino and they must use and mint the Italian Euro. San Marino also allows Italy to have a monopoly on the tobacco industry and ship 250 tons of sea salt, 40 tons of tobacco, 20 tons of cigarettes and unlimited matches.
The 32,00 Citizens of San Marino have a high standard of living, similar to the their neighbors in Italy. The country has GDP of about 1.44 billion US dollars and per capita of $44,208 and is ranked 24th overall in the world. San Marino makes about 2.2% of their GDP from Tourism and in 2009 2 million tourists visited the country. San Marino is a huge advocate of tourists because no passport is required to enter San Marino if you are entering for tourists purposes. San Marino is also involved in banking, manufacturing of ceramics, clothing, fabrics, furniture, paints, tiles, and wine.
The Republic of San Marino the enclave in Italy is quite an interesting place. Even though it is small the country is recognized by most of the major world organizations. The small nation gets to enjoy independence and recognition all while living fairly wealthy.
More on the Republic of San Marino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino
http://www.sanmarinosite.com/eng/index.php
http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=San%20Marino
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sm.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino%E2%80%93European_Union_relations
http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02278/versiunea_text/san_marino.html
No comments:
Post a Comment