EARLY YEARS (1983-1996)

The League of Secessionist States was, for a long time, a dream by young Robert Ben Madison, founder and King of Talossa, when he was 12 years old in 1979. Its main purpose was to gather independentist initiatives in order to achieve the "World Singular Secession of 10,000,000,000 nations".

The LOSS officially begun as a diplomatical alliance between three nations: the Kingdom of Talossa, the Kingdom of Thord and the Imperial Jahn Empire, in opposition to a fourth one, the Glib Room Empire. Ruled by teenage friends in the city of Milwaukee, USA, these states signed a LOSS treaty in November 26^th, 1980, and founded the initial body of the League. Madison assumed the principal duties in the organization, and designed a flag and some fundamentals (as the non-obligatory recognition between members).

According to informations provided by Robert B. Madison himself on his "The Micronations Page", the LOSS rapidly became inactive due to the nearly simultaneous disappearence of both Thord and the Jahn Empire. Talossa, however, which exists until today, kept the League cocooned and brought it back to activity by signing a "Miniature Alliance and Treaty Organization" (MATO) with the People's Republic of Fira, another teenage micronation founded by Madison's friend Frédéric Maugey in France. At this time, Mr. Nathan Freeburg from Talossa was placed by Robert B. Madison in the post of Secretary-General.

Once again, the League was abandoned when Fira eventually ran defunct and Maugey became a Talossan citizen. For the next 13 years, Secretary-General Freeburg wouldn't do much efforts to revive it, and neither did Madison, since Talossa demanded then most of their dedication.

LEAGUE'S RESURRECTION (1996-1999)

On the middle 1990's, however, with the world-wide boom of Internet, new micronations appeared and Robert B. Madison created his "The Micronations Page", an online repository for secessionist projects with comments (written in his own personal views). On 1995, Talossa was theme of stories in several newspapers in North America, and newbie micronationalists contacted Madison for diplomacy. The Talossan king then made up the first LOSS web page and accepted the Empire of Ældaria and the Co-Principality of Sandaria as members. In the autumn of the following year, the LOSS would have 7 members, including non-US based like Riesenguthland-Ellermark (Germany, 1987), Porto Claro (Brazil, 1992), and Nikhedonia (Canada, 1995).

In October, 1996, the LOSS finally came to be shaped very close to its current structure. A Secretary-General was elected for the first time, and several new members joined. Mr. Pedro Aguiar, founder of Porto Claro and pioneer in Latin American micronationalism, was chosen by members and established the main procedures for the future LOSS Charter (creation of the General Assembly, officers election, membership conditions, and even proposals for a Security Council, then rejected by members) as well as inviting and admitting new members such as the Commonwealth of Port Colice and the Estates of Malagis.

In the winter of 1997, the League acquired its first independent website, a new logo, an anthem and a number of certain protocols. He also created the MDB, Micronations DataBase, the League's official records for micronations, as foreseen in Madison's fundamentals. The seat city of the organization was set in Tamar, capital of Port Colice (lately it was agreed that the seat city is always the home city of the Secretary-General). The Colicians, Portoclarians and Nikhedonians joined the Talossans as the leading supporters of the LOSS.

In June, however, Secretary-General Aguiar had to leave due to internal affairs in Porto Claro and appointed Mrs. Lise Mendel of Port Colice as his successor. After some stalled months, Mrs. Mendel could not conduct the League's affairs and the Talossans tried to impose Mr. Richard Grogan, from then non-member Baja Arizona, as Secretary-General, and other nations reacted. The conflict led to a crisis which endured until the end of September, when Mrs. Mendel finally took office, created the first LOSS Mailing List and presented the Draft Charter by which the League would be conducted from then on.

Mrs. Mendel's term ended with the election of Mr. David Kendall, her countryman, who continued the slow process of establishing the League's institutions, such as the Intermicronational Court of Justice. On the other hand, he removed the MDB records and simply cancelled membership of inactive states. In July, the current LOSS Mailing List was created. The LOSS Charter was finally approved on December 30^th, 1998, and signed by the 14 member states then.

PRESENT DAYS (1999-)

With the election of Secretary-General Thomas Leys, in April 1999, the League entered its contemporary phase of evolution. Also from Port Colice, Mr. Leys encouraged the admittance of several new members and the strict accomplishment of the Charter. His administration was well received by most members and he became the first Secretary-General to be elected for a second term (2000-2001). Yet, the League was still haunted by periods of inactivity, a problem which seems to be rather constant.

(It was autumn of 2000 when the LOSS Website was completely reformed again. The contents and text (mostly written by David Kendall based on the original words of Robert B. Madison) were improved and the League received a new flag (to replace the 1980 one, not used in the past three years) and a totally new page design by former Secretary-General Pedro Aguiar, now the official webmaster. Turquoise, the League's official color, was preserved.)

Secretary-General Leys enforced the system of autonomous committees, working on specific matters, composed by delegates. This expanded the responsibilities of the General Assembly and promoted a greater descentralization of power. Such policy was not equally encouraged by his successor, the Ras Diga Makonnen IV of Q'attera-Macusiaa (the first monarch to manage the League). Other insistent proposal by Mr. Leys', the post of Chairman of the Assembly, was never approved by members. He also promoted the growth of the LOSS in quantity: the number of members duplicated under Thomas Leys' administration.

On April, 2001, the Ras was elected against Isonomian Mr. Fred Church, during a long absence of Mr. Leys. In a somewhat controversial election, due to quorum questions, the new Secretary-General took office promising to recover the League's activity and importance in the intermicronational scenery. After 10 months these goals were not exactly achieved, the Ras was charged with heavy accusations of espionage and terrorism by the Shah of Babkha and other nations and, when a vote of non-confidence was officially begun, the Ras resigned to the Secretariat and Mr. Church became the 8^th head of the League of Secessionist States.

Click here for the complete history of member states.