View source for Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads

{{Short description|Fictional Islands Micronation in the Spratly Islands}}
[[File:Flag of Morac-Songhrati-Meads.svg|thumb|Flag of the Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads]]
{{Spratly Islands}}

The '''Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads''' is the [[fictional]] [[micronation]] in the [[Spratly Islands]] established by British naval captain James George Meads in 1877, according to the quixotic claims of a confidence man, Morton F. Meads.

==Morton F. Meads==
Morton Meads was a U.S. Army Soldier, discharged in Manila in 1946, for illegally engaging in various personal business ventures, mainly in the re-sale of army surplus.<ref name="E.B. Hubbert">{{cite book|title=Islands of South China Sea|last=Hubbert|first=E.B.|author2=T.V. McIntyre|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08c01297r000300180019-2|pages=8–9|year=1971|publisher=Researach Study, Bureau of Intelligence & Research, Department of State (DOS)}}</ref>

Meads' tall tales of his so-called birthright "Kingdom of Humanity" were captured in the local Philippine newspapers, which then caught the attention of the local Philippine military authorities. Meads was later arrested on criminal and civil charges for his business ventures, although these charges were later dropped. Regardless, Meads' fanciful storytelling sparked the motivation of powerful Filipino businessmen, such as Tomas Coloma, to race towards claiming the South China Sea Islands for the Philippines, such as the Spratlys.<ref name="Poling">{{cite book|title=On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea|last=Poling|first=Gregory|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/on-dangerous-ground-9780197633984?cc=us&lang=en&|pages=56–57|year=2022|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn= 9780197633984}}</ref>

==History==
The republic's history begins with Morton Meads' supposed British forebear, Captain James George Meads, who laid claim to the [[Spratly Islands]] in 1877. Captain Meads was exploring the [[South China Sea]] on the <i>Modeste</i> and laid claim to the islands and took the name King James I.<ref name=Middleton2015>{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Nick|title=An Atlas of Countries That Don't Exist: A Compendium of Fifty Unrecognized and Largely Unnoticed States|year=2015|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|isbn=978-1-4472-9527-3|page=186}}</ref> Descendants of Meads have continued to posit legitimacy over the islands, and ownership of the islands' resources.<ref name="fowler">{{cite book|title=Law, Power, and the Sovereign State|last=Fowler|first=Michael|author2=Julie Marie Bunck |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAp_97VvpMIC&q=%22James+George+Meads%22&pg=PA54|pages=54–55|year=1995|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-01470-9}}</ref><ref name="latimes">{{cite news|last=Whiting|first=Kenneth|title=Asian Nations Squabble Over Obscure String of Islands|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A2|date=2 February 1992}}</ref>

===Kingdom of Humanity===
[[File:Flag of the Kingdom of Humanity.svg|thumbnail|left|Flag of the Kingdom of Humanity]]
A rival entity called the "Kingdom of Humanity" formed in 1914{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} under the leadership of Franklin M. Meads, the son of James George. The two rival factions continued their claim on the islands during [[World War II]], when they were occupied by [[Japan in World War II|Japanese troops]]{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}. Franklin died in 1945, and his son Josiah took over leadership {{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}; Josiah himself died soon after. His son, Morton F. Meads, was to succeed but was deemed too young.<ref name="samuels">{{cite book|last=Samuels|first=Marwyn|title=Contest for the South China Sea|year=1982|pages=169–71}}</ref>

===Legal attempts at legitimacy===
The Kingdom faded into obscurity over the next decade until 1972{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}, when the then-ruling Morton Meads unsuccessfully petitioned the [[United Nations]], [[Chiang Kai-shek]] of the [[Republic of China]], and the [[Philippines]] to recognise the Kingdom and its claims.<ref name="samuels" /> Later that year, the remainder of the Kingdom's governing body drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Philippines during [[Typhoon Ora (1972)|Typhoon Ora]], except for Meads.<ref name=Middleton2015/>

The Kingdom reappeared in 1985 {{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} when Meads sued the [[United States]] and others for $25 billion, claiming "unfair competition, harassment, [and] sabotage." The case was not heard.<ref>{{cite news|author=Miami Herald Staff|title=Atlantis And Other Wild Claims|work=Miami Herald|date=31 May 1992|page=11F}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Spratly Islands]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, "Republics of the Reefs: Nation-Building on the Continental Shelf and in the World's Oceans", ''California Western International Law Journal'', vol. 25, no. 1, Fall, 1994, pp.&nbsp;83–85.

{{Micronations}}
{{Spratly Islands topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morac}}
[[Category:Micronations]]
[[Category:Spratly Islands]]
[[Category:History of the Spratly Islands]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 1870s]]
[[Category:Former unrecognized countries]]