Catalonia

  • Unrecognized states
  • Independence proclaimed 27 October 2017
  • President Carles Puigdemont
  • Capital Barcelona
  • Population 7,522,596
  • Area 32,108 km²

Catalonia is an autonomous community in Spain. It is in the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula and is designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. It consists of four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. On 27 October 2017, the Catalan Parliament declared independence from Spain following a disputed referendum. The Spanish Senate voted in favour of enforcing direct rule by removing the entire Catalan government and calling a snap regional election for 21 December. On 2 November of the same year, the Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned 7 former ministers of the Catalan government on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, while several others, including then President Carles Puigdemont, fled to various European countries.

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Western Sahara

The Sahrawi Republic is a partially recognized state that claims the non-self-governed territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of it. Morocco controls and administers the rest of the disputed territory and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The Sahrawi Republic was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27th February, 1976, to fill what they considered a political void left by the departing Spanish colonizers. It maintains diplomatic relations with 40 UN states and is a full member of the African Union. While the claimed capital is the former Western Sahara capital El-Aaiún, the provisional capital was formally moved to Tifariti in 2008. Day-to-day business, however, is conducted in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, which house most of the exiled Sahrawi community.

Paracel Islands

The Paracel Islands, also known as Xisha Islands (Chinese) or Hoang Sa Archipelago (Vietnamese), are an archipelago of about 130 small islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The islands are under the control of China, but are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. The French colonial government tried to incorporate the archipelago into French Indochina, but the Chinese took control over the islands after the ‘Battle of the Paracel Islands’ in 1974. It is home to the largest blue sinking hole in the world: the Dragon Hole.

AVL-Ville

In the year 2001 Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout, realised AVL-Ville, a ‘free state’ in the port of Rotterdam with its own constitution, currency and flag. It was a utopian village, where people could live and work in an ecological, autarkic way. It was partly set up as a protest against the over-regulation of the Dutch government. After a successful and tumultuous year, AVL-Ville had to close its doors.