Aerican Empire
The Aerican Empire, conventionally referred to in short form as Aerica, is an unrecognized self-proclaimed monarchy in Canada, founded in May 1987 for fun. Its name stems from the term "American Empire". In 2000 The New York Times described its website as "one of the more imaginative" micronation sites.
History
The Aerican Empire was founded on May 8, 1987 by Canadian Eric Lis and a group of friends. For the first ten years the Empire was almost completely fictional, claiming sovereignty over a vast galaxy of feigned planets and engaging in wars against other micronations. In 1997, the Empire created its own website.In 2007, Aerica first issued "novelty passports." The first issued passport was exhibited in the Palais de Tokyo 2007 Micronational art exhibition. Aerica issued stamps for the first time in 2015.
Status
The project's mission statement is: "The Empire exists to facilitate the evolution of a society wherein the Empire itself is no longer necessary." It describes itself as having a parliamentary system, with various elected bodies and offices, under the oversight of an Emperor. Lis, who founded the Aerican Empire as a child, obtained his M.D., C.M. from McGill University.The group's activities are permeated by a great deal of humour and a love of science fiction and fantasy, with recurrent references to Star Wars, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and similar works. Annually, the Empire holds story-writing contests, role-playing and wargaming days, and such events as the Dog-Biscuit Appreciation Day Scavenger Hunt. It also developed a religion called Silinism, the worship of the Great Penguin; originally intended as a joke, but which the group says has thirty practitioners worldwide. It has holidays and "niftydays".
Offline activities
Delegations from the Aerican Empire were in attendance at the Polinations academic conference in London in 2012 and the MicroCon micronations convention in Atlanta in 2017. Aerica was also represented at MicroCon 2023 in Joliet, Illinois.In 2025, the Aerican Empire hosted MicroCon 2025 at Ruby Foo's hotel in Montreal, which was attended by 120 participants from 48 micronations.