When did the Vatican become an independent city-state?
Vatican City
The Holy See dates back to early Christianity, and is the primate episcopal see of the Catholic Church, with 1.3billion Catholics around the world distributed in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent Vatican City-state, on the other hand, came into existence in 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation,[12] not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of central Italy.
Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
The pope resides in Vatican City, an independent state within the city of Rome, set up by the 1929 Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy. As popes were sovereigns of the papal states (754–1870), so do they exercise absolute civil authority in the microstate of Vatican City since 1929.