Historically, occupation of the land has been considered important in establishing sovereignty.

Where nothing- not all your little schemes, Commander- will prevent us from establishing sovereignty over that sector for the Cardassian empire.

It's not clear that this has been a successful attempt as Sealand has not successfully established sovereignty.

The two nations also agreed to prevent any other nation from establishing sovereignty.

But China remains interested in establishing sovereignty over territory it believes is rightly its own.

In the 1870s, the Japanese government maneuvered to establish direct sovereignty over the Ryūkyū Islands.

Their early task was largely to establish national sovereignty over these disputed areas and to protect borders.

The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 established full Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago.

Argentina set the whole thing up in an attempt to establish sovereignty in Antarctica.

It was also unable to establish sovereignty on 100 acres of Rota, an island in the Pacific.