1 - Prince Leonard Prepares for War

Summary

In 1967, Roy Bates, a former major in the British Army, declared himself the ruler of a decommissioned offshore naval fort outside the United Kingdom’s territorial waters in an effort to bypass legal restrictions on radio broadcasting. In 1977, Leonard Casley of the Principality of Hutt River, a 75-square-kilometre wheat farm, cabled a telegram to the Governor-General of Australia declaring war in an attempt to force his larger neighbour to recognise the Principality’s sovereignty. In 1992, Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and ruler of the Kingdom of North Dumpling, a three-acre island off the coast of Connecticut, convinced his friend, President George HW Bush, to sign a faux non-aggression pact between their two countries. Micronations challenge and seek to engage with recognised states in diverse ways. Although none of these micronations achieved legal recognition, they considered their efforts a success. In compelling the state to respond, they considered that the state treated them – if only for a moment – as an equal.