15th December was the birthday of King Ludwik I, the first King of Esperantia. It is a good time to consider the history of this fascinating little country, where the national language is Esperanto – a language which has travelled widely outside its native land.

Esperantia is a land locked country in Europe, and for much of its history passed between the sovereignty of various empires. Being largely mountainous, they managed to assert little in the way of actual control over it, however. In 1887 it finally gained its independence, after a bloody civil war, under Prince Ludwik, whom the newly created National Assembly proclaimed ‘By the Grace of God and the Will of the People, King of Esperantia’. It flourished in the last decade of the nineteenth century, and the first of the twentieth, as people flocked to its spa resorts, and enjoyed quaint folkloric customs. King Ludwik died in 1917, but the monarchy continued until the Second World War, when, having tried to remain neutral, Esperantia was subject first to German, and then Soviet control. 1945 saw the creation of a Soviet satellite state, which in 1958 became the Socialist Republic of Esperiantia.

The fall of communism in 1989/90 started a new chapter in the history of Esperantia. Freedom from Russian domination led to the creation of the new state, called just ‘Esperantia’, with a presidential and democratic constitution.

Esperantia is a harmonious country, with a mixture of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Lutheran) citizens. Recently, Esperiantian monarchism has been on the rise, with calls to re-establish the Kingdom.