You might assume that in today's world, every single piece of land and territory on the
planet has been claimed by someone.
You may believe somebody has explored the entire world and that every corner of the
map has been meticulously filled in.
We've all figured out where everything is today, but contrary to popular belief, there
are still areas of land on the earth that have yet to be claimed by any country.
There are currently three of them.
The largest of these is Marie Byrd Land.
However, this will not pique your attention because it is located in Antarctica, where
no one lives or wants to live.
So, we won't go into detail about it.
Another is an unclaimed piece of land in Africa, lying deep in the Sahara desert between Egypt
and Sudan.
If you know the Sahara Desert, you’ll understand why nobody wants to live here, and so we won’t
go into detail about this as well.
The third remaining piece of unclaimed territory on the planet is the smallest of the three,
but it's also the most interesting because it's right in the heart of Europe.
While it is true that the majority of Europe has been claimed, there is still some territory
that has not been claimed.
And today, we'll be talking about that piece of land, and why no government has claimed
it to this day.
This is going to be interesting!
This small piece of land in Europe that still has to be claimed by any sovereign nation
is situated between Croatia and Serbia, directly next to the Danube river.
It covers nearly seven square kilometers of land, roughly twice the size of Central Park
in New York City, and is even larger than the Vatican City and Monaco - the two officially
recognized sovereign republics in Europe.
Because no country in the world currently claims this land, it comes under the legal
term Terra Nullius.
When a piece of land falls under this category, it indicates that anyone, including yourself,
can claim it and establish a new country on the land if you would like to.
But, if that’s a piece of good news for you and if you're thinking about claiming
it right now, there are a few things you should know first.
You'll also need to know a little bit about its history to understand why this hasn't
been claimed yet.
This piece of land and the surrounding area were all governed by the Habsburgs and subsequently
the Austro-Hungarian empire in the nineteenth century, which means that the British are
remarkably the people who should not be blamed why this certain part is unclaimed yet.
Croatians in the west and Serbians in the east lived on each side of the Danube river
back then, as they do still.
The municipal boundaries between them, however, were determined by the Austro-Hungarian government.
The Austro-Hungarian government's boundary wasn't all that bad because it matched the
Danube's course at the time.
The issue arose when the Austro-Hungarian government decided to stretch the Danube river
through numerous hydraulic engineering projects in order to make it more passable.
Yes, they were able to make the river accessible for transporting commodities, however, they
didn’t know that they also sparked a territorial conflict between Croatia and Serbia because
of that.
After the First World War, Austria-Hungary fell apart over the decades, and Croatia and
Serbia were included in Yugoslavia, which also fell apart in the 1990s.
Croatia and Serbia became fully independent nations after centuries, and along with this,
the Danube river, which supposedly served as the border of the two countries, has meandered
and changed shape throughout the decades.
This didn't matter when they were both parts of the same country, but now that they are
both independent of each other, it suddenly does.
When the Danube meandered and straightened, it left 100 square kilometers of land on the
eastern part of the river, which somehow belongs to Serbia, and it only left somewhere between
ten and thirty square kilometers of territory on the river's western bank, which somehow
belongs to Croatia but Croatia don’t claim it as theirs.
If you would ask Serbia, they believe that even today, the border between Serbia and
Croatia remains the Danube River.
Meanwhile, regardless of how the Danube river has changed since the municipal boundaries
were first set up in the 19th century, Croatia claims that the line represents the historical
path of the river as it was more than a century ago.
This practically means that both countries claim all of the land located in the east
of the Danube river, but neither countries claim the land in the west part of the Danube.
Moreover, they believe that Serbia's boundary is the Danube river as it is today.
The unclaimed land to the west of the river is rightfully Croatian territory, but Croatia
refuses to claim it because claiming it would mean acknowledging the Danube river as it
currently exists as to their border, just as Serbia does.
If they do, it would mean forfeiting all of their claims to the eastern land of the river.
As a result, neither Croatia nor Serbia claims this region, and no other country on the planet
does either, turning it into a land where no one lives in the heart of Europe.
If you're considering claiming the piece of land and establishing your own little European
kingdom, there are a number of issues to ponder.
First, because there is no infrastructure in the area and the land is located on a flood
plain, it would be difficult for you to live there.
Second, the entire area is guarded by the Croatian army, which does not allow anyone
inside, making entry extremely difficult.
In fact, many people have been arrested by Croatian officials over the years, and these
are people who have attempted to enter after hearing, like you, that they can claim the
land for themselves.
Third, there are a lot of other people who have already claimed the place, most notably
Vit Jedlicka.
He is a libertarian politician from the Czech Republic who named the piece of land as Liberland
and declared it as a free republic in 2015 after raising a flag in the area.
Since then, he's been arrested and held by Croatian officials several times for attempting
to get into the area.
Despite this, more than six hundred thousand individuals from all over the world have signed
up to become future Liberland citizens, which anyone else, including you, may do right now
by sending an email.
What are Serbia and Croatia's reactions to this?
Both Serbia and Croatia have declared that neither Jedlicka nor anybody else has any
rights to the land, which is being disputed by the two countries.
Serbia has previously claimed that, while they consider the situation insignificant,
the potential new state of Liberland does not intrude on the Serbian boundary, which
they claim is defined by the Danube river.
Meanwhile, Croatia has argued that the territory should be given to either Serbia or Croatia
following international arbitration, rather than to a third party.
Croatia prefers to keep neutral rather than acquire it entirely in order to continue using
it as a bartering ship with Serbia.
Simultaneously, an article published in the Chicago Journal of International Law in 2016
looked into Liberland's claim to nationhood using the requirements given out by the Montevideo
Convention, which established the legal notion of statehood in 1933.
According to the report, Croatia's assertion that Liberland belonged to Serbia may amount
to a surrender of Croatia's legal rights to Liberland.
If, on the other hand, the territory Liberland claims to be part of Serbia, the Serbian government's
rejection of its title to that land could result in the property's legal status being
changed to Terra Nullius.
This means anyone can claim the land as theirs.
In both cases, the region would belong to the first entity to claim it, in this case,
Liberland.
However, due to the historical background of the Croatian-Serbian border region and
the conflicting issues between the two, determining who owns the territory under international
law may be problematic.
Today, there are currently no countries that recognize Liberland's sovereignty.
But who knows what might happen in the future?
It could still change.
Everything could still change.
Perhaps one of the countries would stand up and claim the country, or perhaps they would
eventually allow someone, such as Jedlicka, to take the territory.
What are your thoughts on this?
Do you believe that area of Europe should belong to Serbia or Croatia?
Should they instead allow a third party to claim it?
Write your thoughts in the comment section.
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