Micronation

Not to be confused with Microstate.

This article is about entities that are not officially recognized by world governments or major international organizations. For information on countries that are generally recognized but geographically small, see microstate.

The Principality of Sealand, a micronation.

A micronation, sometimes referred to as a model country or new country project, is an entity that claims to be an independent nation or state but is not officially recognized by world governments or major international organizations.

Micronations are distinguished from imaginary countries and from other kinds of social groups (such as eco-villages, campuses, tribes, clans, sects, and residential community associations) by expressing a formal and persistent, even if unrecognized, claim of sovereignty over some physical territory.

Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals, and other items, which are rarely accepted outside of their own community.

The earliest known micronations date from the beginning of the 19th century. The advent of the Internet provided the means for people to create many new micronations, whose members are scattered all over the world and interact mostly by electronic means, often calling their nations Nomadic Countries. The differences between such Internet micronations, other kinds of social networking groups, and role playing games are often difficult to define.

The term "micronation" to describe those entities dates at least to the 1970s. The term micropatrology is sometimes used to describe the study of both micronations and microstates by micronationalists, some of whom refer to sovereign nation-states as "macronations".

Etymology

The term 'micronation' literally means "small nation". It is a neologism originating in the mid-1970s to describe the many thousands of small unrecognised state-like entities that have mostly arisen since that time. It is generally accepted that the term was invented by Robert Ben Madison.

The term has since also come to be used retrospectively to refer to earlier unrecognized entities, some of which date to as far back as the 19th century. Supporters of micronations ("micronationalists") use the term "macronation" for any UN-recognized sovereign nation-state.

Not all micronations are small; some can be rather large, like the Dominion of British West Florida or those with claims on Antarctica or other planets.

Definition

Micronations generally have a number of common features, although these may vary widely. They may have a structure similar to established sovereign states, including territorial claims, government institutions, official symbols and citizens, albeit on a much smaller scale. Micronations are often quite small, in both their claimed territory and claimed populations — although there are some exceptions to this rule, with different micronations having different methods of citizenship. Micronations may also issue formal instruments such as postage stamps, coins, banknotes and passports, and bestow honours and titles of nobility.

The Montevideo Convention was one attempt to create a legal definition distinguishing between states and non-states. Some micronations meet this definition, while some do not, and others reject the Convention altogether. Some micronations like Sealand or Hutt River reject the term micronation and consider themselves as sovereign states, other micronations like Flandrensis or Molossia have no intention to be recognized as a real state.

The academic study of micronations, and microstates is known as micropatrology, and the hobby of establishing and operating micronations is known as micronationalism.

Categories

In the present day, nine main types of micronations are prevalent:

1. Social, economic, or political simulations.
2. Exercises in personal entertainment or self-aggrandisement.
3. Exercises in fantasy or creative fiction.
4. Vehicles for the promotion of an agenda.
5. Entities created for fraudulent purposes.
6. Historical anomalies and aspirant states.
7. New-country projects.
8. Exercises in historical revisionism.
9. Alternative governments.

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:

• Freetown Christiania, a semi-legal district in Copenhagen, Denmark
• Kingdom of Elleore, micronation founded 1944 on the small island of Elleore in the Roskilde Fjord, north of Roskilde on the Danish island of Zealand
• Talossa, a political simulation founded in 1979, with more than 200 members ("citizens") and an invented culture and language, which split into three separate groups in 2005, of which two united in 2010 to the "Kingdom of Talossa", and the last one vanished into quiescence.
• 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.
• Grand Duchy of Flandrensis: a Belgian micronation with claims over some territories of Antarctica. The micronation is also a political simulation and cultural organization. In 2012, the micronation was composed of 114 citizens from 21 different nationalities.
• Republic of Jamtland, a self-proclaimed republic in the county of Jämtland, Sweden. It was founded in 1963 due to Sweden's social welfare politics, which wanted Jämtland to merge with the county of Västernorrland and wanted more people to move away from the countryside of northern Sweden and into the big cities of southern Sweden. This started protests in Jämtland and later that year they declared themselves a free republic within the Kingdom of Sweden. The Republic of Jämtland has a population of 130,573 inhabitants and has an area of 49,444 square kilometres (19,090.4 sq mi). Jämtland also has embassies and consulates in 17 different countries, such as China, Germany, the USA, England, Norway and Russia. In 1967, Yngve Gamlin, the president of the republic at that time, went to see the Swedish prime minister Tage Erlander about merging with Västernorrland county. Yngve was greeted at Harpsund estate by Tage as a chief of state on a state visit to Sweden. This gave Jamtland some recognition from Sweden as a free republic. This event has, however, been debated whether it should be seen as formal recognition or not.
• Holy Empire of Reunion, a Brazilian micronation founded in 1997 as an online constitutional monarchy simulation. It claims several dozen members around the world. It has minted coins and produced flags, banknotes and passports for its citizens. According to a report by BBC, Réunion has contacts with 175 micronations all over the world.

Exercises in personal entertainment or self-aggrandisement

President Kevin Baugh of Molossia.

With literally thousands in existence, micronations of the second type are by far the most common. This type can also be known as "political simulationism" or simply "simulationism". They generally exist "for fun," have relatively few participants, are ephemeral, today usually Internet-based, and many do not 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, honors, and heraldic symbols derived from European feudal traditions, the conduct of "wars" (often known as recwars) and "diplomacy" with other micronations, and simulated 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 (called "niftydays," because "there's nothing holy about them") that includes "Topin Wagglegammon" among others.
• Republic of Molossia, a desert-based micronation of 0.5 ha (1.3 acres) located near Reno, Nevada ruled by President Kevin Baugh, founded in 1977. There is a "nationwide" ban on smoking.
• The Kingdom of Lovely is an attempt by King Danny I (Danny Wallace) to create an internet nation based in his flat in London, the central feature of his 2005 TV series How to Start Your Own Country.

Exercises in fantasy or creative fiction

Micronations of the third type include stand-alone artistic projects, deliberate exercises in creative online fiction, social justification or gratification, and artistamp creations. Examples include:

• 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 and a website where King Nicholas sells knighthoods.
• 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.

Vehicles for agenda promotion

"Welcome to the Conch Republic" – a sign at Key West International Airport.

These types of micronations are typically associated with a political or social reform agenda. Some are maintained as media and public relations exercises. Examples of this type include:

• Akhzivland is a self-declared and officially tolerated "independent republic" established by Israeli hippie and former sailor Eli Avivi on the Mediterranean beach at Akhziv in Israel.
• 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, and the group has engaged in other protests.
• Valašské království (Kingdom of Wallachia) is a tongue-in-cheek micronation established by Tomáš Harabiš, with the Czech actor Bolek Polívka as its king in 1997 in the territory of Moravian Wallachia, for the purpose of promoting the region and tourist activities. The micronation has been registered as a tourist agency in 2000. The micronation suffered a coup d'état during which Polívka was stripped of his throne and ousted from the kingdom.

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.
• 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.
• 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 by the governments of the Marshall Islands and of the United States for selling passports and diplomatic papers. 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.
• The United Kingdom of Atlantis operated a website that ceased to function in 2005, and 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 the legitimate state of Palau to offer a low interest loan of $100 million.

Historical anomalies, legal anomalies and aspirant states

The putative border crossing from Italy into the Principality of Seborga

A small number of micronations are founded based on historical anomalies or on legal anomalies (deriving from disputed interpretations of law). 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. This category includes:

• 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.
• The Principality of Hutt River (formerly "Hutt River Province"), a farm in Western Australia, 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 has been described as the "world's most notorious micronation" as well as the "world's smallest and weirdest country".
• The Crown Dependency of Forvik is an island in Shetland, currently recognized as part of UK. Stuart Hill claims that independence comes from an arrangement struck in 1468 between King Christian I of Denmark/Norway and Scotland's James III, whereby Christian pawned the Shetland Islands to James in order to raise money for his daughter's dowry. Hill claims that the dowry was never paid and therefore it is not part of UK and should be a crown dependency like the Isle of Man. Hill has also encouraged the rest of Shetland to declare independence.
• The Free Republic of Liberland is a small, unclaimed parcel of land between Croatia and Serbia, sharing a land border with Croatia and having its eastern border on the Danube river. It was proclaimed by Vít Jedlička on April 13, 2015. The unclaimed land was created because of the Croatia-Serbia border dispute, which made lots of parcels of land claimed by both countries and parcels that were claimed by neither. It has not been officially recognised by any country in the United Nations as of May 6, 2015.

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, built a concrete-hulled ship called Freedom, which they sailed to the Caribbean, intending to permanently anchor it as their "territory". The ship sank in a hurricane and the project collapsed with it.

Landing on Minerva

• 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 invaded by troops from Tonga, who formally annexed it before destroying the island.
• Principality of Freedonia, a libertarian project that supported the Awdal Road Company's attempts to lease land from the Sultan of Awdal in Somaliland in 2001. If the Awdal Road Company was able to build a road, then the Sultan of Awdal will give land to allow them ARC to create an economic free zone, and some of that territory will then be handed over to the Principality of Freedonia. After the men from Awdal Roads Company were deported following false allegations about the lease, resulting public dissatisfaction led to rioting, and the reported death of a Somali.
• Republic of Rose Island, an artificial island constructed in 1968 by Italian architect Giorgio Rosa in the Adriatic Sea. The structure was originally built as a tourist attraction, but soon after it was finished, Rosa declared sovereignty.
• 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.
• Seasteading, a project aimed at building competitive governments at sea.
• Global Country of World Peace, "a country without borders for peace-loving people everywhere", was declared by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 2000. It made several attempts to buy or lease land for a sovereign territory. It is currently governed by Maharaja Tony Nader. Its currency is the RAAM and its capitals include Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa and Vlodrop.

Exercises in historical revisionism

• In Germany, numerous individuals and groups—collectively labeled Kommissarische Reichsregierungen (KRR)—assert that the German Empire continues to exist in its pre-World War II borders and that they are its government, or government-in-exile.
• The Imperial Throne formerly the Russian Empire, is a micronation created in 2011 by Russian businessman and politician Anton Bakov, chairman of the Monarchist Party of the Russian Federation. In 2014, the Imperial Throne proclaimed that Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, one of several claimants to the royal Romanov line, was now Nicholas III, Emperor of All Russia. The Imperial Throne claims to be in contact with the governments of Macedonia and Montenegro about a grant of territory and state recognition.

History

Early history and evolution

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 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 British 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 (65,000 m²) rocky island off the coast of Nova Scotia, founded by Russell Arundel, chairman of the Pepsi Cola Company (later: PepsiCo), in 1945 and comprising a population of 69 fishermen.

The 550 m² (5,900 sq ft) Principality of Sealand

History during 1960 to 1980

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 (4,300 sq ft) platform built in 1968 in Italian national waters in the Adriatic Sea, 7 miles (11 km) 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, 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 (2.4 m) by 30-foot (9.1 m) 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 sq yd (840 m²) platform near the Bahamas. The new country was called "Tierra del Mar" (Land of the Sea). (Ernest Hemingway's adopted hometown of Key West was later itself 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 Booth declared the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye an independent kingdom with himself as its monarch. The town subsequently developed a healthy tourism industry based on literary interests, and "King Richard" (whose sceptre is a recycled toilet plunger) continues to award Hay-on-Wye peerages and honours to anyone prepared to pay for them.

Japanese micronations in the 1980s

In 1981, drawing on a news report about Leicester Hemingway's "New Atlantis", novelist Hisashi Inoue wrote a 700-page work of magic realism, Kirikirijin, about a village that secedes from Japan and proclaims its bumpkinish, marginalized dialect its national language, and its subsequent war of independence. This single-handedly inspired a large number of Japanese villages, mostly in the northern regions, to "declare independence", generally as a move to raise awareness of their unique culture and crafts for urban Japanese who saw village life as backwards and uncultured. These micronations even held "international summits" from 1983 to 1985, and some of them formed confederations. Throughout the 1980s there was a "micronation boom" in Japan that brought many urban tourists to these wayward villages. But the harsh economic impact of the Japanese asset price bubble in 1991 ended the boom. Many of the villages were forced to merge with larger cities, and the micronations and confederations were generally dissolved.

Australian and New Zealand developments

Micronational developments that occurred in New Zealand and Australia in the final three decades of the 20th century included:

• The Principality of Hutt River 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.
• 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.
• An anti-taxation campaigner founded the Grand Duchy of Avram in western Tasmania in the 1980s; "His Grace the Duke of Avram" was later elected to the Tasmanian Parliament.
• The Independent State of Aramoana was established in New Zealand in 1980.
• The Empire of Atlantium was established in Sydney, in 1981 as a non-territorial global government.
• The Republic of Whangamomona was established in 1989.
• A mortgage foreclosure dispute led George and Stephanie Muirhead of Rockhampton, Queensland, to briefly and abortively secede as the Principality of Marlborough in 1993.

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. An early example is the Kingdom of Talossa, a micronation created in 1979 by then 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison, which went online in November 1995, and was reported in the New York Times and other print media in 2000. 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 contribution to wikis. With the introduction of the Internet, many articles on how to create micronations were made available on such wikis, which serve as a hub of online activity for micronations.

A number of traditional territorial micronations, including the Hutt River Province, Seborga, and Sealand, maintain websites that serve largely to promote their claims and sell merchandise.

Legitimacy

See also: Constitutive theory of statehood and Declarative theory of statehood

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.

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 does not effectively prohibit unilateral secession from established states in international law, per the relevant section from the text of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Final Act, Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration:

IV. Territorial integrity of States

The participating States will respect the territorial integrity of each of the participating States.

Accordingly, they will refrain from any action inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations against the territorial integrity, political independence or the unity of any participating State, and in particular from any such action constituting a threat or use of force.

The participating States will likewise refrain from making each other's territory the object of military occupation or other direct or indirect measures of force in contravention of international law, or the object of acquisition by means of such measures or the threat of them. No such occupation or acquisition will be recognized as legal.

In effect, this states that other states (i.e., third parties), may not encourage secession in a state. This does not make any statement as regards persons within a state electing to secede of their own accord.

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. Similar articles were published by newspapers such as the Italian La Repubblica, O Estado de S. 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, 'The Land that Never Was, about Gregor MacGregor and the Principality of Poyais, by David Sinclair (Review, 2003, ISBN 0-7553-1080-2) and "An Australian Monarch" about the Principality of Hutt River by William Pitt (CopyRight Publishing, ISBN 9-781876-344672).

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|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 and organized by R. Blackson and Peter Coffin. Peter Coffin organized a more extensive exhibition about micronations at Paris' Palais de Tokyo in early 2007 called ÉTATS (faites-le vous-même)/States (Do it yourself).

The Sunderland summit was later featured in the 5-part BBC light entertainment television series 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 2005.

Similar programs have also aired on television networks in other parts of Europe. In France, several Canal+ programs have centered on 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 on 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, Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations.

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. The hearing continues.

In 2010, a conference of micronations was held on Dangar Island in Sydney, Australia. Micronations with representatives in attendance included the Empire of Atlantium, the Principality of Hutt River, the Principality of Wy and the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands

In 2010, a documentary film by Jody Shapiro entitled "How to Start your Own Country" was screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary explored various micronations around the world, and included an analysis of the concept of statehood and citizenship. Erwin Strauss, author of the eponymous book, was interviewed as part of the film.

In 2012, a conference of micronations (Polination 2012) was held in London . Micronations with representatives in attendance included the Empire of Atlantium, the Republic of Molossia, the Grand Duchy of Flandrensis, Ladonia, Neue Slowenische Kunst and Austenasia.

The manga and anime series Hetalia: Axis Powers, in which the main characters are the stereotyped personifications of the nations of the world, features several micronations as characters. As of 2011 micronations represented include Sealand, Seborga, Wy, Kugelmugel, Molossia, Hutt River, Ladonia, and the former micronation of Nikko Nikko.

The Australian television comedy series "Micro Nation" is set on the fictional island micronation of Pullamawang, which remained independent from Australia because they "forgot to mail in their paperwork" at the Federation of Australia in 1901.

Coins of micronations

• 

  A Principality of Seborga coin

• 

  35 Dollars; Republic of Minerva coin

• 

  20 Dollars; Hutt River Province

• 

  Lundy Island – 1 Puffin coin

• FRENTE-MEDALHA.jpg

  100 Cifras – Holy Empire of Reunion coin

• 

  10 ICU gold "Wirtland Crane"

• 

  Sealandic coins, from left to right: Cupronickel Half Dollar, Silver One Dollar and Bronze Quarter Dollar

See also

• Flags of micronations
• League for Small and Subject Nationalities
• List of micronation currencies
• List of micronations
• List of unrecognized countries

Further reading

• Adam Clanton, "The Men Who Would Be King: Forgotten Challenges to U.S. Sovereignty," UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1, Fall 2008, pp. 1–50.
• Kochta & Kalleinen, editors. Amorph! 03 Summit of Micronations–Documents/Asiakirjoja, 2003, ISBN 3-936919-45-3
• Menefee, Samuel Pyeatt. "'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
• Strauss, Erwin S. How to start your own country, ISBN 0-915179-01-6

External links

• Micronation at DMOZ
• MicroWiki, the largest online encyclopedia on micronations.