The author of this book should be extradited

"How to start your own country" is written by Erwin S. Strauss. The publisher is Paladin Press, some kind of martial arts outlet. The book contains short descriptions of various attempts to create new countries. Groups covered include right-wing militia groups, libertarian idealists, role-playing game enthusiasts, illegal radio broadcasters (one in Sweden) and fake nations with their own stamps and currency. You may already be familiar with Occussi-Ambeno and New Atlantis, but what about Castellania or Kingdom of West Antarctica? Or "Atlantis kaj Lemuria", presumably a fictitious Esperanto nation?

Unfortunately, the book is badly edited and contains a number of factual errors and deliberate distortions. Thus, the author claims that the Paris Commune was a local affair in a bohemian district of Paris! Since it's common knowledge that the Commune was a massive popular uprising in all of Paris, I can only conclude that Strauss is distorting the facts deliberately. Further, he claims that Karl Marx was a bank robber. Nor does he know that the Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus is a real independent nation - albeit only recognized by Turkey (and for a short period, Bangladesh).

Among all the worthless information, there is really only one interesting section: the one about Michael J. Oliver, a mercenary type with libertarian ideas whose attempts to create an independent nation went from the farcical to the sinister. He attempted to create "the republic of Minerva" on a reef in the South Pacific. The Minerva reefs were submerged under water, but Oliver had them filled with sand and thus created an entirely new island, only to be unceremoniously ousted by a warship from nearby Tonga. Later, the entire island was destroyed by tides. In contrast to many other enthusiasts for new countries, Oliver actually learned something from his failure, and his new activities were directed at aiding right-wing separatists fighting left-wing governments. When the New Hebrides became independent in 1980, a separatist movement at the island of Espiritu Santu staged an armed rebellion, apparently with the support of French planters and...Oliver's Phoenix Foundation! In the end, the rebels turned out to have little support, and the insurgency was squashed by troops from Papua New Guinea. (It seems Oliver cannot even hold out against such "great powers" as Tonga and the PNG!)

Interesting.

But the rest of the book isn't. Frankly, the author should be extradited somewhere. To a new country, perhaps?