What are Micronations?

Has anyone ever told you that Vatican City is the smallest nation on the planet?

Well, common knowledge might suggest that, but there is a whole movement full of new revolutionaries that would argue otherwise.

What I am referring to is the "micronation" phenomenon. These tiny nations, many of them monarchies, have been springing up around the globe for a vast number of ridiculous reasons, ranging from political protest to anger over taxes to the creator's ego. Unrecognized by nearly all modern nations, micronations nonetheless manage to function as their own entities often living in defiance to the larger countries whose territory they claim. But what are micronations? What type of person would create them and act as their leader? And what effect do they have on the modern world?

Micronations are a primarily modern phenomenon, and the first real examples date to the early 19th century. There were various groups, typically individuals or families, who claimed a portion of land as an independent nation and ruled it as so, often ignored by mainstream governments. The most successful early example was the Kingdom of Redonda, which still operates today.

In the 1960s the micronation movement began to pick up, and with the development of the Internet the number of micronations exploded. The most famous of these timy countries is Sealand, ruled and inhabited by one family on a platform that was a naval base and that was ruled to have been outside of British territory.

Micronations often have their own flag and currency, though they are rarely recognized by people outside of the movement.  Because of their tiny size, micronations can sustain laws that larger nations cannot, and most of the time one of the founders serves as the absolute leader or member of the royalty.

Other than Sealand, there have been other notable micronations that have, for one reason or another, come into existance.

The Republic of Minerva- A state founded as a libertarian paradise and set up on an artificial island. The regime collapsed when the land was conquered by Tongo.

Hay-on-Wye- A town in Wales that was declared its own nation by "King" Richard Booth.  It has become successful as a Mecca for bibliophiles, with many stores devoted to specialty and secondhand books.

The Principality of Hutt River- A small region in western Austrailia that seceded due to disagreements over wheat sale quotas and that continues to operate as its own nation, though Austrailia does not recognize it.

The Republic of Molossia- A parcel of land near Dayton, Nevada, that was officially founded in 1999.  It is an example of a micronation primarily for entertainment purposes.

Micronations have various purposes, including these:

-Exercizes in entertainment or self-aggrandizement.

-Promotion of an agenda or a philosophy or as protest against government actions.

-Utopian plans or "new nation projects".

-Artistic purposes.

-Simulation that tries to discover how a type of government would function on a larger scale.

There are other reasons , in fact each there are as many purposes for micronations as there are micronations.  I have found in my own research that micronations often have fascinating, and somewhat absurd, histories.