Talossa

Flag of the Kingdom of Talossa.Talossa is the name of a micronation founded in 1979 by 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison of Milwaukee. It is one of the oldest micronations still in existence. It was also one of the first to create a Web presence (in November 1995) and remains one of the most famous.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Its exposure in the internet and media since the late 1990s contributed to the appearance of many later internet micronations.

Talossa is ostensibly organized like ordinary nations, with laws, government institutions, and so on. Members are considered "citizens" and have historically been admitted through a formal "immigration" process. According to its website, total membership reached between 100 and 200 people at its peak. The micronation claims several places on Earth as its territory, especially a portion of Milwaukee, but neither Talossa nor its claims are officially recognized by the US or any other ordinary nation. {| class="toc" id="toc" style="font-size:12px;border-color:rgb(170,170,170);color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19.200000762939453px;"

Contents
[hide] *1 History
 * 1.1 Growth of Talossa
 * 1.2 Schisms
 * 2 See also
 * 3 References
 * 4 External links
 * }

[edit] History
Talossa was founded as a kingdom on December 26, 1979[6] by Robert Ben Madison, a 14 year-old resident of Milwaukee, shortly after the death of his mother. At that time the kingdom occupied Madison's bedroom, and he adopted the name "Talossa" for it after discovering that the word means "inside the house" in Finnish.

Talossa has a very detailed "official history".[6] However, due to the nature of the institution, most of its details can only be corroborated by testimonials of members and former members, and appear to be disputed.

In 2004, a group of dissident members of the Kingdom of Talossa seceded, and these former citizens created the Republic of Talossa. This group returned to the Kingdom in 2012, uniting once more into a single nation.

[edit] Growth of Talossa
Madison maintained Talossa throughout his adolescence, which included publishing a handwritten newspaper and designing the nation's flag and emblem (which displays the Finnish motto Miehen Huone on Hänen Valtakuntansa, "A Man's Room Is His Kingdom"). During this time its only other members were about a dozen relatives and acquaintances. This changed in the mid 1990s, when Talossa's web page came to the attention of hundreds of thousands of readers via a series of stories published in such newspapers as theNew York Times[4] and Wired,[1] which were subsequently republished by newspapers in many other countries. Several dozen new "citizens" joined Talossa as a result. Around this time, Madison began to claim that he was the inventor of the term "micronation".

Madison registered the trademark "Talossa" <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-uspto_6-0" style="line-height:1em;">[7] and created Talossa, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation registered in the State of Wisconsin.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-wdfi_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8] Location of Pengöpäts (Talossa's Antarctic claim)<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">In the ensuing years the Kingdom of Talossa continued to function as an enduring politico-cultural role-playing game, complete with parties, elections, laws and government institutions, and several online newspapers. For some time, yearly get-togethers ("Talossafests") were held in Milwaukee. During that period Ben Madison and other Talossa members wrote a detailed history of the kingdom,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-arpats_5-2" style="line-height:1em;">[6] including a mythological pre-history that traces its purported origins to the Berbers of North Africa; invented a Talossan language for which a grammar and a 28,000-word dictionary have been written;<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Guizua_8-0" style="line-height:1em;">[9] and composed a musical anthem Chirluscha àl Glheþ ("Stand Tall, Talossans"). According to the official history, over the years Talossa's territorial claims expanded from Madison's childhood bedroom to encompass most of Milwaukee's East Side, as well as the French island of Cézembre and a large chunk of Antarctica (called Pengöpäts, Talossan for "Penguin-land").

[edit] Schisms
<p style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">As a result of a vendetta against another Talossan citizen, it being an attempt to throw said citizen out of the Kingdom, a significant number of active members of the Kingdom created a separate Republic of Talossa on 1 June 2004.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RoT_9-0" style="line-height:1em;">[10] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-woolleyKoT_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[11] As of 2011, the group claimed about 16 members.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RoT_9-1" style="line-height:1em;">[10] The population of the republic was 18 when it voted to rejoin the kingdom.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">Ben Madison remained on the throne of the Kingdom of Talossa until August 2005, when, after a dispute about immigration procedures,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;">[12] he abdicated in favour of his wife's eight-year-old grandson, who assumed the throne as King Louis I.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-woolleyKoT_10-1" style="line-height:1em;">[11]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">King Louis I abdicated his position in November 2006, and was succeeded by John W. Woolley, elected (per the procedures of Talossa's constitution, the 1997 Organic Law) as King John on 14 March 2007 and is still monarch (as of 2012).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-woolleyKoT_10-2" style="line-height:1em;">[11] While Talossa still and will always claim to be based in Milwaukee, its Website states that "today most of our active citizens live in other parts of the United States and Canada, Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-woolleyKoT2_12-0" style="line-height:1em;">[13]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">Intermittently from 2007 until 2011, Madison disputed the claim of historical continuity made by the Kingdom of Talossa, and reorganized a separate Kingdom with a new Constitution. According to its website, it was ruled by King Louis, with Ben Madison acting as Prime Minister.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-MadisonKoT_13-0" style="line-height:1em;">[14] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-madisonFB_14-0" style="line-height:1em;">[15] The group officially disbanded in 2011.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;">In December 2011, representatives of the Republic and the Kingdom agreed that the two groups will reunite under the Kingdom banner in 2012, once again becoming a single micronation. A referendum was sent out in the republic on March 29, 2012 concerning the "Reunision". The results were published on April 5, 2012. Thirteen out of the republic's eighteen citizens voted: ten in favor, three in abstention, and zero against. The republic formally dissolved on April 19, 2012, and its citizens who wished were made citizens of the Kingdom. The readmission of the republic resulted in the creation of an eighth province, Fiôvâ, from a western portion of Maritiimi-Maxhestic Province, and a southern portion of Maricopa Province.

[edit] See also

 * List of micronations