Found their own country. This is the somewhat crazy project launched by the investors of Let's Buy an Island, launched in 2018 by Americans. An ambitious investment, financed by crowdfunding, and which aims to buy an island in the Caribbean
in order to found a whole new nation there. If the project had a difficult start, details CNN Thursday March 10, it seems to have succeeded in materializing in 2019, when investors managed to raise more than 250,000 dollars to finalize the purchase of Coffee Bay, an uninhabited island in approximately 4.8 km² off the coast of Belize .
The "Principality of Islandia" has thus been born in recent years, with its own national flag, anthem and government and was inaugurated at the beginning of 2022. The latest of the world's micro-nations, an entity that claims its independence, but is not recognized as such by the international community.
The various investors who want to settle in this small "country" can thus buy a share, estimated at 3,250 dollars (about 2,956 euros), in order to participate in the administration of the micro-nation. A dream come true for the initiators of this project who were inspired by examples of already existing micro-nations, such as the Principality of Sealand, a WWII combat platform located off the coast of England and declared as an independent nation by its owners since 1967.
Another example: Uzupis, a district of Vilnius in Lithuania , which has its own Constitution and also claims its independence. To establish its desire for independence, Islandia will also distribute passports to its investors. "We are as close to a nation as possible, without having an army or a navy", explains to CNN Marshall Mayer, one of the initiators of this nation-state project.