A closer look
Liechtenstein sent an army of exactly 80 men to guard the Brenner Pass during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and they returned with 81 men. Unlike literally every other military deployment in the blood-soaked annals of human history, these guys managed to avoid all combat, suffer zero casualties, and actually make a friend along the way. An Austrian liaison officer, or possibly an Italian deserter depending on the historical source, decided the Liechtenstein crew was so chill that he just marched back home with them. While other nations were busy slaughtering each other over borders and imperial ego, this tiny microstate accidentally invented the concept of going on a violent military campaign and treating it like a semester abroad where you bring home a foreign exchange student!
