The Micronationalist

Books relevant to micronations, utopias, new country projects, model countries and related topics.

Books

Edwin R. Strauss’s How to Start Your Own Country is the first known guide to micronations. Documents five twentieth century attempts to create new countries, including Minerva and Rose Island.

The Lonely Planet guide to Micronations. Their definition of a micronation includes everything from Sealand (a WWII military platform occupied by the Bates family), to the Conch Republic (a publicity stunt in Florida keys), to Lovely (the premise of a TV series), Molossia (a house and block in Nevada), and British West Florida (a website promoting the integration of part of Florida into the British Empire).

The Republic of Indian Stream, “In 1796, the Native American chief, King Phillip, placed his mark on a paper deeding his land to three New Hampshire wheeler-dealers… the inhabitants proclaimed their settlement the Indian Stream Republic … A tale of struggle, survival, and independence in a disputed northern New England frontier”.

Imposters, Pretenders and Rebels is a “light hearted” look at would be kings, the “quirkier dead ends of history”, “Some of the pretenders seem figures of farce, but others rise to the level of tragic heroism.”

The Land That Never Was: Sir Gregor MacGregor And The Most Audacious Fraud In History tells the tragic story of how “in 1822 and 1823, some two hundred and fifty emigrants set sail from England for the shores of Poyais, in South America. That country, however, was the invention of a con man called Sir Gregor MacGregor”.

The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps sounds absurd, and it probably is, but there are plenty of seemingly serious micronation projects predicated on space colonisation. This is the sort of thinking that informs their world view.

Pirate Utopias “focuses on the Corsairs’ most impressive accomplishment, the establishment of independent Pirate Republic of Sale, in 17th Century Morocco. Thousands of Europeans also converted to Islam and joined the pirate holy war … did they abandon and betray Christendom as a praxis of social resistance?”

L’Etat c’est moi: Histoire des monarchies privees, principautes de fantaisie et autres republiques pirates is a collection of essays and documents on what the author terms private monarchies, the principalities of fantasy and other pirate republics.

Movies & DVDs

In How To Start Your Own Country comedian Danny Wallace sets about creating his own country. He tries to invade an inhabited island in the Thames, goes to the UN, solicits citizens, meets Noam Chomksy and visits Sealand. 2 disc set.

Passport to Pimlico: When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, an area of London, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is, in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory.

The Mouse that Roared tells the story of the fictional European principality of Grand Fenwick and it’s plan to lose a war with America in order to obtain reconstruction aid…

The Man Who Would be King, oh how many micronations have been launched after an intoxicated viewing of this classic?