Micronation – wikipedia

A micronation It is an entity created by a person, or by a small number of people, who claims to be considered as an independent nation or state, but which however is not recognized ^[first] by governments and major international organizations ^[2] .

The term was born in the 1970s to describe the many “self -rescued entities” which were born in that period, generally small in size and ephemeral existence. ^[3] Since the 2000s some of them have defined themselves fifth world , in a polemical sense in relation to the classification of the states of the world (first, second, third and fourth world). ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Confinary francs and residual territories [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In the Middle Ages there were small theocratic border francs, microstates, in which the power of the abbeys “Nullius Dioecesis” was often exercised in political terms. This is the case, for example, of the abbey of the three Cistercian fountains in Rome who politically possessed (XII century) the island of Ponza, the island of Giglio and here the monastery of San Giovanni Battista, the island of Giannutri, L ‘Argentario, Orbetello, Ansedonia, Serpeta, Montalto di Castro, Nemi, Manoppello, Vada and other ultramarine territories “percent miles and more” (Sardinia, etc.), by concession of the emperor Charlemagne (803) to which they were made trace the autonomous political dynamics with respect to the Papal States. Much of these territories were occupied militarily by the Republic of Pisa in 1250.

Andorra is an ancient medieval border medieval theocratic franca dating back to 1278, and still in force.

For a confarior error between the current municipalities of San Giustino in Umbria and Sansepolcro in Tuscany, caused in 1441 when the border between the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was placed, until 1826 the Republic of Consolia existed, a microState that constituted A Franca extended zone 300 hectares, dedicated to tobacco trade. It was repealed in 1826 and the territory was divided between the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; The first was assigned the hill on which the town stands, now a hamlet of the municipality of San Giustino, while part of the plain below is included in the municipality of Sansepolcro. The ancient border remained in place at the diocesan level between the diocese of Sansepolcro and the diocese of Città di Castello and was rectified in 1938 according to the provincial one.

From individual colonialism to fictitious “states” [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The nineteenth century saw the growth of the concept of the nation state, and the first micronations came to light at that time. The phenomenon was in contrast to the claim of the states to subordinate the initiatives of private individuals, including the foundation of colonies, to its sovereignty. The majority were the work of adventurers or speculators, and some had great success. The Cocos and Keeling islands are a particular case, governed by the Clunies-Ross family, such as “King of the Cocos Islands”, or Sarawak, administered by the “Rajah Bianchi” of the Brooke family. These are exceptional cases of “feudal states”, tolerated by Great Britain and survived until the twentieth century. ^[9]

Peter Lamborn Wilson also suggested to consider the pirate utopia placed in the Barbareschi states in the 16th century as an ancient example of micronation.

Instead, projects such as the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia (1860-1862) were less successful in the southern part of Chile and Argentina, and the Kingdom of Sedang (188-1890) in French Indocation. One of the oldest micronations still alive is the kingdom of Redonda, founded on the Caribbean island of the same name in 1865: singular thing, the kingdom of Redonda is a sort of literary association with its king and a nobility (currently, however, VI There are four candidates who claim their throne).

In the twentieth century Martin Coles Harman, owner of the island of Lundy, coined coins and stamps for private use. Although the island was governed as a virtual fief, its owner has never claimed independence from the United Kingdom, so the island of Lundy can be described as a precursor of the territorial micronations that came later.

During the Second World War, the United Kingdom implanted many marine artificial platforms outside the territorial waters, located in the North Sea in correspondence with the estuaries of Thames and Mersey, to protect, with contrast batteries, its industrial centers; These platforms, true artificial islands, took the name of Fortresce Marittime Maunsell ( Maunsell Sea Forts ), from the name of their creator, Guy Anson Maunsell.
After the war, these structures were abandoned and, in the early sixties, many pirate radio stations took possession of it, radiating their transmissions from “abroad” towards the United Kingdom. ^[ten]

On 11 May 1956 the lawyer Tomás Cloma and about forty other men founded the “Free Territory of Freedomland” (free territory of Freedomland), an independent micronation very popular among the Filippini, located on the islands between the Philippines and the Spratly islands, Therefore the then dictator Ferdinand Marcos imprisoned the citizen Freedomlander and Filippino Tomás Cloma and thus obtained from these the transfer of Freedomland to the Philippines.

The sixties and seventies saw a micronational Renaissance with the foundation of different territorial micronations. The first of these, the Principality of Sealand, was founded in 1967 on an abandoned platform of the Second World War. Others, on the other hand, were based on projects that required the construction of artificial islands, but only two of them were able to maintain themselves above sea level.

The Rose Island was a 400 m² platform built in international waters off the city of Bellaria-Igea Marina (RN) in the Adriatic Sea; In 1968 on the initiative of Eng. Giorgio Rosa, his designer and manufacturer, was proclaimed the independence of the Esperantist Republic of the island of the Roses (Esperanta Respubliko de la insulo de la Rozoj). A stamps were issued, and a post office, a restaurant and a night club were active on the artificial platform. The Esperanto international language was declared official language. The Italian government sent the Guardia di Finanza to put an end to these activities and, subsequently, had the island dismantled by the divers of the Navy. ^[ten]

The Republic of Minerva was formed in 1972 as a project for a new libertarian country by an American businessman called Michael Oliver. Oliver’s group led dredging operations on the rocks of Minerva, a seabed located in the Pacific Ocean south of Figi. They managed to create an artificial island, but their efforts to obtain international recognition did not result, and nearby Tonga sent a military force and the area annexed.

The Principality of Freedonia was a libertarian project that tried to rent a part of the territory from the Sultan of Awdal in Somaliland in 2001. The public discontent led to the revolt and the death of a Somalius.

Australia has been a real theater of micronational activity in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The principality of Hutt River Province originated in 1970 when Prince Leonard (Leonard George Casley) declared his independent agricultural property after a dispute on the rates for wheat. In 1981 the political protest of a group of young people from Sydney led to the creation of Atlantium. ^[11]

The internet impulse [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Starting from the nineties, the micronational activity obtained a further stimulus, when the popularity of the Internet gave the possibility to many to promote their activities to a global audience. As a result of this, the number of the so -called “virtual nations” has grown dramatically since then.

Micronations have a number of attributes in common:

1. A form and structure apparently similar to that of sovereign states, therefore they declare that they have territorial complaints, government institutions, official symbols, and citizens.
2. They are generally small both by extension and for the number of claims “citizens”.
3. Micronations often emit formal national tools such as stamps, coins, banknotes ^[twelfth] , passports, honors, and noble titles.

The claims of sovereignty are more or less fictitious, sometimes openly parodic.

Small states officially recognized, disappeared or still existing, such as the Principality of Monaco and San Marino, are sometimes erroneously called micronations, but these countries are properly called microstati. ^[13]

The micronations differ from secession and self -determination, as they are of an eccentric, geographically minimal, and ephemeral nature. Often these initiatives are ignored by the national states, which do not recognize you an interference in one’s sovereignty; In some cases they are encouraged by local administrations, in order to promote the territory (mostly tourist level): this is the case of the Republic of Saugeais and the Kingdom of L’Anse-Saint-Jean.

There are micronations that give an apparent formal guise to political, cultural, social, linguistic and economic communities; Some are historical reconstructions (particularly in the Roman world or of the medieval world) or literary, others have only a mocking or openly playful end, and are born even for the pure megalomaniac advertising of an eccentric person. Others also arise as a vehicle for cultural propaganda or social protest, or for a fraudulent motivation. Generally the micronations are missing any official recognition, also due to the lack of territory, and therefore they are often called States of paper O Virtual states , as they can only manifest themselves on paper, on the internet or in the mind of their creator. A peculiar character, in fact, is the lack of diplomatic relations with national states and with the major international organizations (certain self -styled diplomatic representatives, not being accredited, by law and de facto are parodic or playful initiatives). ^[14]

Today even micronations with a alleged territorial or material roots have their own site on the Internet, which has become the new frontier of social experimentation in this sense. The study of micronations is called micropatrologia (often the deadline refers to the study of microstates), while the birth and development of micronations is known as micronationalism And the activists are called micronationalists .

Eight types of micronations can be distinguished: ^[14]

1. Political, social and economic communities
2. Historical reconstructions
3. “Ludo Nazioni” or Nations for personal entertainment purposes
4. Replicas of literary or cinematographic works
5. Propaganda or social protest vehicles
6. Micronations with fraudulent motivation
7. Historical anomalies and aspiring states
8. Projects of new nations

• Graziano Graziani, Exceptional states. What are the micronations , editions of the Asino, Rome 2012.
• ( FR ) Graziano Graziani, Passport for utopia. Micronizations, an inventory , Traduzione di Stéphanie Leblanc, Paris, Editions Plein Jour, 2020, ISBN 978-2-37067-047-2.