Kleinstaaterei

Historical territorial fragmentation in Germany

Kleinstaaterei (German: [ˌklaɪnʃtaːtəˈʁaɪ], lit. 'small-state-ery') is a pejorative term coined in the early 19th century to denote the territorial fragmentation of Germany. While the term referred primarily to the territorial fragmentation of the German Confederation, it is also applied by extension to the even more extreme territorial fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire. In this period, Germany was split into a great number of nearly sovereign small and medium-sized secular and ecclesiastical principalities and free imperial cities, some of which were little larger than a single town or the surrounding grounds of the monastery of an Imperial abbey.

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA. More on occurri.