It’s Friday. We’re all a bit tired, some ill, most of us are a bit loopy. The conversation turned to the world’s wackiest country, and devolved from there. Here are some highlights:
- The Aerican Empire, a Monty Pythonesque micronation founded in 1987 and known for its tongue-in-cheek interplanetary land claims, smiley-faced flag and a range of national holidays (called “niftydays,” because “there’s nothing holy about them”) that includes “Topin Wagglegammon” amongst others.
- The Kingdom of Lovely is an attempt by King Danny I (Danny Wallace) to create an internet nation based in his flat in London.
- The Principality of Sealand, a World War II-era anti-aircraft platform built in the North Sea beyond Britain’s then territorial limit, seized by a pirate radio group in 1967 as a base for their operations, and currently used as the site of a secure web-hosting facility. Sealand has continued to promote its independence by issuing stamps, money, and appointing an official national athlete. It has been described as the “world’s most notorious micronation” as well as the “world’s smallest and weirdest country”.
- The Crown Dependency of Forvik is an island in Shetland, currently recognized as part of UK. Stuart Hill claims that independence comes from an arrangement struck in 1468 between King Christian I of Denmark/Norway and Scotland’s James III, whereby Christian pawned the Shetland Islands to James in order to raise money for his daughter’s dowry. Hill claims that the dowry was never paid and therefore it is not part of UK and should be a crown dependency like the Isle of Man. Hill has also encouraged the rest of Shetland to declare independence.
- Republic of Minerva, another libertarian project that succeeded in building a small man-made island on the Minerva Reefs south of Fiji in 1972 before being invaded by troops from Tonga, who formally annexed it before destroying the island.
- The Pitcairn Islands are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the last British Overseas Territory in the Pacific. The four islands have a total land area of about 47 square kilometres. Only Pitcairn, the second largest island, is inhabited. The islands are inhabited by the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians (or Polynesians) who accompanied them. With only about 67 inhabitants, originating from four main families, Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world. The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.