Nimear

Republic of Nimear Republiek Nijmeer (Hennish)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Justitia ad Victoria" "Justice in Victory"
Anthem: Ride de Nijmeerers "Ride of the Nimearians"
Location of Nimear (dark green) in Asteria (light grey) and in the Asterian Development Council (light green).
Capital	Envoort
Largest city	Sint-Nicolaas
Official languages	Hennish
Recognised regional languages	Estmerish Gaullican Amaru
Ethnic groups (2017)	33.8% Asterianer 31.5% Zwarter 10.6% Halfbloed 9.6% Amaru 7.1% other native 4.5% other white 3.1% other
Demonym(s)	Nimearian
Government	Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
• State President	Mozes Koeaara
• Chancellor	Pieter Tupaak
Legislature	States General
Independence  from Estmere
• Declaration of Cessation	11 June 1807
• Treaty of Lanta	26 October 1815
• Current constitution	15 May 1939
Area
• Total	1,661,453 km2 (641,491 sq mi)
• Water (%)	3.8
Population
• 2018 estimate	30,400,000
• 2017 census	29,442,731
• Density
GDP (PPP)	2017 estimate
• Total	$268,723 million
• Per capita	$9,127
GDP (nominal)	2017 estimate
• Total	$150,982 million
• Per capita	$5,128
Gini (2016)	53.5 high
HDI (2017)	0.691 medium
Currency	Nimearian daalder (NID)
Time zone	UTC+6 (Nimearian Standard Time)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy (CE)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+89
Internet TLD	.ni

Nimear (Hennish: Nijmeer), officially the Republic of Nimear (Hennish: Republiek Nijmeer), is a sovereign nation in the Asterias, bordered by Eisenkuste to the north, and Satucin and Vilcasuamanas to the east. Its coastline extends along the Arucian and Sublustrian seas. The country spans 1,661,453 square kilometres (649,005 sq mi), and hosts a population of 29,442,731. Envoort is the capital, while Sint-Nicolaas is the largest city.

Home to the Amaru people and their ancient civilisations, pre-colonial Nimear had been inhabited since time immemorial before the discovery of the Asterias in the late 1400s. Nimear itself was reached by Hennish explorer Sijbrand Kroese in 1511, leading to a period of Hennish colonisation and conquest, and heralding the start of their dominance in the region following the foundation of the colony of Nieuw Zilverzee. The first colonists to arrive were Catholic, but following the Amendist Reformation the majority would be Kasperist. As Hennish colonies, Nimear also saw an influx of Bahian chattel slaves, who were put to work on the sugar, tobacco and banana plantations in the region. Having become immensely profitable from these plantations, the colonies were forcefully seized by the Estmerish Commonwealth and reorganised into the Confederation of the Nimear during the Estmerish-Hennish War of 1737. Inspired by the Mariranan and Asterian revolutions, Hennish settlers staged a revolution in 1781, though it was defeated by loyalist forces, leading to a period of repression.

Overtime, Estmerish planters - backed by the colonial administration - overtook their Hennish counterparts, fostering tension between the groups. Growth in unemployment and poverty among the Hennish population combined with anti-Estmerish sentiment led to the Kroesestad Blazing in 1798. The heavy-handed and unpopular Estmerish response to this inadvertently led to the Declaration of Cessation by the colonists, and the start of the War of Independence. Following an eight-year war, the 1815 Treaty of Lanta affirmed Nimearian independence under the Federative Republic of the Nimear. Slavery was abolished as per the treaty, to the anger of the wealthy planters, ushering the country into a period of economic decline. Taking advantage of this situation, in 1851 the Gaullican colony of Satucin seized the disputed Oostenveld region, commencing the small-scale Bush War between the countries. Ethnic tension heightened as wealth became centralised in the upper echelon of the Asterianer community. The discovery of gold and diamonds in the interior in 1868 led to the Nimearian Gold Rush. Combined with the rapid growth of the financial sector, this led to a reversal of the country's economic fortunes, with the country emerging as one of the world's wealthiest developed nations by the early 20th century.

Global economic depression at the turn of the century led to mass unemployment and political instability, culminating in the election of the General Group under Laurens Wispel in 1915 following a contentious election, unleashing a period of repression among the country. Signing treaties with Gaullica and Marirana, Wispel brought Nimear into the Great War as a member of the Entente, while conducting a campaign of war-time genocide against the Native Asterians and segregation against the Zwarters. Defeat in the Great War led to a Roessan military occupation, lasting until the first democratic elections in 1939. Ethnic tensions, largely economic in nature, have persisted, despite attempts in 1987 to bring about greater equality via the Aslpaat Act. Minority-led insurgencies persist in the rural regions, with futile attempts at peace failing regularly.

Today, Nimear is a unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic, considered a newly industrialised country, with a GDP (PPP) per capita of $9,127. The current State President is Mozes Koeaara, while the current Chancellor is Pieter Tupaak. Nimear is a member of the Community of Nations, ITO, GIFA, ADC and ICD, and is considered a middle power in Asteria Inferior, maintaining close ties to its neighbours.

Etymology

The Estmerish name "Nimear" is a bastardisation of the native Hennish name for the country, Nijmeer. The name originally referred only to the Nimear river, until the creation of the Confederation of the Nimear by the Estmerish Commonwealth. The name roughly translates to either "new lake/river" or "my lake/river"; the ultimate origin remains unknown.

History

Main article: History of Nimear

Pre-Kroesean era

Main articles: Indigenous peoples of Nimear and Amaru Empire

Death of the Amaru, painting by Dolf Hroese.

Prior to Kroese's landing, the area now known as Nimear had been inhabited by humans for 12,000 years. The indigenous peoples of the region ranged from tribal societies to state-like societies, centred on the coast and the drainage basin of the Nimear river. The vast majority of these societies had access to advanced agriculture with complex social structures. Many major indigenous societies thrived in the region, including the Nina and the Kantuta, who specialised in goldsmithing and llama ranching respectively. They did not maintain a state-like empire, instead maintaining a tribal life-style in the interior. The Amaru people made up the bulk of the native population.

The Amaru Empire, state of the Amaru people, had succeeded in subjugating the majority of the Nimearian coastal region between 1100 and 1500, emerging as a regional hegemon. Archeological studies and historial documents confirm that many other indigenous societies paid tribute to the Amaru. Prior to its discovery by the Hennish and subsequent decline, the capital of the Amaru Empire is believed to have been a centre of great cultural achievement, comparable to the urban centres of eastern Euclea. Unlike Euclea - which had maintained a feudal economy, later evolving into capitalism - the Amaru Empire has become known among modern scholars for its centrally planned economy, and presumably equitable distribution of resources among its noble, warrior and worker classes. As such, the long-dead empire has become something of a rallying symbol for Amaru activists in modern times.

Hennish colonisation

Main articles: Hennish Nimear and Nieuw Zilverzee

Kroese's landing, 1511.

Sijbrand Kroese, with the authority of the Hennish crown, first explored and mapped Nimear in 1511. Following his expedition, the colony of Nieuw Zilverzee was founded in 1526 by Hennish settlers with permission from the Hennish government, under the auspices of the Nieuw Zilverzee Charter. The settlement was in direct contact with the northern Amaru tribes, who did not pay fealty to the Amaru Emperor, and established a lucrative trading deal, exchanging wonders of the new world such as maize for Euclean goods such as steel. Additionally, many Euclean missionaries began efforts to convert the natives to Sotirianity; at first to Catholicism, later to Kasperism.

Due to the close contact, these native tribes would suffer the worst effects of the Kroesean exchange, with the coastal tribes losing roughly 90%, in some areas 100%, of their population to outbreaks of Old World diseases such as smallpox, to which the natives did not have an immunity. This opened up vast areas to Hennish expansion, which the settlers exploited, but irreparably damaged relations between the natives and the colonists, as the Amaru Empire enacted a policy of isolationism to combat the spread of disease. The colony of Maagdland would be established in 1571, in the depopulated areas south of Nieuw Zilverzee. This colony would be in direct conflict with the Amaru.

Despite their efforts to maintain an isolationist existence, the Amaru Empire would meet their ultimate demise at the hands of the Hennish. Having entered a period of decline coinciding with the arrival of the settlers, the subsequent epidemics sapped the power of the state. Following a third refusal to engage in trade with the colonists, an army under Jurriaan Krieger landed in Maagdland, and proceeded to sack the Amaru capital of Wilaquta, bringing great wealth back to Hennehouwe in the form of loot from the city. Despite the great presence of gold and silver artifacts in the city, the location of the mines that provided this gold and silver ultimately eluded the Hennish.

Plantations formed the backbone of the colonial economy.

The lands of the former Amaru Empire would become subject to Hennish conquest and colonisation, with several more colonial charters being signed, earmarked for these newly-acquired territories. Former citizens of the Amaru Empire were absorbed into the growing Hennish colonial empire, but were essentially treated as second-class citizens, with many becoming indentured servants in new Hennish plantations. Due to their reduced population and susceptibility to disease, however, plantation owners would soon turn to other sources of labour to exploit the riches of the new world. Bahian slaves would soon make up a large percentage of the colonial population.

Wealth generated in Nimearian plantations did lead to greater investment in the region, but despite this, the vast majority of the wealth was still directed towards the Hennish homeland, with the colonists experiencing a significantly lower quality of life. Expeditions into the interior became more common as the coastal communities thrived, though these expeditions often proved futile due to the fact that the interior was largely inhospitable. The Hennish crown, regardless, laid claim to the entire region. This claim was disputed by the Gaullican Empire, who claimed the region's hinterlands as part of their colony of Pasau. Due to the difficult terrain between the two colonies, however, it was difficult for either side to attain complete control over the region, and the stalemate would continue until both countries developed methods for dealing with the hostile climate, at which point conflict began to brew between them.

Estmerish Nimear

Main article: Confederation of the Nimear

The Estmerish fleet was essential in the seizing of Nimear.

As the plantations brought yet more wealth back to Hennehouwe, the other Euclean imperial powers began to covet the rich region for themselves. First among these was the Estmerish Commonwealth, which by 1721 had lost the majority of its Asterian possessions to the burgeoning Gaullican Empire. When the Estmerish-Hennish War of 1737 began, Estmere found their excuse to seize the rich plantation colony; when the war had come to a conclusion, following brief naval action on Nimear's coasts, the Commonwealth forcefully seized the Nimearian colonies, organising them into the Confederation of the Nimear and appointing an Estmerish governor to oversee the region.

The Estmerish government in Ashcombe were content to leave the colony largely autonomous, however the inflammatory actions of the Estmerish colonial administration would prove to provide tension within the colony. The new Estmerish governor, Admiral Cornelius Underwood, was distrustful of the colonial Hennish population following his action in the blockade of the colony, and as such preferred to import Estmerish administrators and workers rather than utilise the local population. As a result of this, colonial governance laid entirely in the hands of Estmerish officials. This only served to alienate the Hennish population, who soon felt like second-class citizens.

Economic turmoil would also hit Nimear. The heavy-handed farming techniques which the former Hennish administration had mandated to maximise production levels had begun to affect the viability of continued agriculture in some of the most profitable regions of the colony. This resulted not only in a decline in incomes, but in panic which saw investors revoke their investments from the plantations. Overall, the economic malaise was blamed by the locals on the new Estmerish governance of the colony, and the practices to blame continued to be used. By 1768, the situation had deteriorated further, with the overall profitability of the colony having been halved from its 1737 level.

The Viscount Mount Pleasant, first Estmerish governor.

With the economic decline continuing, the colonial administration began to undertake drastic measures. The Viscount, viewing the problem of soil erosion to have stemmed from poor agricultural policies by Hennish plantation owners, began a program of land appropriation and grants; buying land from Hennish owners and redistributing it to Estmerish settlers. Many of the Hennish planters, who were already bearing the brunt of the economic decline, were eager to sell their land for the promise of compensation and a pension, though a vocal minority was resistant to the idea. Overtime, the methods by which the colonial administration acquired the land shifted from purchases to seizures, in order to uproot those planters unwilling to sell. This policy was extremely unpopular with the Hennish population, but by 1777 two-thirds of Nimear's plantations were under Estmerish ownership.

From this unpopular policy emerged a distinctly anti-Estmerish sentimentality among vast swathes of the local Hennish population, who had begun to think of themselves not as Henns nor Estmerish, but as Asterianers. This sense of national identity emerged at a time when other Asterian colonies, such as the Federation and Marirana, had begun to establish themselves as independent nations through independence wars. These wars, in particular the Asterian and Mariranan Wars for Independence had inspired a newfound sense of nationalism within the Hennish-speaking colonists, who began associating in secret societies such as the Asterianer Legion and the Sons of Liberty. These groups soon became far more outspoken in their denunciation of Estmere, and as a result were treated as hostile elements by the colonial administration. This, however, only served to strengthen their resolve and support.

Events soon spiraled out of control in 1781, when a government crackdown against the gathering of members of the Asterianer Legion escalated into a street brawl, the confusion of which saw swathes of bystanders cut down by volleys of fire from Estmerish volunteer forces. The Helmond Massacre, as it came to be known, resulted in a colony-wide outcry, which was capitalised on by the Sons of Liberty, who entered into a long-prepared military insurrection against Estmerish rule, beginning the Nimearian Revolt of 1781. The colonial administration responded with the utmost of force, leveling entire towns to root out the rebellious elements. After a short but bloody campaign, the revolt had effectively been quelled, and the colony entered a period of heavy-handed repression as a result. Those found speaking Hennish in public were reported to the authorities by Estmerish citizens, and the siege mentality which had emerged during the land seizures became deeply embedded in the mindset of the Kasperist Hennish colonists, who soon found themselves the silenced majority, and an isolated community within the colony as a whole.

The Nimearian Revolt was suppressed by colonial authorities.

Although peace had been restored by the colonial garrison, tension between the Hennish and Estmerish colonists persisted, with the Estmerish population continuing to occupy vaster swathes of the colony's arable land, in contrast to their low presence in the colonial population as a whole. The inherent favouritism shown by the colonial government toward the Estmerish planters in this regard served only to further sour relations between the two groups of colonists, with the Hennish-speaking population now beginning to strongly identify as an independent national unit, despite the wishes of the Estmerish government.

With the much of population priced-out of owning land due to the policy of the colonial administration, unemployment and destitution among the colonists, especially among the Hennish population, began to increase. This was not aided by the continued agricultural malaise, and the institution of slavery preventing much of the freemen population from acquiring work within the agricultural sector. This high level of unemployment would continue for much of the remainder of Estmerish control over Nimear. Throughout this period, even during Estmerish repression, acts of resistance against the colonial administration remained common.

Independence

Main articles: Kroesestad Blazing, Declaration of Cessation, and Nimearian War of Independence

Economic decline and recovery

Main articles: Bush War and Nimearian Gold Rush

Free State and the Great War

Main articles: Nimearian Free State, General Group, Laurens Wispel, and Great War (Kylaris)

Laurens Wispel, Lord Protector of the Free State, 1918–1935.

Post-war Nimear

Main articles: Occupation of Nimear and Aslpaat Act

Demographics

Religion

Main article: Religion in Nimear

Religion in Nimear (2017 Census)

  Kasperist (59.5%)

  Solarian Catholic (19.2%)

  Amendist (6.7%)

  Native faiths (6.2%)

  Salvationist (4.6%)

  Irreligious (2.3%)

  Other (1.7%)