Formation | 1973 |
---|---|
Founder | Frederick W. Lehmann IV |
Founded at | St. Louis, Missouri |
Dissolved | 1988 |
Legal status | Defunct |
Headquarters | 4554 McPherson Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, United States 63108 130 Wooton Road, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England |
Official language | English |
Owner | Frederick W. Lehmann IV (president) Christopher Martin (vice-president) [1] |
The International Micropatrological Society (IMS) was an American learned society and research institute dedicated to the study of micronations. [2] Founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Lehmann IV of St. Louis, Missouri, the IMS coined micropatrology as the study of micronations and micronationalism. [3] [4] It had documented 128 micronations and similar political entities by 1976. [5]
The IMS assessed the legitimacy of micronational claims in five categories—B ("bogus"), E ("extinct"), F ("fiction"), T ("traditional") and O ("other"); according to the IMS, only micronations rated T or O had good chances of achieving independence. [5] Owned by Lehmann and Christopher Martin, the IMS had offices in St. Louis, Missouri and King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. [4] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations , the IMS was disestablished in 1988. [6]
The IMS was founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Lehmann IV of St. Louis, Missouri. [3] [4] In 1977, documents from the IMS supposedly supporting the legitimacy of the Most Serene Federal Republic of Montmartre were used in a court case by Montmartre President Barry Alan Richmond to advocate for the micronation's inclusion in the phone directory of New York Telephone. [7] The IMS contributed its research to Erwin Strauss's 1979 How to Start Your Own Country about micronations. [8] According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IMS was disestablished in 1988. [6]
In 1996, Swiss author Fabrice O'Driscoll of Aix-Marseille University founded the French Institute of Micropatrology (French : l'Institut français de micropatrologie) as an unofficial continuation of the IMS. [9] [10] In 2000, O'Driscoll wrote the book Ils ne siègent pas à l'ONU: revue de quelques micro-Etats, micro-nations et autres entités éphémères (They don't sit at the UN: a review of some micro-states, micro-nations and other ephemeral entities), which details over 600 micronations. [11]
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.
The Republic of Rose Island was a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy, built by Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa, who made himself its president and declared it an independent state on 1 May 1968. Rose Island had its own government, currency, post office, and commercial establishments, and the official language was Esperanto.
The Republic of Minerva was a micronation consisting of the Minerva Reefs. It was one of the few modern attempts at creating a sovereign micronation on the reclaimed land of an artificial island in 1972. The architect was Las Vegas real estate millionaire and political activist Michael Oliver, who went on to other similar attempts in the following decade. Lithuanian-born Oliver formed a syndicate, the Ocean Life Research Foundation, which had considerable finances for the project and had offices in New York and London. They anticipated a libertarian society with "no taxation, welfare, subsidies, or any form of economic interventionism." In addition to tourism and fishing, the economy of the new nation would include light industry and other commerce.
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.
Le Théâtre du Soleil is a Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble founded by Ariane Mnouchkine, Philippe Léotard and fellow students of the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in 1964 as a collective of theatre artists. Le Théâtre du Soleil is located at La Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory in the Vincennes area of eastern Paris. The company uses physical theatre and improvisation.
Talossa, also known as the Kingdom of Talossa, is one of the earliest micronations – founded in 1979 by then-14-year-old Robert Ben Madison of Milwaukee and at first confined to his bedroom; he adopted the name after discovering that the word means "inside the house" in Finnish. Among the first such projects still maintained, it has kept up a web presence since 1995. Its internet and media exposure since the late 1990s contributed to the appearance of other subsequent internet micronations.
Lazare Kopelmanas was an international jurist and diplomat. His older brother was Lithuanian businessman and public figure Moisey Kopelman.
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.
Edmond Couchot was a French digital artist and art theoretician who taught at the University Paris VIII.
The Empire of Austenasia is a micronation founded in 2008 in the United Kingdom. Operating under the constitutional monarchy of its fourth Emperor, Jonathan I, it consists of dozens of properties that have declared themselves independent under the leadership of a house in the London Borough of Sutton.
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”.
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.
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 Start Your Own Country is a 2010 Canadian documentary film directed by Jody Shapiro and written by Shapiro and Denis Seguin. Produced by Phyllis Laing and Shapiro, the film explores various aspects of micronationalism and features interviews with several prominent micronationalists. The production studios for the film are Buffalo Gal Pictures and Everyday Pictures. How to Start Your Own Country had its world premiere at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2010.
The League of Secessionist States is a dormant, Internet-based intermicronational organisation that exists "to promote intermicronational communication and partnership, and serves to act as a supramicronational, impartial Body where such a need for one may exist." Initially established on 26 November 1980 by Robert B. Madison, self-proclaimed king of the Kingdom of Talossa, it was reestablished in April 1996 during a "micronational boom" on the Internet. It was the principal intermicronational organisation on the Internet between 1997 and at least 2000.
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.