Republic of The Sohnland
Micronation
Capitals
De Jure Capital: Dovedon
Official Languages
English and German
Demonym
Sohnlander
Government Type and Ideology
The Sohnland is a technocratic, benevolent autocratic, progressive and liberal, nationalist one party rule state upholding western values and democratic values whilst not being a full democracy.
Leader and Head of State
Ethan S. Is the founder and current Supreme Leader of The Sohnland with complete legal power over the Sohnlandic government and legal system.
Independence as a Micronation
The Republic of The Sohnland has never officially declared independence once in its 16 years of existence because its people and government believe the country has always been independent and never needed to declare it.
Foundation start date: 20 April 2005
Monarchy abolished: 26 July 2015
Current Population (2021)
De Facto Population: 11
De Jure Population: 25
Area (Carnifron)
Area: 305 Square Metres
GDP
GDP Per Capita: £70,500
These are figures are merely a general estimate of value withheld by citizens and is not to represent the personal value of the Supreme Leader, Ethan S. These figures may be outdated at the time of reading and may need to be updated.
HDI
0.994 is the calculated HDI of The Sohnland as of 2021, the highest level of human development in the world!
Citizenship
In order to receive Sohnlandic citizenship, you are required to travel to the UK consulate and then to The Sohnland.
To request travel to The Sohnland from the TSL UK consulate, permission must be granted to travel to the consulate by contacting them via email. You then must sign a waiver and make your intentions and criminal convictions known, along with your contact information. If accepted you will be provided with the address of the consulate and given a time and date to arrive where you can submit a visa application to travel to The Sohnland.
After arriving at the TSL UK consulate and having your visa to The Sohnland accepted you can then travel to The Sohnland at a different time and date. This is where you can go and submit a citizen application. To do this you must provide your CV and state your reasons for wanting citizenship. After this point, you will recieve an email the next day either congratulating you in recieving citizenship or a citizenship denial.
Administration
Ever since the unrecognised nation's founding back in April of 2005 The Sohnland has had the same benevolent dictator , Supreme Leader Ethan of The Sohnland. The Sohnland is currently ruled by an autocratic and technocratic government with its own ideology: Sohnlandic-Juche. Which continues to be followed to guide The Sohnland and its people to its goals and national interests.
History
What was to become The Sohnland began on the 20th of April 2005. Originally starting off as a place to express its founder's ideals, personality and identity. Not really functioning as a nation at this point, the 4 year old founder of of The Sohnland at the time had no idea of what the concept of what a country was not even what a micronation is.
Nations, although they are abstract concepts and constructs, they naturally come about within the human species and it is only natural for some people to create nations to distinguish themselves from others.
There is a legend that the inspiration and the drive behind The Sohnland's creation was brought to its founder when he witnessed a dove/pigeon fly across the sunset on the ververy same day of founding The Sohnland. The bird was envisaged to appear to be made out of flaming gold against the bright light of the sunset.
Later named to the "Dove of Burning Gold", a mythical bird of The Sohnland thought to give the nation divine purpose and protection. This mythical animal was adopted as the national animal and is displayed on the national flag.
Nothing worth being notable happened with The Sohnland until 12 April 2009, when it got its first flag but not its current flag. After this point, The Sohnland began a slow and gradual progression towards legitimacy as a sovereign state, only having a flag, a land claim and a name at this moment in time.
A lot of physical records of The Sohnland's history has actually been lost over time. Some years or months may be completely blank.
On July 29 2015, The Sohnland gave up most of its land claims due to lack of feasible control, of which formed a few short lived micronations at the moment of releasing territory. History and records about them no longer exist, all sources are not reliable.
After this date The Sohnland was left with only 310 square metres to its land claim but with realistic control over it. The Sohnland never again shall plan to increase its territory, nor shall the nation have influence over other micronations.
2 July 2016 was when The Sohnland printed its first flag by itself, using rudimentary fabric printing methods, created its first flag. Although it wasn't good quality and rather small, it survives till this day and is kept for the sake of preserving history.
August 15 2016 was when The Sohnland started having national anthem proposals. None of them were all that good. An official national anthem did not come about until years later.
29 September 2017 was when The Sohnland practiced socialism. This came with the final national flag change, the socialist banner hasn't been changed despite no longer being socialist for the sake of tradition. Socialism in The Sohnland failed miserably here, and the ideology was abandoned on 24 May 2018.
A multitude of events happened on 24 May 2018; Permanent neutrality was declared, socialist practices were dropped and The Sohnland began to shift towards liberal conservative values once again.
On 24 March 2020, The Sohnland and Carnifron begin unification.
On 1 May 2020, The Sohnland finally gets passports and they become available for its citizens. However, they won't be the final design of passports due to obvious improvements to be made, like giving them gold plated lettering.
11 May 2020, and The Sohnland now has passport stamps for those visiting The Sohnland.
12 July 2020 is when The Sohnland makes identity cards available for its citizens. But it wasn't until recently when they got holigraphic sticker security features.
20 August 2020 is when The Sohnland gets a national great seal design.
On 21 October 2020 The Sohnland makes a flag pins available for its citizens.
24 October 2020 and The Sohnland submits a signature request for the European Union EEA Agreement.
On 15 November 2019, The Sohnland found the micronations community and began to form informal relations with those alike.
The Sohnland celebrates its 15th anniversary on 20 April 2020, but unlike most anniversaries there was no celebration that year due to a COVID-19 lockdown.
2 November 2020 is the day The Sohnland gets the unofficial anthem "My Dove of Burning Gold" to commemerate the unification of Carnifron and The Sohnland.
On 10 November 2020, a souvenir banknote design is made and will later be printed as a commemorative banknote.
11 September 2020 and The Sohnland had gained gold seal embossers to give treaties and official documents security features.
On 7 December 2020, The Sohnland signs a treaty of mutual cooperation with the community of Createmino as a token of friendship.
21 December 2020 is the day The Sohnland unanimously switches to the holocene calendar. Although HE dates don't appear on The Sohnland's official website so people outside The Sohnland can correctly interpret dates and times.
11 January 2021 is when The Sohnland finalised its passport design with gold plated lettering.
23 January 2021 is when The Sohnland finally prints linen banknotes with holographic security features and a silver weaved strip in the centre. They also have a watermark of a dove in the white section of the banknote, this is planned to be revealed at a later date.
Secession
The Sohnland and its inhabitants have shown strong distaste in how they are currently governed by the United Kingdom under Westminster in regards to taxation, tariffs and economic regulation. How their taxes are reallocated within the UK being one of the main reasons. According to the official government website of The Sohnland their citizens generally lean towards right wing values and populist ideals.
Their main national purpose is the pursuit of autonomy, secession, and the preservation of the right to self determination.
Etymology
The name of our country 'The Sohnland' is the shortened colloquial name for the 'Republic of The Sohnland', as The Sohnland is actually the name of the geographical region described by Sohnlandic locals of which where the republic is situated; Hence the name 'Republic of The Sohnland'. Similarly how The Gambia, a sub saharan country in western Africa refers to the river Gambia which is what defines the country.
There are in fact other synonyms for The Sohnland which are perfectly acceptable to use according to the Sohnlandic constitution. However, they're only ever used in casual settings and not to refer to the nation outside of casual conversation or on formal occasions.
Other synonyms include: "Pigeonland", "Sohnland", "Sonland", "Land of the Doves", "Bird land", and even "Greater Carnifron".
Signed Treaties & Agreements
EU EEA Agreement
The Republic of The Sohnland signs the EEA (SIS) Agreement on 21 October 2020. This treaty was later signed and enforced by The Sohnland to promote the freedom of movement between EU and EEA member states.
This treaty also allows for the free movement of digital data and frees up border checks between The Sohnland and EU and EEA member states; However, the free movement of people and workers to and from The Sohnland's bordering neighbour, the UK may be impacted by brexit and their withdrawal from the Schengen Area.
Antarctica Treaty System (ATS)
The Republic of The Sohnland signed the Antarctic Treaty on 30 November 2020 with the aim of protecting Antarctic ecosystems by setting the continent aside as a nature preserve. Signing the Antarctic treaty also means banning all activities involving the military, along with making Antarctica open for conducting scientific research.
Recognition of the UK
On 7 November 2020, The Republic of The Sohnland drafted a 49 page treaty of mutual recognition of the United Kingdom to be sent to the UK Prime Minister. Unfortunately it could only be sent via email at the time due to COVID-19 related issues surrounding national lockdown in the UK at the time.