The Kingdom of Austria

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.

 

 

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.

 

The academic study of micronations, microstates, and alternative governments 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:

 

• 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.

• Exercises in historical revisionism.

• Alternative governments.

 

 

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 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.

 

 

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).

 

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.

 

 

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 theNew 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.