Like many kids, an early childhood fantasy of mine was ruling my own Country. Bootenlandia I called it. Though this sadly never came to fruition, I’ve always wondered exactly how you could start your own country.
1. Acquire Some Land
Though it may sound rudimentary, the first step to starting your own country would be to find some land. Save for a few unrecognized micronations, every country on earth has land it can call theirs (even if it occasionally disputed).
In fact, the 1933 Convention on Rights and Duties of States, which in effect spells out the requirements to be classed as a “country” states that a country must have a defined territory as one of its main requirements.
Sadly, declaring your mom’s basement or family’s farm to be your country’s land will not suffice, as this will likely get your country thrown onto the pile of “micronations” which are unrecognized and considered practical jokes more than anything.
No, to start a country that poses at least some chance of being internationally recognized, you will need land with actual borders you can determine on a map. And there are two ways to do this.
The first, and certainly most difficult, would be to find some land that’s unclaimed.
Whilst it’s been done in the past – most notably by Liberland, whose territory wasn’t claimed by Serbia or Croatia – there’s very little, if any, land that can be claimed, that hasn’t been already.
And here’s where the second, and more popular, route is to purchase an Island. Though the price, size and habitability of islands varies wildly, the cheapest islands can be picked up for as little as $100,000!
When evaluating potential islands to launch your country from, you’ll need to think about the country you’ll be declaring independence from, in particular how they’d stop you from being internationally recognized.
Will they invade you? Use their international influence to ridicule you? Will they place sanctions on you? You need to know this before you even consider placing an offer for the island.
Assuming you’ve done this, however, the process for buying an island is very similar to that of buying a house and will require the help of a lawyer. You might want to tell them of your post-sale intentions so they can help you the best they can.
2. Sort All The Legal Issues
Upon securing ownership of the land, you can’t immediately declare independence. At least, you can’t if you want your country to be successful.
Instead, you need to sort all the legalities of becoming a country, something that may take years and lots of investment dollars before you can even consider declaring independence.
You’ll need to ask yourself questions like:
- How will your country be run?
- Where from?
- Who will run it?
- Where will your capital city be?
- How will your government be elected?
- What will your constitution look like?
- How will your country be subdivided?
Whilst these are the most important questions and indeed, the ones that will be the most scrutinized (so maybe declaring yourself “Dictator for Life [Enter Your Name Here] I” isn’t a good idea), you’ll need to take more than just that into account.
First, you’ll need to decide on a name for your country. The name will need to be elegant, simple and timeless; something that won’t sound like a throwback in 100 years. Think countries names like “England”, “China”, or the “United States” which have been used for centuries.
Next, you’ll need to pick a flag. Again, this will need to be elegant, simple and timeless.
A good example of this would be the flag of the United States. Though altered several times since its adoption in 1775 (mostly due to the addition of new states), the overall design of the flag remains broadly the same.
Other long-lasting flags include those of Scotland (adopted 832), Austria (1230), Latvia (1280), Demark (1307) and Albania (1443). Despite not being the most unique of flags, they are still as modern now as they were when they were adopted centuries ago!
Keep the ideas behind these flags in your head when designing the flag of your own country.
And though not every country has an official language (for example, the US doesn’t, despite English being the most spoken), you’d probably want to at least consider what your official or majority language would be.
Other issues might be the adoption of a national anthem/song (perhaps one whose lyrics, if applicable, are in your country’s official/majority language), animal, bird, flower and symbol(s).
Though these will not necessarily preclude your ability to start your own country, having them makes the country look more legitimate and certainly wouldn’t decrease your chances of being recognized.
3. Bring in Some Citizens
Something you can do in tandem with solving the legal issues of gaining nationhood would be gaining a permanent population – yet another requirement set out by the Convention on Rights and Duties of States.
Assuming you don’t want to go down the route of conscription, you might want to consider hiring mercenaries as your standing army, and unilateral declarations of independence are seldom just accepted by countries who stand to lose land.
In most instances, an invasion or all-out war will break out, so you’ll an army to defend your claim from foreign imperialist aggressors.
