Difference between revisions of "Costa Bravo"

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Costa Bravo

The Armed Republic of Costa Bravo is a small nation of an ever-growing one billion inhabitants. Located in the central Mediterranean, south of Italy, and north of Libya, Costa Bravo is a largely dystopian, post-modern seafaring nation with an ancestry in piracy and anarchic government. The currently elected Regent, Jonah Jebediah Rudabaugh, is serving out his thirty-year term, set to end as of 2028. Income tax is at a steady 57%, and the healthy private sector is dominated by the Information Technology Industry, with Arms Building, Robotics, and Biomedical Industries maintaining a steady foothold in the background. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Costa Bravo national animal is the Tortoise, and its currency is the credit.

The nation's acronym (every cool nation has one!) is ARC (pronounced "ay-ar-see", not "ark"), because ARCB sounds dumb.

History

Early History

The southern portion of Costa Bravo, the Isla de Muerte (technically not an island, but referred to as such regardless), were inhabited by various primitive cultures as early as 300 A.D. The southernmost portion of the isle, Sauvage, is still inhabited by a large community of tribal cultures. The Sauvages, as they are called by Costa Bravans, have recently begun to modernize themselves, adopting contemporary technology and straying from their traditional ways. The Sauvages claim that the entire Isla de Muerte belongs to them, and have resorted to terrorism to articulate their opinions. Most recently, they massacred a small fishing village in southern Isla de Muerte, and suicide bombed the Carthaginian Embassy in Los Eisley.

Shortly prior to the fall of the Roman Empire (473 A.D.), the mainland of Costa Bravo was seized by Rome, and titled Chrysthanthium. In late 474 A.D., Rome sent a small group of colonists to Chrysthanthium to cartograph the land and precipitate growth in the area. However, what with the collapse of the Roman Empire two years later, the colonization failed, and most of the Romans emigrated elsewhere. A handful of colonists remained, but they gradually fell into nonexistence, and their communities had entirely disappeared from the nation by 1000 A.D.

Costa Bravo itself, however, was formed in December of 1455, some eleven months after Spaniards first made landfall there. Shortly thereafter, Spain rapidly and promptly seized control of the Costa Bravan mainland, a surprisingly hospitable and lush isle, considering its oft-undesirable latitude. Although the Spanish government laid claim to the entire land of Costa Bravo, it was often largely in the control of various clans of pirates and sea-faring mercenaries, due to the fact that Spain did not have the resources to prevent such happenings, and the convenient accessibility to Costa Bravo from the sea made it an ideal place for pirates to settle down in.

Modern History

During World War II, Costa Bravo strived to remain adamantly neutral throughout the whole ordeal. The country was experiencing an industrial and economical depression, and consequentially was in no shape to join the war effort, in any shape or form. However, due to their prime location in the central Mediterranean Sea, Costa Bravo was invaded and occupied by Mussolini's forces in September of 1936. From there, Europe formed a conduit into Africa, and, as such, Costa Bravo became hot property for either side of the war. In early 1937, Stalin's forces invaded Costa Bravo and retook it, imposing order and, since the government had been all but destroyed by Mussolini, they took complete control of the country. Although they re-instituted the Costa Bravan government in 1940, the USSR considered Costa Bravo a colony of their own, and kept an ever-watchful eye trained on the nation. Their presence became so pervasive that two-thirds of the populace claimed Russian to be their primary mode of communication, and Cyrillic eventually became the standard writing form. Over the years, the cultural and social presence has diminished, but still 1/3 of Costa Bravo's citizens consider Russian their first language, and signs are often written in Cyrillic, due to the simplistic (and consequently cheap) style of lettering.

For the past quarter-century, Costa Bravo has found itself involved in a variety of wars. Foremost, in 1975, the Sondonesian War, a highly controversial escapade in which Costa Bravo's military aided in the deposition of the opressive, dictatorial, corrupt government of Sondonesia. The deposition was a failure. Consequently, the Sondonesian War is often compared to the Vietnam War, in which the United States of America was involved.

In 1982, only two years after the end of the disastrous Sondonesian War came to a close, Costa Bravo was again involved in a war, this time with Bordura, a Slavic nation. The ordeal, titled the Bordura-Bravo Incident was spawned from Bordura's invasion, occupation, and attempted annexation of Syldavo, another, smaller, Slavic nation and neighbor to Bordura. The Soviet Union and United States were also involved in the war, and, conseuqently, Bordura was defeated and drew back from Syldavo. For the past twenty years, Bordura has gradually infiltrated the Syldavan government. As of February, 2005, Syldavo was declared a "protectorate" of Bordura, much to the dismay of the parties involved in the Bordura-Bravo Incident.

In 2003, Costa Bravo became involved in a full-fledged war with Dakkland, an opressive Eurasian regime that sought to acquire a foothold in the Mediterranean, via Costa Bravo. This conflict was titled the Eugenics War, due to the fact that it was the first major skirmish in which bioengineering was used prominently on a battlefield. Dakkland's navy swept out into the Mediterranean, seizing the northeastern coast of Costa Bravo. From there they moved inland, sweeping a broad sickle-shaped arc into the heart of Costa Bravo. The most famous battles were fought at the Janeiro Canal, where Costa Bravo's forces managed to hold back the invading forces for a solid twenty-eight days, and at Tortuga, which had been viciously and mercilessly shelled by Dakkland throughout the war. The latter battle, the Battle for Tortuga, was the conclusory one, in which Dakkland was decimated, and Costa Bravo was able to form a salient through the warfront, which made it possible for them to counterattackk and drive Dakkland's army into the sea.

In June of 2006, the Bordura conflict rose anew. According to a speech Regent Rudabaugh delivered, this was the war in which "all the horrors, all the righteous battles and liberations we have perpetrated in the last half-century, have now come back to bite us in the ass". The Taschist Axis, an alliance of dictatorial and opressive regimes previously engaged in wars precipitated by Costa Bravo, invaded the Isla de Muerte on June 6, 2006. The Axis, consisting of Bordura, Syldavo, Khamed, Sondonesia, Dakkland, and Russia, sought to conquer Costa Bravo, and demolish the government in favor of their own. As a result of the new threat, an alliance between benevolent, Taschist-opposed nations was formed. This alliance, called, simply, The Alliance, consisted of Costa Bravo, Bothnia, and Puerta Rica.

Cities of Costa Bravo

The cities of Costa Bravo are, with notable exceptions, derived from the Spanish language -- São Vicente, Tortuga, Santa Maria, et al. These are remnants of the early eras of Costa Bravo's existance, in the early-to-mid 16th century, when Spanish was predominately spoken on the mainland. Rura Penthe -- the city-prison on an Isla de Muerte -- is the only large (100,000+ inhabitants) city to bear a name not derived from Spanish. Instead, it draws its name from the infamously inhospitable prison in Siberia.