Westarctica

  • Micronations
  • Founded 2 November 2001
  • Currency Westarctica Dollar
  • Citizens 2356 (none are living there)
  • Area 1,605,793 km²

The Grand Duchy of Westarctica, as it is officially known, is one of the world's largest micronations. In 2001 Travis McHenry was reading through the CIA World Factbook about the antarctic and learned that: ‘no formal claims have been made in the sector between 90 degrees west and 150 degrees west’. This inspired him to claim this specific part of land and he named himself Grand Duke. After initial protests from his employer—the US navy—he stepped away from the project but returned to his post in 2014. He registered the country as a non-profit organization looking after the neglected western side of Antarctica and accepting tax-free gifts.

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South Ossetia

South Ossetia is a de facto state in South Caucasus, which declared independence from Georgia in 1991. Military conflicts with the Georgian army occurred in 1991-1992, 2004 and 2008. South Ossetia is recognized as a state by the UN member states Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria, and by the unrecognized states Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a very mountainous region at the juncture of Asia and Europe, which struggles economically as employment and supplies are scarce. The region relies heavily on military, political and financial aid from Russia.

Kuril Islands

The Kuril Islands (Russian: Кури́льские острова́, Japanese: Kuriru rettō (クリル列島)) form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately 1,300 km between Japan and Russia. They are under Russian jurisdiction, but Japan claims the four southernmost islands, which they call the ‘Northern Territories’. They were under Japanese control between 1855 and 1945 but were seized by Russia after World War II. The Japanese population living on the islands was forced to moved by Russia to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Ainu, the indigenous people who live on the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, also claim sovereignty over the islands. The disputed are Iturup/Etorofu, Kunashir /Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands.

Sedang

The Kingdom of Sedang was created by French explorer Charles-Marie David de Mayréna in 1888. Mayréna was a former French government official who was involved in various dubious affairs including arms deals and embezzlement. He owned a plantation in French Indo-China and when the King of Siam began to claim land around the French territory, he took advantage and convinced the local tribesmen to form a small kingdom under his rule. He then offered various governments trading rights to the Kingdom but to no avail. The Kingdom perished when Mayréna died under mysterious circumstances in 1890.