Your Nation's Fact of the Week

[Tropico]

On this day 110 years ago — April 1, 1910 — Tropico's first president, Eurico Castillo, died.

Castillo was born into poverty in a rapidly industrializing Tropico. Despite receiving a basic Catholic education, he became highly intellectual having self-taught through libraries while working as a laborer. He became involved in the emerging trade/labor union movement within Tropico, and used the platform to launch his Tropican National Party (PNT) that would go on to dominate politics in the island nation for decades.

Beginning in the 1880s, he began campaigning for independence: first from Spain and then, after the Spanish–American War of 1898, from the United States. In November 1898, he issued the Grito de Pabellón, the Tropican declaration of independence. He waged a paramilitary guerilla war against US occupation before then turning to more successful diplomatic means. In May 1902, Tropico officially gained independence from the United State and Castillo was elected as its first president.

Castillo was re-elected four years later but was already sick by this time. In late-1909, his doctor informed him his condition was terminal and he resigned the presidency on January 31, 1910. He died 60 days later. His state funeral – Tropico's first – saw half the population line the streets. He was laid to rest in his home city of Santo Domingo.

Both of Castillo's sons went on to serve as president: his eldest son, Eurico Castillo Jr, served as president from 1918 until he was ousted in a popular revolt in 1923; his youngest son, Esteban Castillo, led a coup d'etat in 1930 (against his brother's successor) and served as president until 1957 – the longest serving president to date.

The Castillo family remains one of Tropico's most prominent business and political families.

[Westeastern Dicantia]

The negative mass generation phenomenon used in an alarming number of transportation technologies in Westeastern Dicantia was actually discovered on April 1st! News of the breakthrough had to be delayed until the next day to avoid confusion, even some of the researchers at the time thought that someone had come in over night and fudged their readings as a prank.

[Zhouran]

Zhouran has the world's fourth largest total road network after the US, India and China, the world's second largest highway network (National Highway System) after China, the world's third largest conventional railway network (National Rail Network) after the US and China, the largest high-speed railway network (National High-Speed Rail Network), the largest mass rapid transit railway systems combined (National Metro Railway Network), and the largest high-speed maglev network (National Rapid Maglev Railway Network). Considering that Zhouran is an archipelago nation, this means the nation has the highest concentrated density of infrastructure in the world.

[Andocara]

* The infrastructure of Greenfield, the capital of West Andocara is very similar to Denver, Salt Lake City, Calgary.

* In speaking of West Andocara, there are a few small towns where there are no automobiles, because it is illegal.

[Zhouran]

Because Zhouran is a several-millennia-old stratocratic civilization with a highly-impassioned warrior culture and fervid martial-etho, extremely-high level of militarization unseen anywhere else, and strong rigorous emphasis on education & research that remains unparalleled, the country has the nickname of 'Silicon Shangjialata' and 'Silicon Fortress'. Due to Zhouran's nomadic origins and several-millennia long history of golden ages characterized by scientific growth and dark violent ages characterized by violent conflicts, both craftsmanship and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are considered to be extremely-important in the growth of the Zhouranese Kangyuli civilization. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Zhouran strongly play an important role in Zhouranese culture, society and identity, having a long history in Zhouran since ancient times and producing numerous significant developments and discoveries in various scientific disciplines.

[The Sladerstan]

It is a law that all leaders or members of government must have a yellow tie. If they don't, nothing happens, but they show themselves to not be patriotic.

[Borovan entered the region as he]

Our national pastime is baseball.

[Tropico]

April 2, 1930 — The Seventy Day War begins

The conflict (which actually lasted 73 days) was almost wholly one-sided and saw US-backed and funded forces led by Esteban Castillo – son of Tropico's first president and younger brother of Tropico's fifth president – overthrow the liberal government of Reynaldo "Papá" Ortez.

Castillo, who had fled to Florida some 7 years earlier when his brother's presidency was overthrown, founded a newspaper, La Voz, and stoked growing anti-government sentiment and public dissatisfaction as the effects of the Great Depression deepened in Tropico. When the government began national lockdowns, censorship and supply rationing in the wake of severe shortages, Castillo made his move and was met with little resistance.

Although Ortez ordered Tropican forces to put down the revolt, his government found large sections of the military had already switched allegiance to Castillo, and even members of the Legislative Assembly were calling for the president – once nicknamed "Papá de los Pobres" (father of the poor) – to resign. Despite this, some of the military was loyal and attempted – in vein – to hold back Castillo's forces.

A final assault on the capital city, and the bombing of the Legislative Assembly building, saw Ortez and his government flee to Mexico on Friday, June 13. The following day Castillo took control of Tropico and would not relinquish that control for another 26 years – a period that became known as El Estebanato.

[Zhouran]

Following the establishment of the National Aerospace Research Directorate on December 17, 1958, the People's Republic of Zhouran has achieved full orbital launch capability. Achievements include the successful launch of the Xinshi-1 satellite, which was created as part of the Xinshi (Putonghua: 信使) satellite program, on May 17, 1962, as well as the deployment of a human into space for the Xiwang-1 spaceflight mission on December 22, 1969 as part of the Xiwang (Putonghua: 希望) human spaceflight program.

Because of these achievements, Zhouran became the third country after the Soviet Union and United States to independently launch a satellite, the fourth country after the Soviet Union, United States, and Canada to independently construct their own satellite, and the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States with full orbital-launch capability for independent human spaceflights. Since the 1970s, Zhouran is a major space powerhouse, ranking first with the highest average amount of unmanned & manned orbital-launches per year out of all other nations, as well as the highest amount of operational space payloads in orbit out of any nation, far outranking even the US. Currently as of 2020, Zhouran is only one of few nations on earth that regularly launches satellites and unmanned spacecraft into orbit as well as one of very few nations that regularly sends humans into space.

In Zhouran, hangkongonauts have always been fighter pilots in the Zhouranese People's Army Air Force & Zhouranese People's Army Naval Aviation, and various civilian researchers, scientists and engineers. As a result, hangkongonauts are purely professional space-travelers that are sponsored and trained exclusively by NARD, ZPAAF and ZPANA. The rationale is simply due to the sheer complexity of space travel, not to mention that thanks to Zhouran's high-quality rigorous education system, strong technically-oriented academic emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in Zhouranese academic discourse along with emphasis on a highly-rigorous, highly-methodical, highly-competitive & meticulously-complex academic environment are known to be popular characteristics of Zhouranese universities & military academies. Because of this, Zhouranese hangkongonauts are highly-intelligent individuals who were simply picked for space travelling. Since 1969, Zhouran has sent hundreds of hangkongonauts into space and is currently the leading nation for the most amount of citizens sent into space.

[Republica Federal de Catalunya]

April fools day is in December 28. Is called "el dia dels innocents" jokes and scams made during that day are called "innocentades" and the victims "innocents". The most typical one is sticking a paper man siloutte or "Llufa" in the back.
Among friends and jobs normally is made a "cabronet invisible" translated lil bastard gifts. As giving (bastard) gifts anonymously between coworkers or friends.

[Subhurbia]

Subhurbia is roughly circular in shape, similar to Antarctica. It is huge and diverse in biomes and climate.

[Yohannes]

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❀❀ Your Nation’s Fact of the Week ❀❀

The ringtone woke Princess Elisabeth from her thoughts. There was no time to prepare for negotiation: the Deathfallian delegation was here, and Ambassador Cameron Elliott would arrive soon. A hundred men had to be accommodated with Diplomat Work visas by tonight, most of them returning staff. Elisabeth was not sure if she could authorise all their paperwork and other procedures on time.

By Monday, the anarchist rebellion had been quelled. The Acting Minister for the Interior, Luke Bennett, had given his Presidential Palace Speech. The Democratic Union of Deathfall had been declared, and the old Democratic Republic was no more. Looking back, Elisabeth still could not believe it was real. The unexpected anarchist rebellion that had originally started in Barrio spread like wildfire through the country. It decimated the investment portfolios of many foreign-owned companies in the jurisdiction of the previous Democratic Republic—including, Elisabeth knew, the substantial assets of the Bank of Yohannes. She could remember some from her reports: the anarchists had stolen at least one million international dollars from two regional bank branches in the State of Baytown, burned the buildings, and ransacked a local company’s chartplotter, radar, VHF and maritime equipment manufacturing facility in Barrio ...

[Zhouran]

In Zhouran's National High-Speed Rail Network (Asia's second high-speed railway system since the early 70s, the world's longest HSR network since its inception, and the world's busiest HSR network in terms of highest annual passenger ridership from the 70s until 2011 after being placed second behind China's expanding HSR network), when someone takes the ride to a particular place that's only a couple hours away when the train is on high speed (300-350 km/h for National High-Speed Railway trains, 200-250 km/h for Provincial High-Speed Railway trains) and departs at night, the sleeping compartment wagons will be opened to passengers prior to departure and just before midnight the train will slow down to around 100-150 km/h in order to extend the duration of travel time and allow passengers to sleep overnight before waking up in the morning and arriving at the destination. For the same ride but departing on daytime instead, the train will not slow down and will continue along the journey at full speed before arriving at the set destination.

A National High-Speed Railway train arriving at the northwestern outskirts of Kuizhou during an early afternoon on May 13, 1981


A National High-Speed Railway train with sleeping compartment wagons arriving at the southeastern outskirts of Anjing during an early morning on August 4, 2008

[Estado Novo Portugues]

Maternity leave does not exist in the Holy Catholic State because married women are forbidden from working, and having children out of wedlock is illegal.

[Ostsee Empire]

The Reformation went much more differently this timeline, and as a result France, Spain, Portugal and the poor parts of Italy are the only places that still have Catholics in any meaningful number in Europe.

[Aikoland]

Until 1551, the only group that was protected from being enslaved were Catholics. In 1551, however, King Henry VI decreed that 'While they may not be followers of the One True Catholic Church, it is henceforth declared that all free believers in the divinity of Christ the Messiah within these lands is to be declared free from enslavement.'

[Permaculture Evangelists]

In the Armed Republic of Permaculture Evangelists, the national currency is the Mealworm and in a pinch, it is a wonderful source of protein on the go.
Because our economy is driven by the Farming Community, which uses Mealworms in chicken feed and compost piles, our Inflation is controlled by the Nation's ability to replace the Mealworms that are produced and consumed each year.

[Voxija]

Topfreedom, or the right for women to go topless in public places, has been upheld as a right in court everywhere in Voxija except in certain cities in North Voxija.

[Rosmana]

Our senate is debating whether to include the holidays of minority religions into the calendars, such as Wiccan and Hindu celebrations, an issue which has divided the entire senate, regardless of party affiliation.

[Andocara]

The main political parties of Andocara are:

Progressive Party
Supports: Globalism, integration and exposure to other nation's cultures, religions, etc. Wants freedom of expression.

Conservative Party
Supports: National Identity, some even support state secularism. Tight security laws.

Natural Party
Supports: Environmentalism

Neo-Liberal Party


Independent

[Kergstan]

During an episode of state-sponsored public shaming in a square in Poloani province, an alcoholic man who abused her wife was lynched and nearly killed.
He was brought to hospital but as he was recovering he jumped from his hospital room's window taking his own life.

The event has divided the nation with many defending the public shaming policy, going as far as rejoicing to the man's death and others who effectively shamed the shaming policy.

The provincial government of Poloani province has temporarily suspended the public shaming policy in order to hold discussions over it within the Communist Party and with civic associations and the Women League.

A small march denouncing ''the culture of hate against men'' and supporting an end to the policy when it comes to ''family issues'' was held by a conservative radio host in the capital but was broken up by the police because it was unauthorized,

[Socialist Communist States]

The Respected Comrade, our Supreme Commander of the Red Liberation Army of the Workers, the most Revered Supreme Chairman of the Socialist Communist Party, the Glorious Ultimate Supreme Leader of the States: Kokichi Oma, once tied his Eternal Vice-President: Al Gore to a log and had him flow down stream because he failed to get Valentine Z elected as WA General Secretary.

[Gandoor]

Three Gandoorese Prime Ministers have been LGBT. Robert S. Stevenson, Prime Minister from 1910 until 1940, was bisexual; Akane Sasaki, Prime Minister from 2000 until 2006, is lesbian; and Park Sang-Hee, Prime Minister since 2024, is lesbian.

[The Wiccan Israel]

Each day with a full moon is a national holiday in the Wiccan Israel.

[Peoples Papal States]

His eminence 100% did not crucify the former president of the Italian republic and anyone who says otherwise is a liar and a scoundrel.