Buying a private island/making a new country

[rootX]

Can I buy a private island in international waters that does not come under anyone nation?
And, if it possible that some powerful ($) people can buy one island and declare their own new country and currency? Or it is even possible that some individuals (again powerful ones) don't like their country policies so they make their own country somewhere else?

 

[Pyrrhus]

Can I buy a private island in international waters that does not come under anyone nation?
And, if it possible that some powerful ($) people can buy one island and declare their own new country and currency? Or it is even possible that some individuals (again powerful ones) don't like their country policies so they make their own country somewhere else?

Sales of islands is nothing new... There are islands for sale around the world. Of course, if you can afford it... Usually an island costs depending on the different factors, a typical range is from US$10 Million to US$35 Million (40-50 acres). Of course, construction costs for the property, electricity power plants, water installations (aqueduct), road network, and more. Basically if you do the whole budge, it is no surprise the whole land value plus development might get to 80-90 US Million dollars.

If you want to compare a non-luxury tourist resort in the Caribbean costs about US$100 Million, and that is just developing + "small" land acres. A luxury resort cost is about twice that. An example is Cap Cana project in the Dominican Republic. The land costs were about ~90-100 Million american dollars, and the whole project (phase I) about ~450-500 US Million dollars. That's having a luxury resort with about 10,000 acres of land.

 

[signerror]

Perhaps the best solution is ships - a city on floating barges. You bring own barge, and latch it on to the libertarian collective. This would be in the subtropics, and there would be barges with sand (for beaches), and palm trees. And a ring of active wave dampers around the floating lagoon. And skyscrapers would be like icebergs - complex polyhedra, very stable with low centers of gravity and gyroscopes.

And there would be an airport, with supersonic VTOL commuter flights. It would be halfway between Europe and North America, so it would be two hours either way.

Of course, construction costs for the property, electricity power plants, water installations (aqueduct), road network, and more.

There would be a nuclear reactor underwater. And a desalination complex. And instead of roads, there would be pneumatic tubes for personal transport.

http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/4681/2643thumb.jpg

 

[signerror]

Say about here?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...9,-34.101562&spn=71.389073,158.203125&t=p&z=3

 

[LowlyPion]

Perhaps some of these are available for a bargain?

http://www.blavish.com/most-expensive-private-islands/

 

[mgb_phys]

The island is likely to belong to some neighboring country.
There are a few independent ones for sale, the most famous is probably sealand, a gun platform off the shore of the UK that got made international by accident when the rules on territorial waters changed.

The other way is to get a 1930s fascist dictator to declare your company a nation and unaccountably find everybody still believes it after the war that kills the dictator

 

[f95toli]

Can I buy a private island in international waters that does not come under anyone nation?

There is obviously nothing preventing you from buying an island but that island will always effectively fall under the jurisdiction of some existing country or at least international law. The problem is that a country is only a country if OTHER countries recognizes it so just proclaiming independence doesn't automatically give you the rights/protection of a recognized nation.
There have been a few attempts to set up "independent nations" on abandoned oil platforms etc but they are never successful.
Remember that there are laws even in international waters (against piracy etc) and even a tax- or data haven (as was the case with Seland) would be enough to attract the attention of at least one nation with a navy (the UK in the case of Sealand).

 

[rootX]

Good comedy:

In 1978, while Bates was away, Alexander Achenbach, who describes himself as the Prime Minister of Sealand, and several German and Dutch citizens staged a forcible takeover of Roughs Tower,[9] holding Bates' son Michael captive, before releasing him several days later in the Netherlands.[citation needed] Bates thereupon enlisted armed assistance and, in a helicopter assault, retook the fort. He then held the invaders captive, claiming them as prisoners of war.[10] Most participants in the invasion were repatriated at the cessation of the "war", but Achenbach, a German lawyer who held a Sealand passport, was charged with treason against Sealand,[9] and was held unless he paid DM 75,000 (more than US$ 35,000).[11] The governments ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

With Sweden's waters becoming less pirate-friendly, the Pirate Bay looked for warmer climes. In January 2007, it reportedly tried to buy Sealand, a platform in the North Sea off the Suffolk coast, which claims national sovereignty. After that fell through, the Bay raised money to buy an island, but the plan was never realized.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7893223.stm

 

[rootX]

If you want to compare a non-luxury tourist resort in the Caribbean costs about US$100 Million, ..

I think you are overestimating the costs. From LowlyPion link, they wudn't cost more than 50$ M.

 

[rootX]

Say about here?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...9,-34.101562&spn=71.389073,158.203125&t=p&z=3

Loved that place.

 

[rootX]

The other way is to get a 1930s fascist dictator to declare your company a nation and unaccountably find everybody still believes it after the war that kills the dictator

I also thought that one could go to an underdeveloped country and bribe the government which is also equivalent to having self made laws.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I think you are overestimating the costs. From LowlyPion link, they wudn't cost more than 50$ M.

I am including Development costs. What are you going to do with a piece of undeveloped land?

 

[Phrak]

Why buy one for 30M when you can conquer one for 2? Island Conquest, LLC, will have the job done quickly and effiently, and guarantee a minimal of damage. IC also offers to reconquer your nation state when you tire of hoisting the national colors. Our reallocation tactics are professional, humane, and realistic, in a manner that should fool any insurance company coming and going.

Our sister comany, Democratic Republic Inc, offers a political take-over at cut-rate prices, and will leave your island populated with problematic subjects.