In the 1960s, when Roy Bates set up a radio station on an abandoned ex-naval fort in the middle of the North Sea, he was not looking to build a nation. Bates, once a major in the British Army, was only trying to circumvent broadcasting laws. The British government did not take kindly to his pirate station, and Bates was forced to retreat.¹ So it was that, in 1967, he took to another abandoned fortress, this time outside UK jurisdiction, and established Sealand. With his wife and children, Bates declared the tower a principality. It became a micronation—an entity that claims to be a sovereign state but is not internationally recognized. Describing itself as the world’s smallest country, Sealand covers all of 0.004 square miles. In lieu of taxes, it sells memorabilia, from personalize...