No Taxes

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No Taxes
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Flag of No Taxes
Motto: What's so bad about apathy?
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Region Libertarian
Capital Isidor
Official Language(s) German
Leader Chancellor Vitaliy Friedhelm
Population 2,255,000,000
Currency Lib 
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The Capitalist Republic of No Taxes is a young nation, having been founded several decades ago by immigrants. It is politically located in the Libertarian region and is geographically located on a continent with Maraque, The Transylvania, Brydog, Granate, The Scandinvans, Aequatio, Chronosia, Vontanas and Laquasa Isle. It borders The Transylvania to the east and Maraque to the south.

History

Discovery and Early History

The continent of Devaraja (King of Gods), on which the nation of No Taxes currently resides was discovered in the 16th century by European explorers. The area was uninhabited, presumably because of the great distance between it and the closest continent and a small fort was established in the northwestern part of where No Taxes is today. However after several decades and a fallout between the commander of the fort and the colonial empire back home, the fort was abandoned. Pirates and privateers came next using the fort as a staging point for their raids. A small town grew mostly as a home for pirates, yet more and more traders and merchants, albeit ilicit ones, came to the settlement. There were a wealth of natural resources including iron ore and timber, from the large forests and very soon several colonial Empires wanted the area for themselves. A Naval Expedition was sent to clean out the pirates nest and after several weeks of fighting they succeeded. All the pirates, were killed, sold into slavery, or fled into the mountains in the east. The settlement set up was mainly based on resource extraction and had a very large proportion of slaves. This grew slightly throughout the 18th century, until the combination of a plague and an extremely hard winter killed almost everyone. The town was once again abandoned as the few survivors left the area. Scholars estimate that by 1789 all of the settlers had left the area.

Foundation

Throughout most of the 19th Century settlers stayed away from the area, wary of the tales that had been spread surrounding the disappearance of the earlier settlement. However, in 1880, the German Empire, once again lured by the natural resources, decided to colonize the area. It turned out to not be as prosperous as Germany had thought, mostly because of the very long shipping distances. Yet with almost 7 million sq. miles of empty space and lots of area with good potential for agriculture, immigrants poured into the area. By 1907, the number of foreign immigrants largely outnumbered the original German settlers. The German Government under pressure from the international community, independence groups and losing quite a bit of money maintaining the settlement, granted it independence. In February of 1908, the constitution was signed unanimously and the Capitalist Republic of No Taxes was born.

Government and Politics

No Taxes is a Parliamentary Federal Republic modeled after the government of Germany. The President is the Head of State and is elected every 4 years by popular vote. The Bundesrat or Federal Council consists of 324 Representatives, 12 from each of the 27 provinces. Every 3 years there is a national vote, with voters from each province voting for the Party that they want. That Party is then able to appoint a number of Representatives for each Province, that is proportional to the percentage of votes it received in that province. The Bundestag is the Federal Parliament and it consists of 905 Representatives who come from districts of roughly 2.5 million people each. The Candidate with most votes wins and it is up to the Provinces to form the districts. Elections for the Bundestag occur on the same time period as the Bundesrat, every 3 years.

The three major political parties in No Taxes are the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Peoples Party (VP), and the Union of Conservatives. The FDP has historically been in the Center, though its beliefs could best be described as Minarchist. The VP has historically been the party of the immigrants, with its popularity going up and down with the surges in immigration. However more recently it has become a party generally to the left of the others and has been the Opposition Party for many years. The Union tends to be more popular when the VP is less popular and vice versa. It is both economically and socially conservative and has been the driving force in No Taxes' recent military expansions.

The current president, Vitaliy Friedhelm, a former General in the Army, is a member of the Union, while the Chancellor, Filat Alexandre is a member of the FDP. Currently in the more conservative Bundesrat the FDP with 120 seats (37%) and the Union with 113 seats (35%) have formed a governing coalition. The VP controls the rest of the seats in the Bundesrat with 28% of the total seats or 91 seats. In the more liberal Bundestag, the FDP controls 353 seats (39%)and the Union controls 190 seats (21%). The opposition party, VP, controls 362 seats (40%).

Geography and Climate

No Taxes is a large nation, comprising a total land area of 6,762,194.12 square miles. It has a mostly temperate climate with cold and wet winters and warm and dry summers. The terrain varies greatly, from desert in the east near The Transylvania, to a large mountain range in the central part of the country, to fertile plains and rivers in the southwest and large forests and rolling hills in the northwest. The biggest river, the Lavrenti, forms part of the border with Maraque. The western part of the country receives moderate amounts of rainfall, with the central mountain range blocking the rain clouds from moving to the east, which is why the eastern part is mainly desert. Winters tend to be harsh in the northern regions, while in the southwest the warmer ocean currents keep temperatures moderate all year.

Demographics

No Taxes population currently stands at 2.267 Billion; however, due to a large birth and immigration rate, the population has been growing very rapidly recently. The latest census puts the age distribution at 32.1% from 0-14 years of age, 51% from 15-65 years of age and 16.1% over 65 years of age. The official language of No Taxes is German, yet this is only spoken primarily in 41% of households. Minority languages spoken include Russian, Ukrainian, French, Mandarin, Hindi, Korean and Japanese. These are also the main ethnic groups in No Taxes, although officially the census does not ask for ethnicity. The main religion in No Taxes is Agnosticism at 33% of the total population however this is followed by Christianity at 28%, Atheism at 21%, Buddhism at 12%, Hinduism at 5% and Other less than 1%.