Conscious of its size, and with the Liechtenstein family still residing in Vienna and their 
Bohemian estates, Liechtenstein quickly established a Customs and Monetary union with the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire. This Union lasted until Austria-Hungary’s defeat in the First World 
War, in which Liechtenstein remained neutral. This neutrality in the First World War is critical in 
examining non-military means of defence. Having declared war on Austria-Hungary the British 
government sent a request through American intermediaries to determine if Liechtenstein was 
a belligerent or neutral. Prince Johann ll, despite his close links with Austria, decided that in the 
absence of his own military forces, Liechtenstein would remain neutral. This decision was in 
spite of the customs union Liechtenstein had with Austria-Hungary. Throughout the war the 
allies applied considerable pressure on Liechtenstein not to export goods to Austria in breach 
of its neutral status, with which it complied at considerable cost to its own economy. These two 
issues, neutrality on the basis that it possessed no military and interactions with the allies on 
the basis that Liechtenstein possessed a sovereignty separate from Austria and Switzerland 
are key to Liechtenstein's survival as a sovereign state and to its future recognition in the 
community of nations^. 
Liechtenstein's lack of a military, even when issues of the close relationship between Austria 
and Liechtenstein came into play, was a critical determinant for ensuring its recognition as 
neutral. Had Liechtenstein possessed a military it would have been harder for Prince Johann II 
to assert neutrality and reject the plight of his Austrian friends and neighbours. It would have 
also been difficult to not employ the military in support of Austria given the large amount of pro- 
Austrian feeling amongst the Liechtenstein population*'. Had Liechtenstein become a co- 
belligerent with Austria then it is reasonable to conclude that the fate that befell the Habsburgs 
and every other German monarchy in the wake of the Central Powers defeat would have also 
befallen Liechtenstein. States within the German Empire of similar size and status to 
Liechtenstein, such as Oldenburg, Baden or Hesse, all had their monarchies deposed and were 
incorporated into new larger sub entities of the Weimar Republic, any semblance of sovereign 
status lost*? 
. However by 1920 Liechtenstein was the last remaining polity of the Holy Roman 
Empire still intact. Its security and continued existence had been defended in significant part by 
the fact that it did not have a military. In the global order at that time its unarmed, sovereign and 
neutral status was its best defence. 
In the economic and political chaos that followed the First World War Liechtenstein moved 
  
“© Ibid, 38-40. 
^! Ibid, 39. 
“2 S. Miles Bouten, And the Kaiser Abdicates, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920), 
178.