Prince of the sea platform. The Principality of Sealand is a microstate located on a sea platform in the northern sea Expansion of territorial waters
Offshore platform-state
There are many opinions about which state is the smallest in the world. An interesting fact is that this is not the Vatican or even a home state somewhere in Italy, but just the former offshore platform Rafs Tower, which is located 10 kilometers from the shores of Great Britain. However, it should be noted that although this country, according to all the criteria specified in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, corresponds to any other state entity, it is still considered an unrecognized state.
The political system of the Principality of Sealand is a constitutional monarchy. Today, the smallest state in the world is ruled by Princess Joanna Bates and Prince Roy Bates, although the actual leadership is exercised by Prince Regent Michael 1st. The country has a constitution adopted in 1995, which consists of only 7 articles and an introduction. Any order of the Prince Regent is issued in the form of a decree. British law is practiced in Sealand as the legal system of the state. The smallest state in the world has three ministries: foreign affairs, internal affairs and the ministry of technology and communications. The total number of citizens of the country is three hundred, although only five people live on the platform itself.
History of the Principality of Sealand
The history of Sealand begins in the second half of the 20th century. In 1966, two friends, former British military personnel, decided to organize an amusement park on this platform. However, within a few months, Bates becomes the sole owner of the artificial island, and already on September 2, 1967, the brave retired major declares the proclamation of an independent state and calls himself Prince Roy. This autumn day is still the main holiday in this dwarf country.
In 1968, Great Britain attempted to return the Rafs Tower to its jurisdiction. Patrol boats were sent to Sealand and were met with warning shots fired into the air. Without bringing the matter to bloodshed, the troops retreated, and a criminal case was brought against Roy Bates, as a British citizen. But a year later, one of the Essex County judges admitted that this case did not fall under British jurisdiction.
In 1972, the smallest country in the world began minting its own coins, and three years later acquired its own coat of arms and flag. The religious cult in Sealand is represented by the Sealand Anglican Church, which was founded in October 2006.
Alexander Kurnakov, Samogo.Net
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There are more than 200 countries in the world, the names of which we have heard at least once. But there are also states on our planet whose existence we did not even know, because some of them occupy a very small area or even include several houses.
website will tell you about 10 countries with very small territories, the population of which is not smaller than the largest city, but in some places even a village.
Palau
The state of Palau consists of more than 300 islands of varying sizes. Palau is one of the most amazing places on Earth, home to 130 species of sharks that are on the verge of extinction. Palau's rainforests are full of unique plants and birds, but the country's most interesting attraction is a lake inhabited by 2 million jellyfish, which in the process of evolution have lost the ability to sting.
Niue
The state consists of two islands, one of which is called Saint Kitts, and the other is Nevis. One of the island nation's main sources of income is the sale of citizenship, which can be purchased by anyone with at least $250,000 to invest in the local sugar industry. Another way to obtain citizenship is to purchase property worth at least $400 thousand on one of the islands.
Principality of Hutt River
Tuvalu is one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world. The economic situation of the dwarf state could be completely worthless if Tuvalu did not get the Internet domain .tv, from the sale of which the country earns millions of dollars annually.
Nauru
Nauru is the smallest independent republic and the smallest island state on the planet. Nauru does not have an official capital or public transport - local residents drive private vehicles along 40 km of roads. The island has a poor environmental situation, so tourism is practically not developed here. And another Nauru record, albeit with a minus sign - this country has the largest percentage of the population suffering from obesity.
Principality of Seborga
Another state on the map of Italy, although this time virtual, is the Principality of Seborga, which includes the village of the same name near the border with France. The title of the ruler of Seborg sounds like “His Greatness,” and the army of the unrecognized state consists of 3 people: the minister of defense and two border guards.
Republic of Molossia
Historically, humanity strives to divide the vast expanses of our planet into separate pieces. Over the course of thousands of years of conquest, each nation secured its own territories - some more, some less.
We learned the names of most large countries in school, but few people remember about these states. They do not have huge armies or natural deposits, but are known for their tiny area. This collection contains the 10 smallest countries in the whole world!
10 Maldives
This ranking of countries is headed in descending order. Among the top tiny countries, they have the largest area - 298 km². But in terms of population density, this state can compete with any large country - more than 400 thousand people live here in such an area.
The Maldives consists of 26 atolls, which in turn are a chain of 1,192 coral islets. The only city in the Maldives is Male, which is also the capital of this country. This amazing archipelago is a unique ecosystem with reefs, various species of fish and marine organisms.
9 Saint Kitts and Nevis
This small country covers an area of 261 km² and consists of two islands - Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is located in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea and has the title of the smallest state in the Western Hemisphere. The population of Saint Kitts and Nevis is small - only 50 thousand people.
The state is well known among tourists and income from this destination accounts for more than 70% of the country's GDP per year. Sugarcane and shellfish are also processed here. The largest city in this country, and also the capital, is populated by 11 thousand people. Saint Kitts and Nesiv have their own army of 300 people.
8 Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands covers an area of 181.3 km² of land. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean and is a chain of atoll islands. These islands were discovered in 1526 by Alonso de Salazar, and for many centuries they were transferred as a colony from one country to another.
These days, these 34 atoll islands are a real paradise. The territory of the republic has a unique odds and fauna, which, by the way, was almost destroyed by man. The Americans tested a hydrogen bomb here in the mid-20th century. The explosion was so powerful that it was 1000 times larger than Hiroshima. However, local residents managed to slowly restore the ecosystem of the islands.
7 Liechtenstein
The European Principality of Liechtenstein is tiny in size and very famous in the world. Despite its area of 160 km², this state has a very powerful economy and developed industry. It can serve as an example for many powers due to its unique system of government so that people lived very well here.
Liechtenstein is located in the Alps and borders Switzerland and Austria. The name of the country comes from the ruling dynasty, which has ruled together with the Landtag for many years. The population of this European country is small - about 36 thousand people.
6 San Marino
In sixth place in our ranking is the state of San Marino, which has an area of 60 km². It is unique in its location - it borders on Italy on all sides. The name of the country was formed from the name of the saint who founded it according to ancient legend - the stonecutter Marin.
With modern borders, San Marino is considered the most ancient state in Europe, it was founded in 301. Almost the entire territory of the country (80%) is the foothills of the Apennines, so there is practically no arable land here. The country's population is 33 thousand people in such a small area. This country has many unique architectural monuments on its territory.
5 Tuvalu
This small state in Polynesia has an area of 26 km². It consists of nine coral atolls, four of which make up the Tuvalu archipelago. The discoverer of the islands, Alvaro Mendaña de Neira, called them Lagoon Islands, but they only received the name Tuvalu in 1975.
This beautiful place, however, was included in the ranking of the poorest countries as of 2016. The area of the islands is decreasing from year to year, so in 50 years, according to experts, Tuvalu may completely disappear from the face of the Earth as a state. The country's population according to the latest data is just over 12 thousand people.
4 Nauru
The dwarf state of Nauru covers an area of 21 km² and was very popular in the mid-20th century. Such popularity was ensured by phosphates, which filled the territory of this piece of land. But these days, all that remains of phosphates are dilapidated mines, and the ecology of the country has been irrevocably damaged, even for tourism.
Like the islands of Tuvalu, Nauru is located near the Republic of Kiribati and lies 42 km south of the equator. This country has no official capital and a population of only 10 thousand people. But, unlike Tuvalu, this dwarf country has again begun to develop its economy and increase its birth rate.
3 Monaco
The third place in our ranking is occupied by the well-known European principality of Monaco. Probably everyone has heard about it, despite the fact that it occupies only 2.02 km². The legendary Monaco Grand Prix race is held here, and the casino in Monte Carlo is very famous among gambling enthusiasts.
The population of Monaco (with such and such an area!) is 38 thousand people. This is a lot, but such popularity has its own explanation. For a long time there was no taxation in Monaco, so many businessmen, wealthy foreigners settled here and large companies were founded. Monaco is governed by Prince Albert II, assisted by a national council.
2 Vatican
The Vatican State, with its tiny area of 0.44 km², is a very powerful state that has ruled the destinies of many countries for many centuries. The country's population is equal to the number of employees - 836 people. At the same time, the Vatican has no economy, and the country’s budget is replenished only through numerous donations from Catholic organizations.
Here is the residence of the Pope - the heart of the Catholic Church. The state is located inside Rome and is directly associated with Italy. But despite the proximity, the Vatican gained its independence in 1929 and has been an independent country ever since. It rightfully holds the title of the smallest country in the world, but there is another state that deserves attention.
1 Order of Malta
And the first place in this list is occupied by the state, which some countries do not recognize as a separate state unit. We are talking about the Order of Malta with a territory of 0.012 km². This Order has about 13,000 members who have national passports and use their own currency.
Not all countries recognize the sovereignty of the Order of Malta and consider it only at the level of diplomatic relations. The largest city of the Order is Fort Sant'Angelo, which the country leases from Malta. Apart from the shaky recognition of this sovereignty, the Order is the smallest state in the world.
All these dwarf states rightfully take their place in the ranking of the smallest countries. They are unique and distinctive, and most of them, despite their small territory, are prosperous countries.
This is a photograph of a sea fort located in the Thames Estuary off the coast of North Kent. Several of these fortresses, armed with anti-aircraft guns, radar and searchlights, were built during the Second World War (in 1942) according to the design of the British engineer Guy Maunsell to prevent German aircraft from bombing English ports and mining shipping routes. Maunsell developed two types of naval fortresses: NAVY Forts, which were intended for the Royal Navy, and Army Forts, respectively, intended for the British Army.
There were three Army Forts located at the Thames Estuary: Nore (U5), Red Sands (U6) and Shivering Sands (U7).
Each fortress was a large military base, consisting of seven steel platforms - “towers” standing in the sea: a control center tower and five combat towers located around it (one of which had two automatic 40-mm automatic anti-aircraft guns, and four the rest - one heavy 94-mm anti-aircraft gun) and one searchlight tower, standing somewhat to the side
All the towers were connected to each other by narrow bridges, most of which, in our time, have already collapsed into the sea.
In addition to the three Army forts, there were four Naval Fortresses (NAVY Forts) in the Thames Estuary: Rough Sands (HM Fort Roughs) (U1), Sunk Head (U2), Tongue Sands (U3) and Knock John (U4).
Such fortresses were concrete structures in the form of pontoon barges on which stood two cylindrical towers. At the top of these towers were weapon platforms with two automatic 40 mm and two heavy 94 mm anti-aircraft guns mounted on them.
Sea fortresses were laid down in dry dock and completely assembled there. After which the fortresses were towed through the water to their combat positions, where they were half-submerged and firmly stood on the bottom.
In 1953, one of the Army fortresses, Base Nore (U5), was heavily damaged when the Norwegian ship Baalbeck collided with it and destroyed two of the fortress's towers. As a result of the collision, four civilians were killed, guns in the fortress were severely damaged, and radar and other equipment was destroyed.
The ruins of the fortress were considered a danger to navigation and were dismantled in 1960.
Three years later, also as a result of a collision with a ship, one of the towers of the Shivering Sands base (U7) was lost. In 1964, the Port of London Authority isolated the searchlight tower from the rest of the fortress and placed equipment on it to monitor winds and tides.
In the 1960s, most of the fortresses, which had already been decommissioned by the United Kingdom War Office and abandoned, were taken over by pirate radio stations. The legendary “offshore” radio boom of the 60s began in England.
True, the era of pirate radio stations did not last long - after the manager of one of these radio stations was found guilty of murdering his partner, the British Government passed an anti-piracy bill in 1967. Pirate radio stations, one after another, were closed.
But the history of sea fortresses did not end there. September 2, 1967, one Paddy Roy Bates is a retired British Army colonel who chose Fort Rough Sands (or HM Fort Roughs, literally “hooligan tower”) in 1966 to base his pirate radio station “Britain's Better Music Station” ", announced the creation of the sovereign Principality of Sealand on the territory of the sea fortress and proclaimed himself Prince Roy I.
In 1968, the British authorities tried to occupy the young state. Patrol boats approached the platform of the sea fortress, and the princely family responded by firing warning shots into the air.
The matter did not come to bloodshed, but a trial was launched against Prince Roy as a British citizen. On September 2, 1968, a judge in the English county of Essex made a historic ruling: he recognized that the case was outside British jurisdiction - that is, he de facto recognized the sovereignty of the Principality of Sealand.
Sealand was established in international waters before the entry into force of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which prohibits the construction of artificial structures on the high seas, and before the extension of the UK's sovereign maritime zone from 3 to 12 miles in 1987. Based on the fact that the Rafs Tower platform , on which Sealand is located, was abandoned and deleted from the lists of the British Admiralty, its occupation is considered as colonization. The settlers who settled on it believe that they had every right to establish a state and establish a form of government at their discretion.
Only five people live in the Principality of Sealand (link - video), but it meets all the criteria for statehood specified in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. Sealand is a constitutional monarchy, headed by Prince Roy I Bates and Princess Joanna I Bates, although since 1999 Crown Prince Michael I has exercised direct power in the principality.
The principality has its own constitution, flag and coat of arms; Sealand mints its own coin - the Sealand dollar and issues stamps. The smallest state in the world even has its own football team.
The Principality of Sealand went down in history as the first state in the world to burn to the ground - on June 23, 2006, due to a short circuit in a generator, a serious fire started, which was extinguished thanks to the help provided by Great Britain. Restoring an artificial island requires a lot of money, and the Silendian monarch, who has had 40 years of life associated with the island, decided that it was time to part with it. The state is up for sale - the starting price is 65 million pounds sterling.
In an attempt to circumvent international copyright laws, the world's largest BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, which has more than three million registered users downloading pirated software, music, films and other protected materials from torrents for free copyrights, a couple of years ago I started a campaign to raise funds to purchase the state of Sealand. “Help us and you will become a citizen of Sealand!” - say the pirates.
On October 9, the world became one less monarch: Prince Roy I Bates, the founder of the state of Sealand, located on an abandoned sea platform off the British coast, died in a nursing home in the English county of Essex at the age of 92. A war veteran and fearless adventurer, DJ of a pirate radio station and founder of the dynasty, he left his principality as an inheritance to his eldest son.
Over the almost half-century history of its existence, Sealand survived the threat of an attack by the Royal Navy of Great Britain, an attempted coup and the capture of the heir to the throne, and was involved in a criminal scam involving the issuance of false passports. It was targeted by freedom-loving copyright infringers from the Swedish torrent site The Pirate Bay and by the Argentines during the 1982 Falklands War with Great Britain. Despite all the vicissitudes, Sealand retained its independence. True, not recognized by anyone, but its rulers, apparently, never particularly cared about this fact.
Retired British Army Major Roy Bates chose the platform back in 1966, when he was thinking about where to transfer the broadcast of his underground radio station Essex, which the British authorities had declared illegal. The war veteran was an active participant in the pirate boom of the mid-1960s, when numerous stations broadcast music that the BBC did not play, and generally had a lot of fun on air, unlike their mainland counterparts. One of the four offshore platforms built 13 kilometers off the coast of Great Britain in 1943 was perfect for these purposes. During the war, a garrison of 150-300 people was stationed on such a platform; its task was to warn of German air raids and German attempts to mine strategically important sea routes, including the approaches to the mouth of the Thames. In the mid-1950s, the platforms were abandoned, and ten years later Bates appeared on one of them with his children and household.
Despite his previous plan, the major did not place a radio station on the Roughs Tower platform. Instead, he came up with a better idea. He decided that the radio room was, of course, a good option, but his own state was much better. After consulting with a lawyer, Bates took advantage of the fact that the platforms were built outside British territorial waters - they stood seven miles from the coast, while British jurisdiction then extended only three miles. During the war, this circumstance worried few people - there was no time for that, but after 20 years, England no longer had the right to dispose of the former fort.
It was a small matter. Bates proclaimed himself the prince of the independent state of Sealand on September 2, 1967 - he decided to give his wife Joan a birthday present, and from that moment she became Princess Joanna I. The state was small - the area of the sea platform is only 550 square meters, but the gesture was successful wide. His son and heir Michael, then 14, and 16-year-old daughter Penelope took part in the celebrations. Together with a group of companions, they raised their flag over the platform, and thus Sealand appeared.
Without thinking twice, the British government decided to blow up the other three forts out of harm's way. The Sealand website claims that the empire feared the appearance of a second Cuba on its doorstep, but this comparison is still not entirely correct - the platform can accommodate only a small cottage by Moscow standards, but not Fidel with his five million (according to then estimates) builders of communism. During the destruction of the forts, the crew of one of the Navy ships, sailing past Raf's Tower, threatened the aborigines that they would be next in line for eviction. To this, the inhabitants of Sealand responded by firing shots into the air, and since the prince did not renounce British citizenship, he was prosecuted for illegal possession of weapons as soon as he set foot on English soil.
And then a significant event occurred, which would certainly have been included in the history books of Sealand, if anyone had bothered to write one. The judge threw up his hands and ruled that he had no right to pronounce a verdict, since the incident occurred in international waters, over which the jurisdiction of the English court does not extend. It was a complete and unconditional victory for the principality and its inhabitants. From now on they decided that Great Britain had actually recognized their independence.
London, of course, did not recognize the sovereignty of Sealand, whose area is one hundredth of the territory of the Royal Tower. The authorities simply did not want to suffer the reputational losses that would be inevitable if they tried to “win back” the dilapidated platform. What would it cost the monarchy just newspaper headlines like “Former greatest empire in the world attacked an iron can in the middle of the sea” or “Britain revives colonial power: abandoned signal box reclaimed,” and so on. By and large, Bates and his principality simply did not cause any trouble for the government: he did not set up a brothel, drug den or smugglers’ transit point there, although such proposals were received. He told everyone that he did not intend to harm the interests of Great Britain. The prince also repelled the Argentine landing force, which arrived in 1982 during the Falklands War with England with the intention of setting up a military base on the platform. In a word, neutrality reigned.
Sealand acquired a motto, an anthem and a constitution. The Principality minted coins and printed paper currency in the form of Sealand dollars. Life in the country proceeded calmly until 1978, when a self-proclaimed prime minister (a German citizen) showed up there with a group of mercenaries. He tried to seize power in the kingdom and captured the heir to the throne, Michael, who was accidentally discovered there. An international conflict was brewing, because it was one thing to quietly stamp stamps, and another to start a crime involving hostage-taking.
During the incident, a second important event occurred in terms of Sealand's recognition: since Great Britain completely refused to interfere with the bad story on the platform, the legal adviser of the German Embassy in London was sent there. Sealand patriots interpret the appearance of the diplomat as an act of international recognition. The putsch ended bloodlessly, and the prince let the invaders go home. The second criminal scandal broke out only in the late 1990s: a certain company on behalf of the “Sealand government in exile” (certainly not without the defeated “premier”) printed several thousand fake passports, which were revealed during the investigation of high-profile criminal crimes. Bates annulled them by royal will, but law enforcement agencies had no questions about him anyway. In 1999, he abdicated the throne in favor of his son. Until his death, the prince lived in retirement in Essex and suffered from Alzheimer's disease in the last years of his life.
The Principality continued to live in peace with Great Britain even after London in 1987 unilaterally expanded the border of its territorial waters to 12 miles and thus captured the platform along with the population. The United Kingdom is one of 162 states that have signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), according to which artificially created mounds and structures in the sea are not islands, cannot have their own territorial waters, claim the shelf and do not have the right to exclusive economic zone.
But Sealand made no claims. All economic activity of the principality boiled down to attempts to sell itself at a higher price. The current prince, unlike his romantic dad, who just wanted to fool around on air and make his beloved wife a princess, is a much more pragmatic monarch. In 2007, he intended to sell the platform for 750 million euros, but so far there have been no lawyers capable of completing such a deal. The torrent site The Pirate Bay also had an eye on the platform, but soon abandoned the idea. In 2000, HavenCo settled on the platform, which, until its liquidation in 2008, was, according to some estimates, the most secure and stable hosting on the planet.
There are several dozen unrecognized microstates like Sealand in the world. Some of them exist only in the imagination of the founders, others actually have quite tangible territory. One of the pioneers of this activity was Celestia, founded in 1949, but deceased, and claimed rights to interstellar space. In recent years, on the contrary, the most popular idea has been to lay claims to no-man's lands in Antarctica, which, unlike outer space, are simply lying underfoot. Here the leaders are Westarctica and Flandersis. Many states are based on the Internet, such as Lizbekistan, created by Australian artist Liz Stirling, or Vimperium, founded in 2012 and uniting Internet users, as well as Wirtland, formed four years earlier. There are also quite material microstates: since 1980, Aramoana in New Zealand has successfully existed, which is a small settlement that declared independence in protest against the construction of an aluminum smelter in its immediate vicinity. But the most famous “country” of this kind is, perhaps, Christiania, located in one of the quarters of the Danish capital. Since the early 1970s, there have been hippies who have inhabited abandoned military barracks.
These semi-fairy-tale kingdoms differ from separatist states in that they do not try to defend their independence with arms in hand. Practice has shown that it is more convenient for the civilized world not to interfere in their life. But only as long as the “dwarfs” do not get involved in illegal scams. The successful story of Sealand is an example of this.