Esperantujo (esperanˈtujo) or Esperantio (esperanˈtio) is the Esperanto community; the community of speakers of the Esperanto language and their culture, as well as the places and institutions where the language is used. The term is used "as if it were a country."
Although it does not occupy its own area of Earth's surface, it can be said to constitute the 120 countries which have their own national Esperanto association.
The word is formed analogously to country names. In Esperanto, the names of countries were traditionally formed from the ethnic name of their inhabitants plus the suffix -ujo. For example, "France" was Francujo, from franco (a Frenchman).
The term analogous to Francujo would be Esperantistujo (Esperantist-nation). However, that would convey the idea of the physical body of people, whereas using the name of the language as the basis of the word gives it the more abstract connotation of a cultural sphere.
Currently, names of nation states are often formed with the suffix -io (traditionally reserved for deriving country names from geographic features — e.g. Francio instead of Francujo), and recently the form Esperantio has been used, among others, in the Pasporta Servo and the Esperanto Citizens' Community.
History of Esperanto
In 1908, Dr. Wilhelm Molly attempted to create an Esperanto state in the Prussian-Belgian condominium of Neutral Moresnet, known as "Amikejo" (place of friendship). What became of it is unclear, and Neutral Moresnet was annexed to Belgium in the Treaty of Versailles, 1919.
During the 1960s came a new effort of creating an Esperanto state, which this time was called Republic of Rose Island. The state island stood in the Adriatic Sea near Italy.
In Europe on 2 June 2001 a number of organizations (they prefer to call themselves establishments) founded the Esperanta Civito, which "aims to be a subject of international law" and "aims to consolidate the relations between the Esperantists who feel themselves belonging to the diaspora language group which does not belong to any country".