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Motherboard's Guide To Starting Your Own Country

Statehood is in the eye of the beholder.

So you have a flag. And a national anthem. Maybe you even have a soccer team. And now you're thinking that it's time to formally start your own country. But what's the next step?

The question of what defines a country — and being in a country — is largely philosophical. You are free to declare yourself a country anytime, anywhere. But if you want anybody to take you and your fledgling nation seriously, there are some international guidelines that lay out the minimum standards for statehood:

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  • You must have a permanent population
  • You must have a defined territory 
  • You must have a government
  • You should also have the capacity to enter into relations with other states, although the amount to which you do so is up to you.

Beyond these basic criteria, there are no international laws or regulations governing what is or is not a country.

"There is no authoritative rule that says what steps you may and may not take," said Dr. Tom Grant, a fellow at the University of Cambridge's Centre for International Law. "There is simply no rule of international law that requires or prevents any given community from choosing to call itself an independent state."

But independence is not always as simple as signing a declaration and hoisting your flag. In most cases, new countries have a difficult time gaining any real sovereignty without some kind of international recognition.

"The way that the international system has dealt with it is a decentralized process, with each existing state deciding how to deal with the situation," Grant explained.

The easiest way for a new country to get accepted by the international community is to get the consent of the "parent state," although that usually doesn't come without bloodshed. For example, in South Sudan, the world's newest country, a secession agreement with Sudan in 2011 has paved the way for the new state's entry into the United Nations and the IMF, solidifying its status as an sovereign state.

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The good news, however, is that parent states don't get the final say in whether a new country gains recognition from the international community. Serbia's objection to Kosovo's independence, for example, did not prevent the international community from recognizing it as a new country. Similarly, Taiwan has been widely recognized as the Republic of China since 1949, despite China's persistent claim to the territory.

"In most cases, the legality of the act of separation  will not be one of the main considerations," Grant said. "If there's a single criterion that matters, it's that the new state must have the capacity to conduct international relations."

Grant points out that good behavior also helps when it comes to international recognition.

"In the modern era, there have been a number of attempts to create states, where the new entity has, at its inception, been involved in a number of violations of international law," he explained. In the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, for example, the issue is not the violation of the laws of Georgia, the parent state, but the ethnic cleansing of Georgians living in those territories.

"If a community breaks off from another state, really with the purpose of perpetuating a gross violation of a clear and fundamental human right, existing states have refused to treat that entity as a state," Grant said.

Assuming you and the people of your country don't have any genocidal impulses, it is also possible to create your country, or micronation, without international recognition. Hundreds of micronations are formed every year, with varying degrees of autonomy and success. Sealand, a micronation located on a sea fort off the coast of England, has been governing itself autonomously since 1967.

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The Principality of Hutt River, a 29-mile enclave in Western Australia, declared its independence in 1970, over HRH Leonard Casley's objections to wheat production quotas. The Principality has achieved virtual autonomy from the Australian government, and while it is not recognized by any existing state (other than micro nations), Hong Kong recognizes it as a place where countries can be incorporated.

Even the Republic of Molossia, a "banana republic" in the Nevada desert, could be considered a country in its own right. Although its population is only six, Molossia has an anthem, a post office, and its own set of laws, including a ban on all things Texan.

“It’s an expression of personal sovereignty, creativity, imagination, and political satire,” Molossia's president, His Excellency Kevin Baugh, told VICE last September. “It’s a nice way to look around the world. You can see what countries are doing and say, ‘I can do that.’”

Americans celebrate the Fourth of July because it marks the anniversary of the day the founding fathers declared independence and started an ill-conceived war with a bigger, stronger country. They, like Baugh, knew that being a country isn't legal or political — it's a state of mind.