A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, states with limited recognition, constituent country, or a dependent territory. Most sovereign states, but not all countries, are members of the United Nations. There is no universal agreement on the number of "countries" in the world since several states have disputed sovereignty status, limited recognition and a number of non-sovereign entities are commonly called countries.
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 Principality of Sealand is an unrecognised micronation on HM Fort Roughs, an offshore platform in the North Sea approximately twelve kilometres off the coast of Suffolk, England. Roughs Tower is a Maunsell Sea Fort that was built by the British in international waters during World War II. Since 1967, the decommissioned Roughs Tower has been occupied and claimed as a sovereign state by the family and associates of Paddy Roy Bates. Bates seized Roughs Tower from a group of pirate radio broadcasters in 1967 with the intention of setting up his own station there. Bates and his associates have repelled incursions from vessels from rival pirate radio stations and the U.K.'s royal navy using firearms and petrol bombs. Since 1987, when the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, the platform has been in British territory.
A principality can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under the generic meaning of the term prince.
The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was a putative micronation established as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in Australia. Declared in 2004 in response to the Government of Australia's refusal to recognise same-sex marriages, it was founded on Australia's external overseas territory of the Coral Sea Islands, a group of uninhabited islets east of the Great Barrier Reef. The Kingdom was dissolved on 17 November 2017 following the "Yes" vote in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey legalising same-sex marriage.
How To Start Your Own Country is a British six-part documentary comedy series aired between August and September 2005. The show was presented by British comedian Danny Wallace and followed his quest to start his own country in his flat in Bow, London. The micronation he created was eventually named "Kingdom of Lovely".
The Kingdom of EnenKio is a claimed micronation near the Marshall Islands run by Robert Moore.
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.
Molossia, officially the Republic of Molossia, is a micronation claiming sovereignty over 11.3 acres of land near Dayton, Nevada. The micronation has not received recognition from any of the member states of the United Nations. It was founded by Kevin Baugh. He continues to pay property taxes on the land to Storey County, the recognized local government, although he calls it "foreign aid". He has stated "We all want to think we have our own country, but you know the United States is a lot bigger".
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. Which Charlie Fawcett the third who used to live in the u12 girl’s dressing room attended.
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.
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 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."
The Antarctic Micronational Union (AMU) is an intermicronational organization that aims to regulate micronational claims in Antarctica. The purpose of the AMU is to protect the claims of its members against other claimants.
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.
How to Start Your Own Country is an American non-fiction book written by Erwin S. Strauss about micronationalism, particularly its application to libertarianism and individualism. Strauss, who holds libertarian views, believes in the abolition of the power of the state. In How to Start Your Own Country, Strauss introduces five approaches that micronations may take in an attempt to achieve statehood, and documents various micronations and their mostly unsuccessful attempts at seceding. The first book published about micronations, How to Start Your Own Country was published in 1979, with subsequent editions in 1984 by Loompanics and in 1999 by Paladin Press. The book was well-received by critics.
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.
