2020s

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties", shortened to "the '20s") is the current decade of the Gregorian calendar which began on 1 January 2020 and will end on 31 December 2029. It succeeded the 2010s, and precedes the 2030s. The start marked the fifteenth year since MicroWiki's initial foundation, and by 2029 MicroWiki will be twenty-four years old.

The decade has been primarily shaped by the year 2020, which saw the shutdown of MicroWiki@Discord as being the main hub of micronational activity on social media platform Discord, instead becoming a simple webportal and news aggregator. Many alternative servers were set-up, such as the Micropolitan Club and Lounge which moved to the server Micropolitan@Discord, though most were largely unsuccessful, and countless micronationalists instead moved to private groupchats.

The decade began amidst the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, which caused huge disruption, and saw delays and cancellations of various social, religious and political events, such as anniversaries, summits, elections and sporting events; bringing in a huge response from the intermicronational community, it led to a number of retired micronationalists returning to the hobby contributing to a massive surge in activity, and encouraged a number of online events, namely the GUM's fourth 24 Hour Quorum which raised £266 for the British Red Cross.

Conflicts, diplomacy and politics

Notable wars, scandals and conflicts

• TOES-Almendria War (30 June—15 July 2020), a virtual conflict between Almendria and various micronational states associated with TOES. The conflict would become infamous within the MicroWiki community for high profile instances of discord server raiding, 'server nuking', and other instances of poor behaviour in what for many in the MicroWiki community was the first major exposure to behaviour that had previously slipped by unnoticed within the reddit sector. The conflict was followed by a large-scale backlash, with major micronational organisations taking action to crack down on such behaviour, and various micronational states would sign the La Salle Convention in October. The Nexan Republic was able to capitalise on the conflict and it's subsequent minor conflicts to build up a significant amount of power and influence in the reddit community, that would last until it's leader was ousted from the community in May 2022 on safeguarding grounds.

• Great Des Plaines Valley War (5 March—10 August 2021), a war fought between the UDCTC-backed Liberation Coalition and the Urraca Pact. The war began when Rodentia besieged the city of of Bobbygrad, New Germany; the conflict was subsequently escalated by the Urraca Pact's invasion of the Rainbowlands, a series of former territories of Wegmat previously gifted to several micronations as part of an international program. The war would conclude with the collapse of the Urraca Pact. Despite initial support from nations with holdings in the rainbowlands, contemporary responses to the conflict were overly negative due to attitudes towards micronational war at the time. Over time, public opinion on the conflict has mellowed, and it is now more known as one of the few instances of a large-scale physical micronational war.

• July Revolution (29 July–2 August 2021), a coup de'tat and revolution in the Commonwealth of New Virginia. Following months of an increasingly divided political landscape, fresh off the Austenasian Question, revolutionaries would seize the New Virginian government and political and administrative institutions. Extensive reforms were announced, and several citizens including the leader of the opposition Bradley of Dullahan were either banished or left voluntarily. After negotiations with a counter-revolutionary movement headed by Prime Minister Sir Simon White, the legitimate government was restored. President Vera Hewitt, who had played a key role in the revolution would resign, and New Richmond declared independence from the commonwealth; Shoreline and the majority of Nordalian lands would secede around this time. Despite having been recognised as a growing major power in the MicroWiki community up to this point, New Virginia would never recover from the July Revolution.

Diplomacy

Conventions and intermicronational treaties

Several notable conventions and treaties included:

• The Augusta Accord was promulgated in September 2020 as an updated successor of the 2014 Denton Protocol.

• The La Salle Convention was ratified in October 2020, condemning online bullying, doxxing and discord raiding. The Treaty followed an increase of poor behaviour in the community within the year, notably the reddit sector, with events such as the TOES-Almendria War attracting significant attention.

• The Montediszamble Convention was ratified in November 2020 as a response to 'cancel culture' in micronationalism. The convention faced backlash following it's inception, with Gaius Soergel Publicola declaring the Treaty was "hypocritical and an attempt to create a compulsory narrative that would silence criticism of Lostisland and Pavlov by characterising their critics as uncivil." In November 2021, the Cupertino Alliance would bar signatories from holding membership in the organisation.

• Sough2020 was an October 2020 digital summit leading up to a Treaty aimed to combat climate change, pollution and negative human interaction in the natural world.

MicroWiki

Further information: History of MicroWiki (website)

As of 19 November 2024, MicroWiki has 39,882 articles, 256,180 pages and 92,134 registered users (mostly spam bots). MicroWiki's worldwide individual readership in 2020 was approximately 1.8 million from 2.8 million unique visits; in 2021, MicroWiki received a record 4.7 million unique visits. Several drastic changes were made to MicroWiki in the first half of 2021, including the opening of a Patreon on 9 January, the first major main page redesign in a decade on 13 January, the requirement for users to be over thirteen years of age in June, and several new policies regarding safeguarding and privacy on the wiki between June and July.

On 14 February 2022, Luxor (Karl Friedrich) became co-owner of MicroWiki alongside Jonathan I, Emperor of Austenasia. MicroWiki adopted its current logo—featuring a magnifying glass—on 21 May.

On 9 July 2020, a new good article (GA) system was introduced where every last week of each month nominations which have been approved by an administrator either that month or the previous month will be voted on by the community to become a good article. However, this change drew criticism from several users and was eventually changed in May 2021 to where every article approved by an administrator is granted good article status. All good articles approved in the previous two months are then voted upon by users with the most voted on article becoming featured on the main page.

Milestones

MicroWiki's millionth edit was made on 5 December 2021 by the user UndeadReece on the article Republic of Arazania. MicroWiki hit 20,000 articles on 1 May 2020, and 30,000 on 18 January 2022.

Culture, media and entertainment

Essexia's Dean Network dominated the micronational web series industry in 2020, with the vodcast EssexiaTalk and comedy thriller The United Office: Survival of the Unfittest gaining critical acclaim. Garnering 129 views within its first 24 hours, Survival of the Unfittest was widely regarded by many as one of the greatest micronational video works ever produced. Austenasian Television Productions released a Cool Barbie Christmas special on 25 December 2020 and the Royal Lyteran Broadcasting Company began broadcasting Countryballs Unleashed on 29 August 2021.

Podcasts have been popular during the decade—MicroRamble began on 31 March 2020, The Four Horsemen of Micronationalism on 3 January 2021, The Wodcast on 19 April 2021 and Micro Improvement on 10 March 2022.

Diarchy returned from a two-year hiatus on 20 March 2020 and dominated music during that year; other prominent songs were released by Zabëlle Skye ("GUM DIS TRACK") in 2020 and Simon Ross (Birddog) in 2021.

The Micronational Olympic Federation's 2020 MOF Games—hosted by the Gymnasium State between 14 February and 10 March 2020—was the largest sporting event in micronational history with fifty-two participating athletes from nineteen micronations.

Memes during the 2020s thus far include Brian's Republic, Free Patrick Kent, Pangapedia, this ain't no cyber war, Logan, Zeeky Bomb (2020), Al-Wiki, Maltese Ambulance Copypasta, Train Lasagna and when gotta dance (2021). The @New Eiffel Government message chain was deleted on 18 November 2020.

Micronation-Chans were conceived on 1 May 2020.

Significant micronations

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

• Abeldane Empire
• Empire of Adammia
• Empire of Austenasia
• Commonwealth of Essexia
• Principality of New Eiffel
• Commonwealth of New Virginia
• Principality of Posaf

Significant micronationalists

Nicholas Randouler, Statistic-Dime's "Micronationalist of the Year" for 2020

Notable micronationalists of the 2020s thus far have included:

• Jonathan I, Emperor of Austenasia, site owner
• Nicholas Randouler, Posaf, pioneer of the Discord Era; passed away on 3 June 2020
• Thomas Bainbridge, Hrafnarfjall, 30th Chair of the GUM
• Newton von Uberquie, Uber-Esse, 31st Chair of the GUM
• Jack Dean, Essexia, 32nd and current Chair of the GUM
• Varuna Sriraya, Vishwamitra, 2nd Rashtradhyaksh of Vishwamitra and former chair of the Cupertino Alliance
• Matthew of Essexia, 30th Vice-Chair of the GUM
• Jayden Lycon, first Chair of the Cupertino Alliance
• Vera Hewitt, President of the Commonwealth of New Virginia (2020-2021)
• Elizabeth Lewis, Prime Minister of New Virginia (August–18 December 2020)
• Zabëlle Skye, New Eiffel, prolific MicroWiki editor