Beginnings
According to legend, Marinus, who was later canonized, is said to be on September 3, 301 AD. created the first unit of a monastery on Monte Titano, which was difficult to access, after he had to flee Rimini before the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Diocletian. This day is still the national day of the small republic.
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Middle ages
The first written mention as “Castellum Sancti Marini” is known from the year 754. Around 50 years later, the monastery came under the sovereignty of the Counts of Monfeltro, from which the ruling family of the Counts of Urbino developed. The first documented mention of the city of San Marino dates from 855.
In the 13th century, when there were several wars between the Counts of Urbino and the city-state of Rimini, San Marino was able to retain its independence – as in the centuries that followed – thanks to its strategically favorable mountain location and its good fortifications.
The foundations for a democratic constitution were laid as early as the 13th century and were written down in the form of a constitution by the “Res publica San Marino” in the middle of the 14th century. This makes San Marino the republic with the oldest democratic tradition. In 1599 the law was changed again and received the form that is still valid today. The rule was exercised by a “Great Council”, which then as now consisted of 60 members, most of whom came from influential families.
Modern times
In the middle of the 15th century, after fighting with the Maltesta family in Rimini, the city-state was able to expand its territory, and the country received essentially its present territory. San Marino’s independence was recognized by the Pope as leader of the Italian Papal States in 1549 and again in 1631. When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the entire Apennine Peninsula, he too left the state territory of San Marino untouched. The Grand Council rejected his offer to expand the country’s territory. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the sovereignty of the country was reaffirmed by the great European powers at the Vienna Congress in 1814/15.
During the formation of an Italian nation-state in the 19th century, San Marino, as stipulated in the constitution, granted political persecution to asylum on their territory. The liberation fighter and leader of the Italian independence movement, Giuseppe Garibaldi, also sought refuge in the city walls in 1849. When the Kingdom of Italy was created in 1861, it recognized the independence of the small republic within its state territory. A customs and monetary union (1867) was followed in 1897 by the first in a series of friendship and cooperation agreements between the two states (renewed in 1939 and 1971).
Contemporary history
At the beginning of the 20th century, numerous San Marines emigrated to Italy and the United States, in return, many Italians settled in San Marino. During the First World War, San Marino remained neutral. In the Second World War, despite declared neutrality after the fall of the fascist regime in Italy, the country was occupied by troops of the German Empire (1943). The troops of the Allied Western Powers liberated the country from the occupation about a year later.
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After the end of World War II, a communist-socialist government took over the political leadership of the republic. Numerous companies were nationalized and land reform was carried out. In 1957 (after the Warsaw Pact troops marched into Hungary), the Communists and Socialists lost their majority and a coalition of Christian and Social Democrats took over the government until 1978. Then the Christian Democrats (PDCS) formed a coalition with the Socialist Party (PSS), which broke in 1986 due to a corruption scandal. From 1986 to 1990 the Christian Democrats ruled together with the Communist Party, from 1990 with the Democratic Progressive Party (PDP), the successor party to the Communists (Christian Democrats and Socialists coalition from 1993). In 1992 San Marino became a full member of the United Nations (UN). In the June 2001 elections,
Despite the close economic and cultural ties with Italy, According to AbbreviationFinder, San Marino emphasizes its independence. In December 2000, both countries signed an agreement that would introduce the euro as the official currency in San Marino from January 2002 (until then, the Italian lira was the official currency).
From 2006 ruled a center-left coalition consisting of the socialists and democrats merged into the PSD as well as the small parties People’s Alliance and United Left. The coalition accepted another small party after a government crisis in autumn 2007. A coalition of Christian Democrats (PDCS), Socialists and Democrats (PSD) and People’s Alliance emerged from the parliamentary elections in November 2012.