Papal States

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Papal States Territories of central Italy under the rule of the popes (756–1870). In the 15th century, the papal government displaced the feudal magnates who had ruled the Papal States in the Middle Ages and imposed direct control from Rome. The territory was temporarily lost during the Napoleonic period, restored to the papacy in 1815, and annexed by the Italian nationalists during the Risorgimento. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 restored the small area comprising the Vatican in Rome to papal rule.

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