Siple War
The Siple War, also known as the Great Micronational Antarctic War was a micronational conflict between the Grand Duchy of Flandrensis, Finismund, Marie State, and the Grand Duchy of Westarctica that began on 29 January 2009 and was officially ended by Flandrensis and Finismund on the 1 June 2009. The conflict gained significant notoriety in the international community was even mentioned in a Dutch travel magazine.
The conflict was sparked by a controversy over territorial claims, with both nations claiming sovereignty over Siple Island and Marie Byrd Land and neither being willing to recognize the other's claims. The nature of the conflict was later altered by the support of the Grand Unified Micronational, which lead to a massive increase in diplomatic support for Flandrensis and Finismund - despite this, GUM later withdrew its support on 27 May 2009, a few days before the conclusion of the conflict.
Background
In December 2007, while Grand Duke Philip was ruling over Westarctica, he accidentally let Westarctica's official website go defunct and also lost the rights to the Westarctica.com domain name. The world largely considered Westarctica to have become a failed state and as a result, two micronations, Finismund and Marie State both laid claim to various parts of Westarctica's territory.
, Westarctica appeared on the internet as an inactive micronational entity. On September 04th 2008, the Grand Duchy of Flandrensis was founded and, as it noticed that the absence of Westarctica made it's territory unclaimed, he proclamed the small antarctic island of Siple as the official territory of the Grand Duchy on November 28th 2008.
After the settlement of several new Antarctic micronations, on the 31st of December 2008, Westarctica came back online, a fter a long period of absence, and claimed all of it's former territory, which included Flandrensis' Siple Island and the territory of Finismund and Marie State. Following this, Flandrensis' Officials tried to negotiate peace with Westartica, but were referred as usurpers.
Following their statements of refusal of negotiating with Flandrensis or Finismund, the leader of the Grand Duchy, Niels I of Flandrensis requested help from the Grand Unified Micronational, which at the time, already had about a dozen of members. In the beginning, the intermicronational organization became very involved in the matter, and most, if not all of its member states, started protecting Flandrensis in its symbolic war for Siple Island. This side was also known as the Flandrensis Side (including Finismund & Marie State).
Foundation of the GAMA Flandrensis, Finismund and Marie State formed an alliance to protect their territory better. They founded the GAMA (Grupo Del Acuerdo Micronational Antartico), also the FSA and Keep Watch joined the GAMA, now the current Antarctic Micronational Union.
Studying Maps Grand Duke Niels I of Flandrensis, Premier Terry Schultz of Marie State and King Petrus Maximus of Finismund tried in different ways to find proof that could have lead them to victory. On the 25th of March 2009, Officials of Flandrensis, while observing the maps [2] published on Westartican websites, disovered that Siple island was not highlited in yellow, and therefore, was not officially claimed. As a way to justify this proof, Flandrensis claimed that the map was also previously used several years ago by founder and former leader of Westartica, Grand Duke Travis McHenry. Nevertheless, four days later, on the 29th of March 2009, Jon Lawrence of Westartica brutally answered Flandrensis' Officials (If your anti-social behavior stems from a medical issue, it is my sincere hope you find the treatment you need) and definitely concluded all peace proposals by Flandrensis. Formerly, both Finismund and Flandrensis concluded that the ‘symbolic war’ against Westarctica was no longer necessary and even started discussing about the sharing of the sovereignity of Byrd’s land.
Unilateral ceasefire Because Jon Lawrence of Westarctica doesn't wanted to negotiate, there was no chance that this conflict would stop. Therefore Flandrensis and Finismund simply ignored Westarctica's territorial claim. They end this conflict on 1 June 2009 and just ignore Westarctica, who already become inactive on that moment. Finismund and Flandrensis recognised, as sign of our good will, the sovereignty of Westarctica on Peter I Island. However, it was their intention to ignore the rest of Westarctica’s claim. They believed that micronations on Antarctica can and should live together, and Finismund has offered twice to share the territories to Westarctica. Flandrensis and Finismund asked to all micronations that are involved in this conflict to ignore the claim of Westarctica.
Restarting negotiations In June 2010 Count Waesche (Minister of Defense) contacted Grand Duke Niels I of Flandrensis, on that moment the current Secretary-General of the Antarctic Micronational Union. Count Waesche and Travis McHenry replaced Jon Lawrence as Grand Duke of Westarctica, and re-opened negotiations with Flandrensis and the AMU (Finismund didn't exist anymore). The negotiations were delicate because several Antarctic micronations are involved in the negotiations, but the negotiations were progressing seriously and on a respectful way.
Final end of the conflict On September 24th, 2010 Westarctica and the AMU reach an agreement, called the West-Antarctic Treaty. Flandrensis, supported by Secretaris-General James von Puchow of the AMU, did a last proposal to Westarctica.
During the negotiations Marie State was declared as a defunct nation and removed from the AMU, following the AMU-Treaty the territory of defunct nations goes to the AMU. The AMU offered the formal territory of Marie State, togheter with an re-unclaimed area of West-Antarctica to Westarctica. Count Waesche of Westarctica accept the offer and declared that Westarctica would recognize all West-Antarctic micronations and would join the AMU.
Later Travis McHenry, king of Calsahara, awarded Count Waesche and Grand Duke Niels of Flandrensis with the Legion of Peace.
Countries Involved Flandrensis side Vlag.jpg Grand Duchy of Flandrensis Flag of the Federated States of Antarctica.png Federated States of Antarctica Imperial Flag.jpg Ohio Empire New Scientopian Flag.png New Scientopia Camuria land flag.png Camuria Finismund Flag.jpg Finismund Flag stcharlie.png Federal Republic of St.Charlie Banderab.jpg Kingdom of Buenos Aires Kaznian flag.png Cheslovian Federation Loading.gif Imperio Destroy Estado de Marie El Dorado Huetar de Occidente Valumar Kingdom of Cantabria Petrossia El Pueblo Simariense Principallity of Brisgovia Republic of Patetopia Westarctica side Westarc.jpg Westarctica Intermicronational response Flag stcharlie.png Federal Republic of St.Charlie: Declared as a protest against the way Westartica is dealing with the issue, to not recognize Westartican claims. Therefore, St.Charlie is the first nation that officially recognizes Siple Island as territory of Flandrensis. Flag of the Federated States of Antarctica.png Federated States of Antarctica: An ally of Flandrensis since within a week of its inception, the Federated States has always supported Flandrensis and Finismund in the conflict. President David Powell stated: "We believe that Westarctica has made an illegal claim to the territory in question based on an incorrect interpretation of the Antarctic Treaty. Much of the contention revolves around whether Westarctica became inactive, and, if so, whether this period of inactivity constitutes a relinquishment of any claims. We contend that this matter is not relevant, since Westarctica's original claim was illegal to begin with." Commerusia.png Democratic People's Republic of Erusia: Initially established complete neutrality in the matter and refused to involve itself in the affair. Since becoming elected Chair of the Grand Unified Micronational, Erusia has become highly critical of the conflict and in particular the conduct of both sides. Erusia accuses Westarctica of being unprofessional and extremely offensive, but also condemns Flandrensis' side in the conflict for appearing to "have adopted the same dictatorial territorial policies it has criticised West Acrtica of having", asserting that neither side is acting in the interests of peace. On May 27th 2009, even though the war appeared to be coming to an end, the GUM Chair officially condemned the conflict and called on all GUM members to instead adopt a neutral foreign policy and work towards a balanced peace, ending nearly four months of official GUM support. Noflag.png Kingdom of Neutralia - Minister of Foreign Affairs Timmy W. Edwardson asks that the Grand Duchy of Flandrensis and Westarctica end the war and negotiate during the current session of the North American Micronational Congress (which does not only handle the affairs of North American micronations)