Equilism History

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On January 13th 2004, through sheer coincidence, a young Dutchman stumbled upon the NationStates website. He had no idea what exactly it was except that it had to do with politics, and that he was interested in. So he created a nation, naming it Equility (as Equality was taken) for all the people in his nation would be equal.

After briefly checking out 10000 Islands, Equility decided he wanted a region of his own to build up and he made Equilism the same day. Reading through the NS FAQ, he came upon the bit that explained invaders and immediately knew he nor Equilism were ever going to be involved with that.

Immigration into Equilism began almost immediately as Equility invited nations in (to see how that would go) and created a few puppets to place in teh region. It was also in this same first week that Equility found out about A.L.L. (Allied Liberation League and ADN (Alliance Defence Network). Reading up on what these organisations did, fighting invaders, he knew he wanted Equilism to join them.

He waited another week so the region could grow a little bigger and then, with about 20 nations present, Equilism applied to the A.L.L. and was accepted unanimously.

With all that going on, it was time to get a forum. The first ever Equilism forum was on a free Proboards server. It is still alive today but all the boards are closed to the public. If you want to look a the spiffy yellow/black frontpage that says absolutely nothing, go here: http://equilism.proboards26.com

A little while later, at the end of January, Equilism applied to the ADN. Membership was granted immediately as Equilism was already a member of A.L.L. Around this time, too, the first steps were set on the path to creating a regional government. Equility became interim President until elections could be held.

Equility, together with a few other (semi-)active members such as Rhonanvin, Le People Francephone, Tomika, Swamp-land and Daradah, worked on a first Constitution and established six departments:

   * Internal Affairs
   * Foreign Affairs
   * Immigration
   * Military
   * Intelligence
   * Environment, Human Rights and Social Affairs


At this time, most of the things that were happening were geared towards organising the region, getting more members and getting the members that were there more active.

Early February was a time of much change and first time events as, besides our first defense mission on February 5, a first cabinet was elected and the tradition of having UN resolution polls on the forum began.

A better forum was also put together with a member offering to host a website for free. The offer was gladly accepted and the Equilism.com domain was registered. Tomika, who had experience in website and forum maintenance, continued to work on both; leading to a move from the Proboards server to the Equilism.com domain somewhere between mid-February and mid-March.

Equilism was becoming really successful now with more members joining the region and becoming active. Things then started happing pretty fast. The number of members grew, and activity on the forum went up as well and the E-Army participated in more and more missions. After the first elections (for the March-April term), the second cabinet was formed with Equility as President and Tomika as Prime Minister/UN Delegate, a totally new position.

Unfortunately, after a few weeks, Tomika resigned due to time constraints and Interior Minister Westwind succeeded him, leaving the Interior Minister position to Saint Lucia. During this time, experienced defender Ostendt also joined the region, helping to improve the E-Army and the Intelligence department. Shortly after, the Ellandar incident, or rather, the first of a series of incidents and disturbing behaviour, occured. For more information on that, see the specialised lesson on it.

As the third cabinet took office, activity grew with newer members taking over positions in the government. Examples were Tse Moana becoming Interior Minister and Neboe Foreign Minister. More foreign relations were established culminating in the signing of three treaties with Belgium, Nasicournia and Juxtaposition X.

The tradition to organise big events that last for a few weeks also started in this period with the Equilism Teamsport Championships beginning at the end of May and lasting halfway through June. Nations could participate in any five out of eight sports and it was a big success with ten nations participating.

After the fourth cabinet had taken office, in July, a Constitutional Convention was held resulting in an amended and renewed constitution wherein members of the region had more influence on government business. Besides that, a number of laws were proposed and accepted.

However, the tide was about to turn. In October, during the fifth Cabinet, the person who hosted the Equilism website decided he didn't want to do that anymore and removed the site and forum without telling anyone. This was a big hit to the region and the community. We were homeless for more than a month although we set up a temporary forum on phpbbserver.com.

Late November though, a new forum was setup at Equilism.net, with a new layout and design. Unfortunately, around 22,000 posts were lost from the old forum. One particular highlight of this dark period in Equilism's history, though, was the defense of the Rejected Realms. This operation was the E-Army's biggest defense.

After the new cabinet had been installed, in December, Neboe and Tse Moana were awarded the Equilism Medal of Honor for the work they had done in the past terms as PM/Foreign Minister and Interior Minister. Nooterland received an Equilism Meritorious Service Award for his work in Military. Westwind was appointed temporary Director at ADN when Pope Hope stepped back from NS for a while and the first official dual-citizenship of a member originating in Equilism came about with Neboe gaining citizenship in The Meritocracy.

January 2005, besides Equilism's first Birthday, saw The North Pacific being taken over by illegitimate rule. Equilism responded by condemning the actions taken and suspending the treaty that was in place. Shortly after, Equilism was, again, struck by forum trouble. An account was set up with a new hosting provider and this time the old posts were able to be ported over to the new setup.

In February, Equilism signed three treaties, allying with the Ganchelkean States, The Proletariat Coalition and The West Pacific (although it was march before it was formally ratified). This brough the total number of active alliances to six (Belgium, Nasicournia and Juxtaposition X came before). Meanwhile, the Better Equilism Convention was held to generate new ideas for the region and to discuss what needed change and how. This provided the groundwork for, among other things, the Ministerial updates and the News Agency.

In March the ASE changed into The Delian League and, as a result, was no longer seen as an independent entity. Equilism therefore suspended the Mutual Defence Pact that was in place. Shortly after that, the new cabinet took office. This cabinet, the seventh already, jumped right in on the results of the Better Equilism Convention by setting up the Senate Planning Convention to discuss ways of making the Senate more streamlined and useful.

At around the same time, as the events continued to unfold in The North Pacific, the North Pacific Directorate was formed. Equilism, among others, released a condemnation statement in April. The NPD response was to declare all ADN member regions and their armies Enemies of the North Pacific, specifically identifying the E-Army as one them.

Dual-Citizenships continued to be a hot topic leading to the creation of a the Dual Citizenship Application Form. The first nation to apply for a dual citizenship was Millitarism who also resided in Aequitas.

Cabinet eight was elected into office in late May and had the honour of releasing the statement celebrating the liberation of The North Pacific that had occurred around the same time using a large combined force including the E-Army. Shortly after, Neo-Conservatism was awarded the Equilism Meritorious Service Award for his work in Foreign Affairs.

The Senate Convention, which started and finished the first phase in April, began and finished the second and third stages in June and July. Results were the creation of the Senate Speaker position and an outline of requirements and tasks for senators. Also in June, Equilism offically condemned the People's Republic of the Pacific. As one of the last happenings of this term, Ellezelles, resident of Belgium, applied for dual citizenship, consolidating his presence in Equilism.

More to come later...