Yes to statehood, no to violence

For some professional micronations, achieving the leap to the status of a proto-state, as an indispensable step toward autonomy or even independence, is a dream, a goal, and a deep aspiration. Yet there is a paradox. For instance, the Principality of Seborga and the Republic of Užupis, despite possessing actual territory, a population, and public support, and even being able to shape their communities to a certain extent, are generally regarded as micronations, whereas many terrorist groups are seen as proto-states. One might almost conclude from this that a state-building project is only taken seriously if violence is employed and that the only path to autonomy or independence is through violence. We reject that logic wholeheartedly and without any compromise! Violence and cruelty shall not be rewarded!

Violence is something repulsive and abhorrent. A violent society can never lay claim to being truly civilized and developed. Anyone who desires a better world must not introduce even more violence into it. On the contrary, the goal must be to make the world a less violent place. And the fact that it is possible to achieve autonomy or independence without any violence has already been proven multiple times. San Marino is the prime example. Back when Christians were still being persecuted in the Roman Empire, a small group of them retreated to Mount Titano and founded the commune of San Marino. They simply lived their lives there in peace, without disturbing anyone. The Republic of San Marino did not achieve its independence from the Roman Empire by a violent independence struggle. San Marino achieved its independence simply by existing, growing step-by-step and by not doing any harm to its neighbours. So you can’t even name a concrete day when the territory of San Marino was no longer a territory of the Roman Empire, but the territory of a new independent sovereign republic. It would have been very easy for the Roman Empire to crush San Marino in an early stage of its development. If the Roman Emperor would have simply sent some Roman Soldiers to Monte Titano to kill or arrest the settlers and to burn down their houses - there would not be a Republic of San Marino today. But the peaceful Christian pioneer settler of San Marino were lucky. Their small commune simply stayed under the radar of the Roman authorities.

A new nation does not need not be born out of heroic pathos, violence, and a bloody struggle for independence. The founders of San Marino demonstrated that a new nation can also emerge through pious humility, peacefulness, and a slow yet determined process of building.

Another example is the Principality of Wales. While Wales lost its state independence through force, the Welsh people secured their freedom and later, at least a significant degree of autonomy, peacefully. How did this come about? To put it simply: in the 5th century AD, the Western Roman Empire faced an existential crisis, driven primarily by constant internal power struggles and mounting pressure from Germanic peoples. Meanwhile, in Britain, Roman soldiers were occupied with fending off frequent invasions by the Picts (the Scots). Consequently, the government in Rome decided to withdraw its military forces from Britain entirely. This effectively marked the birth of the Principality of Wales. The Romanized Celtic inhabitants of Britain suddenly found themselves without central authority; in practice, they had become an independent state, simply because the state they had previously belonged to had abandoned them.

Although they likely still viewed themselves as citizens of the Roman Empire, they were forced to act like an independent state. To defend themselves against the Scots, they hired mercenaries from the regions now known as Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. This proved to be a mistake; instead of defending them against the Scots, the hired Angles, Saxons, and Frisians established new states in modern-day England.

The Romano-Britons were pushed westward into Cornwall and Wales. While Cornwall was quickly conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, Wales managed to maintain its independence until 1283 against the Kingdom of England—a realm that had emerged in 927 from the unification of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Initially, Wales may have theoretically been a rump state of the Western Roman Empire; however, facing pressure from the Anglo-Saxons and lacking any aid from Rome or Constantinople, the Romano-Britons turned back to their pre-Roman Celtic roots and developed a distinct national identity as Welsh (or Cornish) people. In recent years, both the Welsh and the Cornish have regained at least a certain degree of autonomy through peaceful means.

The Welsh were effectively caught off guard by their independence when the Roman Empire abandoned them. The people of San Marino gradually and peacefully secured their independence from the Roman Empire. Furthermore, Panagua offers an increasing number of state services, such as weddings and arbitration. It is also worth noting that boundary markers placed by HRH Archduke Arthur stand at Panagua’s borders, while a commemorative plaque in the heart of the territory clearly documents our claim. In the best sense of the term, Panagua is a proto-state. An entity that is slowly but surely acquiring more and more characteristics of a genuine, legitimate state. And so, we can soberly state and solemnly declare: In the year 2025 and the ongoing year 2026, we have taken a significant evolutionary step forward in our development.

The Free City of Panagua, the capital city of the Parliamentary Monarchy of Duckionary, is from now on a proto-state.

Saint Marinus builds San Marino