When Italian troops entered Rome in 1870 and the Papal States ceased to exist, Pius IX refused to recognise the loss, declined the terms the Italian state offered unilaterally, and remained within the Vatican. His successors did the same for nearly sixty years, describing themselves as prisoners in the Vatican, refusing to appear in public in the city and discouraging Italian Catholics from participating in national politics. This standoff was known as the Roman Question, and it left the papacy in the odd position of claiming a temporal sovereignty it did not exercise while resident in a state it did not recognise.
The pacts signed on 11 February 1929 ended it in three instruments. A treaty recognised the sovereignty of the Holy See over the Vatican City State, a territory of some forty-four hectares, and recognised the Italian state and Rome as its capital. A financial convention compensated the Holy See for the lost territories. A concordat regulated the position of the Catholic Church in Italy, providing for religious instruction in schools, civil recognition of church marriages, and the church's freedom in appointments.
The Roman Question was over. Vatican City remains the smallest sovereign state in the world, and its existence dates from this agreement rather than from any medieval grant.