Aleutia

## Aleutian Principality

Flag

**Prime Minister:**
Thomas Zwiefelhofer (2018–)

**Aleutia** (German: *Aleuten*), officially the **Aleutian Principality** (German: *Fürstentum Aleuten*), is a country located on the Aleutian islands. It only shares land borders with Alaska to the east, although it shares overseas borders with Russia to the west. With a population of around 9.5 thousand, it is the smallest country in the world by population. Its national capital and largest city is Unalaska.

According to theories made by scientists, the Aleutian islands were a route for the first humans in North America hundreds of thousands of years ago. The islands remained populated with solely Aleuts until the Russians colonized the islands along with Alaska in the 18th century. Then in March 1867, the islands were sold to Liechtenstein after Johann II agreed to purchase only the islands since he didn't want to govern an entire large colony. Throughout the remainder of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, the islands remained a colony until they were given independence in 1929, and for sixty years, Liechtenstein and Aleutia had a personal union until 1989, when Franz Joseph II had requested in his will that his second son, Prince Philipp, become Prince of Aleutia.

Aleutia is a unitary semi-constitutional monarchy, with the current monarch being Philipp since 1989, and the current Prime Minister being Thomas Zwiefelhofer since 2018. Despite being a small country, Aleutia is an economically strong country, with its economy being based mainly around fishing sites and tourism. It is also ranked "very high" on the Human Development Index, with a universal healthcare system, and a free university education.

## History

### Prehistory

As they stretch like a broken bridge from the continent Asia to the continent North America, many anthropologists hypothesize they were a route of the first human occupants of the Americas. However, the earliest known evidence in public recorded history of human occupation in the Americas is found much farther south. The early human sites in the Bering Sea have probably been submerged by rising waters and sand during the current interglacial period. People living in or on the Aleutian Islands developed fine skills in hunting, fishing, and basketry. Hunters made their weapons, watercraft, etc. The baskets found are noted for being finely woven with carefully shredded stalks of beach rye.

### Russian period

In 1741 the Russian government sent Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of Russia, and Aleksei Chirikov, a Russian, in the ships *Saint Peter* and *Saint Paul* on a voyage of discovery in the Northern Pacific. After the ships were separated by a storm; Chirikov discovered several eastern islands of the Aleutian group, and Bering discovered several of the western islands. Bering was shipwrecked and died in the Komandorski Islands (Commander Islands); one of which now bears his name (Bering Island), along with the surrounding Bering Sea. The survivors of Bering's party reached the Kamchatka Peninsula in a boat constructed from the wreckage of their ship, and reported the islands were rich in fur-bearing animals.

Siberian fur hunters flocked to the Commander Islands and gradually moved eastward across the Aleutian Islands to the mainland. In this manner, Russia gained a foothold on the northwestern coast of North America. The Aleutian Islands consequently belonged to Russia, until that country transferred all its possessions in North America to the U.S. in 1867.

During the consolidation of the Russian-American Company there was sporadic conflict with the native population (frequently disastrous to the poorly armed and vastly outnumbered Russians). The colonies soon entered a relatively stable state based on cooperation, intermarriage, and official policies that provided social status, education, and professional training to children of mixed Aleut-Russian birth. Within a generation, the day-to-day administration of the Russian-American colonies was largely in the hands of native-born Alaskans. Reversing the usual trend in colonization where indigenous technologies are replaced, the Russians adopted the Aleut kayak, or baidarka, sea otter hunting techniques, and the working of native copper deposits. The Russians instituted public education, preservation of the Aleut language through transliteration of religious and other texts into Aleut via an adaptation of the Cyrillic alphabet, vaccination of the native population against smallpox, and science-based sea mammal conservation policies that were ahead of their time.

By 1760 the Russian merchant Andrian Tolstykh had made a detailed census in the vicinity of Adak and extended Russian citizenship to the Aleuts.

During his third and last voyage in 1778, Captain James Cook surveyed the eastern portion of the Aleutian archipelago, accurately determined the position of some of the more important islands, and corrected many errors of former navigators.