Principality of Hershwell
Principality of Hershwell 赫斯維爾公國 (Chinese) | |
|---|---|
 Flag
.png){kind=small} Coat of arms
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| Capital and largest city | Shusakuron |
| Official languages | |
| Regional languages and dialects | |
| Ethnic groups (2024) |
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| Religion | |
| Demonym(s) | Hershwellian |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy |
• Prince of Hershwell | Paul I |
• Prime Minister | Justin Tsai |
| Legislature | Parliament (2022~2023) National Council (2023~) |
| Sovereign state | |
• Azure Czech (LJK) established | Apr 2013 |
• Principality of Rushwell established | 20 Jun 2018 |
• Hemir Empire established | 16 Dec 2018 |
• Unification of Rushwell and Hemir and Principality of Hershwell proclaimed | 3 Jul 2022 |
| Population | |
• 2024 estimate | 25 |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (TST) |
| Date format | mm-dd-yyyy AD |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +886 |
Hershwell (hərSHwel; Mandarin: 赫斯維爾公國 [Hè sī wéi'ěr gōngguó]; romanised Taiwanese Hokkien: hik-su-uî-ní kong-kok), officially the Principality of Hershwell, is a self-proclaimed landlocked micronation located on the island of Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean. It extends de facto sovereignty on several enclaves of the Republic of China (colloquially known as Taiwan) while governing the District of Tsinghua and several overseas territories in the Republic of Korea and the United States. Both the seat of government and the Princely Palace are located in the capital and most populous city, Shusakuron, itself an enclave of Taiwan.
Because of the long-running dispute on the political status of Taiwan and complexity of the islanders’ national identity, Hershwell’s culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with those of Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal communities of Taiwan, as well as heavily influenced by those of post-Meiji Restoration Japan (and by extend of Europe) and China. Additionally, because of their multilingual upbringings, many Hershwellians are fairly fluent in Mandarin, English, Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka. This unique cultural scene granted Hershwell the ability to globally represent the Taiwanese micronational community and interact with micronations of other linguistic backgrounds.
Hershwell is the most diplomatically outreaching micronation in East Asia, being at the forefront of cross-continental exchanges in the micronational community. It spearheaded the regular summits between the francophone Microfrancophonie and the Taiwanese Micronations Alliance.
History
Hemir Empire (2018 - 2022)
Main Article: Hemir Empire
Hemir Empire can be tracked back to Kingdom of Odyssey, which went independent on May 13, 2018 and unified with Republic of Shinhankon on November 1, 2018. After the serious disagreement of the draft of constitution, the Prime Minister of Shinhankon, the Speaker of the Parliament of Shinhankon, and other people who formerly had Odyssey's citizenship, declared the independent of Republic of Shinhankon and established Hemir Empire on December 16, 2018.
After independence, Hemir Empire first established diplomatic relationships with countries such as the Republic of Ultratania and the Republic of Chrisland, and later joined Taiwanese Micronational Alliance (TMA). As the early member of TMA, Hemir Empire perviously assisted TMA to modify its constitution and sorted out the reconciliation scheme between TMA and the Republic of Junhong. In early 2019, Hemir Empire also played major role in Micronational Information Alliance（Chinese：微國家信息聯盟）in order to establish the shared channel of micronational news but failure. On July 6, 2019, after multi-days negotiations, the governments of the Republic of Shinhankon and the Hemir Empire shared their willingness to reconcile long-standing conflicts and established diplomatic relationship. Due to 109 CAP（Chinese：109年國中教育會考）, the Senatus of the Hemir Empire (government of the Hemir Empire) actually stopped functioning between September 2019 to May 2020.
On May 23, 2020, Wong Ming Empire, the micronation located in Hong Kong, occurred an extremely serious political incident, known as the 523 Incident. After the incident, the Senatus returned to active. On July 16, the referendum of constitution was totally unsuccess, most of citizens didn't vote. On July 21, the Minister of Interior decided to quash the nationality of the citizens excluded government officials and His Majesty Claudius II decided to enforce the constitution, the Senatus called it "the process of the integration of nation and government". On July 29, His Majesty Claudius II met the Prime Minister of the Republic of Chrisland Ching-Yiu Lim, the President of the Federal Republic of Baijania Ting-wei Bai, and the President of the Republic of Stone Kellvin Kao at C.K.S. Memorial Hall, Taipei City.
Principality of Hershwell (2022 - Onwards)
On March 27, 2022, Otto Wang, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hemir Empire, met Justin Tsai, Prime Minister of the Principality of Rushwell, at Gongguan, Taipei City. At the meeting, they shared their views of the international situation of the micronational community and of diplomatic development. They signed the "Joint Communique of the Hemir Empire and Principality of Hershwell" after the meeting. The meeting directly affected the future of both sides.
On June 2, 2022, after the meeting of the Herniurus Group relevant to the unity of government affairs, the Hemir Empire and the Principality of Rushwell considered the history of both sides, the problems both sides struggled with, and the common goal of culture development. The unity of both countries became an issue.
On July 3, 2022, after negotiations lasting over one month, Otto Wang, Justin Tsai, Eric Yin (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Principality of Rushwell), and Ching-Yiu Lim (Prime Minister of the Republic of Chrisland) signed the "Treaty of the Unification of the Hemir Empire and Principality of Rushwell and the Establishment of the Principality of Hershwell," which marked the appearance of Hershwell. After the treaty was signed, Otto Wang ascended the throne as Otto Ⅰ, the 1st Prince of Hershwell. His Serene Highness Otto Ⅰ appointed Justin Tsai as Provisional Consul to establish the provisional government.
The members of the provisional government are shown below:
| Party | Civic Alliance | |
|---|---|---|
| Labour Party |
| Position | Member | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provisional Consul | The Hon. Justin Tsai | 0703, 2022-
0912, 2023 | |
| Minister of Internal Affairs | The Hon. Justin Tsai | 0703, 2022-
0901, 2023 | |
| The Hon. Otto Wang | 0901, 2023-
0912, 2023 | ||
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | The Hon. Eric Yin | 0703, 2022-
0912, 2023 | |
| Minister of Law | The Hon. Bruce Wang | 0703, 2022-
0912, 2023 | |
On July 30, Hershwell held the 1st TMA Summit. During the congress, Justin Tsai was elected Secretary General and Hershwell as Permanent Member. Due to 112 GSAT（Chinese：112年學科能力測驗）and personal matters, mainly about further education, the provisional government actually stopped functioning between August 2022 to January 2023.
After GSAT, the 1st offline meeting of government was held at Ximen, Taipei City. H.S.H Otto Ⅰ, Provisional Consul Justin Tsai, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Eric Yin discussed the motion about national development and international prospects. Around the end of March, the provisional government completed the compilation of the draft of the "Constitution of the Principality of Hershwell", and announced constitutional convention would be held on April 9. However, the constitutional convention unable to convene due to political reasons.
On June 12, H.S.H Otto Ⅰ first announced his willing to abdicated and asked government to nominate the successor. After six days, Justin Tsai nominated King of Austin and Farant Paul Ⅰ as Honorary Royalty and successor of Prince of Hershwell. On June 23, His Serene Highness Otto Ⅰ declared his abdication at the Prince's Palace, Shusakuron. After Daimyo of Morimae Ching-Yiu Lim waiver of his inheritance, King of Austin and Farant Paul Ⅰ inherited Prince of Hershwell as Paul Ⅰ.
On August 5, Justin Tsai and Eric Yin attended the convention of the Zarklovina Mutual Defence Organization held in Taoyuan. On August 19, Hershwell held the 2023 TMA Shusakuron Summit that more than ten Taiwanese Micronation joined. It's the 2nd summit of TMA, a year after the previous summit which also held by Hershwell.
On September 12, the Provisional Parliament passed the draft of the "Constitution of the Principality of Hershwell". After His Serene Highness Paul Ⅰ signed the constitution, the provisional government announced the country enters the constitutional period.
On December 02, the National Council Election which would select Prime Minister and two independent monitors, was held. The election is equal price election and only Civic Alliance participated. After the election, Justin Tsai of the Civic Alliance was elected Prime Minister, Sunny Tseng of the Civic Alliance and Bruce Wang of the Civic Alliance was elected independent monitor. A week later, the 1st IPSM (Inter-Pacific Summit of Micronations) was held at Prince Palace, Shusakuron. Hershwell, New Rubix Republic, Republic of Tairan, and the Republic of Orientalia had joined the summit. At the summit, they have reached a high level of consensus on perspectives regarding IPSM and cross-border postal services. After the summit, Cabinet Office held the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected cabinet.
The cabinet is shown below:
| Party | Civic Alliance | |
|---|---|---|
| Labour Party | ||
| Non-party |
| Prime Minister | H.G. Justin Tsai | 1209, 2023- | |
| Home Secretary | H.G. Otto Wang | 1209, 2023- | |
| Foreign Secretary | H.G. Otto Wang | 1209, 2023- | |
| Minister Without Portfolio | H.E. Eric Yin | 1209, 2023- | |
| Director of Department of Finance | H.G. Otto Wang | 1209, 2023- | |
| Director of Department of Culture | H.E. Ching-Yiu Lim | 1209, 2023- | |
| Director of National Archives | Vacancy |
On January 01, 2024, H.S.H Government held the new year celebration, Prime Minister Justin Tsai delivered his 1st speech to worldwide, reflecting on political accomplishments and propagating policy. On January 28, Foreign Secretary Otto Wang attended the 6th Summit of Zarklovina Mutual Defence Organisation held by Constitutional Monarchy State of Huajiangstan in Sanxia District, New Taipei City, it's Otto Wang's first international meeting as Foreign Secretary of Hershwell. Next day, Prime Minister Justin Tsai, Foreign Secretary and H.S.H Paul Ⅰ attended the 2024 TMA Winter Summit, it's the first time that a foreigner has joined the summit in person.
On February 10, in order to celebrate Chinese New Year, Poste Hershwell（Chinese：赫斯維爾郵便）published its first stamp, which combined traditional Chinese calligraphy with Prime Minister Justin Tsai's personal style.
Government and Politics
Government
According to "Constitution of the Principality of Hershwell", Hershwell is a semi-constitutional monarch country, the power of the government is distributed to Prince of Hershwell, the Cabinet, and the Parliament.
However, in response to the demographic crisis, the provisional parliament passed "The 1st Special Article of Constitution", the Cabinet and the Parliament will merge into National Council, which include three ministers, two independent ombudsmen, and the Prince of Hershwell.
The ruling party in Hershwell is Civic Alliance.
Diplomatic Relations
Since 2018, both the Principality of Rushwell and the Empire of Hemir had began contacting micronations beyond its boundaries. In the following years, Rushwell pursued foreign policies heavily oriented toward non-Sinophone micronations, establishing relations with countries such as the Kingdom of Atlia and the Archduchy of Mimas. Regionally, Hershwell was elected a Chairing State of the Taiwanese Micronations Alliance from 2022 to 2023 and hosted its annual summits twice and consecutively in 2022 and 2023. Incumbent Prime Minister, Justin Tsai, has been serving as the Secretary-General of the Alliance since 2022. Hershwell is also a member of the Zarklovina Mutual Defence Organisation and Brulee Group. In 2022, with other members of the Brulee Group, it co-governs the Zhaonan United Concession, with Former Foreign Minister Eric Yin serving as the governor since 2023.
As of April 06, 2024, Hershwell has established the formal diplomatic relationships with six countries:
Republic of Toubak
Federation of Darkda
Geography
Administrative divisions
According to the 2023 Constitution, the principality is subdivided into three prefectures. Notably, the subdivisions of Hershwell is strongly influenced by the todōfuken （都道府県） system used by Japan.
- Shusakuron-fu, comprising of any enclaves above Taiwan’s Zhuoshui River the seat of the Princely Palace and government. All three of the predecessor states of Hershwell were mainly operated within this prefecture;
- Sanbunshi-ken, comprising of any enclaves below the said river, also the seat of government of the Republic of LJK from 2013 to 2017;
- Morimae-han, a small enclave domain gifted to the Prince of Chrisland.
Two enclaves in Seoul City, Republic of Korea and San Francisco, United States are claimed as foreign territories, administratively governed by the Sanbunshi-ken. In 2023, a special self-ruling District of Tsinghua was created because of the concentrating of several notable citizens’ residence within the campus of the National Tsinghua University.
Population and Ethnic Groups
Choosing not to grant rights of political participation to citizens with significant political positions in other nations, Hershwell’s current population of 25 people is mostly Hershwellians of specifically Rushwellian, Hemirian or Austinian micronational heritages, the three predecessor states of Hershwell.
Han Taiwanese, including Hoklo Taiwanese and Hakka Taiwanese, makes up the majority of Hershwell's ethnic portfolio. There is also a significant population of Waishenreng, or Mainlanders, whose families retreated to the island of Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-Shek in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.
Culture
As a multicultural state, Hershwell is known for its cultural diversity and the development of exquisite culture. Hershwellian culture has integrated Taiwanese culture, British culture, and Japanese culture, therefore a rich mixture of eastern-western, and Taiwanese local culture has become one of its characteristics.