There are about 195 countries in this world and out of these 193 are the members of the United Nations and the other two are the non- members states ( the holy see and the state of Palestine ) 194 countries are independent. Russia is referred as the largest country in the world with an area of about 17 million sq km.
The Principality Of Hutt River is the smallest nation in Australia. It was founded on 21st April 1970. The total area of this country is only 75 sq km with an estimated population of only 26 people as of 2019. This country was founded by only one person “LEONARD CASLEY”. All those 26 people living in this Principality is Leonard casley's own family. This country was located near the town of Northampton in the state of Australia. After forming this country a few years later, casley framed himself as the “Prince Leonard”. After ruling for 45 years in Feb 2017 Casley made his youngest son the Prince of the country “ Prince Graeme”. He became the Prince on 11th Feb 2017. His reign was only for 3 years and 5 months. Later Prince Leonard died on 13th Feb 2019.
The country exported wild flowers, stamps, coins and agricultural production to overseas. This country allowed the tourism. 40,000 people from overseas visited the country every year. But this country was not recognized by the govt of Australia or any other govt. This country had its own currency Hutt River Dollar. Nain is the capital of the principality. The country also issued its own passports and stamps. The official languages spoken here are:- English, French and Esperanto. This country was compared with Hong Kong in terms of the size. Though this country is regarded as the smallest country but is larger physically in size than many other countries like:- Vatican, San Marino, Nauru, Monaco and few more. This country only existed for 50 years. The principality once even declared a war on Australia. The principality of Hutt River was previously called as the Hutt River province.
The reason why Leonard Casley thought of forming his own country was because of a dispute with the govt of Australia over the wheat production quota.
On 3rd August 2020, the country was disestablished due to the impact of covid 19 Pandemic.
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