A trimester of transformations
The first trimester experienced by the Empire was full of events that drastically affected the micronation and took place in such a rapid succession of events that all seem organic to the inattentive eye, but write several pages to the already extensive Karno-Ruthenian history.
On 30 December 2019, the Emperor of Karnia-Ruthenia met Wilhelm III, the leader of a simulationist micronation of Lusophone sector for a dinner where they discussed various topics of micro and macronational order and reinforced the friendship between the micronations and their rulers – or so it was thought. The Lusophone sector of micronationalism was divided. On 05 January, His Majesty the Emperor met the Count Lucas of Eichweiss and his three children at São Paulo for a lunch and later that week, another meeting between the Emperor, the Count of Eichweiss and Wilhelm III took place – the last seen by the Lusophone sector of micronationalism as a unified sector.
In addition to foreign policy, the Empire’s internal policy also saw major developments. On the first day of the year, the Imperial Diet dethroned King Carl of Cardonia and Oscar succeeded as king; the Asian-Antarctic District’s seat on parliament was declared vacant and Cardonia was confirmed as part of the Empire.
Culturally, there was also significant movement. On 13 January, a text with micropatriological content in Portuguese and later translated to English was published and donated to the collection of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Geographical and Social Studies, by His Imperial and Royal Majesty, the Emperor-King. The text received general acclaim and was followed by another text of the I.R.A.G.S.S. by His Highness, Prince Karácsony-Maryen, the Imperial Chancellor, about the micronational activity in Brazil.
January finished with the news that, on 29 January, the Empire and the Principality of Montescano signed the Treaty of St. Demetrius and established mutual recognition and diplomatic relations with the Duchy of Two Melillas and reforced rights to members of Pavlovian Union in an ever-increasing action to settle old rivalries and bring the parties involved closer together.
February, in turn, started chaotic with the first natural disaster that occurred in the capital of the Empire. On 10 February, Greater Persenburg was totally flooded, with the Hofbau, the main seat of the Monarchy, flooded and isolated. At the end of the day, the water level – the highest in 77 years – has dropped. Losses wasn’t calculated and the access to Hofbau was restored by the night.
Overcome the bitterness of losses and the fear of further flooding, the Karno-Ruthenian people rejoiced the tribute paid by the Kingdom of Manso, on 19 February, when the Government of the Kingdom of Manso launched its new series of coins, which has the shield of the allies with Karnia-Ruthenia appearing in prestigious position.
On 21 February, the Imperial Diet started the debates on the creation of the “Imperial Circle”: a voluntary association of states autonomous within the Empire but not annexed, responsible for its own policies and co-operating in common interests and in promotion of international understanding mastered by the imperial principles. Only on 28 March the Imperial Circle would be formalized, marking a new step in foreign policy and creating a new sphere of influence.
On 25 February, the Emperor-King attended a mass held by the Archbishop of Persenburg, accompanied by the Baroness Schaf and the newly-made Countess Eisenland. On the following day, Prince Wilhelm Kundarheim was interviewed by Alexandre Brautigam, from the podcast Brazilian ‘Ressonâncias’ to talk about the advantages of a monarchical regime for Brazil as a monarchist and a jurist.
On 27 February, the Antarctic Micronational Union resumed activity. In talks since December 2019, a number of current and former AMU members started negotiation talks, weighing the possibility of reviving the organization. These talks materialized when the new Charter of the Antarctic Micronational Union was signed by the representatives of Hortania, Lostisland, Užupis, Karnia-Ruthenia, Westarctica, Missionary Order of the Celtic Cross, and Montescano, who reconfirmed their membership in the revived organization. The Grand Duchy of Flandrensis opted out of rejoining the AMU, but announced a change in foreign policy, recognizing the territorial claims of all AMU members.
The Empire’s foreign performance was marked by innumerable advances, but to that end, it was also forced to retreat. Facing increasing resistance from Brazilian micronationalists due to his sympathetic view of derivatism, he was forced to abdicate as King of Eslavija on the night of 29 February, ending his second reign in this micronation, which lasted a year, six months and twenty two days. He was the founder of this micronation, established in 07 August 2009.
In the following month, on 03 March, the Emperor-King, assumed the patronage of the Equestrian Order of Saint Thomas, reforming it with the help of several micronationalists who speak the Portuguese language, and reforming it to become an association of lay people, greatly improving it, especially by the canonical basis of its formation.
In the night of 09 March, His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor-King, received the Kings of Luna at the Paris 6 restaurant, in São Paulo, Brazil. They started their career at micronationalism in the major ally of the Empire at the Lusophone sector, the United Provinces of Mauricia, but acquired Karno-Ruthenian citizenship and ascended to the Throne of Luna. This meeting was considered the base for the creation of the Brazilian Sector of micronationalism. On the following day, the Empire and Rino Island reaffirmed their established mutual recognition and diplomatic relations, signed back in 2015 and established one of the most antiques friendships between micronations in Latin America.
On 12 March, His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor-King, spoke to the Imperial Diet asking for measures to be taken by the government face the coronavirus outbreak. With the political support, the Red Cross of Karnia-Ruthenia started their campaign for conscientization and prevention by 17 March and again on 22 March. On 18 March, after testing negative for COVID-19, the Duke of Daugavia, Minister of Foreign Affairs, volunteered to be isolated. There were no cases of infected citizens until early April. In this scenario, the Popsec Studio, a group of filmmakers with the Duke of Libertia among them, made all of their short films available for quarantine.
By the end of the month, after traditional micronationalists from Brazil started expose criticism on derivatism practice as “ignorant” and “dishonest”, a cision in the sector was eminent. Far beyond promoting derivatism among Brazilian aspirants to micronational practice, the derivatist micronationalists in Brazil intended to establish good terms with each other, in contrast to the rivalry of Brazilian micronations at the time and to present themselves to the other micronational sectors as a variant of Lusophone sector, a more friendly and open to micronational practices enshrined in the rest of the world.
The Lusophone sector of micronationalism is known for modelism and simulationism, being the only micronational sector where this segment is the majority. Dissent to this current is usally ostracized and harassed. Thus, considering the Lusophonia a “closed system”, some derivatists projects noted they should organized themselves like other sectors, based this time not only on language, but also on geography and to establish more active relations with other linguistic and geographic sectors.
The beggining of this cision within Portuguese-speaking micronationalism started in a conversation that happened on 12 March 2020 between the Emperor of Karnia-Ruthenia and the Queen of Manso, the leaders of the most successful derivative projects of Brazilian origin. The result of this conversation was the Treaty of Persenburg and the creation of the Brazilian Micronationalism group on Facebook. Most of the members were made up of micronationalists whose projects were of recent foundation, most had acquired experience in simulationist micronationalism, had contact with the foreign micronational movement, especially the English-speaking micronations, the called “Anglophone sector”, and were sympathetic to the ideas of creating their projects with based on the Montevideo Convention of 1933, which led to the signing of the Protocol of Goetha.
With the beginning of April and the uncertainties of this period of pandemic and rapid developments in domestic and foreign policies, the future – immediate and mediate – are real surprises.