Difference between revisions of "Mauvasia"

Latest revision as of 21:58, 10 October 2007

Mauvasia (The Commonwealth Republic of)
(Full name: The Imperial Commonwealth Republic and Affiliated Territories, Nations, etc. of Mauvasia)

Flag of Mauvasia Mauvasian Coat of Arms
Map of Mauvasia
General Information
Motto  > English	Gloriam sapientes possidebunt. The wise shall possess glory.
Official Languages	Mauvasian, French
Capital	Darmetz
Largest City	Dûriandor
Area  > Total  > Water	3,685,377 km² 41,234 km²
Population  > Total  > Last census  > Density	approximately 5 billion 4,776,231,592 1,296/km²
National Animal	Mohave scorpion (Scorpionis mauvasii)
National Bird	Pelican (family Pelecanidae)
National Tree	Mauvasian pine (Pinus sapientis)
Independence	May 9, 1855
Time Zone	GMT +10
Naval Craft Classification	MIRS (Mauvasian Imperial Republican Ship)
Internet TLD	.mv (standard) .mir (government)
Government Details
Head of State	His Majesty, King Croix Daniel I
Head of Government	President Jonathan Jacobi
Government Type	Democratic republic with extensive legislative power and ceremonial monarchy
Constitution  > Written  > Ratified  > Effective	September 30, 1855 February 18, 1856 March 25, 1856
Social Policy	Libertarianism
Economic Policy	liberalism
Government Priorities	Education (16% of GDP); Communications (10% of GDP); Environmental Protection (9% of GDP); Healthcare (9% of GDP)
Economic Information
GDP (as of November 2006)  > Total  > per capita	∆185,991,234,424,072 (approx.) ∆38,941
Currency	Dehavia ( ∆ )
Rate of Exchange  > vs. NS$  > vs. €	∆1 = NS$1.27465 ∆1 = €0.98573
Exports	Timber, clay, iron ore, copper, steel, resin, fish, cheese, antimony, arsenic, water, computer parts
Imports	Titanium, crude oil, coal, uranium, small arms, automobile parts
Trading partners	TBA
International Situation
Allies	TBA
Friendly Nations/Alliances	Wingarde Czardas Woodstock Pact
Alliances	Questerian Commonwealth
Stats: NSTracker Pipian XML

The Imperial Commonwealth of Mauvasia (Mauvasian: L'Ischias Imperiane de Mauvasie) is a large and developing nation mainly located within the largest of the four major landmasses in the region of Haven, as well as a number of islands and other overseas territories within the Pacific. The metropolitan territory of Mauvasia extends from the Haven Straits to a southern opening onto the Strobovian Sea, bordered by Dilber and Strobovia on the south and west and Tiburon on the north and covering over three million square kilometres.

Mauvasia is a unitary democratic republic with several subnational entities; its main landmass is Mauvasia proper, the Republic of Mauvasia. Mauvasia is a mainly isolationist nation, having participated in only a few alliances and maintaining a comparatively small number of embassies; it is also highly pacifistic, preferring diplomacy to force when possible.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Mauvasia

Most of Mauvasia's land area is located within the mainland, "Mauvasia Proper". The mainland contains a wide variety of terrain, from open, sweeping plains, to heavily forested hills, to high and forbidding mountains. The north is mainly dominated by low, rocky hills, while western and southern Mauvasia is highly mountainous, the southern Klisurian Alps containing the highest mountain in Mauvasia, Torre-Bianco ("The White Tower"). Virtually every river in the country drains into the Dûr and its tributaries, which splits the nation, running from south to north; this is primarily due to Mauvasia's lack of coastline, with only 178 km in the extreme northeast.

Mauvasia's largest overseas territory is Achraei (French: Acheroi), located on the southernmost Haven continent in a subtropical climate; Achraei is home to some 250 million citizens and is approximately three hundred thousand square kilometres in land area. Off Achraei, some 200 km to the north, is an archipelago of seven islands, Litauron, of which six are permanently inhabited.

Additional small islands throughout the Pacific are considered Mauvasian territory and granted the full rights and privileges of citizens of the mainland.

History

Main article: History of Mauvasia

Civilisation in Mauvasia, or some semblance thereof, appears to have first developed itself around 8,000 years B.C., when native tribes settled in the rich and fertile Dûrian flatlands and later the Mohavian plateau. This civilisation was actually quite advanced, developing wheeled vehicles, a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that has yet to be fully deciphered even today, and a massive calendar (currently residing in the Darmetz Historical Museum) said to be capable of predicting the future.

The first European to see Mauvasia's shores was a French explorer, Joaquin du St.-Malo, who arrived with an expedition from Europe in 1454 to survey the uncharted territory; finding the native Mohavians hostile and the terrain unfavourable, St.-Malo dubbed it le pays mauvais, meaning "the bad country". Later settlers mangled this to Mauvasia, and the name stuck.

Seven years after St.-Malo left Mauvasian territory, he returned with eight shipfuls of settlers, who altogether founded the city of Dûriandor at the mouth of the eponymous river, opposite from a native settlement. Initially they co-operated with the Mohavi; however, after some years disease, famine, intermarriage, and discrimination wiped out much of the native population, leaving only significant populations on the Mohavian Plateau, where they rooted themselves firmly and refused to budge.

Europeans continued to explore the interior, eventually carving out the territory that is Mauvasia today. When Mauvasia gained its independence from France in 1640, it became a monarchy; Mauvasian rulers were benevolent for the most part, but as time went on they began to abuse their power more and more, levying excessive taxes, denying citizens the rights to free expression and assembly, and instituting a draft.

One of the most infamous of these rulers was Khandara III, nicknamed "The Bloody", who reigned from 1809 to 1822. Khandara established the Secret Police, an organisation that was never quite disbanded but instead transformed into the New Mauvasian Secret Service (NMSS). Khandara's Secret Police frequently carried out raids upon the homes of citizens suspected of activism against Khandara, many of whom were held without trial in harsh conditions or simply executed. Khandara also instituted nationwide military service, although Mauvasia had participated in no wars for thirty years and would only go through one more in the next two hundred.

But Khandara also served as an inspiration for the Mauvasian people. If ever the danger of another Khandara the Bloody would arise, they swore to band together to depose him. This underground organisation became known as the Mauvasian Democratic Commonwealth (CDM, or Commune Democratique Mauvasiel). Thus, in 1849 when Emperor Raymen XXI -- a former supporter of Khandara -- came to power, the CDM, led by Dimitar Morkovski, called upon Mauvasian citizens to revolt. In keeping with the policies of his predecessor, Raymen had Morkovski publically executed.

The result was comparable to that of setting off a firecracker behind a herd of cows. With an impossible swiftness Mauvasians began to rise up in protest, sparking the Mauvasian Civil War, which lasted almost four bloody years before the Royal Mauvasian Army was defeated and disbanded, Raymen XXI committing suicide before CDM liberation troops could reach his palace in Amûyandor, outside Dûriandor.

The CDM then set about the task of rebuilding a shattered country and forming a new government to rule it. The thought of an imperial government was instantly rejected by all, but a pure democracy was considered equivalent to a mob rule, and discarded as well. One of the more vocal CDM members, Nikolaus Viedrich, continued to reiterate the idea of a "perfect government", one that would combine the attributes of various successful democracies, monarchies, and commonwealths around the world. After many months of debate, Viedrich came up with a highly complicated plan that he believed would create the perfect government. This form of representative democracy is described below (q.v.).

Upon the final ratification of the Mauvasian Constitution, the first elections were held, installing Viedrich as President, with Léman Astar as Vice President and a Liberal majority in both the Senate and the Grand Congress. This form of government was quickly discovered to be almost incredibly inefficient, with all legislatures taking a long time to get anything done, the executive branch running into problems whenever it tried to fulfill its purpose, and the courts more often than not taking years to resolve anything. Everyone agreed that reforms needed to be made, but they ran into disagreements when trying to figure out the nature of the reforms; Mauvasia has been quite similar ever since.

Today, Mauvasia's formerly isolationist stance has been abandoned, due to an impending economic collapse; the Commonwealth Government has made the difficult decision to open Mauvasian markets to foreign investment, which could make Mauvasia a non-isolationist state whether it wants to or not. A new era in Mauvasian history has only just begun, and all we can do is wait for it to blossom.

Government

Main article: Government of Mauvasia

The federal government of Mauvasia is divided into three branches -- executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch consists of the President and his cabinet; each of these individuals oversees a specific department, which in turn oversees its regional and local branches. The President and his assistant, the Vice-President, are the chief executives of the nation and hold power in equal balance with the legislative and judicial branches. Also nominally part of the executive branch is the monarch, currently Ischias Daniel II the Saruvian.

While the executive branch is tasked with actually enforcing laws, the laws themselves are made by the legislative bodies (although commonly proposed by members of the executive branch). The legislature is tricameral. The Senate is the upper house and consists of 90 individuals; five from each of the thirteen provinces and the five dependencies. Complaints about under-representation of the dependencies has led the Senate to contemplate expansion to seven senators per dependency, bringing the total size of the house to 100, but this is as yet under review. The middle and arguably most important house, the Grand Congress, consists of 508 Congressmen and women divided according to population, with the most populous provinces and dependencies being better represented. The lower house is the Grand Assembly, which convenes once (or at most twice) a year and consists of every citizen of the Mauvasian Commonwealth. That day, June 1st, is considered a national holiday and free transportation to and from Darmetz is provided.

The judicial branch consists of four levels of courts -- local, provincial, territorial, and national. In the larger dependencies only three levels of courts exist (local, territorial, and national); in the smaller dependencies it is only two levels (local and national). At local courts, which by law exist in every town with a population greater than twenty-five thousand excepting suburbs, traditional trials by jury are conducted, with up to three justices arbitrating. Provincial courts follow the same setting, but territorial and national courts do not have juries, instead relying on varying numbers of justices (seven in territorial courts, eleven in the national court). The national court is the highest judicial body in the nation. Generally, interpretation of the Mauvasian Civil Law is left to the judicial branch; this has produced the Mauvasian Common Law. The legislative branch cannot overturn a National Court ruling; however, justices are elected by the Grand Congress, and can be removed from office by the Executive Branch.

Administrative divisions

Mauvasia is divided into thirteen provinces and five overseas dependencies.

Transportation

Military

Economy

Demographics

Culture

See also