Kingdom of Lovely

  • Micronations
  • King Danny Wallace
  • Founded 1 January 2005
  • Motto Die dulci freure
  • Members 58.165

The internet based micronation Kingdom of Lovely was the result of a television program hosted by British comedian Danny Wallace: ‘How To Start Your Own Country’. The initial location for the micronation was Wallace’s own flat in London. Anyone could become an ambassador simply by registering online and sending in a photograph of your ‘embassy’ with the flag. Wallace also attempted to get the Kingdom recognized by the United Nations, which failed as he did not have any independent territory.

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Transnistria

Transnistria is a small strip of land located between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine. It declared independence in 1990, but has only been recognized as a sovereign entity by—the also unrecognized—South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The United Nations still legally considers Transnistria a part of the Republic of Moldova. The most well known company in Transnistria is called Sheriff—it owns a chain of petrol stations, a chain of supermarkets, a TV channel, a publishing house, a construction company, a Mercedes-Benz dealership, an advertising agency, a spirits factory, two bread factories, a mobile phone network, the football club FC Sheriff Tiraspol and its newly built Sheriff Stadium.

Corisco Bay

Corisco Bay lies just north of the Gabonese capital Libreville and near where the border between Gabon and the Equatorial Guinea meets the Atlantic Ocean. Formerly the bay was administered by Spain, but the area was handed over to Equatorial Guinea when it became independent in 1968. In the late 20th century oil was discovered in Equatorial Guinea and it became one of Africa’s largest oil producers, making Equatorial Guinea the richest country per capita in Africa—though the wealth is extremely unevenly divided. Neighbouring country Gabon also claims the islands in Corsico Bay as they hold a key position with regards to the oil reserves in the area.

Parva Domus

The Republic of Parva Domus Magna Quies (‘Small house, great rest’) is located in a mansion in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1878 as a fishing club, the civil organization occupied an extensive hacienda in the outskirts of Montevideo, of which today only the main mansion remains. The rest was converted into condominium complexes, which are the main source of income for the small republic. It is also a social, civil and cultural club. According to its constitution it can only have a maximum of 250 citizens at a time—all men—but throughout its history, it had almost 850,000 inhabitants. Among them there have been illustrious figures such as the writer Rubén Darío, the Italian musician Arturo Toscanini, the Italian politician Giuseppe Garibaldi or the Uruguayan president Juan Campisteguy. During the Uruguay River pulp mill dispute, in 2007, the micronation managed to gather the foreign ministers of Argentina and Uruguay at their headquarters, who sang tangos and drank wine, while negotiating a peaceful solution to the conflict.