League of Secessionist States

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League of Secessionist States
1980 - ?
Flag of League of Secessionist States
Flag[1]
Recreation of Logo of League of Secessionist States
Recreation of Logo
HeadquartersSaint-Denis, Réunion
Official languagesEnglish
Portuguese
Spanish
French
Membership43 Member States
Leaders
• Secretary-general
Nicholas James Bridgewater
• Chief Justice
HRM King Spence of Zarahemla
Establishment26 November 1980

The League of Secessionist States (LoSS) was an intermicronational organization. Created on 26 November 1980, it is the oldest known micronational organization ever formed, and also the most traditional and respected body of micronations.

History

Early years (1983-1996)

The League of Secessionist States was, for a long time, a dream by young Robert Ben Madison, founder and King of Talossa, when he was 12 years old in 1979. Its main purpose was to gather independentist initiatives in order to achieve the "World Singular Secession of 10,000,000,000 nations".

The LoSS officially begun as a diplomatic alliance between three nations: the Kingdom of Talossa, the Kingdom of Thord and the Imperial Jahn Empire, in opposition to a fourth one, the Glib Room Empire. Ruled by teenage friends in the city of Milwaukee, USA, these states signed a LoSS treaty in November 26, 1980, and founded the initial body of the League. Madison assumed the principal duties in the organization, and designed a flag and some fundamentals (as the non-obligatory recognition between members).

According to informations provided by Robert B. Madison himself on his "The Micronations Page", the LoSS rapidly became inactive due to the nearly simultaneous disappearance of both Thord and the Jahn Empire. Talossa, however, which exists until today, kept the League cocooned and brought it back to activity by signing a "Miniature Alliance and Treaty Organization" (MATO) with the People's Republic of Fira, another teenage micronation founded by Madison's friend Frédéric Maugey in France. At this time, Mr. Nathan Freeburg from Talossa was placed by Robert B. Madison in the post of Secretary-General.

Once again, the League was abandoned when Fira eventually ran defunct and Maugey became a Talossan citizen. For the next 13 years, Secretary-General Freeburg wouldn't do much efforts to revive it, and neither did Madison, since Talossa demanded then most of their dedication.

The League's Resurrection (1996-1999)

On the middle 1990's, however, with the world-wide boom of Internet, new micronations appeared and Robert B. Madison created his "The Micronations Page", an online repository for secessionist projects with comments (written in his own personal views). On 1995, Talossa was theme of stories in several newspapers in North America, and newbie micronationalists contacted Madison for diplomacy. The Talossan king then made up the first LoSS web page and accepted the Empire of Ældaria and the Co-Principality of Sandaria as members. In the autumn of the following year, the LoSS would have 7 members, including non-US based like Riesenguthland-Ellermark (Germany, 1987), Porto Claro (Brazil, 1992), and Nikhedonia (Canada, 1995).

In October, 1996, the LOSS finally came to be shaped very close to its current structure. A Secretary-General was elected for the first time, and several new members joined. Mr. Pedro Aguiar, founder of Porto Claro and later Lord Protector of the Holy Empire of Reunion, was chosen by members and established the main procedures for the future LoSS Charter (creation of the General Assembly, officers election, membership conditions, and even proposals for a Security Council, then rejected by members) as well as inviting and admitting new members such as the Commonwealth of Port Colice and the Estates of Malagis.

In the winter of 1997, the League acquired its first independent website, a new logo, an anthem and a number of certain protocols. At that time, prominent members of the micronational society joined the League, which was the case of Reunion and Morovia. He also created the MDB, Micronations DataBase, the League's official records for micronations, as foreseen in Madison's fundamentals. The seat city of the organization was set in Tamar, capital of Port Colice (lately it was agreed that the seat city is always the home city of the Secretary-General). The Colicians, Portoclarians and Nikhedonians joined the Talossans as the leading supporters of the LOSS.

In June, however, Secretary-General Aguiar had to leave due to internal affairs in Porto Claro and appointed Mrs. Lise Mendel of Port Colice as his successor. After some stalled months, Mrs. Mendel could not conduct the League's affairs and the Talossans tried to impose Mr. Richard Grogan, from then non-member Baja Arizona, as Secretary-General, and other nations reacted. The conflict led to a crisis which endured until the end of September, when Mrs. Mendel finally took office, created the first LoSS Mailing List and presented the Draft Charter by which the League would be conducted from then on.

Mrs. Mendel's term ended with the election of Mr. David Kendall, her countryman, who continued the slow process of establishing the League's institutions, such as the Intermicronational Court of Justice. On the other hand, he removed the MDB records and simply cancelled membership of inactive states. In July, the current LOSS Mailing List, at YahooGroups, was created. The LOSS Charter was finally approved on December 30, 1998, and signed by the 14 then member states.

Present Days (1999-)

With the election of Secretary-General Thomas Leys, in April 1999, the League entered its contemporary phase of evolution. Also from Port Colice, Mr. Leys encouraged the admittance of several new members and the strict accomplishment of the Charter. His administration was well received by most members and he became the first Secretary-General to be elected for a second term (2000-2001). Yet, the League was still haunted by periods of inactivity, a problem which seems to be rather constant.

Secretary-General Leys enforced the system of autonomous committees, working on specific matters, composed by delegates. This expanded the responsibilities of the General Assembly and promoted a greater decentralization of power. Such policy was not equally encouraged by his successor, the Ras Diga Makonnen IV of Q'attera-Macusiaa (the first monarch to manage the League). Other insistent proposal by Mr. Leys', the post of Chairman of the Assembly, was never approved by members. He also promoted the growth of the LOSS in quantity: the number of members duplicated under Thomas Leys' administration.

On April, 2001, the Ras was elected against Isonomian Mr. Fred Church, during a long absence of Mr. Leys. In a somewhat controversial election, due to quorum questions, the new Secretary-General took office promising to recover the League's activity and importance in the intermicronational scenery. After 10 months these goals were not exactly achieved, the Ras was charged with heavy accusations of espionage and terrorism by the Shah of Babkha and other nations and, when a vote of non-confidence was officially begun, the Ras resigned to the Secretariat and Mr. Church became the 8th head of the League of Secessionist States.

Currently, the League of Secessionist States is an organization of 42 such micronations; it exists to promote intermicronational communication and partnership, and serves to act as a supramicronational, impartial body where such a need for one exists. As of May 1, 2009, His Holy Imperial Majesty Claudio the First from the Holy Empire of Reunion is serving as the Secretary-General, and his administration is currently working on an updated version of the LoSS Website, entirely remodeled. Also, since his rise to the office of secretary-general, 5 micronations have joined the league, and both Orange and Porto Claro have returned. The most recent member of LoSS is the Democratic Republic of Leylandiistan, which joined on the 2nd of January 2014.

Member States

Before its disbanding, there are more than 40 member states of the League, some of which appear in this list. As the names were taken from the LoSS website, that was updated only in 2004, some of today's member states might not be listed:

Court of Justice

The Intermicronational Court of Justice is set up under the Charter of the League of Secessionist States, Article III, Section 4. Its mandate is to rule on cases that may be contrary to the Charter of the League, and to act as a dispute-settling mechanism within the League and, at the discretion of the Secretary-General, for the micronational community at large.

The first court was inaugurated by Secretary-General Kendall on January 20, 1999. The current members on the court, appointed by Sec.Gen De Castro, consist of (since May 5, 2009):

  • HRH King Spence (Zarahemla), Chief Justice
  • HRM Mark McCabe (Strathclyde), Justice
  • HE James Bentz II (Tebeakesse(, Justice

General Assembly

The General Assembly is where all the delegates from member-states are present to vote and debate resolutions, and to discuss micronationalism. The LoSS debates are open to the public accordingly to a resolution voted on June, 2009, and can be visited at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/loss .

See also