Note: This page is about a small number of entities that are mostly historical anomalies and aspirant states founded on historical anomalies or eccentric interpretations of law. This page is about entities that are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations. For information on countries that are generally recognized, but are geographically tiny such as Nauru, Vatican City, or San Marino, see microstates. Micronations – sometimes also referred to as cybernations, fantasy countries, model countries, and new country projects – are entities that resemble independent nations or states, but for the most part exist only on paper, on the Internet, or in the minds of their creators. Some micronations have managed to extend some of their operations into the real world: examples of this may include currency, flags, postage, etc. These trappings of the more widely accepted nations and states of the "real world" may serve to enhance the suspension of disbelief for people both inside and outside of the micronations in question.
  The term "micronation" is a neologism originating in the 1990's to describe the many thousands of small, unrecognized state-like entities that have arisen mostly since that time. The term has since also come to be used retroactively to refer to earlier unrecognized entities, some of which date as far back as the 19th century. In recent years the term "micropatrology" has been used by some to describe the study of micronations; it is not a formal academic 
discipline.
  Micronations should be distinguished from various entities which exercise effective governmental and military control over a territory, despite not being recognized as a state by most or all other states. Examples of such entities would include South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Transnistria, or many parts of the world controlled by rebel guerilla groups. By contrast, micronations do not exercise effective military or governmental control of any more than a very small area (e.g. the private property of its founders), if that. These criteria distinguish micronations from imaginary countries, eco-villages, campuses, tribes, clans, sects, and residential community associations, which do not usually seek to be recognized as sovereign. Micronations should also be distinguished from entities that have diplomatic relations with other recognized nation-states of the world without being formally recognized themselves by many nation-states or major international bodies (such as the UN). Examples of this include Taiwan, Tibet, and Palestine. By contrast, micronations do not generally have diplomatic relations with recognized nation-states of the world or major international bodies (such as the UN).

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                  Adopted 1970

Administrator
21 Apr 1970 - 1970          Leonard                            (b. 1927)
                              (Leonard George Caseley)
Prince 
1970 -                      Leonard I                          (s.a.)

Territorial Dispute: 'Independence' not recognized by Australia or any other nation.

note: Leonard Casley settled as a farmer in Western Australia in 1969. Outraged by the low wheat allotment sent him by the Australian government that year, Casley seceded and formed the independent Hutt River Province. Casley's new country soon came under attack, when the Prime Minister began threatening action against Hutt River. The citizens of Hutt River responded by acclaiming Casley as Prince Leonard I; under Commonwealth law, a monarch could not be charged with treason. While the loopholes have since been closed, the Australian government has not moved against Hutt River since the declaration. Leonard and his son, Crown Prince Ian, rule as benevolent monarchs over the sixty-odd residents and some 17,500 overseas citizens. 
  Hutt River Province Principality is situated 595 km north of Perth, Western Australia and is about 75 square km in size, consisting of some 18,500 acres of land. Hutt River is an Independent Sovereign State having  seceded from Australia on 21 Apr 1970 and is of comparable size to Hong Kong (not the New Territories). 

                    Adopted 1973
 

Map of Saugeais Hear National Anthem  "National Hymn" Text of National Anthem Adopted 1947 Constitution (2001) Capital: Montbenoît Currency: Saugeais Sol; Euro (EUR); to 1 Jan 2002 French Franc (FRF) National Holiday: 1st Sunday in Oct. (Montbenoît Festival) Population: 4, 500 (2005 est.) GDP: $N/A Exports: $N/A Imports: $N/A Ethnic groups: French, Swiss, German Total Armed Forces: 13 (2005) Religions: Roman Catholic, others International Organizations/Treaties: None Saugeais Index Chronology 1150                        Landry, the Seigneur of Joux, gives the                                territory to Humbert, the Archbishop of                                Besançon.  1100                        A hermit named Benoît lives with a small                                community. These religionists were led by                                Narduin and lived under the rule of                                St. Colomban. They clear the region and                                construct the abbey, around which later will                               group eleven communes (which today are in                               the French département of Doubs). 1773                        Abbey is closed. 1947                        Republic of Saugeais (République du Saugeais)                                proclaimed, partly in response to a joke by                                the local Prefect Ottavianni (not recognized                               by Doubs département or France). Saugeais website

Presidents
1947 - 1968                Georges Pourchet                   (b. 1901? - d. 1968)
1972 - 31 Aug 2005         Gabrielle Pourchet (f)             (b. 1906 - d. 2005)
                             (de facto 1968-1972)
 1 Sep 2005 - 28 Jan 2006  Jean-Marie Nicod (interim)         (b. 1951)
28 Jan 2006 -              Georgette Bertin-Pourchet (f)      (b. 1934)

Prime minister
1990 -                     Jean-Marie Nicod                   (s.a.)

Territorial Dispute: 'Independence' not recognized by France or any other nation.

note: The Republic of Saugeais is located in the upper valley of the river Doubs, an area known as Val Sauget since the XIIth century. The republic is made of the 11 municipalities of Les Alliés, Arçon, Bugny, La Chaux-de-Gilley, Gilley, Hauterive-la-Fresne, la Longeville, Maisons-du-Bois-Lièvremont, Montbenoît, Montflovin and Ville-du-Pont.
  In the middle of the XIIth century, Landry, Lord of Joux, decided to found and fund an abbey in the desert upper valley of Doubs. He gave land to Humbert, Archbishop of Besançon, who invited monks from Saint-Maurice-d'Agaune (Valais/Wallis, Switzerland) to settle there. The monks came with colons from the Grishuns and Savoy, who brought their local languages
which were still widely used in the valley in the beginning of the XXth century. The colons met the local hermit Benoît, and the abbey was named after him. A monk called Norduin built the abbey, which was placed under St. Colomban's rule. The abbey remained under the control of the Lords of Joux. In 1508, the system of commende was established, by which the abbots
rcieved a rent but did not live in the abbey. The most famous of these commendataire abbots was Ferry Carondelet, a former councilor of Emperor Charles V fond of the Italian Renaissance, who richly decorated the abbey. The abbey was eventually closed in 1723.
  In 1947, the Prefect of the department of Doubs, Mr. Ottavianni, came to Montbenoît to attend the recruiting board. He took his lunch in the Hôtel de l'Abbaye in Montbenoît, owned by Georges Pourchet. As a joke, Pourchet asked the Prefet: "Do you have a transire allowing you to enter the Republic of Saugeais?" The Prefect asked for more details on the Republic and
eventually answered: "A Republic must have a President. You are appointed President of the Free Republic of Saugeais." The President died in 1968. His wife Gabrielle retired in 1970 but remained active in Montbenoît, helping the parish priest to preserve the abbey. In 1972, a festival was organized in order to raise funds for the abbey preservation. During the lunch,
Gabrielle Pourchet was elected by acclamation President of the Free Republic of Saugeais for the rest of her life.

Prince
 2 Sep 1967 -               Roy I (Roy Bates)                  (b. 1921)
 6 Nov 1999 -               Michael of Sealand -Regent         (b. 1952)
                             (Michael Bates) 

No Political Parties Exist

Territorial Disputes: U.K. claims Sealand territorial waters and jurisdiction since 1987 (date of extension of U.K. territorial limits); 'Independence' not recognized by U.K. or any other nation.

note: Sealand is an abandoned World War II anti-aircraft platform in the Thames Estuary. It just outside the UK's 3-mile territorial water limit. In the mid 1960s it was occupied by a British businessman, Roy Bates, and his family. He proclaimed himself Prince Roy and the platform to be the Principality of Sealand. They have had a checkered history: at one point some associates of Prince Roy made an armed occupation of the platform and he had to make an armed counter-coup. The invaders were overwhelmed, tried and sentenced to death for treason. However, the Sealanders decided it would be prudent to commute the sentences to exile and the invaders were released. 
  Recently the British Home Office issued a statement saying that in the British government's view Sealand remains British territory and that if there are grounds to suspect that its occupants have broken British law action will be taken. 
  The nation of Sealand is composed of a steel and concrete platform anchored to the bottom of the sea off the coast of England, not in the Channel but in the North Sea. Once known as Roughs Tower, it was built by the British military in what were then international waters anywhere beyond 3 nautical miles from the coast as a defense against Germany during World War II. The fortress is located about 7 nautical miles from shore at 51° 53' 40" north latitude, 01° 28' 7" east longitude. 
  The troops abandoned the fort after the war, leaving it legally deserted and abandoned, and easing the way for Englishman Roy Bates and his family to settle there on September 2, 1967. Proclaiming the island his own state, Bates gave the titles of prince and princess to himself and his wife and called his new home the Principality of Sealand. 
  Prince Roy's sovereignty was contested by the British government in 1968. When Royal Marines were cruising off his "coast," the prince even fired warning shots from the fort's old guns. Soon after, a British court declared it had no jurisdiction outside British territorial waters, thus leaving Sealand its autonomy. Since 1987 English territorial waters have extended from 3 to 12 nautical miles. The principality now has 160,000 citizens, mostly business people who claim secondary citizenship in Sealand but live in their countries of origin. 

Prince
23 Apr 1995 -               Giorgio I (Giorgio Carbone)        (b. 1936)

Territorial Dispute: 'Independence' not recognized by Italy or any other nation.

note: On 21 May 1995, the news program ARD Weltspiegel (German television) reported from the 'independent Principato di Seborga' at the foot of the Ligurian Alps in Italy (near the border with France). At the end of Apr, the majority of the inhabitants (304 against 4) of this tiny village voted in favor of independence.
  Giorgio Carbone, the so-called "prince" of Seborga, claims the independence of that village, but it had been annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia (ruled by the House of Savoy) on 20 Jan 1729. Before that date the village wasn't a Principality, but a feudal possession of the  of the Cistercian Order. The inhabitants might have voted for the independence in an illegal referendum made by Mr. Carbone, but they still vote in the legal elections of the Republic of Italy, as demonstrated by at (www.parlamento.it) And the mayor, Franco Fogliarini, democratically elected by the citizens of the municipality of Seborga on 13 May 2001, is openly against the independence of Mr. Carbone's "Principality", as demonstrated by his interview in article at (www.lapadania.com).