SeaLand

SeaLand is the smallest independent state in the world and an offshore platform located in the North Sea approximately 12km off the coast of Suffolk, England. It was founded as a sovereign Principality in international waters, six miles off the eastern shores of Britain. Sealand was founded on the principle that any group of people dissatisfied with the oppressive laws and restrictions of existing nation states may declare independence in any place not claimed to be under the jurisdiction of another sovereign entity. The location chosen was Roughs Tower, an island fortress created in World War II by Britain and subsequently abandoned to the jurisdiction of the High Seas. SeaLand was founded in 1967.