Republic of Williamsville

Republic of Williamsville
Motto: "Out of Many, One"
Anthem: "Amazing Grace"
Capital		Maryland
Largest city		Davidson
Official languages		None at Federal government of Williamsville
Demonym		Williamsvilleans
Government		Federalism
-	President of Williamsville	Christopher Williams III
-	Vice President of the United States	David Williams
-	Speaker of the Williamsville House of Representatives	Phill Coon
-	Chief Justice of the Williamsville Supreme Court	Lamar Sawyer
Legislature		Williamsville Congress
-	Upper house	Williamsville Senate
-	Lower house	Williamsville House of Representatives
Estrandan Revolution
-	Williamsville Declaration of Independence	February 6, 1800
Population
-	census	300 million
GDP (nominal)		estimate
-	Total	$18.3 trillion
-	Per capita	$65,451.57
Date format		mm/dd/yyyy

The Republic of Williamsville, commonly known as Williamsville, is a federal republic composed of 100 cities, thousands of towns within the cities, and a federal district. Its population is 300 million, with it's largest city-by-population being Davidson and it's capital city being Maryland.

The country was inhabited in the 15th century by Africans who called themselves Estrandans and established a country named Estranda. European - specifically Kiribatian - colonization began in the 16th century. The Republic of Williamsville emerged from the Estrandan Revolution, which began in 1798, and the subsequent Williamsville Declaration of Independence in 1800. The war ended in 1808, with Williamsville becoming the first country to gain independence from a Kiribatian power.

Until 2000, Williamsville was a constitutional monarchy in which the King of Williamsville held vast executive and legislative powers, especially over the military, foreign policy, and religious affairs. However, in 1995, King Williams III exercised a right in the Williamsville Constitution to propose before the nation a new government upon pressure from a pro-democratic electorate. The only other time the rule was used was 30 years prior when King Williams II proposed to have members of The Mayors' Council elected directly by citizens. In 1996, a federal presidential constitutional republic through the "Government Consensus Act of 1996" was approved by 75 members of the 100-member Mayors' Council and elections for the first Williamsville President and other new government officials were scheduled for November of 2000. The King, Christopher Williams III, became the first elected President of Williamsville.

Etymology

The first inhabitants of the region, a tribe called Estranda, grew into a commanding population. Eventually, upon establishing a nation, they named the country Estranda.

After the revolution against Kiribati, the survivors and military leaders decided to name their new country “Williamsville” after their military general and commander, Christopher Williams.

History

Indigenous peoples

In the mid-1400s, an African tribe by the name of Estranda was created. The Estrandan tribe expanded their sovereignty with force and built permanent villages and began to adopt some cultural and technological practices. They conquered other nearby tribes and integrated their members into the Estrandan order. Most Estrandans had a high standard of living. By 1501, there were an estimated 100,000 members of the Estrandan tribe.

Estrandan Era (1502-1650) (WORK IN PROGRESS)

In 1502, 13 tribal leaders - called the Council of Estrandan Founders - written the Estrandan Charter that officially incorporated themselves as a nation. The Estrandan tribal leader Basel Hondo and his wife Amma Makemba Hondo - who was married to a former tribal leader who died a year prior - were anointed Emperor and Empress of an established monarchy by The Council. After the anointment, Emperor Hondo disbanded The Council, given himself total sovereignty over the nation’s governance.

Emperor Hondo was a state-builder and military man. He initiated major infrastructure projects and formed a collection of cities with local leadership under his central power. He also moved quickly to establish a strong military - with an estimated 5,000 soldiers enlisted in the Estrandan Army by 1510. Hondo was infamously non-religious, espousing that religion was a "needless divisive tool" in society and warned of creating "factions based on presumptuous pseudo-spirituality" that he believed would create a country "divided against itself."

Nevertheless, as Estranda morphed into a more tribal country (such as certain cities being known for their distinct cultural demographics) and several religious leaders rising in stature, religious followings gathered. The most prominent of the new religious emergence was that of Islam. Muslim mystics and Arabian traders from other regions, known as “Sufis,” were responsible for spreading Islam within several prominent Estrandan cities through their missionary work while trading resources with the Estrandan people. In 1510, the Sufis would pass out Muslim teachings - or the Qurʾān - written in Estrandese, the language of the Estrandan people. Popularity with the religion grew.

Kiribati Rule (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Williamsville, formerly Estranda, was a small country inhabited by Africans since the early 1500s. In 1650, however, it was conquered by Kiribati. Hundreds of thousands of British citizens descended upon Estranda and built vibrant communities aided by the slave labor of native-born African Estrandans. By 1695, there were 1.1 million people in Estranda.

The Kiribati colonization program in Estranda was robust. Colonizers enslaved African Estrandans and subjected to hard labor in the cultivation of agricultural crops and timber woodchopping in rural Estranda that reaped a major economic benefit for the mother country, England. White men were given land through lotteries and local governments were appointed to establish codes, collect taxes, and administer the slave trade of native-born African Estrandans.

However, the poor treatment of slaves led to major slave uprisings in the late 1600s. For years, many native-born African Estrandans slaves made to be in incessant labor by their overseers. For many, they faced harsh treatment: women were raped, men were mutilated, and children were separated from their families and sold to other plantations.

In 1671, the first slave uprising took place on the infamous Harris Plantation, when 25 servants attempted to escape the 120-acres of land by burning down the residence at night when the Harris family slept. The uprising failed when the family escaped the burning home and all 25 of the slaves who ran were captured by nearby slave masters. After being held captive and starved for a week, approximately 400 slaveholders brought their slaves and families from across the country to watch the 2-hour torture of all 25 slaves, capped-off with their burning alive. The event was said to be the turning point among English Estrandan mothers who lamented at the graphic heinousness with which their children were subjected to see.

A Kiribati woman and matriarch of the Grey Plantation, Katherine Anne Grey, assembled a group of other Kiribati women known as the "Kiribati Gals of Peace." Their mission was to re-integrate African Estrandans into a "more equal, modern" society by ending slavery. In a manifesto, the originally ten-member group called the morbid practices of slave-holding, overseeing and treatment "a moral repugnance that has warped our children's minds, poisoned their hearts, and bred hatred among our kindred that's cursing our World and corrupting our posterity."

The emerging abhorrence to slavery and the treatment of African Estrandans historians have called Estranda's "moral enlightenment." It was aided, they say, by younger native-born Kiribatian men and women receiving higher-learning education at institutions such as The University of Estranda and Mary Stele Women's College.