Molossia (), officially the Republic of Molossia, is a

micronation A micronation is a polity, political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from list o ...

claiming de facto sovereignty over of land near

Dayton, Nevada Dayton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lyon County, Nevada, United States. The population was 15,153 at the 2020 census. Dayton is the second-oldest Nevada settlement, after Genoa, and is home to the oldest ho ...

. The micronation has not received recognition from any of the 193 member states of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. It was founded by Kevin Baugh in 1977. He continues to pay

property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or Wealth t ...

es on the land to

Storey County Storey County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 4,104, making it the third-least populous county, but one of the fastest-growing economie ...

, the recognized local government, although he calls it "

foreign aid In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. The ...

". He has stated that, "We all want to think we have our own country, but you know the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

is a lot bigger".

History

Molossia started as a teenage dream of Kevin Baugh, and began as the Kingdom of Molossia in 1998, when he bought the land in Nevada. Baugh has claimed that he based the idea of Molossia on the film ''

The Mouse That Roared ''The Mouse That Roared'' is a 1955 satirical novel by Irish-born American writer Leonard Wibberley, the first of his series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Wibberley used the premise ...

'', and also claims influence from his time in the military. Earlier it was known as the Grand Republic of Vuldstein, where Kevin Baugh was the Prime Minister and his friend, James Speilman, was declared King James I. It went through several government and name changes, including the People's Democratic Republic of Molossia (Communist), Kingdom of Zaria and the United Provinces of Utopia. The Republic of Molossia claims to be at war with the former

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

state of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, alleging that they are responsible for military drills performed by Kevin Baugh while stationed with the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, and therefore are also responsible for his resulting diagnosis of

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...

. While East Germany formally ceased to exist in 1990 following the

Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (), more commonly referred to as the Two Plus Four Agreement (), is an international agreement that allowed the reunification of Germany in October 1990. It was negotiated in 1990 betwee ...

, Molossia argues that

Ernst Thälmann Island Ernst Thälmann Island or Ernst Thälmann Cay ( or ; or ) is a long and wide island in the Gulf of Cazones. In the 1970s, Cuba promised to donate an island in its archipelago to East Germany, and subsequently renamed what was then known as C ...

, dedicated by

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

to Weimar German politician

Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed communist, Thälmann sought to overthrow the liberal democr ...

and given to East Germany, as well as its lack of mention in the Treaty on the Final Settlement or by the nation of Cuba, is therefore still East German land, allowing the war to continue.

Flag

The flag of the Republic of Molossia, called ''the Grand Triune'', is a rectangle with a blue stripe on the top, a white stripe on the middle and a green stripe on the bottom. The blue bar symbolizes strength and the desert sky; the white bar symbolizes purity and the mountains; the green bar symbolizes both prosperity and the Molossian landscape. It is the

flag of Sierra Leone The national flag of Sierra Leone is a tricolour (flag), tricolour consisting of three horizontal green, white and blue bands.https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Sierra_Leone_2013#s6 It was adopted in 1961, Sierra Leone's independenc ...

flipped upside-down.

Culture

Environmental care

Plastic bags and incandescent lightbulbs are banned in the Republic due to their effect on the environment. Catfish and walruses are also banned due to their non-presence in the micronation whatsoever.

Laws

Detonating any

nuclear device A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explo ...

inside of the nation will result in a 500 Valora fine; about 400

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

. It is against the law to play

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

s inside of bathrooms, and sunshine is guaranteed for all.

Anthem

The National Anthem of the Republic of Molossia is ''Fair Molossia Is Our Home''. The music was composed by Simon-Pierre Boka Di Mpasi Londi and lyrics were written by the President of Molossia.

Cuisine

The signature, national drink of Molossia is called ''the Molossolini'', a

non-alcoholic mixed drink A non-alcoholic mixed drink (also known as virgin cocktail, temperance drink, "zero proof" drink or mocktail) is a cocktail-style beverage made without alcohol. Non-alcoholic mixed drinks date back to when cocktails emerged, appearing as "temp ...

of Sprite,

grenadine Grenadine () is a nonalcoholic bar syrup commonly used as a cocktail ingredient, distinguished by its sweetness, mild flavor, and red color. Popular in mixed drinks, grenadine syrup was traditionally made from pomegranate, but today is most p ...

, and

pineapple juice Pineapple juice is a juice made from pressing the natural liquid out from the pulp of the pineapple (a fruit from a tropical plant). Numerous pineapple varieties may be used to manufacture commercial pineapple juice, the most common of which ...

, with added

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

and slices of

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

, and

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

. Onions and spinach are banned food items inside of Molossia due to the President disliking them.

Currency

The Valora (issued by the Bank of Molossia) is divided into 100 Futtrus and denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and coins in 1, 5, 10, 30 (plastic); it has an exchange rate of 0.80. The Valora is also valued to Pillsbury

Chocolate Chip Chocolate chips or chocolate morsels are small chunks of sweetened chocolate, used as an ingredient in a number of desserts (notably chocolate chip cookies and muffins), in trail mix and less commonly in some breakfast foods such as pancakes. ...

Cookie Dough Cookie dough is an uncooked blend of cookie ingredients. While cookie dough is normally intended to be baked into individual cookies before eating, edible cookie dough is made to be eaten as is, and usually is made without eggs to make it safer f ...

with one tube of cookie dough (13 Ba / 30 oz) being equal to 5 Valora.

In popular culture

In 2010, the Republic of Molossia was featured in a feature-length special by Channel Awesome called ''Kickassia'', with Baugh playing a fictional version of himself. In the film, the Republic undergoes an invasion by the

Nostalgia Critic ''Nostalgia Critic'' is an American review comedy web series created, directed by, and starring comedian Doug Walker. The series initially launched on YouTube on July 3, 2007, before moving to Walker's own site, That Guy with the Glasses, and f ...

(played by Doug Walker) and his posse of reviewers, who briefly took over Molossia with a dictatorship, "Kickassia", before being ousted. The official website for the Republic of Molossia treats the events of the film as factual.

References

External links

*
Republic of Molossia Navy official webpage
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Molossia 1999 establishments in Nevada Micronations in the United States States and territories established in 1999 History of Nevada Geography of Nevada Storey County, Nevada Micronations