Micronations
What is a Micronation? Sealand would probably be the best example. In 1942 Britain built an large structure comprised of a floating pontoon base with a superstructure of two hollow towers joined by a deck that structures could be added to. It had a habitable space of 550 square meters. After the war was over Royal Navy personnel slowly left the island with the last of them leaving the fortress in 1956. On September 2nd 1967 “Major” Paddy Roy Bates kicked out a group of pirate radio broadcasters on the artificial island. He declared an independent nation and no one really paid mind to it. A year later when the Royal Navy came to service a buoy, now “King” Bates claimed the Navy was infringing on his territorial waters. When the case was taken to court in Britain the court ruled that because Sealand was in international waters the British government did not have authority over it. This court decision affirmed Sealand’s sovereignty. Long story short Sealand had a major fire in 2006 basically shutting it down. Sealand is currently for sale for sixty five million dollars. There is something appealing about this concept of starting your own country, that you could just sail out to an old naval platform and have a sovereign nation. Their have been other examples such as when Las Vegas billionaire Micheal Oliver tried to create a Libertarian society on The Minerva Reefs located in the middle of the pacific near Tonga. In 1972 ships containing sand sailed from Australia filled with sand to the reefs. When the sand was deposited on the reef it made the reef habitable. A flag and tower was put on the island and in January 1972 The Republic of Minerva was declared. This deceleration was received quite coldly by neighboring countries and on February 24 Tonga made a territorial claim on the reef (mind you this was after Micheal Oliver had paid to have the reefs raised). On June 15 1972 sent a military expedition destroying the republic and claiming jurisdiction over the island. Most Micronations are havens for certain ideologies but do not last because they are to close to another nation, they fight amongst themselves, they develop to a point where a more powerfully nation sees an easy way a quick way to get some cash and a small amount of land. Another problem with these Micronations is that a lot of them are created so that they can make passports and other documentation to sell to people, mostly criminals.
Opinion: How To Be A Successful Micronation
One of the mistakes I believe that Micronations have made is that they are entirely based on a certain ideology and is founded to carry out the principles of this often rigid ideology. This ideological base leads to infighting about who is more loyal to the idea like who is a “true” Libertarian, Communist, Monarchist or whatever it is. A lot of times also the people who are on these Micronations are not necessarily skilled workers or in that case have any skills whatsoever, meaning they are believers in the idea but when push comes to shove they may not want to engage in the actual work that is needed to build up a nation. So if a Micronation was to be formed you would need the inhabitants to believe in what you were doing but not necessarily radical in their devotion. You would also need to stay out of any illegal practices as to keep your name in good condition and therefore not giving reason for your more powerful neighbors to invade you. You must be in international waters and away from anything that could be thought of as the territory of a recognized nation. In the near future we may see more and more Micronations springing up especially in the Pacific because a lot of very small islands will begin to be evacuated due to global warming, leaving partly submerged abandoned islands ripe for the taking. Also because of this warming now cheap but almost uninhabitable islands near the arctic will warm and be able to support populations.
