AHC: Smallest, most desolate rump state possible

Had never heard of Busingen before

It is no big deal.

But the enclave really got a bad deal, especially tax wise.
Germany has a much higher income tax than Switzerland, Switzerland a much higher sales tax.
Büsingen got German income tax and Swiss sales tax.

It the place with the oldest population on average in Germany. Probably not a good place to live.
 
All these pages and no one mentioned De Gaulle declaring a democratic French republic in St. Pierre and Miquelon against Raoul Salan's dictatorial regime in For All Time?
I was just thinking about this but in the context of World War Two. Maybe also rump Greenland where the Danish monarchy sets up shop. Might be an interesting TL to have either a Nazi or communist dominated Europe but a number of governments in exile are in North America. The Danes could be in Greenland, the French on St. Pierre and Miquelon, the Dutch in Curaçao. Also while not in Europe, maybe the Norwegians are on the Faroe Islands The Belgians only have the Congo I guess and if Britain were somehow to succumb to the space bats maybe they go to Canada.
 
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The French could also be in Tahiti, which is at least much more comfortable, as they are in Worldwar, though that might be a choice unique to that alien invasion setting. On the other hand, it would be funny if the Free French can't get their act together so they're like divided between a St. Pierre and Miquelon faction, a Tahitian one, one in Guiana and another somewhere in the Caribbean actually wait that's pretty dystopian in a Nazi victory setting
 
I don't think this applies. The Papal States ceased to exist in any significant way when the Italians took over, and any territory administered by the Holy See wouldn't come to be for another 58(?) years. The only thing keeping the idea alive was a succession of hidebound Popes.


Dejima I'm on the fence about, as although it does apply in most respects, it is also pre-1900, and I'm not sure if it was considered merely extraterritorial, or actual Dutch territory.


Makes sense to a degree, but would they really play the waiting game instead of finishing the job? This is the leader of the country you waged the War to End All Wars against. And anyway, I think economic reasons will win out against political considerations. Gotta get that sweet sweet phosphate.
The sheer hideboundeness gets more remarkable when you remember that for like 50 years the Pope's never left the Vatican because doing so would mean admitting they didn't rule Rome.
 
The French could also be in Tahiti, which is at least much more comfortable, as they are in Worldwar, though that might be a choice unique to that alien invasion setting. On the other hand, it would be funny if the Free French can't get their act together so they're like divided between a St. Pierre and Miquelon faction, a Tahitian one, one in Guiana and another somewhere in the Caribbean actually wait that's pretty dystopian in a Nazi victory setting
Might be interesting to see this play out amongst some of the British dominions too. Like seeing royalists in Canada while republicanism takes hold because most see the commonwealth as dead. Might be ASB though, at least in Canada and Australia.
 
An idea that came from the video game "Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall", one that is highly implausible since even Castro wasn't that crazy and willing to ruin his relations with Germany for very little gain, but theoretically COULD work....

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, have the hardliners of the SED government of East Germany as well as a group of Stasi agents flee/relocate to Ernst Thälmann Island in Cuba (Which was 'ceremonially' gifted to the DDR by Castro back in 1972), in order to avoid having to stand trial in the now unified Germany for the various human rights abuses committed by the East German government while they were in power. Perhaps in exchange for the exiled officials of the rump 'East Germany' gifting the Cuban government with the various stash funds and Swiss bank accounts that the East German government have overseas.

With the Cuban-DDR declaring the Two Plus Four Agreement that allowed the reunification of Germany to be 'illegal', and insisting that the 'legitimate' government of the German Democratic Republic still exist on Ernst Thälmann Island, and the now reunified Germany be considered as 'occupied territory'.

... Of course, this rump Caribbean Germany would have a population of, at most under 500 people, have almost zero international recognition outside of other unrecognised states since no one would want to needlessly ruin their relations with the now reunified Germany and later the entire EU, and would be living off handouts from the Cuban government. At most, it will become a tourist attraction and a curiosity... But it is unlikely that it will last over a generation once the hardliner DDR officials, many of them already just a few years away from death in OTL, started dying off.
Would this affect the East German-Mollosian War?
 
Another one is that during WW2 Norway flees to Svalbard, but it's pretty unlikely in my opinion, after all London is right there and Britain is willing to grant them exile
Is it against the spirit of the OP to have a foreign-backed "rump state" where, say, Longyearbyen is the de jure capital even if the government is de facto in London?
 
I quite like the idea of a former state or state-like organisation essentially operating from a single embassy building or (better) a floor on a building. Provided they still had sufficient money they could hold on a long time. An embassy probably isn't quite desolate enough to really count (though some cities might be lacking modern amenities), but the Russian Empire or Teutonic Knights HQ in an out of the way country could make a good starting point for a thriller of some sort.
 
Independent Vermont?
Independent Aruba?
Scott County, TN if the Civil War goes differently?
 
realistically the most likely answer would be say a post WW3 in the 1970s when nuclear war wipes out much of the Northern Hemisphere. remaining remnants of devastated nations ( France, UK, US) develop sort of rump states form from remnants of governments and militaries remaining ships conquer and settle various islands in the Pacific or Indian oceans.
 
Maybe a different Apartheid state by the say 1980s begins planning to use a fortified enclave of territory around cape town as a last Remnant if all else fails. With say encouraged resettlement of Afrikaaners to the would be Enclave state, secret depot's supplies and a plan to retrieve surviving forces and retreat to the zone.
 
Maybe a different Apartheid state by the say 1980s begins planning to use a fortified enclave of territory around cape town as a last Remnant if all else fails. With say encouraged resettlement of Afrikaaners to the would be Enclave state, secret depot's supplies and a plan to retrieve surviving forces and retreat to the zone.
And a senior government official, attempting to flee to the redoubt by ship, discovers it has already fallen and diverts to Marion Island...
 
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