

Cospaia: For nearly four hundred years, the smallest republic in the world - monort
http://www.umbriatouring.it/en/lincredibile-storia-di-cospaia/

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Turing_Machine
There's a similar situation on the border between Egypt and Sudan:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil)

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sireat
I was really fascinated to find that it has a population of 0. Is the climate
that unhospitable?

Granted it must be a desert, but there are some hills, and presumably some
water sources within those 2000 sqkm.

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namenotrequired
Similar things still happen, though usually _both_ states claim a piece of
land, instead of neither. The border between Uruguay and Brazil for instance
contains two plots of land - both now uninhabited - they are claimed by both
countries, due to a disagreement about which of two streams of the same river
counts as its border.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil%E2%80%93Uruguay_relation...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil%E2%80%93Uruguay_relations#Border_Disputes)

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PeterWhittaker
I found the article turgid and meandering (a fluvial influence? hmmm). The
Wikipedia articles summarizes things ever so much more clearly:

 _Cospaia unexpectedly gained independence in 1440 after Pope Eugene IV,
embroiled in a struggle with the Council of Basel, made a sale of territory to
the Republic of Florence. By error, a small strip of land went unmentioned in
the sale treaty and its inhabitants promptly declared themselves independent.
An early centre in Italy for tobacco production, Cospaia eventually
deteriorated into a mere smugglers ' haven which, in 1826, was divided between
Tuscany and the Papal States. Each citizen was awarded a silver coin by the
church to help convince them to continue farming tobacco.

Today, Cospaia is a hamlet (frazione) of the comune of San Giustino in the
Province of Perugia._

From
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Cospaia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Cospaia).

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ableal
Somehow, I was looking for Terry Pratchett's signature on this piece.

It would be right up his alley - a border redefinition error that leaves a
gap, instead of an overlap.

Sigh.

