User:TheMayor/sandbox/FSA Timeline Proposal
This is a personal sandbox page regarding a potential setup for some key historic events in the Federal States. This page is not canon and is for discussion purposes only.
Early History
Colonial Era
Sometime in the 14th or 15th Century, Astrasia was widely settled by various groups of native tribes. While not as technologically advanced as the "Old World" nations in Uletha, these tribes were widespread and had established permanent settlements throughout the subcontinent.
At some point, a severe catastrophe struck the Astrasian tribes. The catastrophe itself is still debated, but historians believe the most likely scenario was a combination of a widespread pandemic combined with several years of drought and famine that combined to wipe out 75-90% of the native population. Expeditions in the early age of exploration returned news to Uletha of a sparsely-settled Astrasia with bountiful natural resources ready for exploitation. Most advanced Ulethan nations attempted to colonize southern Archanta and, while many succeeded, the three most successful colonization efforts were undertaken by the Ingerish, the Franquese, and the Castellanese.
The Castellanese, located closest to Astrasia, were the first to make landfall and made significant claims in what is now Cosperica. The Castellanese explored most of the northern coast of Astrasia, including overland expeditions into what is now Alormen, where they reached the Gulf of Alormen and claimed much of the area. While the Castellanese officially claimed all of Astrasia west of the Alormen River, significant settlements were limited to areas in northwestern Astrasia.
The Franquese landed south of Castellan's southernmost claims in more temperate climates, but quickly established colonial settlements that allowed them to dominate southern Astrasia, including around the southern horn of the continent and up the east coast as far north as Lacanier.
The Ingerish also landed on the west coast, establishing claims between the Castellanese and the Franquese, spanning from the modern state of Tauhon through Deodeca. While the Ingerish were limited in exploring inland Astrasia for many years due to the western mountain range, they were also successful with expeditions departing from Rhododactylia, where they were able to successfully invade the independent nation of Gelesia to claim the mouth of the Alormen River. Additional expeditions also provided significant claims in what is now the southeast coast of the FSA. The Castellanese would also establish some east coast colonies; however, these settlements were far detached from their primary Astrasian claims and, as such, were very permissive to non-Castellanese settlers provided they paid nominal taxes to the Castellan government. Ingerish settlers from Ingerland's east coast colonies quickly expanded into these Castellanese colonies: however, while the Ingerish government was far more invested in industrializing their colonies on the east coast, the Castellanese's lack of interest on the east coast resulted in more rural, agrarian settlement by the Ingerish-speaking colonists.
The interior of Astrasia was explored by all three colonial powers, although settlement was minimal and overlapping claims were common, with most territory claimed by the Franquese. While all three powers were interested in the Lakes and the Alormen River valley, the lack of egress to the ocean (except via the Alormen) limited initial industry in the Lakes region to the fur trade and sustenence farming. Additionally, some pockets of native tribes remained an impediment to Ulethan settlement in many areas.
Independence
By the early 18th Century, the Ingerish and Castellanese were on friendlier terms with each other than with the Franquese. In an effort for both nations to consolidate power, the Ingerish and Castellanese allied in an effort to push back the Franquese claims in Astrasia, with the Castellanese supporting Ingerish claims against the Franquese in Ardencia and the Alormen River valley while the Ingerish supported Castellanese incursions into Franquese Asperia. To fund these expeditions, both the Ingerish and the Castellanese began more significantly relying on their Astrasian colonists, beginning first with increased taxation.
In retaliation for the continued incursions into Franquese colonies, the Franquese engaged in a proxy war by supplying native tribes with arms and encouraged them to attack Ingerish and Castellanese settlements. This in turn led the Ingerish and Castellanese to raise more local armies and continue increasing taxes on the colonists, which quickly led to a unified revolt by both the Ingerish and the (nominally) Castellanese east coast colonists, which resulted in the FSA's independence in 1757. The Franquese were more than happy to support the revolution and helped secure victory, in exchange for more defined claims in Astrasia. The Franquese ended up releasing most of their claims east of the Alormen River to the new Federal States of Archanta in exchange for the FSA renouncing previous Ingerish claims in Ardencia along the southeastern coast. As a compromise between the now-unified citizens of the Federal States, the new national capital was positioned immediately south of the former dividing line between the Ingerish and Castellanese claims. Notably, Ingerish colonists in Deodeca refused to declare independence from the Crown; as the tide of the war turned against the Ingerish in the southeastern Federal States, the Ingerish consolidated their colonial holdings in Deodeca.
Further north, the Franquese took a more direct approach, providing direct aid to the colonists near the mouth of the Alormen River to help the Gelesians repel the Ingerish. While some Ingerish loyalists fled to Deodeca, a majority of the colonists stayed in the area and established the independent Alormen Republic. While the Gelesians were initially grateful for the Alormenians assistance with defeating the Ingerish, the colonists also refused to give up their new claims along the bay, relegating the Gelesians to the interior parts of the continent. This greatly destabilized Gelesia, which fell into sectarian violence while also attempting to push back against the increasing claims of the Alormen Republic.
Territorial Expansions and a New Constitution
The Gelesian government would soon fully collapse, with three primary sects emerging. The northernmost group became part of the Alormen Republic and the easternmost group, which was comprised mostly of Gelesian loyalists, attempted to reinstate the pre-Ingerish "legitimate" government of Gelesia. (After a few more decades of additional domestic turmoil, the Gelesian Republic would fully collapse in 1867 and seek annexation into Randalia.) The southernmost group, which fought against both the expanding Alormen Republic as well as the Gelesian loyalists, instead petitioned to join the Federal States for protection against both fronts. While the FSA government agreed to admit this area into the Federation as the new Massodeya Territory, the various states of the Federation quickly began jockeying for position to annex the new territory.
Combined with ongoing conflicts between states in claiming portions of the Franquese Cession, these events prompted the FSA to host a new constitutional convention, which more clearly delineated the powers of the central government in regards to addressing inter-state conflicts, organizing territorial expansions, and negotiating better international trade agreements. While each state was empowered to have some amount of self-governance, major issues (including defense, ratifying treaties, regulating and promoting trade, admitting new states, etc.) were more clearly enumerated powers of the federal government. The national legislature would be reoriented to be comprised of two directly-elected houses: a lower house with representation based on state population, and an upper house with equal representation for each state. The President would continue to be elected based on a national popular vote, but with a vote weighting system that combined the apportionment processes of the two houses of the legislature.
Following the passage of this new constitution, the Alormen Republic -- which had always had good relations with the Federal States and was an important trade partner to both the Southeast and the Lakes regions -- then petitioned to join the Federal States. Seeing an opportunity to expand the nation's claims and to protect and control the strategic mouth of the Alormen River, the Federal States successfully and peacefully annexed the Alormen Republic in the early 19th Century.
The Castellanese and the Franquese -- who were still major competitors elsewhere in the world -- both viewed the rapidly growing Federal States as a threat to their claims in Archanta. The Franquese decided to offer a deal to the Federal States: the FSA would negotiate a purchase of the Franquese-claimed Mennowa Territory (that would allow the Franquese to raise an army in Ardencia to keep pace with the Ingerish in Deodeca and elsewhere throughout the world) while also signing a trade and non-aggression treaty that would prohibit any additional FSA claims in Ardencia in perpetuity. The FSA happily agreed to this treaty, which put the FSA right on the border of Castellanese claims in northwestern Astrasia.
Destabilization of the West Coast
The Castellanese, now clearly feeling threatened by an enlarged and emboldened Federal States, responded to this emerging threat by raising taxes on the colonists and increasing military control of their remaining Astrasian territories. With the Franquese cut off from Castellanese claims by the Deodecans, who wished to remain neutral throughout the skirmishes, the FSA more directly intervened in Castellanese Cosperica to ensure frontier stability and territorial expansion. FSA forces were generally welcomed by the former Castellanese colonists, although some loyalists to the Castellanese crown remained and would skirmish with the FSA troops. Following some preliminary battles, the Castellanese, wishing to avoid a prolongued multi-front war with both the Franquese and the Federal States, relinquished their Astrasian claims entirely. The FSA would administer the new Northwestern Territories through a military governorship overseeing three territories: the Cosperica Territory, the Tauhon Territory, and the Sierra Territory.
Changes in Power Balances
While the territorial gains for the FSA spurred new settlement and opened up millions of acres for farming, the Lakes were still relatively isolated from the rest of the nation, with the only ocean access via the Alormen River. In the early-to-mid-1800s, a long-planned network of canals connecting the Lakes and New Carnaby through the southern states was finally opened after years of delays. This canal system created significant demand for the fertile farmlands and natural resources of the southern Mennowa Territory, requiring the rapid platting and sale of land to new settlers throughout the southwest, forming "grids" of survey boundaries that continue to survive in modern times. This massive influx of people and goods create rapidly-expanding new major cities such as Minneuka, Ohunkagan, Wallawaukee, and Lake City.
The Western Bloc
Following the long-delayed opening of the southern canal system linking New Carnaby and the Grand Lakes, development and settlement in the Lakes region of the FSA boomed in the early 19th Century. While states such as Makaska and Mennowa were admitted to the Federation, most of the FSA west of the eastern mountains was still something of an afterthought to the southeast-controlled national government. As a result, the western states formed a political bloc to try and better represent the western states at the national level. In 1839, the western bloc grew large enough to not only force a coalition government in the upper house of the national legislature, but shocked the nation by winning the election for President after eastern states split their votes between two or three candidates.
Empowered and emboldened by this unexpected swing in political fortune, the western bloc acted quickly over the frequent objections of the lower house to promote more geographically-balanced projects and initiatives that included the west and the Lakes region. Additionally, with control of the presidency as well as a ruling coalition in the upper house, the western bloc also acted to add additional western states to the Federation in an effort to further cement their political power.
Southeastern Rebellion
While the Southeastern states were shocked to lose both the presidency and the upper house, as the population center of the nation the region still had a commanding lead over the lower house of the legislature. As such, the Southeastern states refocused their efforts to pass legislation that allowed states and regions to have more autonomy rather than be subject to the federal government for certain issues such as trade and commerce, to varying levels of success.
Seeing how the canal network opened up the Lakes for increased settlement and trade, the Southeastern states used their new regional autonomy to begin construction and financing of a rail line from Stanton and Huntington to Massodeya City to more directly connect the northern Alormen River valley to the Southeast and to bypass the Lakes entirely for gulf-bound commerce, with plans to eventually extend the line to the Asperic Ocean through Alormen and onto the new northwestern territories.
Clamash Purchase
The west-controlled national government understood that northwestern territories aligned with the Southeast represented a significant threat to the long-term political power of the western bloc; however, the rugged topography of the northwest prevented any connections between the Lakes and the Cosperica Territory due to the large mountain ranges of the Sierra Territory. With the national government now powerless to stop the Alormen railroad, in 1842 the federal government made a significant gambit by negotiating the Clamash Purchase from the Dominion of Deodeca, which allowed for a new Lakes-based railroad to be surveyed to skirt around the western mountains up to the Tauhon Territory and around the coast to Cosperica.
The Clamash Purchase process, which was shrouded in back-room deals and only perfunctory involvement of the national congress, triggered a major schism within the ruling coalition and the presidential administration. Most Alormen River valley states subsequently broke away to support the Southeast-led northern railroad project, which more directly supported their states. As a direct result, in 1843 the Southeast -- running on a platform of "good governance" and transparency -- regained control of the presidency and a new Southeast/Alormen Valley coalition took control of the upper house.
Results and Legacies
Despite the Southeast returning to power in the federal government, efforts to repeal the previous regional autonomy reforms would generally fail since the Southeast never returns to full control of the upper house: while the Alormen Valley states do form a coalition government with the Southeast, the two sides never fully see eye-to-eye on many issues, including admission of the new states of the northwest. This leads to a longer military governorship over the territories until agreements and compromises on statehood are reached in the late 19th- and early 20th-Century.
Regional blocs remained an important dynamic in national government, but the Southeast-led reforms also led to more regional autonomy, including in the Lakes where the western railway was completed to Asperic ports in Tauhon and on to Cosperica. Regional compacts, such as the West Lakes Compact, began to proliferate throughout the Federal States, with many surviving to modern times. While a Lakes-area president would be elected again as soon as 1847 on a platform of transcontinental unity and cooperation, the rapid proliferation of railroads and telegraphs throughout the nation quickly resulted in national politics shifting away from largely geographic blocs to more ideological coalitions. Due to a stronger historical focus on individual states and regions, national political parties never fully coalesce, in favor of five national ideological coalitions (far right, center-right, center-left, far left, libertarian) of state and/or regional elected officials.