Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The World’s Largest Co-Principality

Episode Date: November 21, 2020

Of all the world’s co-principalities, there is one which stands out due to its sheer size. This enormous co-principality dominates all other co-principalities in every measure: land area, population, and GDP. Every other co-principality could fit inside this co-principality with room to space. Learn more about the nation of Andorra, the world’s largest co-principality, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of all the world's co-principalities, there's one which stands out due to its sheer size. This enormous co-principality dominates all other co-principalities in every measure, land area, population, and GDP. In fact, every other co-principality could fit inside this co-principality with room to spare. Learn more about the nation of Andorra, the world's largest co-principality, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. vaccines are poison. Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals, but it's all okay.

The Great Awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspirality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. This episode is sponsored by Scotty Vest. Scotty Vest is always innovating. That's why they recently announced their newest product, the Scotty mask. You've probably seen people wearing neck gaiters that they pull up over their mouth and nose to use as a mask.

Those are certainly better than nothing, but they aren't the best when it comes to actually, you know, being a mask. Scotty vest gives you the best of both worlds. It can be worn around your neck and pulled up over your mouth and nose like a neck gator. But it also has a pocket for a removable mask filter, a draw string to close it around your head, and an adjustable nose bridge. In true Scotty vest tradition, it also has some small pockets to keep extra things like cash or a credit card. You can get 15% off the Scotty mask by going to Scottyvest.com and using coupon code, Everything Everywhere, all one word, at checkout. So let me start by addressing the question that many of you are now asking.

What in the world is a co-princiality? A principality is a land that's ruled by a prince, just like a duchy is ruled by a duke or a kingdom is ruled by a king. A co-principality is a land that is ruled by two princes equally. The country of Andorra is a co-principality, which is why it's also the largest co-principality, because it is the only co-principality. Andorra, if you haven't been there, or if you don't know much about it, is a tiny country in the Pyrenees Mountains sandwiched between France and Spain. Europe used to be full of these tiny principalities, duchies, and baronets.

Over time, they all got rolled up into larger countries that were familiar with today. But a couple of them remain. Countries like San Moreno, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Andorra are remnants of this European past. So the real question is, how did these tiny countries, which have all of the things that other larger countries have, including Olympic teams, embassies, and United Nations representation, come to exist in the modern world? I'll eventually deal with the other tiny countries and other episodes.

But for this episode, I want to focus on the world's only co-principality, Andorra. When trying to figure out why this country exists, in the case of Andorra, you first have to look at its location. Andorra traces its history back to the Emperor Charlemagne, who created a series of buffer states between the Holy Roman Empire and the Islamic Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. Tradition says that Charlemagne gave a charter to the people of Andorra in exchange for fighting the Moors, and this was the origin of the country we see today. Its location in the mountains protected it against invaders. Not only was it difficult to get to, but it wouldn't yield many rewards for any invaders' efforts. So even though it's sandwiched between two much larger countries, unlike a country, let's say, Poland, which has been repeatedly invaded by its neighbors over its history, Andorra has been relatively conflict-free. The other thing which has protected Endora is its unique co-principality status.

This institution dates back to the 11th century. One of Charlemagne's descendants bequeathed Andorra to the bishop of the diastopol. of Urge in Spain. Later on, one of the bishops placed himself under a Catalonian nobleman nobleman for protection, and his lands later came under the control of the Count of Foix in France. This led to a confrontation between the Bishop of Urge and the Count of Foie about who should control Andorra. The compromise was something called a Paraguay, which was a medieval contract, where two lords would agree to share control over a territory. Even though they didn't realize it at the time, creating joint sovereigns offered a

great deal of protection for the tiny country. One of the princes, the Bishop of Urge, was in Spain, and the other one was from France. Neither had an incentive for the other side to get a leg up on the other. Moreover, one of the princes was secular, and one was from the church, which also provided another check and balance. Today, one of the two co-heads of state is still the Bishop of Régé. The other head of state, which was originally the Count of Foix, eventually got merged into the French Republic. Today, that position is held by the President of France. That leads to the weird situation where both of Indora's heads of state are determined by other countries. One is appointed by the Pope in Vatican City, and the other is selected by the people of France.

During the French Revolution, the French government actually refused the annual tribute which Indora gave them, saying it smacked too much of serfdom. After Napoleon took over, he accepted the position as co-prince, as Indora begged him to do so to put a check on Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, there were French troops in Indora just to count. any possible annexation by either side in Spain. In one historical quirk, Andorra joined the side of the Allies in World War I. However, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending the war, they totally forgot to invite Andorra. As a result, Andorra was legally at war with Germany, and the First World War didn't technically end until the two countries signed a peace treaty

in 1958. Today, the co-princes are mostly ceremonial, but you'll find their photos hanging on the wall in government buildings. The president of France is really too busy being the president of France to worry about tiny Indora. The bishop of Urge will sometimes pay visits to Andorra and fulfill his role as head of state, as the cathedral of Urge is only about two hours away by car. In 1993, Indora became a parliamentary democracy, still keeping to the co-princes as head of state. They joined the UN in 1993 and have also signed treaties with the European Union. They are not members of the EU, however, nor are not members of the EU, however, nor are. are they technically members of the Schengen zone, but they also have no official visa policy.

Likewise, they're not officially part of the Eurozone, but they do use the Euro as its currency. I actually stopped in and watched the Parliament in Andorra in action one of the times I was there. They seemed to have no problem with me observing, even though I had no clue what was going on. Spain and France will check some vehicles going in and out for goods purchased in Andorra, but usually you can drive in without so much as stopping. Andorra is a country that has no train station or airport. You can easily drive there, and the closest international airport is in Barcelona, which has multiple buses that go to Andorra each day. There's a train station only two kilometers over the border in France and a small regional airport just over the border in Spain.

Speaking of Barcelona, Andorra is the only country in the world that has Catalan as its only official language. Andorra was historically a very poor region due to its location high in the mountains. However, after World War II, Indora's fortunes changed dramatically. Tourism and banking became major industries, given its ski resorts in the mountains, and its legal status as a tax haven. Today, its population of about 80,000 people, has the 25th highest per capita GDP in the world, and according to some reports, they have the world's highest life expectancy. So, if you're ever in the region, take some time to pop into Andorra. You can easily visit on a day trip if you're in Barcelona, and it can be reached if you have a rental car or take a bus.

and then you can see firsthand, exactly what life is like, in the world's largest co-principality. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James McAlla. Please remember to support the show over at patreon.com, where you can get exclusive merchandise, and to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Leave a five-star review to have your review read online.