“Smallest Country” for Sale!
posted in Amazing Facts, Latest News |
For all you people who are interested in owning your own country, there is an offer at the InmoNaranja agency in Motril, Spain. The “country” is called, Sealand, is said to come with its own citizens, government, money, stamps, flag, national anthem, and other trappings of nationhood—all for about a billion U.S. dollars. This just sounds like a bargain, but it doesn’t really look like a good one.
“Sealand” is a rusting 5,920-square-foot (500-square-meter) platform that is placed on two concrete pillars in the North Sea around eastern England. This is one of the micro-nations. (really micro). This was a former British naval fort that was built during the time of World War II, and was offered for sale on behalf of “Prince Michael,”(Micheal Bates).
U.K. courts ruled that this platform that is placed around six miles (ten kilometers) off the eastern English county of Suffolk is outside the British jurisdiction. At the time, the border of U.K. territorial waters was set at three miles (five kilometers) from the coast.
Sealand’s Web site states: “The official language of Sealand is English and the Sealand Dollar has a fixed exchange rate of one U.S. dollar. Passports and stamps have been in circulation since 1969 and the latter decade of the 20th century saw an impressive expansion in its activity both socially and industrially as it began to develop a growing economic base which underscored its long-standing membership of the international community of States.”
But the U.K. government says it doesn’t recognize Sealand, and neither do other nations. The German and U.S. court rulings have rejected its claims to independence.
Other such current micro-nations are the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom islands in Australia’s Coral Sea formed by a group of gay-rights activists in Queensland and the Hutt River Province Principality, that was established in 1970 by farmers in the state of Western Australia in protest of changes to government agricultural policy.
But, like Sealand, you will not find them on the map.