Full Nation Name : Kaharian Ng Islas Filipinas (Kingdom of the Philippine Islands)
Majority/Official Culture : Tagalog
Territorial Core : All the Philippine Islands not occupied by Japan.
Territorial Claim : The Philippine Islands that
are occupied by Japan, plus North Borneo, which belongs to Korea.
Capital City : Maynilad/Manila.
Population : 4.5 Million.
Government Type : Monarchy.
Government Ideology/Policies : Economic Growth and acquisition of European and Asian arms to eventually achieve Thassalocratic domination of the local seas.
Government Focus : Economy and Navy.
Head of State : Reyna (Queen) and Hari (King) Theodora Nasilangdilaw (Dilaw being the Tagalog word for Yellow and Nasilang being the Tagalong word for 'born of') and Felipe de Legazpi.
Head of Government : Reyna (Queen) and Hari (King) Theodora Nasilangdilaw (Dilaw being the Tagalog word for Yellow and Nasilang being the Tagalong word for 'born of') and Felipe de Legazpi.
Government Description : The Kingdom of the Philippine Islands takes influences from East and West, and calls itself a Kingdom to imply centralized, bureaucratic rule over its lands, but the further one goes away from Luzon, it is evident that centralization and bureaucracy fade in favor of the old 'Mandala' system of Southeast Asian polities, where towns and villages are centered around 'men of prowess/big men', who pay tribute to larger chiefs in larger settlements, who then pay tribute and taxes to the capital. But now, with the Japanese and the Koreans increasing their presence in the Philippines' backyard and the Reyna and Hari being increasingly ambitious, steps have been taken to curtail the freedoms and privileges of these 'vassals', with the greatest among them being co-opted with titles of nobility and ceremonial positions in the court, while others are sidelined and crushed.
Majority/State Religion : Orthodox Christianity after the Kingdom was offered an Autocephalous Patriarch.
Religious Description : Orthodoxy is followed by a majority of the population, especially in the island of Luzon where the City of Maynilad/Manila is situated, with significant minorities in the islands of Mindoro and Palawan. Catholicism, the second-largest Christian sect of the islands, is followed in the islands of Cebu and Negros, although with the proclamation of a formal state religion, Orthodoxy is becoming more ascendant. Further south and west, Islam and Animism are dominant, with Sulu being a center of local Islamic learning, with The Crown's lassiez-faire attitudes towards Islam as a whole allowing that status quo to continue - That and the local strongmen of Sulu are needed in future wars plus their piracy undercuts local rivals.
Economic Ideologies : Proto-Capitalism, with the noble and merchant classes melding together and The Crown engaging in business.
Major Production : Gold, Copper, Timber, Rice, Silk, Cotton, Pearls, Fish.
Economic Description : The center of the economy is Maynilad/Manila, a trade nexus where ships from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and even America come to buy and sell their wares, even as the Kingdom's own vessels go out to do the same in other countries' ports. The center of Manila in turn is the walled district of Intramuros (Latin for 'within the walls), which was given its name when trade relations with the Hispanians were strong. In Intramuros are the artillery foundries, indegenous ironworks, and handgun workshops where European mercenaries and those trained by them create a local supply of weapons, enough to supply 1000 men. Entry into this district is theoretically severely restricted, but these restrictions are hard to enforce due to the fact that tribute and taxes (some in kind) also go within the walls, while the Reyna and Hari frequently open the walls to petitioners.
This model is followed all across the Kingdom, with major cities centered around a military and administrative district walled with rammed earth or stone and trade districts walled with a crude palisade-and-ditch or not walled at all. However, as the economy and available technology advances, several important craftsmen whose jobs do not fit neatly into the military/administration or trade districts, but who live in the latter, have demanded stronger walls to protect them from bandits and pirates, and the Reyna has allowed it as long as they can pay for their construction and upkeep - A concession to the power of the craftsmen.
Below Manila is the province of Cavite, a major center of shipbuilding. There, Hispanian mercenaries and adventurers, as well as a few enterprising deserters, have built up a Naval Yard, a Naval Yard which can produce modern ships for commerce, war, or even both. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean deserters and artisans have also contributed, allowing for further refinements in the shipbuilding process. South of Cavite is Batangas, where Hispanian Cattle live alongside Water Buffalo, and both are exploited for their milk and meat. North of Manila is Bulacan, an agricultural province where the central government is as strong as it is in Manila, and which serves as a breadbasket of the Kingdom, as well as Tarlac and Pampanga, the latter which is ruled by a loyal chief who has turned the province into another center of shipbuilding, but of traditional outrigger boats (some with cannons) instead of 'modern' warships.
Even further north is the province of Pangasinan, where Horses were introduced from Hispania, China, Japan, and the Middle East in order to provide steeds for the local chieftains and later, the Kingdom. In order to ensure that the supply of Horses remains intact, the Reyna and Hari have made sure that the local chieftains are bound by both religion and marriage, with Churches and Monastries being built and endowed in order to further incorporate the local population. Not just that, but large fortifications have been built against Japanese Pirates in Lingayen Gulf, fortifications which not only signal the wealth which the Kingdom can bring to bear but also the coordination and loyalty of its people and their willingness to offer their labor.
Speaking of labor, slavery is common, especially in cases of debt and criminal actions, while slaves can also be taken captive or bought from abroad. However, manumission is just as common, with many slaves being freed after a period as brief as five years or after they've paid their debts, and slaveowners are legally obligated to provide housing, food, and medical care to their 'property'. The center of the slave trade is the Sultanate of Sulu, which has sworn a loose bond of allegiance to the Crown.
In-between Sulu and Manila are Cebu, Negros, and Mindoro, with Cebu being second to Manila/Maynilad as a center of trade and manufacture, able to make its own cannons and semi-modern to modern ships, while Negros is a center of textiles and sugar. Mindoro, meanwhile, is a source of copper, gold, and marble, as well as further agricultural goods. In order to keep the flow of marble to the capital and other cities intact, Royal officials and forces are constantly sent in order to keep the local strongmen loyal, as well as ensure that the local stonecutters have a supply of modern tools for quarrying the stone...
Development: Pre-Industrial.
Development Description : Due to centuries of playing the Hispanians, Japanese, and Koreans against each other, the Kingdom has developed Manila/Maynilad, Cebu, and a handful of other cities into something even a European can admit is 'civilized' (albeit in a way equal to Europe's backwaters). Not merely that, but the central state is trying to increase its power by developing and maintaining roads, aqueducts, and other infrastructure which economically ties the region together and generates profit for all but also requires centralization to maintain.
Army Description : The Army of the Kingdom has 5000 Professional Soldiers with Napoleonic-era Rifles and 10 Modern Artillery Pieces, mostly smoothbores and rockets. This army is supplemented by 30,000 'Urban Militias' from the well-off towns and cities of the Kingdom, which have 50 Modern Artillery Pieces between them and 100 crude cannons like those used in the rest of Southeast Asia. However, the bulk of the ground forces of the Kingdom are 100,000 armed men recruited from local tribes and small villages, many of whom carry only primitive weapons like swords, spears, shields, bows and arrows.
Army Weakness : The majority of the army is primitive in equipment and training, and cannot stand a striaght battle with Europeans or East Asian Nations, and resupply depends on access to European Merchants as well as what local gunsmiths Intramuros and other 'walled districts' can muster...
Naval Description : Thassalocracy is the name of the game in the Kingdom of the Philippines, and so great expense is spent on two 'modern fleets' and a merchant marine which also doubles as auxiliaries and privateers. Actual pirates can also be recruited at need, with the Sultan of Sulu providing them. The Fleets' various ships number thus:
Northern Modern Fleet- 2 Ships of the Line
- 4 Sloops.
- 6 Brigantines.
- 8 Frigates
- 10 Schooners.
Southern Modern Fleet- 2 Ships of the Line
- 4 Sloops.
- 6 Brigantines.
- 8 Frigates
- 10 Schooners.
Merchant Marine/Privateer Fleeet- 50 small outrigger ships.
- 30 large outirgger ships which contain small cannons.
Pirates- 100 Pirate Ships of various models.
Naval Weakness : The fleet is very expensive, yet the vessels of actual quality number less than the East Asians' and European powers. More to the point, the Japanese territories in East Visayas and most of Mindanao present a strategic risk, prompting expensive investment in defensive works and fortifications in that direction.
Further Military Description : National Goals : Become a Thassalocracy.
National Issues : The 'Mandala' political system must be replaced with a centralized and bureaucratic state apparatus in order to progress to a point where Thassalocracy is a possibility. Also, Japan must be driven out of the areas of the Philippine Archipelago it controls.
National Figures of Interest : National Ambition/Aspirations : History : - Maynilad is founded in the early 1500s by an expedition from Brunei seeking to spread Islam and gain a greater share of the China Trade (IRL Origins).
- With European Hispanians, as well as increasingly powerful Eastern Nations, eclipsing Muslim influence in the area, the local ruler Cebu, to the south of Maynila agrees to convert to Catholicism in the 1560s (Point of Divergence) in order to gain the support of Hispanian traders and adventurers in a dispute with the Japanese.
- In the 1570s, Maynila follows in Cebu's footsteps, due to there being no Islamic power that can help against Japanese and Peninsular Korean encroachment. The first Christian Church is built in Maynila/Manila and expeditions are brought into quarry stone to build Intramuros, an unprecedented stone-walled city.
- The Early 1600s see growth of power in Hispanian traders, mercenaries, and deserters, and one of them even attempts a coup against the current King/Hari, failing only because of the help of an Eastern Roman/Roman Trader who out of a personal feud with the coup's ringleader, reveals all to the King. This causes an interest in Eastern Roman ways and later, their culture and sect.
- The Mid-1600s see Eastern Roman traders further invited, as well as mercenaries, sailors, priests, and monks. At great expense, a diplomatic expedition is sent to Jerusalem, where the superior splendor of Orthodoxy vis-a-vis Catholicism is made apparent. This was to be the Philippines' 'Vladimir the Great Moment', the moment in which they decided to become Orthodox.
- The formal conversion is made in the last decades of the 1600s, where the current ruler, Reyna Elena, formally converts to Orthodoxy along with many of the nobility, swearing their spiritual allegiance to Constantinople. Elena then takes on the dynastic name 'Nagdilangdilaw', or Born in the Yellow, in order to reflect both Christian and Confucian Imperial Traditions, with slightly greater offense towards the latter.
- The early 1700s are spent at war with the Headhunting tribes of Northern Luzon and the Sultan of Sulu, the latter of which launches a daring raid on Maynilad, burning down everything outside of Intramuros and taking much loot and slaves. Hari/King Leonido, the current ruler, musters a gigantic expedition, which includes Korean-style Hwachas mounted on ships, to burn down Sulu in response.
- In the middle 1700s, Sulu rebuilds, but is no longer able to regain the strength it once had, while Maynilad and Cebu, already closely linked, formally unite as one, with the Reyna of Manila marrying the Hari/King of Cebu, and their firstborn child of whatever gender gaining the titles to both kingdoms.
- In the late 1700s, Another force is sent to force Sulu into vassalage, this time, the carrot is used along with the stick to ensure that Sulu not only complies with Manila and Cebu but also acts as a source of slaves and auxiliaries.
- In the year 1800, the Philippines, now an incredibly wealthy nation, sends an embassy, laden with Pearls, Gold, and Bronze, to the Eastern Roman Empire to lobby the Ecumenical Patriarchate for an autonomous Patriarch, based in Manila. This request is granted, thanks to the embassy giving the Emperor the Pearl of Lao-Tzu, the largest-known pearl in the world.
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