Denomination

Freedonia Arms

The Principality of Freedonia is the latest in a long line of failed libertarian new-country projects that extends back to the 1960s. It was founded in 1992 by a group of US teenagers as an oligarchy, and was headed by John Kyle. The group became a republic in 1996 and finally a constitutional monarchy in 1998, whereupon Kyle was acclaimed as Prince John I. In late 2000 and early 2001 Freedonian representatives were involved in a controversial bid to negotiate the lease of a territorial enclave from the Sultan of Adwal in Somaliland, and the popular unrest this stirred up resulted in the deaths of several Somalis.

© 2004, USNS / G Cruickshank. Information and scans courtesy of G Cruickshank and J Kyle.