Should You Buy an Island and Establish a Micronation? These People Did.

A crowdfunding campaign has purchased the island of Coffee Caye ... and turned it into a "micronation"

Should You Buy an Island and Establish a Micronation? These People Did.
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In 2018, Marshall Mayer co-founded a crowdfunding campaign called Let’s Buy an Island. The goal of founderss and funders alike was to purchase a private, uninhabited island to later develop into a “profit-making enterprise.”

By 2019, after having sold nearly 100 shares for $3,250 each, the group had secured more than $250,000 worth of funding — enough to buy a 1.2-acre island off the coast of Belize called Coffee Caye. But, as it turns out, a small slice of the paradise pie wasn’t all that investors wound up with. That’s because, per a new report from CNN, founding members are now part of an “unusual nation-building project” in which Coffee Caye has become the Principality of Islandia — and the world’s newest “micronation.”

So what does that mean? Well, a micronation, by definition, is an entity that claims to be an independent state but whose sovereignty is not recognized by the international community. Islandia will have its own national flag, anthem and government, complete with its own national flag, anthem and government. As it pertains to the latter, each shareholder, — regardless of how many shares they own — is entitled to just one vote in all of the democratic decision-making processes.

“Who hasn’t dreamed of making their own country?” co-founder and CEO of the project Gareth Johnson postulated. “Particularly in a post-Trump, post-Brexit, COVID world. If a bunch of regular people can make this work, perhaps it can be a force for good.”

But Islandia is hardly the first of its kind. In fact, according to Google’s Micronation’s World Map, there are 80 micronations around the world, with the Principality of Sealand off the coast of England being one of the more famous. According to Sealand’s website, micronations are typically refused legitimacy because of political and economic issues, as opposed to ethical and moral reasons, yet they believe that independence comes from the nation itself, not from the approval of others.

So, if you and your friends have ever tossed around the idea of going all in on an island together and forming your own colony … just know that, in the year 2022, there are crazier ideas.

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