# Starting your own country

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-your-own-country/1027861>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 20, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-your-own-country/1027861 "2026-02-20T22:41:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-your-own-country/1027861/1 "2026-02-20T22:41:34Z")

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Regarding this column:

> **[How do I go about starting my own country?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341955/how-do-i-go-about-starting-my-own-country)**

I’ve recently learned that in 2021, two Australian legal academics, Harry Hobbs and George Williams, published the first scholarly work on micronations, [_Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronations_and_the_Search_for_Sovereignty). You can obtain your own copy for [only US$138](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/micronations-and-the-search-for-sovereignty/B0414A3A322695D9EE71E4CDDFDA06DE).

If that’s a little too rich for your blood, they’ve also written a book for general audiences, [_How to Rule Your Own Country_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Rule_Your_Own_Country), more reasonably priced at only [US$15](https://www.amazon.com/How-Rule-Your-Own-Country/dp/1742237738) for the Kindle edition. I’m reading it now, and enjoying it quite a bit.

In the course of composing this post, I learned that there is a wiki specifically for micronations, [MicroWiki](https://micronations.wiki/wiki/Main_Page).

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**Author:** ![quintinmorrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/919ad9/32.png) [@quintinmorrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quintinmorrow)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-your-own-country/1027861/2 "2026-05-21T13:08:15Z")

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MicroWiki is a genuine rabbit hole — some of these micronations have surprisingly detailed constitutions, their own currency designs, and decades of diplomatic history with other micronations. The academic treatment is long overdue honestly. People have been declaring sovereignty over everything from back gardens to unoccupied ocean platforms for years, and the legal questions around it are more interesting than they first appear.

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**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-your-own-country/1027861/3 "2026-05-25T14:48:25Z")

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This guy had an article in The Atlantic a few weeks ago. I am thinking of joining. You can create your own noble title and everything. Just don’t wear crocs.

> **[Home - The Republic of Slowjamastan](https://www.slowjamastan.org/)**
>
> The World's Newest Nation Become a Citizen HERE Croc Threat Level: PERIWINKLE. May 21 “Crimes Against Fashion”: Slowjamastan Issues Indictment of Crocs Boss Andrew Rees BY HARVEY SCHMIDLAP l STAFF WRITER May 21, 2026 SLOWJAMASTAN — Federal...

Edit: it started as a joke during Covid but has become surprisingly sophisticated as noted above.