The 5 Micro-Countries Around the World

Republic of Molossia

The Republic of Molossiais a micronation founded by Kevin Baugh and headquartered near Dayton, Nevada.
It consists of Baugh’s house (known as Government House), backyard and front garden, as well as two other properties in Southern California and Pennsylvania. According to author John Ryan, Molossia is “a hobby… that has been pushed… to the nth degree.”

Originally established as a childhood project in 1977, Molossia subsequently evolved into a territorial entity in the late 1990s.
The name Molossia is derived from the Spanish word morro which means “small rocky hill.” Baugh notes that the ancient Greek tribe of Molossians is unrelated

Molossia has a space program, and by that we mean they have a store-bought telescope and some toy rockets with a camera attached to them to get an aerial photograph of the property.

Sealand

This little country is located in an abandoned World War II sea fort, called Fort Roughs in the North Sea 10 km (six miles) off the coast of Suffolk, England.
Since 1967, the facility has been occupied by former radio broadcaster British Army Major Paddy Roy Bates; his associates and family claim that it is an independent sovereign state.

On 2 September 1967, the fort was occupied by Major Paddy Roy Bates, a British subject and pirate radio broadcaster, who ejected a competing group of pirate broadcasters.
Bates intended to broadcast his pirate radio station Radio Essex from the platform

In 1968, the Royal Navy entered what Bates claimed to be his territorial waters in order to service a navigational buoy near the platform. Michael Bates (son of Paddy Roy Bates) tried to scare the workmen off by firing warning shots from the former fort. As Bates was a British subject at the time, he was summoned to court in England following the incident
The court ruled that as the platform (which Bates was now calling “Sealand”) was outside British jurisdiction, being beyond the then three-mile limit of the country’s waters,the case could not proceed. In 1975, Bates introduced a constitution for Sealand, followed by a flag, a national anthem, a currency and passports

In 1978, while Bates was away, Alexander Achenbach, who describes himself as the Prime Minister of Sealand, and several German and Dutch citizens staged a forcible takeover of Roughs Tower,holding Bates’ son Michael captive, before releasing him several days later in the Netherlands. Bates thereupon enlisted armed assistance and, in a helicopter assault, retook the fort. He then held the invaders captive, claiming them as prisoners of war. Most participants in the invasion were repatriated at the cessation of the “war”, but Achenbach, a German lawyer who held a Sealand passport, was charged with treason against Sealand and was held unless he paid DM 75,000 (more than US$ 35,000. The governments of the Netherlands and Germany petitioned the British government for his release, but the United Kingdom disavowed all responsibility, citing the 1968 court decision. Germany then sent a diplomat from its London embassy to Roughs Tower to negotiate for Achenbach’s release. Roy Bates relented after several weeks of negotiations and subsequently claimed that the diplomat’s visit constituted de facto recognition of Sealand by Germany. Following his repatriation, Achenbach established a “government in exile” in Germany,in opposition to Roy Bates, assuming the name “Chairman of the Privy Council”. He handed the position to Johannes Seiger in 1989 because of illness. Seiger continues to claim—via his website—that he is Sealand’s legitimate ruling authority

Sark

Sark is a small island in the southwestern English Channel. It is one of the Channel Islands, is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and as such is a British crown dependency. It has a population of about 600.
The whole island is extensively penetrated at sea level by natural cave formations, some of which are only safely accessible at low tide.

Sark also claims jurisdiction over the island of Brecqhou, only a few hundred feet west of Greater Sark. It is a private island that is not open to visitors. Since 1993 Brecqhou has been owned by David Barclay, one of the Barclay brothers, co-owners of The Daily Telegraph. They contest Sark’s control over the island.

The island is a car-free zone where the only vehicles allowed are horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, tractors, and battery-powered buggies or motorised bicycles for elderly or disabled people.
There is no airport on Sark and overflight of Sark is prohibited by the Air Navigation (Restriction of Flying) (Guernsey) Regulations 1985 (Guernsey 1985/21). The closest airports are the Guernsey Airport and the Jersey Airport. Sark lies directly in line of approach to the runway of Guernsey airport, however, and low flying aircraft overfly it all the time.
In August 1990 an unemployed French nuclear physicist named André Gardes attempted a singlehanded invasion of Sark, armed with a semi-automatic weapon. The night Gardes arrived he put up signsdeclaring his intention to take over the island the following day at noon. He was arrested while sitting on a bench, changing the gun’s magazine and waiting for noon to arrive, by the island’s volunteer Constable

Kingdom of Redonda

The “Kingdom of Redonda” is a name for the micronation aspect of the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.This islet is situated between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies and is uninhabited, and indeed is more or less uninhabitable since there is no source of freshwater, and most of the island is extremely steep and rocky, with only a relatively small area of grassland at the top.

The history of the “Kingdom” of Redonda is shrouded in doubt and legend, and it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.
M. P. Shiel, an author of works of fantasy fiction, was the first person to ever mention the idea of the “Kingdom of Redonda” and that was in 1929, in a promotional pamphlet for a reissue of his books
According to one of several different versions of the story, his father, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a banker from Montserrat, claimed the island when his first son, Matthew Phipps Shiell, was born. Supposedly the father felt he could legitimately do this, because it appeared to be the case that no country had officially claimed the islet as territory. Sheill senior is also said to have requested the title of King from Queen Victoria, and as legend has it, she granted it to him as long as there was no revolt against colonial power

The son (originally named Matthew Phipps Shiell but later known as M.P. Shiel) was supposedly crowned on Redonda at the age of 15 by a bishop from Antigua.

Christiania

The area of Christiania consists of the former military barracks of Bådsmandsstræde and parts of the city ramparts. The ramparts and the borough of Christianshavn (then a separate city) were established in 1617 by King Christian IV by reclaiming the low beaches and islets between Copenhagen and Amager. After the siege of Copenhagen during the harsh wars with Sweden, the ramparts were reinforced during 1682 to 1692 under Christian V to form a complete defence ring. The western ramparts of Copenhagen were demolished during the 19th century, but those of Christianshavn were allowed to remain. They are today considered among the finest surviving 17th century defence works in the world

After the military moved out, the area was only guarded by a few watchmen and there was sporadic trespassing of homeless people using the empty buildings. On 4 September, 1971, inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhood broke down the fence to take over parts of the unused area as a playground for their children.
Although the takeover was not necessarily organised in the beginning, some claim this happened as a protest against the Danish government. At the time there was a lack of affordable housing in Copenhagen.

The primary export is drugs, making Christiania a fun-sized version of Colombia but without the perpetual state of civil war.