Federative Republic of Menghe

The Federative Republic of Menghe (Menghean: 대멩 연방 공화국 / 大孟聯邦共和國, Dae Meng Yŏnbang Gonghwaguk), also known as the Federal Republic of Menghe and the Menghean Second Republic, was the government that ruled Menghe between 1901 and 1927. It was founded by the Treaty of Junggyŏng, which ended the Three States Period and formally unified the Namyang Government and the State of Sinyi under a single system. It was comprised of nine Federal States and two Federal Cities, unified under a national government in Donggyŏng.

The Federative Republic was Menghe's first unified, nationwide government to follow a republican model, with an elected assembly at the federal level and elected assemblies in each federal region. The position of Emperor still existed, but in a purely symbolic fashion, as the Emperor was forbidden from engaging in politics. The Yŏngtong Emperor, who occupied the throne for the entirety of the Federal Republic's existence, was entirely content with this role. It was also the most democratic point in Menghe's 20th-century history, especially after a constitutional amendment in 1920 extended the vote to all men over the age of 25.

In the social and economic realms, the Second Republic continued the trend of modernization seen during the Three States era. Industrial production continued to rise, spreading beyond heavy industry into textiles and consumer goods. Western-style clothing, music, and customs became fashionable in the cities, particularly in the south, and a class of wealthy private entrepreneurs emerged. Railroad construction underwent a second boom, as the new government worked to unify the Three States' fragmented networks into a first-rate transportation system.

Despite these many liberalizing advances, the Federative Republic still had a strong militaristic and nationalistic undercurrent. The Moral Education Law, passed in 1915, set a single federal standard for language and ethics teachings in schools, and the Anti-Sedition Law of 1918 set limits on free speech and activism. The Navy in particular lobbied for generous funding increases, earning Menghe a modest tonnage allotment at the Selkiö Naval Treaty. The tensions between militarism and liberalism came to a head on February 8th, 1927, when General Kwon Chong-hoon staged a right-wing coup in the name of the Emperor and dissolved the federal government. This ushered in the Greater Menghean Empire, the first of a succession of authoritarian systems.

Flag and anthem

The Flag of the Federative Republic of Menghe.

The Federative Republic's flag consisted of a 1.6:1 rectangle with three horizontal stripes, colored light blue, red, and green from top to bottom, with a gold star in the middle. According to the earliest written account by the flag's creator, An Sang-wu, the light blue stripe symbolizes morality and virtue, the green stripe symbilizes Menghe's beautiful land, and the red stripe symbolizes the Menghean people. Later interpretations, however, proposed different meanings for the three colors, including Chŏndoism, Sindoism, and Shahidism, Menghe's three main religions; the Sindo universe comprised of heaven, earth, and humankind in between; and, most commonly, the same meanings An gave for green and blue, but with red symbolizing the blood shed during the unification wars or during the nation's defense. The latter explanation became standard in the 1915 school curriculum, partly to encourage nationalism and partly because the color red is mainly associated with good fortune in Meng culture, as opposed to the customs of Menghe's other peoples.

The national anthem was composed by Ri Ik-tae in 1900 and formally recognized in 1904 following a competition between the country's top poets and scholars. The full title is Let Morning Shine on These Mountains and Rivers, though it is often known as the Aegukga (Patriotic Song) for short. The Aegukga remained Menghe's national anthem under the Greater Menghean Empire, and it was restored under the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe and retained by today's Socialist Republic. The lyrics of the second verse underwent occasional revisions to suit the political winds of the time, but the first verse and the tune have remained unchanged since 1900.

Government and politics

Institutionally, the Federative Republic of Menghe was set up as a parliamentary democracy with a ceremonial monarch. The national legislature was modeled after the bicameral legislature of the Namyang Government, with some modifications. Representatives to the lower house were elected by the voting public, on the basis of a single non-transferrable vote with multi-member districts. Representatives to the upper house were appointed by the governments of each federal district, based on the federal district's own laws, and served for life or until retirement. At the outset, this allowed the outging Namyang and Sinyi governments to hand influential posts to each faction's former top officials; over time, these old elites were joined by prominent landowners and retired governors. The lower house elected the Prime Minister, who then assembled a cabinet with their approval. The cabinet had authority over top-level Ministry appointments, though rank-and-file civil servants still had to pass a greatly modified version of the civil service exam.

Both the 1901 treaty and the 1904 Constitution gave individual federal districts the right to determine their own laws regarding voting eligibility. In the Namyang Government, suffrage was restricted to those who had passed the exclusive civil service examination, but as a national policy this was judged unfair to federal districts which had not held examinations during the Three States Period. Chŏllo carried forward this suffrage policy, with 2% of the population eligible to vote in 1905. Many other states restricted suffrage to landowners with a certain amount of property, or to those who had paid more than a certain amount in taxes. In 1920, under pressure from demobilized soldiers from the War of the Serenoran Succession, the lower house passed a law requiring that all federal districts extend the vote to all male citizens over the age of 25. No jurisdictions passed laws enfranchising women, though in the 1920s feminist groups in several major cities were advocating for universal suffrage.

The Emperor was theoretically the Head of State of the Federative Republic, but his role was purely symbolic, a "representation of the unity of the Menghean nation." The Emperor's residence was moved back to Junggyŏng, also a Federal City, and the modernized Donggwangsan Palace in Donggyŏng was repurposed as the Prime Minister's residence and the workspace of the Cabinet. Unlike either his father or his son, the Yŏngtong Emperor was entirely content with this arrangement, preferring to stay out of politics and live a life of luxury within the Imperial Palace. Despite a steadily tightening media prohibition on lèse-majesté, the Emperor's lavish banquets and parties became the subject of lurid rumors.

Calendar

Previous Menghean governments, including the State of Sinyi, had numbered years based on the era name of the reigning Emperor. For example, 1384 was the 23rd Year of Taechang, because the Taechang Emperor of the Yi dynasty ascended to the throne in 1362. Any time an Emperor died, abdicated, or passed on the throne to a successor, the year-counting system would restart from 1.

The drafters of the Treaty of Junggyŏng decided to modify this tradition, instead setting a single "base year" at 1901, the year the Federative Republic was founded. In honor of this change, the reigning Emperor changed his reign name from Hongchang to Yŏngtong (영통 / 永統), meaning "eternal unity." In contrast to prior practice, however, the Federal Government specified that the calendar would not reset with the ascendance to the throne of future emperors. Nevertheless, the term "Yŏngtong calendar" stuck both domestically and internationally, as the calendar counts the number of years since Menghe's modern unification.

Although the Federative Republic's founders explicitly rejected the idea of adopting the Christian calendar, the use of 1901 as the start date meant that the last two digits of the two year systems would be the same. Thus, 1920 in the Gregorian calendar is 20 in the Yŏngtong calendar. Type designations in the Menghean Army designation scheme are often incorrectly assumed to follow the Gregorian year, but in fact they follow the Yŏngtong year, as illustrated by 21st-century examples like the JS-103 rifle of 2003.

Timeline of major events

• 1899 July 8: Representatives of the Namyang and Sinyi governments sign the Junggyŏng Armistice, beginning the peaceful unification process.
• 1901 August 2: Treaty of Junggyŏng signed, officially forming the Federative Republic of Menghe.
• 1904 May 25: The "Yŏngtŏng Constitution" is ratified, laying out protected rights for the citizens.
• 1905 December 29: Menghean troops occupy southern Polvokia in an attempt to suppress the Communist revolution there.
• 1915 July 30: The Moral Education Law creates a standard federal education curriculum, with a focus on nationalist indoctrination.
• 1918 January 23: The Anti-Sedition Law forbids speech and activism which harms the national interest.
• 1920 April 17: An amendment to the constitution extends suffrage to all literate men over the age of 25.
• 1927 February 8: Kwon Chong-hoon seizes government buildings in Donggyŏng and Junggyŏng and declares the formation of the Greater Menghean Empire.