In 1977 a wheat farmer in the Western Australian outback formally declared war on Australia, waited a few days, then declared victory with zero shots fired. That farmer was Leonard Casley, known for half a century as His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt. In this episode we examine the mechanics of how a high school dropout turned a bureaucratic grievance over a wheat quota into a 75 square kilometer principality with its own coins, stamps, passports, and a decades-long legal chess match with the Australian state.

We look at the 1970 quota that allowed Casley to sell wheat from just 40 of his 4,000 hectares, the rumored land seizure that pushed him to secede, and his tactical use of the British Treason Act of 1495 to make himself legally radioactive as a de facto ruler. We cover the Geneva Conventions logic behind the declaration of war, the ...