History of Gapla/Lesson 2

History of Gapla
← Lesson 1	Lesson 2	Lesson 3 →

Restoration and Union (August 2018–March 2019)

2.1 The Role-Playing Era

Rediscovering Gapla-Phoenix In 2018, Wyatt Baek moved to attend the APAAS program at Deerfield Elementary School. While packing, he discovered a Gapla-Phoenixian ID card and his Gapla-Phoenixian spy notebook. Feeling nostalgic while moving away from his first school (Cypress Village Elementary School), he took both items with him as he moved.

Gapla and Snake Soon after starting the APAAS program at Deerfield Elementary School, Wyatt befriended classmate Shaun Madillo and introduced him to the notebook, telling him stories of Gapla-Phoenix. Wyatt eventually revived "Republic of Gapla" of Gapla-Phoenix as an independent imaginary country, and Shaun established the (also imaginary) "Republic of Snake." The two role-played as national leaders during recess and created documents in the library. The remaining pages of Wyatt's former Gapla-Phoenixian spy notebook were used by the revived republics of Gapla and Snake until it was replaced with another notebook.

Comparison with Gapla-Phoenix Compared to Gapla-Phoenix, the revived republics of Gapla and Snake were taken significantly less seriously by their founders. Their leaders did not expand the imaginary countries beyond their imaginations.

2.2 Totoro and the Credits Shop

A Classroom Marketplace In 2018, Wyatt started the Credits Shop, a classroom marketplace where his classmates could buy and sell items using the credits currency. The Credits Shop was housed in a shoe box, and popular items included origami, slime, and small toys such as Rubik's cubes. The credit was pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 100 credits per dollar, and members could purchase credits with U.S. dollars and vice versa. His earlier Totoro project from Cypress Village Elementary School—which allowed classmates to create subsidiary companies—was revived to allow the credit currency to expand beyond the Credits Shop.

Competition Wyatt's classmate, Avanish Srinivasan, created an competitor to the Credits Shop after a personal conflict with Wyatt. While he also called his marketplace the Credits Shop, it was commonly known as the HowToGAMI Credits Shop (or Avanish's Credits Shop) because Avanish was known for the HowToGAMI origami company he had started outside of Wyatt's Totoro project. Eventually, an agreement was reached by Wyatt and Avanish and HowToGAMI was joined the Totoro and Credits Shop infrastructure, and Avanish would become one of the most important leaders of the newly united Credits Shop.

"There shouldn't be an exchange rate [to the U.S. dollar]."
— an unknown Deerfield Elementary School official (likely the then-assistant principal), regarding the credit

Administrative Challenges As shown in the quote above, the Credits Shop was challenged and banned several times throughout its history by both the school administration and Michael Hubbard (more about him in Lesson 4). Wyatt refused to cooperate, claiming that the administration's challenges violated free expression and market rights. In one notable challenge, a substitute teacher attempted to seize the credits list—the Credits Shop's daily transaction record—but Wyatt refused unless he was able to take photos.

"Do you remember Gapla? The Credits Shop?"
— Emma Bunnell, in her 2023 letter to the teacher Kathleen Larson, whose classroom the Credits Shop was founded in

Cultural Influence The influence of Totoro and the Credits Shop were not limited to a small group of friends. At its height, every member of the APAAS class had accounts in the Credits Shop, and over half had started Totoro subsidiaries. As shown in the above excerpt from Emma's letter to Mrs. Larson, the Credits Shop was an important part of the APAAS class's culture.

2.3 The Principality of Gapla

Inspiration from Sealand When Wyatt was assigned an essay about making the world a better place, he chose to write about resolving political disputes between countries. Searching for "disputed countries" on Google, he discovered the Principality of Sealand, a micronation on an abandoned World War II fort. Despite being interested, he noticed that Sealand did not welcome contributions and focused solely on selling titles of nobility. Doing more research on micronations, he discovered that anyone could create their own country, as countries exercised a monopoly on the legitimate use of force and therefore could not be regulated.

A New Project On 28 February 2019 (Restoration Day), Wyatt told Shaun about what he had found and they decided to restore the inactive republics of Gapla and Snake as the Principality of Gapla and the Principality of Snake. Despite both states having kings as monarchs, they were officially known as principalities because the Principality of Sealand was their primary inspiration. Later that day, Wyatt announced the Principality of Gapla to the APAAS class, which attracted attention as he was the founder of Totoro and the Credits Shop, two other successful projects. Classmates most involved in the Credits Shop became the first Gaplan citizens.

The Three Principalities In the first few days following the Principality of Gapla and the Principality of Snake's founding, Wyatt and Shaun created websites, flags, laws, and symbols for the restored principalities. Wyatt emailed Mirabelle Wang—who attended APAAS at another campus, Santiago Hills Elementary School—to restore the Republic of Phoenix from Gapla-Phoenix as the Principality of Phoenix for continuity. As the Principality of Phoenix was a puppet state of Gapla, Mirabelle Wang also served as Vice President (now Deputy President) of Gapla. The three principalities formed Micronations Unified, an international organization.

The first constitution was written on 23 March 2019, and is shown below as an online primary source.

Legacy of the Credits Shop Following Gapla's increasing popularity within the APAAS class, the Credits Shop and Totoro became inactive in favor of Gaplan companies, many of which still exist today. Credits were converted to the new currency of the Principality of Gapla, the Gapla Dollar, at a ratio of 5 credits to 1 Gapla Dollar. (Credits were only allowed to be held in increments of 5.)

2.4 The Emeralkia Conflict and Union Day

The Emeralkia Conflict Following Gapla's increasing popularity within the APAAS class, two friends (Emma Bunnell and Tessa Huffmire) requested the admission of the Principality of Emeralkia to the Micronations Unified. Fearing that admitting Emeralkia would result in a large number of other requests to join the Micronations Unified and reducing the influence of Gapla and Snake, the Micronations Unified denied Emeralkia's membership application and urged Emeralkia to join either Gapla or Snake. However, Emma and Tessa proceeded to establish the Principality of Emeralkia as a rival to the Micronations Unified, creating flags, laws, and symbols and recruiting members. As Emeralkia became influential, the Micronations Unified feared that their own influence was decreasing.

Union Day On 6 March 2019, the Micronations Unified scheduled an emergency meeting for recess to address the Emeralkia situation, voting to invite Emma and Tessa to their regular lunchtime meeting under the school playground. After negotiations, the Principality of Gapla, the Principality of Snake, the Principality of Phoenix, and the Principality of Emeralkia became the four founding states of the Principality of Gapla, which would rename to the Federated States of Gapla on 2 May 2019.

People of Lesson 2

A photo of Shaun Madillo (left) and Wyatt Baek (right) in 2019.

Gallery for Lesson 2

1/6: A Gaplan border notice, c. 2019.
2/6: A view of Deerfield Elementary School.
3/6: The exterior of the Credits Shop, January 2019.
4/6: The interior of the Credits Shop, January 2019.
5/6: A photo of the Credits List, taken in January 2019, after Wyatt was finally allowed to take pictures before it was seized.
6/6: The flag of Emeralkia, designed by Emma Bunnell and Tessa Huffmire.

Credits for Lesson 2

This lesson was authored by Wyatt Baek.