Sovereign State of Ironland

Sovereign State of Ironland
Flag Emblem
The location of Ironland at Asheville, North Carolina's Iron Sculpture
Capital and largest city	Ironland
Official languages	English
Demonym(s)	Ironlanders, Ironers, Ironic, Ferric, Irish
Government	Unitary semi-presidential republic
• President	Christopher Thomas
• Chancellor	Vacant
• Vice President	Crawsome Crustacean
Establishment	30 June 2024
Membership	~222,460 Citizens (Since August 2024)
Time zone	ET (Eastern Time Zone)
Internet TLD	(unoffical) .ia
Website https://linktr.ee/magnifyvideos

The Sovereign State of Ironland, simply known as Ironland, (/aɪˈərnlænd/) is a self-declared sovereign state located inside Asheville, North Carolina inside a 12-foot diameter circle that encompasses the Asheville 'Flat Iron Sculpture.' that has a little cardboard robot on the handle of the statue of the iron. It was started by the YouTuber Christopher of the YouTube channel Magnify. Ironland is cited as the 'fastest growing micronation in history' with the young nation gaining thousands of citizens within a few days of its creation. It has a many embassies in countries such as Canada, Finland, Japan, and the United Kingdom, but none of these embassies are recognized by their host countries.

History

The Founding of Ironland

Ironland was founded on June 26, 2024 after Christopher from the YouTube channel Magnify made a video titled 'I Started a Micronation,' where he declared the nation of Ironland as well as stated that all commenters on the video would receive "complimentary citizenship in Ironland."

After the original creation of Ironland, some people responded by stating Ironland to be illegitimate and not a "real country." In defense of his nation's legitimacy, Christopher made a video titled "Is Ironland a Real Country?" In the video, Christopher cites the Montevideo Convention's four main criteria for a legitimate state and how Ironland fits them: a defined territory of a 12-foot diameter circle around an iron statue, a permanent population of a cardboard robot, a government where citizens vote on issues proposed by the President, and the ability to enter into relations with other countries such as, unofficially, Romania. Christopher states that since it appears Ironland meets the four criteria, it is a legitimate country, yet some of the justifications are tenuous.

The First Referendum

The President of Ironland held the first referendum to decide what side of the Iron statue the cardboard robot would live on: the flat or the handle side. On 5 July 2024, the results of the referendum were released. There were a total of 15,148 votes cast, with 66% for the handle side and 37.2% for the flat side. In the end, it was decided the robot would reside on the handle side of Ironland.

While the turnout of voters was only about 23%, Christopher stated that the nation received more votes in their referendum than Liechtenstein did in their last election.

Emblem Color Change

On 21 July 2024, the result of a referendum to decide Ironland's emblem color were released. Christopher revealed that as a perfect democracy (in fact the world's largest ever, with 105,979 votes cast in this referendum) we were to use an average of the voted colors rather than any one of them winning. The resulting color selected was thus "weathered brick" (hex #887374). In a more traditional first past the post voting system, the winner would have been "sunburst yellow" with only 16.7% of the vote.

Global Outreach

Currently, a vote is taking place, determining which country Ironland will attempt to reach out to via their social media accounts. The options are: Ireland, Jamaica and the Philippines. On September 24, 2024, it was revealed that Ireland won the poll.

The Cheese Incident

On 4 August 2024, an incident occurred on Ironland's Discord server. The crisis began when members of the Supreme Court known as 'Supreme Court Justices' voted on the constitution, after gathering their votes they shared the result to the server which appointed Joe House as the new chancellor, The current unofficial chancellor 'Mr. Cheese' was unhappy with the result, leading to a 2 hour argument between the court and Mr. Cheese. This eventually led to a vote being held to remove Mr. Cheese from his current roles. The vote gathered attention from the citizens with 90% voting Mr. Cheese to be removed from his role. Mr. Cheese then deleted the server, leaving many in outrage. Then, a new server was created and built back up to normal, and Joe House officially became Chancellor, ending the crisis.

The First Ironland Embassy Awards

After magnify passed 1 million subscribers on Youtube, and embassies in 46 macronations were established, Christopher decided to give out awards to ones such as the most scenic, and ones that best represent their host country. Voting ended on the 14th September 2024.

The Term Of Corruption

The term of corruption was the 55 day chancellorship of Joe house. Beginning from the 4th of August to the 29th of September. This term was corrupt as the supreme court was doing everything under his command. Current Justice Abubakar claimed that the cheese event was a coup d'etat planned against cheese since Joe House disliked him as owner. Many other events were in favor of the corrupt chancellor but in the 28th of September. The two SPI members Abubakar and Morocco were accused of treason and plotting against the government but they were clearly not and were just joking and playing along which shows no harm to the government at all. After Abubakar started discussing the case with Joe House in dms which caused the Joe House Case.

Official Sports Teams

On October 22, 2024, Ironland became the first micronation to have an official sports team. Galway United is officially an Ironlandish soccer team.

Geography and National Regions

Ironland is mainly divided into two regions: the handle side and the flat side. The only region to have a "permanent" population is the handle side which is inhabited by a single cardboard robot.

Flat Side

The flat side of Ironland is the less popular region of Ironland. It faces Northwest and is commonly adorned with decorations as well as used as a backdrop for many buskers in Ironland.

Handle Side

The handle side of Ironland is the most and only populated region of Ironland. While more popular, it isn't commonly used as much as the flat side but remains more aesthetically pleasing.

Government and politics

Propaganda Poster for Ironland

Structure and Function

Ironland's government is structured around a constitutional monarchy, where citizens actively participate in the legislative process through digital platforms, notably utilizing Google Forms for voting and decision-making with Christopher as King and Joe House as Chancellor. This digital integration allows for efficient and transparent governance, enabling citizens to engage in policy discussions and vote on key initiatives from anywhere in the world.

Key Features

• Digital Voting Google Forms serve as the primary tool for conducting elections and referendums within Ironland. This method ensures accessibility and inclusivity, as citizens can cast their votes remotely.

Citizen Participation

Central to Ironland's governance philosophy is the active participation of its citizens. Through Google Forms, residents of Ironland can propose new laws, vote on policy changes, and express their opinions on matters affecting the micronation. This direct involvement fosters a sense of community and ownership among the populace, reinforcing the legitimacy of the government's actions.

Government Departments

So far, four departments are a part of the Chancellor's cabinet. Secretaries are heading each.

• Department of Foreign Affairs
• Department of Home Affairs
• Department of the Treasury
• Department of Defense

Political Parties

So far Ironland has 4 Parties.

• The Sneetah Party: The biggest party for now with 39 members . Centre-Right Party.
• The Ironland First Party: With 5 members. Centre Party.
• The Ironlandic Party for the people: With 29 members. Left-wing party.
• The Ironland Progressive Party with 5 members

It must be noted that these numbers are subject to change, and have been through periods of decline due to major incidents in the discord channels, such as deletions.

Political Coalitions

On the 23 of August, 2024, the current chairman of The Sneetah Party Morocco contacted the chairman of the Ironlandic Party Of The People Pavulam to know about their policies. The Sneetah Party liked the policies so they decided to coalition and it was a success. On the 25th of August, the Ironlandic Party For The People decided (IPP) decided to make a vote wanting the IFP to join. The current chairman Morocco said that there was no need for the vote because he already agreed with his vice chairman Abubakar Ibrahim I to further continue the deal but he kept the vote wanting to see what does the people want. A deal was sealed with vice chairman Joe House and ended the vote. The vote was mostly in favour of The IFP joining. So far there are only one coalition that is the IPP-SNP-IFP.

The fall of the IPP-SNP-IFP Coalition

Due to political tensions rising and arguments starting between coalition members IFP and SNP, The SNP decided to make a vote deciding to kick The IFP from the coalition. Inside The IFP member chat, members voted to quit the coalition with The SNP. The day after Chairman of The SNP Morocco decided to make peace with The IFP and that the coalition will continue but the words coming out of the vice chairman Abu Bakar made The IFP officially leave the coalition, breaking the IPP-SNP-IFP coalition from ever co-operating.

Discord Elections

Assembly Election

An Ironland Campaign poster

Crawsome Crustacean's Political Campaign poster

On the 28th of August, Joe House started the election for the assembly branch of government, which is represented by a selection of the political parties, voted in by the citizens, and passes legislations for the state. 21 positions were available, and 29 candidates campaigned during the first 168 hours (1 Week) of the voting period, as dictated by the Ironland Constitution. On the 4th September, voting ended and the 21 Assembly members were revealed.

1. Joe (House) 83.6% For
2. Birds 62.7% For
3. The Craw 56.1% For
4. Proud Ironlander 52.3% For
5. Samuel-Grace A. W. 52.2% For
6. Saul 50.7% For
7. Riley 47.8% For
8. Anthony Paulz 46.2% For
9. Nathan 45.3% For
10. Connor 44.8% For
11. Randell Gow 44.8% For
12. Odesza 44.6% For
13. Abhinav A. Kurup 41.8% For
14. Ironland Representative 40.6% For
15. Patrick 40.3% For
16. Matthew 36.9% For
17. decterbee 36.4% For
18. Cody 34.3% For
19. void 32.8% For
20. Freak Bob 31.7% For
21. Joe (Mister Man) 31.3% For

But some people did win a place in the assembly but have been removed. This is because the supreme court of Ironland claimed that the two SNP members Morocco and Abu Bakar were campaigning. This lead to morocco getting removed from the runoff ballot giving the craw an automatic win for the vice presidency.

Vice President Election

On the 28th of August, Joe House started the election for the Vice President Position, with 4 main applicants; Morocco, Crawsome Crustacean, Odezza, and ToxicShark. On election result day, no one member got a majority of the vote.

1. Morocco 43.3% For
2. The Craw 34.3% For
3. Odezza 17.9% For
4. Tox1cShark7 4.5% For

Due to the undetermined victor, Joe House started a run-off election between Morocco, and The Craw (Crawsome Crustacean). After another week of voting, Crawsome Crustacean won the majority of 68% votes, becoming the Vice President of Ironland.

President Election

As voted by the citizens on Ironland, people are allowed to run against Christopher in presidential elections. On the 28th of August, voting opened for the president position. After votes closed on the 4th, Chris won by a large margin of over 80%.

1. Chris 80.6% For
2. Daniel 7.5% For
3. Tox1cShark7 6.0% For
4. Felix 4.5% For
5. Jake 1.5% For

The First Special Elections

Due to the Joe House case. Chancellor Morocco and his cabinet tried hard to find lost assembly members but after a month they didn't succeed so they arranged a special election with only ten spots to compete for. Replacing the lost members

Joe House Case

On 9/28/2024 Joe House was accused of Islamophobia, after which he disappeared from Discord with the Ironland server and the IFP server. 9/29/2024 Morocco and Abubakar created a new server and started an investigation.

That same day, the investigative team held a press conference. Where they announced that they have two investigative theories.

Joe was hacked and "Randell Gow" has something to do with this. Or he did it himself.

Morocco, as the head of the investigation team, stated that if option 2 is true then all the steps from the Cheese incidents until now were rigged in Joe's favor. Fellow Morocco and vice-chairman of the SNP "Abubakar" was appointed temporary chancellor.

Two hours after the investigation began, an official statement was issued, condemning Chancellor Joe House for his actions. The statement revealed that House had reposted explicit sexual content in a playlist, leading to his condemnation. It further alleged that Chancellor Joe was deeply corrupt and erratic, with Gow acting under his influence, carrying out every command issued by the chancellor. The following day, Morocco contacted Gow via email and shared the developments with other members. Gow, a close associate of Joe, explained that he deleted the server because he had grown tired of Ironland and its community. Gow also mentioned that Joe had considered transferring ownership of the server to someone else, specifically to Morocco. However, since Morocco was unavailable at the time, the transfer did not take place. Gow emphasized that Joe’s actions were not driven by exposure but by his desire to distance himself from the ongoing drama. While Morocco now technically holds the chancellorship, he plans to hold an election to determine whether he will retain the position.

Diplomacy

According to Ironland's President, the nation established ten embassies in less than a week past its founding. Embassies can be opened up by any member of Ironland, For an embassy to be official and established, they must be recognized by the country they reside in. The first nation to open up an Ironland embassy was the U.S. at the Dolly Parton Statue in Sevierville, Tennessee. Other countries where Ironland embassies are established are Canada, Finland, Indonesia, the Maldives, Iran, Ukraine, Italy, Algeria, Japan, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Czechia, and Wales.So far, none of the embassies that have been established have been recognized by the governments of the host countries they reside. However, Ironland and the TikTok account for Romania have had unofficial talks about possibly establishing an embassy in Biertan, Romania, in the future. Christopher later revealed that Romania would consider recognizing Ironland’s diplomatic mission if their TikTok account reaches 2 million followers. The Romanian TikTok account has since reached this milestone; the task was completed in less than 24 hours. However, as TikTok Romania is run by a tourism group, they can't officially grant Ironland a embassy, but it will make negotiations with the Romanian government easier.

Foreign relations

Mutual recognition

• Federation of Saikos
• Republic of New York
• Principality of Rummlandia
• Holstonian Empire

Unilateral recognition

• Republic of Verdana
• Smart Federation^{[citation needed]}