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virtual state projects
This page highlights some past and contemporary 'virtual
state' projects.
It covers -
They
illustrate the range of motivations in establishment of
virtual states, from amiable eccentricity to protest to
outright fraud.
Isola delle Rose
The Republic of Rose Island (aka Insulo de la Rozoj or
Isola delle Rose), under self-proclaimed President Giorgio
Rosa and supposedly using Esperanto as its official language,
comprised a 400 square metre platform. That platform,
constructed in 1968, was located 5 kilometres off Rimini
in the Adriatic Sea, ie in Italian national waters.
Assertion of independence in June 1968, amid publicity
over the casino, nightclub and other commercial facilities
on the platform, was rejected by an Italian government
eager to be seen as dealing with industrial unrest and
terrorism. The government indicated that Rose was seeking
to evade taxes. It accordingly dispatched four officials
to the platform and took control. The Italian Navy thereafter
used explosives to demolish the platform.
The state lives on through genuine and fake
Insulo de la Rozoj postage stamps.
Minerva
The Republic of Minerva,
between Tonga and Fiji, was established in 1972 by US
businessman Michael Oliver and the Ocean Life Research
Foundation as a "libertarian new country" that
would supposedly offer a tax shelter, feature its own
banks (with strong secrecy provisions) and operate its
own currency.
Oliver's group conducted dredging operations at the Minerva
Reefs to construct a small artificial island. Unsurprisingly
it gained no international recognition; claims of diplomatic
relations with the Sultanate of Ocussi-Ambeno were ridiculed
by critics who noted that the Sultanate was not a sovereign
state.
The supposed nation evaporated when Tonga sent a tiny
military force - reportedly three to five servicemen under
the supervision of King Tenfa'ahav - and formally annexed
the land. The monarch had reportedly been offered cash,
shipyard, an airline and even a television station for
a renunciation of claims to the Reefs. The island was
subsequently reported to have disappeared in successive
storms, albeit without the romance of Lyonesse and Atlantis
(no cathédrale engloutie).
The supposed state subsequently morphed into a principality,
headed by the Sovereign Prince and Supreme Regent Prince
Calvin. His Royal Highness (both "a fully engaged
leader of the Minervan liberation movement" and "an
accomplished concert performer, with abilities on most
brass instruments") is apparently resident in the
US.
The Minerva site, which provides opportunities to buy
Minervan gold coins, indicates that
After
years of failed attempts at liberation and control,
on October 1, 2003, a reformed Minervan government was
founded. The newly created constitutional monarchy –
established as the Principality of Minerva – was
established with the vision to establish Minerva as
a functional and active member of international community
of states.
... the Principality was established as the new and
official government of the Minervan state, with no official
ties to any representatives of the old Republic regime;
it is noteworthy to mention that while the Principality
was not directly endorsed by the founders of the Republic
and that the individuals who were associated with the
Republic and it's subsequent collapse no longer wish
to be associated with the Minervan State in any way,
they did communicate to the Principality that that they
had no continuing interest in maintaining the Republic
and that the Principality had full right to establish
itself as the legitimate government of the isles, becoming
the obvious and logical successor.
Oliver reportedly later became involved in a separate
attempt at establishing a new country on the island of
Abaco in the Bahamas and gaining influence for a libertarian
paradise in Vanuatu.
A precursor of Minerva was the attempt by contractor Louis
M Ray to create an island (and supposed state of the Grand
Capri Republic) in the Grand & Triumph Reefs in US
waters near the Florida Keys. The US government denied
permission for the necessary dredging but Ray began work
and was only stopped through a preliminary injunction.
A US court endorsed argument that federal jurisdiction
under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (consistent
with the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf)
extended to the seabed and subsoil of the outer continental
shelf adjacent to the Florida coast. It also accepted
that Washington's authority to prevent obstruction in
navigable waters included control over "artificial
islands and fixed structures" in that area.
An attempt to claim the same reefs was made by William
T Anderson and the Atlantis Development Corporation through
US and UK newspaper advertisements in the early 1960s.
Atlantis received varying advice from different government
agencies about the 'Atlantis, Isle of Gold' state before
the US federal government took legal action. The court
commented that
the
dreams of the separate groups for a new nation must
perish, like the lost continent 'Atlantis,' beneath
the waves and waters of the sea which constantly submerge
the reefs.
The
government concurrently warned off developers who purported
to be constructing the state of Abalonia in the Cortes
Bank (west of San Diego, California) and a 20 acre state
of Taluga - with Aurora as its capital - in the same location.
Camside
Australian entrepreneur David Siminton operated an unregistered
bank, the Terra Nova Cache (promising 50% returns from
investment in shiny metals), from the so-called State
of Sherwood in the Principality of Camside - perhaps not
unfairly characterised by one critic as Scamside.
He had reportedly "declared war" on the Australian
government - although the principality does not appear
to have been much more extensive than a post office box
- and unsuccessfully called on the Prime Minister to surrender.
Siminton's assets were instead frozen
in 2005 by APRA, the Australian supervisor of financial
institutions. He has attracted attention through association
with proponents of the claim
that Elizabeth II and other notables are in fact disguised
six foot tall green skinned lizards.
Two years earlier the Federal Court jailed internet trader
Neal Arthur Lyster after his failure to comply with conditions
of a suspended sentence that followed action by the Australian
Competition & Consumer Commission regarding misleading
and deceptive conduct through a site promoting 'Purple
Harmony Plates' (ACCC v Purple Harmony Plates Pty
Ltd (No 4) [2003] FCA 49).
Justice Goldberg rejected submissions from Lyster that
decisions of the Court were void, commenting
Mr
Lyster is labouring under a delusion that he is the
head of a non-existent state and that his conduct is
beyond the reach of the laws of Australia. Mr Lyster
should realise he is quite wrong in this respect.
Claims
by Lyster that he had seceded from the Commonwealth of
Australia and was not subject to the Court's jurisdiction
were thus unconvincing.
New Utopia and the Kingdom of Humanity
New Utopia was marketed by US cryogenics promoter Lazarus
Long (aka Howard Turney). In 2000 the US Securities &
Exchange Commission gained
a permanent injunction against Long under the the federal
Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of
1934.
During 1998 and 1999 Long had sought to raise US$350 million
through securities to "purportedly fund a new country
he claimed was being developed in the middle of the Caribbean".
Those securities were offered online but apparently did
not meet with much success, despite promises that New
Utopia "the most perfect city/state ever conceived,
blending the philosophies of both Ayn Rand and Robert
Heinlein", with
the finest hospital in the world, dedicated to the anti-aging
and longevity modalities where you may have any treatment
you wish, so long as you and your doctor agree [and]
The International University of Advanced Studies ...dedicated
to teaching the disciplines and imparting the knowledge
that will be needed in the next century for survival
on Earth, the colonization of the oceans, and the exploration
and colonization of space.
The
SEC claimed that Long made
material
misrepresentations and omissions concerning, among other
things, the status of construction of the project, the
companies associated with the project, the safety of
the investment, and the status of the Commission's investigation
into his activities.
The
Kingdom of Humanity, supposedly located in the Spratley
Islands, variously claimed to have been established by
ancestors of promoter Morton Meads or "discovered"
by Meads in 1946. Successive assertions of sovereignty
in dealing with China, the Phillippines, Malaysia, Taiwan,
Vietnam and other countries were unsuccessful but Meads
appears to have profited from a philatelic scam, albeit
being arrested in Manila during 1955.
Hutt
The Hutt
River Province was founded in 1970, when a Western
Australian farmer - later self-described as His Royal
Highness Prince Leonard of the Hutt River Principality
- declared his property independent after a dispute over
wheat quotas. Unsurprisingly the principality was not
recognised by Australian national or state government
agencies and courts. Assertions of independence were disingenous
and in an echo of the 'Kingdom of Lundy' the province/principality
prospered by sharing the fruits of its status as tourist
destination with the Australian Taxation Office.
Hutt inspired several less commercially successful epigones,
including -
- Alex
Brackstone's Province of Bumbunga near Snowtown in 1976
(better known for the later 'bodies in the barrels'
case)
-
the Independent State of Rainbow Creek in Victoria in
1979
- the
Principality of Marlborough declared by farmer George
Muirhead in Queensland in 1993 (state police evicted
Muirhead after 10 days)
-
the United Federation of Koronis
which delightfully claims both territory in Australia
and the Koronis family of asteroids and advises that
"citizenship is open to life forms", although
"it does not yet have facilities on the asteroids
to house and look after anyone seeking asylum on our
sovereign territory and as such it will not accept any
request for asylum of any kind"
- the
Principality of United Oceania, founded by Serene Highness
Prince Peter The First (ak Peter Gillies) at Medowie
after a dispute with Port Stephens Council in 2003
- the
Principality of Snake Hill, near Mudgee under Prince
Paul in 2003 ("It was necessary to secede from
Australia because two of our properties and income were
stolen through a wrongful suit")
-
the Principality of Ponderosa in Victoria - "a
state where Christians, white Anglo-Saxons and capitalists
are not discriminated against" - but defunct after
2005 when its founders were convicted
of tax fraud.
Avram
The Duchy of Avram
in Tasmania was established in 1980 by John Rudge, holder
of a Doctorate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity,
degrees that were presumably useful when he appointed
himself as Cardinal, Archbishop of the Royal See of the
Continent of Australia in 1982. (Being Prince John, the
Grand Duke of Avram, Marquis of Mathra, Earl of Enoch,
Viscount Ulom, Lord Rama etc was apparently insufficient.)
After gaining attention as an anti-tax campaigner "His
Grace the Duke of Avram" established the Royal Bank
of Avram and produced his own coins and banknotes. That
provoked intervention by the Australian Federal Police
in 1985. Rudge was later elected to the Tasmanian Parliament.
He appears to have recognised Australian law in a range
of court cases, eg here.
The Duchy currently appears to be selling a range of peerages
in addition to the usual coins and banknotes.
Lundy
A precursor of the 'Hutt River Province Principality'
is provided by the Kingdom of Lundy, established by businessman
Martin Coles Harman in 1924 after he acquired the island
of Lundy off the English coast.
Harman's pretensions were ignored until he issued his
own coinage (the Puffin and Half Puffin, ostensibly equivalent
to the Penny and Halfpenny), resulting in the House of
Lords' 1931 decision that he had breached the Coinage
Act 1870. Lundy currency is now a collectors' item, complicated
by a 1965 'fantasy' restrike and reported forgeries. The
Island was acquired by the National Trust in 1969.
Aeterna Lucina
The Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina (aka the Sovereign
Humanitarian Mission State of Aeterna Lucina) moved around
Australia for some twenty years from 1978. It was founded
by Supreme Lord Paul Neuman, self-described Baron Neuman
of Kara Bagh, a German-born pensioner with a penchant
for awarding himself honorifics (one source claims a mere
870 doctorates, awards and knighthoods - usually from
chivalric orders that appear to have had a membership
of one).
The state was initially located on a Neuman property near
Byron Bay, later moving to his Curl Curl residence and
then to a farm near Cooma. Aeterna's associates gained
attention in 1989 regarding prosecutions in NSW over alleged
land sale and visa offences. It attracted criticism overseas
regarding degree mills
and the sale of supposed honours. It lives on the collectibles
market, with trade in its documents and heraldic orders.
Interzone and Freedonia
Digital secessions include the Interzone Republic site,
a home for
individuals who have renounced or intend to renounce
their citizenship in any and all geographically-based
States, and who work towards replacing the valid functions
of those States from collectively-held resources.
Uh
huh. It is unclear whether that commitment extends beyond
the mouse-click.
The Principality of Freedonia
is another 'virtual state' - "a web nation whose
goal is to become a physical nation".
It is a curious amalgamation of libertarianism and hereditary
monarchy, in need we think of a visit from Captain Spalding,
the African Explorer, hurray hurray hurray! An apparent
attempt to lease territory in Africa during 2001 ended
sadly.
Laissez Faire, Lomar and Kamberra
Laissez
Faire City - "a sovereign international city
domiciled in Cyberspace" but apparently expiring
in 2002.
It has been joined by the Republic of Lomar,
domiciled in the US and exploited by 419
scammers who purported to sell passports for an idyllic
land located between Canada and the US.
The Kingdom of Kamberra,
supposedly somewhere in the South Pacific, was concocted
by Luxembourg teenager Franck Medina as the Principality
of Camberra in 1988, becoming the Kingdom of Camberra
later in that year and the Kingdom of Kamberra in 1990.
It offers a range of coins and banknotes, to be paid for
of course in the currency of real nations.
The Principality of New Pacific was another manmade island,
offshore from Mindanao and led by Prince John Prisco III.
Sealand
The Principality of Sealand
- discussed in more detail in the following page of this
note - was "founded as a sovereign Principality in
1967 in international waters, six miles off the eastern
shores of Britain". Like Insulo de la Rozoj it comprised
a small manmade platform.
The
history of Sealand is a story of a struggle for liberty.
Sealand was founded on the principle that any group
of people dissatisfied with the oppressive laws and
restrictions of existing nation states may declare independence
in any place not claimed to be under the jurisdiction
of another sovereign entity.
It
was described
more breathlessly as
Hunkered
down on a North Sea fortress, a crew of armed cypherpunks,
amped-up networking geeks, and libertarian swashbucklers
is seceding from the world to pursue a revolutionary
idea: an offshore, fat-pipe data haven that answers
to nobody
Secession
of course is not a revolutionary idea and the pseudo-principality
will not answer (or call) anybody if its supplies are
cut.
Atlantis
The Independent Virtual Kingdom of New
Atlantis in describing plans to build an entire continent
charmingly claims
you
will find it is not a mad dream, but a practical project,
well thought out, with technology available, and perhaps
your only criticism may be that we make it all sound
just too easy
Quite so.
The Empire of Atlantium
boasts its own potentate, coinage, calendar and (alas)
a post office box in Potts Point, Australia. It was founded
by 15 year old George Cruickshank, who has obligingly
mugged for media photographs ever since, and claims that
it is
a
legitimate, functioning, primarily non-territorial microstate
and proto-world state that possesses immanent, parallel
global sovereignty. The purpose of Atlantium is to promote
via its existence the fact that sovereignty in the modern
world does not need to ... have any form of territorial
basis, and that every individual has the right to choose
his or her citizenship irrespective of where they were
born, or where they live.
Atlantys
was another expiry in 2002 after apparent failure "to
provide the infrastructure necessary to facilitate the
formation of a Laissez Faire capitalist system within
Cyberspace".
Tierra del Mar, a floating 'country' near the Bahamas,
was founded by Leicester Hemingway after his Republic
of New Atlantis ("a bamboo platform anchored by a
railroad axle and an old Ford engine block") went
underwater in 1964. When we last looked it had not disappeared
in the Bermuda Triangle.
Nexus, designed by Eugene Tsui in 1986, was to be a self-propelled
floating island, complete with a mountain range and a
collection of self-governing New Age communities.
Talossa and Astrumia
The Kingdom of Talossa, founded by schoolboy Robert Madison
in 1979, subsequently migrated online as a competing kingdom
of Talossa and a republic
of Talossa.
Astrumia
is another kingdom for the Dungeons & Dragons demographic.
Reunion
The Holy Empire of Reunion,
founded in 1997 by Emperor Claudio (more generally known
as Claudio de Castro) boasted 156 citizens as of 2006.
Reunion claims that it
does
have a real government, real institutions, even government
dignitaries... It has everything, according to International
law Principles, which is necessary to be considered
a Nation, with the possible exception of a sovereign
territory.
Melchizedek and Poyais
And there is of course the supposed Dominion of Melchizedek
(DOM), which claims to be a non-virtual state with territory
in Antarctica and the Pacific, having unsuccessfully asserted
ownership of a Colombian island. It was reportedly established
by Mark Logan Pedley (aka Branch Vinedresser and other
names) while he was on parole for fraud.
In discussing Dominion-related offences US official John
Shockey told the 4th International Financial Fraud Convention
that
Fraudulent
operations disclosed included taking deposits, issuing
worthless guaranties and loan commitments, verifying
and authenticating values of other DOM entities which,
among other activities, was the issuance of hundreds
of millions of dollars of worthless debt instruments.
Some of these instruments reportedly were used as collateral
to obtain real money loans and were exchanged in several
brokerage houses for real value securities.
Promoting a phony sovereign country provides diversified
opportunities to engage in fraudulent activities. One's
imagination of the various types of fraud possible has
become a reality with DOM. A phony government consisting
of fraudsters creates phony citizenships, ambassadorships,
embassy and legation offices, issues diplomatic passports,
registers financial aid, grants business licenses, creates
a stock exchange, etc., etc., etc. - all phony. However,
each facet of this operation is a source which generates
substantial illegal income.
Earlier scams were exemplified by the Territory of Poyais,
concocted by Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor
(1786-1845). As supposed Cazique of a sovereign region
- located in Honduras' Mosquito Coast - MacGregor extracted
over £200,000 from gullible investors and buyers
of Poyais titles and commissions. The hoax fell apart
when immigrants discovered that the main city at Poyais
was, alas, merely an uninhabited swamp and that the orchards,
splendid boulevardes, theatres and other items on MacGregor's
maps were nowhere to be seen.
Elgaland
The supposed state of Elgaland demonstrates that Dada
is alive, well and still as smelly as a Port-Salut cheese.
It offers a perspective on the pretensions of the various
Minervas and Atlantises.
On the 27th of May 1992, the state of Elgaland-Vargaland
was proclaimed at the KREV embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.
The proclamation was shouted out by the founders, in
four directions; east, south, west and north. They annexed
and occupied all border territories between all countries
on earth, mental and perceptive territories such as
the the border area between waking and sleeping, the
borderline zones of mental diseases, near death experiences,
hypnosis and mesmerism, telekinetics, telepathy, suggestions,
strokes, delirium, various influences of drugs (such
as peyote, LSD, ecstasy, cannabis, thinner, ether, alcohol
etc), speaking in tongues, religious ecstasy, artistic
inspiration and expiration, possession by spirit, good
or evil, dusk and dawn, terror, love, orgasm, interference,
the state of contradiction or hesitation.
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