Nation/Brazoria

Brazoria, officially the Republic of Brazoria (Spanish: la República de Brazória), is an island country in the Gulf of Mexico. It covers an area of 73,418 square kilometres (28,347 square miles) and is home to about 6 million people. English is the official language and Spanish is the language de facto.

Originally populated for centuries by the aboriginal people known as Karankawa, the island was claimed by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas, and a fortress, la Misión de San Ignacio de Antioquía, was built to house Jesuit missionaries. San Ignacio served as a Spanish colony for almost three hundred years until the Spanish abandoned it in 1787.

Re-colonization of the island began in September of 1843 by the crew of the Texas Navy sloop-of-war Brazoria under the leadership of their captain, Emmanuel Martinez. Initially the island was to be claimed in the name of the Republic of Texas, however the crew quickly established a government of their own among the natives, and a capital was established at San Ignacio - the old Spanish fortress of la Misión de San Ignacio de Antioquía. The new nation was named Brazoria, an homage to the ship on which the Texian crew had served. In 1862, the military regime of the Texian colonists was peacefully abolished, and a republican form of government was enacted, the Republic of Brazoria. Since then, the country has been moderately stable.