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Conch Republic
Key West’s tongue-in-cheek secession of 1982
Micronation since 1982
On April 23, 1982, the city of Key West seceded from the United States, declared war and surrendered about a minute later. The protest was aimed at a U.S. Border Patrol roadblock on U.S. Route 1, the only road to the Florida Keys, where agents stopped every car leaving the islands to search for drugs and undocumented immigrants. The checks caused hours-long traffic jams and, locals complained, treated Keys residents like foreigners in their own country.
Mayor Dennis Wardlow was named prime minister of the new Conch Republic, and after surrendering he asked Washington for $1 billion in foreign aid. The publicity helped get the roadblock removed. The republic has lived on as a running joke and a local brand, with its own flag, souvenir passports and a weeklong independence festival every April. In 1995, when an Army Reserve unit staged an unannounced training 'invasion' of Key West, the Conchs fought back with water balloons and stale Cuban bread, and the unit apologized.