Unrecognized Countries in America

after Africa America throughout history there have been a lot of countries which were unrecognized meaning that its neighbors or the world in general then it agree that they had a right to exist and be sovereign a lot of countries started like this even the US for instance they were initially and recognized by a lot of states in this video we'll take a look at those countries but the ones that didn't eventually managed to make it work and were doomed to fail and disappear before we start a quick thank you to Squarespace who gracefully made this video possible I'll talk about them a little more later on in the video now I was fascinated by this list because I had no idea about any of these countries first the state of Muskogee located in what is now Florida this state existed from 1799 to 1803 with the capital city being milk asuka near the current city of Tallahassee it was a proclaimed sovereign nation by William R Gusteau's Bowles a loyalist veteran of the American Revolutionary War who lived among the Muscogee Native Americans he envisioned uniting the American Indians of the southeast into a single nation that could resist the expansion of the United States the idea wasn't totally crazy and he actually got the support of the Miccosukee Tribe and several groups of Muskogee eventually he wanted a big part of the Native American people to join them sort of as a big coalition or alliance with the Taraki upper and lower creeks Choctaw and Chickasaw but there were some weird aspects about the state which gave it a somewhat European character instead of Native American its official religion was Roman Catholicism its ruling body was a Chamber of Deputies and a big supporter of it was the British Empire by 1803 the US and Spain conspired to capture William Bowles the leader the u.s. eventually took military control of the region and incorporated it into their territory it counted with around 50,000 people in its population before being destroyed in 1803 the state's motto was Liberty or death and unfortunately they could not assure Liberty next the Republic of West Florida this was a short-lived Republic in the western region of Spanish West Florida for just over two-and-a-half months during 1810 it was annexed and occupied by the United States later that year and subsequently became part of eastern Louisiana now the reason why this Republic existed is incredibly confusing essentially that has to do with Great Britain ceding the land to Spain during the American Revolutionary War then France ceding part of its North American territory to Spain like we saw a couple of videos ago then Spain giving it back to France but forgetting about West Florida and so after the Louisiana Purchase Spain claimed that this plot of land was not included in the sale and therefore should be given to them the u.s. disagreed so it seems that this independent republic was probably just a demonstration of Spanish resistance against the US however the Americans won they had a big influx of population the area and their military forces were superior but currently the county that takes up this area in the US state of Louisiana is known as the Florida parishes third on our list is a place all the way in South America the interviewed Republic the Republic of interviewed was a short-lived Republic in South America in the early 19th century it's located in the current Argentine provinces of enter huge and calientes independence was declared in 1820 by General Francisco Ramirez in spite of the Republic in its title Ramirez never really intended to declare an independent state rather he was making a political statement in opposition to the monarchist and centralist ideas that were dominant in Argentina however they still managed to put together a flag and a coat of arms and make their independence last for a year in 1821 another man called Lucio Mencia was elected governor of the province and the idea of it being independent just disappeared so if the local population were willing to vote for a governor under Argentine rules it really shows they probably weren't too serious about wanting to be independent this next one really surprised me but apparently there was a republic of Lower Canada now lower is misleading because it's actually sort of eastern Canada it existed for less than a year in 1838 and it was a breakaway States proclaimed in the aftermath of the 1837 rebellions a number of armed revolts that took place in Canada in that year since it was a rebellious state there was an easy way to undo its independence defeated their rebellion and that's exactly what the Canadian / British authorities did however their desire for independence seems extremely genuine and not just because of the revolts the revolt itself was based on a long-running discontent with central authorities also being related to the differences existing between the ruling British government and the local French origin population this might be an example of how far back the idea of an independent Quebec goes something we talked about in previous videos as well between the u.s. and Mexico the Republic of Kyogre and it seems like all of these were republics remember how California was initially a republic and rebelled against Mexican rule well Rio Grande was sort of has a similar story it was an independent nation that insurgents fighting against the central Mexican Republic tried to establish in northern Mexico another example is Texas rebelling but while California and Texas were successful probably because of the following u.s. supports Rio Grande was not I won't get too much into it but essentially it has to do with discontent towards the Mexican government at the time and a way that their federalist system worked so a group of influential people from the Mexican states in the region gathered and declared independence as a republic of Rio Grande the three stars on the flag represent the three state that seceded Coahuila nuevo león and Tamaulipas their state motto was dios libertà i convention god liberty and convention mexican troops were quick to strike and defeated the rebellious forces in 1840 like i mentioned in the beginning this video was made possible by Squarespace Squarespace is a fantastic service that you can use to build or improve your online presence whether you have a podcast a blog a youtube channel a clothing company or any type of business or venture Squarespace is the best place to help you succeed it offers a myriad of tools that allow you to have the coolest looking and best functioning websites you've ever seen whenever I go on a website if things aren't clear and I take way too long finding what I need I just give up and whatever I'm looking at loses my interest and possible business with Squarespace you can be sure that won't happen if you want to try squarespace just go to squarespace.com slash general knowledge and you'll get a free trial plus a great 10% discount on the purchase of any website or domain now back to the video speaking of California we all know the California Republic that eventually joined the US but there's also another California that we don't usually hear about the republic of Baja California it lasted for a few months from October 1853 the January 1854 and the origin is also a rebellion against Mexican rule an American military leader called William Walker tried to start his own country but he wasn't too effective the state never had recognition or even truly existed because they had neither full control of the peninsula nor the support of the population that lived there the other regions that revolted against Mexico had the support of the population against the National Army Baja California had the army and the population against eventually the little US support that they had disappeared their troops deserted and their leader was forced to flee even being accused in courts by the US for violating the neutrality deal with Mexico now finally one isn't a republic the kingdom of our Kenya and Patagonia existing for about two years from 1860 to 1862 this was located in the very southern part of South America taking up about half of current Argentina and a little bit of Chile in order to have access to the Pacific coast sovereignty was proclaimed on November 17 of 1860 by a man called a Haley Antoine de tuna a French lawyer an adventurer who claimed that the regions of Iraq Anya and eastern Patagonia did not need to depend on any other states what authority did he have to do so well I don't know I guess he just felt like it he had the support of a small group of natives who really wanted to maintain their independence eventually Chilean authorities arrested the man and sent him back to France he tried coming back three times to reclaim his kingdom but he never succeeded another non Republic was the Principality of Trinidad now it has nothing to do with trinidad and tobago although the flag is actually somewhat similar and the name as well this is an attempt at a sovereign state in a brazilian island an American called James Hardin Hickey claimed the uninhabited Trinidad island in the South Atlantic declared himself Prince James the first and wanted the islands to become a military dictatorship under his rule it's incredible to see the amount of strange people at this point in history who just thought hey I'm gonna take this land and create a country where I am the leader but he was dedicated he designs stamps a national flag and coat of arms and even established a chivalric order the cross of Trinidad even opening a consular office in New York City eventually the British wanted to take control of the island as part of their empire but Brazil wanted it as well since it's off their coast and they managed to get it Brazilian diplomatic efforts along with Portuguese support pressed a successful claim to Brazilian sovereignty based on the islands discovery in 1502 by Portuguese navigators and finally the most recent and recognized country on this list the Republic of Antigua it lasted for about two years from 1967 to 1969 only fifty years ago it was a short-lived unrecognized independent state on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbeans further back in history the island had been part of the British Empire in 1967 they were granted a status of associate States with their own Constitution however the local population didn't like any type of British rule they requested that their administration should be transferred to the United States but the UK refused and so they decided to hold their own referendum voting for secession from the British two years later in 1969 they held a second vote and declared themselves an independent republic the British didn't like the idea so a few months later 300 soldiers plus 22 London Metropolitan Police officers for some reason landed by helicopter on the island and restored order today it remains a British overseas territory and those were some of the countries in both North and South America which at some point thought hey let's be independent declaring their sovereignty but not having it recognized by mostly anyone else and being doomed to disappear as always thanks for watching leave any opinions or suggestions in the comments below and check out Squarespace if you want I'll see you next time for more general knowledge

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 461,057

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist, unrecognized countries in america, possible american countries, independence movements america, north america, south america, central america, caribbean, squarespace, The State of Muskogee, Republic of West Florida, Entre Rios Republic, Republic of Lower Canada, Republic of Rio Grande, Republic of Baja California, Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, Principality of Trinidad, Republic of Anguilla

Id: fjHHP2bJm9E

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019