Sick of pesky government oversight? Don't like taxes? Pessimistic about democracy in general? Why not find your build your own island nation and declare yourself king? Modern land-moving technology makes it easier than ever, but hardly an simple undertaking. As part of our May-June cover story, engineer McKinley Conway, How to Start Your Own Country author Erwin S. Strauss, and micro-nation documentarian George Dunford explain the history of the DIY nation.

THE CASE FOR MICRONATIONS AND ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS
By McKinley Conway

In early centuries, artificial islands were built to create home sites easier to defend against wild animals or hostile tribes. There is evidence that Greek, Roman, and Scottish civilizations built hundreds of small islands for a variety of purposes. Excavations reveal that many islands were built by piling mud on layers of reed mats.

In recent times, new islands have been built to provide sites for airports and other urban infrastructure.

For example, in Japan, boatloads of dirt and rock were hauled from a nearby mountain and dumped into a huge box in Osaka Bay to create an island site for the new Kansai international airport. Hong Kong spent nearly $15 billion to enlarge an existing island for its new airport and to accommodate bridges and transit lines to link it with the city. When growth occupied every available site in Singapore, the small island nation dredged new sites from the shallow waters around its main island.

In addition, there are many primitive villages in remote areas built on stilts over shallow water. I have noted these in the upper Amazon basin between Manaus, Brazil, and Iquitos, Peru, and around Bandar Seri Begawan in Borneo. One of the most interesting was a small village of textile workers in the middle of Inle Lake in northern Myanmar (Burma).

Without question, the most advanced artificial island projects today are found in Dubai. I was there during construction of the pioneering project, the now-famous Burj Al-Arab “sail” hotel built on a small artificial island. This was followed by development of the Palm Island group that went beyond all others in creative design and venture risk, raising the bar for all future island builders.

Perhaps the most intriguing projects are those proposed by creators of new micronations. Among the scores of such ventures, there are many that have been launched by people trying to establish modern utopias, seeking total freedom from the pressures of government or society. Others of a more practical nature have sought to set up tax havens that would attract investors. Some have looked for sites to base lotteries and gambling casinos or pirate radio transmitters.

Founders of such new nations have searched the globe looking for sites. One entrepreneur set up shop on an abandoned World War II gun tower off the coast of England. More imaginative planners have looked for seamounts or under-ocean mountains with peaks near the surface where they could drive pilings to support above-water micronations. A few farsighted developers have experimented with accelerating coral growth to build artificial reefs and islands in mid-ocean.

As yet, we find no substantial successes in launching free-standing micronations. By contrast, artificial islands have proven their worth and practicality around the world. The future will most certainly bring a substantial increase in the number and sophistication of new man-made islands. ❑ TOP 

NEW LANDS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
By Erwin S. Strauss

Ever since the emergence of modern humans in Africa about a hundred thousand years ago, expanding onto new lands has been a key part of the human story. The issues of new lands and particularly new nations are of perennial interest to me. Where does the quest for new lands go from here? To the oceans.

Currently, international agreements generally recognize a territorial limit of 12 nautical miles from land, and an “exclusive economic zone” extending to 200 nautical miles. The zone provision is focused on securing rights to fishing as well as oil and gas exploitation while allowing a “right of innocent passage” to all nations’ ships; however, it’s clear that most nations would interpret this as precluding the establishment of any independent entity in those waters.

This leaves a substantial amount of water unaccounted for, including some that is quite shallow. There are two basic approaches to occupying such places: artificial structures and building up land.

Over the years, there have been many experiments and some notable failures regarding the latter.

An Italian engineer named Giorgio Rosa built a platform off Italy in the 1960s as a gambling resort, but the authorities seized and destroyed it. More recently, a group in Las Vegas proposed a floating city to be called

Oceana; the group spent about $100,000 building a detailed model. No investors came forward.

In the 1970s, a group sent a dredge to the South Pacific, and in a shallow area built up enough land to stay above the water even at high tide, proclaiming it the nation of Minerva. Again, investors failed to materialize. After the king of Tonga sailed over and claimed it, King Neptune soon reclaimed his own: In a few months, without further dredging, no trace remained above the waves.

A Los Angeles B-list celebrity named Joe Kirkwood famously took a barge out over a nearby sea mount and scuttled it, intending it to extend above the surface. The water was deeper than he had figured, and his plans disappeared with the barge.

Building up new land may be the most practical method for starting a new country; however, as history shows, new land construction is hardly an easy undertaking.

More importantly, the geopolitical climate may be less open to that sort of experimentation. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Cold War was in full swing, and each of the superpowers was hesitant to push smaller countries too hard, for fear of driving them into the arms of their rival. This opened exploitable interstices in the international system. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, and especially since 9/11, the major powers (and the United States in particular) have been much more aggressive in dealing with entities that appear to have the potential to upset the established international order.

When I wrote on this subject in the 1980s, I suggested with tongue in cheek that such ventures plan on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, invoking the film comedy The Mouse That Roared, about the tiniest country in the world that accidentally stumbles upon a nuclear weapon. Nowadays, such an idea hardly seems funny.

So those following in the footsteps of the ventures above will have to deal with this geopolitical fact, as well as all the national and financial obstacles the earlier efforts faced. I can only wish them good luck; they’ll need it. ❑ TOP

At home at sealand, Special thanks to Encylopedia Britannica.

A MINI-HISTORY OF MICRONATIONS
By George Dunford

Regardless of UN recognition or constitutional definitions, micronations have been appearing for decades. For some, it’s a matter of political protest, fervent belief, or the kind of megalomania associated with super-villains, while others are just playing it for laughs.

To search out the granddaddy of the modern micronation, you have to visit an abandoned military installation in the North Sea just off the coast of the United Kingdom on the way to Belgium. Sealand is a platform about the size of a baseball diamond that was originally designed by England as a fort to repel German bombers during World War II. In the mid-1960s, two pirate radio operators had other ideas. The platform seemed a perfect place for their illegal broadcasts, as it was just outside the UK’s legal territory but close enough for transmission.

Unfortunately, the two piratical nation builders squabbled (one argument got so heated that it reportedly involved a flame-thrower). Of the two nation builders, Roy Paddy Bates emerged victorious, declaring the platform the Principality of Sealand with himself anointed Prince Roy. Despite UK attempts to unseat him and a brief spell as a “data haven” hosting the Internet’s most dubious sites, Sealand endures as a micronation.

Sealand’s success story inspired other micronationalists the world over. In a distant corner of Western Australia, a troubled wheat farmer heard the call. Leonard Casley was one of a number of farmers informed by the Australian government that he had grown too much wheat. With thousands of acres ready to be harvested, he could only reap 100 acres. While others towed the line, Casley seceded from Australia, creating the Hutt River Principality with — you guessed it — himself as head of state, Prince Leonard, alongside his wife, Princess Shirley.

The principality has made a living through stamp exports and  tourism, probably because it’s one of the few royal tours that concludes with an offer of a regal cup of tea or a dip in the monarch’s own pool. The new nation ran into strife in 1977, when the Australian Tax Department noticed just how well it was doing. Never one to back down, the prince responded to threats about unpaid taxes by declaring war on Australia. Australia ignored the declaration, allowing the prince to declare himself victorious and continue his reign.

The best micronationalists know there’s some fun to be had. Segway inventor Dean Kamen refers to the New York state island he bought as the Kingdom of North Dumpling Island. His reason for seceding came when local authorities refused to let him build his own turbine, and he got his buddy, then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, in on the joke by signing a nonaggression pact with the kingdom. Kamen made several appointments to his court, including ministers of Nepotism, Brunch and Ice Cream (the latter officers were the founders of Ben & Jerry’s). He reputedly carries his own made-up currency in his wallet, which he has attempted to use as payment on the mainland. And in shaky economic times, Kamen has eschewed the gold standard in favor of ice cream. “As long as we keep it below 32°F,” he quipped, “our currency is rock solid.”

But the days of micronations as good clean fun may be over. In 2008, Sealand was looking to monetize itself as Sealand Casino. There’s still hope that technology will further the frontier, however, as new micronations are forming online or as budding micronationalists claim territory in Antarctica or, more recently, outer space. Many more aspiring micronationalists find hope in Frank Zappa, who opined, “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline — it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” Never mind the UN. On these terms, statehood is just a microbrewery away. TOP

About the Authors

McKinley Conway is an engineer and founder of Conway Data Inc., a firm involved in research, publications, and telecommunications, specializing in futures studies, global megaprojects, and site selection. His address is Conway Data Inc., 6625 The Corners Parkway, Suite 200, Norcross, Georgia 30092. Web site www.conway.com . His last article for THE FUTURIST, “The Desalination Solution,” appeared in the May-June 2008 issue

Erwin S. Strauss is the author of How to Start Your Own Country (Paladin Press, 1985), which discusses these matters in more detail.

George Dunford is a co-author of Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-made Nations. As well as writing articles for a variety of publications, he blogs about travel, journalism, and culture at hackpacker.blogspot.com . His latest book is The Big Trip: The Ultimate Guide to Gap Years and Overseas Adventures (Lonely Planet, 2008).

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