Republic of Saint Christopher

Republic of Saint Christopher (eng) Δημοκρατία του Αγίου Χριστοφόρου (el)
Status	Τemporarily Inactive
Location	Agrinio, Greece and other locations
Official languages	Greek, English (diplomatic language)
Government	Presidential republic (de jure) Stratocratic Benevolent Adolescentist Dictatorship (de facto)
• President	Yannis M. Triantafyllos
Establishment
• Established	13 March 2016

The Republic of Saint Christopher (Greek: Δημοκρατία του Αγίου Χριστοφόρου), commonly known as Saint Christopher, is a self-declared self-governing entity, most commonly referred as a micronation, with territories in Greece in addition to claims in the United States. It was founded on 13 March 2016 by Yannis Triantafyllos, a high school student who became its first President. Officially a presidential republic, Saint Christopher operates as a benevolent stratocracy, guided by the ideology of Adolescentism (Greek: Εφηβισμός), a political and social theory developed by President Triantafyllos. Saint Christopher is influenced by the cultures of Greece, the United Kingdom and the former German Empire. It was a member of the Micronational Assembly.

Etymology

The country is named after Saint Christopher (Greek: Άγιος Χριστόφορος), a Christian saint who is also the patron of the micronation. The name literally means "the carrier of Christ" or "the one who carries Christ".

History

Pre-Saint Christopher

The lands that became later part of Saint Christopher were in the past part of different entities, including the Aetolian League (Greek: Κοινόν των Αιτωλών), the Macedonian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and later the Ottoman Empire. Following the Greek War of Independence, the lands became part of the newly founded independent Greek state.

Early Years

In order to see the early history of the Republic,one must look at the relations of its founder, Yannis M. Triantafyllos with micronationalism and politics. When he was around 13 years old, Triantafyllos took a deep interest in the way the Greek education system worked.He concluded that the system was flawed and incompetent,that it coulsn't reform students into useful members of society,and that this was the cause of the many problems Greek society based.He started developing his political theories,that would soon become the ideology of Adolescentism, that would later become an integral part of Saint Christopher,once it was founded.He shared his political ideas with some friends that took a great interest on them,and together tried to bring change on what they saw as an extremely disastrous educational system.

The Students' Republic

Triantafyllos at first thought about taking part in the elections for the school council,but he believed he wasn't well known enough for such a task.So,he had some of his friends run,with himself controlling their campaigns.Surprisingly,both of his friends managed to get elected in the student council.From there,Triantafyllos and his friends tried to spread the ideals of Adolescentism throughout the school. This culminated with the founding of what became known as the Free and Independent Students' Republic of the 7th Gymnasium of Agrinio (Ελεύθερη και Ανεξάρτητη Μαθητική Δημοκρατία του 7ου Γυμνασίου Αγρινίου), a de facto micronation and the predecessor to Saint Christopher. The school's Students' Council was the country's legislature, while the President of the council was the Head of State and Head of government. Under the influence of Triantafyllos,some members of the council tried to push for some Adolescentist ideas to be adopted, such as more involvement of the general student body in decision making. The Students' Republic had a flag, of which no visual records survived, but was described as "a yellow field with a white stripe passing diagonally through it,with a Latin phrase written inside the stripe". The Republic claimed all of the buildings of the 7th Gymnasium as its territory.