Molossia

  • Micronations
  • Founded 1977
  • Area 0.0053 km²
  • Motto Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Originally founded in 1977 as the Grand Republic of Vuldstein, The Republic of Molossia is a micronation run by Kevin Baugh. It lies just outside Virginia City, Nevada in the western United States. It is run humorously as a dictatorial banana-republic with Baugh operating as president. Kevin Baugh continues to pay property taxes on the land although he calls it ‘foreign aid’.

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Catalonia

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.

Black Hills

The Black Hills are the oldest mountain range in the United States, and home to the largest dispute between the US government and Native Americans. The dispute stems from the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie which awarded the Black Hills to the Sioux Nation. Shortly after, gold was discovered and the United States changed the treaty to deny the Sioux rights to the land. In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled the move to be illegal and awarded the Sioux $106 million. However, the payment, now worth over $1.3 billion, has been blocked by part of the Sioux Nation claiming the land was never for sale. The battle over the Black Hills has been carved into the granite of the mountains themselves. Mount Rushmore displays the heads of four famous US Presidents, the memorial to Native American icon Crazy Horse is still under construction.

Aerican Empire

This micronation was first conceived by five-year-old Eric Lis in 1987 and was completely fictional until Eric grew up and decided to turn it from a hobby into a political entity, it went online in 1997. Now, anyone can sign up to be a citizen and the territories consist of a number of colonies—terrestrial and extra-terrestrial. They include a square kilometre of land in Australia, a house-sized area in Montreal (containing the ‘Embassy to Everything Else’), a colony on Mars, the northern hemisphere of Pluto, and an imaginary planet. Silliness is never far away as the motto on the coat of arms states: ‘It’s a silly old world; let’s keep it that way.’