See also: Microphone-state (homonymy)

A microphone-State is a sovereign State having a weak population or a small surface (and generally both).

The microphone-States meet especially in Europe, results of territorial stories complex, or in the the Antilles or the Pacific Ocean, in the form of Island states:

• in Europe the construction of the State-nations left, for various reasons, vestiges of the feudal time (even of antiquity: San Marino). Their existence has been or not continuous for this time, but during the Middle Ages much of country had already a more or less discontinuous existence.
• in the rest of the world the near total of the States (with the only exception of the Chinese, Japanese and Ethiopian empires and of the Nepalese and Thai kingdoms) is resulting from the dismemberment of the colonial empires. It recover almost all, and the microphone-States do not make exception, several, even of many States of before colonization. The borders of these microphone-States are to be sought only in the geographical constraints and the borders of the colonial empires.

The microphone-States should not be confused with the Micronation S, which are entities which are not recognized.

Examples

The limit between a microphone-State and a State which is not it is purely arbitrary:

• micro? : two thirds of the countries of the world do not exceed the thousandths of the population of China, more than one about thirty do not exceed the hundredth of the average population, the twenty smaller countries cumulate less than one million inhabitants. But the normal size of the countries increased much during the history. The time when China did not count more inhabitants than current France belongs to the Histoire and the number of countries who did not exceed the thousandths of his size was then higher than today of several orders of magnitude. The normal size of this time would today be described as micro according to any criterion.
• State? : to qualify State a country or a human community raises questions much more difficult than to qualify it micro . It is particularly true for smallest which does not have in general the means of maintaining a diplomatic corps or an army (except notable for the the Vatican), but the remainder for countries of relatively important size. If Somalia (where the executive powers, legislature and legal are not assured any more), the Sahara Occidental (recognized by more than 50 countries but occupied by Morocco since its “  indépendance  ”), Germany or Japan of the immediate post-war period (interdicts of army), or even Taiwan are States, then, for example, Niue (which freely entrusts its foreign policy and its defense in New Zealand, under its control, and without him to give access to its other elements of sovereignty), Tokelau (which differs from the precedent only by the absence of a formal treaty), Guernesey (on the legislation of which the United Kingdom has a right to watch which fell in practice in disuse, and which does not have constitutionally a clean foreign policy although it has direct diplomatic relations in practice with France), Sercq (seigniory feudal vassal of the duke of Normandy, whose executive powers, legislature and legal are autonomous, but which is administratively attached to the precedent), or even any canton (even common) Suisse is also. The usual criteria are in fact very related to the modern concept of State-nation. Everywhere until the end of the Middle Ages, and well afterwards in many areas, the “  États  ” are only matérialisation of the power that a nobody physical car of the property or ground possession in the form of an authority more or less recognized in space, time and the legal consequences.

This mention is also subjective, a microphone-State which can be felt as such because it is surrounded by countries of size considerably more important (like Andorre, which is wedged between the Spain and the France, each one 1.000 times larger). One can quote nevertheless:

• Andorra

• Liechtenstein
• Monaco
• Nauru
• Palaos
• San Marino
• Saint-Christophe-and-Niévès (Saint-Kitts-and-Nevis)
• Tuvalu
• the Vatican

Disappeared Microphone-states

Many missing European countries from now on would nowadays be regarded as microphone-States. For example, the Holy Roman Empire Germanic, before the end of, was composed of a big number of small entities.

Among the microphone-States which had a significant importance in modern times, one can quote:

• neutral Moresnet, 1816-1919;
• the free State from Fiume, or free State of Rijeka, 1919/20-1924, become one moment the Italian Regency of Carnaro;
• the free City of Dantzig (from now on Gdańsk), 1920-1939
• the free city of Memel
• the international zone of Tangier, 1923-1956;
• the free Territory of Trieste, 1947-1954;
• the city of Carthagène, which declared independent canton during the first Spanish republic (1873).

See too

• List of the countries by population
• List of the countries by surface
• Micronation
• Leopold Kohr

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