Just wondering with all the bureaucrats, regulations, and idiocy that often make life all but unbearable in today’s nations, and knowing that political reform is impossible - why can’t I start my own country?
How would one obtain sovereignty? Diplomacy and national defense for my new country? What are the advantages and disadvntages to establishing a new country? Has this daring approach to freedom been tried before and has there been any test cases to prove this theory? How would I recruit settlers to my new country?
Ever hear of a little thing called the Revolutionary War (American Revolution to the rest of the world)? How about the Civil War? Both of these were attempts at what you describe, one successful, one not so much.
These things tend to lead to some sort of armed conflict, mainly because you need some land to house your new country and some people to populate it. Most of the land currently available (and people, too) are already providing revenue in some form (mostly taxes) to an existing government entity. If you want to start your own, that will mean taking that revenue away from the current owner who typically isn’t too happy about the prospect. Thus, a war is started.
What if I discover an unhabited and unfounded island or land in the arctic or other place on the earth that has never been seen or touched by any other discoverer of this land? Can I take this land and declare it as my own as no other nation or country would have habitation rights to this new found land?
You are certainly welcome to proclaim your own country anywhere you like anywhere in the world. The trouble is getting other people to believe in your new country. I can claim my house a sovereign country and no one will care…as long as I pay my US taxes and don’t violate any US laws. You can claim your island is a sovereign country, as long as no other country disagrees with you.
The ultimate proof of sovereignity is that no other country in the world can or will effecitively dispute your sovreignity. Consider Taiwan. Here is a country in all but name…but China does not recognize their right to exist, and no one else in the world will recognize Taiwan because that would annoy China. But Taiwan has armed forces and agreements with the US that would make military invasion by China extremely difficult and risky, and so China refrains.
So if you moved to an unihabited island and proclaimed it an independent country, the most likely result is that everyone in the world would ignore you…until you did something to annoy someone who is in a position to demonstrate that you are NOT a sovereign country.
Set up shop on an uninhabited atoll, no one cares…but if you start exporting drugs the US Navy or the US Coast Guard, or some other nation’s law enforcement apparatus is going to pay you a visit and arrest you. No court is going to listen to your claim that they didn’t have jurisdiction over you due to your status as citizen of Syjstria. That is the key…no one will accept your claim to sovereignity, and every land mass on earth is claimed by at least one country, or internationalized by treaty like Antarctica. And the other countries have people with guns that are in a position to impose their vision by force.
That said, there are many regions on earth that are effectively beyond the reach of any state. If you wander out into the Canadian tundra by yourself you aren’t going to encounter many government agents looking to harrass you or make you pay taxes. You might find yourself somewhat cold and lonely though. And there are plenty of places in Africa or Central Asia where the power of the state means nothing, they are de facto ruled by tribal organizations even if one state or another nominally claims them. The trouble with those areas is that the tribal or clan leaders aren’t going to recognize your sovereignty either, unless you have weapons or cash bribes.
It would be much easier to target an already recognized sovereign state and take it over in a coup d’etat. Just make sure you clear it with the CIA first.
One approach is the one taken by Sealand. They took an abandoned platform in international waters to avoid any issue of trying to claim land already claimed by another sovereign country. They do moderately well, but they have no room for immigrants and no natural resources.
If you want to follow Lemur866’s advice and take over an existing country, remember the truism that it’s easier to execute a coup d’etat with a clipboard than a rifle.
The trouble with Sealand is that all it takes is a change of policy by Britain and everyone gets arrested and kicked out, the Brits use the platform for bombing practice, and the adventure is over. The Sealanders have absolutely no legal protection, the only reason they’ve lasted as long as they have is that they haven’t done anything too annoying.
Besides Cecil’s column wasn’t there also a thread on this - Independency at Sea ?
If Sealand wants to tell Great Britain to (politely) “shove it” what if Sealand gets invaded by some hostile country? They can “enjoy” their “independence” from the protection of Great Britian.
Everything at sea must have something called “National Identity.” Anything without such identity, boats, floats, knicks, knacks or pattiwacks can be seized by naval ships of any nation.
So if you Doctor Evil yacht has a Bolivian flag you are fine. If it has some persoanl flag you are not.
Which is exactly the same situation you’d have with any other place you tried to declare soveriegn. I’m willing to bet there’s not any bit of dry land that doesn’t either belong to a sovereign nation or has been declared off limits (e.g. Antartica). If you suddenly declare part of Canada, Africa, or a South Pacific island as your own soveriegn nation (as you suggested earlier in this thread), you’d be in the same situation as Sealand. In fact, Sealand is better off in this regard because they can make some thin legal arguments that they were not part of the UK to begin with.
Note that I could easily be wrong in my assumption that all dry land is currently claimed, and I’d be happy to be proven wrong. It just seems really unlikely to me that at this point in history there would be unpopulated/unclaimed islands or areas of land. The OP is hardly the first to have this dream of a soverign nation, and a lot of the people who came before him had the wherewithal to stake these claims a long time ago.
We’ve had discussions on creating a sovereign country before. This should interest you. I’m wondering if something like Freedom Ship would finally allow a group of people to do just that. A brief primer of Freedom Ship for now. It has no intentions to be a sovereign country. Since it is a ship, it will be under maritime and international waters laws. If all goes well, they will build more of these type ships. Cost is 9 Billion a piece. The best that I gather so far, construction hasn’t started, but should start later this year. It’s nearly a mile long, and 725 feet wide, and 340 in height. Some cites say that 50,000 residents will live on the ship. That along with some cites listing 20,000 to 40,000 tourists being on the ship at any one time too Many businesses will be on board, as well as casino’s. If all goes well, several more ships will be built. Many tax breaks, although they claim they didn’t build it with that in mind. But this is a community that will not levy any local, income real estate, sales or business tax along with no import duties. But the designers originally planned on an island community in case the Hong Kong handover to China didn’t go well. It wasn’t even going to be a ship, but a floating city. The technology obviously is there. So if one went the 200 miles away from the territorial waters of countries, what would prevent someone or group of people from created just that: a sovereign country? For more info. on Freedom ship, click on to these two cites or do a google for hundreds of links:
So they’re actually getting down to building this thing? I’ve known about the Freedom Ship for a while now but I thought they were still trying to get funding for it.
Just follow in the footsteps of William Walker and you too as a private citizen can become the emperor or president of your very own string of Latin American nations.
I still can’t decide which has a better ring to it - President of Lower California or Emperor of Nicaragua.
