The Sultanate of M'Simbati was 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 1959 in Tanganyika by Englishman Latham Leslie Moore, approximately 25 km southeast of

Mtwara Mtwara ( Portuguese: ''Montewara'') is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania. In the 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme, but was somewhat neglected whe ...

Life events of Latham Leslie Moore

Latham Leslie-Moore was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

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 ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1893. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served as a second lieutenant and then lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. Moore purchased the physical property of the sultanate in 1924.

Formation of the nation

In 1959 the country of Tanganyika was a colony of the United Kingdom— Moore purchased an island/ peninsula and corresponded with the colonial governors of the colony declaring his secession and asking for formal recognition of his sultanate. When Tanganyika later merged with the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba to form modern day

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, Moore also corresponded with the nation's new president,

Julius Nyerere Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, af ...

, requesting recognition of his state, as well as to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. None of these requests was ever honored, however.

Flag

The flag was loosely based upon other contemporary traditional British Empire flags containing a tricolor of red, blue and green with a

Union flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

in the canton.

In popular culture

Moore and the sultanate were featured in a 1983 book NO MAN'S LAND. The Last of White Africa. By John Heminway. The Sultanate was also featured in the book Colours of the Fleet, by Malcolm Farrow, OBE, which strived to provide a compendium of all known instances of flags based on

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

designs.

References

External links