Popes ruled over a collection of sovereign Papal States throughout central Italy until the country was unified in 1870. The new secular government had seized all the land of the Papal States except for the small patch of the Vatican, and a cold war of sorts then broke out between the church and the Italian government.
Popes refused to recognize the authority of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Vatican remained beyond Italian national control. Pope Pius IX proclaimed himself a "prisoner of the Vatican," and for almost 60 years popes refused to leave the Vatican and submit to the authority of the Italian government. When Italian troops were present in St. Peter's Square, popes even refused to give blessings or appear from the balcony overlooking the public space