New micronation faces birthing pains

Eric J. Lyman, Special for USA TODAY

BEZDAN, Serbia — Turns out founding a new country isn't easy.

Vít Jedlička, a Czech politician, commodities trader and activist, wants to establish the libertarian city-state of Liberland on what he says is a small, uninhabited patch of land left unclaimed after the breakup of Yugoslavia.The state would mostly inhabit the western shore of the Danube River between current-day Croatia and Serbia.

But the going has been tough. So far no country will officially recognize Liberland, and officials in Croatia have been actively hostile. Potential settlers have been warned they could be arrested if they set foot on the land, and multiple attempts to reach the territory have been foiled. Last weekend, Jedlička was detained with a group of supporters.

Most residents in nearby communities are unaware of the plans, and few take them seriously. "Is it a real thing?" said Ana Juric, 18, in Batina, Croatia, just up river from the area claimed as Liberland. "Wow, I thought someone was making up a story about this."

If it's established, the 3-square-mile state would be the world's third-smallest country, larger only than the Vatican City and the principality of Monaco.

"Can they really do that?" Ruža Lukic, 33, a store worker from across the Danube near Bezdan, Serbia, asked about the creation of Liberland.

Niklas Nikolassen, a Danish Bitcoin trader living in Switzerland who backs the Liberland movement, said they can. Liberland is seeking to use the homestead principle, which states unclaimed and undeveloped land can be legally claimed by any group willing to develop it, he said.

Many colonies founded by European powers in the past, including the 13 colonies that became the United States, were established using a version of the homestead principle. Nikolassen said the land he envisions blossoming into a "Singapore of Europe" would win its neighbors over through trade.

"Up until now, nobody wanted to develop this land, so why should they care if we develop it now?" he said. "I think that once the locals start to understand the benefits of having a dynamic economy nearby they will tell the politicians that this is to their advantage."

But that could take a while. The land has no connections for electricity, water or sewage. The lone structure is a single-family house abandoned in the 1980s, when the area was still part of Yugoslavia. The area is not connected to anything by road, meaning the best way to get there is by river, making it easy for officials to keep potential settlers at bay.

That hasn't curbed interest in the project. Jedlička said more than 300,000 people have applied to become citizens of Liberland. They're attracted by the prospect of a haven of small government and low taxes in the heart of Europe. Enthused architects have already drawn up plans for the layout of Liberty City, the tentative name for the capital, along with designs for coinage.

The path to nationhood is not nearly as clear today as it was when large parts of the world were as-yet undiscovered, or when colonies in the Americas and in Africa rose up to declare themselves independent of their colonial masters.

Depending on how it is defined, the last country to have been created by declaration was Israel in 1948. Other countries founded since then — South Sudan in 2011, Serbia in 2006, East Timor in 2002 or Eritrea in 1993 — have largely been the result of civil wars or independence movements.

None of those examples are good parallels for Liberland, which has no population and whose would-be citizens are already bickering online over what steps Jedlička and other leaders should take.

When the initial plans to begin work on the territory were scuttled by Croatian officials earlier this month, Jedlička, three-dozen supporters and a handful of journalists relocated to Serbia where they ate lunch at a local grilled meat restaurant, reworked their plans and handed out the first few honorary citizenships among those gathered.

A few days later, around half-a-dozen supporters managed to land on a small island in the Danube that is part of the would-be Liberland, where they set up tents and spent the night. Jedlička declared that an important step and said he remains confident of success, despite recent setbacks.

"The key for us is to get recognized," the would-be founding father said. "We're in contact with about 50 embassies, including the U.S., Serbia and Russia, to lobby for recognition. There are 200 countries on earth and we just have to find the right ones. Once we get recognized by the first few countries, the rest will fall into place."

MICRONATIONS ACROSS THE WORLD

Liberland is among a long line of micronations, some serious attempts at establishing an alternative state and others less so. As many as 100 have been created since the middle of the last century.

Here are a few interesting ones:

• Enclava Founded in April by a group of Poles on a 1,000-square-foot V-shaped piece of land about 200 miles west of Liberland.

• Principality of Sealand Established in 1967 on a World War II-era anti-aircraft platform just beyond the U.K.'s territorial waters. It is home to a secure Web-hosting facility.

• Kingdom of North Sudan Established last year in an 800-square-mile swath of desert between Sudan and Egypt. Virginia native Jeremiah Heaton said he created the country so his young daughter could be a princess.

• New Atlantis Founded on a barge and timber platform off the Jamaica coast in 1964 by Leicester Hemingway, the younger brother of renowned author Ernest Hemingway. It eventually sank.

• Republic of Minerva Founded on a small, man-made island built on shallow coral reefs just south of Fiji the Pacific Ocean in 1972. It was invaded, annexed and then destroyed by troops from Tonga, another island nation.

• Conch Republic Founded by then-Key West West mayor Dennis Wardlow in 1982 to protest a Border Patrol roadblock established to curb drug smuggling between the Florida Keys and the U.S. mainland.

• The Grand Duchy of Flandrensis Founded by Belgian Niels Vermeersch in 2008 on five uninhabited South Atlantic islands he said were left unclaimed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty.

• The Kingdom of Talossa Created in 1979 by then-14-year-old Robert Ben Madison in his Milwaukee bedroom. It now claims a large section of Antarctica.

• The Principality of Seborga Founded in 1963 in northern Italy, it claims to have roots dating to 1079, when the abbot of a monastery on the site was made a prince of the Holy Roman Empire.