Claim: Vatican City was established as a city-state by the Lateran Treaty.
Evidence: The independent city-state , on the other hand , came into existence in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy , which spoke of it as a new creation , not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States -LRB- 756 -- 1870 -RRB- , which had previously encompassed much of central Italy.