Blanchettia

Official name

The Republic of Blanchettia

Summary

The Republic of Blanchettia is a nation in The East Pacific. Originally a territory under the control of the RL United Kingdom, it received its indepedence via the Government of Blanchettia Act of 1921 and its withdrawal from the RL Commonwealth in 1924. Blanchettia soon became a major world power, but because of its withdrawal from the Commonwealth it became increasingly isolated. Only recently has Blanchettia become active in the international community once again.

Geography

Blanchettia is on the western edge of the Indochinse peninsula, facing the Indian Ocean. The coastal areas and the northern part of the country are fairly tropical, with rainforests and mangrove swamps mostly covering this land area. Unfortunately, most of the rainforests and mangrove swamps are under threat of deforestation; as a result about 50% of the rainforests and 60% of the mangrove swamps have been, within the last 30 years, designated National Parks. In the central and southern interior, however, the climate changes completely. Along the areas bordering the tropical areas, a Mediterranean-type climate is located here. This area is mostly shrubland and Corsican-style maquis which has often been described as the 'most beautiful area of Blanchettia'. Once you get further away from the border areas the climate is mostly continental with deciduous forest, however, as you get further towards the eastern areas, it gets colder and colder. The area bordering the eastern region is mostly taiga. The eastern areas of Blanchettia are covered mostly in mountains. There are about 12 mountain ranges in Blanchettia alone. Among the more well-known mountain ranges are the Grampian Mountains, the Blue Mountains, and the Snowy Mountains.

Blanchettia has a distinct fauna unlike any other areas in the East Pacific. First off, fridge owls and squirrels, although common in most of the East Pacific, are virtually non-exsistent in Blanchettia. The alouette, a native bird and considered to be Blanchettia's national animal, thrives in the country. Penguins are often spotted in the mountain areas of the country. In addition, trees shed their leaves instead of their bark.

Government

Blanchettia is a combination of a British-style parliamentary democracy with an American-style federal republic. The parliamentary democracy is a legacy from the days of British rule, although slightly altered to fit the American-style federal republic system. The federal republic system was adopted in 1922, with slight alterations, to provide some efficency in the government as well as provide the nation with a 'real' head of state (or so the nationalists claimed), not a 'fake' head of state (what nationalists called the RL British monarch). There are four branches of government in Blanchettia - the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the administrative branch.

Executive branch

The head of the executive branch is the president, officially called the President of the Republic of Blanchettia. Theoretically, the president holds great power, but in reality he has some powers. He gives Presidential approval to laws that are passed through Parliament and given approval by the Prime Minister and Deputy President. He is the public face of Blanchettia and commander of the armed forces. He is the only person who can open and close Parliament and dissolve Parliament at will, meaning a general election will take place in 90 days. The president has a set of advisers, called the Executive Advisory Council, who advises the president on certain issues. From the advice of the EAC the President issues a green paper (detailing the President's views and recommendations on a certain issue or a class of issues), which is then sent to Parliament to be discussed. Other than those powers and a few minor ones the president has very little power. Real governmental power lies in Parliament. There is also a Deputy President who has virtually no power, but is there in case the President is unable to continue his duties.

Elections for President utilise a system called [|instant runoff]. What normally happens is that the President (who is usually an MP of the party forming a government in Parliament or the party leader), who gets elected in this way, is appointed by the Senate of the Parliament and is confirmed via referendum. Then, the President names a Deputy President who goes through the same procedure, but starting at the Senate first. All of the EAC, however, are named by the Prime Minister and go through a hearing in the administrative department first, then confirmed in the Senate.

Legislative branch

The legislative branch consists of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister's Cabinet. In Blanchettia, Parliament is divided into two houses: the Senate and the House of Commons. In theory, any law, so long as it gets passed in both houses, can be introduced into any of the two houses but the reality is far more complex.

House of Commons

The House of Commons, the lower house, consists of 500 members of Parliament (MPs) elected via instant runoff and who represent individual national ridings (voting districts). Most legislation starts off in the House of Commons where the bill gets formed via any one of the Commons' committees. After going through committee, the bill is open for voting in the Commons. If passed, it goes to the Senate. The House of Commons is the only house of Parliament in which bills regarding taxation are debated, thus is the only house where it needs to be passed without review. Oddly enough, the Senate can't dismiss bills passed by the House of Commons but the House of Commons can dismiss bills passed by the Senate.

Senate

The Senate, the upper house, is a bit more complex than the House of Commons. First off, how you become a member of the Senate (MS) is different than becoming an MP. If you, as a Blanchettian citizen, wanted to become an MP in the Commons, you are most likely voted in via instant runoff. In fact, all 500 members of the House of Commons are elected via instant runoff. The Senate, by contrast, has 100 members, split three ways. 25 MSes are appointed by the President with approval by the administrative branch. An additional 25 members are appointed from various organizations and branches of government, such as the University of Halifax or Blanchettian Telecom (BT), or are life appointments because their Senatorial post was inherited from their mother or their father. Today there are 10 such life appointments out of the 25 seats avaliable in the Senate. The rest of the MSes are elected via a [|first-past-the-post electoral system].

Like the House of Commons, the Senate is where new legislation is introduced. However the function of the Senate is different from the function of the House of Commons. First off, the Senate can't dismiss bills passed by the Commons, but any bill passed by the Senate, unless it's a presidential recommendation, can be defeat in the Commons. In addition, while the Commons creates legislation, the Senate reviews the legislation and 'whittles it down' (to use a Blanchettian political expression) to where it could be easily passed by all MSes. This legislative review is done via committee; of which after the committee phase the bill is brought open for voting by the full Senate. If passed, the bill can be given approval by the Prime Minister, who'd signed it, and then up the ladder to the Deputy President and then the President. The Seante is the only body that can appoint the President and Deputy President and can introduce legislation regarding foreign affairs or treaties.

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is the head of Parliament and the Leader of the Government side in the Commons. Theoretically, the PM would have little political power, but this is not the case. Instead, since the President holds very little political power, and the Deputy President has no political power, the Prime Minister holds a lot of political power. He/She can introduce legislation into the Commons or the Senate, depending on what type of issue it is, and is the first one to give approval to legislation passed by both houses. The Prime Minister is usually elected separately from the rest of the Parliament via first-past-the-post, and there are usually no problems if the PM is of a minority party, because the PM is usually of the majority party. If the PM is of a minority party, however, a coalition government is created, which is never a problem in Blanchettia.

The Prime Minister's Cabinet

The Prime Minister's Cabinet advises the PM on certain issues pertaining to possible legislation. The many departments of the Cabinet are:

Department of Agriculture

Department of Atomic Energy Regulation

Department of Industrial Relations

Department of State

Department of Health

Department of Transport

Department of Human Services

Department of Labour

Department of Heritage

Department of Human Rights

Department of Nature

Department of Culture

Department of Immigration and Naturalisation

Department of Defence and National Security

Department of Elections

Department of Environmental Management

Department of Revenue and Finance

Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Department of Human Resources

Department of Regional, Territorial, and State Affairs

Department of Consumer Safety

Department of Justice

Department of Energy

Department of Rural Affairs

Department of Public Safety

Department of Statistics

Department of Veterans Affairs

The head of each department is called a 'secretary'. Secretaries are nomiated by the PM and are confirmed by the administrative branch.

Judicial branch

The judicial branch is mostly independent of the executive and legislative branches of government. The court system follow the RL American procedure, but the only differences are Blanchettian common law and how one becomes a Justice or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Blanchettian common law

Originally, Blanchettian common law reflected English common law. This was natural because Blanchettia was a British territory. However, as time passed, the Blanchettian experience, the Anglican Church, the Napoleanic Code, native law, and American law influenced Blanchettian common law so much that Blanchettian common law is distinctive unto itself. Among the distinctions are the role of women. Women are equal under the law, and there are no traditional barriers for women to have higher office - in fact, Blanchettia has had women Presidents and women Prime Ministers. Another distinction is the role of religion. Blanchettia has no state religion (since freedom of religion is guaranteed in common law) but laws regarding welfare and morality have been influenced by the Anglican tradition brought over by the British.

Chief Justice/Justice of the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the highest organ of the judicial branch, followed by (starting from the top) appeals courts, district courts, circuit courts, State/Regional Superior Courts/Territorial Law Courts, and family courts. The head of the judicial branch is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is advised by a panel of Justices of the Supreme Court. Justices are nominated by the Prime Minister, who then get confirmed twice - by the administrative branch and by the Supreme Court itself. The Chief Justice, however, is nominated by the President and gets confirmed by the administrative branch.

Administrative branch

The administrative branch is a very crucial portion of the Blanchettian government because it oversees, among other things, the civil service and the appointments of many government officials. It also acts as an independent auditor of the Blanchettian government. The highest organ of the administrative branch is the Council of Administrative Affairs, headed by a Chief Headmaster. The CAA advise the Chief Headmaster on administrative policy and select the Chief Headmaster. Directly below the CAA are the Civil Service Board, the General Assembly (the 'legislative' body of the administrative branch that creates and enforces administrative policy), and about a dozen or so 'offices' that oversee a specialised portion of administrative branch. Among the most important offices are the National Audit Office and the General Accounting Office.

Local government

Local government mostly reflects the federal level. State governments, although having a degree of autonomy from the federal government, have a government that mirrors the federal level. Heads of state governments are known as Deputy Ministers. Territoral affairs are managed by the Government but Territorial affairs that pertain to a specific territory are dealt with in a Territorial Legislative Assembly, with a First Minister as its head. Regional governments are highly autonomous from the federal government and have governments of their own that mostly does not reflect the federal level. State elections utilise either instant runoff, first-past-the-post, or [|Mixed Member Proportional] (aka MMP). Territorial elections almost always use instant runoff, and regional elections vary completely from region to region.

Political parties

Four major political parties dominate Blanchettian politics - Conservative, Liberal, Labour, and National. The National party is by far Blanchettia's oldest political party, rooted in Blanchettian nationalism and mostly has an extreme right-wing agenda. Originally dominant during the early years of Blanchettia's exsistence, from the 1920s to the early 1950s, the National party is no longer dominant except in certain areas that are a specialty of the National party. Broadly speaking, the Labour party is left-wing, the Liberal party is center-wing, and the Conservative party is moderate right-wing. A score of minor political parties helps balance the political scale in Blanchettia, as well as in Parliament.

History

The history of Blanchettia is one that contains the continuing theme of Blanchettian identity and fear of the loss of that identity. Unlike other areas of the East Pacific, Blanchettia has a history that even today Blanchettians take pride in.

Early history

Until recently, very few people knew the early history of Blanchettia. Thanks to archaeologists, the first signs of human habitation dates to 60,000 BCE. The earliest people were most likely hunter-gatherers in what is now southeastern Pommpistan, most of interior Blanchettia. unoccupied plot 100, and the northern border regions of the Tyrsis Imperium. These people were called Aboriginals by British settlers, and today they are still called Aboriginals. It was estimated that in ancient times the Aboriginals numbered at least 113 million, but now they number at least 2,390, mostly residing in the Northern Territory. In about 390 BCE, a group of people called Myanma settled down in what is now central Blanchettia and began farming the region. Another group of people called Tai settled down in about 20 CE in what is now northeastern Blanchettia and the northwestern area of unoccupied plot 100 and farmed the area. These three peoples were occasionally in conflict but they had a peaceful coexsistence. Today, Myanma number about 10,000-11,000 and Tai number about 8,000-9,000, mostly living in their traditional areas. Until 1500, there was little foreign involvment in Blanchettian history. In 1500, the worlds of the Aboriginals, Myanma, and Tai were changed forever.

Exploration and the French colonial period

In 1500, three small ships belonging to Dutch men landed on the Blanchettian coastline, near what is now Cork. These three established a small settlement called, in English, the 'Fortune Settlement'. This settlement didn't last long, as famine, disease, and continuing conflict with the local Aboriginals forced the Dutch to leave. In 1590, however, a group of French people decided to try and settle down in what was known then as 'Orangeland' (French: la Terre d'Orange), because the Dutch thought that the Aboriginals looked like orange-skinned people. The French created three settlements: Ville-Marie (where Halifax is now located), Louisbourg (today a thriving city and center of the Blanchettian IT and software industries), and L'Océan. After a few initial setbacks, these settlements thrived. These settlements were created via an expeditionary force led by a former blacksmith and First Governor of French Orangeland, Pierre Blanchet, of whom Blanchettia is named after. The flag of the expeditionary force had three horizontal bands: a green band meaning discovery and fortune, a white band meaning peace, and an orange band meaning the land and hardship; the orange band, however, would change, gradually, to a brownish colour, which to some people meant good luck and prosperity. This original flag today is the Blanchettian national flag.

The French were able administrators of the colony, and before long it issued its own coinage, its own postage stamps, and they ran their own affairs. They even allowed runaway Dutch settlers to settle amongst them. The French also tried to keep the peace with the Aboriginals; however the Aboriginals, and eventually the Myanma, were soon exposed to unfamiliar diseases and died in high numbers. Yet these native peoples helped the newcomers to survive on the land and soon learned French quickly. They even held high office in the colonial government. In fact, records show that an Aboriginal, known in the Aboriginal language as M'Flaaqabi and in French as Louis deFleur, was governor from 1630-1640.

Over time, there were four distinct areas of French colonisation of Orangeland. The southern area of Orangeland (what are now the states of Maine, Victoria and Queensland in southern Blanchettia, as well as the Halifax area) was known as la Terre de Blanchet, or 'land of Blanchet', where the original settlers and descendants were living, as well as new settlers. In the far northern areas of Orangeland, some Dutch decided to live away from the hustle and bustle of Blanchet-land (as some English visitors knew southern Orangeland as) to settle in an area they called 'Palatine'. Walloons from Belgium, who felt insecure in their country, as well as Bretons and Alsatians, soon came to Orangeland and settled into a coastal area they called 'Wallonia' (French Wallonie). Shortly after the dérangement (French for the Deportation of Acadians after the 1763 War, as the French and Indian war is known as in Blanchettia), many Acadian French settled down in Orangeland, joining Normans and Provençal people, and settled in the coastal areas of Wallonia to create Normandy (French Normandie). Thus, although the interior areas of Wallonia were still known as Wallonia, the coastal areas were known as Normandy.

However, British rule was never far away from the area, as the British were owning areas in nearby India. For making the French lose North America to the British, many Blanchet-landers, Wallonians, and Normandians used the British as a curse-word and as an insult. Many thought that British rule would never come to their area, but after 1783, with the victory of the Americans, the British threat became more and more real, frightening Blanchet-landers, Wallonians, and Normandians to the core. The British threat also worried the Palatinians, whose security was guaranteed by the French, and the native peoples (Aboriginals, Myanma, and Tai), because the French had made peace with them and they felt that their security were at risk. Thus, skirmishes between the British and French happened infrequently, but soon events in the Southern Hemisphere changed the course of Blanchettian history forever.

The Orange Wars

It is difficult to know for which reasons the Orange Wars between France and Britain, which lasted from 1793 to 1801, were started. However, many historians agreed that it started out with a regular naval skirmish that got many Blanchet-landers so angry that they declared war on Britain. Britain returned the favour and declared war on France. The French Revolution did little to deter the Blanchet-landers' spirit. The Blanchet-landers originally wanted to fight the British to avenge the loss of life from that skirmish but over time the French and Blanchet-landers were joined by the native people, Wallonians, Normandians, and Palatinians to defend their country. They argued that they did not want to lose their identities as who they were, otherwise it would not be worth living. However the British needed Blanchet-land for one specific reason. After the American Revolution Britain lost not just 13 American colonies, but land where they could just 'dump' convicts and leave them there. After the events from 1776 to 1783, Britain needed a place for their convicts. They found space in Australia. Yet the British couldn't make convict-shipping a prosperous enterprise without a transit centre for the convicts. This was the primary British reason for getting involved in the Orange Wars.

From 1795-1797 these wars were mostly fought away from French-held areas, mostly at sea or in India. However, from 1798, the British decided to invade French-held areas by land. However, this would prove difficult. The French had invested a lot of money and time to build up land and sea defences. In fact, these land defences were strengthened during the early phases of the Orange Wars. Thus, from 1798-1800 every single British attempt to break through French land defences failed. Then, on Christmas Eve, 1800, the British managed to break through French land defences and began fighting their way towards Blanchet-land. In 1801, a peace treaty (known as the Treaty of Sante-Marie) was signed among representatives of the British, French, Blanchet-landers, Palatinians, Normadians, Wallonians, Myanma, Tai, and Aboriginals. However, the translations of the English for the different peoples were different and the outcome would prove difficult in the years ahead.

Early years of British rule

The early years (1801-1827) were very difficult for the British, as rebellions against British rule were common. This was because of policy and because these subsequent peoples didn't want to lose their identity, a theme that is everpresent in the history of Blanchettia under colonial rule that would be brought up over and over again by the National Party during the 20th century. In fact, a second war with France that lasted from 1805 to 1809 occured, mostly by the locals who wanted Blanchet-land and the other former French colonies to remain French. Defeat for the French was by now inevitable. As a result, the policy was tightened.

British policy towards Blanchet-land and the other newly-conquered lands basically did not reflect most of the Treaty of Sante-Marie. All four areas were called 'Blanchettia' and was run by a military governor who was based in Australia. The currency would be the British pound (£), not the French livre that they enjoyed. Freedoms were mostly curtailed. The Aboriginals were marginalised, as well as the Blanchet-landers, Normandians, Wallonians, Myanma, Tai, and the Palatinians. Several transit centres for convicts were established along the Blanchettian coastline. In time, however, there were even convicts on Blanchettian soil. For this purpose, a separate colony called 'Queensland' was set up around 1821 in what are now the current states of Victoria and Queensland. In time, free settlers as well as Irish people settled down in Blanchettia.

This time period is often called the 'Colonial' era, because this time period was of Britain owning Blanchettia, and the architecture and art reflected that time period. Whereas before the art and architecture reflected a mixture of French style and local native flavour, now they mostly reflected a British style with virtually no local flavour. However, most people were dissatisfied with British rule, especially since most of them were Catholic (except for the native peoples, who practised their traditional religions without any French interference), whereas most of the British were Protestant and the Anglican church tried to win converts among Blanchettians. They failed in doing this, but their viewpoints over a variety of issues influenced Blanchettian common law today. However, these frustrations with British rule resulted in what is known today as the 'Bonnie Hill' rebellion (1826-1827), named after the village which was the centre of the rebellion. The British army put down the rebellion, and the early years of British rule were over. But this was just the beginning.

The golden age of British rule

Technically, the title of this era of British rule (1827-1881) is misleading. Why is that? Well, obviously, many Blanchettians thought that they had been 'chastised' of their identity by their loss of controlling their own affairs. But, there were many good things that happened in Blanchettia. Military-style colonial rule ended in about 1830, the last convicts transited to Australia left in the early 1840s, all convicts in Blanchettia were freed soon after, and some self-government was returning to Blanchettia. Most of all, despite the grumblings of a few 'land leagues' that wanted Blanchettian home rule and progress regarding land claims and the occasional riot, there were virtually no rebellions happening in this time. So, maybe this time period can rightfully be called a 'golden age'.

The architecture was from Britain - it was the Victorian age in Britain, so naturally the British Victorians decided to bring over their art, architecture, and ideas to Blanchettia. This period also saw the creation of four new colonies: Victoria (1830), which was created out of the western areas of the Queensland colony; Maine (1839), which was the first colony created out of the Blanchettia colony; Florida (1842), which was created during the gold rush; and Berkshire (1850), which was also created during the gold rush, but with most of the settlers west of the mountains. During all this expansion, many Blanchettians now realised that six colonies instead of two would now make up Blanchettia. With a few alterations, five out the six remain today, but as States in the Republic of Blanchettia.

Yet during all the prosperity that took place, there were a few problems. The Blanchet-landers, Normandians, Wallonians, Palatinians, and native people (the Aboriginals, Myanma, and Tai) were increasingly marginalised; for the Catholic majority, the situation was as bad as in Ireland. They all mourned the loss of their identity and they vowed to regain it. The first ideal concerned their land rights. Thus a series of 'land leagues' were formed to demand that they regain the land lost to their ancestors. Several land leagues even won seats in the colonial assemblies, and soon a series of laws, called Land Acts were passed between the period of 1832 and 1835. These undid several land claims, and thus gave the Tai, Wallonians and Palatinians back their lands. This was greeted with jubiliation. Soon these three peoples were demarginalised and were now treated as first-class citizens. However, for the Blanchet-landers, Normandians, Myanma, and Aboriginals, these Land Acts did nothing more than just release a few lands from British control, only to be repossesed by the British in the 1850s. These four groups were even more devastated when the French, Myanma, and Aboriginal languages were banned from public life, except in the prescence of Palatinians and Wallonians, whom Dutch and French, respectively, were still spoken. Thus the seeds were sown for discontent that would explode in the late 19th century. In addition, as British settlers kept pouring into Blanchettia, a new lower class made up of the British working class and the exsisting urban and rural poor, was also being created. There was also a middle class, but it was small. Soon, the lower class and the native peoples, Blanchet-landers, and Normandians would destabilise the 19th century.

During the period of the land leagues, the seeds of discontent had already been sown. In 1826, a group of land leagues banded together as the National Country Land League. This land league held some seats in the colonial assemblies of Victoria, Florida, Berkshire, and Blanchettia proper. Although the National Country Land League's agenda failed to pass through those assemblies, the NCLL wouldn't just die away. The NCLL, in 1848, soon joined together with nationalist and pro-independence groups to form the National Republican Brotherhood (NRB), whose stated goal was to 'regain Blanchettian identity as a nation, to free Blanchettia from British subjugation, and to recognize the historical Blanchet-lander, Wallonian, Normandian, Palatinian, Aboriginal, Myanma, and Tai peoples, cultures, and land claims wherever they may be.' The NRB, in 1857, even had a political wing, the National Republican party, or simply the National party. The NRB would soon become the catalyst for Blanchettian independence later on in the century and the next one.

Discontent and conflict

The late 19th and early 20th centuries (1881-1910) can be best remembered for the buildup to the eventual war that sealed Blanchettia's independence once and for all. Soon, rebellions (or, as Blanchettian nationalists and historians prefer to call it, 'protests'), unseen since the failed Bonnie Hill rebellion of 1826-1827. Around the 1890s, a Blanchettian national identity was beginning to take shape. This time, this national identity encompassed, eventually, Palatinians, Wallonians, Normandians, Blanchet-landers (who by now were the descendants of the original Blanchet-landers, speaking mostly French and actively practising Catholics), the native people (the Aboriginals, Myanma, and Tai), lower-class and middle-class British settlers and their descendants (especially the factory workers and labourers), and descendants of recent immigrants, mostly from Ireland, Greece, Armenia, China, and Germany. There was also a sizable Russian Jewish community at this time that soon became active in the Blanchettian nationalist movement. This immigration was possible by a relaxing of immigration laws from the Colonial era. All the abovementioned peoples faced severe problems and thus were discontented with the British Colonial government. The Blanchet-landers were unhappy because they didn't have any rights; they were forbidden to speak French and practise their Catholic religion, as a result they spoke French and practised their religion in secret; and they didn't like being treated as second-class citizens. The French-speaking Wallonians and Dutch-speaking Palatinians were unhappy because although they received their lands back, there were a few technicalities that eventually guaranteed cultural, but not political, independence. The Tai were unhappy for the same reasons as the Wallonians and Palatinians, but also because they were often discriminated against in public and political life. The Normandians were unhappy because they did not gain back their land. The Aboriginals and Myanma were unhappy because not only did they not get back their land, they were cruelly mistreated and forced into so-called 'poverty rehabilitation centres' which were no more than British 'concentration camps'. In addition, the Aboriginals and Myanma were discriminated against completely on all scales and were not even counted in the censii (plural of 'census' in Blanchettian English) of the individual colonies (which by now were being called 'territories') except in Wallonia and in Palatine. The lower class were unhappy because to them, their situation reminded them of slavery. The middle class, especially the lower middle class, were unhappy because although they left Britain for a better life in Blanchettia, they soon realised that the situation over in Blanchettia was worse off than in Britain. The immigrants weren't happy because, except for some Irish, they didn't speak English and thus were objects of discrimination and all sorts of anti-immigrant hostility. In fact, conflicts between immigrants and the others, especially the upper middle class and the upper class, were common in the cities, and occasionally they broke out into open fighting. For the Irish, their situation was much worse. Since they were Catholic and from another part of Britain, they were treated just as they were back at home, but much worse. The differences among these people galvanised them and they soon rallied around the NRB and around their new flag of independent Blanchettia and the Blanchettian nationalist movement. This flag, interestingly enough, was the same flag that the first French settlers used when the Blanchettia was a colony of France.

The nationalist movement was gaining full momentum and soon rebellions/protests sprang out across the country. Some of them involved military force, and were quickly put down, but this only strengthened the resolve of the NRB. On Christmas Day, 1892, the NRB's largest rebellion pre-1910 took place in Boston, already a large city by the time though under Florida's control then, where the NRB launched a series of terrorist attacks against the upper class, nearly destroying a few buildings and Boston's then-newly-finished City Hall. The British retaliated and tried to put down the rebellion, but soon the revolutionary fervour soon fanned out across the country. But this feeling was not to last when, on New Year's Eve, 1892, a battle on Halifax's South Side ended in a bloodbath and the NRB declaring a provisional surrender. Thus was the Christmas Rising (as it was known) was put down, but like other rebellions/protests, this one made the NRB even more determined to make Blanchettia free.

However, all wasn't that bad. The Industrial Revolution arrived in the mid 19th century and the country was industrialising fast. In 1884 the German Gottlieb Daimler created an automobile plant for his Daimler automobiles, thereby creating one of the oldest brands in the Blanchettian automobile history. In addition, the role of government expanded to include social services such as health insurance and guaranteed maternity leave.

But the NRB didn't care, and their terrorist acts were erupting across the country and even in Britain. This only brought more support to the NRB, and the National party was gaining strength. This all became a backdrop to the events of 1910.

more on Blanchettian history coming shortly . . . . . . . .

Other info

The Republic of Blanchettia has a population of 10 million. The country has one of the largest automobile manufacturing industries in the East Pacific.

more will come shortly . . . . .