Definition of Micronation-Microstate

Although technically they are two slightly different concepts, here we will analyze them together for their logical similarity. A microstate is an internationally recognized state whose physical dimensions or the number of citizens are very small. Likewise, a micronation is a microstate project, in the sense that it meets the characteristics but does not have international recognition.

An example of an extreme microstate is the Vatican; with his territory completely within the city of Rome (the border is marked by a simple line painted on the ground, and there is no customs u another specific point where to pass, since the dividing line is on the same street, it has an area of ​​0.44 square kilometers, and its population it does not reach a thousand people.

Besides this, in Europe there are other microstates; the smallest that follow the Vatican are Monaco (with little more than 2 square kilometers and little more than 30,000 inhabitants, located on the French Côte d'Azur near the border with Italy), and San Marino (61 square km and less than 33,000 population).

Some microstates are made up of only one city, such as Monaco, while others resemble a small region, such as a region of a large country.

Liechtenstein (160 km² and about 37,000 inhabitants), Andorra (468 km² and about 85,000 inhabitants) and Luxembourg (2,586.4 km² and almost 600,000 inhabitants, being perhaps the largest of the microstates) complete the existing microstates in Europe.

Along with the so-called “old continent”, the other places in the world where microstates proliferate the most are the waters of the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Nauru, with 21 square kilometers of extension and just under 10,000 inhabitants is, together with Tuvalu (26 km² and just over 10,000 inhabitants) and the Mashall Islands (181 km², about 71,000 inhabitants), are the smallest microstates in the Pacific.

In the Caribbean Sea we find Saint Kitts and Nevis (261 km² and more than 50,000 inhabitants), the island of Grenada (344 km2, 110,000 inhabitants), and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (389 km², less than 103,000 inhabitants) as the smaller states.

A micronation is, on paper, a budding microstate, that is, a human community that wants to be internationally recognized as a state. However, in practice this ideal definition may differ from reality.

Take for example one of the most paradigmatic micronations: the self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand.

Its territory consists of a military platform outside functioning in the north sea and abandoned. It is not, then, an "old nation”Whose origins go back to the middle Ages (as in the case of Andorra) or even earlier (as in the case of the microstates of Oceania), if not simply the fruit of a family who took the opportunity to settle there and claim it as his own.

Another similar case is that of the islet of Pontinha, which we can find in the southern part of the Portuguese island of Madeira. Its surface is 187 square meters and its owner, Renato Barrios (self-proclaimed monarch of the territory), declared it independent in 2007 after a dispute with the government Madeiran for a bar that he wanted to open in the fort on the island, the rest of the beginning of the Portuguese colonization on the island.

The paroxysm of micronations reaches such bizarre cases as that of Vikesland, in Canada, whose territory is a small family ranch... of course its foundation comes from a reportage for TV who made his "sovereign" (television cameraman for more information), and dedicates his "national" activities to charity.

We can even find “empires” among these micronations, as in the case of Austenasia, a project born in 2008 when a father and son who living in a single family home in South London sent a letter to their local representative in the British Parliament informing him of the independence... from your home.

The publication of the case in Internet it has made other private homes throughout the British territory join the nation, creating an "empire" with pieces of territory divided between England and Scotland.

An interesting micronation project is Asgardia, since its territory is not of this world. Literally: its objective is to plant satellites in space as its own territory, and to gain international recognition.

Of these satellites, one has been successfully launched. The objective - difficult - is to achieve a nation with new laws of its own.

Photo: Fotolia RoroB

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