Borvastaat

This article is about the country. For other uses, see Borvastaat (disambiguation).

Republic of Borvastaat 4 official languages Borvazunge: Rephublik Borvastaat Ruthish: Republik Borwastaat Seloleme: Rephaboliki Naga Borwa Ulwimi: iRiphabhlikhi ilizwe Lasezantsi
Flag Seal
Anthem: "National Anthem of Borvastaat"
Location of Borvastaat in Hylasia
Subdivisional map of Borvastaat
Capital	Gautshafen
Largest city	Tshimberg
Official languages	Borvazunge Ruthish Seloleme Ulwimi
Recognised regional languages	Sebua !qáxa Fallish
Ethnic groups (2022)	26.7% Batho 21.2% Bachaba 17.6% Ixolo 13.8% Mixed/Colored 9.8% Ruthish 4.7% Fallish 3.3% tǃʼàu 2.3% Yinese/Abarian 0.8% Other
Religion (2022)	74.3% Gregorianism 13.4% No religion 9.1% Folk religion 2.2% Himayan 1% Other
Demonym(s)	Borvazi Borvastaater
Government	Unitary parliamentary republic with an executive presidency
• President	Kagiso Motsepe
• Speaker	Mpho Molefe
• Chief Justice	Naledi Sepogodi
Legislature	National Assembly
History
• uMzantsi migrations	c. 400-2,000BCE
• Motlalepula Kingdom	c. 900-1300CE
• Calesian settlement	c. 1630CE
• Ruthish colonization	1 November 1864
• Independence established	18 October 1944
• Current constitution	15 April 1984
Area
• Total	853,285.7 km2 (329,455.5 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.01
Population
• 2022 estimate	51,562,360 (9th)
• Density	60.43/km2 (156.5/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2022 estimate
• Total	$922.605 billion (10th)
• Per capita	$17,893
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$434.671 billion (11th)
• Per capita	$8,430
Gini (2022)	56.2 high
HDI (2022)	0.727 high
Currency	Gauta (Ǥ, BSG)
Time zone	UTC-1 (Borva Standard Time, BST)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+144
Internet TLD	.bs

Borvastaat, officially the Republic of Borvastaat, is a sovereign state and the southernmost country in Hylasia. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by the Galanaic Ocean and to the east by the South Medan Ocean; to the north the nations of X, X, and X. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Nadauro. With a population of over 51 million people, it is currently the 9th most populous nation on Teleon and covers an area of 853,285.7 square kilometres (329,455.5 square miles). Its capital is Gautshafen while the largest city is Tshimberg.

About 70% of the population are Black Borvastaaters. The remaining population consists of Hylasia's largest communities of Calesian (White Borvastaaters), Abarian (Yinese Borvastaaters), and multiracial (Coloured/Mixed Borvastaaters) ancestry. Borvastaat is a multi-ethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the Constitution's recognition of 4 official languages with 3 official recognized minority languages. According to the 2022 census, the two most spoken first languages are Seloleme, spoken as a first language by nearly a quarter of the country's population, and Borvazunge, the latter being of Calesian origin. Other Calesian languages spoken in the country are Ruthish and Fallish, reflecting the influence of colonialism on the country.

Regular elections have been held in the country for four decades now, though the settler population carried out its own elections for another four decades prior to that. The vast majority of Black Borvastaaters were not enfranchised until 1984. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to claim more rights from the dominant white minority, which played a large role in the country's recent history and politics. The now defunct People's Party imposed apartheid in 1945, institutionalizing previous racial segregation only a year after the country was given independence from the Transmedan Powers in the aftermath of the Great War. After a mixture of guerrilla warfare and non-violent struggles by the Borvastaat National Party and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of the apartheid legal framework began in 1981 and ended in 1984. Since 1984, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. Borvastaat is often referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity, especially in the wake of apartheid.

Borvastaat is a middle power in international affairs; it maintains significant regional influence and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the United Congress, the Hylasian Union, and various regional organizations. It is a developing country, ranking 11th on the Human Development Index, among the highest on the continent. Borvastaat is also one of the few Hylasian nations to have legalized same-sex marriage. It has also been classified as a newly industrialized country and has the largest and most industrialized, technologically advanced economy in Hylasia. Since the end of apartheid, government accountability and quality of life have substantially improved. However, crime, poverty, and income inequality remain widespread, with about 40% of the total population being unemployed as of 2021, while some 60% of the population lived below the poverty line and a quarter lived below $2.15 a day.

History

Main article: History of Borvastaat

Pre-history

Borvastaat contains some of the oldest archaeological and human-fossil sites in the world. Archaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Qawa Province. These finds suggest that various hominid species existed in Borvastaat from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus hominids. Modern humans have inhabited Southern Hylasia for at least 170,000 years. Various researchers have located pebble tools within the Umlambo River valley. While the region was devoid of any sedentary civilization for some time, the indigenous proto-tǃʼàu peoples, primarily divided amongst hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, were among the earliest long-term inhabitants. This region remains as one of the longest continually inhabited regions in the world.

uMzantsi migrations

Around 1,000-2,000BCE, other nomadic groups from central parts of the Hylasia began migrating south, displacing, eliminating, and/or assimilating various other cultures. These migrations are referred to in Ulwimi as the “uMzantsi” or “southerly” migrations, where many of the more populous ethnic groups in the country today come from, like the Batho, Bachaba, and the Ixolo. Some uMzantsi languages, like Ulwimi and SeBua also borrowed some click consonants from the indigenous !qáxa languages (of the tǃʼàu peoples).

These migrations continued, primarily into the coastal regions where they displaced the tǃʼàu people into the central lands (modern day Qawa province), until around the 4th century BCE. They were fueled by the advent of agriculture and the iron age, which allowed for people from the central Hylasian climates to better adapt to the different southern climates.

This ethnic makeup remained fairly stable for a while, with the Kingdom of Motlalepula, the first true regional polity, forming around 900 CE and ending around 1300 CE. It saw advances in stone masonry, gold and ivory trade, and organized agriculture. Additionally, it was one of the largest such kingdoms of this period in the sub-equatorial parts of Hylasia, encompassing all of modern-day Borvastaat, in addition to vast swathes along the Inkazana river into parts of modern-day X, X, and X.

The collapse of the Motlalepula, brought on by climate changes from the Catabolic Crisis, led to a period of instability in the region, as well as divides amongst the once stable ethnic lines that had been established thousands of years earlier. This period, lasting the duration of the Catabolic Crisis, saw the near-extermination of the tǃʼàu people, and famines that affected the more dominant Batho (central-south), Bachaba (north), and Ixolo (southwest) groups, often causing them to go after the food sources of the pastoralist or hunter-gatherer tǃʼàu people.

Calesian exploration

Around the time of the collapse of the Motlalepula, in the early- to mid-1400s, some of the first contact was made with non-Hylasian peoples, including the arrival by land of Himayan missionaries and the arrival by sea of Yinese and Calesian traders. While few permanent settlements were made by these groups, the introduction of smallpox yet again struck at the population of the region. By the early 1500s, the indigenous population had been nearly halved from what it was in the mid-1300s.

This, along with small skirmishes and conflicts near areas being settled by Calesian traders, saw much of the prominent coastal regions become devoid of permanent human habitation, with many native groups being relegated to inland agriculture and nomadism. With the advent of these new sea lanes connecting western Abaria to Calesia, as well as areas ripe for whaling off the southern coast, the region quickly became a large trading hub, with some settlers from Falland and the Ruthish Confederation finally establishing permanent settlements, often based on agriculture and maritime trading in the early 1600s.

Many of the smaller coastal settlements established during this period went on to become some of the larger modern cities, and while no country laid any official claim during this period, some tensions did exist amongst the Fallish and Ruthish settlers, sometimes escalating into skirmishes. This finally escalated into a full conflict around the early 1700s when Fallish settlers attempted to settle further inland, signing a series of exploitative treaties with the native Batho and Ixolo peoples in an attempt to surround Ruthish settlements along the central and southern coastlines. During this time, the “Settler War” took place, from 1752-1757, with many Fallish settlers having to resettle along the south and central inland regions, all the while the Ruthish settlers seized the Phelakwana peninsula and much of the northern and central coast, essentially winning the war.

Ruthish colonization

This post-war situation remained relatively distant from the mainlands of Falland and the Ruthish Confederation/Kingdom, and the established borders remained stagnant until the scramble for parts of Hylasia in the mid- to late-1800s, in which the Ruthens were awarded all of the modern Borvastaat, while Falland retained some rites of passage. The “Kolonie von Süd-Hylasia” then existed from 1864 onwards, with periods of increasing immigration, and conflict with the natives, including the “Batho War” of 1866-1870, and the further displacement of Fallish settlers (Fallishimi) to the southwest and western regions in the 1870s and 1880s (known as the Fallishimitrek).

Many Ruthish settlers hoped to create a Ruthish-speaking state, and these forced displacements and wars became especially crucial after the discovery of diamonds in 1871 (with a gold rush having occurred some decades earlier, spiking immigration then as well). This diamond rush saw the beginning of the modern state of Borvastaat. Many independent Ruthish prospectors and native forced laborers were resigned to intermingle in this era, during which multiple pidgins popped up, which also gave way to the modern name of Borvastaat, meaning “Borwa” (South or southern in Seloleme) and “Staat” (state in Ruthish).

The repression of workers of all creeds during the diamond rush and ensuing industrialization and immigration saw a rise in conflicts, strikes, and military deployments. As industrialization continued, so too did the repression, culminating in a sizable communist influence by the turn of the century. Many indigenous groups would even band with the Fallishimi and some Ruthish workers on occasion to combat Ruthish military personnel, leading to the “1st Baagisan-konflikt” (1st Settler Conflict), in which an all-out war was mounted against the Ruthish colonial army. The main part of the war lasted only a brief 3 years, from 1919-1922, but a low-level conflict persisted through to the start of the Great War.

During the Great War, the Kolonie von Süd-Hylasia fell in its entirety to the Transmedan Powers in August of 1937, resulting in its occupation until 1944 by the Transmedan powers.

Independence and apartheid

After the Great War, an independent republic was established, one intended to represent all of its inhabitants; however, it did not last long and quickly fell back into a civil conflict with the “National Coup” of October 29th, 1945, when a group of armed settlers and associated military units rose up, overthrowing the government and establishing an apartheid state. The immediate aftermath of the coup was the disarmament of unions, indigenous peoples, and the Fallishimi, which then led to the “2nd Baagisan-konflikt.”

This conflict consisted primarily of labor strikes, protests, international activism, and on occasion the use of terrorism and insurgencies among more radical groups. Moreover, the apartheid system lasted for 36 years, ending only in 1981 with the Gautshafen and Tshimberg Agreements. The former established a 3-year transition period to get rid of the apartheid, while the latter established a ceasefire and freed many political prisoners. The collapse of the apartheid system was due to the internal conflicts, as well as international isolation through the 70s and early 80s, forcing the government to go back on its ways.

The apartheid-era government also had close relations with and recognized the East Ruthen republic, as the settler government would find them to be a staunch anti-communist ally. This alliance would also see the two develop an intertwined military-industrial complex, in addition to East Ruthen scientists secretly assisting Süd-Hylasia with its various WMD programs.

The apartheid state of Süd-Hylasia was also heavily intertwined with anti-colonial and anti-communist military operations throughout Hylasia, often reflecting domestic issues. These conflicts and international pressure due to apartheid policies eventually led to the Süd-Hylasian nuclear program, where the government produced an estimated dozen-or-so nuclear weapons and tested one in 1978 in the Qawa province. However, this had a reverse effect, causing even more backlash, and leading to the downfall of apartheid.

Post-apartheid

From 1984 onwards, the country officially changed its name from Süd-Hylasia to Borvastaat and established itself as a “Rainbow Republic,” with nearly 1 in 4 people being descended directly from the earlier settler populations. This situation has proven to be largely a success story, although there was a minor exodus of the Ruthish settler population around the end of apartheid. In the 1984 elections, the ruling People's Party was voted out in a landslide, with the new Borva Liberation Coalition (BLC) taking over and ruling the nation ever since.

Discrimination is still widespread in Borvastaat, though significantly better than during the period of apartheid. This is largely due to the concentration of wealth amongst the settler population, ethnic tensions within the nation, and the remnants of apartheid-era segregation in urban areas.

The nuclear arsenal established by the apartheid regime was also dismantled, with international observers surveilling the process and officially establishing that the nation was compliant with the Treaty of Hellnafjord by early 2002. Nearly all enriched uranium from those weapons is still maintained in Borvastaat for medical and energy uses, with the nation being a global leader in nuclear energy policy, possessing 3 nuclear power plants, a leading figure amongst other Hylasian nations.

In post-apartheid Borvastaat, unemployment has remained high. While many black Borvastaaters have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of black people worsened between 1989 and 1999 by official metrics but declined significantly using expanded definitions. Poverty among whites, which was previously uncommon, also tended to increase. The government struggled to achieve the monetary and fiscal discipline to ensure both redistribution of wealth and economic growth. The United Congress Human Development Index rose steadily until the late-1980s then fell from 1989 to 2001 before recovering its 1988 peak in 2007. The fall is in large part attributable to the Borvazi HIV/AIDS pandemic which saw Borvastaater life expectancy fall from a high point of 67 years in 1992 to a low of 58 in 2004, and the failure of the government to take steps to address the pandemic in its early years, as was the case in many Hylasian countries.

The country also suffers high violent and property crime rates, in addition to rampant corruption, primarily believed to be the result of having a single coalition in power since 1984. Issues with xenophobia have also run rampant, with one of the primary political debates surrounding the status of immigrants from other Hylasian countries, like those of X, X and X.

Government and politics

House of the National Assembly in Gautshafen

Schematic of the Borvazi court system

Housing protestors in 2012

Borvastaat is a parliamentary republic, whose President is the head of government and the head of state, much unlike some other parliamentary republics. The president's tenure thus depends upon the confidence of the National Assembly. All three branches of government are subject to the supremacy of the Constitution of Borvastaat, and the superior courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of Parliament if they are unconstitutional. The National Assembly, the primary house of Parliament, consists of 360 members and is elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation. As well, the former upper house of parliament, the National Provincial Council was abolished in the aftermath of apartheid, though recent political debate has brought it back into discussion.

After each parliamentary election, the National Assembly elects one of its members as president; hence the president serves a term of office the same as that of the Assembly, normally five years. No president may serve more than two terms in office. The president appoints a vice president and ministers (each representing a department) who in turn form the cabinet. The National Assembly may remove the president and the cabinet through a motion of no confidence.

In the most recent elections, held in March of 2024, the Borvazi National Party (BNP), a largely center to center-right party lost its dominance, losing 41 seats to the Democratic Solidarity Party (DSP). Both parties now have 124 and 165 seats respectively, with the Mothusa wa Lefatshe (MwL), a socialist and environmentalist being the kingmaker with 27 seats. The DSP-MwL alliance ousted the center-right coalition for the first time in since it took power in the 2014 Borvastaat elections. The remaining 44 seats are split amongst various other smaller parties, like the Borvazi Communist Party (BCP), the Freiheitsfront (Liberty Front, FF) which advocates classical liberalism and libertarianism, alongside many smaller regionalist parties.

Gautshafen serves as the capital city, housing the chambers of all three branches of government. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal, the second highest court in the country, lies in Tshimberg. In addition to this, there is no constitutional amendment that legally defines the capital city, which has led to calls and debates surrounding the distribution of the branches of government after the abolition of the National Provincial Council.

Since the 1990s, Borvastaat has had many thousands of popular protests, some violent, making it, according to some academics, the "most protest-rich country in the world". There have been numerous incidents of political repression as well as threats of future repression in violation of the constitution, leading some analysts and civil society organizations to conclude that there is or could be a new climate of political repression in coming years.

TBD

Notes

a.^ Borvazunge: Rephublik Borvastaat; Ruthish: Republik Borwastaat; Seloleme: Rephaboliki X; Ulwimi: iRiphabhlikhi X