Need a press snippet refering of the attempt by a private individual
or consortium to purchase land from the government of one country,
with the intent of starting a new country within the borders of thier
acquisition. I am not looking for a particular incident, only a
reference to any such incident over past 200 years.

Hi! Thanks for the interesting question.

In this Namibian website, a man named Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz
allegedly bought a part of Africa (now a territory of Namibia) in 1882
and for a while named it as "Lüderitzland".

"To all intents and purposes he bought a country in little more than
two years from 1 May 1883 to 19 June 1885. He owned about a third of
South West Africa outright and held the mineral rights in a large part
of the remainder."

"Unfortunately for him he had run out of money. Unable to exploit his
acquisitions and concessions, he sold them to the Deutsche
Kolonialgesellschaft fur Sudwest Africa, a chartered company hurriedly
founded to develop the colony. Behind the DKG stood Imperial Germany."

"The man who bought a country"
http://www.orusovo.com/guidebook/content15a.htm

He was also cited in this BBC article on the history of Namibia. In
this article however, it noted that by 1884, he does not have control
of the territory anymore much earlier than that mentioned by the first
article.

"German control of the territory began in 1884, when the Chancellor,
Otto von Bismark, annexed all of South West Africa after being
petitioned by a trader called Adolf Luderitz."

"A bloody history: Namibia's colonisation"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1514856.stm

Search terms used:     
bought country Namibia "Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz" 

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
    
Thanks for visiting us.    
    
Regards,    
Easterangel-ga    
Google Answers Researcher

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 24 Jan 2003 20:43 PST

Thanks for the nice rating and for the tip!

Great, Answered question, provided useful links. I am pleased. Thank you.

I don't have a reference for this, and it doesn't really answer the
definition of your question, but it's an amusing story just the same:
I once read in the newspaper that Shimon Peres (former prime minister
of Israel) once held secret negotiations with the French government
with the intent of buying for Israel the French south American colony
of French Guyana. The negotiations failed to lead to fruition, and
these days I heard the French are making good use of their once
nearly-useless colony as a base for launching satellites, so I doubt
such a deal could take place today, not to mention that it's no longer
politically correct to trade territories like that. Too bad for
Israel.

I have to disagree with dannidin-ga on this one. My answer was on
target to the question since the particular individual did claimed the
land to himself only to lose money to the endeavour which opened for
the annexation of Germany. That land eventually became part of
Namibia. Such historical incident was verified by the respectable BBC
News organization.

Thanks again kongulu-ga for your continous patronage of Google Answers
through your very interesting questions!

Easterangel-ga

You might also be interested in these links; mostly about Sealand, but
also about several other attempts to start new countries.

The Principality of Sealand, official homepage:
http://www.sealandgov.com/

"Web rebels profit from net controls" (on Sealand):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2115887.stm

"Sealand is Not a Country":
http://geography.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa081100a.htm

"New Countries With New Concepts 
Creating A New Country - MicroNations & Principalities" (very
extensive):
http://www.escapeartist.com/unique_lifestyles/for_a_new_nation.htm

:-) arsenic

To Kongulu
Try looking at the history of Lichtenstein .  I vaugly remember the
ancesters of the current ruling familly bought it for the high ranking
title.
Kemlo.

Thank you all for your comments.

I might mention that I don't think dannidin-ga was questioning the
answer provided by easterangel-ga.

Thanks!!

Yes kongulu-ga. After reading carefully to dannidin-ga's comment once
again I think i made a mistake and would like to apologize to
dannidin.

Anyway, I appreciate that you have enjoyed the answers to this very
fun question. Thanks again.

There is a guy here in the UK who owns an offshore building (an ex oil
rig or prison) which he has declared an independent country. He uses
this fact to sell himself as a neutral hosting provider for disaster
recovery and napster-like services.

James