1812: Alternative Divergence [AH][OOC-DEAD]

[The New Byzantine II]

FLAG OF BRAZIL

Full Nation Name: La République Fédérale du Brésil (Federal Republic of Brazil)
Majority/Official Culture: The culture of Brazil is primarily Western and is derived from French culture, but presents a very diverse nature showing that an ethnic and cultural mixing occurred during the French colonial period involving mostly indigenous people of the coastal and most accessible riverine areas, French people and African people who are part of Brazil's slave labor in the North - creating the Brazilian culture.
Territorial Core: Brazil, Uruguay, and French Guiana
Territorial Claim: Modern-day Paraguay, Suriname, and Guyana although these territorial claims aren't part of the federal government's priority as of this moment.
Capital City: Coligny [Rio de Janeiro]
Population: 3.8 million

Government Type: Federal presidential constitutional republic
Government Ideology/Policies: Capitalist
Government Focus: The government's focus as of this moment is to make Brazil industrialized nationwide. As of this moment, the government is trying to find a way to industrialize the poor North.
Head of State: Claude Carra Saint-Cyr
Head of Government: Claude Carra Saint-Cyr
Government Description: Brazilian government system is based on the civil law legal system of mainland Europe and civil law concepts prevail over common law practice. Most of Brazilian law is codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial part, playing a complementary role. Court decisions set out interpretive guidelines; however, they are seldom binding on other specific cases. Doctrinal works and the works of academic jurists have strong influence in law creation and in law cases.

The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, promulgated and ratified on 1768, and the fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules. States have their own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution. Municipalities and the Federal District have "organic laws" (lois organiques), which act in a similar way to constitutions. Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms. Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments. There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral courts. The highest court is the Supreme Federal Court.

In terms of the executive powers of the state, the main official holders are the President who is the head of state & the government and the Vice-President. The Cabinet of Brazil also exists as they serve as senior advisors of the executive branch of Brazil. Just like in real life Brazil, cabinet officers are appointed and dismissed by the President.

In the legislative branch, OTL Brazil and Brazil in this timeline are pretty much almost the same, with its congress being bicameral called National Congress (Congrès National). The bicameral National Congress consists of the Federal Senate (Sénat Fédéral) which houses 81 seats; they serve eight terms and the Chamber of Representatives (Chambre des Représentants) which houses 513 seats; serve four terms. There are two major political parties who dominated the Brazilian politics; the Conservative Party and the Democratic Party.

Majority/State Religion: Reformed Protestantism
Religious Description: It is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians.

Economic Ideologies: Mixed economy; between capitalism and agriculture
Major Production: Sugarcane, soy, coffee, orange, guaraná, açaí, Brazil nut, maize, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon, lemon, cocoa, cashew, avocado, tangerine, persimmon, mango, guava, rice, sorghum, tomato, grape, apple, melon, peanut, fig, peach, onion, palm oil and natural rubber.
Economic Description: The reason why it's mixed economy because the French settlers in Coligny post-independence who are mostly Huguenots in origin are known to be business-minded and mercantile prowess - were spread out thru southern Brazil to establish their own businesses and industries which attracted a lot of people who are unemployed; regardless if the unemployed came from the indigeneous native background or a colonial descendant with a Catholic background. Meanwhile, in the northern parts of the country, it remained agricultural as slavery is heavily dependent in that part of the region. Southern Brazil just begun its industrialization process and Northern Brazil being agricultural.

Development:
1. Southern Brazil - the southern portion of the country have begun its industrialization process in terms of mechanized textile production, iron industry and steam power following the arrival of French and other European businessmen to the country. These "foreign" businessmen often made deals with Eurocentric Brazilians who are mostly colonial descendants and Huguenots as they are more comfortable with them than the Native Brazilians.
2. Central & Northern Brazil - pre-industrialized; heavily-based on agriculture.


Development Description : Southern Brazil is where the French colonization of Brazil began in the first place and is the center of the Brazilian civilization. It's not a surprise that the southern portion of the country have begun to get industrialized with its magnificent French architecture which attracted European travelers and businessmen; specifically the French. Northern Brazil is heavily agricultural and dependent on slavery from the French colonial era up to the present day which is the reason why the northern portion of the country remained underdeveloped and it'll remained underdeveloped for several decades.

Army Description: The Armée Fédérale Brésilienne or the Federal Brazilian Army, is the name given to the land and main force of the Federal Republic of Brazil. The Federal Brazilian Army was formed after the independence of the country from France in 1763. There are 28,000 active forces and 100,000 reservist in the Federal Brazilian Army.
Army Weakness: Due to the territory size of Brazil, the Federal Brazilian Army's weakness is obviously logistics as there are a lot of roads that need to be built across Brazil and the lack of real war experience. Brazil hasn't experienced a conflict since the war of independence against France fifty years ago.
Naval Description: The Marine Fédérale Brésilienne or the Federal Brazilian Navy, is the name given to the naval force of the Federal Republic of Brazil. The Federal Navy came into being with the independence of the country in 1763 to fight and to expel the French troops dispersed by the territory. The navy was involved in Brazil's war of independence from France. Most of France's naval forces and bases in South America were transferred to the newly independent country. Some of its members were native-born Brazilians, who under French rule had been forbidden to serve, while other members were French born who adhered to the cause of independence. The Federal Brazilian Navy has 38 ships which are composed composed of one ship of the line, four frigates, and smaller ships by 1812. The navy has 96 modern warships of various types with over 690 cannon.
Naval Weakness: Just like their Federal Army counterpart. The navy's weakness also lack of real war experience.
Further Military Description: Army officers' training was completed in the Académie Militaire des D'aiguilles Noires (or in English; Military Academy of D'aiguilles Noires, also known as the Federal Military Academy), although it was not obligatory for personnel to study there to advance in the profession. Personnel from the infantry and cavalry branches only needed to study the disciplines of the 1st year (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and technical drawing) and 5th year (tactical, strategy, camping, fortification in campaign, terrain reconnaissance and chemistry). Engineers and artillerymen were obliged to study the complete course, which resulted in their branches being considered the most prestigious.

However, if they preferred, infantrymen and cavalrymen were allowed to study the disciplines of the 2nd year (algebra, geometry, analytical geometry, differential and integral calculus, descriptive geometry and technical drawing); 3rd year (mechanics, ballistics and technical drawing); 4th year (spherical trigonometry, physics, astronomy, geodesy, geography and technical drawing); 6th year (regular and irregular fortification, attacking and defending strongholds, civil architecture, roads, ports, canals, mineralogy and technical drawing); and 7th year (artillery, mines and natural history).

National Goals and Ambitions/Aspirations:
1. To industrialize.
2. Become the titan of South America; basically spreading Brazilian culture and influence in the continent.
3. To ensure peace and stability nationwide to ensure that a rebellion wouldn't happen again.

National Issues: Brazil is a capitalist society where socioeconomic hierarchy is evidently seen. The federal government is trying to find a way to end poverty in the country, the only way was to industrialize.

National Figures of Interest :

HISTORICAL
1. Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon; the French admiral who marked the beginning of French colonization of Brazil. Even though he was removed by the Calvinists, he still plays the role of the beginning of French colonization of Brazil - making him one of Brazil's national figures of interest.

2. Gaspard de Coligny; leader of the French Huguenots.

3. John Calvin; is a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He founded the Reformed Protestantism which is the largest religion in Brazil with Reformed Protestantism having the most adherents. Brazil possesses a richly spiritual society formed from the meeting of the Reformed Protestant Church with the religious traditions of African slaves and indigenous people.

History :

In 1555, due to the non-existence of the Portuguese/the lack of Hispanic presence or rivalry with other European powers in the continent, specifically in South America - the French colonists in one of the islands of Guanabara Bay (IRL and this timeline called Villegagnon Island) under Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon successfully established a fort colony which the colonists called Coligny (Rio de Janeiro) in honor of Villegaignon's supporter and friend, the French Admiral and leader of the Huguenots, Gaspard de Coligny. This marked the beginning of French colonization in modern-day Brazil.

Since there is no contest in South America by other European powers, this was a ripe for the taking by France and this is the opportunity for France to claim eastern South America as a whole. By 1556, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand the colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin.

After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte, a nephew of Villegagnon. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included five young women to be wed, ten boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. They arrived in March 1557. The relief fleet was composed of:
1.) The Petite Roberge, with 80 soldiers and sailors was led by Vice Admiral Sieur De Bois le Comte.
2.) The Grande Roberge, with about 120 on board, captained by Sieur de Sainte-Marie dit l'Espine.
3.) The Rosée, with about 90 people, led by Captain Rosée.
Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557, the Calvinists managed to have Villegagnon removed from the command of the colony. Gaspard de Coligny was then called to act as governor, and arrived shortly after Villegagnon had left, in 1558. The newly established colony soon became the heartland of Calvinism traditions and theology. In short, the heart of Reformed Protestant.

For the next few decades, the Huguenot-majority French colony in modern-day Brazil were thriving and expanding further in the deep jungles of the continent with the French colonists being friendly with the indigeneous natives (specifically Tupi, Puri, Aimore, and Maxakali peoples) and indigeneous natives being included in the colonial society vice versa, resulting an intermarriages between the natives and the colonists. However, back in mainland France, it was really unstable - the religious civil war between Catholics and Protestants engulfed Europe. France was one of these nations where the Catholic royal family - the Bourbon dynasty with its Catholic devouts and followers frequently persecuted the Huguenots and non-Catholics alike. Because of these unfortunate events that happened to the French protestants and mainland France being unstable by a religious civil war and Huguenot persecution, it sparked a mass migration of the French people to French Brazil to fled from the violence in the mainland. The mass migration would be around 40,000-50,000 who are mostly Huguenots and people from the marginalized sector [in short; poor people] of the mainland French society.

At the end of the civil war, French Brazil’s population in 1650 would be around 100,000 and the colonial society would be ethnically diverse with people coming from the indigeneous natives and French colonial descendants who are now used to the tropical climate. Brazil is also a safe haven for mainland French Huguenots, oppressed families from France, Puritans from Great Britain and European merchants or migrants coming from Iberia and Great Britain. Back in mainland France, the mainland remains Catholic however Protestants were "tolerated" while French Brazil is obviously a Protestant-dominated colony thanks to the mass migration from the Huguenots during the equivalent of a Thirty Years’ War in this timeline and the Huguenot persecution. Migration still continues so that the Huguenots could exist in the majority of the Protestant society but would later slow down nonetheless in the future.

In 1685, Louis the XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes which deprived the French protestants of all religious and civil liberties in mainland France. This resulted in another mass migration of Huguenots or the third Huguenot migration to the Protestant-dominated colony French Brazil while others went to the British colonies and other Protestant nations like Germany. While Louis the XIV forbade the Huguenots to go to French Brazil - this wouldn’t be a case as French Brazil is majority Protestant and has a deep hatred towards the mainland especially that there are a hundreds of thousands of Huguenot population that had migrated and settled to the colony thus resulting a large amount of population which have reached by 500,000 at this point. Descendants of the first and second Huguenot migration are now used to the tropical climate. In addition, French Brazil was established 150 years prior to the Edict of Nantes would even be considered - the forbiddance of Huguenot migration to French Brazil is seemingly impossible. At this point, by the late 17th century - most of the indigeneous natives in Brazil - specifically in the east coast of the continent - falling under the influence of French Brazil as Coligny became the center of civilization; culture, arts and religion in the region. In addition, Indian natives were tolerated in colonial society and were seen as equals. This resulted in the successful expansion of the Brazilian colony in the entire Brazilian coast in the future.

Not to mention that the majority Huguenot colony of French Brazil by the late 17th century developed a large African populations coming from the Atlantic slave trade. Same as in the real timeline, Brazil sucked up some truly massive part of the Atlantic slave trade simply because the climate of Brazil was designed for it. Massive industries like sugarcane and diamond mining required a massive poorly treated labor population, specifically the African slave population which were mostly built in the sparsely-populated North led by French nobles and Amerindians. At this point, French Brazil has reached a million population. The African slave labor has grown crops like cotton, rice and sugar that are labor intensive which resulted in an economic prosperity of both the colony of French Brazil and the mainland France.

However, this economic prosperity created a rift between the colonial government of French Brazil and the mainland French government which created a great deal of tension between the two. France becomes a centralized, authoritarian mercantilist and a very Catholic nation. This represents the Huguenot-dominated colony's justification as to why they hate France. There are huge difference between them as French Brazil is decentralized, possibly a democratic capitalist and a Protestant colony. The French authorities had viewed the colony specifically the Huguenots as trash, dangerous dissidents at worst while the colony of French Brazil viewed mainland France as tyrants, arrogant mainland nobles that tells them what to do (since mainland nobles/mainland French looked down on the French who are born and raised in French Brazil) and mainland nobles wanted to get more land. This relationship between the two would be similar to the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain in our timeline but to a greater extent.

Since France became a more centralized and a “corrupt religious society”, a critical crisis of philosophy and understanding resulted in the Brazilian Revolution in 1756. As the revolution swept across the colony, the British saw discontent in French Brazil which they saw an opportunity to wipe out French influence in the continent. Thus, the British supported the rebellion in the colony against the French. Since the British dominate the oceans, the revolution succeeded with British support. By 1763, a Huguenot nation of Brazil is now internationally recognized by the European powers. La République Fédérale du Brésil was born and has the same technological level with the great European powers and of East Asia. The government system is the same as IRL post-Imperial Brazil; a federal presidential constitutional republic. First presidential elections were held soon after Brazil gained its independence from France.

Even though Brazil had gained its independence from France, there are people which are mostly nobles from the mainland - aren't contented to this new Brazil as they see it as a "lost tradition". They didn't recognized the Federalist government that is centered on Coligny which is firmly controlled by the government forces. Few years later, a military commander named Gilbert Guillouet d'Orvilliers; a French-born who belonged to a prominent military in France, organized & united the mainland-born nobles and started a rebellion in 1767 which was five years after the independence. The goal was to establish an empire under Gilbert d'Orvilliers and reconnect its relations with France. It was dubbed as "Flower Rebellion" by the Brazilian government due to the rebel flag resembling that of the Bourbon France. The imperialist Rebel forces numbered around 3,000 men while the government forces numbered on almost 6,000 men who are mostly veterans of the Revolution. Most of the battles occured in one of the northeastern states of Brazil called Bahia. During the first months of the rebellion; the Rebel forces would win a series of battles against the government however the Rebellion would met their fate in Salvador, Brazil including Gilbert d'Orvilliers where the rebels failed their siege on the city. After the death of Gilbert d'Orvilliers, the hopes of creating the Empire of Brazil under French nobles had come to an end. Northeastern Brazil including its economy is crippled for at least a decade. Northeastern Brazil would become a Conservative powerhouse in the future due to the large influence of the mainland nobles have in that region.

By the mid to late 18th century, the first years of the young Huguenot nation is that their economy are poor as they are recovering from the revolution against France and the rebellion in northeast Brazil that are caused by mainland French nobles. Of course, their economy both in pre-revolution and post-revolution were based on the African slave trade. At this time, Brazil’s economy isn’t exactly thriving unlike hundred years ago and the poorest regions of Brazil are dependent on slavery. On the other hand, citizens of Brazil whether the citizen is an indigeneous native, colonial descendant, or a Huguenot are blessed with property rights. Brazilians in this timeline are known for their mercantile prowess, since Brazilians are mostly Huguenots - they are being drawn disproportionately from the upper and mercantile classes in France and thus built a society that is strong with merchant rights. In this timeline, Brazilians in Coligny (Rio de Janeiro) found a way to uplift their economy back on track as Huguenots (Brazilians) helped establish industries in Brazil since the Huguenots are known to establish a business industry whenever they went. French Brazil is in a weird position as French colonial descendants and Huguenots in Coligny spread southwards to the Pampa grasslands, settling as free farmers while others spread south to other southern coastal cities to establish their own businesses. This resulted in a divide between a poor North and a wealthy South.

By the early 1800s, the south of Brazil are slowly industrializing following the arrivals of European businessmen to the country while the north of Brazil remained dependent on the slave and agricultural economy. The slave proportion in the young Huguenot nation is much larger than IRL USA. On the positive side, Brazil is poised to become an economic titan in South America in the future. Southern Brazil may be wealthy but their industrialization has just begun while Northern Brazil are still poor due to the slave economy (South Brazil would be North USA while North Brazil would be South USA in comparison). Brazil’s presence in South America is vigorously felt and its economy is slowly thriving. Brazil is a sleeping giant for now and they are only focused on their internal problems.

RP Sample:

1948: Burning Powder Keg
Byzantine Dreams
Star Wars: The Era of Strife
Fallout: Incursion

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[Kisinger]

Full Nation Name : Kingdom of France
Majority/Official Culture : French
Territorial Core : France
Territorial Claim :
Capital City : Paris, France
Population : 29 Million

Government Type : Absolute Monarchy
Government Ideology/Policies : Militant Expansionist Monarchist
Government Focus : [[Tell us a little bit about what your government’s focus is… be it military, economy, culture, legitimacy, etc.]]
Head of State : [[The highest-ranking individual in the nation ]]
Head of Government :
Government Description :

Majority/State Religion : [[It does not have to be IRL religion]]
Religious Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

Economic Ideologies : [[Capitalism, Mercantilism, etc.]]
Major Production :
Economic Description :

Development: [[Industrializing, Pre-Industrial, Primitive]]
Development Description : [[Explain further why your nation is in one of the above categories]]

Army Description : [[Describe your nation's army in as much detail as you can]]
Army Weakness :
Naval Description : [[Describe your nation's navy in as much detail as you can]]
Naval Weakness :
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

National Goals : [[What are the main objectives of your nation?]]
National Issues : [[What needs to be fixed in order for your nation to achieve its true potential?]]
National Figures of Interest : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Are there any Mother Teresas or Moses that we need to know about?]]
National Ambition/Aspirations : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Not really set objectives, but rather the big picture that your nation is drawing towards]]

History : [[Can be formatted in paragraphs or as a bulletpoint timeline.]]
RP Sample: [[Either a link to a past post, or an example written right here.]]

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[Krugmar]

Full Nation Name : Exarchate of Egypt | Exárcheia tis Aigýptou | Esarcato d'egito
Republic of Zanzibar | Serenìsima Repùblega Zanzibar | Politeía tis Zanziváris
Official Culture : Eastern Roman [Primarily Greek, but including Graecified Slavs, Armenians, Syriacs/Aramaeans, and Arabs]
Other Cultures In Egypt: Copts, Egyptian Arabs (incl. Bedouin and Fellahin), Nubians and Sudanese Arabs. In Zanzibar: Arabs and Persians, Swahili, Hadimu,
Territorial Core : Egypt, Zanzibar, Tanzanian coast, Cyrenaica
Territorial Claim : the Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya
Capital City : Heliopolis
Population: ~4,000,000 for Egypt, ~500,000 for Zanzibar

Government Type : Egypt: Absolute Viceroyalty | Zanzibar: Oligarchic republic with elective monarchistic features
Government Ideology/Policies : Explorationist
Government Focus : Securing power, exploring Africa
Head of State and Government: Luca Barbarigo [Loúkas Barmparínko], Exarch of Egypt, and Exarch and Duke of Zanzibar [Éxarchos tis Aigýptou, kai Éxarchos kai Doúkas tis Zanziváris; Esarca d'Egitto, Esarca e Doxe de Zanzibar

Government Description : Egypt: The Exarch of Egypt wields considerable autocratic power, being a localised version of the Basileus in Constantinople. This power is de jure restrained by the Assembly in Alexandria, although most successful Exarchs usually pack it with loyalists to create it as a rubber stamp. The main restrictions on their power come from the Emperor and Senate in Constantinople, with rivals in the latter who may have designs on Egypt sure to critique any mistakes made by the Exarch.

Zanzibar: The Duke is the First Citizen and leader of Zanzibar's Senate, relying upon personal authority and deals with the other great families of the republic to maintain their authority. Their title of Exarch is purely a formality, as part of recognising the suzerainty and personal protection of the Roman Emperor.

Majority/State Religion : Roman Orthodox Church
Religious Description : Egypt is relatively diverse religiously, albeit between two groups: Christians, and Muslims. The country is roughly evenly split religiously, though the Christian population is rising. Muslims face increasing public and private restrictions, and are largely rural, with the two communities largely self-segregating. The Christian population is divided between Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and small numbers of Roman Catholic. The Copts make up the largest sect, while the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic are growing in size due to settlers and converts. Muslims are largely Sunni, of the Shafiʽi madhab.

Economic Ideologies : Mercantilism
Major Production : Crops such as Cotton, rice, wheat, corn, sugarcane, sugar beets, onions, tobacco, and beans. Gold and iron ore, textiles and clothing.
Economic Description : Egypt is still largely agrarian, with most of the economic activity conducted in its cities such as Heliopolis and Alexandria. Although its economy is largely self-contained, it is also integrated into the wider Roman economy, and is enriched by its position as the (overland) connector of the Mediterranean and Red seas.

Development: Industrialising in Egypt, Pre-Industrial in Zanzibar proper, Primitive for much of the mainland coast
Development Description : Egypt is one of the Empire's richer provinces, being its bread-basket, and the Barbarigo have been able to leverage its vital food exports to both reduce taxes sent to Constantinople, and leverage key resources needed for further development of their power base. Zanzibar has had far less attention, with only the city-proper gaining patronage from its wealthier citizens.

Army Description : See: Eastern Roman Army for macro details.

Egypt's army is not particularly divergent from the rest of Eastern Rome, with the exception of a few unique things:

The Mamelukes (μαμάλου mamálou) are a caste of military nobility, converts descended from the previous ruling caste of Egypt. They dominate the officer corps of Egypt's military, and tend to be a thorn in the side of the Exarch, being unruly 'natives' who contrast with the new nobility formed from Greek and other Roman settlers.

The Koleman (κολέμαν koléman, from Turkish Kölemen, from Arabic غِلْمَان ghilmān) are slave-soldiers, usually drawn from the Sudan and now from the Zanzibar interior. They primarily serve as the Exarch's bodyguard, although under the Barbarigo have been expanded dramatically to number a full regiment. They are slaves, the personal property of the Exarch, until they reach the age of 40, when they are freed and the restrictions upon them, such as celibacy, are withdrawn. Most of those who are freed go on to further service, either continuing in the military, or serving in the Exarch's household.

Army Weakness : For Egypt, the Mamelukes are the largest weakness. Nearly every mutiny or attempted coup has featured their involvement. Their power is slowly being broken, growing weaker the longer Egypt is under Roman rule, but they still represent a sizeable noble faction and threat to both the Exarch and Emperor.
Naval Description : Egypt's navy, that the Exarch controls, is largely riverine. The Exarch also oversees the Red Sea fleet, which is largely used to combat piracy and protect merchant shipping in Zanzibar and the Indian ocean. Alexandria is a key port for the Empire, hosting a division of its fleet. The Barbarigos seek to create their own Egyptian fleet.

Zanzibar's navy is fairly small, largely composed of old vessels purchased from the Empire.
Naval Weakness : Both navies are fairly small, and like their Roman counterparts are underfunded.

National Goals : - Explore the Nile river to its source
- Explore mainland Zanzibar and the interior
- Build up Barbarigo power and influence within Egypt and the Empire
- Secure more trading posts, ports, and land in Africa and beyond
National Issues : - Mamelukes
- Industrialisation
- Religious divisions
- Naval buildup
National Figures of Interest: tbd (will mainly be Barbarigos)

History : Egypt:
1587 - Romans gain the Sina peninsula, Mamluk power in the Middle East is firmly broken
1642 - Lower Egypt is under Roman control, but the Mamluks in Upper Egypt continue to resist
1681 - Roman control of Egypt is solidified with the fall of Aswan in 1681
1695 - A great rebellion in Egypt and the Levant fails, and heavy restrictions are put in place on the Muslim population, as well as colonisation efforts, both of which are still in effect today.
1801 - Luca Barbarigo, Duke of Zanzibar, is appointed Exarch of Egypt by Andronikos V. His enemies (correctly) accuse him of bribing his way into the position, and the Senate is outraged that an "Italian barbarian" is given such a high position. Two mutinies (1805, 1811) to remove him fail, and he is still the present Exarch.

Zanzibar:
pre-1701 - Zanzibar was visited by Arab merchants, who spread Islam across the coast and helped in the formation and spread of Swahili. Many urban centres appeared during this time, with the elites being Muslim and Swahili-speaking Bantu peoples, who often established for themselves Persian or Arab genealogies. Over time Nestorian Persian and Indian merchants began arriving and settling in these cities, particularly Zanzibar Town
1701 - 1735 - Roman merchants become increasingly prominent along the East Coast of Africa, and establish their own quarter in Stone Town.
1735 - The Roman Merchants banded together to overthrow the Sultanate of Zanzibar and institute their own oligarchic republic, though they were quick to establish links and recognise the sovereignty of the Empire. Among these merchants were the Barbarigo, who quickly became one of the premier families of the young republic.
1748 - Aureo Barbarigo is elected Duke of Zanzibar, and the post becomes de facto hereditary from this point onwards.
1775 - The Duke of Zanzibar is awarded the title of Exarch by the Emperor. Other than being a ceremonial recognition of Zanzibar as a client of the Empire, it also gives the duke power over all Roman subjects in the Indian Sea, and the ability to establish diplomatic ties on Constantinople's behalf in the Maritime East and African interior.
1801 - Luca Barbarigo is created Exarch of Egypt, and moves the family's power base from Stone Town in Zanzibar, to Heliopolis in Lower Egypt. He remains dually Exarch and Duke, though the functions of the latter are carried out by his brother, Dragano.

Barbarigo:
The Barbarigo are a Venetian family, though they have long been intertwined in the Roman world. They first appear in the records after 1204, first as landholders in Athens and, after that was lost, in Crete. Following the sale of Crete to the Empire they lost their land, though gained reimbursement, which they used to enter the Byzantine mercantile world and purchase for themselves properties in Constantinople's Venetian quarter.

They make themselves noticeable in the records again in 1711, when Clario Barbarigo purchased an estate in Stone Town and established himself in the local slave and plantation trade. The family became pre-eminent among the Roman settlers of the area, establishing links across the East African coast and Indian ocean. They took part in the 1735 coup against the Sultanate, and in 1748 Aureo Barbarigo accepted the position of Duke, which became de facto hereditary. They were granted the title of Exarch of Zanzibar, giving them great influence within the Empire, and in 1801 Luca Barbarigo was able to acquire the position of Exarch of Egypt. The family is now split between their two power bases of Egypt and Zanzibar, both united in the person of Luca Barbarigo.

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[Wasi State]

Am intrigued with the concept, and immediately had a really dumb, yet entertaining idea of just transferring the Enclave from Fallout, but having it of course be limited to the confines of early 19th century tech. Which in my mind translated to a bunch of Ned Kelly LARPers roaming around with flintlocks with unstable "teslas coils" haphazardly strapped to them with questionable benefits at best. How best would such a faction fit into this setting I have to ask, given a realistic enough suspension of disbelief?

I'm sure how that would work. By "we are willing to accept everything as long as it is fully explained", we mean that we are ready to accept all potential alternative history concepts as long as they are well and realistically explained. Fundamentally, bringing the Exclave over would not be proper alternative history, it would be bringing an alt-history concept from another world and another time into this. It wouldn't fit within the rest of the world and its history.

If you would like to create some sort of scenario that leads to order breaking down in the eastern US, you could, but even then some things wouldn't work - this is 1812, 80 years before Tesla coils became a thing. The hottest new thing in terms of electricity would be the Voltaic pile.

Yea that's fair, obviously I wasn't going to go for a total 1 to 1 remake, but still in the same vein of the basic idea with the necessary compromises to make it work out for this RP.

[New Jacobland]

Tag

I'm gonna think about this and get an app up soon. I might be something in the Balkans.

[Tracian Empire]

Tag

I'm gonna think about this and get an app up soon. I might be something in the Balkans.

In between the ERE and the HRE then?

[Kenobot]

Tag

I'm gonna think about this and get an app up soon. I might be something in the Balkans.

In between the ERE and the HRE then?

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

[Tracian Empire]

In between the ERE and the HRE then?

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

Nah, if such a state exists, it would be seen as a beautiful buffer by Constantinople, so its independence and existence would be ensured

[Kenobot]

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

Nah, if such a state exists, it would be seen as a beautiful buffer by Constantinople, so its independence and existence would be ensured

Very true. I'm still sold on a series of Ecumenical Councils to mend the schism

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Full Nation Name: The Scandinavian Commonwealth (da: det Nordisk Samfund)
Majority/Official Culture: The majority culture of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is Scandinavian, divided into the Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and North Atlantic variants.
Territorial Core: The territory of the Scandinavian Commonwealth includes Denmark north of the Eider, Sweden, Norway including the Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland, and Finland. It also maintains, as vassal clients, Estonia, Livonia, and Riga.
Territorial Claim: The Scandinavian Commonwealth maintains revanchist ambitions on the Orkney Islands and the Hebrides.
Capital City: The capital of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is Roskilde, located on the island of Sjælland in central Denmark.
Population: The total population of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is 5.92 millions, of which 1.90 Sweden, 1.89 Denmark, 1.06 Norway, and 1.06 Finland. To this the three vassal states of the Commonwealth add another 1.16 millions.

Government Type: The Scandinavian Commonwealth styles itself as a constitutional-parliamentary elective principality.
Government Ideology/Policies: The government of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is a liberal institution dominated by the political struggle between the popular-nationalistic Red Shirts, the militarist Blue Shirts, and the laissez-faire Yellow Shirts.
Government Focus : Internally, the Scandinavian Commonwealth is much concerned with its strength in European trade. Externally, the Scandinavian Commonwealth has maintained the same foreign policy objective for the last 500 years - to create a divided, unstable, and warring Christendom, thereby preventing any European alliance against itself, and has not been shy about using its navy to this end.
Head of State: His Most Noble Excellency Sigurd IV Ruriksson, First Speaker in the Four Nations, Protector of the Commonwealth, Grand Duke of Livonia and Estonia, etc. etc.
Head of Government: The Right Honourable Øystein Riansen, State Minister for the Commonwealth
Government Description: The head of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is the First Speaker of the Four Nations and Protector of the Commonwealth. It is an elected, non-hereditary title, but appointments are for life, irrevocable, and therefore the Scandinavian Commonwealth is not a republic. Reforms in recent centuries, however, have largely shifted executive power away from the First Speaker in favour of the Realm Council (da: Riksråd), which nominates a Minister of State to oversee the day-to-day affairs of the administration. The Realm Council consists of 16 members, one from every Region of the Commonwealth, elected from the general citizenry by household suffrage (each adult head of a free household casts one equal vote) serving four (for the Danish and Norwegian members) or six (for the Swedish and Finnish members) year terms. The Commonwealth is nominally a devolutionary state, being the union of four (originally three) states, but over the centuries it evolved to be de-facto a unitary state, with the Nations of the Commonwealth now merely being glorified administrative provinces.

Majority/State Religion: The Scandinavian Commonwealth does not have an official state religion. The majority religion of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is Norse paganism, with about four-fifths of the population professing faith in these old gods.
Religious Description: Asides from Norse paganism, the Commonwealth also has significant minorities of Finnish pagans and Christians. No organised religious institution exists at the Commonwealth-level, and therefore all of these faiths are disorganised, splintered into a broad variety of small sects.

Economic Ideologies: The economy of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is highly mercantile in its trade policy but fairly liberal-capitalist internally. The state does not maintain any welfare or social security except for a system of public primary education, but religious institutions are quite active in providing for the impoverished and labour unions hold considerable sway.
Major Production: The vast northeastern hinterlands of the Scandinavian Commonwealth supplies furs, timber, and base metals in abundance, while her long coastlines host rich fisheries. In terms of manufacturing, the Scandinavian Commonwealth has traditionally held strength in the ironworking and shipbuilding industries.
Economic Description: Like many other countries of its size and level of technology, the Scandinavian Commonwealth has an economy dominated by rural agriculture, which supports a small but healthy industrial sector that mostly consists of the extraction of raw materials and delivering them to urban centres, both foreign and domestic, to be processed in artisan-dominated manufactories. Recent improvements in agricultural technology and the greater availability of imported foodstuffs, however, has led to a large-scale migration of rural population to the cities, creating considerable social tension.

Development: Industrialising
Development Description: The Scandinavian Commonwealth is arguably one of the most technologically sophisticated nations on the planet today, but it is not, however, one of its most industrialised. A lack of easily accessible domestic sources of coal, with only small-scale mining operations in central Sweden, the lack of any large captive colonial markets, and the relative abundance of water and wind power all mean that there is no great economic impetus towards mechanisation and industrialisation. Nonetheless, as the Commonwealth grows increasingly concerned about the influx of cheap manufactured products from elsewhere in the North Sea market, new industrialised manufacturing is starting to take place in the Commonwealth's great cities.

Army Description: The Army of the Scandinavian Commonwealth consists of semi-autonomous brigades. In times of war each Region of the Commonwealth is obliged to raise and maintain on behalf of the Commonwealth one or two brigades, depending on its population, each 3,000 in paper strength. Compared to the armies of similar nations, the brigades of the Commonwealth tend to be very heavy on artillery but largely lacking in cavalry. The Commonwealth itself does maintain four regiments of cavalry, each 1,000 paper strength, to somewhat make up for this lack. Recent threats from Muscovy has led to a strong increase in defence budgets around the Commonwealth, and as such the army brigades are well-armed with the latest advances in armaments technology. The combined paper strength of the entire army is 70,000 personnel, not including militia and paramilitary forces.
Army Weakness: The ground forces of the Scandinavian Commonwealth suffers from a lack of cavalry, in both quality and quantity. It is also a citizen's army, with a skeleton core around which soldiers are drafted when needed, and as such is enthusiastic, but somewhat lacking in professionalism. Finally, because the political prestige of the Commonwealth is invested in its navy, not army, and the population of the Commonwealth is small to begin with, the Commonwealth has a very hard time finding reinforcements for attrition losses on long indecisive campaigns.
Naval Description: With a strong maritime tradition and prestige in the eyes of the state and the people alike, there can be little doubt that the Navy of the Scandinavian Commonwealth is the branch of pride of the Commonwealth's armed forces. While it doesn't quite match the open-battle prowess of the British, it is still capable of rapid maneuver even under unfavourable wind conditions and thus a penchant for showing up at the most unexpected locations at the most inconvenient moments, and its experience in bombard-and-burn gunnery raids make it a terror for the coastal towns and cities of any nation that dares to stand against it.
Naval Weakness: Scandinavian naval doctrine is adapted to warfare in the North Sea and the Baltic, and it lacks any colonial presence in other continents. Consequently the ability of the Scandinavian navy to project power away from its homeland is rather sharply limited.
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

National Goals: Continue to maintain its traditional prosperity based on dominance in North Sea and Baltic maritime commerce, and assert its territorial claims against its neighbours.
National Issues: A lack of any real power projection or colonial holdings and a lack of an internal impetus towards industrialisation.
National Figures of Interest : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Are there any Mother Teresas or Moses that we need to know about?]]
National Ambition/Aspirations: Above all, the Scandinavian Commonwealth dreams of one day being the naval hegemon of Europe and letting nothing move on the sea except by its consent!

History : [[Can be formatted in paragraphs or as a bulletpoint timeline.]]
RP Sample: Spaaaaaaace

#AltDiv (Do not delete this, it is used to keep track of the apps)

[New Jacobland]

In between the ERE and the HRE then?

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

Tracian Empire, do you have an app up? I want to see what my neighbour's history is so I don't mess up any canon.

[Tracian Empire]

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

Tracian Empire, do you have an app up? I want to see what my neighbour's history is so I don't mess up any canon.

I have a WIP app that I was working on, I can post it here so that you can see it soon

[Tracian Empire]

Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων
Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn
The Empire of the Romans

Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων
Basileía Rhōmaíōn
The Roman Empire

Η βασιλεύς Σύγκλητος και ο Λαός της Ρώμης
I Basileus Sýnklitos kai o Laós tis Rómis
The Emperor, Senate and People of Rome


Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων
Basiléus Basiléon Basilévon Basilevónton
Emperor of Emperors, Ruling Over Those Who Rule

Full Nation Name : The Roman Empire (Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων-Basileía Rhōmaíōn|Imperium Romanum), the Empire of the Romans (Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων-Basileia tōn Rhōmaiōn|Ἀρχὴ τῶν Ῥωμαίων-Archē tōn Rhōmaiōn|Imperium Romanorum). The phrase: the Emperor, Senate, and People of Rome (Η βασιλεύς Σύγκλητος και ο Λαός της Ρώμης - I Basileus Sýnklitos kai o Laós tis Rómis|Imperator Senatusque Populusque Romanus) is used to officially refer to the Roman state, which is also commonly referred to simply as Rome (Ρώμη-Rómi|Roma) or the New Rome (Νέα Ῥώμη-Néa Rómi|Nova Roma). Other names like the Roman Republic (Πολιτεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων-Politeia tōn Rhōmaiōn|Res Publica Romana) and Rhomania (Ῥωμανία|the Land of the Romans), with the derived (Βασιλεια Ρωμανια-Basileia Rhōmania|Imperium Romaniae) also exist. Foreigners sometimes use the historical exonyms of the Byzantine Empire (Bυζαντινή Αυτοκρατορία-Byzantiní Autokratoría|Imperium Byzantinium), or of the Eastern Roman Empire (Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία-Anatolikí Romaïkí Autokratoría|Imperium Romanum Orientale) but they are not actively used by the Romans themselves. The nation is also sometimes designated as the Empire of the Greeks (Βασιλεία των Ελλήνων-Basileia ton Ellínon|Imperium Graecorum), but its usage is considered to be an insult by the Romans.

Majority/Official Culture: As most things in this ancient empire, the situation is complicated. The main and official culture recognized by the government is the Roman culture (Ρωμαϊκή-Romaïkí), which in this case strictly refers to the culture of the Eastern Empire. The Roman view on the culture of its citizens is a little different from the view held by most of the other nations of Europe. The Roman perspective is based around the concept of Ρωμανότητα-Romanótita (Romanity, or Romanism). This is the idea of the Roman civilization and culture rather than the ethnic reality. Included among its concepts are the very ideals of the Roman Empire and of the Roman people, military, and government. The inhabitants of the Empire refer to themselves as Roman (Ρωμαιοι-Romaioi) or Roman citizens (Ρωμαίοι πολίτες-Romaíoi polítes), and consider themselves to be the true Romans, the true heirs of Ancient Rome. To be a Roman citizen is more than belonging to a simple ethnic group, it’s to accept that you belong to world of right belief and order, to belong to the one, true, universal empire, and the one, true, universal faith. The Romans consider their realm to be a part of God’s plan, to be the earthly reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven, an empire destined to endure until the Second Coming. To be a true Roman, and to be part of this empire, one has to accept its mission - it means taking part in God’s plan for the world and protecting the empire until it will truly rule the entire world again. Ethnicity and blood pale in front of such substance, and as such, the pillars of the Roman civilization are what unite the Roman citizens. The use of the true Roman language, the (Ρωμαικα-Romaika|Roman/ Roman language) what some may call “Greek”, the one true Orthodox Christian faith, and subordination to the imperial authority. The Roman identity and culture of today is a true successor of both the Roman and the Hellenistic worlds of the Antiquity and of the Middle Ages. And the Romans of the East, while aware of their Greek origins, fully consider themselves to be the heirs of Rome, to be the ones carrying the flame of both Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece onward into the future.

Other cultures which refuse to acknowledge this divinely ordained scheme of things or dare to challenge are guilty of a form of heresy in the eyes of the Roman culture, to be pitied or to be condemned, as people of the nations (έθνη), and as barbarians (βάρβαροι). Followers of different faiths, like Muslims or pagans are pitied as victims of invincible ignorance, while those who willingly reject the truth, like the Catholic schismatics or the Protestant heretics, are nothing more than willful and unrepentant deviationists. Such cultures present throughout the Empire are then actively persecuted using this reasoning, being forced to go through a cultural process known as Romanization, the process of acculturation, integration, and assimilation of those inhabitants of the Empire which do not belong to the Roman culture. The process itself contains a variety of methods and is justified by the imperial government as an attempt to civilize barbarian people. Perhaps more aggressive than the Romanization of the antiquity, this process has been raised to the status of a state policy during the Empire's long existence, with it being currently used in some areas of Egypt and certain parts of the Levant. The process is mostly based on the strong promotion or even enforcement of Greek, of Roman laws and customs, and of Orthodox Christianity, an attempt to eradicate the cultural and religious identity of those groups that are romanized, accomplished through various means, like forced conversions, the existence of Roman colonists, education controlled by the Roman state, depopulation and forced resettlement, together with certain incentives, like granting the Roman citizenship to those loyal to the Empire.

Territorial Core:

• 1. Theme of Thrace|Thema Thrakēs - Θέμα Θράκης|Adrianople
• 2. Theme of Scythia|Thema Skýthis - Θέμα Σκύθης |Constantia
• 3. Theme of Paristrion|Thema Paristrion - Θέμα Παρίστριον|Dorostolon
• 4. Theme of Strymon|Thema Strymōnos - Θέμα Στρυμώνος|Serres
• 5. Theme of Thessalonica|Thema Thessalonikēs - Θέμα Θεσσαλονίκης|Thessaloniki
• 6. Theme of Diocleia| Thema Diokleías - Θέμα Διοκλείας |Nysos
• 7. Theme of Dyrrachium|Thema Dyrrhachiou - Θέμα Δυρραχίου|Dyrrachium
• 8. Theme of Nicopolis|Thema Nikopoleōs - Θέμα Νικοπόλεως|Nikópolis
• 9. Theme of Hellas|Thema Helladikoi - Θέμα Ελλαδικών|Thebes
• 10. Despotate of Morea|Despotáton toú Moréos - Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως|Mystras
• 11. Theme of the Aegean Sea|Thema Aigaiou Pelàgous - Θέμα του Αιγαίου Πελάγους|Mytilene
• 12. Theme of Crete| Thema Krētēs - Θέμα Κρήτης|Megalo Kastro
• 13. Theme of Cyprus|Thema Kyprou - Θέμα Κύπρου|Lefkosia
• 14. Theme of Optimates|Thema Optimatōn - Θέμα Ὀπτιμάτων|Nicomedia
• 15. Theme of Opsikion|Thema Opsikiou - Θέμα Ὀψικίου|Nicaea
• 16. Theme of Samos|Thema Samou - Θέμα Σάμου|Smyrna
• 17. Theme of the Cibyrrhaeots|Thema Kibyrrhaiotōn - Θέμα Κιβυρραιωτῶν|Attaleia
• 18. Theme of the Anatolics|Thema Anatolikōn - Θέμα Άνατολικῶν| Amorion
• 19. Theme of the Bucellarians|Thema Boukellariōn - Θέμα Βουκελλαρίων|Ancyra
• 20. Theme of Paphlagonia|Thema Paphlagonias - Θέμα Παφλαγονίας|Gangra
• 21. Theme of the Armeniacs|Thema Armeniakōn - Θέμα Άρμενιάκων|Amaseia
• 22. Theme of Cappadocia|Thema Kappadokias - Θέμα Καππαδοκίας|Tyana
• 23. Theme of Seleucia|Thema Seleukeias - Θέμα Σελευκείας|Seleukeia
• 24. Despotate of Trebizond|Despotáton tis Trapezoúntas - Δεσποτᾶτον της Τραπεζούντας|Trapezous/Trebizond
• 25. Theme of Koloneia|Thema Kolōneias - Θέμα Κολωνείας|Koloneia
• 26. Theme of Cilicia|Thema Kilikías - Θέμα Κιλικίας|Adana
• 27. Theme of Iberia|Thema 'Ivirías - Θέμα 'Ιβηρίας|Theodosiopolis
• 28. Theme of Vaasprakania|Thema Vaasprakanías - Θέμα Βαασπρακανίας|Eua
• 29. Theme of Mesopotamia|Thema Mesopotamias - Θέμα Μεσοποταμίας|Kamacha
• 30. Theme of Melitene|Thema Melitenéos - Θέμα Μελιτενέος|Melitene
• 31. Theme of Antioch|Thema Antiócheia - Θέμα Αντιόχεια|Antioch
• 32. Theme of Palmyra|Thema Palmyrénio - Θέμα Παλμυρένιο|Palmyra
• 33. Theme of Syria|Thema Sýrios - Θέμα Σύριος|Dionysias
• 34. Theme of the Galilee|Thema Galilaíos - Θέμα Γαλιλαίος|Berytus
• 35. Theme of Palestine|Thema Palaistínios - Θέμα Παλαιστίνιος|Jerusalem
• 36. Theme of Arabia|Thema Arabikós - Θέμα Aραβικός|Eliat
• 37. Theme of Sinai|Thema Sinaíos - Θέμα Σιναίος|Saint Catherine
• 48. Despotate of Taurica|Despotátis tis Tavrikís - Δεσποτάτης της Ταυρικής|Cherson

Territorial Claim: At least as a part of the Roman imperial theory, the Romans consider all the countries which belonged to the Roman orbis, to the Roman world, to be their everlasting and incontestable possessions, as the inhabitants of the one universal empire which survived the storms of the barbarian invasions. As such, territories in West have been considered ever since the Middle Ages to be simply the pars occidentalis of the empire, temporarily fallen into barbarian hands due to the sins of mankind. This translated during the Middle Ages in the slightly more pragmatic concept of a European family of kings, with the institution of complicated honorary degrees of affinity granted to other European monarchs by the Roman Emperors from their position as the head of this family, as the paterfamilias. In practice however, this imperial theory has never quite recovered from the countless shocks which it has received throughout history, and such ancient claims have been ignored for centuries. The current, more pragmatic Roman foreign policy simply wishes to secure its borders, to strengthen the empire's position in Africa and to ensure that the straits of Dire are controlled by a friendly power. The security of the Mediterranean and of the Black Sea are also important issues in order to ensure the protection of the imperial capital.
Capital City : Constantinople, Konstantinoupolis, the New Rome, the Second Rome, the Eastern Rome, Roma Constantinopolitana, the Queen of Cities, the Great City, the City of the Emperors, the Reigning City, the City, the God-Guarded City,the Great City of the Romans, the Throne of the Romans, the Eye of the World, the Envy of the World, the City of the World's Desire, the City of Sins, Byzantium
Symbols:

• Flags
• Dynastic Banners
• Naval Flags
• Greater Coat of Arms
• Lesser Coat of Arms
• Dynastic Emblem
• Chi-Rho Monogram
• Saint Andrew the Apostle
• Saint Constantine the Great
• Saint Justinian the Great
• Roma (personification of the Roman state)
• Motto: Βασιλεύς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων-Basiléus Basiléon Basilévon Basilevónton|Imperator Imperatorum Imperans Imperantibus|Emperor of Emperors, Ruling over Those Who Rule
• Alternative Mottos: Σταυρὲ βασιλέως βασιλέων βασιλεῖ βοήθει - Stavrὲ Basiléos Basiléon Basileῖ Bíthi|Cross of the King of Kings aid the Emperor; Σταυρὲ βασιλέως βασιλέων βασιλευούσῃ βοήθει - Staurè Basileùs Basiléon Basileuoúse Boéthei|Cross of the King of Kings aid the Ruling City; Σταυρὲ βασιλέως βασιλέων βασιλεύων βασίλευε - Staurè Basileùs Basiléon Basileúon Basíleue|Cross of the King of Kings, Rule in Reigning; Σταυρέ, βοήθει - Staurè, Boéthei |Cross, Come to Our Aid

In regard to color, Tyrian purple is the official one, representing the imperial authority and the Emperor. But because of the price of the purple dye the purple is generally reserved only for those flags and emblems used personally by the Emperor, while red is used for the rest.

Population: Around 22 million. Based on a population of around 17 million for the historical, real life population of the areas under Roman control, and increasing it to account for the fact that the Byzantines never lost Anatolia and went through a subsequent demographic collapse, and for the areas under Roman control never experiencing the same kind of demographic and economic decline as that in the latter half of the Ottomans, combined with a better Roman administration in both urban and rural areas, with an improved agriculture due to the Byzantine system of free peasants.
Government Type: The Roman Empire is a highly administrative and bureaucratic caesaropapist absolute monarchy, with the Roman Emperor holding the supreme authority in both secular and religious matters. In practice however, the empire has certain elements which would belong to a more mixed type of government. The monarchy is of course, clearly embodied in the person of the Emperor, which rules the nation as a hereditary despotic autocracy. The aristocracy is largely represented by the Senate, but certain democratic elements do exist through the influence of the demes. Officially, the Roman state considers itself as the communion of the Emperor, Senate, and People of Rome.
Government Ideology/Policies: Absolutism, Autocratism, Conservatism, Roman Nationalism, Orthodox Traditionalism, Imperialism, Pragmatism, Imperialism
Government Focus: The Empire of the Romans is currently focused on continuing development of the realm in order to stay in line with or ahead of its rivals, and on continuing to strengthen the stability of the state and of its autocratic regime, while also maintaining its influence and control over the areas it currently claims.
Head of State: Basileus Autokrator Mikhail Palaiologos Sebastos (Short Title)
His Imperial Majesty, Mikhael Palaiologos, in Christ Basileus and Autokrator of the Romans, Kaisar, Kyrios and Despot of the New Rome, Forever Sebastos and Sotiras, Sebastokrator and Nobelissimos, Hypatos, Arkhistrategos and Arkhiexarkhos, Porphyrogennetos, Viceroy of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Earth, the Pious and the Blessed, Defender of the One True Orthodox Faith, Great Protector of the Holy Cities of Constantinople, Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, Protector of the Holy Council Cities of Nikaea and Chalkedon, Despot of All Moesia and All Anatolia, of Greece, Macedonia and Dacia, Scythia and Taurica, of Thrace, of Armenia, Syria, Cyrenaika and Palestine, of the Oriental Islands, Protector of the Cities of Thessaloniki, Perhabinon, and Berytos, Kyrios of All Egypt, Sovereign of the Holy Order of the True Cross, Grand Master of the Order of Saint Andrew, of the Order of Constantine the Great and of the Order of Justinian the Great, King of Kings, Ruling Over Those Who Rule (Grand Title)
Head of Government: Grand Logothete and Megas Hypatos Alexandros Kantakouzenos
Government Description :

The Roman Empire is considered to be the earthly reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven, the perfect form of government, as God had intended it to be, more than just a temporal phenomenon, but as the perfect realm that will survive through the ages until the Second Coming and the Final Judgement. For the Romans, this presents itself largely as a Cesaropapist Absolute Monarchy, even if some influence rests with the aristocratic and oligarchic Senate, and a very vague democratic element could be represented by the Demes and their political influence. A small theocratic element also exists in the form of the Roman Orthodox Church, represented through the Four Patriarchies under Roman control, which have a lot of influence in the Empire's affairs, and through the divine mandate and role of the emperor.

The first and most important power belongs to the Basileus. Known as the Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, the monarch has the supreme authority in both secular and religious matters, acting like a true absolute monarch. He is the elect of God, crowned by God and guarded by God, his person is scared, and he is ruling from the Sacred Palace in the Queen of Cities as God's regent on Earth. He is the terrestrial image of the Logos of God. He governs the the Empire, under his supreme executive power, his primary legislative authority, and his divine mandate as Viceroy of Jesus Christ on Earth. The political powers of all other offices are subsidiary to and derived from his as he stands on the top of the Roman state's hierarchy. He is unquestionable, and he can theoretically dissolve the Senate at any moment's notice. The Emperor is also in charge of naming the military commanders of all provinces, and through his imperium, he is also the supreme commander of the military. From nearly all points of view, he is an absolute monarch, a despot and an autocrat. Violating his sacrosanctity is considered to be the highest form sacrilege and treason - punishable by death.

The Roman Empire has a complicated succession system, mostly inherited from its ancient and medieval past. At least in theory, the succession to the imperial throne is hereditary, following the agnatic-cognatic primogeniture principle. The oldest child of the ruler inherits all titles, and women are able to gain the imperial throne if there are no eligible males. The succession is also dynastic, for a ruler to inherit the throne, he or she has to be blood-connected to the ruling dynasty, a principle that was introduced and enforced by the Palaiologoi. However, the Roman system has certain particularities which make the succession pretty complicated. The first particularity is the existence of the purple-born system. The title of purple-born means that children born under certain conditions can have a higher position in the line of succession. For a prince or princess of the imperial family to be purple-born, they must respect certain requirements. The child has to be legitimate, born in the Purple Room of the Great Palace of Constantinople. The child's father must be a reigning Emperor, and the child's mother must be an Empress, married to the Emperor. The Empress also must have undergone a formal, sacred ceremony creating her an Augusta. Children who meet all these conditions receive the honorary title of Πορφυρογέννητος-Porphyrogennetos or Πορφυρογέννητη-Porphyrogénnētē, and they rank higher in the succession line than those who don't, like children born to an Emperor before his coronation, children who weren't born in Constantinople, or children who were born to a concubine.

The other particularity is that the Emperors are able to nominate their successors, even if those successors are not in line with the agnatic-cognatic primogeniture system - the only requirement is for them to be a part of the dynasty. Successors are normally nominated by being awarded important titles, like the title of Despot. It has already become a custom for the Emperor to nominate his successor by awarding him or her the title of Despot or Despotess of the Morea. The other way for an Emperor to nominate his successor is to raise a member of the dynasty to the rank of co-emperor. A co-emperor is the awarded the title of Kaisar, ranking immediately below the original Emperor. As such, when the older emperor eventually dies - his successor would already be crowned and have experience at ruling, decreasing the risk of rebellion or usurpation. This practice has however fallen out of use due to the internal stability that the Empire has been experiencing for the past few centuries.

The second power in the Roman Empire is formed by the Roman Senate (Ρωμαϊκή Σύγκλητος-Romaïkí Sýnklitos), the unicameral assembly of the Roman senators. The Senate has a certain legislative power, in that in can propose laws and can express its opinion in regard to the decisions of the Basileus, while also having a role in governing the Empire. Traditionally, the Senate has been a place of the patricians, the aristocracy, and that is visible even today, as the most influential political faction of the Senate represents the nobility. But over the half century, as times have changed, senators representing the plebeians have been entering the Senate, and currently, a faction of the Senate which represents the interests of the general population and especially of the developing bourgeoisie has been gaining more and more power. The Empire lacks the traditional, European concept of political parties - instead, the senatorial factions, like in the days of old, have come to be associated with the chariot factions of Constantinople, the so-called demes (δήμοι). The Blue deme is mostly associated with the aristocratic/imperial faction, while the Greens are closely associated with the more liberal and progressive part of the Senate.

Senators are directly appointed by the Basileus, and in theory the monarch is free in his choices, in practice however, an unofficial tradition exists with the acclamation of the demes. During chariot races in the empire's largest cities, the different demes acclaim their preferred candidates, and the monarch listens to his subjects, which leads to a certain part of the senators being chosen through popular support. The Emperor has the theoretical power to dissolve the Senate at will, but that has never happened in the last half century, and the Senate itself has the power to protest any decisions of the Emperor that seem unfair, through a system of official petitions, even if said petitions can be ignored.

The Senate is theoretically led by the Grand Consul (Μέγας Yπατος-Megas Hypatos), a mostly ceremonial position. The Hypatos supervises and organizes the debates and the affairs of the Senate, and more often than not, the one receiving this position is the one also holding the position of the Grand Logothete (Μέγας Λογοθέτης-Megas Logothetes), the leader of the Roman administration. His role is to supervise and coordinate the departments of the administration, which are led by the Logothetes (Λογοθέτης-Logothetes), who are acting like ministers. The Logothetes are chosen by the Emperor personally, sometimes with the support of senatorial factions. As such, Constantinople as a centralizing power in terms of administration, coordinating, and supervising the themes and implementing the decrees of the Basileus. The administration is highly hierarchical, ceremonial, rigid, and bureaucratic, forming an elaborate system that is at the same time, effective and extremely intricate. While the aristocracy plays an important part in the administration, and while corruption can be a mild issue, the system of the civil service is built on meritocratic pillars - while the Romans do not employ a combined civil service exam like some Asian powers, exams are required for some positions within the administration, balancing the aristocratic appointments with more skilful bureaucrats, including eunuchs. At the same time, the Empire is still infamous for its continued practice of using eunuchs in some of the higher positions - while their numbers are much smaller than the eunuchs present in some Asian courts, they continue to play a part in the court and in the civil service.

The third power in the state theoretically belongs to the common citizens, the People of Rome (Λαός της Ρώμης-Laós tis Rómis), but this power is of course, mostly symbolic.

The Roman citizens enjoy extensive rights and obligations, and from this point of view, although they live in an absolute monarchy, they sometimes enjoy more freedom than the citizens of many other nations. The Roman citizenship (Ρωμαϊκή Iθαγένεια-Romaïkí Ithagéneia) is the individual possession of every Roman man recognized as such by the Basileus and Senate. For a person to be a Roman citizen (Ρωμαίος πολίτης-Romaíos polítis) they must be 16 years of age or older and they must satisfy one of the following conditions:

• To be born to two Roman citizens.
• To be born to one Roman citizen within a Roman province and to have served a set term in the Roman military.
• To be recognized as a citizen by the Emperor

The citizenship of a Roman citizen is irrevocable without extreme violations of the Empire's laws and regulations. While in Roman territory, citizens of nations allied to the Roman Empire receive certain rights, similar to a limited form of citizenship. Still, not all the people living inside the borders of the Empire are recognized as citizens. The unofficial criteria in order to be accepted as a Roman citizen is to speak Greek, to be a member of the Orthodox Church and to follow the Roman customs. As such, many other ethnic and cultural groups are oppressed and not recognized as Roman, and members of such minorities are, besides from the cultural oppression, sometimes forced or influenced into accepting milder forms of slavery. The issue of slavery is as such a little complicated and has been mostly ignored. Slavery is not widespread by any means in terms of numbers, and it can be divided into two forms. The first is employed in the Levant and in Africa, where the Romans use uncooperative natives, mostly Muslims, for public works. The second form of slavery comes through the use of servants in the empire's great cities, mostly by the aristocracy. Such slaves are most often foreigners and non-Christians, and this is only tolerated as long as the slaves are treated well, with the administration and the people just pretending that they are regular servants. And third form of slavery is represented by the eunuchs, but said eunuchs are normally freed upon entering the court or the civil service.

The fourth, unofficial power is represented by the Roman Orthodox Church (Ρωμαϊκή Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία-Romaïkí Orthódoxi Ekklisía). The Roman Orthodoxy is the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the Four Patriarchs must be confirmed by the Emperor before being chosen. In exchange for the protection of the Emperor, the Orthodox Church continues to recognize the Roman Emperor as the Viceroy of Jesus Christ on Earth, and the Roman Empire as the true successor of the Roman Empire of old.

As such, the ideal Roman Empire should exist through the balance between the Emperor, the Senate, and the People of Rome (Η βασιλεύς Σύγκλητος και ο Λαός της Ρώμης-I Basileus Sýnklitos kai o Laós tis Rómis), and under the blessings of the Roman Church (Ρωμαϊκή Εκκλησία-Romaïkí Ekklisía).

From an administrative and military point of view, the Roman Empire follows the principles of the so called system of themes. The main administrative division of this system is a theme (θέμα - théma), known in plural as themes (θέματα - thémata). The main particularity of its system is its double existence, as it is used both by the military and by the civil administration of the Empire. The origin of the themata lies in the Slavic and Arabic invasions of the 7th century, when the old Roman provincial system created by Diocletian and Constantine was abandoned. The areas of encampment formed by the field armies of the Roman Army served as the basis of this system, which allowed the Roman Empire to successfully survive this crisis. The themata were then periodically reorganized and improved, in the 11th, in the 12th, in the 15 and in the 18th centuries, with the most recent changes having been applied in 1788.
Each theme is led by a military commander known as a Strategos (Στρατηγός), plural Strategoi(Στρατηγοί). The Strategoi are named and sacked directly by the Emperor, and they answer to him personally. As such, their authority is derived directly from that of the monarch, and all their decisions and orders are made in the Emperor's name. The Strategos enjoys near unlimited military authority in his own theme, being directly responsible for the theme's defense. He is seconded by the Antistrategos (Aντιστράτηγος), another military officer, the second in command of a theme's military forces. The civilian government of such a province, in charge of the administrative and civilian matters, is the Anthypatos (Aνθύπατος), who deals with the civilian, administrative, and economic issues of a theme. The central administration in Constantinople closely supervises the work of the three officials in each and every one of the themes, in order to prevent corruption and to maximize their performance. With such a pressure and with an organized and centralized authority, the regional officials tend to be extremely competent.

Themes are further subdivided into eparchies. An eparchy (ἐπαρχίᾱ, eparchia) , is led by an eparch (ἔπαρχος, eparchos), and is then divided into an administrative unit known as a prefecture (νομός, nomós). Under the prefectures lie the local administration, cities, towns, and rural communies.

There are however some exceptions from the themata system. The first of them is represented by the city of Constantinople. Theoretically under the authority of the Theme of Thrace, the city of Constantinople is an independent division. It is considered to be the Emperor's personal domain, and it is led by the military officer known as the Protostrategos (Πρωτοστράτηγος) of Constantinople, and by the civilian official known as the Eparch (Έπαρχος-Éparchos) of Constantinople. The second exception is represented by the Despotates. A Despotate (Δεσποτάτο-Despotáto), plural Despotates (Δεσποτάτες-Despotátes), is in most aspects, extremely similar to a normal theme, organized in the same military-civilian way. The main difference lies in the leader of such a province. Instead of a Strategos and an Anthypatos, a Despotate is led by a Despot (Δσπότης -Despótēs), who is a member of the imperial family. Theoretically, any theme can be promoted to the status of a Despotate if a member of the imperial family is tasked with ruling it, but the Empire only has three Despotates with historical tradition, the Despotate of Morea, the Despotate of Trebizond and the Despotate of Taurica. These are most often given to the Emperor's sons, with the princes using this as a chance to prove their military and administrative capabilities and to finalize their education as future rulers. Of course, only the one receiving the Despotate of Morea, most often the Emperor's oldest son, becomes heir-apparent to the throne. Currently, the Despotate is temporarily held by the younger brother of Basileus Michael, Prince Konstantinos Palaiologos, as the Emperor's heir-apparent, with the Basileus being currently unmarried. The third exception is represented by the Exarchates. An Exarchate (Εξαρχία - Exarchía) is an autonomous military province of the Roman Empire, led by an Exarch (Eξαρχος - Exarchos), a governor of sorts, with considerable political and military authority, answering directly to the Emperor, with their powers however unchecked by the central administration in Constantinople. There is currently a single Exarchate in the Empire, the Exarchate of Egypt.

Majority/State Religion: The Empire’s official state religion is the Roman Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy is actively enforced and spread throughout the territory of the Empire, with imperial authorities trying to convert all other believers.
Religious Description: Roman Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodoxy or Greek-Orthodoxy. The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church practices what it understands to be the original faith passed down from the Apostles. The Orthodox Church in the Roman Empire is organized in the Patriarchates in the East, unofficially led by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who is recognized as "primus inter pares" (first among equals) between all the Orthodox bishops and patriarchs. Orthodoxy considers the Church to be a union of various autocephalous patriarchates in full communion with each other. Besides from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the other Patriarchates under Roman control are the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. In the East, the Emperor, due to his supreme authority in both secular and religious matters, is considered to be divinely ordained, as the Viceroy of Jesus Christ on Earth, and all Patriarchs must receive his confirmation before taking their positions.

Economic Ideologies: The autocratic government of the empire reserves the right to regulate trade as it sees fit, especially in order to protect its internal markets from foreign pressure, so the current economic policy of the empire is the result of the decisions of the imperial administration, rather than a result of a specific, promoted economic ideology.
Major Production: Agricultural products, iron, coal, minerals, silk, clothing, textiles, leathers, weaponry, shipbuilding
Economic Description: The Roman Empire stands as a powerful economy between Europe and Asia, but with large divisions and differences between its many provinces. Agriculture continues to be the main focus of the economy. Although the empire has been taking increasing advantage of the agricultural surplus of its Egyptian Exarchate, Anatolia with its well developed system of free peasant villages, state owned-estates and wage-workers, and land leased to peasants by the state, is its largest agricltural center. Coastal areas especially focus on cereal crops, vines, and olive groves, while more central areas still focus mostly on stock raising all throughout the empire. The state actively supports and encourages the agricultural sector through influencing the price of cereals, and investing into irrigation and agricultural expansion.

Manufacturing is mainly organized in guilds, but the recent overtures of industrialization and the state's interest in increasing productrivity has led to a sharp decline in their importance and privilege in the past few decades. Most of the mechanized production is organized in workshops, and the main industry right now is that of textiles, both in normal and fine textiles. A separate industry of silk also exists, with the empire being the main European silk producer. Mining operations, of coal, iron, and others are organized in the proximity of resources - many in Anatolia and the Balkans, but with the area of modern Lebanon becoming an increasingly demanded source of coal that is then transported by ship. The state and especially the military have also started to profit from the beginning of industrialization, with the state funding part of the iron and coal production, and encouraging investments from the bourgeoisie through favorable legislation.
Due to its good position, its ownership over the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, due to its ports in the Red Sea and its agreements with various foreign nations, with Constantinople still acting as the primary western terminus of the Silk Road, the Roman Empire is a trade hub between Europe, Africa, and Asia. The state still reserves the right to control its internal and the international trade if needed, maintaining a durable and flexible monetary system adaptable to its trade needs.

Development: Industrializing in some, pre-industrial in most.
Development Description: The main cities of the empire, especially Constantinople, and areas close to natural resources have begun to industrialize, with a focus on water and steam powered manufacturing and production, but most of the territories of the empire are still firmly pre-industrial. They are however still pretty well developed. The cities of the empire are very well connected by a series of well maintained roads that reach even the more mountainous areas, and the coastal areas are generally much better populated, with nearly every city having a port and the infrastructure that comes with it.


Army Description :

Roman Army
Ρωμαϊκός Στρατός
Exercitus Romanum

Motto: Μεθ ημων ο Θεος! (Meth imon o Theos!|God with us!)


The Roman Army (Ρωμαϊκός Στρατός- Romaïkós Stratós|Exercitus Romanum), or the Army of the Romans (Στρατός τῶν Ῥωμαίω-Stratós tōn Rhōmaiōn|Exercitus Romanorum), sometimes also known just as the Army (Στρατός-Stratós|Exercitus) is the land force of the Roman Empire. A direct and uninterrupted continuation of the Roman army of old and of its traditions, the Stratós is renowned for its level of discipline, strategic prowess and organization, and for its soldiers. The glory of Rome was achieved through armed power and blood, and ever since Romulus founded the Eternal City, the army has stood at the core of the Roman state, influencing and often controlling its destiny. It was through the prowess of its soldiers that the East managed to avoid the collapse experienced in the West, and for more than a thousand years, the Roman Army has constantly fought countless wars on three continents, continuously adapting in order to maintain an edge over those who would wish to bring the eternal empire to its end. As such, the empire can wield a conscripted army formed around a core of professional officers and soldiers, and arguably one of, if not the best in its region, truly a force to be reckoned with. One of the army's biggest assets are the Roman soldiers themselves, still called "legionaries" (λεγεωνάριοι-legeonárioi) by some, due to their morale, discipline, obedience, and harsh training. Being a part of the army is more than an honor in Roman culture - it is one's duty, for a Roman citizen cannot be a citizen and a man without serving in the army. Soldiers are as such indoctrinated before they even join, they military, convinced that they are the heirs of the Roman legions of old, with the empire skillfully using nationalism and religion to its advantage. Soldiers perform a personal oath to the Emperor and are followed in battle by priests and holy icons. The training of a Roman soldier is also very thorough and even somewhat harsh, putting a lot of emphasis not only on the soldier's individual skills but also on his ability to fight as part of a unit, in a process that other nations often try to copy. At the same time, harsh but fair punishments for any deserters or traitors and an attention on unit cohesion lead to a situation where the Romans can regularly field extremely motivated and loyal soldiers, with the most important units sometimes even bordering on the edge of fanaticism, often leading to Roman units being unwavering in their attacks or in their stands.

At the same time, the almost obsessive attention that the Romans put into the organization of their army brought with it a lot of other advantages.
The Stratós is effectively divided into three forces. The core of the army are the professional units known as tagma (τάγμα). Although the term by itself can be used to describe regiment-size units throughout the entire army, the tagmata are the professional standing troops under the direct command of the emperor, with most of them stationed around Constantinople. They are a volunteer-based force with relatively high standards, a meritocratic selection for soldiers through military examinations, and well drilled and well-trained soldiers, all equipped and paid for by the state. The tagma units consistently gain volunteers from all regions of the empire, and are considered be the heart of the army, a central reserve, and the core of the military on campaigns. All the units of the tagmata claim the honors and heritage of the Roman legions as they were marked in the Notitia Dignitatum, including their emblems, leading to the existence of a relatively high pride of the soldiers in their own tagma.

The second force of the Stratós is that of the Akritai(Aκρίται). They are locally recruited in the border regions of the empire, and act as light infantry forces, or as skirmishers. They are not to be considered militia forces, even if not all of them are active at all time and many also take care their own lives, they are either paid by the state or exempted from paying tax and must train regularly. In war, they are often the first to react to enemy incursions and are trained to use their knowledge of the land to their advantage, shadowing and harassing the enemy forces until the heavier units of the army can arrive. They claim the heritage of not only the border guard units of the Middle Ages, but also of the Roman limitanei, and they are often glorified in Roman culture for their defensive role.

The largest part of the Stratós is represented by the forces of the themata, the conscripted, wartime army. Each theme has to supply a certain number of soldiers, and the core force of each theme lies in the families of free peasants spread throughout the Empire’s territories who have received leased land from the state in exchange for their military service and the military service of their descendants. Such peasant-soldiers have the obligation to train at least once a year, usually after harvest, and as such they form a semi-professional force that is generally cheap to maintain, with their pay reduced on account of the land-lease. It is only if a theme does not meet the requirements of soldiers that conscription is employed, but the provincial administration is always required to maintain censuses and conscription lists so as to be able to quickly call upon its soldiers in times of war.

The officer corps is a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the officers are of course part of the aristocracy, with the urban aristocracy prevalent among the tagmata units, and the landed rural aristocracy in the themata. A certain level of competence is however kept - military defeats and ineptitude would be more than enough to permanently ruin a noble family's reputation, and such, only the best nobles are sent to become officers. The high officers of the empire are trained in the Belisarian Military Academy in Constantinople, the Basilian Military Academy in Thessaloniki, and the Nikephorian Military Academy in Antioch, with the three academies usually competing and giving birth to a certain level of rivalry. Lower officers are however most often promoted from among the soldiers, especially in the tagmata. The tagma especially can serve as a way of social mobility, as good potential officers from among its ranks are often promoted and then sent into high roles in the provincial armies based on their merit.

The army is overall also well equipped, as the empire has the industrial base to sustain its forces, and the interest to do so. As such, the imperial forces enjoy domestically produced equipment and are also able to use a few unique weapons - mostly centered around Greek fire using flamethrower units, and experimental uses of the substance.

Army Weakness:

Despite all of its strengths, the Stratós still has to face significant weaknesses. The first shortcoming is created by the very geography and borders of the empire. While some borders, like the northern Balkan border, anchored on the Danube and strengthened with forts, or fortified regions like Taurica can be defended easily, the empire's eastern border is one of the longest and most difficult to defend borders in the entire world, draining significant resources and focus. The sheer size of the empire also makes coordinating the mobilization and thorough organization of resources and units on such a scale a daunting and exhausting task. The strong organization of the military, while with its own advantages, can also be rather stiff, and overly cumbersome, held back by anachronistic elements and concepts- there is a reason for why the word "byzantine" has such a meaning in the West.

The officer corps can, as mentioned before, be easily tainted by aristocratic influence, so its abilities can often suffer. The upper echelons, while fully aware of how the adaptability of the Romans has saved them in the past, and focused on modernization, can also be led by a rather conservative style of thought, leading to tactical and strategical innovations being adopted relatively slowly -The idea that an officer must prove his worth through victories in the field and through achieving his objectives also means that the higher ranks will often try to do anything they can in order to follow their orders, which can easily lead to catastrophic results and to an inflexibility in the chain of command. Combine that with obedience and loyalty being preached as great values of a Roman soldier and officer, and you have a very rigid chain of command and officers who will not question orders. The beliefs which stand both at the core of the Roman outlook on the world, and the pride created by the concept of being a legionary and a member of such a fighting force can also lead to a certain arrogance that can be seen regardless of rank.

The biggest weakness of the army is however created by several combined issues. The themata system as good as it is, is just barely enough to compensate for the sheer size of the empire and the differences in development, and this does mean that the empire will suffer in the case of wars of attrition. This issue is exacerbated by the high morale and fanaticism of many of their soldiers - Roman units are expected to follow orders to the very end - often being decimated instead of stopping their attack or withdrawing. Surrendering is seen as an unforgivable shame and fighting until death is a behavior often observed in such units.

The reserve system is also fundamentally imperfect in that in only takes citizens or potential citizens into account, the Army having so far refused to conscript non-Romans.

Naval Description:

Roman Navy
Ρωμαϊκό Ναυτικό
Classis Romanum

Motto: Σταύρος Νικά! (Stauros Nika!|The Cross is victorious!)

The Roman Navy (Ρωμαϊκό Ναυτικό-Romaïkó Nautikó|Classis Romanum), or the Navy of the Romans (Ναυτικό τῶν Ῥωμαίω-Nautikó tōn Rhōmaiōn|Classis Romanorum), sometimes known simply as the Navy (Ναυτικό-Nautikó|Classis), is the naval force of the Roman Empire. The Nautikó is a well-organized and moderately sized force in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is not a weak force, as its vessels are fairly modernized, and they do maintain a degree of discipline and organization like that of the army. Mainly oriented towards defense, and benefiting from a series of ports, bases, and forts along the coasts of the Empire, the Nautikó is a force that would deter enemies from attacking the Romans without thinking twice. As such, the Nautiko excels at defending the Roman coasts, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, and it does so with the help of a strong network of coastal forts, with bases in important fortified islands such as Crete and Cyprus and with irregular naval forces formed by smaller ships which can harass the enemy with the help of the Aegean Sea's many islands At the same time, the empire employs a moderately effective brown-water force on the Danube, with a strictly defensive and auxiliary role, and with a force on the Nile intended to mostly protect the commercial and logistic ships sailing there.

The network of defensive forts is from certain points of view a marvel, even more so than the Navy, with an excellent coastal defense augmented by the use of a secret weapon, the Greek or the Roman Fire, an extremely inflammable substance that can even burn on water. It is still employed on naval and coastal fortifications, and in defensive operations, while secret projects exist that are trying to use in various other ways.

Naval Weakness: The Nautikó has never in the history of the Roman state enjoyed the same level of prestige as the army. As such, it was never completely embraced by the Roman state - it is considered to be somewhat "un-Roman", and it has often been neglected, with the desire to the protect the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and to defend the straits and the coasts being the only reason for why it is a more or less competent force today. The Navy has never received the same amount of funding as the army, and its relative lack of popularity does reduce the number of potential recruits willing to join, with this also having a negative effect on the navy's officer corps. The lack of funding also makes its numbers smaller than one would otherwise expect. With such a defensive role, the Navy is competently dependent on its defensive installations, and will often refuse to meet the enemy in areas where it cannot be easily reinforced. As such, it will have major difficulties in any offensive operations, and it will also simply be unable to ever match the navies of more competent powers in direct combat. A certain reticence of the upper echelons to lose to lose vessels, further paralyzes the navy's ability to react. Combined with simply put a lack of innovation that has the Romans lagging from a naval perspective.
#AltDiv (do not delete this, it's for keeping track of the apps)

>app continues in the next post

[Tracian Empire]

Further Military Description:

The Roman Army is in theory led by the Basileus himself, but the actual powers are delegated to a military officer known as the Grand Domestic (Mέγας Δομέστικος-Mégas Doméstikos). Immediately below him are the commanders of the distinct theaters of war (θέατρα-théatra), each led by a commander known simply as a Domestic (Δομέστικος-Doméstikos). The old Domestic of the East (Δομέστικος της Ανατολής, Domestikos tis Anatolís ), leading Asia Minor and the Levantine territories of the empire, and the Domestic of the West (Δομέστικος της Δύσης-Domestikos tis Dýsis), commanding over the empire's Balkan territories and Taurica, have been supplemented by the Domestic of Africa (Δομέστικος της Αφρικής-Domestikos tis Afrikís), who is subordinated to and assists the Exarch of Egypt. Subordinated to them are the forces of each theme, under the command of that theme's Strategos, and in times of war, the Domestics take over command of their respective area, reuniting the forces of each theme into larger groups. The theoretical organization is as follows, although it should be noted that the actual numbers can vary significantly based on the forces of each theater or of the individual themes. It should also be noted that although they share the same name, the Romans make a difference between a Strategos of a theme, and a Strategos commanding an army in the field.

Name	Personnel	Subordinate units	Officer in command
Stratevma	~30,000	~2 Legeonai	Strategos
Legeona	~16,000	~2 Tagmata	Legatos
Tagma	~8000	~2 Menarchiai	Katepánō
Menarchia	~4000	~4 Tourmai	Menarches
Tourma	~2,000	~6 Droungoi	Tourmarches
Droungos	~1000	~2 Banda	Droungarios
Bandon	~200	~2 Kentarchiai	Komes
Kentarchia	~100	~2 Pentekentarchiai	Kentarches
Pentekentarchia	~50	~5 Kontoubernia	Pentekontarches
Kontoubernion	~10	N/A	Dekarchos

Varangian Guard
Τάγμα τῶν Βαράγγων

The Varangian Guard (Τάγμα τῶν Βαράγγων - Tágma tōn Varángōn) is an elite unit of the Roman Army, having been created in the 10th century under Emperor Basil II. The Varangians are different from the rest of the units of the Roman Army, as their ranks are mostly formed by foreigners. The Guard was created at the height of the Viking Age, with its first members being provided by the Nordic warriors of the Kievan Rus. The Nordic warriors quickly proved their loyalty, and their battle prowess became legendary. The Guard is no longer formed only by men of Nordic heritage, nor is it formed only by Germanic people, as it was during the late 11th century, but the Varangians are still worthy of their heritage. Like in the days of old, the "axe bearing foreigners" are some of the best warriors under the command of the Romans, more than able to clash directly with any elite units foolish enough to challenge the Roman Empire.
Like in the days of old, the Varangians are only recruited from among foreigners, though, the Romans normally avoid recruiting their guards from neighboring countries and declared enemies. In order to join the Guard, potential members must meet strict physical, moral, and psychological requirements. They must pass a series of tough tests, and they must prove their willingness to fight and to die in the Guard. Of course, they must also pass a complete background check, and an unofficial requirement is to be recommended by a veteran member or officer of the guard, and of course, to be approved by the Emperor himself. As such, the Varangians are pretty much handpicked to be the best they can be. Before they actually join the Guard though, they must take part in extensive training sessions. The Varangians must be able to fight anywhere, and at any time, as a conventional army unit, armed with rifles, but also in unconventional situations and in close quarters combat. They are also trained to perform bodyguard, ceremonial and police duties.
The Varangians mainly serve as the Emperor's personal bodyguards, swearing an oath of loyalty to him. They perform ceremonial duties as retainers and acclaimers and they also perform some police duties, especially in cases of treason and conspiracy. Their loyalty is in most cases, unquestionable. They are united by a bond of brotherhood as members of the Guard, by their heritage, their status, and by their oath of loyalty to the Roman Emperor. The Varangians are extremely well paid, and they enjoy a sense of prestige that can rarely be found somewhere else. The idea of the Varangians betraying their Emperor is often unthinkable, simply because there would be nothing, they could gain out of it. On the contrary, the assassination of an Emperor would be a disaster for the Guard, and the loyalty of the Varangians was crucial in the establishment of the hereditary monarchy under the Palaiologos dynasty. When a Roman Emperor dies of a natural death, the Varangians have the unique right of running to the imperial treasury and taking as much gold and as many gems as they could carry, a procedure that is still known by its Old Norse name of "palace pillaging" (polutasvarf). This special privilege allows many of the Varangians to return to their home as rich men, only serving to further strengthen their loyalty.
The Varangians are easily recognizable not only because of their foreign origin. It is a tradition for most of the Varangians to have long hair, and all of them wear red rubies in their left ears. Their ceremonial uniforms are decorated and ornamented with dragons sewn on their shirts and tunics. Their Guard is organized as a tagma unit, commanded by a trusted, native Roman officer known as the Akolouthos (Aκόλουθος|"follower, attendant"). The unit itself is traditionally divided into two. The Hetaireia (Ἑταιρεία-the Company), formed by those Varangians known as the Companions (Εταίροι), is the part of the Varangian Guard solely responsible for guarding the Emperor and the members of the imperial family, led by an officer known as the Hetaeriarch (ἑταιρειάρχης - hetaireiarchēs). The Warriors (Πολεμιστές-Polemistés) are those Varangians which are used directly on the battlefield when needed, led by an officer known as the Domestikos of the Warriors (Δομέστικος των Πολεμιστών - Domestikos ton Polemistón)

Palatine Schools
Σχολαί Παλατιναι
Scholae Palatinae

The Palatine Schools (Σχολαί Παλατιναι-Scholaí Palatinai|Scholae Palatinae) are an elite unit of the Roman Army. Even if they have lost their role as the main guards of the Roman Emperor in the 10th century, this elite unit, with its origins during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, continues to exist and to persevere, as one of the best and proudest parts of the Roman military. Much like the Varangians, the Scholarians (Σχολάριοι - Scholarioi|Scholares) are among the best trained and equipped units of the Roman military. Formed by native Romans, the Schools are used as guards in Constantinople and other important cities, but also as elite units deployed during the critical moments of a battle. The entire unit is organized as a tagma, with each individual school being organized as a tourma, though, it should be noted that the Schools do not follow the exact same organization in terms of numbers as the regular army.
The Scholai are led by an officer known as the Domestic of the Schools (Δμέστικος τῶν Σχολῶν- Domestikos tōn Scholōn). He is helped by two subordinate officers, the Domestic of the Schools of the East (Δομεστικος [τον Σξηολον] τες Ανατολεσ-Domestikos [tōn Scholōn tēs] Anatolēs) and the Domestic of the Schools of the West (Δομεστικος [τον Σξηολον] τες Δψσεσοσ - Domestikos [tōn Scholōn tēs] Dyseōs), one responsible for the Schools operating in Europe, the other one for the Schools operating in Asia and Africa. As it might be obvious due to the unit's name, this elite guard is divided between multiple so called "schools", each of them with its own origin, emblem, history, and name.

• The Exkoubitoi or Exkoubitores (Excubiti|Ἐξκούβιτοι, "the Sentinels"). Established by Emperor Leo I, the currently serve a role similar to the Varangian Companions. They guard the Emperor and the members of the imperial family. During times of war, they have the honor of guarding the Emperor's camps. The School of the Exkoubitoi is led by the Domestic of the Excubitors (Δομέστικος τῶν Eξκουβίτων/Eξκουβιτόρων - Domestikos tōn Exkoubitōn/Exkoubitorōn).
• The Vigla (Βίγλα, "guard watch") another one of the Schools. Smaller in terms of the numbers of its members, it has the honor of guarding the imperial palaces. They are led by the Droungarios of the Watch (Δρουγγάριος τῆς βίγλης/βίγλας - Droungarios tēs Viglēs/Viglas).
• The Noumeroi (Νούμεροι, from the Latin numerus, "number"), are a unit used as an elite police force. They started as one of the garrison regiments of Constantinople, tasked with guarding the Great Palace and the Noumera prison. Now, while they still sometimes retain their position as prison guards, they are mainly used as a shock force in internal affairs, against internal dissent, and in order to maintain public order. They are infamous for their role in suppressing the revolt of a Levantine city in 1781. They are led by the Domestic of the Numbers (Δομέστικος τῶν Νουμέρων - Domestikos tōn Noumerōn)
  
• The Hikanatoi (Ἱκανάτοι|"the Able Ones") are a specialized unit of the schools, mostly used for covert and guerrilla operations. Not much is known about their unit, but they are led by the Domestic of the Hikanatoi (Δομέστικος τῶν Ἱκανάτοι - Domestikos tōn Hikanatoi)
• Teichistai (Τειχισταί) or the Schole tōn Teicheōn (Σχολή τῶν Τειχέων|" School of the Walls"), are another really old unit. They started as the regiment of the Schools manning the Walls of Constantinople, and they have evolved to become an elite unit specialized in defensive operations, like protecting forts and defending rivers and mountain passes.
• The Optimatoi (Ὀπτιμάτοι|"the best"), are an unit of the Schools specialized in an amphibious warfare of sorts. Their reorientation started with their deployment in the Aegean Islands, in order to fight the more aggressive Berber raids that were threatening to break through in an attempt to reach Constantinople. From there on, the unit was re-purposed in order to closely mimic the raiding tactics of others.
• The Immortals (Ἀθάνατοι - Athanatoi) are an elite cavalry unit, created in the 10th century. Probably inspired by the old Immortal Guard of the Persian Empire, today they are used as an elite unit of dragoons.
• The Archontopouloi ( Ἀρχοντόπουλοι|"sons of the Archons") is the smallest of the Schools. It is most often considered to be a palace officer-training corps, and it is formed by orphans of Roman officers and soldiers who have died in battle. The orphans are taken by the state from when they are little, with the agreement of their remaining guardian of course, and they are trained and indoctrinated, turned into a loyal unit that is often described as fanatic.

The Eastern Romans have for nearly a thousand years used a particular inflammable substance, known by many names. The "sea fire" (πῦρ θαλάσσιον - pŷr thalássion), "Roman fire" (πῦρ ῥωμαϊκόν - pŷr rhōmaïkón), "war fire" (πολεμικὸν πῦρ - polemikòn pŷr), "liquid fire" (ὑγρὸν πῦρ - hygròn pŷr), "sticky fire" (πῦρ κολλητικόν - pŷr kollētikón), or "manufactured fire" (πῦρ σκευαστόν-pŷr skeuastón). Or as it is known to the West – Greek fire.
It is a highly combustible substance that can burn even on water, and the exact secret of the compound has been kept secret by the Romans for more than a millennium now. It was developed around 672 AD and it was used to great success in the two Arab sieges of Constantinople, becoming an integral part of the tactics and weapons of both the Roman Army and the Roman Navy. Its naval use was a lot more widespread from the beginning, while the Romans continue to experiment with many potential new uses – all while jealously guarding their secret.
The part of the Roman military that deals with the Greek fire can be in many ways described as an almost a caste. The actual secret of the composition is known only to two men – the Emperor and his succession, while three handpicked chemists who oversee its production each know a part. The production itself is highly divided and compartmentalized, so that no single manufacturer has the entire recipe, with the entire process closely guarded by the Arkeoi, the Roman secret police, and this in turn is also the Greek fire’s greatest weakness – all the precautions taken to keep the production a secret means that the Romans are unable to mass-produce it on an industrial scale.
The caste-like connotations continue to its actual usage. Those in charge of the fire, whether in the navy or the army are known as “fire-wielders” (πυρχειριστές - pirkhiristés), and have a special status when compared to normal soldiers.
The Romans use the fire in a few different forms. In the Navy, the fire continues to be used through a tubular projector known as (σίφων - siphon). In the Army, the fire is used through a hand-held projector, a flamethrower, known as a hand-siphōn (cηειροσιπηōν - cheirosiphōn). The continuous refinement of this design means that it is more advanced than the real life prototypes of this era – with some models able to project a jet fire to up to 28 meters away.

National Goals: Protect the Empire by any means, strengthen the Roman military, defend the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, create new alliances with other powers, accelerate the development of the Empire's Oriental provinces, expand into the Horn of Africa.
National Issues: A heavy and often cumbersome bureaucracy and administration, tensions between the aristocracy and the general population, a general desire for more reforms conflicting with the conservatism of the government, the rising popularity of movements demanding democratic concessions, conflicts with some the neighbours, a navy that might not necessarily match the empire's ambitious foreign policy, religious tensions between Orthodox Christians, Oriental Christians, and Muslims, a resistance against Hellenization in certain parts of Africa and of the Middle East, differences between more developed regions and those who are still underdeveloped, and a geographical and regional position that is a double edged blade.
National Figures of Interest:

• Constantine the Great
• Justinian the Great
• Basil II the Bulgar Slayer
• Alexios I Komnenos
• Michael VIII Palaiologos

• Emperor Michael IX Palaiologos
• Prince Konstantinos Palaiologos, current Despot of Morea, younger brother of Emperor Michael
• Prince Manuel Palaiologos, Despot of Trebizond, youngest brother of Emperor Michael
• Princess Sophia Palaiologos, twin sister of Emperor Michael
• Princess Maria Palaiologos, younger sister of Emperor Michael
• Princess Anastasia Palaiologos, youngest sister of Emperor Michael
• Alexandros Kantakouzenos, Grand Logothete and Hypatos
• Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople

National Ambition/Aspirations: A series of reforms meant to strengthen the Empire and to avoid the fall of its autocratic system, creating trade relations with the Oriental nations, improving the Empire's diplomacy, resolving the tense relations with the West.
Rival: Difficult to say. Tensions have been very high as of late with Novgorod, with competing claims over the Caucasus and the northern coast of the Black Sea, but Constantinople does not see it as an inevitable conflict. Western republics like Britain and Germany are seen with suspicion, and Constantinople continues to refuse to recognize the Holy Roman Empire, instead referring to it as the German Kingdom, but old tensions might pale in front of the rising threat of republicanism.

RP Sample: I'm Thrace

History :

The long and glorious history of the Eastern Roman Empire begins of course, in the year of our Lord 284, when the Roman Emperor Diocletian divided the once mighty Empire into two, which bought the ailing empire time. The rebirth of Rome truly began with the reign of Constantine the Great. Roman Emperor and Saint, Equal-to-the-Apostles, protector of Christianity, savior of the Empire. He founded the New Rome, a capital that would reach and surpass the glory of the Eternal City. Constantinople. While the Western Empire continued to rot and to decade, and while the Old Rome was sacked by the Vandals, the righteous looked East. Majorian was the last competent Emperor of the old Western Empire, and while the West was broken, again and again, the East continued to grow even stronger. With the barbarous Vandals threatening their African possessions, the Emperors of Constantinople forced Majorian to attack them, an attack which ended in failure. A final, desperate attempt was made, but a joint Roman force was utterly defeated in the Battle of Cap Bon. The Roman war efforts against the Vandals ended in 470, as the West was breathing its last.
And when the Western Empire fell to the barbarian known as Odoacer, Emperor Zeno declared himself Emperor of both the West and the East, receiving the Western imperial insignia from Odoacer. The Roman Empire was reborn that day.
Unfortunately, the Romans were unable to take back Italy on their own, so Zeno negotiated with the Ostrogoths under Theodoric, who was sent to crush Odoacer as the magister militum per Italiam. While the Italian Peninsula was still nominally under Roman rule, any dreams of restoration had to wait. The one who would restore the Empire to its older glory had to be someone else. The Leonid dynasty soon died, with the energetic reformer known as Anastasius I as its last member. The Justinian Dynasty followed.
Oh, Justinian the Great, Emperor and Saint, Restitutor Orbis[/i. The [i]Restorer of the World. Justinian assumed the throne in 527, with a dream to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory. The Eastern Empire signed a peace with its eternal enemy Parthia in 523, and with the help of his wife Theodora, the eunuch Narses, and the generals Belisarius and Mundus, the Emperor used the Blue faction against the Green faction to bring an end to the Nika Riots. In 533, the Romans started their long campaign of reconquering the West. This reconquest began with the Roman attack on Vandal Africa under the command of the great general Belisarius. Taking advantage of the overthrowing of the friendly King Hilderic by his fanatic cousin Gelimer, the Romans invaded the Kingdom of the Vandals in order to bring Hilderic back on the throne. After a short and glorious campaign, the forces of Gelimer were crushed in the Battle of Ad Decimum, with Belisarius entering triumphantly in the ancient city of Carthage. With Africa mostly secured, the Romans turned towards Italy, the former heart of the Empire, where internal struggle had left the Ostrogothic Kingdom weakened. In 535, the Romans took back Sicily, before landing in Italy proper, but due to Gothic resistance, the war was prolonged. The Roman expedition would have probably been defeated if not for the genius of Belisarius. On the brink of defeat, the Ostrogoths offered Belisarius the title of Emperor of the West, but Belisarius fooled them, remaining loyal. Rome, Naples, and Ravenna were all conquered, and the Italian peninsula was brought back under Roman control. Imperial rule in Italy was strengthened, and Athanaglid, a Visigothic noble from Hispania, called for the Empire's help against the Visigothic King, leading to the reconquest of a small slice of Hispania's coast. With that, the Empire was truly reborn. Roman troops, led by Belisarius and his son, managed to crush the Lombard-Saxon force that was threatening to invade Italy, keeping it under Imperial rule. Eventually, both Belisarius and Justinian died, bringing their new empire on the brink of destruction.
Justin II and Tiberius II were both mediocre Emperors, losing bits and pieces of Roman territory. However, their successor Maurice, was an extremely competent general-emperor, energetic and aggressive. He stopped the decline, intervening against Parthia, pushing the Avars and the Slavs back over the Danube. But this was not going to last. Maurice was murdered by the usurper Phocas the Accursed, and the Parthians pushed into Anatolia. A civil war soon started, led by Heraclius the Elder. Nicetas invaded Egypt, and after taking over Cyprus and Syria, Heraclius the Younger sailed to Constantinople with an icon affixed to the prow of his ship, managing to rally the citizens of the capital against the tyrant. Heraclius personally killed and beheaded Phocas, before the usurper's body was mutilated, paraded through the streets of Constantinople, and burned. The Parthians soon advanced against the Levant, taking over Damascus and Jerusalem, taking the True Cross to Parthia. The counterattack of Heraclius took the form of a holy war, with an acheiropoietos image of Jesus Christ being carried as a military standard. Constantinople was saved from an Avar siege by Patriarch Sergius and what was claimed to be an intervention by the Virgin Mary, which allowed the Emperor to focus on the Parthians. The enemy forces were destroyed at Nineveh in 627, and a peace treaty was signed. All captives and Christian relics were returned, while the borders before the war were restored. The True Cross was taken to Constantinople and placed high atop the altar of Hagia Sophia. Heraclius planned to return it to Jerusalem, and the Romans all expected their Emperor to lead them into a new age of glory. But the clouds of war were gathering at the Empire's borders. The Arabs had arrived.
The war with the Parthians had exhausted both empires, but the Roman forces in the Orient were still strong. The Battle of Ajnadayn ended indecisively, with the Romans managing to withdraw with most of their forces. Damascus and Jerusalem were both besieged, and Heraclius quickly gathered all his available forces, perhaps also receiving help from Parthia. Heraclius closely prepared this offensive, with the Muslim forces geographically divided, the Romans tried to exploit this situation, and to fight the enemy forces one by one, concentrating large forces against each of the Muslim armies before they would be able to consolidate their troops. In 636, leaving Antioch under the command of Theodore Trithyrius and Vahan, the Roman forces pushed through Syria. Having been unable to find out about the plans of the Roman forces, the Arab forces continued to remain divided. The Romans managed to avoid a decisive battle, as the forces of Theodore crushed the forces of Yazid near Damascus. Before the Arab commanders managed to realize the danger, the forces of Vahan fought and destroyed the Muslim forces in Emesa, while a third army, led by Heraclius' son Constantine, managed to inflict serious damage to the forces of Shurahbil in Kordan. The remains of the Muslim forces withdrew towards the besieged Jerusalem, where Khalid ibn al-Walid tried to draw the Roman forces into a situation where the Arabs would be able overcome their numerical disadvantage. Their armies clashed near Jerusalem, but the arrival of a force led personally by Heraclius took Khalid by surprise. Enraged, and unwilling to lose all his achievements because of this barbarian invasion, Heraclius managed to overcome his fear of the open sea, and to lead a force that had landed at Tyre, before it moved south, never found by the Muslims. The forces of Islam were surrounded, but Khalid led a final counterattack that allowed some of them to break through. Jerusalem was saved, but the Roman forces were exhausted, and weakened by internal tensions. The effort made by Heraclius in this battle was too much for his old age, and the Emperor died a few weeks later, in Jerusalem. With his death, the Roman Empire was unable to stop the Arab forces from storming Egypt and expanding into Africa. The eternal curse of the empire, blood being shed for the purple cloak of an emperor. A war for succession fought between the sons of Heraclius threatened everything that the Romans had fought for. Constantine died of tuberculosis, and the regency of Martina for Heraklonas was weak and corrupt, allowing the Muslim forces to push again, defeating the Roman forces near Jerusalem and sacking the city, before pushing towards Syria. As Heraklonas was overthrown by the general Valentinus, the empire was reduced to its Balkan possessions and Asia Minor, teetering on the brink of collapse.
In the Balkans, the weakened Roman lines were unable to stop the invasion of the Slavs, spearheaded by the Bulgars and the Khazars. In 680, Roman forces sent to take care of the Slavs were defeated, and Constantine IV signed a treaty with the Bulgar khan, creating the Bulgarian state that would threaten the Empire for centuries to come. Expeditions in 688 under Justinian II managed to strengthen imperial rule in Thrace, Macedonia, and Epirus, stopping the Slavs from advancing even further and saving Greece from further damage. Conflicts with the urban aristocracy however brought the reign of the Heraclian dynasty to an end. The Twenty Years' Anarchy followed, but neither the Slavs nor the Arabs were able to properly take advantage of it. For the Romans, it seemed like the end of times was there, and desperate for an answer and a solution, the people turned on the icons. Considering them to be idolatrous and claiming that the defeats of the empire were God’s punishment for heresy, the Iconoclasts came into power through Leo the Isaurian in 717. The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople was stopped with Greek Fire and with Bulgarian help as some said, but to the Iconoclasts, it was the divine confirmation they needed. Iconophiles and Icons were persecuted, starting the period of the Iconoclast Wars.
Permanent salvation then came through the system of the themata, a military-administrative reorganization around the army groups in Asia Minor, which allowed it to keep the Arabs at bay, and after long civil conflicts, the Iconoclast Wars finally ended with a victory for the iconodule forces, stabilizing the empire.
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The reforms of Michael III, from 842 to 886 A.D. set the ground for the Macedonian Renaissance, which officially began with the establishment of the Makedon Dynasty by the energetic and aggressive Emperor Basil I. Good financial policies increased the gold reserves of the Empire, while the iconoclast movement was breathing its last, declining, suppressed by the Emperors who were promoting religious unity. The themata system was perfected, and the legislative, cultural, and economic situation continued to improve. The support of the Emperors for the iconodule cause turned the Church once again into a great supporter of imperial rule and the power of the aristocracy was weakened.
But the Bulgarians were at the gates. Tsar Simeon I had defeated the Roman forces in 896, and by 912, Constantinople itself was threatened, with the Romans being forced to grant Simeon the crown of Basileus of Bulgaria, while the young Emperor Constantine VII was forced to marry one of the daughters of Simeon. A great imperial expedition was then defeated, and the Bulgarians pushed into Greece, but the death of Simeon weakened the Bulgars, giving the Romans time to breathe. But the empire would not forget the dangers it had experienced, and the ever-present enemy to the northwest. Emperor Basil II came to power, and taking advantage of silence on the Anatolian theater, he fought back. The Reconquest of the Balkans as it would become known, was a twenty years long war. A systematic conquest of Bulgaria that would have made Caesar proud was led by Basil. The Slavs were massacred, assimilated and converted, their population pushed out of the cities, replaced with colonists from Asia Minor. The Bulgarian army, the deadly rival of the legions, was definitively crushed in the Battle of Kleidon. Legends say that from the Bulgarian survivors, 99 out of every 100 soldiers were blinded, with the remaining hundredth man left with one eye as to lead his comrades home. The last Bulgarian Tsar, Samuil, is said to have died of heart attack after seeing the remains of his forces. Bulgaria surrendered, being defeated, and removed from history. The Danube frontier was permanently restored. Basil the Great would remain known in history as the Bulgar Slayer (Βουλγαροκτόνος - Boulgaroktónos)
However, he unfortunately never planned his succession, and his death weakened the Empire. The professional army created by the Macedonian emperors was difficult to maintain, and the economy of the empire declined. Unlike in real life however, the continuous distrust between the two sides of the Roman Empire forced Constantinople to not completely reliant on mercenary troops, the tagma forces under the command of the Emperor retaining a certain level of organization. But the tensions between Rome and Constantinople exploded in 1040.
The Great Schism happened in 1054, as an outburst of all the tensions between Rome and Constantinople.
The Seljuk Turks crossed into Armenia in 1067. The new emperor, Romanos Diogenes, broke a peace treaty with the Seljuk forces to attack them and liberate Armenia, but during the fateful Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Roman forces were defeated and for the first time in history – a Roman Emperor was captured by a Muslim host. The name of Manzikert would forever be remembered as a tragedy and perhaps the most dangerous moment in the history of the empire.
The captured Romanos was brought in front of Sultan Arp Aslan, and while their meeting is surrounded by myth and legend, it is known that the Sultan released the Basileus, and imposed light terms on the defeated empire. The Anatolian heartland would have been spared, even if Antioch and other territories would have been lost – and Romanos accepted. Luckily for everyone involved, the traitor Andronikos Doukas, who had caused the rout of the Roman army during the battle, was captured by Romanos and by the Mamluk guards the Sultan had given to him – which resulted in Doukas being promptly blinded. This meant that the co-emperor in Constantinople, Michael VII Doukas, was not emboldened to conspire against the defeated Romanos, and Romanos with his remaining forces managed to defeat and kill the traitor Roussel de Bailleul and his mercenaries. Romanos remained in Anatolia, where he managed to strengthen the remaining Roman garrisons. He was however then assassinated upon returning to Constantinople, but his actions meant that the Seljuks did not immediately attack, and they were faced with resistance when invading Anatolia, and as such, they failed to displace the natives as much as they did in real life.
Meanwhile, the empire further fell into civil war, through rebellions against the incompetent Michael VII, and fights between the various generals - Nikephoros III murdered and replaced Michael, but he was outplayed by the Komnenoi family, who managed to convince the soldiers of Nikephoros, led by Nikephoros Melissenos, the brother in law of the young Alexios Komnenos, to revolt – leading to Alexios entering the city and being proclaimed Basileus without the need for Seljuk support. The period of civil strife ended with a much-weakened empire – but one that still had control of the core of Anatolia.
Under Alexios the Great, the Romans finally managed to fight back against the Turks and the Caliphate. Alexios was one the first Eastern Emperors to realize that reconciliation with Rome was necessary for the survival of the empire. Still attempting to reform his weakened realm, Alexios appealed to the Pope for aid against the Muslims – and aid did arrive. But not in the way Alexios would have expected. The Basileus was simply hoping for some reinforcements, some Western troops to help take the pressure off as he reorganized the themata. But instead, the East was swarmed by hordes of Catholic knights and peasants, fanaticized by the speeches of the Pope and Catholic priests about retaking the Holy Land. Thus, the crusades began. The People’s Crusade pillaged its way through the Balkans, and Alexios’ mercy was the only thing that stopped the Imperial Army was massacring them. Instead, he gave them escorts and tried to send them to one of the Anatolic themes to provide them with equipment and training, but they abandoned their escorts, pillaged their way through Anatolia, and attacked the Seljuks – only to be ambushed near the Cilician Gates.
It took another few months for the actual crusaders to reach Constantinople, and the tensions between the West and the East once again made themselves be known. Alexios tried and managed to gain oaths of allegiance from the crusader leaders, making them swear that they would return any liberated territories to the East’s rule. As such, a grand campaign began – but the Roman reinforcements sent with the crusaders were stopped by a Seljuk attack. The crusaders attacked and conquered Antioch without any help and believing that Alexios had breached his part of the deal – the Principality of Antioch was born.
While the cooperation between the Romaoi of the East and the crusaders continued, relations quickly broke down. With Eastern reinforcements, the crusaders pushed along the coast and eventually reached Jerusalem, but the crusader force was much larger than the imperial one. The Western knights besieged and then sacked Jerusalem in a frenzy, despite the best attempts of the Roman troops to calm them down. During the chaos, Roman forces however managed to gain control of the place where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre once stood, leading to further tensions between the "Latins“ and the Romans, which continued as further crusader states were established.
In terms of prosperity and expansion, the Komnenian period was a true rebirth. The close relation with the Italians and the other Westerners led to Roman art, culture, knowledge being spread towards the West, while various Western ideas and customs were also brought to the Empire. The death of this great Emperor however cut the personal relations between Rome and Constantinople, planting the seeds for what was to come.
His son, Ioannes II, was not content with seeing whom he thought of as barbarians as traitors occupying the rightful lands of the empire. He crushed the Pecheneg threat and defeated the Hungarians and the Serbs in the Balkans, further pushed the Seljuks towards the Caucasus, and perhaps most important for the future – he demanded the submission of the Crusader states, who appealed to Rome for help. John managed to finally liberate all of Anatolia and to conquer Antioch, and he was also the one to finally reconquer Taurica for the Empire. His successor, Manuel II, was even more aggressive – he personally invaded and obtained the allegiance of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and he then rallied his armies and the armies of the now vassal crusaders for an attack of Egypt – that ended in the disastrous Battle of Pelousion.
1180 marked the final decline of the Komnenoi, as the regency of the Frankish mother of the young Alexios II Komnenos was incredibly unpopular. Andronikos I, a grandson of Alexios I, launched a revolt, overthrowing and killing Alexios II and massacring many of the Latins of Constantinople, who were believed to be the true power behind the regency. This only further destroyed whatever goodwill there was left between the Orthodox East and the Catholic West.
The reign of Andronikos began with a strong campaign against corruption, which earned him the support of the peasantry, but his struggle against the nobility earned him many enemies. Andronikos was never overthrown like in real life, and as such, the Komnenoi survived for a little longer, with his son, Ioannes III Komnenos, as the next Emperor. A mediocre leader, Ioannes was unable to do anything significant towards repairing the relations with Rome, and during his reign, an Islamic counterattack took over the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
After his death, he was followed by his younger brother, Manuel II Komnenos, a son of Andronikos with the Western princess Agnes. Manuel was a much better leader than his predecessor, and his few reforms attempted to strengthen the empire. However, in the last years of his reign, Manuel fell under the control of the manipulative noble and Grand Logothete Alexios Angelos. Angelos married a daughter of Manuel, hereby gaining a vague claim at the throne, all in the hope of stopping Manuel’s firstborn son, Alexios Komnenos, who was perceived as pro-Catholic due to his Frankish from taking the throne.
The plot of the Angeloi failed, but Manuel’s son was merciful after taking the throne, a mistake that would cost him his life.
From 1198 to 1204, the Fourth Crusade was planned pretty much just like in real life, but with the objective of taking Egypt. The Crusade was spearheaded by Venice, and instead of paying the Venetians, the crusaders agreed to help them establish Venice's rule again in Zara. The Pope was reluctant to intervene against Venice, and as such, it continued. Alexios Angelos however, having been sent into exile, was seeking for aid in order to press his claim to the throne. Angelos offered to put the Ecumenical Patriarchy under the control of the Pope, to play the crusaders 200,000 silver marks, and to join the crusade against Egypt with all the troops at his disposal, while also promising to grant the crusaders their claims over the Levant. The Pope tried to stop this plan, but his letter arrived after the crusaders had left Zara. Alexios III was not expecting the crusaders to be hostile, so the city was unprepared. He was murdered in front of the gates of Constantinople, after the crusaders had deceived him to leave the walls in order to take part in a ceremony. Along with loyal Roman troops, Alexios Angelos took over the city, while the crusaders awaited their payment along the walls. Angelos was crowned as Alexios IV, killing the wife of the previous emperor, but the young daughter of Alexios III, Princess Eirene, was hidden in a monastery inside the city by Komnenoi supporters. Before a civil war could even properly start, tensions rose sharply between the crusaders and the Romans. In a coup d'etat against Alexios, yet another Alexios, Doukas this time, a noble who had married a cousin of Alexios III, started a revolt in the city, his men murdering every foreigner and Latin they could find. Alexios IV was murdered in front of the Hagia Sophia, and the crusaders attacked the city. Alexios Doukas was then murdered by one of his own guards and the imperial throne was left open, in the Thirty Years' Anarchy that had just started. A young noble called Michael Palaiologos, was in the city when the chaos started as one of the palace guards, mobilized the remaining forces against the crusaders, after command was passed down to him by the dying Domestikos. Using burning ships and Greek fire, the garrison of Constantinople managed to burn parts of the Venetian fleet, forcing it to withdraw. The remaining crusaders managed to break into the city through an opened gate, although historians debate to this day whether the gate had been damaged in the fighting or intentionally let open by an ally of the crusaders inside the city. As soon as they properly entered the city however, the crusaders abandoned any sort of organized form of fighting, looting and raiding, killing and raping, even going so far as to attack and burn churches inside the city, and to rape the nuns serving in them. In the disaster which would become known as the Sack of Constantinople, the crusaders caused great damage but were unable to take over the city, being pushed back and then hunted to the last man by the garrison. Barely just remaining in control, Michael Palaiologos managed to pacify the city over the next few weeks.

Led by the remains of the Venetian forces, the crusaders caused chaos in Macedonia, sacking and burning the city of Thessaloniki, creating their own states, including a so-called Latin Empire which claimed the Eastern imperial position. Venetian forces took over parts of the Aegean islands, over Morea and parts of Epirus, while other crusaders created a small state in Thrace after they took Adrianople through trickery. Meanwhile, in Asia Minor, a Doukas pretender claimed the throne, and the remaining Angeloi did the same, creating a state with the capital in Mytilene. In Trebizond, another alleged Komnenoi claimed the imperial mantle. Isaac Komenos had a short reign in Cyprus before being assassinated, and the Muslim forces started new offensive in the Levant. Everything seemed to be lost. But Michael, hailed as the savior of Constantinople, was there to take control. The Palaiologoi was crowned as Emperor by the Ecumenical Patriarch in early 1205, acclaimed by the people of Constantinople, by the army and by the senate, marrying Princess Eirene in order to solidify his claim to the throne. At the same time, the Senate awarded him the honorary title of Soter (Σωτήρ), the Savior, a title which would remain the epithet of all Palaiologoi monarchs from that point onward. The new Emperor was young and aggressive, calling the native Roman population to fight against the vilified crusaders. In a swift move, Michael attacked Adrianople, taking it after some of the inhabitants opened one of the smaller gates. The captured crusaders were executed, but before he was able to move on to Macedonia, the Doukas pretender attacked the loyal city of Nicaea. Michael crossed the Bosporus, reaching Asia Minor, defeating the pretender in the Battle of Nicaea. With the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the entire Angeloi family from Mytilene, Michael was able to retake the entire theme of Thrace, including its Asian lands.
..
For the next thirty years, for most of his reign, Michael managed to wage successful wars against most of his enemies, alternating campaigns between Europe and Asia. The death of the Doukas pretender 10 years later brought an end to the rebellions in Asia Minor, and the region was pacified. With a lot more strength than before, the Romans defeated the crusaders in the Battle near Mount Chortiatis, pushing into Macedonia and Greece. The death of Michael in 1235 found the core territories of the empire back under Constantinople's rule. His status as a hero and a saint greatly improved the prestige of the Palaiologoi, and a series of extremely successful emperors managed to properly create a proper hereditary legitimacy for the succession to the imperial throne, hereby creating the Palaiologos dynasty.
The chaos of the Thirty Years' Anarchy and the wars between the Romans and the Crusaders weakened the overall Christian position in the Middle East, and the Muslims under the Ayyubid Caliphate of Saladin had already crushed most of the crusader states and brought most of Palestine and Syria back under Muslim control. Internal issues after Saladin's death stopped the Caliphate from trying to push into Anatolia, but soon after the death of Michael Palaiologos and the succession of his son, Andronikos, to the imperial throne, three centuries of Roman-Ayyubid Wars began in their earnest. The reign of Andronikos and of his immediate successors were generally defensive, as the Romans did what Romans do best - protect their borders and gather their forces. The two greatest accomplishments of the reign of Andronikos were the reorganization of the themata system, which finished his father's military reforms, and his economic reforms which kickstarted an economic recovery that the Romans so desperately needed. The son of Andronikos, Gregorios, recreated the beleaguered Roman Navy from scratch, and the new Palaiologan navy managed to crush the Venetian Navy in the Sea or Marmara and later in the Aegean Sea, ending the Venetian dominance of those seas permanently, and leading to the eventual reconquest of Crete and Cyprus.
Further Palaiologoi continued to strengthen the empire, waging continuous wars. In the West, successive emperors managed to restore the Danube border and to reconquer what had once been Bulgaria and attempted to avert other possible conflicts with Catholic states by establishing buffer vassal states, but this brought them into conflict with the Holy Roman Emperors. The Kingdom of Hungary was the core of this new conflict, as the split between its Catholic and Orthodox populations, and the death of its final legitimate king in a civil war during the Battle of Mohacs led to both Emperors supporting different claimants. The Great Eastern War, as it was called, was in fact a series of wars, waged sometimes by the two empires directly, otherwise through supporting different claimants and nations, and they eventually ended by the 1600’s with a peace treaty that confirmed Habsburg rule over Hungary and parts of Croatia, but acknowledged the independence of the other south-eastern European states.
Meanwhile in the East, Manuel IV was the one who managed to recover Antioch from the Mamluk Sultanate, as the Romans finally went on the offensive. By 1500, Damascus had fallen, and despite setbacks like the defeat in the Battle of Sidon, the Romans gained the upper hand, liberating Jerusalem in the Mamluk-Roman War of 1552. By 1587, the Romans managed to gain the Sinai Peninsula, breaking the Mamluk possessions into two, and by 1642, Cairo and Alexandria were liberated, breaking the Mamluk state. Further wars with the self-declared Caliphate of Asyut led to the Romans pushing south along the Nile, and by 1681, Basileus Alexios IX celebrated the liberation of Egypt with a triumph in Constantinople.
Ioannes V Palaiologos came into power at this time. The reforms of his predecessors had greatly modernized the state, but they also led the ethnic situation to fester. During the day of his coronation, a mass rebellion organized by Muslim leaders in Egypt and parts of the Levant began, and the new Basileus responded to the situation in the same way he would face all issues throughout his reign – initially with brute force, by sending the Varangians and Numeroi to disperse the rebels, and then through diplomacy, promising token reforms and then drawing them into ambushes. For Ioannes, this enemy was found not outside the empire, but inside – in the Muslim community of Egypt. Restrictions unlike ever before were placed, the process of Romanization was reformed and reorganized, and those who opposed it were basically forced into slavery. Internally, the Emperor relied on the support of the demes, turning the Blues and the Greens against each other, emphasizing their political role while also stopping them from effectively forming a common front against him, while his popular policies mellowed any sort of concrete popular opposition to his rule. Known as Ioannes the Great, the Basileus eventually died in 1780, being followed by his son, Andronikos.
Andronikos V Palaiologos was a different man. He was every bit as capable as his father, but he was arrogant, easy to anger, a very demanding perfectionist, and a complete and utter believer in his divine right to rule. Whatever reforms Ioannes had tried to organize internally, they were squashed, as the new monarch relied on his own autocratic powers, on the support of the Orthodox Church and on Roman nationalism to support his reign. Internally, he continued the campaigns against the non-citizens in the East, he suppressed the remaining powers of the Senate, and relied heavily on the aristocracy and the Blue deme. Andronikos further became known as a ruthless, brutal ruler after stories of how he treated his children began to appear – as he took personal charge of their education, naming all three of them as Despots and even going as far as to have them conscripted as regular soldiers in the field. But just as Europe was waiting to see what he would do next, Andronikos died in sleep in the Great Palace of Constantinople, in December 1811.
And now, the imperial throne belongs to his son, Michael X Palaiologos.

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[Tracian Empire]

([url=https://i.postimg.cc/kMBwppYy/Rooster-4.png]Image)[/url]

- Emblem of the Wei Empire

Full Nation Name : Great Wei (Official Name) - Wei Dynasty/Tatarstan (Unofficial Names)


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Accepted

[Wasi State]

Full Nation Name : Federal Enclave of the Continental United States
Majority/Official Culture : Colonial American
Territorial Core : Nominally the Thirteen Colonies, however only the Northeastern coastal states of Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and most of New England are under direct Federal control, with the rest of the country under control of various warlords.
Territorial Claim : The Original Thirteen Colonies, and Manifest Destiny Continental US claiming most of the continent.
Capital City : New York City
Population : Nominally claims 7 Million population, in actuality there's only 4 Million population under Federal jurisdiction.

Government Type : Despotic Dictatorship under the flimsy guise of being an Authoritarian Democracy.
Government Ideology/Policies : Highly Militant, Jingoistic, Expansionist, and Xenophobic Survivalists.
Government Focus : Military focus with a close secondary focus on proving itself to be the legitimate US Government.
Head of State : President Alexander Hamilton
Head of Government : President Alexander Hamilton
Government Description : In theory the Federal Government is built off the foundation the Articles of Confederation set about by the original Continental Congress in 1781, but after George Washington's sudden assassination and Continental Congress's failure to maintain a proper Emergency Administration which ended being subsequently couped by the militarists in 1783, which had prompted the indefinite suspension of Congress and the vast emergencies powers given to the office of the President in the Cincinnatus Act (also indefinite), the Executive Branch is pretty much the first and foremost authority in the Federal Government without any semblance of checks and balances to hinder it.

Majority/State Religion : Americana Protestantism
Religious Description : Often seen as the apocalyptic bastard child to mainstream Protestantism back in Europe, this sect of Christianity is highly geared towards promoting deemed "accepted" American Values and is practically a cult of personality towards the more conservative Founding Fathers being given messianic qualities and retellings.

Economic Ideologies : Capitalism, Military Contracting, Anarcho-Capitalism
Major Production : Raw resources found in the Northeast, some token refined and processed goods, early machinery. The South still maintains vast plantations, but are currently not within Federal jurisdiction.
Economic Description : Largely forced into a 'self-sufficient' autarky, corporate run economy built on an early conception of the military industrial complex, with most other apparatuses prioritized towards the state first and foremost with companies given free rein to do as they please as long as they doing contracts for the state. Overall, the country's budget is seemingly run on an ongoing Ponzi Scheme with no end to it, that hopes to rope in more investors in what is essentially a nationwide fraud-filled scam that chugs a barely functional Federal Budget together, hanging by threads and shareholders with the fear of decline and collapse looming every passing day.

Development: Pre-industrial
Development Description : Despite the otherwise crippling setbacks faced throughout the country, where the Federal Government controls at least, the United States has since utilized some of the nation's stock of resources and local expertise to the best of its ability to at least maintain a (apparent suboptimal) level of industry. However how sustainable its practices are currently remain to be seen in the long term, as even short term developments remain problematic to guarantee any realistic plans for further expansion.

Army Description : Perhaps one of the most premier fighting forces in the New World, the Continental Army remains quite disciplined and readily equipped in the American Warlord Period. With manpower being enlisted regularly in the draft leaving plenty of reserves to boot amongst the seemingly overabundance of regular troops in the ranks of the US Army. However this had lead to an overly inflated defense budget to the point that the Continental Army could be considered more or less to be an Army with a State.
Army Weakness : It's no surprised that given the amount of debt the Federal Government had garnered over the years that they needed to gather corporate sponsors in order to prevent economic collapse, the US Military being of no exception. With some companies having enough saying power in order to outright 'loan' whole regiments as mercenaries to go on corporate sponsored wars in lands of interests with little warning.
Naval Description : Many commissioned ships date from the original Revolutionary War, and many haven't seen much actual service since then. The American Navy leaves much to be desired into the present day, with the annual defense budget being readily put into the Army in recent years only making matters worse since.
Naval Weakness : Very little in the way of modern ship developments, many warships in the 'fleet' are considered subpar at best, and will fall apart in the face of any opposing competent navy.
Further Military Description :

National Goals : Reclaim the Thirteen Colonies and ensure Manifest Destiny.
National Issues : One Nation-Divisible: For a lack of a better term, the rest of the Thirteen Colonies are divided into various warlord states that need to be contended with first before the American Dream can be fully realized.

Abolitionism: Slavery has since became a hot-button issue with its remaining presence in even the North, that taking any side on it will lead to some fracturing to what little union there is amongst the Federal states on the issue of all men being created equal.

Luddites by the Number: Attempts at rapid industrialization had been met with failure in many parts of the country due to "technophobes" and "Unionists" laborers trying to undercut progress in the country's attempts to industrialized fully due to widespread fear of job loss and wage cuts. This had lead to internal strikes amongst worker camps and has begun to hinder early corporate America.
National Figures of Interest : James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams.
National Ambition/Aspirations : A fully realized, united, and premier world power United States of America that can thrive and dominate.
History : In 1783, the fledging United States managed to secure its independence in the Revolutionary War, much in the same way as it has managed to in OTL. However it came at a cost shortly afterwards with the assassination of President Washington in 1783 at the hands of a rogue US Army solider taking aim and killing the President in the Newburgh Conspiracy, ensuring a power vacuum for the young republic early on. In the same year, with Continental Congress attempting and failing to hastily sworn in a new successor to the Office of the Presidency as the young nation was beginning to first crack at the seams rather violently, and practically implode dshortly thereafter with multiple rebellions and secessionist movements, the Militarists who had sworn to avenge George Washington's murder, had performed a coup' d'etat of the Emergency Congress Administration and essentially abolished much of the original Federal Government that had followed the Articles of Confederation.

But they were too late to prevent (or had instead hastened) a total collapse of the Republic, as multiple splinter states had already broken away. Leaving the Federal Government with very little authority in the former Colonies until the early 1800s when it began to slowly reclaim much of the former Colonies under the watchful and oppressive dictatorship of Alexander Hamilton who under the Federalist Militarists had sought to both reclaim and realize the full glory of the United States once more.

Having practically martyred George Washington as a hero of fallen American Dream that they feel strongly they must grab back from the abyss that is the American Nightmare.
RP Sample: Example

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[Tracian Empire]

Ah our RP's Poland stand-in for potential partitions

Tracian Empire, do you have an app up? I want to see what my neighbour's history is so I don't mess up any canon.

Posted and my history should be complete even if the app as a whole is a WIP - if you have any questions/need any changes for your concept to work, we can talk about it!

[Tracian Empire]

(Image)

Full Nation Name: La République Fédérale du Brésil (Federal Republic of Brazil)
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• The population is too high. Brazil in 1800 had a population of 3,600,000, even if we do take into account a more focused French effort and Hughenot settlers, a doubling of the population is unlikely.
• The description of the legal system, the constitution, and the federal framework is nice, but you should also add a bit about the legislative and executive powers in the state.
• For the development, you should use the descriptive terms as they are marked in the app - industrializing is the most advanced position a state can be in. The Industrial Revolution has indeed begun, but we're still not at a point where any state could claim to be fully industrialized in the modern understanding of the term. In turn, since industrialization is still mostly limited to mechanized textile production, iron industry and steam power mostly used in mills and furnaces, nations might not yet feel pressured to organize state-led industrialization efforts, so keep that in mind.
• A bit more information on tensions and conflicts post-independence would be nice. Both Brazil in real life, and the US, from which you're taking some inspiration, had plenty of political-tensions post-independence, and varying arguments about its form of government. It's basically something that happened in most if not all formerly colonial nations who gained their independence.

[Elerian]

Full Nation Name : 習王朝 - Great Zhu, or the Zhu Dynasty

Majority/Official Culture : Han Chinese

Territorial Core : Southern China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines

Territorial Claim : Indochina, Northern China

Capital City : Guangzhou

Population : Roughly 200 Million people

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Government Type : Celestial Empire

Government Ideology/Policies : Chinese Expansionism

Government Focus : The preservation of the Mandate of Heaven is of utmost importance, with the military and economy taking a close second priority.

Head of State : Yazhu Emperor

Head of Government : Grand Chancellor Xiang Ji

Government Description : A Celestial Empire the same as all the others before it

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Majority/State Religion : The Three Teachings

Religious Description : Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism

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Economic Ideologies : Largely Laissez Faire with a few key nationalized industries

Major Production : Silk, Tea, Foodstuffs, Textiles, Raw Materials, Emerging Industry

Economic Description : Similar to the Ming's economic approach with a handful of state monopolies, otherwise the government takes a hands off approach.

---

Development: Pre-Industry

Development Description : The Coastal provinces of the Great Zhu, and those with access to the Yangzi river are the most developed regions of the Southern Kingdom. Those territories that are farther from the coast and sea trade are often far less developed than their sister provinces on the coast.

---

Army Description : With a standing army of 60 infantry Regiments and 20 cavalry Regiments, the Chinese army theoretically has 416,000 professional soldiers at any given time. However, the divisions are often under-strength during peacetime. In reserve, the Chinese may call upon a further 240 infantry Regiments and another 20 cavalry divisions. Armed with cheap and unreliable muskets, the entire mobilized Chinese military stands at 1.76 million soldiers, among the largest in the world.

Army Weakness : As is typically the case with the Chinese military, an emphasis is often placed on quantity over quality. As such, the current army model is no different. While many officers both high and low advocate for the transition from quantity to a better quality army, the economic situation in China, and a greater focus on the Navy ensures this will not come to fruition for some time.

Naval Description : The Chinese navy is among the largest in the world, backed by a strong naval tradition since the days of Zheng He. Following the loss of Northern China, the Imperial loyalists sought other ways of strengthening their position in order to eclipse their northern rival. The obvious conclusion was to rule the waves, and expand the Middle Kingdom’s reach beyond her own shores. In tandem with her wish to rule the waves, the Southern Kingdom’s navy developed her own soldier class to help defend her ships, and combat on land wherever they may be needed. Though not very numerous, her Marine units are among the best the nation has to offer.

Naval Weakness : The Zhu navy, like its army relies on numbers to gain advantage over its rivals, rather than by quality of ship. As such, there are a great number of smaller and lighter armed warships in her fleets, and thus Zhu’s navy brings lesser firepower to bear during fleet actions.

Further Military Description :

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National Goals : Invigorate the economy, Strengthen the Military, Expand Influence, Retake the North

National Issues : Lack of available capital, Stagnating economic trends, and colonial competition all hold back the Chinese from achieving greatness

National Figures of Interest : Zheng He

National Ambition/Aspirations : Attain hegemony in Asia

---

History :


A great calamity struck the young Ming dynasty in 1399, first the rebellion by the Prince of Yan, followed closely by the invasion of northern China by the Tartars. Fortunately for the Jianwen Emperor, the most powerful of Hongwu's sons, Zhu Di Prince of Yan, was caught up in the invasion by the Tartars, and unable to press his claim on the Imperial Throne. The young Tie Xuan comes to the Imperial Capital at Nanjing and whips the Ming court into shape, firing corrupt officials and rallying the princes around the Jianwen Emperor.

The Southern Ming are able to hold the south bank of the Yangtze against Wei attack. Further attacks on the river prove fruitless and eventually the two states settle into an uneasy peace. In the years following the loss of the North, the Southern Ming Jianwen Emperor decided to focus on shipbuilding to protect the Yangtze and block Wei sea trade. As a byproduct of this naval expansion, the Imperial Navy also sent expeditions to far flung locales under the leadership of the legendary Eunuch Zheng He.

(1405-07) First voyage of the Zhu Treasure Ships. They travelled to Pasai (Sumatra), Melaka (Malacca), Ayutthaya, Khmer, Pagan, and at the end of their journey arrived in Calicut.

(1408-10): A Second voyage of the Zhu Treasure Ships is undertaken. They travel to Calicut again, then onto Sri Lanka, whose Raja accepted the Zhu as supreme rulers. Yet, shortly after the Zhu fleet left, the Raja reneged on his pledge.

(1411-13): Third voyage of the Zhu Treasure Ships. This time they went south to Brunei, Majapahit, and the Guineas.

(1416-19): The Great Voyage: Zhu Treasure Ships went to Hormuz, visited Persia and started diplomatic relations. After that the fleet sails down the African coast from port to port before finally stopping in Mozambique. Following that, Zhu merchants started trading with east African kingdoms.

(1421): The Final Voyage: Zhu Treasure Ships sought to find a more direct route to tour Europe, and set sail towards Sakhalin and Kamchatka. Zheng He and his fleet were last seen striking East in an effort to cross the Sea.

During the mid 15th Century, the Northern Vietnamese King asked the Ming emperor to solve a struggle for succession. This sets a precedent for extending Chinese influence in Vietnam. As Cao Thông lay on his deathbed, his young son was set to inherit his Kingdom. Fearing a coup against his son, Cao Thông called upon the Southern Ming to his North to legitimize the ascension of his son. Alas, when the day came that Cao Thông died, and his son Thục Chế was set to ascend to the throne, it seemed readily apparent that pretenders would press their claims.

Thục Chế fled to the Ming court at Guangzhou, lacking a sufficient power base to hold onto the throne. The Ming Emperor received Thục Chế kindly and promised to restore him to his throne. After several years of gathering an army, Thục Chế marched back on Dai Nam to assert his claim. At the head of a powerful Chinese force, Thục Chế was able to win back his throne. Though unfortunately for Dai Nam, this would begin a long struggle for dominance between the Southern Han and their native ruling class.

By the 1510s and 20s as the dynastic cycle dictates, the Southern Ming dynasty was in its death throes. Corruption in the Imperial court was rampant, the Emperors cared less about administering their nation, and more for hunting, spending, and whoring. Perhaps the only productive activity that the last Emperors undertook was spending a great deal of their wealth on the arts, cultural projects, and extensive monuments and works of architecture that survive into our present day. For this reason the technological progress of their predecessors was not lost. However, even with all their great feats of architecture and art, the Ming still fell prey to the dynastic cycle and after a series of droughts, famines, plagues, and rebellions the mighty Ming was laid to ruin.

From the far South of the Kingdom, Zhu Jiefu, a distant relative of the previous Emperor, used his power base in Guangzhou to take the throne and stabilize the situation. After usurping the throne of the Southern Ming, the newly crowned Emperor Taizu of Zhu ended the power vacuum left by the fall of the previous dynasty. In Guangzhou, he established a strong central government over the empire. Ensuring administrative stability by promoting the civil service examination system of drafting state bureaucrats by skill and merit, instead of aristocratic or military position, and promoted projects that strengthened their presence at Sea. Emperor Taizu also followed his predecessor’s decision to solidify the Southern Kingdom’s hold on Vietnam.

By the mid 1500’s an invasion of upper Vietnam was executed to extend Zhu influence further abroad. In a stunning defeat that rocked the entire country, a smaller but better equipped Vietnamese army defeated the Chinese invasion force nearly three times its size. The Vietnamese victory was owed in large part to superior modern Korean firearms that allowed the Vietnamese to outperform the Chinese army. It was this event that pushed the new Zhu Emperors to reconsider any foolish notions of an inward policy.

A second army was gathered and dispatched to Vietnam, and despite suffering considerable losses were able to gain the upper hand and decisively defeat the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese were better off with open trade with its neighbors and the free spread of ideas that came with it proved to be very productive. Because of this, the reigning Yamen Emperor sponsored many expeditions abroad to discover new technologies, resources, and wealth so as to strengthen Zhu’s position. This led to the discovery of Alaska in 1578, the establishment of a colony on Northern Luzon, and expansion Southward along the coast of Indochina.

Since then the Great Zhu has reigned over Southern China, invigorated by trade with faraway nations and seeking to expand her colonial ventures. However, severe drought, economic downturns, and social unrest have recently threatened the stability of the Empire. The Zhu teeters on the edge of falling prey to the dynastic cycle, but many still cling to the hope that a change in fortune is on the horizon. Whether that hope is in vain is yet to be seen.

[Remnants of Exilvania]

Hah. I actually almost forgot to move the WIP from drafts over here.

Full Nation Name: The Muscovite Tsardom
Majority/Official Culture: Russian, others such as Cossacks, Turkfolk, Tatars, Caucasians etc. being minorities of different tolerance levels.
Territorial Core: The light green are negotiable cores I'd be willing to concede in part or fully to players in Scandinavia or Poland
Territorial Claim: Clayms
Capital City: Moscow
Population: 30~ million

Government Type: Tsarist Autocracy
Government Ideology/Policies : Absolutism, despotism, expansionism, tsarist autocracy
Government Focus: The current government focus lies on gaining access to more ports, as well as driving back neighbouring states to create buffer zones behind which the heartlands of the Muscovite Tsardom can lie in peace...oh, and unify more Slavs under the Muscovite Tsar.
Head of State: Tsar Ivan XIII Pavlovich, commonly known as Ivan the Impatient
Head of Government: Tsar Ivan XIII Pavlovich, commonly known as Ivan the Impatient
Government Description:

The Tsar is the ultimate and supreme secular and theological authority in the Muscovite Tsardom. He personally controls the largest amount of land within the country, receives and has his authority limited solely by god and stands at the head of both the Muscovite government apparatus and the Russian Orthodox Church. He appoints the members of the government who will, in all cases, act solely in his name and no other. The Tsar may at any time force, stop or revert any legislative, executive, judicial or religious action. He also holds direct command of both the Streltsy Guard and the Oprichnina, the Tsardom's brutal secret police force.

Due to the autocratic, Tsar-centric nature of the Muscovite Government, the Tsar's Court, despite lacking direct positions that would imply great influence and mostly consisting of advisors and clerks, is the most powerful organ in the entire Muscovite State for the Court could influence the Tsar's decisions and his decisions are absolute.

Further down the ranks are the Gubernators. Often consisting of loyal or seemingly loyal members of the court, these are government officials who are sent by the Tsar to administrate certain territories of the Tsardom in his name. Their authority in these Governorates is almost as absolute as the Tsar's yet they are still bound to the laws of the Tsardom, unlike the Tsar for unlike him they are not the Tsar ordained by god but merely chosen executioners of his will.

And below them is the land-owning nobility of the Tsardom. The Boyars, albeit greatly diminished in influence, still hold notable amounts of territory and wealth in Muscovy and serfdom is alive and well, meaning they continue to be a factor within Muscovite politics due to sheer economic power. It nets them positions in the Tsar's Court as well as influence ont he Gubernators. Not all of the Boyars are Russian either, many of them also being exiled nobles from other realms that the Tsars welcomed into their lands. Loyalty in exchange for a future of their house and land, a good way to replace illoyal Boyars.

Majority/State Religion: Russian Orthodoxy
Religious Description: The Muscovite Holy Synod is a department of the Muscovite State Apparatus and has the Muscovite Tsar at its head. It has distanced itself from its southern brothers in faith, nowadays standing in open rivalry with them and fighting with it over influence in the Caucasus and the Ukraine.

Economic Ideologies: Semi feudalist/semi capitalist
Major Production: Agricultural Goods of all sorts, Pelts, Natural Resources of all varieties from gemstones to ores to stones, great amounts of wood, fishes and whale oil.
Economic Description: What is there to say? Vast expanses of land, often heavily forested. Frozen soil in the north. Small farming, woodcutting or fishing communities dotted around the land. Mining communities generally larger. Essentially all of it in servitude to either the Tsar or a Boyar as serfdom continues to exist and people are bound to their communities. Cities act primarily as trade hubs and seats of Gubernadors. Generally directly owned by the Tsar though citizens are afforded more freedoms than rural peasants and as such a very small bourgeousie has managed to cultivate itself there, often consisting of lower end government clerks, crafty merchants and entrepreneurs and successful artisans.

Development: Agricultural.
Development Description: Aside from much of the country lacking heavily in population and infrastructure, literacy is essentially non-existent, being available only to the Priests as well as the more wealthy Boyars and Bourgeousie in the cities where there are actually schools. Need more?

Army Description: Following the Pjotrinic Reforms and a series of wars against Byzantine backed states and the Eastern Roman Empire around the Black Sea, the Muscovite Army finds itself in a peculiar state, the
Muscovite Reiter
Streltsy
Cossacks
Narjad
Line Regiments
Narodnoe Opolcheniye
Army Weakness :
Naval Description : [[Describe your nation's navy in as much detail as you can]]
Naval Weakness :
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

National Goals : [[What are the main objectives of your nation?]]
National Issues : [[What needs to be fixed in order for your nation to achieve its true potential?]]
National Figures of Interest : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Are there any Mother Teresas or Moses that we need to know about?]]
National Ambition/Aspirations : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Not really set objectives, but rather the big picture that your nation is drawing towards]]

History : [[Can be in paragraph or bulletpoint timeline.]]
RP Sample: [[Either a link to a past post, or an example written right here.]]

#AltDiv (Do not delete this, it is used to keep track of the apps)

[The Traansval]

-woosh-

[Axis Asteroid]

Full Nation Name : Kingdom of Dahomey | Danxome | Danhomé
Majority/Official Culture : Fon is the primary culture, but other groups such as the Ewe, Gedevi, and Aja are closely related, not just along ethnic or religious lines, but also through a shared hatred of the Egba and other subgroups of the Yoruba, which comprise the second largest ethnic group after the Akan. Other conquered peoples include the Mahi, Kabye, and Dangbe among others all of whom outnumber their Dahomean overlords when put together, at least on paper.
Territorial Core : Dahomey and much of the former Ashanti, and Oyo empires, roughly encompassing modern—day Benin, Ghana, Togo, and parts of the Ivory Coast.
Territorial Claim : Yorubaland broadly, but the city of Abeokuta is of particular interest.
Capital City : Abomey
Population : ~4,000,000 (sourced from Dahomey, Ashanti, and Oyo with a slight downside from endemic warfare, attrition, and the demands of the slave trade.)

Government Type : Autotheist absolute monarchy
Government Ideology/Policies : Militarism, Slavery, Absolutism
Government Focus : To obtain wealth and glory.
Head of State : Ghezo (name), Ahosu (title, lit. "king")
Head of Government : Degbelo (name), Migan (title, lit. "prime minister")
Government Description : Atop a strict hierarchy of master and slave, there is the Ahosu or king, who holds unchecked authority over a vast domain from his capital at Abomey, where he drinks the trader's rum from goblets made of dry skulls in a court cobbled together with the bones of his enemies, surrounded by a harem of more than one hundred wives and concubines, and an army of slaves that run into the thousands beyond counting. He is without equal, obedient to none save his own fancy, the smallest caprice of which is the law to which all his subjects, from the highest to lowest must abide.

Below him are the nobility and freemen known as the anato, who comprise the small clique of ministers who administer his rule. They are organized along a peculiar institution of sexual dichotomy between men and women that has every male official paired with a female counterpart from the palace in accordance with dualistic principle of their faith, which pervades every facet of society. In government, there is the Migan, the prime minister and royal executioner, and the Meu, the chief diplomat, whose female coequals are the Gundeme and Yewe respectively. Under the Migan and Meu are the corresponding military ministers such as the Gau, and the Kposu, whose female equivalents are likewise the Khetungan, and Akpadume.

Alongside the gendered dichotomy is another between the left and right. In the Dahomean scheme of things, right is superior to left, and subsequently right—wing officeholders are are ranked above their left—wing counterparts. As the highest ranking civilian minister, the Midan is the naturally the right—wing officer, while the Meu is his left wing counterpart as the second highest ranking, and the same applies to the parallel female officeholders of the Gundeme, Yewe, and others down the line. A notable exception to the rule is the kingship, which represents a unity of the dualistic principle as the befitting the supreme sovereign and living deity, who by consequence is also considered the perfect man.

At the local level, the primary political divisions revolve around small villages and cities, often atomized further into groups of tribes, clans, vassals, tributaries, and other dependencies of variable size, each under the supervision of administrative officers appointed by the Ahosu to adjudicate disputes on his behalf. While there is a preference for indirect rule through the appropriation of preexisting institutions in conquered regions, exceptions are made in the case of major threats such as the former Ashanti Confederacy, where the existing abusua tradition or clan system became the basis for splintering the vast territory into smaller fiefdoms controlled by the various clan heads to make the land more diffuse and easier to manage. Through similar means, the Great Oyo has devolved into a loose conglomeration of squabbling city states that the royal authorities purposely maintain as the status quo for like reasons. Aside from local forts and strongpoints at key locations with which the state exerts its authority and keep the peace, local communities are typically left alone with considerable local autonomy provided they pay the necessary tribute and keep to themselves, resulting in a way of life that for many, is no different than life under the old regime.

Majority/State Religion : Vodun
Religious Description : At the root of Dahomean cosmology is the concept of the divine twinship stemming from the dualistic nature of the gendered creator spirits of the female Mawu and male Lisa, the married twin children of the female supreme being Nana Buluku, each representing the moon and sun respectively, who are often conflated into Mawu—Lisa, an androgynous and sometimes hermaphrodite deity. In keeping with the duality and symmetry that the Dahomeans attribute to all things, in which an interplay of male and female is inherent to the concept of universal order, there is Mawu and Lisa in the domain of the Sky Pantheon, and in the realm of the profane, there is man and woman, and likewise, the same duality is present in the domain of the gods and earth spirits. In the realm of war, there is of course the sun and moon, which furnished the rationale for the establishment of the amazon corps to compliment the male elements of the army.

There is special emphasis is given to twins in particular, who are treated as coadunate. While twins were already considered very special individuals in precolonial West Africa, they were either abhorred or revered at opposite extremes depending on the ethnic group. Unlike the Igbo, Ijo, and Ibibio of southern Nigeria, who treated single births as the exclusive human norm, and subsequently killed twin infants and punished the mother based on a belief that twins and multiple births were bestial and demonic, the Fon are closer to other groups such as the Bini and Yoruba that welcomed twins as desirable offspring, though not to the same extent, since the former take it a step further through religious worship, believing that twins are not only capable of maintaining relations with the spirit world, and likewise had a special guardian spirit to watch over them, but also that they had the ability to die and come back to life at will. Through the belief in the unity of twins, they insist that twin siblings are to be treated equally, regardless of sex, rather, especially if they are of opposite sex, since male and female twins are made in the image of Mawu and Lisa. In the instances of royal twins, such as Akba and Ahangbé, this manifested in the form of political equality for the latter, who was named co—sovereign alongside her twin brother, and reigned jointly with him from her own palace and court, both as the first and only Dahomean queen and later regent despite her status as a woman.

Economic Ideologies : Mixed economy with both capitalist and paleosocialist elements.
Major Production : Gold, iron, ivory, okra, cocoa, kola nuts, yams, fish, palm oil, leather, horses, hardwood, and slaves — In the Dahomean heartland, human chattel is the primary export, followed by palm oil, and a limited supply of ivory obtained regularly by elephant huntresses known as the gbeto. There is also a type of hardwood native its shores known as the Iroko, which surpasses the white oak used to construct the original six historical frigates of the US navy such as the USS Constitution and Philadelphia in toughness and durability. In the former Oyo Empire, the residents are highly skilled in crafts and ironwork, especially in large ubran centers like metropolitan Oyo, which serves as the southern emporium for the Trans-Saharan Trade, where salt, leather, and gold is exchanged, whereas the northern savannah remains the only precious source of horses and other draft animals near the West African coastline due to its partial isolation from the jungle, and by extension the tsetse fly. Ashanti in particular is a key source of gold and other precious metals produced in large quantities from the Chirano, Akyem, Ahafo, Obuasi, Tarkwa and Asanko mines. From its trade partners, Dahomey imports guns, ammunition, alcohol, cowry shells, and indigo—dyed textiles among others in exchange for captives, gold, and other goods.
Economic Description : From its inception, Dahomey was as a predatory state that rose to prominence through violent means, its wealth a function of both plunder and a certain peculiar institution. Only through constant war can it sustain its upward protectory and replace its diminishing supply to meet the demand from both foreign buyers and the blood price exacted in the religious ceremonies of the grand customs, notwithstanding the additional dynamic of replenishing manpower lost during the various wars. While most immediate source of income is the regular conduct of large slave raids that Western observers refer to as the razzias in the dry season of every year, the domestic economy has become more diversified through the export gold, ivory, palm oil, and other valuable commodities as economic alternatives to slavery that in an ironic twist, became viable only through the Dahomean conquest of its resource—rich neighbors. At present, the economy remains the enterprise of conquerors and slavers reliant on war as the principal means for economic growth and development in the short term, from which it has reaped the benefits in the form of captives and conquered territory through a positive feedback loop that is limited only by the number of potential victims. Having conquered most of its neighbors however, the main focus in the longer term is the outright conquest of Abeokuta, a city of escaped slaves founded by the Egba that poses a threat not only to the slave trade, but also to the prospect of eastern expansion due to its strategic location at the banks of the Ogun River.

Development: Semi—Primitive
Development Description : While much of its territory is comprised of untamed jungle and otherwise rough terrain, Dahomey in terms of its cultural heartland in the Abomey plateau is not quite as developed compared its more prominent subjects and tributaries, especially those from the former Ashanti and Oyo empires that housed relatively robust civil societies with advanced material cultures, such as the Akan and Yoruba, which both developed a writing system of their own, while the Fon are in contrast not only illiterate, but also warlike and belligerent, having rose to prominence through wars of conquest absent a strong intellectual base. There is also the tsetse fly to take into account, which deprived the region of draft animals and otherwise made slave labor essential when it comes to the transport of goods over long distances, at least until the conquest of the northern savannah, at which point other ideas introduced by European traders such the wheel, the wagon, and other alternative forms of transport have found purchase among the local population. While the coastal regions benefit from increased traffic from foreign merchants and slavers, further development is also hampered in the meantime by to the mass amount of deaths caused illnesses such as yellow fever, malaria, heat exhaustion, and many gastro—entero sicknesses that affixed the Slave Coast with the alternate name of the White Man's Grave.

Army Description : In a strict adherence to Dahomean symmetry, the same dualism that defines the rest of its culture also extends to the army in the form of male officers having their own female counterparts, warriors their parallel warrioresses, and fighting units with their own right and left wings. While it was originally made up entirely of men, there is notably a heavy skew towards the fairer sex in its current composition due to the gradual erosion of Dahomean manpower from the ravages of endemic warfare and the demands of the slave trade, replicating the same historical conditions that led to the Dahomey Amazons growing to a size that comprised over half the forces that assaulted Abeokuta in 1851 and 1864, except on a more pronounced and permanent basis. Notwithstanding the obvious parallels with the amazons of myth however, the warrior women of Dahomey are not motivated by feminine solidarity but instead by complete subordination to male authority in the form of the king, whose command over the women more closely resembles a peculiar form of exploitation rather than female empowerment. When it comes to war, there is a similar dynamic with male elements of the army, which have declined inversely with the growing skill and prowess of the amazons based on the widespread inclination to let the women wage the wars started by the men. As a function of Dahomean militarism, the army is unique for its professional character as a standing army in contrast to the seasonal levies of its neighbors, but it is truly unmatched in fielding the only army of amazons in the world.
Army Weakness : While the Ahosu is justly proud of female legions that are the sinews of his military strength, they are still women despite the songs. That comes with unique drawbacks, especially in an army with a female majority that has to be addressed through various means that are otherwise absent with an entirely male force.
Naval Description : There is no formal navy to speak of outside of ad—hoc operations involving war canoes, pontoon boats, and smaller vessels suited primarily for riverine warfare, which can involve fighting at range or by amphibious assault, aside from the logistical function of transporting troops and supplies. Typical tactics involve maneuvering close to shore, unleashing a volley, then retreating to open water repeat to reload and repeat the process again. While naval engagements with other canoes are rare, they occurred frequently enough in inland waters such as lagoons, creeks, and lakes to warrant the deployment of larger variants capable of carrying over one hundred fighting women. Sometimes small iron or brass cannons are mounted on the bow or stern, though their actual use is rather limited. Due to the lack of a strong naval tradition among the Fon themselves, the Dahomean arsenal is comprised of copied designs from conquered peoples with greater familiarity of maritime affairs such as the Yoruba and Akan. Unlike the army, men are a common sight in the Dahomean ranks in wars along river and coast, often as navigators, sailors, and rowers of predominantly minority background, though rarely of their own volition. At times of war, the commandeering of civilian craft is to be expected, and the size of the quasi—navy can range from dozens or hundreds depending on demand and the scale of given operations. Much like with everything else in Dahomey, there is indeed a small fleet of vessels under royal control, however they are considered extensions of the army at best or the personal property of the Ahosu otherwise.
Naval Weakness : Aside from the obvious disparity between a canoe, no matter how large, and a proper warship, there is zero force projection in the Atlantic due to the lack of any meaningful naval presence beyond its shores.
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

National Goals : Abeokuta must be destroyed.
National Issues : As the principle slave state of West Africa, Dahomey has become estranged from its neighbors for its yearly predation and wars of aggression. Though it has little influence on the domestic policy of its customers, the prospect of abolition is another major concern due to the paramount importance of the slave trade to its economy and society, whereby any decline of European demand would likewise lead to Dahomey's decline in relevance and fortunes. There is also the domestic issue of potential rebellion and unrest from conquered regions and peoples such as the Yoruba, Akan, and Mahi among others, though that can at least be resolved through force of arms unlike the question of foreign abolition and the fate of the slave trade.
National Figures of Interest :

• • 1625—1645Ahosu, Dakodonou
  • 1645—1685Ahosu, Wegbaja
  • 1685—1716Ahosu, Akaba
  • 1716—1718Ahosu, Ahangbe
  • 1718—1740Ahosu, Agaja
  • 1740—1774Ahosu, Tegbesu
  • 1774—1789Ahosu, Kpengla
  • 1789—1797Ahosu, Agonglo
  • 1797—1802Ahosu, Adandozan — overthrown and stricken from the record in an act of damnatio memoriae
• • 1802—PresentAhosu, Ghezo
  • 1795—PresentPrince, Dakpo
  • 1802—PresentGau, Francisco Felix de Sousa

National Ambition/Aspirations : To make good on a dynastic injunction to make Dahomey ever larger with every successive monarch. In the short term, the conquest of Yorubaland and more specifically, Abeokuta remains the focal point of foreign policy, but the handiwork of nine reigns necessarily demands future expansion towards the east once the former is resolved. Though not yet a pressing concern, Dahomey must also take steps to ensure its continued independence from foreign colonization, which requires a careful balancing act ensuring continued good relations with European powers in the distant future through a mix of economic incentive and military deterrent through the mutual reliance on the slave trade and the might of its amazons respectively.
Rival : Abeokuta

History :
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"If at night, it will appear like day from the firing of their muskets. If it is day, the sun will be darkened with smoke. It is too obvious that the amazons are fully bent and determined on the downfall of Abeokuta."

—John Beecroft, 1850

• 1726
  
  • March
    
    • Two years after the conquest of Allada, Dahomey conquers the the Kingdom of Whydah, cementing its control of the coastal region, and becoming a major center in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
    • Huffon, the king of Whydah, flees with the remnants of his army to seek refuge in the islands in the lagoon to the west of the port. The Fon, unfamiliar with canoes, do not pursue.
• 1728
  
  • Nov
    
    • Oyo Empire invades Dahomey with an army comprised mostly of cavalry.
    • Agaja retaliates against the Yoruba invaders with a number of cross-border raids, but the Dahomean army suffers heavy casualties during the fighting.
    • Whydah is left unguarded in the meantime.
• 1729
  
  • Jan
    
    • Encouraged by Charles Testefolle, director of the local English fort, Huffon recaptures Whydah with an army of around 15,000 men.
  • Feb
    
    • Dahomean traders report the news to Agaja, who resolves to take the city back by storm despite a serious shortage in manpower.
    • He orders a great number of women in his camp to take up arms like soldiers, and appoints officers to each company with colors, drums, and other symbols of rank such as umbrellas to give the ruse of a much larger force. When the army marches, the female troops are placed in the rear to prevent discovery.
  • April
    
    • Huffon loses heart and departs from the field upon seeing the size of the incoming Fon army, which defies his expectation that Dahomey is greatly weakened in the war against Oyo. Without their king, other parts of the Whydah army also panic and flee, allowing the Dahomeans to outflank and rout the rest after Agaja commits his entire force, including the women, whose unexpected courage and gallantry impresses the king so much that he resolves to maintain a permanent corps of female troops to supplement his forces going forward in what would be the beginnings of the infamous Dahomey Amazons.
  • Sept
    
    • Agaja tries to bribe Ojigi, the reigning Oba Alaafin, to prevent a second invasion by Oyo, but his words fall on deaf ears.
• 1730
  
  • Jan
    
    • Dahomey and Oyo clash near the Abomey plateau in the battle that would pit the Yoruba cavalry against the freshly minted amazon corps. While the Fon are comprised entirely of infantry due to the ravages of the tsetse fly, they have many firearms acquired from the slave trade that prove effective in blunting the Yoruba charges by scaring the horses with loud gunshots, if not dispatch them entirely. In the latter half of the battle, the female troops feign a retreat to a number of fortifications and trenches built prior to the confrontation, forcing the Yoruba to dismount and fight as infantry. After four days, the Fon emerge victorious thanks to the delayed arrival of Yoruba reinforcements.
  • Feb
    
    • Oyo is forced to become a tributary, but regularly defaults on payments of annual tribute.
• 1735
  
  • Nov
    
    • Amuniwaiye ascends the throne of Oyo and refuses to pay tribute to Dahomey. He sends his armies to Abomey in a show of strength, but his designs are frustrated when they are dealt with in a similar fashion as the last.
• 1739
  
  • March
    
    • Another Oyo emperor named Onisile makes his attempts at securing Yoruba independence, but he is struck by lighting while leading a new invasion force.
• 1748
  
  • Oct
    
    • After seven failed invasions by the Oyo to end its tributary status with its manpower advantage and cavalry, hostilities finally end with a treaty that confirmed the subordinate status of the Yoruba state, reset the annual tribute, imposed some territorial concessions in the northern savannah, and other humiliating conditions, but allowed Oyo to retain domestic control.
    • Dahomean army adopts cavalry using horses from the ceded territory.
  • Dec
    
    • Tegbesu applies additional pressure on the Alaafin to reduce Yoruban participation in the slave trade in order to protect the Dahomean monopoly in the market.
    • Oyo begrudgingly complies due to its weakened state.
• 1763
  
  • Nov
    
    • Dahomey makes contact with the Kingdom of Akyem and its king, Pobi Asomaning II, who is planning a rebellion with other dissident vassals in Ashanti.
  • Dec
    
    • Word reaches the Asantehene that the Akyem seeks aid from the Dahomeans, who are apparently receptive. He orders an invasion of the Abomey plateau.
• 1764
  
  • Feb
    
    • Shortly after the Ashanti army marches out to invade Dahomey, they are ambushed near Atakpamé by an allied force comprising of Akyem, Oyo, and Dahomey, who inflict a crushing defeat on the invaders.
    • While the Asante retreat in disorder, the the Asantehene is captured by newly raised amazonian cavalry in the confusion, who bring him before Tegbesu.
  • March
    
    • Dahomey invades Ashanti with the captive Asantehene in tow.
    • Akyem and its allies strike their banners in support of Tegbesu, fragmenting the empire and paving the way for a relatively quick Dahomean conquest.
  • July
    
    • Asante Confederacy is abolished and fragmented into smaller kingdoms by Tegbesu, who grants Akyem and the other rebellious vassals are granted semi—autonomous tributary status as reward for their support.
• 1779
  
  • Jan
    
    • Dahomey raids villages in the Egbado corridor under the protection of Oyo for a major slave hunt.
    • Oyo demands compensation for the unwarranted aggression, citing its own tributary status and the rights that come with it.
    • Kpengla beheads all four diplomats sent by the Alaafin, sparking outrage across the great Yoruba empire, which promptly rebels against its Dahomean overlord once more. They are joined by the nearby Mahi people.
  • April
    
    • Oyo army is decisively defeated, confirming its continued tributary status.
    • Dahomey resumes regular raids in the Egbado corridor.
• 1781
  
  • Nov
    
    • Dahomey invades nearby Agouna after the latter refuses to pay the requested number of one hundred captive women as tribute, but the latter repels the invaders, inflicting heavy losses.
    • Kpengla personally marches for Agouna at the head of an army of eight hundred amazons in response.
  • Dec
    
    • Agounan forces are routed and pursued after a short engagement. In the aftermath, the amazons bring a number of severed heads to to Kpengla, who promptly returns home with his female legions and leaves the cleanup to the Gau and the male troops.
    • After the enemy is hunted down and defeated, the Gau collects over 1,800 female slaves in excess of the demanded tribute. Most are recruited into the amazons, while the rest are distributed to the victorious menfolk.
• 1785
  
  • Feb
    
    • Kpengla turns against the Mahi people to the north in retaliation for the latter siding with Oyo.
    • Two campaigns are launched against the Mahi stronghold of Hounjroto. While the first is a severe defeat for Dahomey, the second attempt goes much more smoothly.
  • May
    
    • Kpengla begins to use the amazons as regular troops with increasing frequency after the Hounjroto campaigns to make up for manpower losses.
    • From this point onward, Dahomean military annals are studded with amazon heroics.
• 1786
  
  • Jan
    
    • Oyo Empire disintegrates following the death of Alaafin Abiodun, sparking the Yoruba Revolutionary Wars.
  • March
    
    • Dahomey exploits the collapse of its tributary fully annexing parts of western Oyo, comprising of the Mahi, Idassa, and Sabe. Other probing attacks are launched against Anago and Ketu shortly after.
• 1789
  
  • July
    • Abeokuta is founded by Yoruba group known as the Egba. They are led by a chief named Sodeke, who assembles people from 153 villages displaced by internecine warfare across Yorubaland and others victimized by Dahomean raids.
• 1791
  
  • June
    
    • Dahomean merchants are robbed and murdered in newly conquered Mahi country.
    • Angonglo is enraged and quickly assembles both his male and female legions to dispatch them against the enemy, but they return emptyhanded.
    • Undeterred, the king sends them back with orders to destroy the Mahi capital in three days, but the expedition is delayed due to the start of dry season still being three months away.
  • July
    
    • After a series of forced marches, the troops find the a hill fortress known as Kënglo, a large city that stands on a flat hilltop protected on three sides by perpendicular cliffs and surrounded by a formidable barrier of prickly bush, while the fourth side, which slopes downward, is guarded by a high stone rampart. They identify it as the enemy capital.
    • While the men took an oblique approach along the sides, the Yewe named Sôfignan, one of the wives of Angonglo, leads the women take the most direct approach and scale the rampart, taking the city by assault in the afternoon.
    • A bas-relief is left by the Dahomeans at the location to commemorate the victory.
  • Aug
    
    • Angonglo is ambushed near Hounjroto and routed by his warlike adversaries while personally leading an army. He owes the salvation of his army and himself only to the heroism of his amazons, who cover the retreat while losing half their number.
  • Oct
    
    • Dahomey sends additional raids in reprisal that overrun one-hundred and twenty-six Mahi towns over the course of three months, resulting in the capture of countless slaves.
    • Angonglo declares the region pacified by the time the dry season arrives. He hands the reigns over to his firstborn, Andandozan, to administer the country directly in an uncharacteristic departure from the Dahomean preference for indirect rule.
  • Dec
    
    • Adandozan gathers all of the adolescents in Mahi, thousands of teenage boys and girls beyond counting, and has them all sold into slavery to serve as an example to the rest. It ends up having the opposite effect however as resentment simmers and discontent grows among the populace, who chafe under the brutal repression of their new governor, who tends to his sheep in a manner closer to a wolf rather than a dog or shepherd.
• 1795
  
  • Jan
    
    • Dahomey attacks the nearby commercial city of Atakpamé, which is home to a mixed population of Yoruba and Mahi only sixty miles to the northwest of Abomey. Only four hundred defenders are left to resist after most of the civilians flee.
    • Despite the numbers disparity however, they manage to keep the Fon in check, killing many, and routing the men. Had it not been for a rally of the amazons, who dispatched the resolute foe after a desperate struggle, the Dahomeans would have been discomfited.
  • May
    
    • Angonglo spends the summer gathering an immense army in preparation for a final decisive assault against the remaining Oyo rump states in Yorubaland.
    • Manpower is pulled from across the Dahomean empire in a mass recruitment campaign that on numerous instances involved the use of press gangs and other forceful methods.
  • June
    
    • Mahi in particular is expected to contribute a disproportionate sum of men at the behest of Adandozan, who is eager to please his father.
    • Already having experienced their families torn apart, the Mahi are not only furious, but erupt into open revolt on the backs of the parents who witnessed their children taken away in chains only a few years prior. They are joined by the Yoruba populations of Idassa, and Sabe from the recently conquered provinces of the fallen Oyo Empire.
    • In total, the rebels number over 100,000 men in what is known as the Great Mahi Uprising.
• 1797
  
  • Oct
    
    • Revolt is put down at the great cost of over a third of the Fon male population and much of the Dahomean army, especially its male elements.
    • Mahi population is decimated and their lands open to Fon colonization.
• 1798
  
  • Jan
    
    • Tens of thousands of young girls are pressed into service by Adandozan to replenish the ranks of his shattered army, predominantly from the surviving female population of Mahi.
  • April
    
    • Adandozan decides to test his newly raised amazons against another Yoruba subgroup.
    • Lefu—Lefu is targeted for attack from atop the Tumulus of Courage, where the Ahosu singles out the Yoruba as the perpetual enemy of the Fon. His cries of hatred are met with great enthusiasm among his women who share his sentiments. They depart sure of victory and overwhelm Lefu—Lefu in short order.
    • In the aftermath, many are taken prisoner and resettled as slave labor on royal plantations in the Abomey plateau. Others are left alone to rebuild the community, which late provides the Ahosu with a handy pool of sacrificial victims and slaves for export.
  • Nov
    
    • Dahomey attacks a town named Inubi, where thousands of refugees from Oyo have found asylum. No slaves are taken and nearly all are slaughtered by the Fon as revenge for the Yoruba support of Mahi.
  • Dec
    
    • Nahpoo falls and its king is captured by the female regiments under the Akpadume, who beheads him. He joins the ranks of other fallen kings at Dahomey, whose skulls are ornamented with brass and rivetted as part of a collection of trophies from recent amazonian conquests in Yorubaland.
• 1800
  
  • Feb
    
    • Ado is besieged by the Egba. Despite being Yoruba, its Egbado residents call to Dahomey for aid in exchange for submitting to Fon suzerainty.
    • Adandozan marches into the area with a force including nearby allies and many amazons, but fails to locate the enemy. He camps near the village of Imojolu one morning to allow his troops to dry their equipment on bushes following an overnight rainstorm, but are caught unawares by the Egba, who mount a surprise attack that routs them completely after inflicting heavy casualties. When the Egba loot the dead, they discover that they had been fighting with women the entire time.
    • In the aftermath, the amazons lose most of their officers, while the king barely manages to escape. He returns to Abomey in disgrace, mourning not only the loss of his amazons, but also his prized regalia such as the royal war stool and the royal umbrella.
  • May
    
    • After months of negotiations, in which the Ahosu vowed to pay any price for the restitution of his prized umbrella, he discovers that the Egba had burned in while celebrating their victory. Andandozan vows revenge, but finds few allies in his court, which pins the blame of the catastrophic defeat squarely on the despondent monarch.
• 1802
  
  • Jan
    
    • Adandozan is overthrown in a palace coup led by his brother, Ghezo, who owes much of his success to the support of the foreign adventurer, Francisco Félix de Sousa, whose name and background are complete fabrications unbeknownst to everyone involved.
  • Feb
    
    • Ghezo begins his reign by sending eight thousand amazons to battle in the environs near Abeokuta as a show of force. He promises that his women would return with plenty of captives to be sold to foreign slave traders at court.
• 1804
  
  • March
    
    • Dahomey targets the Egbado town of Okeadon for siding with the Egba and becoming brokers for their slave trade to the coast.
    • Fon army marches as if to attack the Egba directly at their capital of Abeokuta before doubling back at night and taking Okeadon through stealth with the help of a defector, who opens the gates. Around four thousand slaves are taken in the aftermath, specifically for ships at Whydah bound for the New World.
  • Sept
    
    • Egba troops wage a series of attacks along the Dahomean border that leaves twenty five towns and large villages in ruins. At least one of them, Igbeji, is under Fon protection.
    • Ghezo begins preparations to destroy Abeokuta once and for all.
• 1806
  
  • May
    
    • John Beecroft and Frederick E. Forbes arrive at Abomey as part of British efforts to convince the kingdom to end its participation in the slave trade. They are welcomed as honored guests, but make no meaningful headway.
    • They are given a tour around the Singboji palace, which is adorned with recently cleaned and varnished human skulls. Forbes counts 148, while Beecroft tallies 170, apparently the victims of the what they perceived as the "dreadful tragedy of Okeadon."
  • June
    
    • Atakpamé is attacked again, but a blunder by the male troops leads to the loss of several female officers after a body of male soldiers stray from their position to go foraging, leaving an amazon unit without support when the enemy attacked. While ultimately successful, the campaign is badly mishandled, with most of the inhabitants managing to flee the city and escape in the direction of Abeokuta.
    • Beecroft and Forbes, who accompany the Dahomeans during the expedition, are convinced that the Gau himself had perished during the battle. They later witness a heated exchange between the amazons and the male troops that includes recriminations from the former, leading Ghezo to personally intervene before it devolves into blows. He beheads five male officers as punishment, and honors the Akpadume and her amazons for having regained lost ground to "save the war" after male troops under the Gau fled from battle.
    • At least 346 prisoners are taken as well as thirty two heads, mostly by the amazons.
  • July
    
    • Ghezo bluntly announces that he will soon attack Abeokuta and advises both Beecroft and Forbes, who plan to visit the place, to remove the white missionaries from the city or risk death at the hands of his amazons when the Egba capital falls.
• 1807
  
  • Jan
    
    • Beecroft and Forbes travel to Abeokuta and meet with the chiefs and people in a grand council, where they warn them of the Dahomean invasion.
    • Instead of evacuating the missionaries, they supply the Reverend Townsend with ammunition to distribute for defense of the city. Muskets are distributed to the 15,000 defenders.
  • Feb
    
    • Ghezo marches on Abeokuta with an army ranging between 20,000 and 36,000 troops, nearly three quarters of which are amazons. No effort is made to mask the goal of the expedition.
  • March
    
    • Dahomeans arrive at the Yoruba town of Ishagga, 16 miles west of Abeokuta, where they meet with the local Yoruba chief named Oba Koko who pretends to cooperate with the invaders, but instead sends word to the Egba of their approach.
    • Oba Koko also gives the Dahomean generals very bad advice. He suggests they attack at midday instead of dawn when most of the Egba men would either be asleep or working in the fields when the opposite was true. He also persuades them to attack the Aro or southwestern gate of the city, which had just been fortified, instead of the northwestern entrance, which was in a dilapidated state. And he tells them to ford the Ogun River at crossing so deep that water would drench the gunpowder.
    • Ghezo chooses to follow Oba Koko's counsel to the letter.
  • April
    
    • After a month delay caused by supply shortages, the Fon arrive at the gates of Abeokuta.
    • At the onset of battle, the Dahomeans advance across the prairie to the west of the river "in heavy squadrons, with flying colors," and drive back the Egba defenders who sally forth to meet them. Several amazon formations also crash against the Aro gate, which was left open after the initial failed sally by the Egba. Though they initially push back the defenders, the battle turns once the enraged Egba rally upon realizing that women are spearheading the Fon assault. Other amazons manage to scale the wall, but most are cut down by the resolute defenders along the ramparts after fierce fighting. Due to the intensity of enemy musket fire, the female legions are subsequently forced to spread out, extending their front for over a mile as they probe for weak spots along the wall to no avail.
    • By nightfall, the Dahomean attacks taper off as the invaders are forced to retreat to their original camp. They are struck dumb at the heavy losses they had sustained, especially of their female soldiers. It is also discovered that the Gau Aketi had died during the fighting, while the Ahosu had fallen off his horse and suffered serious injuries.
    • At daybreak, the army leaves a significant contingent of amazons behind to cover their retreat, but the closely pursuing Egba bypass the rattled women and strike at the Fon just as they reach Ishagga, where they are joined by Oba koko and the local population to inflict another crushing blow on the Dahomeans that wipes out the surviving male forces.
    • Ghezo is somehow carried away by his personal bodyguard, who manage to make it back to Abomey at the cost of the rest of the army.
  • May
    
    • Outside the walls of Abeokuta, the remaining amazons shore up the camp into a modest bastion from across the Ogun River. After they fend off a series of Egba attacks, they subsequently reestablish contact with Abomey and receive orders to expand their station into a great fortification that will act as a staging ground for the next assault on the great city, whenever that may be.
    • A tally of the dead is taken by the victorious Ega, who count 2,418 slain Dahomeans, the majority of whom are women, while Townsend puts the total dead outside of Abeokuta at no less than 3,600.
• 1810
  
  • Aug
    
    • In the vicissitudes of war, the outlying environs are alternately won and lost by the Fon, but the east remains firmly in the hands of the Egba; the female legions having learned to respect the name and fortifications of Abeokuta.
• 1812
  
  • Jan
    
    • After five years of gathering slaves and resources for another assault, the time is fast approaching for the amazons to attack the great city once more and invade the east.

RP Sample: stonks moment during the class field trip

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[Oscalantine]

Reservation

Nation Name: Japan
Territory: Current reserved territory of Japan
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

[Tracian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Japan
Territory: Current reserved territory of Japan
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Accepted

[TENNOHEIKA BANZAI NIHON]

Full Nation Name : The Mighty Empire of Japan
Majority/Official Culture : The culture is Japanese, but after all this time of having its ports open to trade, over the years, Chinese, Korean, and other Asian cultures have been incorporated.
Territorial Core : Japan, Ryukyu Islands, Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Island, Guam, Papua New Guinea, Sulawesi, Midway Island, Marina Islands, Guam, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji Islands, Tuvalu, Wake Island, Baker Island, and Howland Island.
Territorial Claim : Hawaii, Taiwan, and Ullengdo.
Capital City : Tokyo, Japan
Population : 39,889,500

Government Type : Constitutional Monarchy
Government Ideology/Policies : Imperialist, Expansionist
Government Focus : The Empire is seeking to expand the military and the economy, in order to become a recognized power capable of comparing to the other states in Asia.
Head of State : Emperor Kōkaku
Head of Government : Prime Minister Arake Yoshinobu
Government Description : Under the Constitution, The Emperor is the Head of State, Supreme Commander of the Army and Navy, and the religious leader of the nation. The real power lies in the Prime Minister and Diet however, which manages the country. The Diet is made up of daimyos, samurai, aristocrats, and political leaders. The Prime Minister is chosen by the Emperor officially after a vote while the Diet is elected.

After the fall of the Shogunate, the transition was smooth for the most part, and these samurai retained much of their wealth and power, everything except their title. The Emperor had ruled that the samurai would be allowed to keep and carry their swords and with that much of their pride. The samurai play a huge role in the country, many of them still alive, and them and their families work in many government positions. Former daimyos are now governors of provinces, mayors in cities, and serve in high ranking positions in the government, ranging from serving on the Diet, to positions of serving as number two to the Emperor himself. They have not lost their power, their wealth, their pride, only their title. The samurai are a little different. While many served in the Imperial Army or Navy, many of the men and rare female samurai came to also serve as police officers, city government officials, advisers to governors and on the Diet, and some using their vast wealth, owners of companies and leaders in trade.

Majority/State Religion : Shintoism and Buddhism
Religious Description : Shinto is a widely practiced religion in Japan that encourages life, and every natural thing is regarded as a divine spirit. The Emperor is regarded as a divine being, and the dead are treated as spirits that watch down on their descendants. Buddhism came from Korea and China, in early times, and another widely practiced religion that centers around the Buddha and Enlightenment. Other smaller religions include Christianity and Islam. These are treated with some respect, but are not common.

Economic Ideologies : Capitalism
Major Production : Japan is know for its good farmland, silk, lumber, mining, and fisheries while currently work is being done to create greater industrial abilities. Many natrual resources are not actually found in Japan such as oil and other metals, meaning Japan has to reply on trade and imports.
Economic Description : The majority of Japan's GDP comes from its farming and fishing, although another significant industrial sector is mining and lumber. Japan's most important crop is rice, which can be found in almost every single meal in Japan. The government encourages innovation and competition and tariffs are in place to protect Japan's industries.

Development: Modern
Development Description : Japan always followed after Korea and China, seeking to stay even with them should they become adversaries, and be actual competition. Japan has a good ship-building industry and has built up infrastructure although some rural areas may be more primitive. In effect, due to competition, is a modern nation, although lacks many of the natural resources needed to stay this way, relying on imports and expansion.

Army Description : The Imperial Japanese Army currently consists of 250,000 active men and 145,000 reserve. These men are very well equipped and well trained with the modern muskets. They work to obtain the most modern equipment and cutting edge technology that resources allow. Many have seen combat experience, and these men are highly educated at the Imperial Army Academy. These men have diverse training, being that Japan has different terrains, and are used to operating from beaches, mountains, snow, and jungle environments. They specialize in stealth, jungle, and night fighting and are very well equipped to do so. These men are very loyal to the Emperor, having been taught his praises since birth, and are effectively an elite force. In times of war, conscription is often used, and while creating quantity, damages the quality of the force. Nearly all of the men currently in the Army are volunteers.

Conscription System: All men between the ages of 17 and 40 years are eligible for conscription, but only those who are age 20 are to be drafted while those who have turned 17 could volunteer. All men between the ages of 17 and 40, even those who have not received military training or are physically unfit, are considered part of the territorial militia or national guard (kokumin). Following the period of active military service (gen-eki), which lasted for three years, the soldiers become part of the first Reserve (yōbi) and then the second Reserve (kōbi). All young and able-bodied men who did not receive basic military training due to exceptions and those conscripts who had not fully met the physical requirements of military service, became third Reserve (hojū). In the time of war, the first Reserve (yōbi) are to be called up first and they are intended to fill in the ranks of the regular army units. Next to be called up are the kōbi reserve who were to be either used to further fill in the ranks of line units or to be formed into new ones. The hojū reserve members are to be called up only in exceptional circumstances, and the territorial militia or national guard would only be called up in case of an immediate enemy attack on or invasion of Japan.

The Imperial Guard consists of 10,500 enlisted soldiers. Their duties vary as while they are trained to take a role as a soldier, their duties are to protect the Imperial Palace, the Emperor, his family, put out any fire on Imperial Property, and have the authority to act as a police force on Palace grounds. These men are handpicked to be loyal to the Emperor.

The Imperial Army is always looking at ways to improve the armed forces, and if they can obtain more resources, are bound to expand its size. They are on the forefront of new military technology, and are currently looking into use of observation balloons, rockets, and newer artillery.

Army Weakness : The Army has not seen combat against a real military since the invasion of Papua New Guinea. Other than that, they have only suppressed minor revolts, and invaded the Marina Islands and Guam, which were fairly easy, as the locals lacked modern military capabilities. They are fairly untested in recent history, and at times lack the resources they need to continue.

Naval Description : The Imperial Navy is the focus of the military, being an island nation. It is a high importance to be able to get to the colonies and other nations while being able to protect the home islands for the government. Operating a sizable transport fleet and a well funded battle fleet, it is safe to say Japan's most powerful military branch is the navy. This force is very well trained, with a focus on a decisive battle doctrine. Officers are well taught at the Imperial Navy Academy where they become experts on gunnery and seamanship. Due to the threat poised by superior numbers of enemy ships, the Imperial Navy has adopted night fighting tactics and trains constantly in these to the best of their abilities. The navy is an all volunteer force however in war, would commission "new" ships into the navy in which would be manned by conscripts. It consists of 60,000 men.

A side note of this is that the Imperial Army and Navy is known to commission civilian owned ships as transports and hospitals during times of war. There are multiple cruise lines which received national subsidies from the Japanese government to maintain the vessels for use by the navy in time of war, and through this, they have a large selection for transport ships. There is also a common practice of arming merchant ships and fishing boats so they can be quickly turned into raiders or used in indirect combat.

They navy enjoys more funding than the Imperial Army as it builds ships that take up a lot of the natural resources of Japan. They are constantly improving their equipment and tactics.

Japanese doctrine remains to hold the entire battle fleet in reserve near Japan during a war and engage in what would be one final battle should the circumstances be correct. The goal of this would be to enable Japan to have several advantages over the enemy fleet; the battle taking place near home enabling an easier supply chain, docks nearby, and potentially support from coastal batteries. The goal would be to lure the enemy fleet into the Tsushima Strait, identify their location, and to cross the "T" of the enemy line, which would allow for maximum Japanese fire superiority while limiting the number of guns that could be fired in the direction of Japanese ships. On the offensive Japanese commanders figure in the night, it would allow small boats to attack the hostile capital fleet relatively undetected, and in the confusion, be able to escape while the capital ships lay down fire support. In this time night fighting is rather dangerous, requiring a very coordinated force as communication is almost non existent, ships unable to signal without easy detection by hostile forces. Forces can easily accidentally fire on friendly ships, and this is why should Japan use these tactics, commanders mandate constant training and foolproof planning. In general most night fighting planned by the Imperial Navy currently would be carried out by small groups of ships, which would stay close together while they neared hostile forces before firing their torpedoes and rushing to escape.

Naval Weakness : The Navy lacks the experience of actually engaging in battle. While it has in the past gone on patrols or even intercepted a foreign ship, the navy has never done battle except in support fire and against Papua New Guinea. Historically, navies of the daimyos had battled each other, pirates, and suppressed rebels, but this has not been seen in modern history. The main issue is the lack of natural resources in Japan, many in which need to be imported and the numerical inferiority of the Japanese navy compared to other powers.

Further Military Description : The Imperial Special Naval Landing Forces acts as the marine force of Japan, consisting of 77,932 men. These men are well trained in beach landings, hand to hand combat, and surprise attacks. They are much more skilled than the regular army, and have similar equipment. Their main duties are to land quickly to seize enemy territory, land quick to support a defense effort, or retake an island.

There are other various police organizations such as the Tokko that will deal with issues such as spies or the like.

The samurai have played a huge role in the Empire ever since the beginning, but they proved crucial during the reforms. Many during their fall went on to serve in the government and police, while others went and joined the Imperial Army and Navy. Some became generals, or other high ranking officers but there were a good many that continued on as regular infantry. The Shogunate is known for employing regular people to be soldiers since the 1600s but those were usually in lower positions and did not have the same training and while this is similar today, the samurai and their descendants find themselves on equal footing usually, as now the military uses muskets instead of melee weapons.

National Goals : The main goal of the Empire to to survive. It faces issues at home and abroad, facing off with other Empires in Korea and China. One main goal is to obtain the resources to continue on, if it means finding a reliable ally close to home, or taking it by force.
National Issues : There is some unrest in the colonies and at home while a major issue is the lack of resources for the ever growing population.
National Figures of Interest : [[OPTIONAL]]
National Ambition/Aspirations : Stabilizing Japan and expanding borders.

History :

1623 - Tokugawa Tadanaga becomes the third Tokugawa Shogun at age 17 after his father abdicates the throne. He is picked despite being younger than his brother Tokugawa Iemitsu, having been their parent's favorite. His father had initially declared his first son would take the throne, but after pressure from his wife, who favored Tadanaga, gives in. Iemitsu is furious but is unable to do anything.

1632 - With the death of his father, Tadanaga seeks to continue his father's work in developing Japan. His father before had worked to develop Tokyo into a more modern city and now Tadanaga takes this upon himself. He initiates a modernization project for the entire nation, providing funding from the Shogunate to local daimyos to improve infastructure and modernize the provinces over a course of a planned 50 years.

1633 - Iemitsu in a spite of violence due to his anger over his belief he was not given his rightful place as Shogun, kills one of Tadanaga's retainers and as a result, is forced to commit seppuku after being forced to house arrest. This effectively eliminates Tadanaga's opposition from his control of the Shogunate. During this same year, following the guidance of the carefully picked advisers in a series of edicts and laws over the course of ten years opens Japan up to trade from the rest of the world in a policy called Hirogeru. He does this because he sees it as furthering his father's dream that his brother had sought to destroy. His brother, Iemitsu had been seeking to expel foreigners and cut off trade, due to his hatred of all white foreigners. Iemitsu's mother had died of Typhus, which in his mind, was a foreign disease that would not have come if the foreigners had not brought it to Japan. His hatred went over the top when Tadanaga, who supported foreign religion and trade was selected over him. Tadanaga knew this, and knew this was against both the wishes of his father. His administration encourages being open to foreigners and their religions to an extent. This appeases foreign countries and allows for military technological innovation that helpts to cements Japan as a military power and modern nation. The expansion of trade boosts the economy and further allows for greater technological advancements.

1640 - Under the Tokugawa Tadanaga Shogunate, the population thrives as business booms for the country. The Shogunate has begun sending out trade expeditions of its own, encouraging the population to be accepting of foreigners and move to advance the country's economic and technological status by expanding horizons. USing Red Seal Ships, authorized by the Shogun himself, traders can be found on massive ships moving to do trade with not only with Asia, but nontraditional nations such as those in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Americas. This period of time marks the first point in history Japan has trading ships navigating across the globe. As a result of the flourishing trade focus, the Shogunate rushes to build up its navy to defend its ships from piracy, and keep the trade lanes open. By this point while smaller than most Asian Empires, Japan is on equal footing in terms of trade. The Shogunate has become more centralized, daimyos dependent on the Shogunate to maintain security and infastrure and the populace now claiming loyalty to the Shogun and Emperor, not an individual daimyo.

1651 - Tadanaga dies at age 45 and is succeeded by his eldest son Tokugawa Ietsuna. His mother, Oda Nobuyoshi is the granddaughter of the famous Oda Nobunaga.

Over the next 94 years, the Shogunate retains strong control over Japan, ushering an age of technological, economical, and cultural growth. The population grows immensely, and Japan is starting to look like the modern nation it is today. Roads, bridges, and new buildings are constructed during this period of relative peace. The economy is booming, with merchants from around Asia and even as far away as Europe coming to the vast and rapidly growing trade ports. The country is making a lot of money due to Tadanaga's policies, and is becoming more and more powerful.

1745 - Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune abdicates the throne. Due to his first son's disinterest in politics, he picks his third son, Tokugawa Munetada as Shogun. A series of natural disasters and famines occur throughout the Shogunate, and to manage through this, Munetada institutes policies of rationing, and the government purchasing foreign rice for cheap with its trade connections. This is all due to the population growth that was a result from the 'Hirogeru' policy and now the Shogun has to find solutions to solve the issue.

1747: A massive fleet from Japan consisting of 200 ships seizes Papua and Sulawesi from the natives, using superior firepower and diplomacy.

1764 - Having no children, Munetada abdicates and appoints his nephew, the son of his eldest brother, Tokugawa Ieharu as Shogun. He goes on to die in 1765, but leaves daimyo advisers to watch over the nation as regents. Ieharu works to get on better footing with the Emperor, and is known to have continued work to manage the rise of the merchant class.

1787 - Tokugawa Ieharu dies and his son, Tokugawa Ienari is appointed the Shogun. Despite being 19, Ieharu's trusted advisers are appointed as regents and will lead Japan until Ienari is 25.

1788 - Riots erupt over rice in Tokyo, prompting the council of daimyos to place tariffs on all foreign rice and other grains. This came after decades of purchasing cheaper foreign rice, which lead to domestic farmers being hurt. Meanwhile great fire erupts in Kyoto, burning down the Imperial Palace and the surrounding city. By luck, or the grace of the gods as the people say, it had heavily rained in the following days calming the inferno. Immediately after, the daimyos order that rebuilding of the city begin immediately and all excess funding be put into rebuilding Kyoto. They also institute laws and edicts that create an official full time fire fighting force to a large public approval that will patrol the streets. They also create volunteer fire fighting legions and seek out the production of equipment to more effectively put out fires instead of just buckets.

1789 - Taking advantage of instability, the Chōshū, Satsuma, and Tosa seize control of the Imperial Court and influencing the Emperor, declare themselves independent from the Shogunate. A civil war ensues, but using superior firearms and a having a larger fleet, the Bafuku Palace is seized within a month after only light opposition from other clans as the southern clans had advanced. Within half a year, all of Honshu is seized, and by December, the only loyalist holdouts remain in Hokkaido.

1790 - Hokkaido is invaded after several naval battles, and an Imperial Government is declared with the Emperor officially at its head. The Emperor, Kōkaku, is heavily influenced by western and southern clans who gain much power in the transition.

1791 - The government experiences numerous reforms, creating an Imperial Army of samurai from all domains united under a single banner. Several ministries are created, as well as an Imperial Diet going off of Western systems. The daimyo are given new Imperial titles while most samurai join the Imperial Army although laws are passed to allow for commoners.

1800 - The Imperial Navy is formed, from ships of former daimyo and the former Bafuku. A naval modernization effort is ordered as well as diplomatic expedition.

1805 - Japan sends expeditions westwards to reconnect ties with the Americas.

1810 - Japan asserts claims over Ullengdo officially, and make moves to send ships and fishermen to the area.

1812 - Japan sits ready to expand its territory and its economy, ready for a new Imperial age.


RP Sample: 1912-1990 Era War
1912-1990 Era War
Earth II
The Great Restoration
1935-2000 Era War 4:New Beginnings
2021: A New Decade


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