Micronation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (June 2007) |
Micronations — sometimes also referred to as fantasy countries, model countries, and new country projects — are entities that resemble independent nations or states but which are unrecognized by world governments or major international organisations. These nations usually exist only on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators. Micronations differ from secession and self-determination movements in that they are largely viewed as being eccentric and ephemeral in nature, and are often created and maintained by a single person or family group.
Some micronations have managed to extend some of their operations into the physical world by issuing coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other items. Such trappings of "real" sovereign states are created as a way of seeking to legitimize the micronations that produce them.
The term "micronation" dates at least to the 1970s (see The People's Almanac #2, page 330) to describe the many thousands of small, unrecognized, state-like entities that have mostly arisen since that time. The term has since also come to be used retroactively to refer to earlier ephemeral unrecognized entities, some of which date as far back as the early 19th century.
[edit] Definition
This aection may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
Micronations generally have a number of common features:
- They often assert that they wish to be widely recognized as sovereign states, but are not so recognized.
- They are small; those that claim to control physical territories are mostly of very limited extent. While several micronations claim hundreds or even thousands of members, the vast majority have no more than one or two active participants.
- Some issue government instruments such as passports, stamps, and currency, and confer titles and awards; these are rarely recognised outside of their own communities of interest.
These criteria distinguish micronations from imaginary countries, eco-villages, campuses, tribes, clans, sects, and residential community associations, which do not usually seek to be recognised as sovereign. Micronations are also distinguishable from entities that have diplomatic relations with other recognised nation-states of the world without being formally recognised themselves by many nation-states or accepted by major international bodies (such as the UN), for example the Republic of China (Taiwan). By contrast, micronations do not have diplomatic relations with recognised nation-states of the world or major international bodies (such as the UN).
The term "micropatrology" is sometimes used to describe the study of both micronations and microstates by micronational hobbyists, some of whom refer to sovereign nation-states as "macronations".
[edit] Legitimacy
In international law, the Montevideo Convention on the Right and Duties of States sets down the criteria for statehood in article 1: The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
The first sentence of article 3 of the Montevideo Convention explicitly states that "The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states."
Under these guidelines, any entity which meets all of the criteria set forth in article 1 can be regarded as sovereign under international law, whether or not other states have recognized it. Most micronations are commonly seen to have failed to meet one or more of these criteria.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as an independent subject of international law does not meet all the criteria for recognition as a State (however it does not claim itself a State either), but is and has been recognized as a sovereign nation for centuries.
The doctrine of territorial integrity, however, effectively prohibits unilateral secession from established states in international law.
[edit] Early history and evolution
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006) |
The micronation phenomenon is tied closely to the development of the nation-state concept in the 19th century, and the earliest recognisable micronations can be dated to that period. Most were founded by eccentric adventurers or business speculators, and several were remarkably successful. These include the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, ruled by the Clunies-Ross family, and Sarawak, ruled by the "White Rajahs" of the Brooke family; both were independent personal fiefdoms in all but name, and survived until well into the 20th century. Author Peter L. Wilson has suggested that so-called pirate utopias located on the Barbary Coast during the 16th century were also a type of early micronation.
Less successful micronations are the Long Republic (1819–1820), in what is now the U.S. state of Texas, the Republic of Indian Stream (1828–1835), which is now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire, the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia (1860–62) in southern Chile and Argentina, and the Kingdom of Sedang (1888–90) in French Indochina. The oldest extant micronation to arise in modern times is the Kingdom of Redonda, founded in 1865 in the Caribbean. It failed to establish itself as a real country, but has nonetheless managed to survive into the present day as a unique literary foundation with its own king and aristocracy — although it is not without its controversies: there are presently at least four competing claimants to the Redondan throne.
Martin Coles Harman, owner of the U.K. island of Lundy in the early decades of the 20th century, declared himself King and issued private coinage and postage stamps for local use. Although the island was ruled as a virtual fiefdom, its owner never claimed to be independent of the United Kingdom, so Lundy can at best be described as a precursor to later territorial micronations. Another example is the Principality of Outer Baldonia, a 16-acre rocky island off the coast of Nova Scotia, founded by Russell Arundel, chairman of the Pepsi Cola Company (later: PepsiCo), in 1945 and consisting of a population of 69 fishermen.
[edit] History during 1960 to 1980
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006) |
The 1960s and 1970s witnessed the foundation of a number of territorial micronations. The first of these, Sealand, was established in 1967 on an abandoned World War II gun platform in the North Sea just off the East Anglian coast of England, and has survived into the present day. Others were founded on libertarian principles and involved schemes to construct artificial islands, but only three are known to have had even limited success in realizing that goal.
The Republic of Rose Island was a 400 m² platform built in 1968 in Italian national waters in the Adriatic Sea, 7 miles off the Italian town of Rimini. It is known to have issued stamps, and to have declared Esperanto to be its official language. Shortly after completion, however, it was seized and destroyed by the Italian Navy for failing to pay state taxes.
In the late 1960s, Leicester Hemingway (aka Lester Hemingway), brother of author Ernest, was involved in another such project — a small timber platform in international waters off the west coast of Jamaica. This territory, consisting of an 8-foot by 30-foot barge, he called "New Atlantis". Hemingway was an honorary citizen and President; however, the structure was damaged by storms and finally pillaged by Mexican fishermen. In 1973, Hemingway was reported to have moved on from New Atlantis to promoting a 1,000-square-yard platform near the Bahamas. The new country was called "Tierra del Mar" (Land of the Sea). (Ernest Hemingway's adopted hometown of Key West would itself be part of another micronation; see Conch Republic.)
The Republic of Minerva was set up in 1972 as a libertarian new-country project by Nevada businessman Michael Oliver. Oliver's group conducted dredging operations at the Minerva Reefs, a shoal located in the Pacific Ocean south of Fiji. They succeeded in creating a small artificial island, but their efforts at securing international recognition met with little success, and near-neighbour Tonga sent a military force to the area and annexed it.
On April 1, 1977, bibliophile Richard George William Pitt Booth declared the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye an independent kingdom with himself as its monarch. The town has subsequently developed a healthy tourism industry based on literary interests, and "King Richard" (whose sceptre consists of a recycled toilet plunger) continues to award Hay-on-Wye peerages and honors to anyone prepared to pay for them.[1]
[edit] Australian developments
Micronational activities were disproportionately common throughout Australia in the final three decades of the 20th century.
- The Hutt River Province Principality was founded in 1970, when Leonard Casley declared his property independent after a dispute over wheat quotas.
- 1976 witnessed the creation of the Province of Bumbunga on a rural property near Snowtown, South Australia, by an eccentric British monarchist.
- The Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina was created in a hamlet on the New South Wales north coast in 1978.
- An anti-taxation campaigner founded the Duchy of Avram in western Tasmania in the late 1970s; "His Grace the Duke of Avram" was later elected to the Tasmanian Parliament.
- In Victoria, a long-running dispute over flood damage to farm properties led to the creation of the Independent State of Rainbow Creek in 1979.
- The Empire of Atlantium was established in Sydney, in 1981 as a non-territorial global government.
- A mortgage foreclosure dispute led George and Stephanie Muirhead of Rockhampton, Queensland, to briefly and abortively secede as the Principality of Marlborough in 1993.
- Another Australian farm tried to establish itself as a secessionist micronation on 1 May 2003 as the Principality of United Oceania.
- The Principality of Snake Hill was established in 2003 as a result of a mortgage dispute and is located near Mudgee in NSW. The Head of State is Prince Paul and the constitution is based on the Ten Commandments. Lawyers are barred from entering.[2]
- The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was established in 2004 as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in southeast Queensland.
- The United Federation of Koronis, based in Australia, claims the Koronis family of asteroids as its territory.
- The Principality of Ponderosa, based on a small farm in Northern Victoria, achieved notoriety in 2005 when its founders — Vergilio and "Little Joe" Rigoli — were convicted of tax fraud.[3]
[edit] Effects of the Internet
Micronationalism shed much of its traditionally eccentric anti-establishment mantle and took on a distinctly hobbyist perspective in the mid-1990s, when the emerging popularity of the Internet made it possible to create and promote statelike entities in an entirely electronic medium with relative ease. As a result the number of exclusively online, fantasy or simulation-based micronations expanded dramatically.
The activities of these types of micronations are almost exclusively limited to simulations of diplomatic activity (including the signing of "treaties" and participation in "supra-micronational" forums such as the League of Micronations and the Micronational News Network), the conduct and operation of simulated elections and parliaments, and participation in simulated wars — all of which are carried out through online bulletin boards, mailing lists and blogs.
A number of older-style territorial micronations, including the Hutt River Province, Seborga, and Sealand, maintain websites that serve largely to promote their claims and sell merchandise.
[edit] Categories
In the present day, seven main types of micronations are prevalent:
- Social, economic, or political simulations.
- Exercises in personal entertainment or self-aggrandisement.
- Exercises in fantasy or creative fiction.
- Vehicles for the promotion of an agenda.
- Entities created for fraudulent purposes.
- Historical anomalies and aspirant states.
- New-country projects.
[edit] Social, economic, or political simulations
These micronations tend to have a reasonably serious intent, and often involve significant numbers of people interested in recreating the past or simulating political or social processes. Examples include:
- Talossa (Kingdom of Talossa and the Republic of Talossa), a political simulation founded in 1979, with more than 130 members ("citizens") and an invented culture and language.
- Holy Empire of Reunion (Sacro Imperio de Reuniao) — a Brazilian micronation founded in 1997 as an online constitutional monarchy simulation. It claims several dozen members around the world.
- Nova Roma, a group claiming a worldwide membership of several thousand that has minted its own coins, maintains its own wiki, and which engages in real-life Roman-themed re-enactments.
[edit] Exercises in personal entertainment or self-aggrandisement
With literally thousands in existence, micronations of the second type are by far the most common. They generally exist "for fun", have few participants, are ephemeral, Internet-based, and rarely survive more than a few months — although there are notable exceptions. They are usually concerned solely with arrogating to their founders the outward symbols of statehood. The use of grand-sounding titles, awards, honours, and heraldic symbols derived from European feudal traditions, the conduct of "wars" and "diplomacy" with other micronations, and claims of being located on fantasy continents or planets are common manifestations of their activities. Examples include:
- The Aerican Empire, a Monty Pythonesque micronation founded in 1987 and known for its tongue-in-cheek interplanetary land claims, smiley-faced flag and a range of national holidays that includes "Topin Wagglegammon" amongst others.
- Republic of Molossia, a desert-based micronation of 2.5ha located near Reno, Nevada ruled by President Keven Baugh. There is a nationwide ban on smoking.[4]
- The Kingdom of Lovely is an attempt by King Danny I (Danny Wallace) to create an internet nation based in his flat in London.
[edit] Exercises in fantasy or creative fiction
Micronations of the third type include stand-alone artistic projects, deliberate exercises in creative online fiction, and artistamp creations. Examples include:
- The Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a small European kingdom depicted in the book: The Mouse That Roared.
- Lizbekistan, a popular Internet-based project created by Australian artist Liz Stirling.
- Upper Yafa and Oecussi-Ambeno, two micronations using the names of real territories within Yemen and East Timor repectively. Part of an extraordinarily diverse and entertaining array of micronations invented by prolific New Zealand-based artistamp producer Bruce Grenville since the early 1970s.
- Aristasia[4] a fully developed Feminine Empire with two legal sexes "blonde and brunette". Maps, flags and other regalia exist as well as an extensive lore and philosophy. Aristasia has existed since the 1970s and has physical "embassies" in various countries.
- The Republic of Howland, Baker and Jarvis, a highly developed web-based alternative reality project developed by Stephen Abbott named for three uninhabited US minor outlying islands.
- The Grand Duchy of the Lagoan Isles is the creation of a self-styled Grand Duke Louis, who claims that three tiny islands in a Portsmouth pond are not owned by the local council, and so has declared them an independent state. These islands have been the subject of a book 'Micronations' by Lonely Planet and website.
- The nation of NSK — Neue Slowenische Kunst, a nation created by a number of Slovene artists who satirically claim to be part of a voluntary totalitarian collective, among them Laibach.
- In the 1948 Margaret Rutherford / Stanley Holloway movie Passport to Pimlico, the then-London Borough of Pimlico supposedly declares independence from Britain and becomes a micronation.
- The Republic of Kugelmugel, founded by an Austrian artist and based in a ball-shaped house in Vienna, which quickly became a tourist attraction.
- The Copeman Empire, run from a caravan park in Norfolk, England, by its founder Nick Copeman, who changed his name by deed poll to HM King Nicholas I. He and his empire are the subject of a book (ISBN 0-09-189920-6) and a website where King Nocholas sells Knighthoods.
- La Republique de Rêves, a combined exercise in fiction and art by G. Garfield Crimmins.
- San Serriffe, an April Fool's Day hoax created by the British newspaper The Guardian, in its April 1, 1977 edition. The fictional island nation was described in an elaborate seven-page supplement and has been revisited by the newspaper several times.
- Republic of Saugeais (République du Saugeais), a fifty-year-old "republic" in the French département of Doubs, bordering Switzerland. The republic is made of the 11 municipalities of Les Allies, Arcon, Bugny, La Chaux-de-Gilley, Gilley, Hauterive-la-Fresne, La Longeville, Montflovin, Maisons-du-Bois-Lievremont, Ville-du-Pont, and its capital Montbenoit. It had a "president" — Georgette Bertin-Pourchet, elected in 2006 — a "prime minister" and numerous "citizens". It was born from a joke between a Sauget resident and the local Préfet.
- Walter Battiss created Fook Island as a pastiche of many places that he had visited.
- The Sultanate of Freelonia (Freelonia) was created by Ibrahim Sirkeci as a micronation in 1996.
[edit] Vehicles for agenda promotion
These types of micronation are typically associated with a political or social reform agenda. Some are maintained as media and public relations exercises, and examples of this type include:
- The Kingdom of Barbaria, established on Giant's Tomb Island, Georgian Bay (Lake Huron), Canada, in 1974 by disgruntled high school students from a nearby town.
- The Global State of Waveland, established on the North Atlantic island of Rockall by Greenpeace protesters in 1997.
- The Conch Republic, which began in 1982 as a protest by residents and business owners in the Florida Keys against a United States Border Patrol roadblock. It has since been maintained as a tourism booster, though the group has engaged in other protests.
- The Kingdom of L'Anse-Saint-Jean, started to promote tourism in a small Quebec town.
- The Republik Freies Wendland, founded 1980 as part of a campaign to prevent the construction of a nuclear waste disposal facility in Gorleben, in the Wendland (northern Germany).
- The Independent State of Aramoana, a secessionist state founded in 1980 to oppose the proposed construction of an aluminium smelter in an environmentally sensitive area of New Zealand.
- The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, founded in June 2004 on the uninhabited Coral Sea Islands off the coast of Queensland, in response to the Australian government's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage.
- The Republic of New Afrika, a controversial separatist group seeking the creation of an independent black nationalist state across much of the southern USA.
- The "conceptual country" of Nutopia, declared by John Lennon in 1973, a "state" designed to uphold Lennon's ideals such as those portrayed in "Imagine". This declaration was done to advocate Lennon's philosophies, and is believed to also be intended partly to protest the trouble Lennon was having immigrating to the United States.
- The Maritime Republic of Eastport, a part of the City of Annapolis, Maryland, that "seceded" from the rest of the city. It still exists as a charitable and publicity vehicle, and runs a unique fund-raiser in the form of a cross-water Tug of War.
- Proposed demolition and redevelopment of the Freston Road area in north Kensington in 1977 prompted the local residents to declare independence as Frestonia.[5][6] This delayed the redevelopment scheme and forced the Greater London Council to renegotiate.
- Protesters against the M11 motorway link road through Wanstead in north-east London in 1994 proclaimed two areas of squatted homes to be the Republics of Wanstonia and Euphoria.
- Peaceland in Czech republic in Brdy Mt. military zone proclaimed by Greenpeace U.S.-planned Czech radar base with its own flag, anthem, declaration of independence and borders. No arms are allowed on the territory of Peaceland.
- The Republic of Whangamona is a town in New Zealand that declared itself a Republic in 1989 after the district council redrew the areas boundaries. The new boundary was opposed by the residents of Whangamona as it meant their football team now had to merge with another team that was previously their arch rival.
[edit] Entities created for allegedly fraudulent purposes
A number of micronations have been established for fraudulent purposes, by seeking to link questionable or illegal financial actions with seemingly legitimate nations.
- The Territory of Poyais was invented by Scottish adventurer and South American independence hero Gregor MacGregor in the early 19th century. On the basis of a land grant made to him by the Anglophile native King of the Mosquito people in what is present-day Honduras, MacGregor wove one of history's most elaborate hoaxes, managing to charm the highest levels of London's political and financial establishment with tales of the bucolic, resource-rich country he claimed to rule as a benevolent sovereign prince, or "Cazique", when he arrived in the UK in 1822. MacGregor's appointed diplomatic representatives were even received at the Court of St. James, and thousands of investors subsequently parted with hundreds of thousands of pounds (equivalent to many millions today) in exchange for Poyaisian bonds, land grants, and official government appointments and commissions. The hoax was exposed when several shiploads of immigrants arrived at "Poyais" to find a fetid, uninhabited swamp instead of the thriving European-style metropolis that MacGregor's guidebooks and maps had led them to expect. Hundreds died of disease, and the remainder relocated to Belize — yet amazingly, MacGregor escaped prosecution, lived out his days in Venezuela, and was honoured with a state funeral upon his demise.
- The Dominion of Melchizedek has been widely condemned for promoting fraudulent banking activities and other financial scams, and for the involvement by one of its founders in the attempted secession of the Fijian island of Rotuma.[7]
- New Utopia, operated by Oklahoma City longevity promoter Howard Turney as a libertarian new country project was stopped by a United States federal court temporary restraining order from selling bonds and bank licenses. New Utopia has claimed for a number of years to be on the verge of commencing construction of an artificial island territory located approximately midway between Honduras and Cuba, on the Misteriosa Bank but no such project has yet been undertaken.
- The Kingdom of EnenKio, which claims Wake Atoll in the Marshall Islands belonging to the US minor outlying islands, has been condemned for selling passports and diplomatic papers by the governments of the Marshall Islands and of the United States.[8] On April 23, 1998, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands issued an official Circular Note, denouncing representatives of both "EnenKio" and "Melchizedek" for making fraudulent representations.[9]
- Another micronation associated with fraudulent activities was the United Kingdom of Atlantis, which operated a website that ceased to function in 2005, and which claimed to be located in the Pacific Ocean near Australia. The "kingdom" published maps of its alleged location; however, the islands shown did not exist. Atlantis' leader, the self-styled Sheikh Yakub Al-Sheikh Ibrahim, was wanted in the US for various crimes including fraud and money laundering. At one point, Atlantis sent a delegation to Palau to offer a low interest loan of $100 million.[10]
[edit] Historical anomalies and aspirant states
A small number of micronations are founded on historical anomalies or eccentric interpretations of law. This category includes:
- Kalla Islets, a set of islands near coast of Finland at Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden, governed autonomously by fishermen since 1771 on basis of a statute granted by the then king of Sweden Adolph Frederik. The statute officially grants the supreme jurisdiction on the islands to the Islet Council. Kalla Islets have not sought recognition as an independent state, however, and the autonomous area de facto follows laws of Finland.
- Berwick upon Tweed, an English town which, according to an apocryphal story, was technically at war with Russia between 1856 and 1966.
- The Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, was at war with the Netherlands for 335 years until a peace treaty was finally signed in 1986.
- Seborga, a town in the region of Liguria, Italy, near the southern end of the border with France, which traces its history back to the Middle Ages.
- Tavolara, an island off the northeast coast of Sardinia, which in 1836 was recognized as a kingdom by Charles Albert of Sardinia and was never formally annexed by Italy.
- The Hutt River Province Principality (formerly "Hutt River Province"), a farm in Western Australia which claims to have seceded from Australia to become an independent principality with a worldwide population numbered in the tens of thousands.
- The Principality of Sealand, a World War II-era anti-aircraft platform built in the North Sea beyond Britain's then territorial limit, seized by a pirate radio group in 1967 as a base for their operations, and currently used as the site of a secure web-hosting facility. Sealand has continued to promote its independence by issuing stamps, money, and appointing an official national athlete. It is not recognised by any nation.
- Llanrwst, a town in North Wales declared a "free borough" by a Welsh prince which unsuccessfully applied to the United Nations in 1947 and has the motto "Cymru, Lloegr a Llanrwst" (English: Wales, England and Llanrwst) as testament to its apparent independence.
- Republic of Indian Stream, now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire — A geographic anomaly left unresolved by Treaty of Paris that ended the U.S. Revolutionary War, and claimed by both the U.S. and Canada. Between 1832 and 1835, the area's residents refused to acknowledge either claimant.
- The splinter group Republic of Texas claims that the original Republic of Texas was never properly annexed by the United States.
- The Free State Bottleneck (German: Freistaat Flaschenhals) was formed in 1919 following the Allied occupation of the western Rhineland in post-WWI Germany. To establish a military presence on the eastern side of the Rhine, bridgeheads of a 30 km radius were established from the regional Allied headquarters of Koblenz and Mainz. Due to an error in measurement, this left a small piece of land that was surrounded by these bridgeheads but now cut off from the rest of unoccupied Germany. This micronation — called Bottleneck, owing to its shape from the circular bridgeheads — existed until 1923 and is now part of the modern German state of Hesse.
- The Free Republic of Schwarzenberg was formed by a conglomerate of anti-fascist action groups on May 18, 1945 because it was never occupied by the Soviet and American occupiers, but needed some form of government. Resolved on June 24, 1945 when the Soviets finally occupied the area.
These types of micronations are usually located on small (usually disputed) territorial enclaves, generate limited economic activity founded on tourism and philatelic and numismatic sales, and are tolerated or ignored by the nations from which they claim to have seceded.
[edit] New-country projects
New-country projects are attempts to found completely new nation-states. They typically involve plans to construct artificial islands (few of which are ever realised), and a large percentage have embraced or purported to embrace libertarian or democratic principles. Examples include:
- Operation Atlantis, an early 1970s New York-based libertarian group that built a concrete-hulled ship called Freedom, which they sailed to the Caribbean, intending to anchor it permanently there as their "territory". The ship sank in a hurricane and the project foundered with it.
- Republic of Minerva, another libertarian project that succeeded in building a small man-made island on the Minerva Reefs south of Fiji in 1972 before being ejected by troops from Tonga, who later formally annexed it.
- Principality of Freedonia, a libertarian project that tried to lease territory from the Sultan of Awdal in Somaliland in 2001. Resulting public dissatisfaction led to rioting, and the reported death of a Somali.
- Oceania (also known as "The Atlantis Project", but unrelated to the 1970s project listed above), another libertarian artificial island project that raised US $400,000 before going bankrupt in 1994.[11]
- Seastead, a project that aims to start small but has been funded substantially by Peter Thiel.
[edit] Academic, literary and media attention
There has been a small but growing amount of attention paid to the micronation phenomenon in recent years. Most interest in academic circles has been concerned with studying the apparently anomalous legal situations affecting such entities as Sealand and the Hutt River Province, in exploring how some micronations represent grassroots political ideas, and in the creation of role-playing entities for instructional purposes.
In 2000, Professor Fabrice O'Driscoll, of the Aix-Marseille University, published a book about micronations: "Ils ne siègent pas à l'ONU" ("They are not in the United Nations"), with more than 300 pages dedicated to the subject.
In May 2000, an article in the New York Times entitled "Utopian Rulers, and Spoofs, Stake Out Territory Online" brought the phenomenon to a wider audience for the first time. Similar articles were published by newspapers such as the French "Liberation", Italian La Repubblica, Greek "Ta Nea", O Estado de São Paulo in Brazil and Portugal's Visão at around the same time.
Several recent publications have dealt with the subject of particular historic micronations, including Republic of Indian Stream (University Press), by Dartmouth College geographer Daniel Doan, and The Land that Never Was, about Gregor MacGregor and the Principality of Poyais, by David Sinclair (Review, 2003, ISBN 0-7553-1080-2).
In August 2003, a summit of micronations took place in Helsinki at Finlandia Hall, the site of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). The summit was attended by delegations of the Principality of Sealand, the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, NSK-State in Time, Ladonia, the Transnational Republic, the State of Sabotage and by scholars from various academic institutions.
From 7 November through 17 December 2004, the Reg Vardy Gallery at the University of Sunderland (UK) hosted an exhibition on the subject of micronational group identity and symbolism. The exhibition focused on numismatic, philatelic and vexillological artifacts, as well as other symbols and instruments created and used by a number of micronations from the 1950s through to the present day. A summit of micronations conducted as part of this exhibition was attended by representatives of Sealand, Elgaland-Vargaland, New Utopia, Atlantium, Frestonia and Fusa. The exhibition was reprised at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York City from 24 June–29 July of the following year. Another exhibition about micronations opened at Paris' Palais de Tokyo in early 2007.
The Sunderland summit was later featured in a 5-part BBC light entertainment television series called How to Start Your Own Country presented by Danny Wallace. The series told the story of Wallace's experience of founding a micronation, Lovely, located in his London flat. It screened in the UK in August 2005.
Similar programs have also aired on television networks in other parts of Europe. In France, several Canal+ programs have centered around the satirical Presipality of Groland, while in Belgium a series by Rob Vanoudenhoven and broadcast on the Flemish commercial network VTM in April 2006 was reminiscent of Wallace's series, and centred around the producer's creation of Robland. Among other things Vanoudenhoven minted his own coins denominated in "Robbies".
On September 9, 2006, The Guardian newspaper reported that the travel guide company Lonely Planet had published the world's first travel guide devoted to micronations.
The Democratic Empire of Sunda, which claims to be the Government of the Kingdom of Sunda (an ancient kingdom, in present-day Indonesia) in exile in Switzerland, made media headlines when two so-called princesses, Lamia Roro Wiranatadikusumah Siliwangi Al Misri, 21, and Fathia Reza Wiranatadikusumah Siliwangi Al Misiri, 23, were detained by Malaysian authorities at the border with Brunei, on 13 July 2007, and are charged for entering the country without a valid pass. Hearing continues.[12]
[edit] See also
[edit] General entries
- Government simulation game
- Ocean colonisation
- Space colonisation
- Pirate utopias
- Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ)
- Imaginary country — "countries" created mostly by artistamp producers.
[edit] Related concepts
- List of fictional countries — places that are locations for fictional stories in literature and film.
- Joshua A. Norton — San Francisco resident who proclaimed himself "Emperor of the United States".
- Partenia — a cyber-diocese with a real Roman Catholic bishop.
- Passport to Pimlico — a film in which the London neighbourhood of Pimlico proclaims itself independent.
- Cascadia — A regional Pacific Northwest (North America) secession movement.
- Italian Regency of Carnaro, now Rijeka (Fiume), a seaport in Croatia that was ruled for a short time (1919.-1920.) by Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio
- Christiania — a partially self-governing neighborhood in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Hartola — a small Finnish town with anomalous claim to being a royal parish of the Swedish monarchy.
- Jones County, Mississippi — rebelled against the Confederacy.
- Winston County, Alabama — rebelled against the Confederacy.
- Kingdom of Callaway — Callaway County, Missouri; legendarily said to have rebelled against the Union
- Bantustan — quasi-independent homelands in South Africa.
- List of U.S. state secession proposals
[edit] References and notes
- ^ BBC - Mid Wales Arts - Richard Booth
- ^ The Principality of Snake Hill
- ^ Miletic, Daniella. "'Prince' found guilty of tax fraud", The Age, 2005-07-05. Retrieved on 2008-01-08.
- ^ Aristasia Friends
- ^ http://www.cix.co.uk/~tsphoto/fres/fresmenu.htm[dead link]
- ^ Frestonia- News in Notting Hill
- ^ http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/Alert/98-38.txt
- ^ Richard’s Ramblings... » History of Wake Island...
- ^ Official Marshall Islands Notices
- ^ [1] [2] (also contains an image of the flag)[3]
- ^ The Oceania Project, accessed November 9, 2006
- ^ The Borneo Post Online » Print » DPP: Sunda princesses ‘Prohibited Immigrants’
[edit] References
- Ref United Oceania: Australian Daily Telegraph, Thursday, 24 July 2003, page 20, "Prince finds if all else fails, secede".
- Erwin S. Strauss: How to start your own country, ISBN 0-915179-01-6 , ISBN 1-893626-15-6.
- Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, "Republics of the Reefs": Nation-Building on the Continental Shelf and in the World's Oceans, California Western International Law Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, Fall, 1994, pp. 81-111.
- It's Good to Be King Wired 8.3 March 2000.
- Kochta/Kalleinen (Ed.): Amorph!03 Summit of Micronations – Documents/Asiakirjoja, 2003, ISBN 3-936919-45-3.
- The Sydney Morning Herald — Good Weekend, "If at first you don't secede..." by Mark Dapin, , 12 February 2005, pp 47-50.
- The Daily Telegraph (UK), "Mini-states Down Under are sure they can secede" by Nick Squires, 24 February 2005.
- iberkshires.com "Bite-sized sovereignties offer worlds of fun", by Kathy Ceceri, 2 February 2005.
- * Ref Republic of Saugeais: Office du Tourisme du canton de Montbenoît, 25 November 2004.
- Autopia, Saya de Malha Bank.
- Nations Come Together at Sunderland — Sunderland, UK exhibition.
- Andrew Kreps Gallery — New York City exhibition.
- Peter Needham. "Born to rule", The Australian, 2006-09-26.
- [5] — Building Blog article on the Lonely Planet book The Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations
[edit] External links
- Micronations: An Introduction Overview of the Micronation Phenomenon, taken from 'Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations'.
- Believe, and Be Happy: An Interview with John Ryan, George Dunford & Simon Sellars Interview with the authors of 'Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations', featuring a discussion of micronational concepts and their real-world importance.
- DIY Sovereignty and the Popular Right in Australia — University paper discussing the prevalence of right wing political ideologies among Australian micronations.
- Footnotes to History — list of failed secessionist states, alternative governments and other historical oddities
- Imperial Collection — Comprehensive online catalogue of stamps, coins, banknotes, awards and ephemera issued by various secessionist states and micronations.
- The Microfreedom Index On-line directory of micronation, independence and seditionist websites
- Micronations in the media — A selection of newspaper reports about micronations, scanned from the original publications.
- Micronations.net — Online micronational portal and resources
- The Micronations Page
- #micronations — IRC chatroom associated with online micronations (this link is for Java-based page)
- MicroWiki — Wiki focused on online micronations
- The Micronations Wikia aka MicroWiki
- Numismondo website with information about various micronation banknotes.
- Unrecognised States Numismatic Society — coin club specialising in coins and banknotes from micronations.
- Micronational Cartography Society (MCS) — an online community with invented map for existing micronations to "claim" land on
Geographical Standards Organisation (GSO) — another online community with map for nations to "claim" land on, seen as the MCS's biggest "competitor" in micronational "mapping"domain squatted as of 2008-04-08 7:32 UTC
- Flags Of Micronations
- The Micronational "ForumList" A list, with links, to current and dead simulationist and secessionist micronational fora