Pulacan
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Union State of Pulacan | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
| |
| Motto: Pula e ne (Setswana) We will be blessed with rain | |
| Anthem: "Pulaletepetlacuicalt" "Pulatec National Anthem"  | |
 Pulacan (dark green) within the AON (light green) in the Malaio-Ozeros region | |
 Map of Pulacan's major cities | |
| Capital | Aachanecalco (executive) Mabesekwa (legislative) Mohembo (judicial) Yztac Tlalocan (administrative) |
| Largest city | Aachanecalco |
| Official languages | Setswana, Pulatec Nahuatl |
| Recognised national languages | xKhasi languages, Raji, Nylele |
| Religion (2020) | List
|
| Demonym(s) | Pulatec, Pulatl |
| Government | Federal parliamentary republic with an executive presidency |
• President | Coyotl Gontebanye |
• Chief Minister | Moctezuma Tshireletso |
• Chief of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi | Kȍhà ǂToma |
• Chief Surveyor | Tlaloc Xochiquetzal |
| Legislature | Pulatec United Legislative Assembly |
| House of Survey Ntlo ya Dikgosi | |
| House of Delegates | |
| Establishment | |
• First cave paintings | c. 73,000 BCE |
• Arrival of Bantu tribes | c. 600 CE |
• Arrival of first Nahua peoples | c. 1150 CE |
• Itzcoatl's conquest | 1476 CE |
• Return to Zacapine control | 1544 CE |
| Area | |
• | 749,856 km2 (289,521 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 46,442,816 |
• Density | 61.93/km2 (160.4/sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $1,008,367,349,848 |
• Per capita | $21,712.02 |
| Currency | Pulatec Pula (PLP) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (Central Malaio Time) |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy (CE) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +69 |
| Internet TLD | .pl |
Pulacan, officially the Union State of Pulacan (Setswana: ꦏꦒꦺꦴꦭꦄꦒꦄꦤꦺꦴ ꦪꦄ ꦭꦼꦥꦲꦄꦠꦱꦲꦼ ꦪꦄ ꦧꦺꦴꦥꦸꦭꦄꦕꦄꦤ, Kgolagano ya Lefatshe ya Bopulacan, Nahuatl: 𐐓𐑊𐐰𐐿𐐰𐐻𐑊𐐰𐐻𐐬𐐿𐐰𐐷𐐬𐐻𐑊 𐐑𐐭𐑊𐐰𐐿𐐰𐑌, Tlacatlahtohcayotl Pulacan), is a sovereign country in eastern Malaio. It straddles the continent between the Vespanian Ocean on its south and the Ozeros Sea on its north; it shares land borders with Zanzali to the east, Phansi Uhlanga to the north and Pulau Keramat to the northeast. The current population of 46,442,816 people is spread across 749,856 square kilometers, making the nation one of the most population-dense on the continent at just over 61 people per square kilometer. The arid plains in the south of the nation are divided from the fertile forests and coastal savannahs of the north by a large section of mountains and the Djebe highlands that dominate the country. For centuries, political power has been concentrated in these highlands, lording over the two coasts. The distribution of ethnic groups in Pulacan is heavily influenced by this geography; Nahuatl peoples, the former elites in Zacapine colonial times, reside mainly on the southern coasts, while large populations of Wampar and other related groups dominate the north. Tswana and mixed Tswana-Nahuatl peoples are by far the most populous groups in the nation, with populations spread throughout, but mostly concentrated in the center of Pulacan. Small populations of mostly-nomadic xKhasi peoples exist in protected areas in the hinterlands of the country.
The xKhasi peoples were the first to arrive in what is now Pulacan, living in hunter-gatherer societies for thousands of years before their way of life was hampered by the arrival of more sedentary Komontu peoples in the 7th century CE. These peoples became the Tswana, forming various tribal nations throughout the region, concentrated in the Djebe. Contact with traders from Zacapican was established by the mid-12th century, with coastal settlements beginning at the same time. These settlements later lost connection with their homeland, and were gradually assimilated into the local Tswana population. A second wave of Nahuatl settlement occurred following the arrival of Itzcoatl, a Zacapine general sent to reestablish relations with the local population. Itzcoatl later went far beyond his mandate and swiftly conquered much of modern-day Pulacan in the name of the homeland. Following Itzcoatl's death, Nahua settlements retreated to the south coast; the north was eventually folded into Mutulese control and the central chiefdoms became tributary states of the Zacapines.
In the modern day, Pulacan employs a dual-government system that continues to balance the interests of the dueling sides in the Pulatec Civil War. United at the top by the Presidency and the Pulatec United Legislative Assembly (PULA), the republican government and the government representing the Tswana chiefdoms and monarchies operate largely autonomously, though the united nature of the PULA allows for dual cooperation on major issues. As such, Pulacan is one of the few states in the world with a tricameral parliament, featuring two upper houses of wildly differing function and a single lower house. Internationally, Pulacan is a member of the Forum of Nations and the Association of Ozeros Nations, and its government operates as a full member of the Vespanian Exchange Institute and the Transoceanic Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Etymology
The name Pulacan derives from two separate languages, and reflects the multicultural origins of the country. The word "pula" is a word in Tswana, literally referring to "rain"; the word carries deep positive significance for many Setswana speakers, as it stands for the coming of the Tswana peoples from an arid homeland to their current center of population in the often humid and rainy highlands. The suffix -can is Nahuatl in origin, and is used to denote a location, like the suffix -ia in Hellenic. Originally a name applied by Zacapine settlers on the coast to the mountainous highlands of the country on their first arrival, the name eventually became metonymous, and later synonymous, with the polity as a whole, reflecting the eventual takeover of modern-day Pulacan by the collection of highland Tswana chiefs.
History
The first settled peoples arrived in what is now Pulacan via the northern plains in 35,000 BCE.
Komontu arrival
The arrival of the ancestors of the Tswana peoples in Pulacan is impossible to date precisely. The scholarly consensus supports the idea that the groups split off from the larger Komontu migration in the 500s CE, spending the next two centuries settling the northern coastal plains and the Djebe highlands. The 800s would see the beginnings of the modern tribal system, as well as the first consistent evidence of Tswana settlement that remain extant today. Some tribes made their way to the southern coasts; their settlements failed to achieve the same level of growth as those in the central highlands. It is currently believed that these settlements, thanks to their isolation from the larger trade nodes of the Karaihe and Ozerosi regions, could not generate trade volume beyond foodstuffs like grains and fish, and thus became subservient to the mountain chiefdoms. These tribal nations were able to generate significant power and prestige through governing the trade between the southern settlements and the Karaihe, which shifted political power to the highlands and allowed for the construction of major settlements like Kaudwane, the oldest continually-inhabited city in Pulacan. The increasing disparity between the southern coasts and central Djebe tribes created mutual animosity despite their mutual trade links, and the two drifted further apart culturally over the ensuing three centuries.
The north of modern-day Pulacan was increasingly subsumed over the 10th century by the Tahamaja Empire. Though Komontu settlements persisted under their rule, many either relocated to modern-day Zanzali and formed part of the WaMzanzi group or were partially assimilated into the greater Tahamaja community. The Tahamaja constructed a pelabuhan as the center of their government and trade activities in the region, which later became the commercial center of the modern-day city of Mabesekwa. This city, along with many others in the Ozeros during this time, was jointly constructed by the Tahamajans and a council of merchants from modern-day Tyreseia; the latter came via the city of Shidunadast (nowadays Sumeira in Fahran). The Tyresene merchants were responsible for the city's well-preserved cothon, or enclosed harbor, and the modern-day Tyresene Gardens, which are largely rebuilt from medieval floating garden designs. Direct Tahamajan-Tyresene control never extended far inland from this center, but it nonetheless served as a way to project indirect influence into the hinterlands. The pre-eminent authority at Mabesekwa was the panguwasa, who served both as harbor-master for the pelabuhan and as the de facto ambassador of Tahamajan control. This position was given to sufficiently pliable and talented local leadership as a go-between with local populations, and often served as a means for introducing cultural knowledge to their native populations. The Tyresenes provided their own šūfeṭ, or consul, who served a purely commercial purpose as the local guild representative and advocate for merchants at Mabesekwa to the adon, or doge, at Shidunadast. As such, due to their commercial ambitions and role as inoffensive go-betweens, the Tyresenes had far less lasting cultural impact than the Tahamajans, much of which was accelerated by government programs of assimilation.
This assimilation saw the partial introduction of the N'nhivara religion to the area, partially supplanting and then syncretizing with local beliefs. More importantly, this period saw the introduction of the first writing system in modern-day Pulacan, the Uthire script. This script's use in Pulacan co-evolved to resemble the modern-day Mataram script, currently in use in parts of Pulau Keramat. The script is used today to write words in Setswana, and though the characters are the same, the contents of Mataram and Setswana writings are not mutually legible. The Uthire script spread in popularity along the existing trade routes to the Djebe highlands, where many tribes further cemented their power by employing dedicated scribes to recording their achievements and keeping bureaucratic records. State records begin to exist around 1050 CE, with the first coded laws appearing shortly after. From these records, a pattern emerges of tribal nations evolving from chiefdoms into more complicated states with various permanent (or semi-permanent) capitals, bureaucracies, laws and succession systems. Numerous wars of conquest were undertaken during this time, as well, with a complex network of vassal states, subjugated territories, and alliances all inhibiting one single group from rising to regionwide hegemony. These statelets would continue to evolve on this path for the next century, in sharp contrast with the southern coastal plains groups, which saw little societal change or population growth. The relative weakness of these southern tribes proved advantageous for the Zacapines and their merchant fleets, who began settling the area via trading and resupply posts starting in the 12th century.
Zacapine settlement and Itzcoatl
Nahua peoples from Zacapican first arrived around 1150 CE, with word reaching Djebe-based chroniclers around 5 years later. The original purpose of such settlement was to augment the Zacapine thalassocracy; the plains provided easy access to hardwood for repairing ships and the locals could be traded with for supplies. Due to the nature of these early settlements, the first century of Nahua presence was extremely limited, with traders largely sticking to the coast, barring a few notable commercial expeditions into the highlands. After around a century, however, Cozauist priestly societies in Zacapican began organizing missionary expeditions, seeing the populated regions as a perfect place to begin spreading their faith. Many missionaries found difficulty in spreading the faith until the Cozauist minor rain deity of Tlaloc was used as a way to syncretize local reverence for rain and water into the religion. With the implication that Tswana folk religious beliefs were correct and merely part of a wider system of worship, missionaries began seeing wild success. Some highland kings were early adopters of the religion; many saw it as a way to increase trade and friendly relations with a powerful foreign nation as a way to back themselves against potential Tahamaja aggression, while others saw a unitary religion with a defined priesthood as an effective tool of state that could help them more effectively dictate the lives of their subjects. Whatever their reasons, large swathes of Pulacan outside of Tahamaja control had converted to the so-called "Tlaloc Sect" of Cozauism by the time of Mount Siriwang's eruption.
The eruption of Mount Siriwang in 1353 greatly disrupted the world's mercantile enterprises, with the Zacapines especially suffering a near-total loss of their trade connections. As a result, the communities of Nahua peoples were completely isolated from the mother country. With the occasional exception of the priestly class, these groups began intermingling with the local Tswana groups out of necessity, as economic support from home was no longer available. The result was the first documented population in Pulacan of coyotec, or mixed peoples, before most of these were gradually being subsumed into the wider Tswana community. Only small pockets of coyotec peoples remained in what one chronicler described as "husk[s] of... coastal settlement[s] that bore the ruinous marks of once standing much larger" by the time of Itzcoatl's arrival. The loss of trade saw a severe economic downturn in the south, while the highlands suffered from a lack of trade with the Tahamaja. The eruption impacted the north of Pulacan much more severely than in the south or the highlands, as the area saw direct, large-scale climate disaster and the collapse of their former Tahamajan overlords. Such catastrophes depopulated the region significantly. An area that once had a near-equivalent population to the Djebe highlands now possessed only a fraction thanks to the series of calamities that decimated the local population. The cultural integration process undertaken by the Tahamaja was left unfinished, and local authorities reverted to insular control. The next few decades were, until recently, referred to as the "Pulatec Dark Age" by historiographers thanks to the volcanic winter and general decline of learning, arts, economy, and standard of living.
After several decades of reconstruction and adjustment, Zacapican began rebuilding its Red Fleet of trade vessels and warships. In the 1470s, a concerted effort was underway to assemble a fleet and army to reestablish control over the Zacapine empire in general and the southern Pulatec region in particular. In 1476, the Zacapine noble and military commander Itzcoatl landed near the modern-day city of Cuicatepec with a force of 7,000 Zacapine regulars and numerous Onekawan mercenary forces. Almost immediately following his landing, however, serious problems surrounding their mission's ultimate direction developed between Itzcoatl and his commanding staff. Though they were welcomed in the "husk" of the city center of Cuicapetec by a group of former coyotec merchants, it became clear to Itzcoatl that much more had changed in the intervening centuries than he had realized. The Tlaloc Sect placed a god that had sunk to near-obscurity in Zacapican centuries ago alongside the current chief god. Contemporary chroniclers note Itzcoatl's initial aversion to this perceived perversion of the Divine Fire, which contrasts with his later toleration and even promotion of the Tlaloc Sect during his rule. As Itzcoatl spent more and more years asserting control over the south, he realized that the area had firmly regressed to being subservient to the rich central Djebe overlords. As such, he developed a desire to take that power and move it to the south; by controlling these highland dikgosi, Itzcoatl could, in theory, open the trade routes from the Vespanian to the Ozerosi and Karaihe peoples directly. Controlling such trade would make the Zacapine empire, and Itzcoatl by extension, quite wealthy. From around 1481, Itzcoatl recruited significant coyotec auxiliaries to augment his forces and unleashed a series of wars of conquest to subdue the Djebe. This Djebe Fire War was Itzcoatl's first major disobeyance of his orders from the homeland; with little contact between the mother country and his forces and the majority of the Red Fleet being with Itzcoatl meant that the Zacapine leadership was nearly powerless to halt his activities even if they understood the full extent of his actions. Such a risky investment on the Zacapines' part was seen as acceptable due to Itzcoatl's perceived skill and prestige back home—this same skill motivated his choice to violate his orders and go rogue.
Zacapine suzerainty
Despite Itzcoatl's best efforts, his personal fiefdom would not last much beyond his death. To support his rule, he had build vast and complex networks of patronage, suzerainty, and alliances with himself at the center. Without the central pillar of himself and his armies, the alliances collapsed. The massive infrastructure projects such as the foot highways in the Djebe were slowly downsized, then totally halted as tributary funds dried up and the royal court collapsed. Itzcoatl's remaining loyalists tried and failed to assert control over the area as more and more Tswana statelets began breaking free, with some reverting to the old ways of living while others tried to adopt and adapt the Nahua ways and technology as a permanent tool of statecraft. Ultimately, his son and successor X was forced to appeal to the Heron Empire of modern-day Zacapican for assistance. In early 15XX, the Zacapines sent harsh demands: for the price of their military assistance, X would have to swear undying loyalty to the Empire on pain of death, and his son and heir apparent was to be sent to Oxidentale as a political hostage. Backed into a corner by continual raids on the outskirts of Ytzac Tlalocan, X eventually assented; he met the Zacapine troops at Cuicatepec in 15YY near the same spot that his father Itzcoatl had landed with another force. This second force was smaller, however, and failed to possess the same esprit de corps that Itzcoatl's army had. As such, despite the meager triumphs of the force's campaigns, in 15XX they were forced to settle on a much less decisive resolution: the south, thoroughly Nahuanized, was to remain under X's court; the highland statelets, however, were to swear loyalty as much looser vassals. Most of the statelets agreed to this compromise, under the implicit understanding that their affairs were entirely in their own control so long as they did not provoke Zacapican's ire by attacking their holdings. X's seat of power remained in the burgeoning religio-bureaucratic center and theocratic power center of Ytzac Tlalocan, but the Zacapines demanded he appoint an attendant, a tlatoani based in Aachanecalco. As this supervisor required Zacapine approval upon appointment, he was in effect the supreme governor of the Nahuanized areas of Pulacan, despite being nominally below the Itzcoatl lineage's rank. By the time X met his demise and his son Y returned to take his throne, the position of Founder-King had been effectively whittled down to a wholly ceremonial figurehead. The grand palaces and temples of Ytzac Tlalocan had become a gilded prison from which the monarch could very rarely escape. Y had been conditioned to fill this new puppet role after decades of grooming in Zacapican, and so fit squarely into a lineage of kings that wielded only minor religious and moral power, serving as spiritual heads of the Tlaloc Sect, as conflict mediators and as little else of importance for the vast majority of Pulatl people living outside Ytzac Tlalocan.
The statelets left behind in the wake of the post-Itzcoatl collapse evolved significantly in the following centuries.
Brothers' War
Hanaki War
Main article: Hanaki War
Geography
Climate
Government
Pulacan's government is multilayered and at times byzantine. While on its surface it possesses characteristics common to other unitary parliamentary democracies, it hosts a number of peculiarities and unique quirks in its system. Pulacan passes legislation through a tricameral parliament, which sits at the top of two entirely different subnational forms of government. One, known simply as the Republic, is a system of nested-council democracy with calpollist characteristics owed to the area's history of Zacapine colonization and intervention. The other is the Lefatshe ya Dikgosi, either the Amphyctyonic League or the Land of Chiefs. This region is a collection of autonomous regions within the nation's central heartland, holding the unique distinction of being the only subnational monarchies subordinated to a republic in the world. These lands host an entirely separate system of nests and leveled structures of government that only converge at the top with the national government.
The entire nation is subdivided into electoral districts for the House of Delegates, designed to be of equal population size and to follow the proportional party representation electoral model. The House has the power to legislate issues covering the whole country (though it must pass review by the Ntlo ya Dikgosi and the House of Survey first). From this House, a Chief Minister will be elected. Typically the head of the party with the most seats, the Chief Minister will serve both as the executive of the Union State and as the leader of the Pulatec Cabinet. As of 2022, the current Chief Minister is Moctezuma Tshireletso of the Nguzo party. The House of Survey serves as an active check on the actions of the Chief Minister and the House of Delegates. Assembled from a number of the nation's top legal experts, the task of the House of Survey is to defend the rights of the people enshrined in the Political Settlement against actions by the rest of the government. In effect, thanks to their positions in government and legal training, the House of Survey serves as a kind of prosecuting attorney against the government on behalf of the people's rights, including those of the tribes and their leaders.
Pulacan's nominal head of state is the State President, who fulfills a largely ceremonial role in the functions of government.
Republican Government
Large sections of the coasts of Pulacan fall under the so-called "Republican government." Within this part of the country, the populace directly elects representatives to the House of Delegates and to local administrative bodies. As such, the Republic is mandated to maintain a republican form of government, with a three-tiered system. Much like the Zacapine system, at the bottom lie calpolli districts, self-governing communities based around enterprises and/or shared land use. Collections of calpolli form districts within the municipal districts known as the altepemeh (singular: altepetl). Said altepemeh then elect representatives to serve on an Executive Board, a kind of subnational directory that exists to allow altepemeh to coordinate and execute national policy within their territory. As the Republic has far less autonomy than the Amphyctyonic League, there is little to no room for governing to occur below the House of Delegates and above the altepemeh.
The judicial system of the Republic works like this. So does the law enforcement. I will write this later
Amphyctyonic League
The term "Amphyctyonic League" is an exonym used to refer to the collection of dikgosi, or tribal chiefs, who rule their own autonomous kingdoms within Pulacan. The leadership of this "tribal government" is represented by the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, or the Council of Chiefs. This body operates as both a legislative and executive body, with each member being either the executive monarch of a subnational body, or an appointed elector representing a tribe. The land area directly governed by the tribal government covers much of the interior of Pulacan, with only the extremes of the southern and northern coasts being under the direct supervision of the Republic. These regions are allowed to formulate many of their own laws, create their own law enforcement agencies, maintain judicial systems subordinated to the central system, and operate taxation schemes in conjunction with central taxes. Though the residents of Royal Nations elect representatives to the House of Delegates, the kgosi in their own right sit on the Ntlo ya Dikgosi or the Council of Chiefs. This body is the weakest in the tricameral system, having little power to formulate its own legislation. It can, however, open investigations into central government officials' conduct, hold advisory sessions on bills and drafts, and even subpoena and compel persons of interest to testify before them. Additionally, the speaker of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi can sit in on Cabinet meetings at their pleasure to serve as an advisor, or represent the other monarchs at formal events domestically and abroad.
Though many kgosi rule with significant executive power, they must also contend with the traditional kgotla. The kgotla is somewhat akin to a Latin open-air forum or a speaker's corner and has come to define the architecture of many a Pulatec community. These locations are often large public squares in front of palaces of government filled with greenery and an outdoor throne. Traditionally, upon this throne, a kgosana or "little chief" would sit at regular intervals to hear complaints and petitions from the populace and either order remedies, dismiss them entirely, or refer them to the kgosi in the capital. Originally, the dikgosana was a term for a hierarchical pyramid of power, filled with male heads of influential family groups, clans, and households subordinate to a tribe who were important in decision-making and governing the people within. The original function of the dikgotla has fallen largely out of use with the advent of modern means of administration, though the kgosana position still exists. In many Royal Nations, the dikgosana will act as a circle of close advisors to the ruler and administrate subordinate land areas. The public grievance-airing ceremony at kgotla is sometimes practiced as a purely ceremonial act, and has in some communities like the Tshekedi Nation morphed into part of the celebration of concurrent holidays. Following the Political Settlement, dikgotla are used as a means of electing dikgosana (usually from a list of clan notables) to then be approved by the kgosi. From there, the assembly will meet regularly as a form of directly democratic local legislature. By subdividing in this manner, many councils of dikgosana function in a nested-council democracy. In major royal cities, multiple dikgotla will meet in different neighborhoods to legislate on local matters and settle disputes on the rulers' behalf, as well as to elect representatives to a larger assembly that functions like a city council. From there, this council legislates city-wide issues and elects a city-wide dikgosana. Due to the myriad demands a kgosi might face at once, certain dikgosana from the council might be delegated to fill in tasks while the kgosi is indisposed. Most commonly, some dikgosana are temporarily empowered to conduct day-to-day domestic affairs while the kgosi attends meetings of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, or in the case of the Tshekedi Nation, while he is posted to a field command with the Union Security Forces.
Military
The government of Pulacan exercises its national security interests through the nation's military, the Union Security Forces. The Security forces are subdivided into the Union Army, the Union Navy, the Union Air Force, the Union Central Intelligence Directorate, and the National Gendarmerie. With an estimated 250,000 active-duty personnel, Pulacan fields the largest standing military in Malaio. All citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 are eligible for conscription. The draft has not been used to provide manpower for the military since the early 20th century, however, and so the Security Forces function as an all-volunteer professional fighting force.
Much of the military's numerical strength is devoted to internal security and national defense, with external offensive planning often a secondary concern. Historically, the Security Forces and their immediate predecessors have been used to protect national security interests inside the country as much as they have engaged in traditional state warfare. The Forces trace their modern origin to the 19th-century Righteous War, when Zacapine colonial forces and Tswana chiefdoms waged a war of irredentist conquest against the crippled colonial empire of the Mutul in the Ozeros. The war led to the conquest of northern Pulacan and the acquisition of a Karaihe coastline by the joint forces, but the gains were quickly marred by the rapidly-ensuing Brothers' War. This saw a civil war between Zacapine forces and the growing Republican movement in Pulacan pitted against a loose coalition of Tswana kingdoms. The war was multifaceted and long, causing high numbers of casualties and seeing many betrayals and switching sides by multiple factions. Eventually, the fighting was ended in the Political Settlement that brought about the foundation of Pulacan's modern political system and the Union Security Forces. As such, when it was created, the memory of violent civil conflict was fresh in the minds of many, and the force was created with the goal of preventing internal political instability foremost.
The commander-in-chief of the Union Security Forces is the President of Pulacan, currently Coyotl Gontebanye. In practice, much of their power is delegated to the Security Secretary, which represents civilian government in the military hierarchy and works alongside the Defense Staff Council, which sees the highest-rank flag officers of all the branches assembled in one joint command structure.
Foreign Affairs
The foreign affairs interests of Pulacan are represented by the Secretariat of External Affairs.
Education
Education, like many government services in Pulacan, is provided both by the Union State national government and by local governments in concert.
Economy
Pulacan maintains the third-largest economy by output in the Malaio-Ozeros region, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $1.008 trillion and a per-capita GDP of $21,712 as of 2022. As an industrialized, middle-income country, Pulacan's primary industries are refining precious metals such as diamonds; manufacturing, especially in the automobile realm; and exporting electrical energy to nearby nations. The industrial sector is heavily reliant on foreign trade, especially for exports. Pulacan's primary trading partners are Pulau Keramat, Zacapican, Zanzali, and Onekawa-Nukanoa, largely based off of historic ties and proximity. Most of Pulacan's exports are to other nations within the Malaio-Ozeros region or to Zacapican. Economic activity is regulated by the Secretariat of Trade and Economics.
Pulacan is a member of the Union State (Nahuatl: Cetliliztli Tlatoloyan), a system of interconnected agreements and pacts with the United Zacapine Republics. Along with Zacapican, Pulacan is one of the two nations with economies based on the calpollist mode of production. Pulacan's variation of the calpollist system differs from Zacapican primarily in the industrial manufacturing sector. There, it evolved from incentive-based campaigns towards existing clan-based calpolleh as opposed to in Zacapican, where many old rural calpolleh were forcibly supplanted by the dictatorial Xolotecate. Pulacan's industrial and rural calpolleh alike are often integrated with their presiding clans in a way usually reserved for the most traditional of rural calpolleh in Zacapican. Clannic and familial management ties have diminished somewhat over the course of the 20th century following periods of internal migration, immigration, wars and economic change. Despite what remains of traditional management, calpolleh are not owned by a single person or entity, and are often managed in terms of nested self-management.
Pulacan's industry is tied to its Zacapine counterparts through a series of formal and informal agreements. Many products, for example, will be assembled partway in one nation, then shipped to the other to be completed in sold in the destination nation's regional market. Pulatec raw materials, like diamonds and platinum, are utilized in Zacapine manufacturing as well as the manufacturing of many nations around the world to some extent. This network of integration is codified both by the Union State and the superseding Transoceanic Co-Prosperity Sphere (TOCPS).
The service sector of Pulacan is relatively small yet growing. Often, service jobs are tangentially linked to the industrial sector. The industrial arts, design, and architecture fields are niches within both the Malaio-Ozerosi and Union State economic landscapes that Pulacan has grown to dominate. The Djebe Industrial Arts and Design College (DIADC), headquartered in Mohembo, hosts some of the world's most prestigious curricula on the subjects. The most prominent example of this service dependence on industry comes from the information technology sphere. Coltan and other rare earth metals are comparatively accessible for Pulatec manufacturers, whether from local sources or from West Itayana via the TOCPS common market. Beginning in the 1980s, a robust yet small-scale industry surrounding the manufacture of low- and mid-range processors and other computer chips sprang up in the south of the country around Cuicatepec. Small-scale manufacture of high-end integrated computer systems followed in the late 1990s as chip technology advanced. To service these machines, a native information technology and computer technician sector came in vogue in the early 2000s. As the IT industry is less tethered to factories or single locations, the sector exploded and decentralized across the country during the early 21st century, in tandem with the concurrent rapid spread of the Internet and digital technology. Currently, IT-based calpolleh will typically rent office spaces or entire buildings; software technicians, IT specialists, and hardware repair technicians will share the space in order to provide holistic digital maintenance services.
Transportation
A passenger train in the southern Djebe foothills
A KDM Ozeros Connect short-range aircraft at Mtsanga Airport
A padewakang, a form of transport vessel common in the Karaihe
A truck full of people on the A40 highway outside Mohembo
A stretch of the A1 highway between Aachanecalco and Amatlan
A motorcyclist with passenger carrying a bicycle outside Kaudwane
Culture
Ethnic Groups
Pulacan is an ethnically diverse nation containing numerous groups. Mixed-race or coyotec peoples make up 66% of the population, far eclipsing their parent groups of Nahua (at 4%) and Komontoid Tswana peoples (at 14.6%). The coyotec generally hold themselves as true members of the wider Komontoid group, though readily embrace aspect of the colonizing Nahuan culture, such as religious customs, economic organization, elements of diet, and (occasionally) language and script. In this sense, the coyotec group can be considered a syncretizing Komontoid ethnicity. The largest ethnic group outside of the Nahua-Tswana-coyotec continuum, and the most significant non-immigrant group, are the Tuganani people. Largely concentrated on the northern coast of Pulacan, they consist of around 8% of the nation's population today. The Tuganani are generally considered to be the aboriginal people of Pulacan's Karaihe coast, though their numbers were significantly reduced through millennia of migration, war, and conquest. In modern times, their homeland was the most ravaged in Pulacan by the Hanaki War, leaving hundreds of thousands displaced or dead. Post-war internal migrations saw the scattering of Tuganani people across Pulacan, with predominantly Tswana and coyotec ex-soldiers taking their place as part of rebuilding efforts. Today, efforts are being made to preserve the culture of the Tuganani internal diaspora, and a cohesive community is again forming in the north around the binational city of Kuroranu Taihu.
Numerous small ethnic communities inhabit Pulacan's major cities as a product of 20th-century immigration trends. Though modest compared to mass migrational influxes to nations like Zacapican, Pulacan still experienced large influxes of foreign nationals following the Hanaki and Monsoon Wars. Many of these immigrants moved into the Republic, as integrating into the tribal nations' clannic structures presents a much steeper obstacle to newcomers. Upwards of 7.2% of Pulacan's population is made up of these immigrants or their descendants. Major nations of origin include [LIST]. The Khoisan people, descendants of the original pre-Komontoid nomads, still inhabit stretches of the foothills in the southern Djebe. Numbering only 0.2% of Pulacan's people, their small size, cultural practices and lifestyle have made them subject to continued persecution historically. Only with modern efforts to preserve their way of life have the Khoisan found a place to coexist with sedentary Pulatec society, though issues of prejudice, farmland encroachment on traditional lands, and substance abuse still plague the community. In 2002, the Khoisan were granted a seat on the Council of Chiefs, or Ntlo ya dikgosi, granting them for the first time political representation to those that chose to remain nomadic. The first and current representative is Kȍhà ǂToma, who now serves as the rotating head of the Council.
Religion
Notably, the Census lacks an option for irreligion or atheism. As such, nonbelievers or atheists are often either placed in the "Other" or "Cozauist" category. Due to its heavy cultural presence and state quasi-support for its continued practice, Tlaloc Cozauist rituals are part of community life across the country. Many practitioners of other religions or of no religion at all participate in said rituals for numerous reasons including peer group pressure, a sense of belonging and a potential desire for conformity.
Music
Entertainment
Television in Pulacan is dominated by the state-run corporation, Television Broadcasting of Pulacan (Huecachializtli Machitipepeyaca Pulacan, HMP). From its inception in 1950 to the late 1970s, all television broadcasting was done through HMP and funded via a TV licensing scheme. Then, as now, the network maintained 3 channels, which were largely devoted to news and documentary programs. These channels were at first nearly identical in programming, differentiated only by language: HMP1 broadcast in Setswana, while HMP2 broadcast in Nahuatl and HMP3 broadcast in Raji. A fourth channel, HMP4, was utilized solely by local stations for emergency broadcasts. Language dubbing, a practice inspired by its frequent use in the local cinema industry, became industry standard for television. A forceful deregulation of the industry in 1974 saw the legalization of local television channels, with larger freedoms on the types of programs to be shown. These stations would use a mixture of on-air advertisements and government grants to fund their operations. Very quickly, networks dedicated to comedy shows, fictional dramas, historical shows, and children's programming cropped up in every major city in the country. Some stations began forming syndicates, in which the rights to certain popular programs would be shared between multiple local stations and consequently aired at the same time. Because private television networks are illegal in Pulacan, these syndicates of private local broadcasters are the closest replicants. The networks are also syndicated with local and national sports leagues to broadcast matches of (!baseball), association football, and pitz.
Certain content, such as movies (television content in Pulacan must legally be "made for television" to be aired), music videos, religious programming, and other alternative shows are broadcast on illegal pirate networks, often euphemistically referred to as "HMP4" due to the highly local pirate broadcasters using HMP4 during non-emergencies as their own channel. When HMP failed to secure the right to broadcast the wildly-popular animated Zacapine show Tlalyaohuitl in 1984, pirate networks quickly got their hands on copies of the show and broadcast it themselves. This simultaneously generated much ire from the government and positive attention from the populace. As such, pirate networks are a staple of entertainment in Pulacan, though they are often transitory and ephemeral thanks to constant police crackdowns and prosecutions. In some cities, they maintain a younger estimated viewing range than traditional television thanks to alternative programming. Some avant-garde comedy show ideas have even been broadcast on pirate networks around major cities like Ytzac Tlalocan and Mabesekwa to test their market feasibility before the rights and concepts are picked up by legitimate "local syndicates" or HMP. Traditional television has garnered an older and older viewerbase in recent decades, though this trend was bucked for a time in 2019, when a Zacapine tourist posted to Rad.Io screencaps from a Pulatec historical drama on Itzcoatl being broadcast on HMP2. The post expressed admiration for the piece's entertainment value despite the subject being a "stuffy piece of history filled with conquerors and murderers." The post was quickly trending on Zacapitec internet spaces. The ensuing demand for the dramas abroad saw HMP reach deals with worldwide streaming services over the following year to have their back catalog distributed. The sudden worldwide interest in the alacrity of the dramas for their mixing a mildly educating storyline with intrigue, storytelling and character development was amusing to many Pulatecs, who often shared sentiments on social media such as "Thanks to the internet, my grandmother and 18-year-olds in 'the mother country' now enjoy the same shows. Brilliant!"
The cinema industry has existed in Pulacan since the 1920s, when a stage theater in Aachanecalco was converted to show films and Nahuatl-language duplicate film stock was imported from Zacapican. The medium was only restricted by langauge for a few years, however, as new distribution companies employed whole divisions dedicated to cutting out intertitles from silent films and adding translated versions. By 1930, multiple cinema houses existed across the nation's major cities, broadcasting films in Setswana, Nahuatl, and even Pulaui languages in the north. The advent of so-called "talking pictures" or talkies was a significant challenge to the cinema industry, and theaters were slow to upgrade. The entire industry almost suffered a total systematic failure around the year 1933 as new silent films became increasingly hard to source from abroad. The nascent Pulatec entertainment industry was unable to output at a speed to balance out the deficit. Numerous theaters and distribution companies were forced to shutter, as sources for funding dried up and the cost of upgrading projection equipment grew too steep. The subsequent year of 1934 became known in popular culture as "the Year without a Movie," symbolizing the cultural grip this newfound art form had on the masses and the significant impact of such a dearth of material. Such a hold could not be left empty for long, and soon, talking movies were being imported and localized by voiceover artists. This procedure, though complicated at the time, was nevertheless instrumental in revitalizing Pulacan's film industry. To this day, voiceover actors and singers that dub musicals into local languages often receive as much fame and publicity as standard screen actors in Pulacan.
The advent of the Internet has, as in the rest of the world, transformed Pulacan's media landscape. Once connection speeds and file transfer limits were large enough to allow for video-sharing, television and movie piracy became a rampant issue on the Pulatec Web. Because legislation on digital copyright and piracy was slow to make its way through the bureaucracy of the Pulatec Union Legislative Assembly, Pulacan for much of the 2000s became something of an internet pirate's haven, with law enforcement utterly clueless as to the nature of the issue at hand and powerless to stop it. Sites like MajamBay hosted thousands of films and TV shows illegally, and action was only taken in 2008 when numerous media corporations lodged complaints against Pulacan via the Vespanian Exchange Institute. From then on, digital copyright law was delineated, but still poorly enforced. Even today, the onus is on server hosting services to actually take down offending websites. This change was still enough for international media corporations to return to full business procedures in Pulacan. In 2014, HMP and (insert international media corporation) signed a deal to create HuecaFlix, the first digital streaming platform to be based out of Pulacan. HuecaFlix was filled with digitally-remastered Pulatec shows and movies, some of which were from HMP's back catalog. In the latter part of the 2010s and early 2020s, numerous other streaming sites around the world have challenged HuecaFlix's hold on the Pulatec streaming market. Some, like X Service, digitize and collate old and avant-garde projects that were aired on pirate or local television stations or shown in arthouse movie theaters, but never picked up for mainstream distribution. Thanks to the prevalence of social media and streaming sites, the Internet has been gradually pulling away the younger generations of Pulacan from traditional services like movie theaters, television, and radio.
Cuisine
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