Difference between revisions of "Nation/Monteverdi"

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Democratic Republic of Monteverdi
'Motto: '"Vox populi vox Dei"
Anthem: " "
Region		Democratic Socialist Federation
Capital		Corelli
Largest city		Leoncavallo
Demonym		Monteverdian
Government		Democratic Republic
-	Governor	Joshua B. Thomas
-	Lieutenant Governor	Aaron J. Brown
-	Speaker of the House	Michael J. Wallace
Legislature		Parliament
Population
-	2017 estimate	507 million
GDP (PPP)		estimate
-	Total	$50.8 trillion
HDI (2017)		0.92 very high
Currency		Monteverdian Dollar (MVD)
Date format		mm ˘ dd ˘ yyyy
Drives on the		right
Calling code		+07
Internet TLD		.mv

The Democratic Republic of Monteverdi is a democratic republic in the Democratic Socialist Federation. Monteverdi is comprised of 7 Districts, each surrounding one of the 7 major cities.

Government

The Democratic Republic of Monteverdi is a Democratic Republic, in which majority rule is blended with minority rights protected by law. The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Monteverdi is the supreme law of the land: it protects the rights of the people and establishes the Government.

The Government is composed of three branches:

Executive

Headed by the Governor of the Democratic Republic of Monteverdi. Can veto legislative bills, appoint cabinet members and Supreme Court Justices, and is Commander-in-Chief of the Monteverdi military.

Legislative

Made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Makes legislation, declares war, allocates funds, and approves treaties.

Judicial

Made up of the Supreme Court and lower courts. Has the power of judicial review, and is the highest legal authority after the Constitution.

History

The Bronze and Iron Age

The earliest history of Monteverdi begins in the Bronze Age, around 2500 BC, with the first appearance of bronze objects in the archaeological record. Presumably, earlier human occupation existed, but as of yet little archaeological evidence has been found aside from certain tomb structures that provide little information on the nature of those cultures. Early signs of humans coincide with the appearance of the characteristic Atlian culture. The Atlian people focused on fishing and hunting. They remained highly isolated in their early history -- in fact, they believed that there was nothing beyond their land. The Bronze Age Atlian culture is highly focused on the individual as opposed to communities, with signs of the culture primarily being focused on large tombs and burial mounds, suggesting the rise to of increasingly powerful elites. These elites' power was enshrined in the control of the flow of precious resources, to manipulate tin and copper into high-status bronze objects such as swords and axes, and their prowess as hunters and warriors. Settlement became increasingly permanent and intensive. Towards the end of the period, numerous examples of extremely fine metalwork begin to be found deposited in rivers, presumably for ritual reasons.

The Iron Age is conventionally said to begin around 800 BC. The overall picture of continuity suggests this was not accompanied by any substantial movement of population; evidence of life in this time suggests the development of the early forerunners of the later First Kingdom. On the whole, burials largely disappeared across Atlia, the dead being disposed of in a way which is archaeologically invisible: excarnation or cremation are widely cited possibilities, evidenced most famously by a structure known only as “The Altar”, a man-made structure thought to be a proto-crematorium. Hillforts were known since the Late Bronze Age, but a huge number were constructed in the period 600–400 BC, particularly in the North; after about 400 BC, new hillforts largely ceased to be built and a large number cease to be regularly inhabited, while others become heavily occupied, suggesting a degree of regional centralization.

At around 200 BC, a religion known as Dalinism started to gain support. While the exact dates of the life of the religion's prophet, Dalin, are unknown, he was believed to have resided near present-day Leoncavallo. The development of local written language begins primarily with written religious texts, including prototypical forms of the current Dalinian Creed and certain addendum texts. Folk religions would continue to oppose Dalinism for centuries following, forming the center of some of the greatest Atlian conflicts of the Medieval era.

The First Kingdom

The earliest examples of written Atlian occur around 100 BC. This coincided with the beginning of the First Kingdom. Jaspus, who would become the first King of the Atlian Kingdom, began gathering together local tribes under his banner, He began his campaigns in a location near the mouth of the Great River, close to modern Corelli, where he conquered his brother's hillfort with help from two local tribal chiefs, Godan and Ruthgar.

Following his brother's death, he and his allies turned south and raided villages along the south-eastern coast until they reached what would become Aleotti, where they faced the armies of Unik the Bald in 12 BC. Defeating their enemies through clever tactics, utilizing the hilly landscape and morning fog to hide their numbers, the Atlian army routed the army of Unik. Over the next four years, the territory was consolidated and King Jaspus led a campaign into the Southwest, where he subjugated two more tribes. By 3 CE the border of the Atlian Kingdom had been pushed back as far as Black Hill. By 16 CE, it covered all of Atlia south of Leoncavallo. King Jaspus died in 17 CE, leaving the throne and crown to his son Bengar.

At the same time, the Dalinian faith saw its first major schism. Focused on questions related to who was the foremost of the intercessors, three major groups arose between 10 BCE and 5 BCE. The first was centered on the writings of Pamius, and became known as the Pamisians. The Pamisians believed that, while Dalin was the Great Prophet, in heaven all intercessors were considered equal, and therefore none should take precedence in worship. The second group were the Presciites, who believed that St. Gil, who Dalin described as "first of God's chosen", and the earliest intercessor mentioned in the Dalinian Creed, was also the highest in precedence in heaven. They pointed to the "first of God's chosen" passage not as a description of chronology, but of favor. The final group was the Prophescians, who believed that Dalin, as the Great Prophet and deliverer of the Word, was the highest in God's favor. By this point in history, Bengar had converted to Dalinism, and the Church was a central power in the Atlian Kingdom.

As debates grew more and more expansive and bitter, the divide threatened to tear the Church apart, and with it the fledgling Kingdom. As such, Bengar turned to the Archon of the Church to oversee the matter. However, the Archon was a friend of Jacobi, the de facto leader of the Prophescians. While the Archon called a council of the Church, the debate was clearly slanted in favor of the Prophescians. Half the Presciite bishops were barred from entering the debate. As such, the Prophescian doctrine was widely accepted as Church canon. The Pamisians managed to retain their positions, but the Presciites were excommunicated from the Church.

The Presciites were angered by this; they took to arms in 20 CE. Bengar, at the behest of the Archon, turned his armies upon them and the Presciite Rebellion was quelled. So influential was this uprising, that most versions of the Dalinian Creed have the Book of Gil removed and any mention of him stricken or demonized. This left two main branches of the faith in terms of belief and doctrine: the Pamisians and the Prophescians.

Following his father's death, Bengar continued the Atlian conquest. By 50 CE, the entirety of the land was unified under the Atlian crown. Written records at this time are focused on accurate genealogies and death records, suggesting a cultural focus on birthrights. Legal structures for succession law begin appearing around 72 CE, further lending credence to this theory.

The Atlian Kingdom was marked by increasing regional centralization and rapid overhauls in technology and science. However, the Atlian Kingdom was doomed to fall in 192 AD, as invaders from Jaenis Isle pushed south-west; first taking over several northern isles, but eventually reaching the Atlian mainland. While the Atlian forces repelled the invaders, the Jaenisians had brought with them the Red Fever, a plague to which the Atlians had no resistance. The ensuing spread of pestilence caused centralization to break apart as more and more people moved back to the countryside to avoid the centers of plague. This caused revolts amongst those who remained, eventually leading to the dissolution of the Atlian Kingdom as population numbers dwindled.

The Inter-Kingdom Age

The next four hundred years were marked by a slow rebuilding of the population. During this period, many of the technological breakthroughs of the First Kingdom were lost, most notably advanced irrigation techniques. The nation fell apart into small, feudal states, which changed drastically over the tumultuous time that followed. Several times, ealdormen in charge of various regions of the nation attempted to rebuild the Atlian Kingdom, to varying degrees of success, but always failing in the end. By 601 AD, the various states had settled into a more consistent, basic layout, vaguely mirroring former tribal groupings.

These four hundred years were also marked by increasing Church influence in the day-to-day governance of the people. The Church was one of the few institutions remaining from the First Kingdom, and therefore one of the closest proxies for a central government of Atlia that existed at the time. As such, the internal politics and workings of the Church became increasingly important and tumultuous.

The first major feud in the Church occurred in 201 CE. Since the early decades of the 1st Century, Church elders had debated the legitimacy of the Letters of Hart Isle as Church doctrine. The letters prescribed the basic tenets of Church functions, and had been widely accepted as the basis for many Churches in the area. However, by 201, an increasingly popular group began debating the legitimacy of using the writings, as they didn't come from Daoun himself. At the center of the debate was inclusion of public prayer in Church worship. To quote the First Letter of Hart Isle, "You shall stand as one and lift your voices in exultation to God's glory, for he has provided for you." This seemed to fly in the face of Daoun's prescription for prayer in the First Prophecy: "One who shouts in the market square of their love for God is no true believer, for he seeks only the acceptance of flawed matter. Blessed are they who keep God in their heart."

At the center of this debate were the twin Churches of Fronte and Melbias. The debate grew heated, with violence between followers of the two sides in several places, and so the Provite Council was formed. After a week of debate, it was agreed that only intercessors could make claims on the control of the Church, but the Archon also agreed that Malcolm showed all the signs of an intercessor, and so he was made an intercessor and his letters were collected and published.

The other events that marked both Church and state were the series of holy wars that ranged across Atlia at this time. Traditional pagan worship was seen as heretical by the Daounian faith, and crusades to defeat pagan lords and convert them to Daounianism were common. Such crusades and wars are at the center of many stories. Called the Wars of Conversion, they form the central cultural image of the Inter-Kingdom Age for most modern Monteverdians, romanticized as they are due to the imagery of the "gallant knight" which later generations would add into the tales.

The Second Kingdom

In 619 AD, the Jaenisians attempted another series of raids on the Atlian mainland, which were repelled. In revenge for the death of his brother in the invasion, Willem Luecer formed alliances with six other Dukes and struck out on ships to Jaenis Isle, where the Atlians turned the tables on their attackers and wound up capturing the Isle. Subjugating its people, Luecer renamed Jaenis Isle the Kingdom of Lueceria, and used his political acumen and the ships captured at Jaenis Isle to attack an unprepared and weakened northern populace of the Atlian mainland. At the same time, he forcibly converted the Jaenisian populace to Daounianism in the Last War of Conversion, and gave his religious advisor the title of Archon-on-Lueceria. This caused the first long-term denominational split of the Daounian Church, forming the Luecerian Orthodox Church.

With the help of his allies in the south and his own attacks from the north, Willem conquered much of Atlia under the banner of the Kingdom of Lueceria. This began the Second Kingdom, which would last five hundred years.

Willem Luecer died in 649 AD, and was succeeded by his son, Drommand Luecer. Drommand was a capable military commander in his own right, and led a series of brutal, expansionist attacks on the surrounding regions. While internal conflicts between the rapidly increasing number of dukes, lords, and barons were common, the Crown of Lueceria held stable power for the duration of the Second Kingdom.

For the next 300 years, the Kingdom was officially at peace. However, border skirmishes continued. In 952 AD, towards the end of King Bansio’s reign, rebellions began occurring. With the army forced to deal with the rebellions in the South, the tribal forces in the North rallied and surged over the borders. Combat was not swift, and the war was defined by quickly shifting and changing borders. Finally, around 980 AD, the Northern tribes were pushed far enough back that they surrendered, making another long-term peace treaty.

The greatest divisions at the time were between sects of the Daounian faith. The greatest controversy was related to the division between Luecerian Orthodoxy and the Daounian Church. The Archon-on-Lueceria and the Daounian Archon would battle for years, both seeing themselves as the true leader and heart of the Church. While early on the throne aligned itself with the Luecerian Orthodox faith, this changed over the years due to marriages with Daounian nobility. In 967 CE, the throne of Lueceria officially left the Luecerian Orthodox Church with the capital's move to Corelli, much to the dismay of the Orthodox Church. The Archon-on-Lueceria would work with Northern lords over the coming decades to attempt to reinstall an Orthodox king.

In 1011 CE, this came to a head with the Singer Rebellions. Harald Luecer, a cousin of then-King Marcus Luecer, rose up with the backing of the Orthodox Church and a collection of Northern lords, and attempted to take the throne by force. His defeat in 1013 CE at the First Battle of Corelli led to his exile on St. Margaret's Isle. He would rise again two years later, leading to his execution in 1016 CE. The end of the Singer rebellions would lead to a period of peace and prosperity for the nation that would last for a century, marked only by minor political and religious squabbles that would set the formation of the modern Daounian Church in motion.

The Reformative Age

In 1150 CE, a matter of succession debate caused the nation to split again. Corvin Luecer, the eldest son of then-King Barriveld Luecer, but was actually the King's third child, after Genevieve Luecer and Juliette Averly (nee. Luecer). While Juliette had married, been widowed and joined a convent, Genevieva was still active and had spent much of her life assisting in court and crown affairs, while Corvin had been sent to the North to be tutored. With the death of their father, Corvin claimed he had the right to the throne, while Genevieve claimed the same. While technically at that time no woman had ever inherited the throne, there was nothing in the law stating that she couldn't inherit. Corvin's supporters in the North claimed that he had the right as eldest son; Genevieve's claimed she had the right by practice and as eldest child. Religious divides again came to the fore: the Luecerian Orthodox Church heavily supported Corvin, and riled up their followers to also support him. This led to civil war, which ended at the Second Battle of Corelli. The signing of the Corelli Accord split the nation into two principalities: the Principality of Monteverdi in the south, under Genevieve, and the Principality of Leos in the north, under Corvin.

Over the course of his reign, a combination of higher taxes, unsuccessful wars and conflict with the Luecerian Orthodox Church had made Prince Corvin unpopular with his dukes, and in 1190 some of the most important decided to rebel against him. On July 13, 1191, he met the rebels at the Principality’s capital, Leoncavallo, to seal the Script of Lords, which imposed legal limits on the Prince's personal powers. Because he had sealed under duress, however, Corvin received approval from the Archon-on-Lueceria to break his word as soon as hostilities had ceased, provoking a Monteverdian invasion by Prince Matthias Luecer, Genevieve's son and Corvin's nephew. Corvin traveled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, directing, among other operations, an eight-month siege of the rebel-held Wertham Castle. Corvin died in battle at the age of 92, and Matthias assumed the throne of a newly united nation, now under the name of the Kingdom of Monteverdi.

In 1276, under King Fredrich, Matthias’ son, the Kingdom of Monteverdi willingly adopted the Script of Lords, which became the basis for its Constitution and Parliament. Meanwhile, the Northern tribes were dissolving under the pressure of their own feuding lords, first losing control of their eastern reaches to rebellion in 1270, then their southern-most territories in a series of conflicts between 1277 and 1281. By 1286, the Northern tribes were wholly contained on Jaenis Isle. The Kingdom of Monteverdi bided its time under the rule of Fredrich, and waited for the Northern tribes to exhaust themselves in a series of internal conflicts.

Finally, in 1290, Fredrich turned his forces northward and began capturing northern territories. The wars were swift and decisive. By 1293, the whole land was united, save for Jaenis Isle.

This became the status quo for the next 200 years. The Luecer dynasty reestablished itself, and used this period to begin efforts at unifying the nation under a single culture. This involved the creation of extensive road systems, the spreading of Daounian Church doctrine northwards and a requirement for a unity of language. This became a period of peace and growth for the nation. In 1381, however, the Church faced a crisis as the Movine Heresy began to gain a foothold. The Church leveraged its power on the crown, but was faced with a cold shoulder. This led to the excommunication of several important lords and the brief Movine War, which lasted three months. At the end, the role of Archon of the Daounian Church was dissolved and incorporated into the role of the crown. The excommunicated lords were absolved and allowed back into the fold of the Church, and the Movine Heresy was squashed.

The Imperialist Age

In 1494, King Henry of Monteverdi asked for the hand of the neighboring Jaenisian Prince's daughter in marriage, to seal an alliance, but was refused. Taking this insult to heart, he called for war. Monteverdian ships sailed northwards, and the War of Jaenis Isle began. Monteverdi swept through the island, and by 1500 had conquered it entirely.

Starting in 1505, having consolidated its Jaenisian holdings, the crown turned its attention outward. They began sending out explorers to nearby lands, the most notable of whom were Jasper Gray, a conman-turned-sailor, and Lord Mardo Bradley, a wealthy merchant. Gray used his silver-tongue and skill for naval command to establish several colonies in the surrounding region, while Bradley eventually established the Bradley Shipping Company, which would become an important force in the nearly 400 years of Monteverdian imperialism, especially in colonization of Miklania.

Gray would eventually return to Monteverdi to accept a lordship and commendation from the crown, and served under King Henry as chief naval advisor, and eventual regent for King James. Although he showed piety and intelligence, James was only nine years old when he took the throne in 1510. His uncle, Edward Adenbury, tampered with Henry’s will and obtained letters patent giving him much of the power of a monarch by March 1511. He took the title of Protector. Whilst some see him as a high-minded idealist, his stay in power culminated in a crisis in 1513 when many counties of the kingdom were up in protest. Adenbury, disliked by the Parliament for his autocratic methods, was removed from power by Gray. Gray proceeded to adopt the power of Protector for himself, but his methods were more conciliatory and the Parliament accepted him.

Simultaneously, the Bradley Shipping Company was expanding its reach and influence, establishing itself as a primary political and trade force in many nations, acting as an arm of the Monteverdian Crown. In Miklania, they began integrating themselves into the local political networks. Using their wealth, they were able to leverage their way into positions of influence in the nation, and over the next century would act as a destabilizing force for local rulership. In 1550, Monteverdian settlers would establish the first colonies in Wellsia.

During this time, the basics of the landed gentry system began to gain deeper roots. Systems were established that provided greater and greater powers to the aristocracy, most notably in the functions of the Parliamentary system. The Six Lords Act of 1533 established the basis for future Monteverdian governance in the form of the initial systems of the House of Lords and its power over a still-developing concept of a House of Commons. The reign of James was seen as a golden age for Monteverdi. Issues which had divided the country for hundreds of years, including language and religion, had finally homogenized to the point of seeing a united Monteverdian presence and culture; internal peace was at a high. This allowed for an expansion of the powers of government, but due to the Six Lords' Act, the power of the nobility was maintained. James died in 1567, and was succeeded first by his eldest son, Marcus, who died the following year, and then by Peter, who would rule until 1588.

Monteverdian imperialism didn't truly grow to a head until the early 1600s. Before this time, the focus of Monteverdian growth was purely business based, avoiding military conflict if at all possible. Starting in 1601, however, Monteverdi began building up its naval power for rapid outward expansion. Utilizing trade routes established by the Bradley Shipping Company, Monteverdi allowed would-be colonies to grow dependent on Monteverdian trade, before severing the lines and utilizing naval might to force a stranglehold on local powers. Thus, Monteverdian imperialism began in earnest. A perfect example of this operation was in Miklania, where the BSC began leveraging their wealth and trade to begin controlling King Lvijas. This inflamed local passions and caused Miklania to tear itself apart. The BSC simply withdrew to their island fortresses to wait out the instability. When things settled, Miklania was still weak from the divide, and the Monteverdian Navy arrived on the coast. They took several coastal towns, which they used as a foothold to walk over the chaotic Eastern Republics, which were soon restyled as the Eastern Territories of Monteverdian Miklania. Not particularly interested in pushing further west since they had access to the resources they intended to capture, the Monteverdians spent the next century consolidating their power and imposing Monteverdian law over the area, including teaching of Daounianism and building of Daounian churches.

This, combined with the new religious practices, inflamed the natives, who redoubled their efforts to defend their interior. Having not taken the opportunity to sweep into the mountainous interior early in the war, the Monteverdians provided too much time for the natives to generate a defense. At the same time, the pro-Daounian laws generated a spark of rebellion amongst the captured areas of the country.

The war dragged on at that point, devolving into a war of attrition. The Miklanians couldn't move forward due to the technologies utilized by the Monteverdians, but the Monteverdians couldn't move forward due to their lack of knowledge of terrain, and ferocity of the Miklanians. Over the next 15 years, the war carried on, and became one of the deadliest in Monteverdian history. In the end, however, what ended the war was not the death toll on the battlefield, but in the captured cities. The combined forces of plague and rebellion brought down the Monteverdian army, as an epidemic of typhoid began spreading across their captured lands. With the Monteverdians weakened by disease, the inflamed populace saw their moment to rise up and toss out their religious oppressors. The Battle of Aeselrich was a disaster for the Monteverdians, with feverish, exhausted or hemorrhaging soldiers falling to the furious brutality of those they had oppressed.

With their rear lines dissolving, the Monteverdians on the frontlines were forced to withdraw, ceding territory back to the Miklanians, and in 1632 Monteverdi left Miklania entirely, with only a few Monteverdians left behind.

It was during this time that the indentured servant system that would come to epitomize the Monteverdian debtor problem would first grow to power. In 1601, Monteverdi passed the Indentured Servitude Act, which had drastic effects on Monteverdian culture and economics. The dukes of Monteverdi began firmly entrenching a loan-based economy, providing loans to settle and build on ducal land. These loans often had exorbitant interest rates, which would force people to sign their lives away to servitude once the period of their loans had come up. The majority of these indentured servants were used either working large plantations or in the manufacturing of textiles and lumber.

The rapid expansion of the Monteverdian Empire was stayed in the late 1600s by the Monteverdian Civil War. The Civil War broke out in 1653, largely as a result of an ongoing series of conflicts between the throne and Parliament over control of the colonies. To pay for the war effort, the Crown expanded taxes on their colonial holdings.

The defeat of the Royalist Army by the Republican Army of Parliament at the Battle of Leoncavallo in January 1660 effectively destroyed the King’s forces. King Kay escaped to Jaenis Isle, but was eventually handed over to Parliament in 1662. He escaped, and the war continued, although it ended quickly, with the Republican Army quickly securing the country. The capture and subsequent trial of Kay led to his beheading in May 1663 at the Town Square in Corelli, and Monteverdi was established as a republic.

The Fall of the Empire

The 1700s were marked by a series of international conflicts. As a result of lucrative Monteverdian trade with its colonies and allies, the waters surrounding Monteverdi were becoming increasingly prone to piracy. The Republic made it a priority to combat the increased pirate activity, beginning the continuous and frequent Pirate Wars of the 1700s and early 1800s.

The bloodiest of the Pirate Wars occurred at their outset, between 1710 and 1720. Monteverdi had formed a special navy of pirate hunters and privateers to combat the growing threat to their trade dominion. Famous pirate admiral (and former captain of the Monteverdian navy) Perrigrine Young gathered together a force rivaling the size of the whole of the Monteverdian Navy. The pirate hunting brigade was forced into a decisive conflict with the pirate armada at the Battle of Black Fog, so-called because primary sources claim that the sea was "so choked by the smoke from the cannons it seemed God had decided to send in a black fog". The pirate armada was only broken by the sudden arrival of help from Monteverdian naval genius, Admiral Wilson Kirkham. While Captain Young himself escaped the end of the conflict and would later retire in Singapore, it is said that more than 300 pirates were executed after the battle and dumped overboard to feed "an army of sharks", although the number has been debated in modern times.

In 1722, the Monteverdian government passed the Standards of Rule Act, which began the process of formalizing and standardizing the government of Monteverdi into a more democratic system. It established the rights of the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as the basic responsibilities of the Governor. Jessup Pontiff became the first official Governor. These roles would later be more rigidly defined in the 1745 Writ of Governance and the 1748 Act for the Formalization of Responsibilities in Government.

As Monteverdi became more secular, religious groups became more extreme. On December 24, 1731, Daounian rebels attempted the assassination of the Governor. The six rebels managed to sneak into the Capitol building under the guise of service staff. Armed with daggers, one of the would-be assassins managed to stab the Governor twice before being taken down by guards. All of the rebels in the Capitol were captured, and the Governor survived the stabbing. This led to the Wheatfield Crisis, wherein known Daounians had their rights suppressed and were executed en masse.

In 1742, Monteverdi faced the Great Slave Revolt. Slaves across the homeland, emboldened by propositions presented by Hellingsford Freeman and Lucas Potvin in their travels across Monteverdi, took arms against their masters, who were primarily members of the landed gentry. The revolts started in Leoncavallo and rapidly spread across Monteverdi, particularly to the rice paddies of the south. Homeland agricultural production ground nearly to a halt. By September of that year, the domestic economy faced such a crisis that the Governor issued the Emancipation Order, officially banning slavery in Monteverdi. While slaves were freed, many wound up signing themselves into indentured servitude over the following years, essentially returning them to their previous standing.

In 1746, pirate forces swept into the Wellsian colonies. Over the next two years, the most disastrous of the Pirate Wars would be waged, forcing back the Monteverdian army and eventually ousting the Monteverdian colonial government. The pirates would conquer the Wellsian colonies and establish their own nation in 1748.

In order to pay for the increasingly expensive Pirate Wars, the Government once again began raising taxes in the colonies. Local kings took this as an excuse to begin raising armies, and in 1748, revolted against the Monteverdian Crown. Local Monteverdian soldiers were rapidly pushed back to their well-defended ports, which were besieged by the rebels. The rebel navy moved in and trapped the Monteverdian forces in many of their port cities. According to folk tales, one brave Monteverdian soldier, John Lockesley, swam past the rebel navy in the dead of night and stole a rowboat, with which he rowed home to warn Monteverdi. The accuracy of this tale is minuscule at best. It is more likely that loyalist infiltrators of the rebels themselves smuggled Lockesley out of the country themselves. When all seemed lost, the Monteverdian navy arrived and trapped the rebel navy between them and land, tearing apart the rebel forces. Morale broken, the rebels fell back, and were defeated by the Monteverdian army in 1753.

In 1792, a Monteverdian pirate hunter mistakenly sunk an Ithian merchant vessel off the coast of Jaenis Isle. This was followed by a retaliatory strike from the Kingdom of Ithia, sinking the Monteverdian merchant vessel St. Albert. The two nations declared war in August of 1792, leading to the Ithian invasion of Jaenis Isle later that year. The war was swift and decisive on the side of Ithia due to the fact that Jaenis Isle was sparsely defended and Monteverdi was militarily spread thin across the Empire.

Ithia held the isle until 1803, at which point it pulled off the island due to its lack of strategic importance and the fact that it was an economic sink to defend an isle that sparsely populated and with no major resources just for the sake of an old grudge. With the Monteverdian Empire already beginning to weaken, Monteverdi allowed Jaenis Isle to retain independence as a "culturally independent territory within the sphere of Monteverdian dominion".

The Industrial Revolution

On the homefront, Monteverdi was focused on the development of its interior. Monteverdian culture, which had always been centered on the ideals of work ethic and efficiency, were swift to embrace industrial reform, and began an industrial revolution in the early 1800s. This movement was guided by the highly influential Bradley Shipping Company, which over the first decade of the 19th Century would shift from its trade dominance to manufacturing, becoming the Bradley Machinery Company in 1811. The internationally accepted "Monteverdian identity" was cemented at this time: hard-working, financially motivated and resourceful.

This period of rapid industrialization brought with it systems that would remain entrenched for the coming centuries. The indentured service, workhouse and debtors prisons systems came to be intertwined in an intrinsic fashion. Banks and large-scale, nobility-owned corporations started coming into existence. The national interest in manufacturing exploded. The city of Leoncavallo’s population tripled in a period of five years as its factories became central to the Monteverdian economy.

1848 saw reforms in voting rights, as the battle for women's suffrage began. Women marched on Parliament, one of the earliest examples of non-violent protest in Monteverdian history. In 1849, the Women's Rights Act passed, and women were given full and equal voting, property ownership and employment rights as men. This sowed a seed for further rights reforms in coming decades, and was the first glimmer of anti-aristocratic sentiment that would come to grow over the next century-and-a-half.

The 1850s were marked by the Monteverdian Silver Rush. While silver had always been available, a particularly large vein was discovered in 1852, which led thousands to rush westward in the hopes of capturing their fortunes. Mining corporations began selling prospecting licenses for land owned by their holdings, and developed legal teams for finding and prosecuting illegal prospectors. Known as Pellmans, after Louis Pellman of the Leoncavallo Mining Corporation, their ruthlessness and brutality was well-noted, and some historians point to this moment as the first sign of corporate power overreach in Monteverdi.

From 1840 to 1860, marijuana growth and usage came to prominence in Monteverdi. Known as "soft opium", its use was common among the lower classes, particularly factory workers. It's usage exploded in 1855, when Parliament passed large taxes on beer, rendering the beverage unaffordable to most people. Marijuana became the post-work relaxant of choice in Monteverdi, far surpassing alcohol and tobacco in that regard. While its use dwindled in the late 1860s and 1870s, its use would be considered normal thereafter.

The 1860s also saw the completion of the original Monteverdian rail network, with it then possible to travel from Corelli in the south to the northern-most tip of Monteverdi non-stop on a single ticket. The run became famous when it was raced by six men on horseback, leading to the death of two engineers in a rockslide, and one of the horsemen to drowning during a river crossing.

At the same time, a series of cholera outbreaks would run rampant across the mainland of Monteverdi. These outbreaks reached epidemic levels over the years between 1880 and 1883, before finally subsiding. Following the epidemic, Monteverdi began large-scale infrastructure development to combat future disease. Huge building projects began, including construction of then-modern sewer systems, hospitals and transport systems. Monteverdian infrastructure was so impressive that the nation’s engineering and industrial expertise was the envy of many other nations around the globe.

In the early 1890s, Jaenis Isle faced revolution from a minority group supporting re-entry to the Empire. Monteverdi sent support for the rebels, but withdrew due to the perceived lack of economic motivation in retaking Jaenis Isle. Jaenisian refugees swarmed back to Monteverdi and were welcomed with open arms, due to the influx to the workforce. In 1895, a powerful earthquake struck Jaenis Isle and caused a tsunami that swept across portions of northern Monteverdi. In a single decade, the population of Jaenis Isle had declined from an estimated 50,000 to below 15,000, as result of emigration, disease, famine and disaster. This period is called the Great Jaenisian Misery.

The Twentieth Century

The early 20th century was mostly peaceful for Monteverdi. It found itself in an economic upswing as a result of its shift to heavy manufacturing. Monteverdi was seen as a powerful and important neutral trading partner by nations around the world, concerning itself mostly with business and not for international politics. This engendered increased nationalism and a wave of increased imperialism, sometimes considered the "last death spasms of the Monteverdian Empire". Sparked by these sentiments, Governor Charles Bentley Springer pushed for what he called a "reconstruction of the traditional Monteverdian identity" through recapture of old territory. The first push was to reinvade and recapture Miklania.

Initially massively successful, the Monteverdian invasion of Miklania faced little resistance. The Miklanian forces were small and ill-prepared for the modern Monteverdian military force. The Miklanian militias lost cohesive organization rapidly and Monteverdi was able to capture large swaths of Miklania, including the capital, and executed Miklanian leadership. Some of the Miklanian government managed to escape and rejoin with militia leaders to form an underground government loyal to the Miklanian constitution. This underground government began a guerrilla war against the occupying Monteverdian forces. More suited to the traditional combat of the 1800s, the Monteverdian army was not ready for these tactics and began to be pushed back. The underground Miklanian government recaptured many cities, but the largest shift in the war came at sea. The last remnants of the Miklanian navy following an early and decisive loss got a major windfall when they caught much of the Monteverdian navy at harbor. Blocking escape, the two ships unloaded upon the Monteverdian forces and sunk many ships, eventually leading to a cease-fire and surrender negotiations. The terms were generous to the Monteverdians, with the Miklanians knowing that Monteverdi still had the advantage if it came back to fire now that the Monteverdian navy was prepared. The Miklanians allowed them to pack up and leave. While combat continued on land for some time, the Monteverdian loss at the harbor swung the balance of power towards the Miklanians.

Embarrassed by the loss to "underequipped colonials", pressure was levied by the Senate, and Monteverdian forces were withdrawn. Governor Springer was removed from power due to the incident, with most of the blame levied against him. From the Miklanian perspective, the war encouraged their militaristic tendencies, creating the militarized state that is known today.

Monteverdi remained neutral for much of the Great War as a result of its recent trade with members of both sides of the conflict, until Parliament elected to enter the conflict in 1917 on the side of the Allies. Popular Monteverdian myth supports the tale that this decision was motivated by a letter written by the Anglorian Emperor to Governor Wilfred Mott, which personally offended the Governor to the extent that the nation was dragged to war. More accurately, the motion was as a result of Prokovinsky’s entrance to the theatre of war: Monteverdi’s burgeoning rail company's interests were tied to Prokovinskian imports, and entrance to the war was a necessity to keep the Prokovinskians as trade allies.

As a result of their late entry to the war, they avoided much of the catastrophic losses of life, and benefited economically by the sale of wartime resources. Monteverdi had always placed an inordinate amount of value in monetary wealth as a result of its tradition of landed gentry, but the economic boom following the Great War developed a culture in the 20th century of consumerism which lasts till the present day.

Sparked by the unequal treatment soldiers of color faced upon returning home from the Great War, the time following the war was one of discontent. Non-white soldiers had fought side-by-side with white soldiers, equal on the battlefield, but returned home to find their rights limited by a white aristocracy, with a disproportionate black population in indentured servitude, workhouses or debtor's prisons as a result. This discontent erupted in 1920, as race riots began throughout Corelli. In 1921, the Racial Equality Act was passed, giving non-whites in Monteverdi the same rights as white citizens.

However, a powder keg had been lit. Hateful of the aristocracy, a growing group of dissenters were inspired by the communist revolution of Prokovinsky. In 1928, the Worker's Party of Monteverdi attempted an armed revolt, which lasted six months before ending in the dissolution of the party. This revolt was marked by extreme violence on both sides, to an extent not seen in more than a century on the Monteverdian mainland. It finally ended with the public executions of several WPA leaders on the steps of Parliament. The remnants of the party began an intellectual, anti-aristocratic movement more in line with Monteverdian cultural tradition.

The widespread increase in personal wealth caused by the Great War allowed for a never-before-seen luxury commodities market. Televisions became widely available and adopted. This began the expansion of the Monteverdian media industry, which had begun at the turn of the century with the early adoption and development of film studios. Monteverdi became a regional leader for television production, development and broadcast. Television news and journalism became a major facet of Monteverdi's culture and foreign policy strategy. Along with this came an increase of related media industries. Music, advertising and the already successful film market all rapidly increased in response to the increased interest in television through the 50s and 60s. The interest in manufacturing and industry, combined with this media interest and the accompanying growth in an early electronics market of the era flourished into Monteverdian futurism: the obsessive need for technological and artistic development into futuristic fields. Science fiction and speculative fiction became immensely popular genres, representing an optimistic view of the future and the possibilities of technology.

The seemingly limitless potential for growth of the Monteverdi economy came to a peak in the early 1970s. Property values had sky-rocketed and the value of Monteverdi products had grown massively and, arguably, unsustainably. In 1972, the bubble popped. After 30 years of expansive growth, the property bubble collapsed, causing sudden and appreciable losses across the Monteverdian economy. Market values of Monteverdian goods dropped, and with them opportunities for investment diminished. International shareholders and domestic investors began pulling their support of Monteverdian assets and currency values dropped. Unfortunately, the Monteverdian government was so committed to their sentiments of an absolutely free market that they refused to take proactive measures to limit the effects of recession. Instead, they assumed that the market would level out and naturally correct. However, decreased confidence in the market caused it to collapse further. Currency rates plummeted, and by 1974, the recession had settled into a depression. Poverty increased and many of the gains created over the last 40 years were lost. Infrastructure stagnated and many businesses closed their doors. The depression lasted three years while the government scrambled to adjust its economic policy to fix the problem. While the economy began to bounce back in 1978, the damage had already begun. Public trust in the government was at an all-time low, and the Communist movement within the military had garnered a powerful foothold.

The Coup

In the fall of 1980, a military regiment under the control of General Justin Thatch turned on the government, beginning a bloody military coup that would last five years. Beginning at Leoncavallo in the north, military forces rapidly divided along Loyalist and Communist lines. The government attempted to reign in the military insurrection with heavy police action, but by December of 1980, the hostilities had erupted into full-blown civil war.

Communist forces found their strongest foothold in the north, particularly in the area around the town of Bassano. Over the first few months of the war, they focused on digging into their defensive areas. The heaviest combat at that time occurred along the north-east coast, where Communist holdings were weakest. It looked at this time like Loyalist forces would easily be able to push back the Communists and end the war before it started. This changed with the Communist capture of Monteverdian naval bases at Jaenis Isle and Picci. This gave the Communists a foothold to push south along the coast, forcing back loyalist forces. Meanwhile, the rebels built up their strength in the mountains, where loyalist numbers and ground equipment became increasingly irrelevant.

By late 1981, the Communists had moved from the defensive to the offensive, and began pushing south. In the spring of 1983, they reached Corelli. While most government action had been moved to Falceri due to the threat of increased attacks, some politicians had remained or had been delayed. On May 19th, 1983, Communist forces stormed the Capitol and managed to capture twelve politicians, who they beheaded on the steps of the Capitol. This would become one of the most infamous moments of the war, and would taint Monteverdian foreign relations for years. At the same time, the Monteverdian Empire officially came to an end. The burdens of the war and increased nationalism in Gudao forced Monteverdi to release the last of its holdings.

By this point, both sides had begun to slip into more and more desparate action. Human rights abuses and war crimes were commonplace, including abuse of civilians and POWs. Communist momentum had slowed through the middle of 1982, and as the stalemate grew more entrenched, so too did the continued escalation of violence. The 101 East-West Highway between Corelli and Leoncavallo became known as the Highway of Blood, with 90% of the war's most deadly conflict occurring within 20 miles on either side of the highway. Famous photos of soldiers from both sides being hung from the bridge are present in records from the time. Soldier suicides were commonplace on both sides of the conflict.

This stalemate continued for two years, until late 1984. At this point, Communist forces mobilized a mass offensive and captured three nuclear missile silos on the west coast. Communist forces then threatened to bomb Falceri and Leoncavallo if Loyalist forces refused to surrender. The Loyalists, in turn, threatened nuclear retaliation on the Communist-held populations of Corelli and Bassano. Only the intervention of fate prevented nuclear catastrophe.

In January of 1985, General Thatch died of asphyxiation as a result of choking on his dinner, closely followed by the death of Governor Augustus Pero due to stress-induced heart attack in Falceri. With both sides leaderless, the coup entered a much more quiet stalemate, from which rose Augustus' cousin, James Fitzgerald. James oversaw a treaty between the two sides, and was installed as Governor on November 5th, 1985.

The Modern Age

As a result of the coup, anti-nuclear and anti-military sentiment grew. The government, still reeling from the war, could not bring themselves to demilitarize completely, but saw the need to eliminate their nuclear stockpiles. Over the next five years, Monteverdi complete disarmed their nuclear program and began rebuilding their infrastructure, which had been severely delayed by the 1970s depression and damaged by the coup. The nation soon became extreme proponents of global nuclear disarmament.

It was clear to the leadership of the nation that massive overhauls would have to be done to the economic system if Monteverdi was to pull itself from the depths. Thankfully, Governor Fitzgerald was as effective an economist as he was a diplomat. Between 1985 and 1990, he began implementing policies that increased manufacturing and construction jobs, and began massively opening trade with foreign nations. While the Monteverdian economy initially took a hit due to decreased revenue from lowered tariffs, by 1990, the economy had begun righting itself and was increasingly rapidly.

Monteverdi was swift to grab onto the trends of the information era. The government pushed for massive expansion of the most modern technology, and huge projects were put in place to overhaul Corelli from the ground-up. In a reflection of its time in after the Great War, the Monteverdian economy exploded, rapidly increasing through the ‘90s and into the early 2000s to resemble its glory days.

The ‘90s and 2000s were a time of economic and foreign policy adjustment. Monteverdi neutrality became paramount to the people, who did not wish to see the nation thrown into any other wars. Governor Fitzgerald ruled on a platform of respect for sovereignty, refusing to become involved in matters not seen to directly involve Monteverdi or its foreign trade concerns.

In 2000, a wave of gun-based crimes in Corelli led to severe overhaul of gun ownership laws. The crimes, which were mostly muggings-gone-wrong in various parks and public spaces of the Capitol, led to a six year debate on public safety measures and privacy concerns, which would lead to the creation of the Bastion network in 2005. The Bastion network was a city-wide CCTV network created and monitored by Bastion Technologies. The implementation of the system would see a marked decrease in crime throughout the city. However, stringent regulatory and bureaucratic laws meant that the system's effectiveness at actually preventing crime were severely limited.

In late 2015, civil unrest began as a result of the Senate grabbing extra-constitutional powers. This culminated in the Monteverdian Succession Crisis of 2016. When Governor Michael Wallace died, there was no constitutional protocol for his replacement. It was declared that Lieutenant-Governor Jacob Hartley would be inaugurated, under much public scrutiny. Communist protesters rioted, leading to an explosive conflict in the Capitol as rebels became armed and attempted an uprising. The Communists were defeated, but the instability caused the overturn of the constitution as a result of rampant corruption. Hartley was arrested following a vote of no confidence, but disappeared in the chaos of the conflict. A quorum was established and a new Constitution ratified, leading to the overhaul of the 300 year old Monteverdian political system. A new Governor, Joshua B. Thomas, was elected, and under his rule, Monteverdi entered into a time more prosperous than ever before.

Geography

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Demographics

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Largest Cities

Leoncavallo

Corelli

Aleotti

Bassano

Picci

Falceri

Foreign Relations

to be written

Economy

to be written

Culture

to be written