History of Falastur

Starting life as a English pseudo-colony, and thus declaring allegiance to England as such, although eschewing involvement in their affairs Falastur grew to be a universally renowned and distinguished sanctuary for those seeking renewal of self in the eyes of others. Furthermore to this day maintains resolutely an uninhibited and cordial immigration policy. Economic power and beliefs in a free market economy within Falastur, have led it to become a signatory of the Knootian International Stabilisation Treaty (KIST). Through a great period of colonialism has it traversed, having moreover, in a different epoch played a minor role in the Napoleonic Wars, largely avoided the World Wars, concomitantly escaping Civil War and reluctantly was a staging ground for part of the Cold War, and by way all of these has Falastur emerged through precarious times only to grasp security as much more unyielding, established as a relatively, considerably, extensive political unit.

Falastur before the Falasturians

Archaeological evidence and word-of-mouth stories passed down from the indigenous tribal Kingdom in the Falasturian Islands suggests that the islands have been settled for over three thousand years, although solid proof of settlement only exists for tribesmen from around the year 600AD. Some theories have been made that a Roman ship landed on the island group in around the year 250AD, owing to a small number of texts describing what could be points of interest in Falastur. However, these theories are almost unanimously disbelieved due to the vast likelihood that the accounts are actually referring to the Canary Islands. Whether or not the theory is true, it is certain that the island group has been home to native islanders for longer than it has been inhabited by civilised peoples. Although the actual date of origin of the tribesmen is long lost now, it is generally regarded as fact that a tribal Monarchy had been in place over the islands since at least the 15th Century AD. Before that, it is believed that the tribes lived on as small, independent communities, and originated from Western Africa, although the inevitable over-exaggeration of stories passed down, as well as the consequences of the near-God worship given to the tribal Kings before Falasturian suzerainity, has resulted in the native belief that the Kingdom had existed for all time.

English settlement

It was as a result of Elizabeth I of England's colonial policy to counteract Spanish domination of the New World that the Falasturian Island Group was first colonised. A small fleet of four English ships were blown several hundred miles off course in the year 1597, during a voyage to employ the Altantic currents for a circular tour of the Atlantic for future knowledge and reference. Aiming to turn west to cross to the easternmost tip of Brazil, the fleet found themselves blown unexpectedly far south, and round the coast of Africa. Turning west, the fleet sailed only for a day before they found themselves presented with the entirety of the Falastur Islands. Charting the islands, they didn't so much as anchor before returning to England to boast of their discovery. As a result of the accidental finding, a military expedition was sent to the islands the following year, leading to the creation of a garrison on the island.

In the following years, the islands became the battleground for several fierce colonial struggles, with the islands almost being lost twice to the Spanish. With its strategic point on trading routes between Africa and both Europe and the Americas, the Island group proved to be a prize well worth keeping for the English, despite the cost, until the more lucrative island of St. Helena fell into their grasp. Towards the end of the 1600s, the importance of the Falastur Island Group was greatly waning, as was the English's commitment to keeping it. However, it was still not until the early 1700s that a particularly bloody battle around the city-fortress Newtown forced the English to finally reevaluate the necessity of Falastur, and decide to desert the colony.

Colony of Falastur

News of the abandonment of the Islands was hushed in Britain, where the decision, no matter how well-founded, would have gone down badly with the English public, but it quickly spread around the maritime crowd. Indeed, one of the very first to hear of this news was Matthew Terila, an adventurous but aging private sailor who had the good fortune to be in Southampton Docks at the time when the retreating English ships returned. Hearing of the abandonment of the military outpost, he immediately began making plans to capitalise on the free land, before any other nations, or enterpreneurial sailors, could get in on the act. Beginning preparations the same day, it is said that Matthew had his crews (three ships being already in his employ) and two extra vessels shipped and ready to sail in less than a week, and had been granted a Royal Charter to Colonise not long after. Declaring the Falastur Islands Company, he left Southampton with his fleet of sailors and colonists not long after, and arrived at the abandoned port/fortress of Newtown on April 2nd, 1705. Most Falasturians believe that upon setting foot upon the docks, he gazed upon Newtown and claimed "May this place be known as Terila" - a fallacy largely spread by inaccurate films and literature on the subject in recent years - although in truth the town, later to grow into the sprawling metropolis capital of the Empire it is today, was not named in his honour for several years after the colonists' arrival, a result of the Declaration of Independence, and was done so by popular vote rather than Matthew's decision alone.

The garrison of Newtown having been around 3,000 men, with a healthy trading settlement which had not entirely left the area by the time of the arrival of the Terila expedition, there were already a good number of servicable houses for the colonists to inhabit, and thus early life was surprisingly easy for the colony. Although there was at first a discord between the few traders who had remained after the abandoning of the post and the new settlers, but eventually an uneasy reluctance settled which finally fostered mutual cooperation and integration of the traders into the new community. Similarly, while the native peoples around the site had become accustomed to regular interaction and trading with Newtown, they briefly struggled to adapt to the new and more aggressive settlers who had mostly never before experienced non-English citizens, but strenuous work by Terila to aclimatise the two groups to each other, as well as the presence of old and familiar Newtown residents, dissuaged any ill feelings with time, and native traders began to trade greater and greater quantities of goods with the new peoples.

Lacking the experience of an established Colonial Company, the Falastur Island Company settlers largely had to teach themselves to establish their Colony, and in some cases progress was slow, but the group had established a working settlement in a small matter of months. Always the leader of the group, Matthew Terila was eventually invested with the title of Governor by the men of the group in ealy January of 1706, electing a group of ten to act as a Council - the early foundations of the Imperial Senate. However, this group was far from a natural and efficient Governmental body from the start. Indeed, the Council had only been together for a mere fortnight when it experienced its first true crisis. While the colonists under Governor Terila had occupied the fortress and settlement of Newtown, believing themselves to have claim to the entire island, another fortress existed with a much smaller neighbouring village, a little over 150 miles along the coast, itself the location of a second colonial enterprise by an unaffiliated group led by one Charles de Montfort. Alerted of the presence of the second expedition by the Captain of a trading ship, a confrontation over land rights quickly developed, going so far as to prompt several raids between the two colonial parties, and throwing the disorganised Newtown Government into despair and confusion before Terila and de Montfort finally settled their differences. The matter was finally settled after five weeks of hostilities when the Falastur Islands Company bought out the second colonial group, and de Montfort, for a sizable annual fee, agreed to act in Terila's place as Mayor for the second settlement, named Havilah.

Shortly after resolving the matter, he returned to England to announce his triumphs and to seek new colonists, looking to promote regular emigration to the islands, which was to be only a partial success. However, when various corners of English, and indeed Continental European, society heard of the new colony which had promise, and yet a weak and inexperienced enough Government to offer chances for exploitation, it gained a reputation in little less than a decade for being an ideal retreat for outcasted or alienated peoples, or those who simply sought a new life in isolation. Particularly drawing European religious minorities fleeing from ever more autocratic regimes, the city of Newtown quickly became a cosmopolitan area, with people free to live and worship as they wished. The mix of such peoples as French Huguenots, Dutch and English Catholics, Lutherans from Southern Germany, and of Swiss Calvinists seeking to extend their influence, all in one still-small community, at first led to the division of the city's residents into groups of similar nationality and background, largely remaining only in their own area of the city. Although there was, surprisingly, little discord, thanks largely to Governor Terila's administrative successes, still the city was in essence divided between the three dominant religions, and further subdivided between those speaking different languages. While it has been strongly argued in the last century that this immediate lack of conformation to a single colonial "identity" was essential, ironically, to the creation of the Falasturian national identity as multi-cultural, liberal (regarding such things as religious policy, at any rate), and certainly led to the striking development of the architectural "zones" formed by the presence of numerous architects following different fashions, this did however create many problems for the governance of the colony. Faced by a population that could, in future years, or even months, struggle violently for control and dominance, Matthew Terila was forced in 1712 to reel off a number of legislations as Governor, first to ensure the English Anglican area of the city had control of the port and its trade, then to make the various peoples dependent on it for supplies, and consequently establishing himself as the indisputed ruler of Falastur Island, making English the dominant (if still a large minority) language - crucial in the development of such an Anglophile nation - and secondly ensuring that he had both the power and authority to keep all of the city placated and under control.

As Newtown grew, so to did the population in other areas. While only one other settlement came into existence during the Colonial years (excluding Newtown and Havilah), the popualtion living outside the towns increased rapidly with the granting of land to be farmed, for crops or resources. In this respect, the positioning of Newtown had been very fortunate. With geography similar to that of neighbouring Angola, areas of Falastur Island vary between the rainforest covering most of the island, to the dry, almost desert-like at times, coastline balanced by cool Atlantic currents, though the land a little afield of Terila largely consists of wet highland, well-suited to farming a variety of exotic and non-exotic foodplants. As this area allowed the early Falasturians to create a food stockpile of their own, they were able to become near self-sufficient early on, and the exploration of the inland led to discoveries of other natural resources in later years - such as gold and diamonds - which helped the country to become prosperous and develop.

Foundation of the Kingdom

Having guided the Colony through all of its highs and lows for close to a decade, it was in July of 1714 that Governor Terila, with the agreement of his Council, decided to officially petition the English Monarch - at the time, Queen Anne I - for an extension of priviledges and a Charter to colonise the other islands of the Falastur Island Group, as well as to be place a trading post on the Angolan coast, in the hope of further cashing in on the westward trade with the Indies, passing south of the Cape of Good Hope. By chance of fate, the passage of Terila's ship back to London coincided with the death of Queen Anne, and the accession to the throne of King George I, Elector of Hanover, although he was not to be crowned for another month after Terila's arrival in mid-September. With the confusion of the country following the death of its previous Monarch, and with George not officially coronated, Terila found himself essentially refused an audience with the King, and even recognition at court at all. Seeing no way to resolve the situation, he sailed home barely two weeks later, his tale being recieved with gravity back in the city of Terila. While Matthew himself was reluctant to make any rash actions, and especially had no intention of breaking with Great Britain, the overriding feeling amongst his Councillors was of deep offense, and while he managed to moderate them to a more provisional agreement, the Councillors still pushed him to draw up a document declaring the Colony to award itself further jurisdiction in such matters as law, as well as declaring that if on a repeat visit, the Falasturians were not reognised and granted the Charter, that independence would be declared.

Much though Matthew Terila appealed to have the declaration to be toned down, his Council however upheld that their rights must be protected and that their course of action was the only just one available to them, and so, having failed to produce a more favourable settlement, Terila left for London as he was obliged to do. His arrival, however, could not have been timed worse, and coincided with the Jacobite Rising of 1715. Arriving in London in mid-October, he found the capital ablaze with rumours of treason, talk of defeat, and full of uncertainty. Finally achieving an audience with the new King, George I, he was permitted to speak with the King, only to be told by the very same that he should "leave my sight unless you can bring to arms 5,000 men to defeat these irksome Scotsmen". Unable to gain for himself another audience, even towards the end of his month's allotted stay when the Jacobites were on the retreat, and though he knew that it would mean that independence would have to be declared, seperating forever Falastur Island from Great Britain, he was compelled to return.

Immediately following his return to Falastur Island, therefore, the Council seized upon the inability of the English to come to terms with the Falasturians. Only five days after his return, the Declaration of Falasturian Independence, 1715, was ordered to be read aloud in every settlement of greater than 10 persons, and largely possible owing to the still comparatively small population of the Colony-turned-state, a copied version of the full manuscript of the Declaration was delivered to every householding male citizen. Surprisingly, for a Colony formed almost in its entirety by Europeans by birth, there was little disquiet over this drastic course of action; historical records note no civil unrest, although this is quite likely a result of the proportionally huge number of foreign exiles now living on the island - among persecuted minorities who had already once in their lifetimes been driven from their homes, the notion of being once again seperated from their mother nation was something they had accepted once and could accept again. Unsurprisingly, it would seem that the English quarter of the city took this the worst, sending several petitions for the renunciation of the Declaration, and in one case surrounding the Governor's mansion for several hours, preventing Terila from holding a meeting of the Council, but even this failed to induce any act of violence, and within a fortnight, it would appear that public thought had largely turned to other matters. In the Council, however, things could not be more busy.

Realising that they were now at the head of what was infact the smallest (by population) civilised and independent nation in existence, it was immediately obvious to those with any concept of states and Government that without Great Britain behind them, the new state was prone to collapse and disaster. What was more, with a population of disparate elements, and one that had not yet fully acclimatised themselves to the life they were living, the people needed a national identity behind which they could rally and come together, or else they would simply fall apart, and crave reunification with Britain. Consequently they produced a plan revolving around King-worship and the glorification of the Monarch and state in an attempt to bind the people to their new nation. Only a matter of days after the civil disturbances had died down, the Council - now once again working in full agreement with Terila - drafted and published a document promoting Terila from the post of Governor to be King of the Falastur Island Group, which was distributed and signed by the population showing their agreement. While a number of names did not find their way onto the document, the Council declared that the popular vote was in favour of the Kingdom, henceforth declaring their fledgling state to be named "Falastur", and naming Matthew Terila as Matthew I, by the Grace of God, King of Falastur.