History of Corvos

From NSwiki, the NationStates encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search

The People's United Dictatorship of Corvos is a nation only 50 years old, yet has a history stretching back 463 years. It has been known under the following names: the Colony of New Crookewit, the Colony of Corvos, the Colony of New Fredericksland, and the People's Dictatorship. of Corvos

Time Line

Early Colonial History


1541: Settlers reach the isle of Marenchis, and name it after their leader, Jahn von Maren. A small settlement starts up of the same name.

1553: Settlers establish the town of Henrysport, in honour of King Henry I.

1567: The Adventurer is the first ship to land on the mainland, near the present site of Fort Ashford. The captain names the settlement Edmundstown in honour of King Edmund IV of Crookewit. Starting population: 492

1569: A second ship, the Undefeated, lands near the present site of Portsmouth. The resulting settlement is named Portsmouth due to it being at the mouth of the port-coloured river.


The Colony of New Crookewit


1570: With a burgeoning settler population, local merchant George Orton is appointed the First Lord Governor

1573: Settlers from Faxington found New Faxington

1596: After many years of inland expansion, founding Portbridge, Chatham and Boroughfield, First Lord Governor Orton founds the northernmost settlement, Orton’s Heath.

1612: The capital of the colony, Edmundstown, is burnt down after a raid by natives from the far north. Second Lord Governor Thomas Ashford founds a new capital, Fort Ashford, in a much more defensible site.

1659: King Edmund III has Edmundstown rebuilt and resettled, to honour himself.

1677: Sir Wallace of Wathorn explores the great eastern river, giving it his name. He also founds Port Farley, in honour of his wife’s maiden name

1678: Pushing eastwards, Fourth Lord Governor Marcus of Portsmouth founds a new capital, Kingstown, at the present site of West Heraldsdown, on the Wathorn River. He aims for it to be a new central place of growth.

1686: Along the road to Kingstown, Captain Kieran Peighton founds the town of Peighton Downs as a garrison town to protect the road

1700: By this time, the colony of New Crookewit spans from Orton’s Heath, a lonely outpost in the north, down south to New Faxington, hugging the coast to Fort Ashford, and then striking in a wide band for Kingstown, where it surrounds the Wathorn Delta.

1701: Across the Wathorn, the new town of Heraldsdown is founded, named after the custom of the King’s herald proclaiming the news to Kingstown from the downs over the river.

1712: The easternmost settlement, Farrenby is founded. Further eastward excursions are forced back by the inhabitants in what is now House White.

1723: Seventh Lord Governor Anders Billington founds the settlement after his name, showing a clear change in the direction of expansion: inland.

1724: The town of Hartfordsleigh is founded further north by the explorer of that name.

1755: After malaria decimates Kingstown and Heraldsdown, Ninth Lord Governor Nicholas Linford founds a new capital further upstream, away from the delta. But it soon becomes obvious that it is at risk from natives in the Upper Wathorn region. He makes it a fort instead, and moves the capital back south to Heraldsdown.

1791: The Upper Wathorn is annexed to the colony of New Crookewit. The new towns of Corham and Watford are founded. The distant Minington Heights are named after Colonel Ibrock Minington, the general who expanded the colony.

1805: Ibrock’s son, David, leads an expedition up the Wathorn. He founds the town of Greater Barbingsford, but soon moves on to start a new colony at the settlement he calls Minington a year later. He creates a de facto duchy, the Duchy of Minington, but is not heard of for a long time.

1844: After having ‘rediscovered’ and then invaded the Duchy of Minington in 1840, Sixteenth Lord Governor Charles of Heraldsdown finally declares victory over the descendants of David Minington’s expedition, a curious mix of Crook and Corvoser.

1867: To celebrate the 300th anniversary of the establishment of New Crookewit, the colony is renamed Corvos, in honour of the raven, which has become the beloved bird of the colonists.


A New Political Awareness


1900: The colony of Corvos now covers all of its modern day area. It has a population of 56 million, and is becoming more self-aware.

1916: King Frederick XIII, an authoritarian loon, ascends in Crookewit. His first law is to rename the colony New Fredericksland. He refuses to consult the colonists

1917: Maximillian Gartrington founds the Party of Corvos to represent colonist interests to the King.

1920: Marcus Dimwit is born.

1921: The King hikes taxes in the colony and also monopolises their trade into a Royal Monopoly with horridly low prices. Later that year, he arrests the representatives sent by Gartrington to petition Parliament.

1924: After a peaceful protest in Heraldsdown turns into a massacre by government soldiers, a new political movement arises. 29th Lord Governor Harold Downington starts to support the colonists after he becomes disillusioned with army brutality. However, the King refuses to listen to them.

1925: Political tension arises after the King issues an arrest warrant for Maximillian Gartrington. He goes on the run to Minington. When the army finds him, the arrest rapidly descends into a violent shootout, killing many. Maximillian is also killed. The Party of Corvos is disbanded, and political expression suppressed.

1930: The King disbands Parliament. He also closes down the Legislative Assembly in Heraldsdown. The political movement creates the Colonist Party of Corvos, which is heavily persecuted.

1938: The 18 year old Marcus Dimwit goes to university in Rockadia, and comes under the influence of the socialist Rockadian leader, Francis Joffers.

1939: Marcus Dimwit establishes the People’s Party amongst Corvosian exiles in Rockadia to co-ordinate colonist efforts to win back their freedoms.

1942: Marcus Dimwit returns to Heraldsdown to meet members of the CPC. Whilst there, he falls in love with the daughter of the 29th Lord Governor, Hilary Downington. They soon marry and have a son, Michael

1943: After actively campaigning with the People’s Party, Marcus Dimwit comes to the spotlight, and under the suspicions of the government. Crook soldiers under Colonel Leopold Hereford come to arrest Marcus, they find him not there, but they take his family. Holding them hostage, they ask for Marcus to come in for arrest. When he refuses, the vicious Hereford rapes Hilary and then sends soldiers to beat up her father, the Lord Governor. Hilary later commits suicide through shame; Michael’s fate is still unknown to this day.


Revolution


1944: Marcus Dimwit emerges in Minington, raising the banner of revolution. His first act is to have Colonel Hereford hunted down and murdered. The CPC and the People of Corvos rally to his cause, tired of the years of oppression, and shocked by the revelations of Hilary’s rape and suicide. Harold Downington is arrested (and later executed), and is replaced by Samuel Blackley, a former general who believes in brutal force.

1945: Crook troop numbers peak at 1.1 million. Corvos is effectively under harsh martial law, but still the revolution continues. Thousands are summarily executed in order to crush the spirit of the revolution.

1946: The revolutionaries receive funding from some of Crookewit’s hostile neighbours, and especially from the Rockadian Socialist Party under Francis Joffers. The People's Army of Corvos is formed.

1946-54: Over the long guerrilla war, thousands are killed on either side. The Crook army executes thousands of people every week. But with no victory in sight and with a high casualty rate, they become demoralised. Crook public opinion starts to sour. In the mean time, the PAC develops into a more conventional force, later taking on the Crooks in open warfare.


Independence


1954: The great battle of Diamond Hill results in final victory for the revolutionaries. The Crook army leadership in Corvos mutinies, and arrests the sadistic and unpopular Samuel Blackley, handing him over to the revolutionaries. They have Blackley brutally executed. King Frederick is overthrown by an army coup. The new government agrees to peace with Marcus Dimwit, granting Corvos its independence on 14th August. He tries to establish a broad-based People’s Government, but most of the Corvosian intelligentsia and civil servants are dead.

1955: Finding no other alternative, Marcus Dimwit makes himself the People’s Dictator of Corvos. He establishes a new education system to create new civil servants. He introduces land reform, and increases taxes on the wealthy, and revamps the health system.

1957: Marcus Dimwit marries Helen Sorwith, a schoolteacher from Marenchis. They met during a Party Congress that focused on education. Their first child, Gregorius is born.

1960: Emma is born.

1961: Paulus Dimwit is born.

1964: Octavius is born. During the 10th Anniversary celebrations, Marcus is shot by a would-be assassin, a Crook man whose father had been a soldier killed by the revolutionaries during the war. Political crackdowns occur, and Marcus Dimwit takes the new title of Iron-Fisted People’s Dictator.

1965: The socialist government in Rockadia cuts diplomatic ties with Corvos in protest of Dimwit’s ‘betrayal’ of his revolution.

1966: Pompeius and Ellen are born as twins.

1968: Frediricus is born.

1972: Nicaeus is born.

1973: The Kingdom of Crookewit collapses, bringing great rejoicing in Corvos.

1974: The PAC is downsized by 50% as the fear of reinvasion by the old colonial master disappears.

1975: Hilary is born. To solve the problem of overcrowding in Heraldsdown, Dimwit founds New Town.

1976: Henrius is born.

1978: Julius is born. Marcus Dimwit opens relations with the successor state of the Kingdom of Crookewit, the Crook Republic. They propose to heal the divide that the independence war created. But its overthrow by an army coup, and the disintegration of the state puts a halt to this process.

1979: Kilius is born.

1980: Edwina is born

1986: Corvos’ uranium mining industry collapses under trade union strikes. The once-decent economy rapidly down spirals into depression. Private enterprise is fully banned as the government tries to take control of the economy, to halt its collapse.

1990: The international community sees Corvos as a poor, pariah state ruled over by a crackpot dictator of the old school.


Recent Years


2001: Newly elected President Paul Hetterworth of Rockadia opens up diplomatic relations with the isolated Dictatorship of Corvos. This is the start of a renewed Corvos-Rockadian friendship.

2002: With Deianiran aggressiveness in the region rising, Rockadia invites 5000 PAC troops to man their border with Deianira. Tensions rise between Corvos and Deianira.

2003: Corvos’ application for the Paradoxian Treaty Organisation (PTO) is accepted, as tensions between the PTO and the Paradoxian League of Free Nations grow.

2004: The eruption of the Paradoxian War in Paradoxia forces rising tension between Corvos and Deianira to become conflict. The Deianiran invasion is successful, and Marcus Dimwit is forced into the Heights to fight another guerrilla war. However, he dies of heartache. His son, Gregorius, is assassinated in Kerrangsburg whilst trying to negotiate a peace. However, the entry of Pizzaiata into the war and their successful liberation of the south gives some hope to Corvos. The Deianiran occupation, now very tenuous, takes a turn for the worse when Secretary of Defence, Charles Greene, orders the destruction of Hartfordsleigh, and mass summary executions. But civil war in Deianira thankfully ends their occupation. Paulus Dimwit becomes the Iron-Fisted People’s Dictator, and acts to destroy the puppet Wathorn government left behind by the Deianirans in Heraldsdown.

Jan. 2005: Paulus Dimwit defeats internal opposition caused by his brother, Kilius, and finally ends the separatist Wathorn threat when he launches three nuclear warheads against the separatist military and political structure in neighbouring territory. It is estimated that over 1 million people in Corvos were killed since the eruption of the Paradoxian War.