A micronation is a political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from de facto states and quasi-states; they are also not considered to be autonomous or self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. The activities of micronations are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than disputed by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to in micronationalism as macronations. Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other state-related items, some as a source of revenue. Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity. The study of micronationalism is known as micropatriology or micropatrology.
The Union State of Russia and Belarus, officially also referred to as Union State, is a supranational union consisting of Belarus and Russia, with the stated aim of deepening the relationship between the two states through integration in economic and defence policy. Originally, the Union State aimed to create a confederation; however, both countries currently retain their independence.
The Aerican Empire, conventionally referred to in short form as Aerica, is a social organization and self-proclaimed micronation, founded in May 1987. Its name stems from the term "American Empire". In 2000 The New York Times described its website as "one of the more imaginative" micronation sites.
Micronations are ephemeral, self-proclaimed entities that claim to be independent sovereign states, but which are not acknowledged as such by any recognised sovereign state, or by any supranational organisation. The constant reiteration of the flag as a symbol of a something that exists by the entity that it symbolizes confirms the validity of the flag as an officially sanctioned and/or definitive symbol of an entity; therefore, there has been a close association between vexillology/vexillogic imagination in creating visual symbols that appear to legitimize micronational claims.
The Kingdom of Vikesland was a micronation in Manitoba, Canada. It was founded in 2005 by Christopher Barry Joseph Beyette, a television news cameraman employed by the CHUM network.
Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations is an Australian gazetteer about micronations, published in September 2006 by Lonely Planet. It was written by John Ryan, George Dunford and Simon Sellars. Self-described as a humorous guidebook and written in a light-hearted tone, the book's profile of micronations offers information on their flags, leaders, currencies, maps and other facts. It was re-subtitled Guide to Self-Proclaimed Nations in later publications.
The Grand Duchy of Flandrensis is a micronation with claims over some territories of Antarctica, which was founded in 2008 by the Belgian Niels Vermeersch. Flandrensis is not recognised by any country or government, nor is it their intention to get diplomatic recognition. Since 2021 the micronation is registered in Belgium as the environmental non-profit organization “vzw Groothertogdom Flandrensis”.
The Romanov Empire, also known as the Imperial Throne, formerly the Russian Empire, is a micronation proposed by Russian businessman and politician Anton Bakov as a re-creation of the Russian Empire. It would be led by Romanov heir Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen as Emperor Nicholas III, with Bakov serving as Archchancellor.
MicroCon is a biennial summit or conference of micronationalists held in every other year since April 11, 2015. The event was created by Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia, and every summit since has been hosted by a different micronation. MicroCon is a significant event in the micronational community, serving as a venue for exchanging ideas between micronationalists. The event has also been compared to the micronational equivalent of a session of the United Nations General Assembly. The largest edition, MicroCon 2019 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, had 113 attendees from 43 micronations. MicroCon 2023 was the first edition to consist of two separate events: an American summit in Joliet, Illinois, and a European summit in Ypres, Belgium.
The Glinski rebellion was a revolt in 1508 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by a group of aristocrats led by Prince Mikhail Glinski in 1508. It grew out of a rivalry between two factions of the nobility during the final years of Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon. The revolt began when Sigismund I, the new Grand Duke, decided to strip Glinski of his posts based on rumors spread by Jan Zabrzeziński, Glinski's enemy. After failing to settle the dispute at the royal court, Glinski and his supporters rose up in arms. The rebels swore allegiance to Vasili III of Russia, who was waging war against Lithuania.
The Decree on Separation of Church from State and School from Church is a legal act adopted by the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on 20 January 1918 came into force on 23 January that year, the day of official publication. It installed the secular nature of the state power, proclaimed the freedom of conscience and religion; religious organizations were deprived of any property rights and the rights of a legal entity. It laid the foundation for the deployment of atheistic propaganda and atheistic education.
Travis McHenry is an American-born micronationalist and occultist.
Ghendargnoy is a Chechen teip (clan). Its center is the village of Ghendargana. There is a hypothesis that it originated from the historic area in Chechen Republic called Nashkha.
The Principality of Snake Hill, also known simply as Snake Hill is a self-proclaimed independent sovereign state (micronation), located near Mudgee in New South Wales, Australia. Snake Hill has roughly hundreds of citizens, and claims land the size of Monaco. Snake Hill claimed independence on 2 September 2003, and Princess Paula claimed it was a right to secede, citing "The U.S., as you well know, seceded from England in 1776, It’s a remedial right, a last resort."
Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty is a 2021 book by Australian constitutional law specialists Harry Hobbs and George Williams about micronations and their legal status. Written from an academic perspective, it is one of few works on micronational movements and the earliest-published book to focus largely on the legal aspect of micronations. The book concerns the definition of statehood, the place of micronations within international law, people's motivations for declaring them, the micronational community and the ways by which such entities mimic sovereign states. In 2022 Hobbs and Williams published a book for a broader audience, How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations.
The Organisation de la microfrancophonie is an intermicronational organisation that aims to promote French-speaking (Francophone) micronations in communities in France and increase intermicronational cooperation. Founded in 2015 and based on the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, Microfrancophonie accepts micronations as member states, and has hosted three intermicronational summits between these members. As of December 2022, Microfrancophonie had 21 member states.
How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations is a 2022 book by Australian lawyers and legal academics Harry Hobbs and George Williams about micronationalism—exploring several micronations and their motivations for declaring independence. The book gives an overview on the topic of micronationalism and explores numerous micronations, extant and defunct, as well as their motivations for declaring sovereignty. An overarching theme is the disproportionate number of micronations located within Australia. How to Rule Your Own Country is a follow-up to Hobbs' and Williams' more academic 2021 work Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty.
Although the academic study of micronations—known as micropatriology—is limited, there have nevertheless been a number of published works on the subject. The following is a list documenting these written works. This list does not contain works wherein micronationalism is the secondary theme, such as reference works which contain or make references to micronations and books about individual micronations.
