St. Michael and Providencia

St. Michael and Providencia, shortened commonly to St. Michael, is an island country located in the southwest Caribbean Sea. It shares maritime borders with Centroamerica and Colombia. It is a unitary state occupying the primary islands of St. Michael, Providence and Courland Islands, and several small coral islets in the vicinity.

St. Michael was originally settled in the 1650s as New Courland, the sole overseas colony of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and later joined by a small colony of English pilgrims. The colony was sold to Spain following the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and later allocated to the British Empire following the Congress of Vienna. Following the Second World War, St. Michael became an associated state of the United Kingdom, subject to demilitarization under the Bermuda Agreement with Centroamerica and Colombia, before achieving independence in 1979.

St. Michael is a democratic country with a social market economy supported heavily by tourism. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations but otherwise maintains a policy of formal neutrality and open relations.