In 1933, delegates from the United States and fourteen other countries met in Montevideo, Uruguay to define what it means to be a state. The resulting treaty from the Montevideo Convention established four basic criteria for statehood—essentially, what is required to be recognized as a country.
The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:
1. A defined territory
2. A permanent population
3. A government
4. Capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Over time, some people got to thinking that the criteria for becoming a state seemed surprisingly simple. So simple that some attempted to declare their house an independent country. So-called "micronations" popped up around the world.
Most of these micronations aren’t expecting anyone to take them seriously, and many don't even meet all four criteria laid out at the Montevideo Convention. These are micronations like Molossia, which is basically one guy's house in Nevada.
It's fairly easy to most micronations as just some dude’s crazy project. But one micronation, The Principality of Sealand, cannot be dismissed so easily.
