Benolia

Reino de Benolia  or  Kingdom of Benolia  is a country on Antarctic peninsula, the last colony of Spain.

''' Having gained complete independence in 2004, Benolia became the first independent country in the world to be located on the continent of Antarctica. It is also the only territory of the continent with a permanent population. '''

 The country occupies    area of 206 354 square kilometers, approximately the same as Belarus.

Benolia has second lowest population density (after Mongolia), or third if you include Greenland.

The capital - Nordana (until 2016 - Sur-Sadad), located in the north of the country is also largest city of   Benolia  (31787 inhabitants) and the whole continent of Antarctica in general.

History
Main article: The history of Benolia 

In 1816 Argentina declared independence. Spain declined the declaration. After that the rebellion started and after 3 years of war, the rebels lost and Argentina remained being part of Spain.

When Bellingshausen discovered Antarctica, the Spanish took the ship called "Flor Sur" and crossed Drake Passage, founding the city of Josenna in 1821 (the city exists today; it is the second largest city of the country with population of 17692) and then, in the year 1827, they went to the north and founded the city of Sur-C i udad (Sur-Sadad in local dialect) on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The population of Sur-Sadad increased quickly because of relatively  warm climate and very huge stream of imigrants from Argentina.

In 1847, Sur-Sadad reached 9 thousand inhabitants and became a very important port in the region. From December till March the port was ice free and was making many transportations to Ushuaia, Buenos Aires and Puerto Deseado.

In 1897 the Argentines began the second rebellion and gained independence in 1901 after almost 4 years of bloody war.

After that it was difficult for Spain to hold an area situated almost 13 000 kilometers away from Madrid (Spanish capital) and Barcelona (largest port of Spain) which also has 2 trade transportations to Barcelona every year. So the Spanish gave very high authonomy to Benolia (called after Jose Benol, the captain of Flor Sur). But Benolia had army of just 827 soldiers by the year 1914, so Benolia was neutral both in WW1 (together with Spain) and WW2 (while mainland Spain tried to invade Portugal being on the side of Axis powers, but lost Galicia and western Andalusia to Portugal; the last one had great support of the Soviets; look the Iberian war)

In the times of Cold War, colony (unlike the mainland Spain) was on the side of Soviet Union, after what Spanish invaded Benolia, despite they were already owning it. Antarctica treaty system was never signed.

In 1991 Benolia suddenly stopped all transportations to rest of Spain. Making some trade deals with Argentina, Benolia instantly became very rich.

In 1993 Spanish fleet was going to invade Benolia for the second time, but then the South American countries got involved. Spanish surrendered and gave Benolia very huge level of authonomy: they couldn't just make relationships with other countries.

Five years later, in 1998, Benolia declared independence. Spanish at first ignored the declaration, and then marched 78 thousand troops through the Panama Canal. After that soldiers came to South Pacific, landed in Antarctica and crossed more than 1 thousand kilometers (621 miles) till the southern border of Benolia and attacked town of San Antin. Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia and Russia get involved and helped Benolia to win the war.

However, Spain still did not recognize the independence of Benolia until 18 May 2004. That was the day when Nordana International Airport was opened and Benolian population was no longer dependent of the economy of mainland Spain.

The first King of Benolia was Alejandro I (2004-2012), and the first Queen was Lara I (2012 - present)

In 2016 the capital city - Sur-Sadad was renamed into Nordana.