 Hey guys, so today I'm going to talk about micro nations another fascination of mine So micro nations are essentially small unrecognized nations the difference between a micro nation and say a country Like the Vatican, which is essentially a micro nation is that a micro nation does not have support from other recognized nations recognized on the international stage the easiest way to think about it is say the United Nations is a List of recognized nations so countries that recognize the presence of each other and their borders And their passports and the fact that you are a citizen of one or another nation Well a micro nation is like a little Small one that was created maybe for idealistic reasons or due to just someone having a beef with their local government or some guy in his Backyard because he felt a little bit crazy that day So they are not recognized by the big boys They want to play in the big boys, but they can't play for big boys because the big boys won't let them in however, they can play among each other and Every now and then in history one of these little guys somehow worms his way into becoming one of the big boys So I have a real fascination with micro nations because well, they're small bizarre and off the side and I'm fascinated in things Which are not generally considered normal by the majority of people around the world I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing doesn't matter anyway eight years ago a Micronation came into existence called Liberland now Liberland was basically founded in Well, it was founded between Croatia and Serbia and if you go to the Wikipedia article it's got a here Liberland also known as the Free Republic of Liberland is an unrecognized Micronation and Southeast Europe claiming an uninhabited parcel of disputed land on the Western Bank of the Danube and It was founded by this guy right here and when this country came into existence this Micronation there was like a real Interest among specific segments of the Esperanto community who wanted to be able to push Esperanto into the Constitution of this new Micronation and that's where I kind of got interested and I was like what's going over here And I actually connected with the leader of this new Micronation on LinkedIn and via email and chatted with him quite a bit So I can claim to be friends with you know a world leader Okay, anyway, so I connected with him spoke a little bit in the end What happened was that Esperanto didn't get into the Constitution English got in and also check Which is his native language, which I guess makes sense But Liberland was an interesting case because it was started by a politician someone who actually understood politics And he managed to make a fair few contacts around the world and even kind of get like Support in written ways from other politicians and other countries primarily ones that belong to libertarian groups so in Poland and America and stuff like that and Liberland really grew online So it's primarily an online nation although they have managed to actually have physical material Infrastructure and support and buy and establish things But I primarily forgot about Liberland for a long time But every now and then every six months I would get a comment on my YouTube channel such as this one here Which came in eight days ago Liberland did not disappear alive and well long live Liberland I was left on one of my videos and I was like, okay well, I guess it's time to dive into the the history of Micronations or at least the ones that fascinated me So the first Micronation on that list because we're not just going to talk about Micronations No, we're not just gonna talk about Liberland is the principality of Hutt River And this was this one holds a special place in my heart for one It's in Australia in Western Australia. Well, I should say it was long live the Hutt River province What happened was it was founded by this guy here Leonard Kaseley and at the time in the 1970s He was basically the head of Like a farming family But he was like the patriarch of the local farming community and they grew wheat Okay, and they grew a lot of wheat but due to something happening on the international markets I believe it was due to like a saturation or something the Australian government Decided that we're gonna put quotas on the amount of wheat farmers can sell and it was it came out of like left field and It would have basically bankrupted these farmers if they followed these new Legislated quotas about what they could sell because they had so much debt that they said in an article I remember reading that if they followed the quotas, they wouldn't even cover the cost of Removing the wheat that they would have to remove as a requirement of that quota So basically it would not have only bankrupted them it would have further indebted them So they went to the courts Nothing was really resolved and the leader of this community the patriarch I suppose Leonard he had a lot of interest in and knowledge of British common law and British common law actually plays a foundational part in Australian law and He found very old laws regarding secession and basically declared that this community would succeed from the rest of Australia And he made a very public and he wrote to the Prime Minister's office and the Prime Minister's office kind of like We don't know if it was jokingly or by mistake But they responded using his official titles which gave him some form of legitimacy And then there was all this stuff backwards and forwards with the local government and what ended up happening in the end Is I believe that quota stuff it was kind of ignored for them But at the same time the local government always just took him as like an interesting oddity that helped drive tourism in the area because Tourists came to visit the location. They sold Passports and you know coins and they set up like a little museum on the properties there It was all very fascinating But for me the most interesting thing was that they set up a constitution which contained as official languages English French and Esperanto due to the support that they got internationally and I remember one stage They reached out to me because they wanted to translate their website into Esperanto by the way if you haven't seen their website It is this bad boy right here This is clearly a modern website of a large international government But unfortunately what happened was I believe a year or two ago Probably two years ago at this stage the leader that Leonardo guy He passed away, but before he passed away. He passed on the I guess what would be like the law not not lordship like the He basically declared that his son would be the new sovereign and as soon as he passed away His son sold off all the lands and that was the end of the the whole Principality I guess as you can see what's on their website on the 31st of January 2020 actually was three years ago We made the very difficult decision to close the borders of the Principality of Heart River So it Unfortunately, I never got to visit the place before it closed down I actually intended to go one day because of my fascination for micro nations And I just wanted to see like what it looked like over there like I saw plenty of pictures of the place In fact, they might still have pictures on their website Calendar of events. I'm pretty sure that's gonna be empty planning a visit Yeah, this was always fascinating. They actually had a Royal like cannon club, but it was located. I believe in America. So they had a military arm which was in America Don't know how that works, but as you get it and here you go They've got the French language version of their website the English one and Esperanto was meant to be over here on the right But our boy evil dear failed to translate it Okay So now I want to jump back across to Liberland because recently on LinkedIn where I'm connected with the founder I saw that there was some type of national calamity. So let's go check out the Liberland official website So as you can see here, that's the article. I believe it is Yeah, this is it. So this is the news article that's come out on their website. So they're like brutal Croatia invades Liberland This sounds pretty serious. Okay, let's check it out So on the morning of Thursday the 21st of September a private company under the orders of Zupan the Prefecture inspector acting on behalf of the Croatian forest made an unannounced extra teresh extra territorial Incursion almost an extra terrestrial Imagine that there's like aliens coming in to invade Liberland You know, this is where they've in all the Hollywood movies where the aliens always come to America first. No, they came to Liberland anyway, so there was a Extra-territorial incursion into Liberland and demolished to remove Liberland property Which does sound pretty serious. Liberlanders living on the land were threatened with arrest if they interfered Notice here. We've got this Liberland person. They're wearing like their I guess it's kind of a the cloak in the Liberland flag This so reminds me of like every now and then when you go to an Esperanto event You have the guy the guy's usually me by the way But he's wearing like a green cloak and he's got like an Esperanto flag and he's like And it's like the verte de papa, which is like the green pope in Esperanto And he's like the one that everyone avoids because he's just so over the top about Esperanto Even the Esperanus don't want to deal with him. I'm wondering if she's like the Liberland version of that And do they have like a word for that? Like someone who's like overly the top four supporter of Liberland Anyway, creation police escorted the demolition crews who committed this act of indiscriminate destruction The assault was committed without warning and without the forest company and police issuing any reasons or justification Person's presence were not given any time to gather their own belongings much lesser equipment Thankfully, no one was injured, but our property was damaged and confiscated So apparently this is what was destroyed two well constructed garden houses and one marina house One well constructed fully functional field kitchen and multiple refrigeration units and stores Like I've noticed that the views this word well constructed twice now Generally when I have a field kitchen, which I don't have I would just say one field kitchen was destroyed Or one garden house was destroyed There's only two reasons why you're like emphasizing well constructed one Because you want everyone to know that you weren't violating any local laws and this thing was good It was sweet or two. It totally was not sweet and it was like a real hazard Anyway generators and electric equipment quad bike bicycles transportation food and other supplies personal belongings So it appears what actually happened Oh, there's a good little map is that the police from Croatia came with the this private company it looks like some type of uh Private Croatian forests again No came with Croatian forests and they basically just packed up everything So it reminds me of like here in Tasmania where you've got like the green piece protesters on the um forestry land And the forestry come in with the police and just like kick them all out type of thing Now you guys are probably thinking that I'm Like I'm basically dissing the hell out of libel and right now I actually love micro nations and I want micro nations to exist in the world because they just add some spice You know, we've got all these giant countries and stuff and I'm if libel and becomes like an actual thing I will totally go there and spend my tourism money there and check it out and stuff like that But at the same time I can't help but read this and just see through what's actually happening Is basically the local government doesn't acknowledge its existence, which of course it doesn't and they just see them as a bunch of like People have come in and set up camp in a place where they shouldn't be and now they're throwing them out type of thing Which also from their perspective makes complete another sense. They've got some pretty cool renderings here of like the presidential palace So I'm guessing this is where uh old mate, uh, what's his name again? Zit? No, not zit. That's terrible No, I'm looking at the wrong wrong one Old mate vitt vitt. This is where vitt's going to be living. By the way, that was not intentional I'm not trying to insult a guy. Okay concerning the li- the boat liberty So here's another big international event that happened. So they've got this boat liberty Which is why I say that libel land is probably one of the best formed micro nations out there These guys have got a boat Like the hut river province had some houses some museums and stuff on and museum was basically like a shed done up as a museum type of thing, uh, but that was actually private property originally So it wasn't like anything that was really built on top like they built a couple little buildings and stuff But these guys have got boats. They've got like on the ground activists. Basically, uh, which was that girl that we saw with the flag She's basically an activist for the community and like they're doing this like they're they're actually Committing to this. It's not just an internet thing, which is what I I love about libel land Like it's not just some online community where everyone wants to be a president type of thing Like these guys are actually seriously trying to build something but at the same time Everyone's just not taking them seriously except for uh, people within libertarian circles But again, I would be happy if these guys are fully successful. I'd totally go to libel land Maybe not on that boat though Because apparently I've read this article by the way this boat got uh, well what it says so On the 6th of order the border crossing point was officially declared making the commencement of the permanent settlement So they set up their own permanent settlement basically following this approximately five individuals took up semi permanent residents at jefferson square in libel land So apparently they've got a square, which they're calling jefferson square. I don't know if like there's actually any like, uh Stonework in place there, but who knows while the border crossing point continued to be inhabited facilitated by Facilitated me in my English by the amenities provided by the boat named libel land. So this is this is obviously their supply ship Okay, now apparently, um, where was it says okay, so Due to escalating activities and growing lists of priorities the boat libertarian became libert Liberty became stranded for the first time immediately efforts were made to organize a rescue operation So vitt can contacted the port authority for assistance. So which port authority obviously not the libel land port authority I'm guessing is probably like the Croatian port authority And contrary to expectations the port authority dispatched police and inspectors. Well, there you go It's it's definitely not theirs because they're not going to send police after their own Uh asserted the boat wasn't a deteriorated condition Yeah, it doesn't look too bad like honestly that does not look too bad compared to like anything you'll see in tasmania Issued misdemeanor charges against the captain martin alleging Uh, nedgulance charges were subsequently contested. So it looks like somehow they got their boat stranded and they called in Like asking for support probably from the Croatian or the Serbian Port authority who basically just issued them with tickets because they're not recognizing them Attempts at rescue were further complied by police interference resulting in the failure of the rescue operation I like how they write this article like there's two ways you could read this version a Some guys driving his boat called liberty. He gets it stuck He calls the police for help and he gets a ticket because his boat's in a bad condition and he doesn't know what he's doing That's version a version two. This is a Presidential ship carrying the president of libel land. It got stranded They called for international support and help and what actually happened was that they were assaulted by a invading military force who attempted to bring them under submission of that country And unfortunately they tried to send in their own rescue operation, but it was a complete failure so now i'm getting like a mental image of Like navy seals coming in like dropping from cables from helicopters coming in to help these guys And then like there's a shootout on board and then you've got a somali pirate type of thing taking over and I don't know this actually this has to be a movie. They got to turn this into a movie. Okay, again I'm not mocking them It's just the whole idea of micro nations is both awesome but so stupid at the same time because of like The fact that it can like they can become nations like it has happened in history, but 99 percent of time It's never a success Okay a recent deportation. So on the 7th of september vitt who's by the way the president of this micro nation Martin who's obviously the captain of the ship and jan urban I don't know who he is were arrested and subsequently deported for a period of five years So they've been deported from their own territory. That's crazy on grounds of national security. Ah, so what i'm guessing is Uh, and it says effectively incapacitating our primary navigational personnel So it looks like the president is also one of the primary navigational personnel of the ship. So Maybe he's like assistant skipper or something like that um And then it says mr. Vladimir was subjected to a series of contradictory legal actions by Croatian authorities Initially, he was penalized for failing to register At an accommodation facility. So Again, you could read this in two different ways. Basically guy has boat. He didn't register his boat Acting like within that facility being as a form of accommodation. Now. He's getting tickets version two They're being harassed by larger international actors Subsequently, he incurred an additional fine for not being physically present at the registered accommodation What You get a fine for not being at the registered accommodation. Like how does that work? Maybe Okay, so they got a fine for not being registered as accommodation facility Then got a fine is for not being at the registered That makes no sense to me. Okay. I'm with Liberland here This seems like some real deep political stuff Okay, upon his departure from Croatia a requisite step for the compliance of the aforementioned orders. So they were departed Mr. Havonek was issued a 30-day entry ban. So he's not allowed back for 30 days Man, this is really a government in exile now the rationale provided for this prohibit prohibition I'm not even gonna try that one was the potential for committing misdemeanors and lack of justified reasons for entry As far as we can tell this is a case of guilty and tool proven innocent Which has no place in a rule of law based country Well, that's the problem So what I think Liberland needs is a military to defend its borders See, this is one thing people like mock about like countries having militaries They're like, oh militaries, you know, they didn't do anything on border security They didn't do anything if they had a military they could have fought off this international Like attack then again, I don't think it would go down too well Some micro nation pulling out guns taking on the the Croatian government that that That would turn into like a cult status documentary in no time But just saying maybe you guys need military although I did see that they had guards Like they actually hired guards. Oh, where was that? Was that I didn't see that on this website I think that was on LinkedIn. Give me a sec. Okay. I'm just looking at the the profile link to the president here Um, okay, let's have a see where yeah, here it is. Look at this. Okay So they've got we are making all forestry and policemen personally liable for the damage in Liberland We're gathering their identities and they will be sued for the damage in merits also through Croatia server Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungarian, German, American, Hong Kong courts So they're going to sue them like in the international courts, man This is something that's going to hit the hate for sure They will have the chance to come and defend themselves in front of a jury in Liberland Mario So they're actually saying that the uh, you gotta admit a man. They've they've got some Cone ads on them. I didn't want to say the actual word But what what they're saying is that they've got some strength behind them They're saying you got to come to our Liberland and we will see you in our courts Even before this major court case our ministry of interior already Processed two merit transactions for members of the Croatian police chief of the police with a count flower And was awarded for letting our deputy minister of interior Daniel Bateman go to Liberland without subsequently banning him from That's the Schengen is like the european area of travel So apparently they What is this he will receive 1000 merit points for his friendly gesture. Whoa Merit points other chief is awarded 3000 merit points for banning No minus 3000 merit points for banning Daniel from Schengen for three months in the following day Okay, what is this merit point system? I'm getting like some more wheeling vibes right now So do people in like Liberland have like Social credits Okay, guys, we gotta search this out Okay, so here we are. We're on frequently asked questions. Let's go merit points. Okay I don't want just an e-residency. I want full citizenship We will open new citizenship application forms soon the forms will be identical blah blah You can buy 5000 Liberland merits required for citizenship if you don't have them yet So you buy citizenship? I guess it is a libertarian country kind of makes sense. You know everything's For purchase. Why do I have to pay if I already have merits? Everything has a cost. You are simply helping to cover the cost of production of your car Okay, if you have to collect 5000 Liberland merits by working for Liberland or donating So Interesting you work for them you get merit points. You can buy merit points internationally. I'm guessing using more like well-known currencies Or you can actually lose those so what happens you buy merit points and let's say you like annoyed the president and then he like Just deducts you merit points and what like those purchase merit points throughout the window I don't know about this like this is some Okay, well you can buy with paypal These guys are pretty you know, I get these guys credit because it is actually hard to get membership for Which is the universal aspirano association using like such a simple payment method system just clicking like this Um through the website like these guys are like straight up. You don't need to sign in on nothing You can just like form pay and they've got their crypto all there. So I thought they would have their own crypto coin by now, but I guess not so citizenship Let's go back to this. So to complete that patient. You need to register or log in. Okay, so well I guess you've got to register here to get citizenship or Up for fast tracks citizenship. Let's find out what's required Uh, we have secured the free and legal access to our country Also now and so here they're saying we actually have free and legal access to our country Which looks like they don't because they were just ejected from their their country So this is a country literally at war right now You can find all the necessary information about traveling and selling in the travel advice guide. Let's go check this out Okay map with entry points. Okay, so they actually show you the entry points So they got the Croatian border entry point just here. Let's zoom in a bit Yeah, so we got the Croatian entry point just here Okay, so I actually thought libeland was like I thought it was that sliver sitting in the water But it's actually quite a big piece of land right here. Okay, cool. And jefferson square is right there I really want to see what jefferson square looks like libeland settlement updates and president vitz birthday Okay, what do we got? There's that boat again. So i'm guessing that's their main flagship This is actually quite a beautiful render. This is what they imagine libeland would look like But it's attached to a fox news article about the president being arrested So they do have a cryptocurrency. Uh, so this person is actually asking about libeland merit This is from two years ago and they're saying we're working on bringing it to an exchange So it's actually going to be a cryptocurrency But how how will that work with them deducting merit points unless that's what I don't know how that would work This must be separate to what i'm thinking. So i've just found a video. This is of the forestry. They're actually here pulling apart this um Shelter that was set up in libeland as you can see here. They've got like little libeland seats everywhere and stuff So they've actually got a bit of infrastructure that they've managed to build And the forestry are coming in and just basically tearing it up on them Oh man, this is brutal. Look at this. They're they're straight up chainsawing right down. They're just destroying it on them Yeah, they must have been issued with some type of order that they need to get out of there. So it looks like all this um Stuff that was set up for libeland has been completely just pulled apart on them. They're destroying it Damn, that's brutal. Okay, but they don't look too worried. They're kind of just cruising around I guess there's not much you can do when you've got the police saying you've got to get out type of thing But anyway, that's my update at the moment for uh, oh, there we are. There's the there's the verde de papa or flava papa I guess I guess this is like the titanic going down He's he's singing the last song as a libeland crashes into the ocean type of thing Um, again, I hope they are successful in the end because I'll totally go check them out I just wish they put esprayla in their constitution if they did they would have had full support of evil deer over here No, uh, but that's pretty much it. I hope you guys like this video and we will check back in on libeland I guess in a year or so. See you guys next time