The Aerican Empire ( ), conventionally referred to in short form as Aerica ( ), is a social organization that claims it is a

micronation A micronation is a political entity whose members claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by world governments or major international organizations. Micronations are classified ...

, founded in May 1987.Ryan, J: ''Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Self-Proclaimed Nations'', Its name stems from the term "

American Empire American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conquest ...

". In 2000 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described its website as "one of the more imaginative" micronation sites. Their flag is similar to the flag of Canada, with a yellow smiling face instead of the red maple leaf in the white square (although the red rectangles on the sides have different side length ratios). The national motto of the Aerican Empire is "''The world is ridiculous; let’s keep it that way''".

History

The Aerican Empire was founded on May 8, 1987 by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born Eric Lis and a group of his friends. For the first ten years the Empire was almost completely fictional, claiming sovereignty over a vast galaxy of feigned planets and engaging in wars against other micronations (although never resulting in physical contact). In 1997, the Empire created its ow
website
In 2007, Aerica first issued "novelty passports." The first issued passport was exhibited in the

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

2007 Micronational art exhibition. Aerica issued stamps for the first time in 2015.The Aerican Empire first issued coinage in November 2009, and a second coin was minted to celebrate Aerica's 25th anniversary in 2012.Aerican Empire: Economics
/ref> Banknotes were issued for the first time in 2017.

Status

The Empire's mission statement is: "The Empire exists to facilitate the evolution of a society wherein the Empire itself is no longer necessary."''The Montreal Mirror''

, 17 August 2006, "The little empire that could" It claims to be organized as a

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...

, with various elected bodies and offices, under the oversight of an Emperor (currently the founder, Eric Lis). Lis, who founded the Aerican Empire as a child, obtained his M.D., C.M. from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

and has been published in the ''Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience'' and ''

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...

'' magazine. The group's activities are permeated by a great deal of humour and a love of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and fantasy, with recurrent references to '' Star Wars'', ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...

'', and similar works. Annually, the Empire holds story-writing contests, role-playing and wargaming days, and such events as the Dog-Biscuit Appreciation Day Scavenger Hunt. It also developed a "religion" called Silinism, the worship of the Great Penguin; originally intended as a

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

, but which the group claims to have thirty practitioners worldwide. It has holidays and "niftydays" (such as Saint Bill’s Day, "honoring the ultimate nerd" and Topin Wagglegammon, "the Niftiest Day of the Year"Aerican Empire: Calendar
/ref>).

Offline activities

Delegations from the Aerican Empire were in attendance at the Polinations academic conference in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 2012''Radio France'': 15 July 2012, archived at
/ref> and the

MicroCon Microcon was an annual science fiction and fantasy convention, held annually at the University of Exeter in Exeter, Devon, England since 1982, usually over the first weekend in March. It is organised by the Exeter University Science Fiction and ...

micronations convention in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

in 2017.''Atlanta Magazine''
''Atlanta Magazine''
30 June 2017, "You probably didn't know, but leaders from 26 micronations just gathered in Atlanta".

References

Notes

External links