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What could be done to have a world that is basically similar to our own, but with more microstates? (like Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino). Especially non-island microstates outside Europe. Could such a nation exist in a Western Hemisphere otherwise looking like the our own?

I am interested in how a nation like San Marino has maintained independence for such a long time, and am curious if a similar nation could form in the shorter history of the Americas?

Would like to see ideas for more European ones too, or small island nations around the world. I only ask for non-island non-european ones because they don't exist in OTL (except maybe Brunei).

A few wikipedia articles that provoked this thread, for anyone who's interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_microstates#Historical_small_territories (pages for several former microstates)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Indian_Stream (would be cool to see this as an Andorra/Liechtenstein analogue in North America, although it's probably not likely)
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