Rello

The Republic of Rello República de Rello
Flag
Motto: "Libertad y Venganza" "Liberty and Vengance"
Anthem: El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido "A People United Will Never be Defeated"
Capital	Ciudad Libertad
Largest city	Río Dorado
Official languages	Hestaican
Religion	Secular
Demonym(s)	Relloese
Government	Parliamentary Republic
• President	Luis Ravello
• Prime Minister	Joaquin Fuentes
History
• Penal Colony founded	1531
• Years of Tyranny	1788-1799
• Relloese Revolution	March 15, 1800
• Wars of Independence	1800-1810
• Sanchez Presidency	1830-1877
• Sagrada Germanía Uprising	1833-1866
• Reform Era	1877-1900
Population
• 1936 estimate	4,342,012
Currency	Maravedi
Driving side	right

The Republic of Rello (Hestaican : República de Rello), known as more commonly as Rello, is a sovereign state in northwest Aestia in the world of Verthandi, bordered by the Vicariate of Vespera to the North and the Depsotate of Nikeaneon to the East. First discovered by Hestaican explorers in the early sixteenth century, Rello was known for its harsh landscape. With the Emperor's permission, Rello was the founded as a penal colony of the Empire in 1531, run by Hestaicans, in order to provide a place for Imperial criminals and major dissidents to be sent to. Imperial criminals would serve their sentences. This group included anyone from petty criminals, religious dissidents, debtors, rebels, and others. If there service on the plantations was finished, many remained and established families. As the colony grew and developed, it became vastly diverse and mixed, with the religious dissidents founding their own communities. However, the increasing diversity and built up resentment to Imperial rule lead to tensions and rebellions during the later half of the eighteenth century. After a failed rebellion in 1778, the Hestaicans decided that increased force and punishment were necessary to keep Rello in check. For just over twenty years, Governor Luis de Trevilo implemented draconian policies which kept civil order, but dramatically increased resentment against the government, and to compound this, several members of the Auvernian Revolution captured by the Empire were brought to Rello, bringing their ideas. In 1799, Trevilo's death lead to the opening of the floodgates. His successor tried to lift the policies and restrictions, but the damage was done. Rello rose up in a massive revolt, under a red banner and a cry of "Libertad y Venganza". Imperial forces were overwhelmed as mass protests filled the streets, and quickly, all order collapsed as the country fell into anarchy. The prison camps were opened, only for Imperial loyalists and ecclesiastics to take the places or find themselves on the end of a chopping block. However, after the initial wave of bloodshed, forces from all over Greater Vespera headed to quash the Revolution. Because the revolutionaries had little central authority, the counter attacks were initially successful, especially the forces of Nikeaneon. Recognizing the necessity of a combined authority, Revolutionary leaders met to form a government. In March 15, 1800, the leaders drafted a Constitution and formed the Free Assembly of Rello, finally forming a new government. They rallied their forces and repelled the Vesperan responses, managing to hold them off until the other Vesperan states began to break off after the fall of Imperial Hestaica. The new state was able to consolidate, and began to try and stabilize itself. However, the leadership which had been divided against common foes now had a plenitude of opinions on how the new state should be run. For years, the new Free Assembly was plagued as factionalism grew. The general group known as the Radicales were for centralization, strong anti-clericalism, and sweeping economic and social reform, and destruction of anything related to the Empire; it was opposed by the Moderados, who advocated for more decentralization, moderate anti-clericalism, and for gradual reform. Conservatives were ostracized and labeled as reactionaries, and so remained in hiding or were put into the prison camps. Tensions rose between the two sides, until another war with Nikeanenon stopped the infighting. General Pablo Sanchez, a prominent radical, distinguished himself in the war, securing a victory for Rello. Becoming massively popular, he was elected as President soon after the conclusion of the war, backed by a strong radical support in the Free Assembly. He then began to enact heavy anti-clerical laws, and began persecuting Catholics and priests from open practice. As civil unrest grew, Sanchez clamped down on the rebels, using force to send a message with several bloody raids, including the execution of the Archbishop of Rello. The Moderados, seeing this as an infringement of liberty, protested in the Assembly but for the most part did not resist. The acts of force led to the rise of a strong popular religious movement arose in what would known as the Sagrada Germanía, fighting against the government's new policies. These mostly hid in the rural regions of Rello, and received heavy arms, training and funding from Vespera and Nikeaneon. As a result, the insurgents became notoriously hard to root out, and the war between them became intense, bloody, and protracted. Sanchez spent the majority of his long presidency trying to root out the insurgents, before the official insurrection was finally quashed. Sanchez was elected to the Presidency for eight terms, and firmly established Rello as an atheistic and leftist state, greatly expanding government involvement and laying the groundwork of Rello. After Sanchez's death in 1877, the Radicales collapsed, the Moderados finally came to power, and implemented more moderate policies, but although they permitted the freedom of worship and did not actively persecute the Church, they kept Sanchez's laws which did not permit the Church to own property or have a major institutional presence. The Moderados also limited term limits, to prevent another Sanchez from ruling. Rello began to develop its modern political parties during this period, as the coalition that made the Moderados fell apart. Currently, the Republic of Rello is a parliamentary Republic with a strong Presidency. It does not get along well with its neighbors, seeing Vespera as a remnant of the Empire and Nikeaneon as a hated rival.