Boon Island

  • Micronations
  • Founded on April 1, 2003
  • Regent Tim Harrison

The Republic of Boon Island declared its independence on 1st April 2003, in an effort to raise funds to restore and maintain the remote lighthouse off the coast of Maine. ‘Every political and government office for the new Republic is for sale—for the right price’, the self proclaimed regent of the new republic Tim Harrison said to reporters. ‘We are a corrupt government, but we are corrupt for the benefit of the people and for the people.’ Citizenship was available to anyone who was willing to pay the $25.00 fee. In 2014, the lighthouse was sold to a real estate developer.

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Abkhazia

Abkhazia lies on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, flanked by Russia to the North and Georgia to the South. In 1990, just before the dissolution of the USSR, Abkhazia declared its sovereignty. This was not accepted by neighbor state Georgia nor the government in Moscow and led to an armed conflict in 1992 which lasted for 14 months. The Georgian troops were forced to leave Abkhazia and in 1994 a new constitution was drawn. It was adopted by popular referendum in 1999 after which Abkhazia once again declared its State Sovereignty. However, it was only after Abkhazian forces fought against Georgian forces during the Russo-Georgian War in 2008 that Abkhazia was formally recognized by Russia. It is also recognized as an independent state by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, Nauru, South Ossetia, Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh. The Parliament of Georgia still considers Abkhazia as an autonomous republic within its territory.

Chagos Archipelago

The Chagos Archipelago is a group of seven atolls consisting of more than sixty islands, of which Diego Garcia is the largest and the only one inhabited. The sovereignty is disputed between Mauritius, the Maldives and the United Kingdom, which considers it to be part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The indigenous Chagossians, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, were evicted between 1967 and 1973 when the UK rented the area out to the United States to build a military base. Whereas only military and civilian contracted personnel is now living on Diego Garcia, the Chagossian natives still fight for their return to the islands. In 2019, the United Nations adopted a resolution that affirmed that the archipelago forms an integral part of Mauritius.

Principality of Pontinha

The islet of Pontinha and its fort, located in the Madeira Archipelago, were property of the Portuguese state until King Carlos I of Portugal sold the islet in 1903 to the Blandy family of Madeira, he needed money for infrastructure. In 2000, Madeiran art teacher Renato de Barros bought the islet and fort for € 25.000 from the Blandys and declared independence from Portugal, proclaiming himself Prince of Pontinha. In 2017 the micronation granted political asylum to the erratic Portuguese politician José Manuel Coelho, who had a pending prison sentence and is currently back in jail. At the moment, there are four citizens on the island: the prince, his wife, his son and his daughter.