Micronations and territory

 A lot of micronations want to claim land, whether it's just the bedroom of the house they live in or the block they live on or half of Antarctica.

One of the reasons that so many do is because of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (more commonly referred to as just "The Montevideo Convention"). Article 1 of that document states, "The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states." (Emphasis added.) A large banner-sized copy of the Montevideo Convention has been brought to several MicroCons, and many micronations have signed on the banner, including Slabovia.

As a counter-point to this idea, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (technically the "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta"), an international humanitarian organization that's existed for almost 1000 years, is considered sovereign under international law despite having no territory of its own (Wikipedia), so land claims are not an absolute requirement for sovereignty.  

There is some precedent (sort of) for claiming that your bedroom or your residence is sovereign territory. You could declare your residence to be your embassy, and by international diplomatic convention, embassies are considered to be an extension of the nation's borders within the host nation. And, somewhat famously, during World War Two, the government of Canada declared the hospital rooms of Crown Princess Juliana (who had fled to Canada against the German invasion) to be "extraterritorial", making them part of the Netherlands rather than Canada for the duration of her pregnancy and delivery. This ensured that Princess Margriet was born on Dutch territory, so she would be a Dutch citizen rather than Canadian, and secured her place in the line of succession for the throne. 

Someone in one of the micronational groups on Facebook recently stated that their claimed territory meant that they had over two billion citizens. This was, perhaps predictably, met with derision. You don't get to claim citizens that don't even know you exist! 

If you're determined to claim land, and you're looking for land that doesn't impinge on "macronational" land claims (i.e., so you're not accused of being a separatist), there are basically three options (at least on this planet):

Because of the way that claims on Antarctica are made (each nation claims that slice directly "under" its own territory on the globe, terminating at the south pole), there is a large chunk of land called Marie Byrd Land (Wikipedia), comprising over 1.6 million square kilometres (or over 600,000 square miles, if you prefer archaic systems of measurement).

There is a small piece of land in Africa called Bir Tawil, on the border between Egypt and Sudan (Wikipedia), which neither country wants or lays claim to, making it terra nullius (literally, "nobody's land"). However, people actually live there, so maybe they should get a say in their statehood. 

Finally, there are several small pockets of land adjacent to the Danube river in Europe, which are also terra nullius due to the border dispute between Croatia and Serbia. I'm aware of two land claims made by micronations which cover two of the four pockets in question: Liberland and someone claiming to be the new Yugoslavia both claim Gornja Siga, and "pocket three" is claimed by the Free Republic of Verdis (Wikipedia).

What about offshore options? Sealand (Wikipedia) is a neat concept, but it's a one-off - there aren't a lot of coastal defense fortresses left over from WW2 to begin with. Additionally, the UK has since extended its territorial waters claim from 3 nautical miles to 12, meaning that Sealand is now within the territorial waters of the UK, and thus exists only at the pleasure of the government of His Royal Majesty, King Charles III. There have been other attempts to build platforms or artificial islands for micronations - Rose Island (Wikipedia) was invaded and destroyed by the Italian government, who believed it was a "tax dodge", while the reefs claimed by Republic of Minerva (Wikipedia) were seized by Tonga. There was also REM Island (Wikipedia), an offshore platform hosting pirate radio and TV broadcasts. Again, the nearest country (in this case, the Netherlands) changed their law to be able to exert sovereignty over the seabed where the platform was located, then seized it. There seems to be a bit of a trend in that regard... Nonetheless, seasteading (Wikipedia) persists as an idea for many micronations, although a single-family seastead near Thailand was boarded by the Thai navy and the occupants charged with "violating Thai sovereignty" (article).

There are also companies that will "sell" you the title to land on Mars and the Moon, and possibly other planets. Some micronationals feel that, if you can't set foot on the land, it doesn't count, but that's not stated in the Montevideo Convention.

And, of course, some micronations are "virtual", claiming land in Minecraft or some other video game.

Finally, I've stated several times that Slabovia only claims "the land under our feet and the sky above our heads", but that's not strictly true. My house is officially the Slabovian embassy, we have deed to hundreds of acres of land on Mars, and we have our own star, which is named "Slabovia Prime".

An AI-generated view of the Earth as seen from space
(Generated by Meta AI - yes, it's pretty bad)