[itistoday2]

That's a fair point, but from what you've shared it sounds more like an invasion of sorts than an actual secession movement. Do you know how much of a majority they had? If it was on the order of 51% of a tiny town that just doesn't seem sufficient.

As you say, it helps for the place to be self-sufficient.

A good example actually are the Amish. Their towns are almost completely composed of Amish and they're entirely self-sufficient except for the standing army part.

For this they actually pay fewer taxes than most Americans, but they still do pay taxes.

The formation of a country seems to require at least two things then:

1. Self-sufficiency in terms of resources

2. Self-sufficiency in terms of defense

(EDIT2: A friend points out that it's a bit more nuanced than this since many existing countries do not satisfy these criteria given the nature of modern trade. So these requirements can be filled by-proxy.)

On that last point, it doesn't necessarily have to imply a superior military. As long as you have some sort of leverage over neighboring countries (like trade agreements), you can arrange to have a truce or even an alliance between yourselves.

An example would be if Silicon Valley and neighboring farming regions banded together and said, "No more tech unless you give us autonomy."

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EDIT: regarding the question you inserted in your edit, please see if the post I mentioned answers your question: https://fixingtao.com/2016/01/lunatics-terrorists-and-the-th... If it doesn't I invite you to post a comment there to continue the convo.