Pacitalia

Pacitalia, or the Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia, in its conventional long form, is a fictional republic housed in the game NationStates by Max Barry. Actually an existent country since November 21, 1503, Pacitalia has used this online strategy game for its home since May 2004. With a population of just under 1 billion residents and an approximate area of 2.5 million square kilometres, it is the largest and most powerful country (both militarily and economically) in the region The CDEA.

The Beginning Years (1284-1503)

After five years of exploration, Italian explorer Romeo Patizzi claimed most of the Mayan lands for Italy in 1284. This included about twenty percent of present day Mexico, most of the eastern half of Pacitalia and most of the rest of the Central American countries down to Costa Rica, which had been back under native control since 950. However, Mayan repression against Italians trying to suppress their beliefs and culture and assimilate them forced the king of Italy to give back about sixty to sixty-five percent of these lands in 1323.

The first one hundred and fifty years went quite smoothly. Settlements began springing up (mostly on the Caribbean coastline) and populations in the TION or Terra di Italia al Occidenta Nueva, in English, New Western Italian Lands; skyrocketed to at least one hundred thousand citizens by 1480. However, only three to four thousand of them had actually made the 70-day trip by boat to the new found lands.

In the year 1492, Italian-born Christopher Columbus sailed west under the wishes of the king of Spain to try to find a commercial sailing route to India. He did not find India, but he did find the Caribbean islands, which he accidentally had mistaken for the country laden with spices. He claimed he had found the country and referred to the people he met as Indians. After further sailing he landed at present-day Assalone, a principal port on the Caribbean coast of Pacitalia. The Italians, who had heard of Columbus’ sailing under the Spanish flag instead of the flag of his home country, Italy, labelled Columbus as a traitor and greeted him by throwing rocks and branches at him. Fearing for his safety, he and his crew retreated to their ships and sailed north. They were met with similar resistance at other cities and towns they docked at.

Eventually, Columbus looked like he was giving up. However, what he did was send one of his ships back with a message – to send more troops from Spain to capture these lands and disarm the people. When the ship arrived back about two years later with thirty or more sailboats full of troops, the Italians were angry, but since they had no present army to defend themselves, their argument was hopeless. The Spanish quickly captured the lands and claimed them as a victory for Spain. For at least five years, Spain’s language and customs were continually forced upon unwilling citizens.

During the third year of Spanish occupation, an Italian ship captain and his crew of five set out for Italy, determined to get support from the Italian monarchy. When the king was told of the occurrences in his newly claimed land, he was taken aback. He immediately sent about seventy percent of his troops with the captain and five-man crew back to the TION.

When the Italian army and the crew returned back in 1499, the Spanish forces, now outnumbered five to one, folded like a cheap umbrella. Each soldier and high-ranking official was captured and executed in Assalone’s city square, to cheers and yells from the freed citizens. Columbus was sent back to Italy to stand trial for treason and for becoming a merciless traitor. He was killed by decapitation in Rome on February 3, 1500. Since Columbus was not a Spanish citizen, there was nothing the king of Spain could do about it; therefore he was forced to let the execution stand.

The Independence Age (1503-1754)

The king of Italy, hoping to ensure that such an event did not occur again, created the Pacitalia Act in September 1503. It stated that on November 1, 1503; the Italian democratic autonomy of Pacitalia was to become a country and gain selective independences from Italy. It also stated the leader would be a Prime Minister of any sex, however, the leader had to be Roman Catholic and of Italian descent. This has been changed, thanks to the All Creeds & Religions Act of 1823. Spain, after its crumbling defeat, decided not to venture near Pacitalia again. Instead, they began settling in the Caribbean in island countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. They also settled in lands between the United States and Pacitalia, which is now present-day Mexico, to the northwest. After the 18th century began, the Spanish settled more frequently in South America and southern Central America.

In 1686, Spain granted Mexico full independence.

This is how the lines between Mexico and Pacitalia were drawn after Mexico’s independence. Mexico was slowly but surely eating up all the territories to the north and rapidly expanding into the present-day western United States. Pacitalians, fearing that the Mexican people would move south and try to take over Pacitalia, began guarding the makeshift border line. This angered the Mexicans greatly and they sent civilian guerrillas to try and take down the Pacitalian civil guards. This inciting incident, which happened on July 24, 1758, was known as the start of the Mexo-Pacitalian War.

The Mexo-Pacitalian War (1758-1760)

As soon as the Mexican guerrillas arrived, war didn't break out, but instead began shouting rude comments and insults at the waiting Pacitalian troops. The Pacitalians, led by General Paolo Labradorio, didn’t appreciate this and began to attack. For many months, fighting was centered near Mexico City, now Nortopalazzo, and nobody could be the wiser as to who was winning the war. However, the Pacitalians gained an enormous amount of ground in August 1759 at a battle southwest of Mexico City, about 20 km from the makeshift line, also known as the Line of Dissatisfaction. About half a million Mexicans were killed in the battle, and most of them within a twenty-minute time frame. The Pacitalians continued to gain more ground until the Mexicans surrendered at the last battle near Puerta Vallarta in September 1760. One month later, on October 30th, the Treaty of Monterrey (Il Monterio) was signed and it stated that the Mexicans, thanks to their defeat, would have to give up approximately seventy percent of their lands. This was a huge blow to the pride of the Mexican people, and after the U.S. forces defeated the Mexicans for control of most of the west coast (now the U.S. states of California and Oregon) in the early 1800s, Mexico’s total land area shrunk almost 90% from its original size. The border lines between Pacitalia and Mexico set up at this Treaty are the same as of this day.

The Post-War Period (1760-1850)

The Pacitalian government, under the advice of the Roman Catholic Church of Italy and the Monarchy of Italy, worked extremely hard to assimilate the ex-Mexicans into the Italian culture and language. Most people, now that they had no defence, went along with the assimilation. A select few, however, did not appreciate the Italians forcing the history and linguistics of Spain out the window. Many made secret mass emigrations back to the new, smaller Mexico; others stayed behind to wage terrorism campaigns on the government in Mandragora. Parliament members were killed, the Monarch’s representative was kidnapped and tortured with knives, and several government department buildings were quickly torched, or blown up with cannons. After about twenty more years of this terror, which grew to include the murder or kidnap of innocent children or citizens, and countless arsons involving Roman Catholic churches, the government summoned the army to take down the terrorists. One by one over a period of two years, every terrorist or suspected terrorist was picked off and shot in city squares to cheers and celebrations by the country’s citizens. “A scene reminiscent of the independence days when the people of our great country ridded itself of [Christopher] Columbus once and for all,” the great Pacitalian philosopher Amadeus stated after the end of the terrorism. It took a lot longer than expected for the Pacitalian citizens to recover. After almost thirty years, the country finally recovered, sailing partnerships with Iostata and the newly formed Republic of Guatemala to the south were reinstated and the citizens felt they were finally back on track. On December 14th, 1850; the Monarch’s representative declared the country stable again, and this announcement marked the end of the post-war period in Pacitalia. The Mexo-Pacitalian War is the only war to be fought within Pacitalia’s boundaries since Italian colonization.

The Land Recessions Years (1850-1859)

The next period was, of course, a short time frame, lasting only a decade. However, it was a period that saw plenty of changes in the land area of Pacitalia. In September 1850, the United States and Pacitalia reached an agreement on the recession of land in present-day southern New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. The United States believed that the land truly belonged to them, because the majority of people living in the area were allegiant to America. The only reason, as said by the Monarch's representative, Pacitalia didn’t mind was that only 0.2% of its total population lived in the area the American government claimed to have, and none of them were of Pacitalian origin. The agreement was signed and on January 1st, 1851; Pacitalia handed over about 150,000 square kilometres of land. The boundaries drawn on that day are the same that are shared with the U.S. today. Five years later, the newly-independent republics of Guatemala and Belize wanted to redraw the boundaries with their northern neighbour. It felt that a suitable point of division would be the Timiocato River, which formed the southern and south-eastern edges of Timiocato, the new capital. Another treaty was drawn up and on January 1st, 1857; Pacitalia receded about 50,000 more square kilometres of land to the two nations. There have been no more land recessions made by Pacitalia since that occurrence in 1857. The land recessions period lasted two more years because Pacitalia had received more offers from other nations who began to see the nation as a weak target to get land from, but Pacitalia continued to flatly refuse after the Guatemala-Belize deal in 1857. These two treaties led to Pacitalia's current size of 2,476,466 sq. km.

Immigration Period (1876-1939)

During this time frame, which included the turn to the twentieth century, Pacitalia was seen as a safe haven and a land free of the ravages of wars. This was especially true during World War I (1914-18). Although immigration started to pick up in the 1860s, the level of new citizens arriving at eastern and western ports was tremendous, so tremendous that the port authorities and police couldn’t handle the influx. During the first forty years of the so-called “immigration period”, Pacitalia saw almost 40 million new residents flow through its seaport systems. This was just as many people as Pacitalia had at the 1859 census, just one year before the influx began. The most prevalent of expatriations were from Greece, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus, Austria and Germany. After the immigration period ended, Pacitalia saw 82 million new residents, bringing the population up to 121 million in 1939. This large number made Pacitalia the third most populated country in the world, after India and China. The United States and Indonesia have since surpassed Pacitalia in population, and Pacitalia now stands as the fifth-largest country.

The World War II Issue (1939-1945)

It seemed the first World War had just ended, and all of the sudden there was this talk of Germany getting riled and teaming up with Italy and Japan to fight Allied forces and try to invade and conquer the whole of Europe, one country at a time. The problem was, Pacitalia was still under selective influence and rule by Italy. Pacitalia’s stance on the war was quite different than that of its mother country. Italy at first encouraged Pacitalia to fight with the Axis and create a better and stronger Europe, thus leading to a better and stronger world. After Pacitalia refused several times, Italy’s attitude became threatening. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini basically tried to order Pacitalian forces to fight with German chancellor/dictator Adolf Hitler and he, but Pacitalia’s government argued that the military and all governing of that military were responsibilities of Pacitalia, therefore it was not in Italy’s, let alone Mussolini’s best interests or place to attempt to order them around. Eventually, Italy gave up and Pacitalia remained neutral throughout the entire war. It was the biggest country (in both population and area) to not show any signs of activity during the war. It did, however, place strategic groups of armed forces around its border to protect itself from surprise exterior attacks by its motherland or another Axis power. The US, Britain, Canada, China and Australia all praised Pacitalia for its neutrality despite its status as a world power. The British colonies and motherland had publicly stated they regretted joining the war, albeit their purpose in it was only for protection of themselves. Pacitalia joined a list of about 25 countries that condemned the war and declared themselves neutral. The armed forces protecting the country’s borders totalled about 110,000; while there were another 500,000 in reserve in case of attack. Pacitalia was not attacked during the war.

The Post-War Era (1945-1988)

With Mussolini detained and murdered by his own people, and Hitler dead at the end of the Second World War, Italy’s parliament decided to remove the title of dictator from its ranks and replace it with something more democratic. Thus, Italians elected Alcide de Gasperi the country’s first post-war Prime Minister. He was a hard-lining liberal-socialist and outlined large reforms that shrunk Italy’s military, cut budgets for many departments he called “useless”, and made slight cuts to the funding of Crown corporations and literally shattered huge sums of incentives to large businesses headquartered in Italy. These actions saved Pacitalia’s motherland at least 750 trillion Lire (equivalent to about €20 billion today). Italy was able to save itself from financial and government ruin, and salvaged trading agreements with Allied countries before it was deemed too late. The United States was the last Allied country to renew trading agreements, as US Vice President Alben W. Barkley stated “Italy doesn’t deserve our products. We are doing this for our people and solely for our people.” If Italy was to have failed with its re-agreement talks with the United States, the ripple effect would have damaged the Pacitalian economy as well. Since the 1910s, Italy has been Pacitalia’s largest trading partner, followed closely by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Most Pacitalians say the decision to remain neutral during the Second World War was a major factor in boosting the Pacitalian economy’s size and power, despite the known fact that wars boost economic strength due to the creation of numerous jobs and projects. After the war, many damaged and frail countries relied on Pacitalian textiles, building supplies and non-perishable food products to assist them during their reconstruction efforts. Overall, Pacitalia was Europe’s largest trading partner in the 1940s and 1950s. The economy swelled so much during this time that the workforce in Pacitalia had to expand by over 500% to fit the demand of the countries suffering post-war problems. In a two-year span of summer 1947 to summer 1949, Pacitalia’s gross domestic product (GDP) ballooned by over 400% to 17 trillion douros. A relatively small, manufacturing-based economy had come of age and developed into a strong, multi-faceted economy.

The good times for Pacitalia lasted until the 1985 election. Liberale leader Athena Papistikas, the sole woman PM in Pacitalian history was voted out of office, after the Liberale party held government for twenty years. Pacitalians were thankful of the Liberale and Pacifista governments of the past forty years for their hard work to bring Pacitalia to a status among the world greats, but they decided it was time for a change. So, the Conservativa party gained 367 of the 590 seats, and party leader Giorgio Cassata was placed in the Prime Minister’s chair. Right off the bat, the majority-government Conservativa party started increasing the military’s size and slashing budgets from necessary departments like health, education and transport. These actions caused a bust in the economy. Stock exchanges were having selling overdoses and people were quickly leaving Pacitalia’s dying economy. By 1987, over 20% of Pacitalians were unemployed and the economy was equal to that of the dismal post-war Soviet Union. Pacitalians were angry with what they called disgusting behaviour from the Conservativa party. A poll was held in the fall of 1987 and over 95% of Pacitalians surveyed wanted an election called. Cassata knew his party’s number was up, but he wasn’t intent on leaving. Instead, he sat down with officials and tried to draft and pass legislation in Parliament that would literally dismantle any opposition to the Conservativa party. Since the Liberale and Pacifista parties knew they were outnumbered in Parliament 367-220, not counting three independents; the only thing they could do was form a left-wing-centrist alliance and hope that at least eighty Conservativa members of parliament chose to vote against the bill. It seemed hopeless, but the two opposition leaders of the Liberale and Pacifista (now the Capitalist party) parties, had a feeling it could work. Decision day for passing of the legislation was October 24, 1987. Parliament was seated and commenced, and the bill was defeated 412-178. Only 175 of the 367 Conservativa MPPs, or 48% of the party, and the three independents, voted in favour of the bill. The rest voted with the left-wing-centrist alliance. PM Cassata was shocked and angry. He was told by one of his advisors earlier in the week that support for his bill inside the party was at 71%, a clear majority. Obviously, he was mislead; as that advisor, an MPP for Puerto Vallarta, in the north, voted against Cassata in Parliament.

Just twelve days later, Cassata was given a vote of non-confidence by ninety percent of Parliamentarians, and Conservativa party members voted him out of the leader’s chair and thus the Prime Minister’s spot, during the party’s annual convention in Saronno. He was replaced by centre-right Conservativa MPP Daniel Cicerone, who immediately called an election for February 3, 1988.

Rebuilding the Nation (1988-1995)

After what the Conservativa party (farther right than the Republican Party in the United States) had done to the economy and well-being of Pacitalia's citizens, it was basically a nationwide dream to abandon and forget about the right-wing party altogether. Halfway through the campaign, support polls showed the Pacifista party leading with 49% support, but just by two percentage points, over the Liberale party, with 47%. The Conservativa party had only 4% support in total now, leaving them totally out of the race for government leadership. It was a guarantee that Pacitalians were switching from a right-wing government with a hint of fascism, to a government that was a long way to the left in the political spectrum. Just days before the election, Conservativa supporters bombed the “Prado”, or Pacitalian Parliament building. About forty percent of the 200-year-old building was destroyed, but luckily not a soul was injured or killed. A group calling itself Libertiae Santome, which in Pacitalian means ‘Freedom Fighters’, openly declared its responsibility. When asked to show its leader, they oddly obliged and recently-ousted Conservativa leader Giorgio Cassata stepped out onto a platform in Timiocato’s Central Forum with a smirk on his face. He was met with stones, sticks and boos from the crowd.

Pacitalians were outraged that anyone would seek to destroy such a beautiful and historic building, and they wanted action taken immediately after the election. The Pacifista party was the first to declare it would quickly detain all LS members if it was to be elected. Pacitalians seemed satisfied and decided on its next government after this issue, and on Election Day; the country elected the Pacifista party, to office. The Pacifista party received an overwhelming 78 million votes, which was 60% of the eligible voting public. The Liberale party received 36 million votes, or 31% of the EVP. Six independents (three new ones that defected from the Conservativa party) received just under 4 million votes, or 3% of the EVP. And the disintegrated Conservativa party earned the remaining 104,000 votes; though unfortunately for them, that wasn’t even enough to earn one seat in Parliament. The Conservativa party lost their Official Party Status in March 1988 (a party needs at least 15 seats to have OPS) when Parliament was resumed and the new Cabinet and PM were sworn in.

Unfortunately, for the new Pacifista government, the Prado could not be used for any Parliamentary or political dealings for at least another three years. For those years (1989-1991), Parliament commenced in the 700-capacity Sky Lounge of the Pacibank Tower; which is the world’s second-largest observation building. During that 36-month timeframe, the Pacifista government focused on four main issues. Two of them were major and they were dealt with first. The other two minor ones were dealt with on the side. Number one was shrinking the military back down to a peace-inducing size, and then redistributing the budget back to the necessary departments that were faltering thanks to the lack of cash doled out by the old Conservativa government. After that, they focused on re-negotiating trade agreements with major world countries and helping the economy get back to its size and power of the late 1970s. Incentives were given to companies to move their headquarters and manufacturing/processing plants back to Pacitalia. Incentive value-return (the money earned back by the government after awarding incentives) was almost 250%, and after four years filled with hard work by both the government and the people of the country, the economy was back to normal. In fact, it was past normal and so strong again that it was challenging the United States for the title of strongest world economy by early 1992. The Gross Domestic Product, once in the trillions before the mid-80s, was back up to that level and beyond, into the tens of trillions. At current levels, it stands at about 20.4 trillion douros, just half-a-billion shy of the US GDP. The economy’s strength meant the currency unit, the douro (D), also shot up in value. From having an exchange rate of US$0.10 for every D1.00, the current rate is in favour of Pacitalians, with around US$1.30 in return for a douro. The douro battles with the Eurodollar and British Pound sterling for the title of world's strongest currency. Large banks in Pacitalia constantly compete with leading Swiss banks and financial institutions to help Pacitalia try to earn the title of Best World Banking System, a title the Swiss have held since the 1970s.

The five years of Pacifistan government went by quite quickly, and all of a sudden, it was time to call another election. Again, the Pacitalians, extremely satisfied with the work of the centre-wing Pacifista party, re-elected them with over 70% of the EVP. The Conservativa party gained two seats in this election, but it was still not enough to regain their Official Party Status.

Modern-Recent Pacitalia (1993-present)

The Pacifista government set out to add a new task to its priority list, and it was to gain full and unbreakable independence from Italy for eternity. Since the Second World War, the views of Pacitalia and those of its motherland, Italy, had been growing increasingly different. Italians had constantly been electing right-wing governments since the 1920s, which sometimes had matched the amount of extremism as Mussolini’s regime had. Pacitalians, who had only elected one right-wing government in the twentieth century, were seen by the world as neutral, capitalist and centrist. It was an obvious difference that was ready to create tension. Pacifista government representatives and the Prime Minister set out to peacefully gain their independence from the Italians. The Italians automatically refused, saying that selective independences were enough. After all, Pacitalia was the last colonial holding of the former Papal States of Italy. All the countries in the United Nations, of which Pacitalia was not yet a member, disagreed with Italy’s stance and demanded renegotiation. Fifty-six countries automatically formed an alliance and recognized Pacitalia as an independent state. Another forty-four countries followed the next day. Two days later, 125 out of 180 member nations voted to give Pacitalia its own seat in the UN. Italy, basically alone on the independence issue with only Malta and South Africa supporting it, caved in and gave full, permanent independence to Pacitalia. The Capitalist Republic of Pacitalia was created and officially, fully independent on November 21st, 1993. This date was exactly 490 years after Italy's king gave Pacitalia slight independence from the kingdom.

After the election and recommencement of a newly-independent Parliament, two major tasks were complete. The Pacifista government awarded a contract to construction firm LDP to rebuild the Prado, with famed European architect Daniel Libeskind leading the way with a fresh, modern design. The front part of the Prado was the most heavily damaged, so Libeskind designed a building that would incorporate both the modern look of steel and glass, but include the contemporary, pre-modern look of the old stone version. Construction began in 1994, ahead of schedule and surprisingly under-budget. After three years of construction and refurbishment, the New Prado was reopened to Parliamentary sessions in September 1997. The New Prado’s stand-out feature is a beehive shaped office tower which houses the offices of all 590 members of the Pacitalian parliament. The complex, now six times larger than the old Prado, sits on the banks of the North Arm of the Timiocato River in the national capital, Timiocato.

The final task set out by the Pacifista government was the successful, and rapid (as they wanted it, and as it happened to occur), capture of all forty-five members of the right-wing Libertiae Santome terrorist group. Their leader, former Conservative party leader and former Prime Minister, Giorgio Cassata was given the only death sentence handed out in Pacitalian judicial history. He was sentenced to three years in prison. After his prison sentence ended, he was executed by lethal injection in the summer of 1998, watched by Parliamentarians on closed-circuit television. All other forty-four members remain in prison for sentences of fifty years each. (Note: Pacitalia now gives the death sentence to people convicted of terrorism or treason.)

As for the political ideologies of the country, they have shifted quite visibly. Another noticeable change was the name of the ruling party from Pacifista to "Capitalist Party of Pacitalia". Since this party took power, the overall status of the country has shifted from left-of-centre into a more centrist-capitalist point of view like the name reflects, differing sharply from the right-wing nationalist ideology of the 1980s. Pacitalia continues to move in a positive direction due to progressive policies in education, social services and for the economy.

Pacitalia also continues to lead the way in innovations and technological advancements. It continues to play host to world-leading corporations such as technology developer Bluefox Studios, the Central/South American headquarters of beverage tycoon Coca-Cola, automobile manufacturers Peruzzi and Infiniti; and news and media conglomerate PNN. The country will play host to the International Conference on Renewable Energies in 2004, and the capital, Timiocato, is a candidate for the 2012 summer Olympic Games.

NOTE: This country is fictional and all allusions (references to real-life things) are fictional as well and never happened in real life. This is simply a supplement to the NationStates country of Pacitalia.