Is there any land you can still buy (or otherwise peaceably acquire) to form your own country?

If a group of 99 eclectic millionaires grew bored of the status quo and wanted to start their own micronation without resorting to violence or conquest, could they? Are there any current countries that would sell them some land and recognize their new sovereignty?

I’m thinking of something along the lines of a a less-failed Liberia, maybe a bigger Gaviotas, or the more far-out floating city Freedom Ship or the fictional underwater one Rapture.

In short, what are the chances of a group of wealthy individuals being able to acquire sovereignty and international recognition of their new state without resorting to violence or space travel to another planet?

Who can say what the government of some very poor country with some empty land might do if offered a great deal of money? Of course, empty land is almost inevitably useless, uninhabitable land, and just because the former sovereign country lets you have it, it does not by any means follow that the rest of the world is going to recognize the sovereignty of your new nation.

I take it you meant “99 eccentric millionaires”, but, anyway, for this sort of project, I think you would need billionaires, at least.

Niue is a self governing state with recognised independence and it only has 1600 people living there and a GDP of only 10 million a year.

If a group of billionaires was to offer to relocate all the people, buy them all houses and set them up for life somewhere, then (assuming the offer was accepted) they would then peacefully control a recognised independant state.

Lot easier than starting your own from scratch.

Sure, it’s going to be a hardscrabble living. But they’re millionaires anyway. They’ll make something work.

Is there any reason the international community would refuse to recognize the new state, if the old one was willing to part with the land and the new one wants trade relations, etc.?

I meant more “99 random millionnaires of different pursuits – some scientists, some engineers, some security, blah blah”. Maybe neither eclectic nor eccentric properly describe them. So we’ll just say 99 multi-disciplined millionaires :slight_smile:

In any case, unless I’m reading the list wrong, aren’t there many countries with GDPs of less than a billion $? We can assume each of these millionaires own between $1 million and, say, half a billion dollars. That’s still a lot of resources.

I deliberately wanted to stay way from the obscenely wealthy because at some point, statehood becomes less relevant as you’re able to influence international politics directly through exerting influence through your transnational corporations. That’s a somewhat less interesting situation to me than just a bunch of poor, hard-working, down-to-earth millionaire types :slight_smile:

Such micronations as exist, are generally not recognized by the international community. Sealand has been in operation since 1967, but has never been officially recognized by any recognized nation state.

Disclaimer: I was at preschool with the future Prince Michael, current ruler of Sealand.

Well, the millionaires can buy a chunk of land, no problem.

But ownership of land doesn’t give rise to sovereignty. In fact, ownership of land more or less presumes a pre-existing sovereign; the claim that “I own blackacre” essentially means that the sovereign of the territory that includes blackacre recognises me has having rights over blackacre to the exclusion of other people.

Countries do cede sovereignty over territory, and it’s not inconceivable that they would do so in return for money. (The Louisiana Purchase, anyone?) But typically it will be territory that they have little or no strategic interest in, and which might not be all that viable as an independent state. And even if Povertistan announces, in return for a wodge of money, that they no longer claim the province of Dump as sovereign territory and the recognise the Millionaire Republic of Dump as the new sovereign, the international community many not follow suit. In another context, South Africa tried to hive off a bunch of independent statelets in the 1970s and 1980s; they had little success in getting widespread international recognition.

Unless Dump is actually viable as a state, I can’t see the Millionaire Republic of Dump getting much international traction. Niue has been mentioned, but Niue is not fully sovereign, and is financially and politically dependent on New Zealand, so I think if they take Niue as a model the eclectic millionaires will either (a) have to find a “real” country to play New Zealand to their Niue, or (b) have so much wealth that they can not only buy the land and buy the sovereignty, but sustain the population and economy of Dump in the way that New Zealan sustains the population and economy of Niue.

So what would it take to get recognized?

Other states would need to have some interest in recognising it.

If you can defend it, you own it.

But, these days I think artificial islands in international waters is your best bet.

Or, to put it another way, why do you expect any other state would recognise Sealand? On the specific level, the place is too small to be of any consequence, it has no indigenous population and no substantial economic activity. It doesn’t look like a credible country at all. And, in general, states have an obvious interest in not creating a legal climate in which what’s effectively a privately-owned and slightly dodgy commercial enterprise can expect the benefits of sovereign status.

I we were talking billionaires, then maybe they could move to somewhere poor, Costa Rica maybe but there are probably better targets, and quietly take over the government by bribery and influence.

Niue is self governing, sets entirely its own laws and has to some extent also set its own foreign policy. For example Niue has recognized Taiwan / China differently to the way New Zealand has.

Lets say Niue was to grant citizenship to 1000 millionaires for investing, $200,000 each into Niue. Remember the population is only just over 1000 (not all of whom would be eligible to vote, so If those 1000 new citizens vote as a block they could elect whoever they wanted and set whatever laws they wanted. That could include using their own currency instead of the NZ dollar, and even declaring full independence. Niue has that right by treaty with NZ.

Then they could create their libertarian paradise with full control of a recognized sovereign territory with most of the work done for them.

Sure convincing the islanders to take the deal would be the hard part, but considering 95 percent of Niue’s population already lives in New Zealand it shouldn’t be that hard to buy out the remaining five percent. :smiley:

Bir Tawil sort of qualifies.

Jeremiah Heaton is an American citizen who traveled to Bir Tawil in 2014 to claim the region as a new sovereign state.

There are no Niue citizens, SFAIK. Niueans have New Zealand citizenshiip.

But leave aside the precise details of the mechanism. What it really comes down ot is this; could the group of millionaires offer Niue the kind of financial support that they currently get from New Zealand, such that Niue could sever its association with New Zealand and instead depend on the millionaires? If they had enough money, yes, they could make that offer, but it’s doubtful that Niue would be minded to accept. Questions of basic self-respect aside, the New Zealanders probably allow Niue more autonomy than the millionaires would, and in the long run the ability of New Zealand to sustain its financial support is a better bet than the ability of a bunch of private individuals. Massive personal fortunes tend not to persist for more than a generation or two, and even if they do persist there is no guarantee that the next generation would think this was a wise way to spend them.

I can’t see a democratic and accountable government entering into this deal. The millionaires best bet is to find some utterly corrupt government and buy it. As others have pointed out, there would be no need for a formal transfer of sovereignty.

Costa Rica isn’t poor. Its GDP per capita is a little over $14k, almost exactly the global mean.

There was a story circulating in San Francisco back in the '50’s that several hundred gays intended to move up to the Sierras and establish residence in Alpine County, which then had a population of 241, and probably barely 100 registered voters. They could then form a voting majority, and effect any gay-friendly laws and ordinances they wanted, subject to California and USA Constitution. I think some actually did relocate, but the plan never reached fruition magnitude. The establishment of two ski resorts has swollen the current population to 1,250.

A few engineers probably get to be millionaires, but I doubt whether many scientists or security people do. I should have thought millionaires are mostly businessmen and financiers, stockbrokers, etc., with a sprinkling of high-powered lawyers, star entertainers, and ex-farmers who have sold up. Not really an array of all the talents.

Along the lines of Sealand, there was the Republic of Rose Island, set up on a platform in the Adriatic Sea in the 1960’s. Unlike the UK, Italy decided it wasn’t going to put up with that kind of crap. The Republic of Rose Island lasted less than a year before the Italian Navy expelled the inhabitants and blew up the platform.

Realistically, this is what would happen to pretty much any similar venture. Sealand is a lucky fluke; as a general rule, the estabished countries nearby will probably view the micronation as a threat and act against it.

Don’t we do this thread every 4 months?

The answer is that the various sovereign countries of the world have no incentive whatsoever to agree to pretend that Millionaireistan is a real country. Why should they? What’s in it for them?

The short answer is that if you buy a vast tract of land out in the Canadian wilderness and go off to live there with your buddies, and you declare that you’re an independent country, but you still pay your Canadian taxes and don’t flagrantly break Canadian law, no one is going to bother you. It’s usually against the law to pretend your living room is an independent country, or to make up flags, or to call yourself King of Livingroomia.

Where you get in trouble is when you declare that since you’re an independent country you don’t have to pay taxes, or obey laws about selling cocaine, or comply with noise ordinances, or pay parking tickets.

There are plenty of lonely places in the world where you can move to if you don’t like interacting with other people. The problem is that there’s a reason nobody lives there. You can’t be a millionaire if you live by yourself in the woods. There’s a reason millionaires pay millions of dollars for apartments in Manhattan rather than Lincoln Nebraska.

Sealand wasn’t in UK territorial waters at the time it was established, so the UK had no legal right to expel anyone from it. That changed in 1987 (when the UK extended its territorial claims to 12 miles), though.