A
microstate or
ministate is a
sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, but usually both. Some examples include:
Nauru,
Singapore,
Liechtenstein,
Monaco, and
Vatican City. The influence of microstates in the
United Nations General Assembly is disproportionately large due to the
one state, one vote rule.
The smallest fully sovereign microstate is
Vatican City, with 911 citizens as of July
2003 and an area of only 0.44 km². In
Rome,
Italy, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) (not to be confused with
Malta, an island microstate in the Mediterranean) is an effectively non-territorial sovereign entity that might also be considered to be a microstate; its
sovereignty is recognized by 105
states, 100 of which have entered into full diplomatic relations, but unlike the
Vatican City state, it has no substantive territorial base (the SMOM's only property, its headquarters buildings, holds
extraterritorial status, similar to an embassy building). Neither the Vatican nor SMOM are members of the United Nations, although both have
permanent observer status at the UN: Vatican City is a "non-member state" under the name of the atypical international entity of the
Holy See, SMOM is an "other entity".
Microstates should not be confused with
micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states. Special territories without full sovereignty, such as the
Channel Islands, are not considered microstates either.
List of sovereign nations with a non-sea area less than
Sovereign states with a non-sea area less than .
List of sovereign nations with fewer than one million people
Historical anomalies and aspirant states
A small number of microstates are founded on historical anomalies or eccentric interpretations of law.
These types of microstates are usually located on small (usually disputed) territorial enclaves, generate limited economic activity founded on
tourism and
philatelic and
numismatic sales, and are tolerated or ignored by the nations from which they claim to have seceded.
One example includes the
Republic of Indian Stream, now the town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire — A geographic anomaly left unresolved by
Treaty of Paris that ended the U.S. Revolutionary War, and claimed by both the U.S. and Canada. Between 1832 and 1835, the area's residents refused to acknowledge either claimant.
See also
