Sainte-Mélitine

United Phalansteries of Sainte-Mélitine Phalanstères-Unis de Sainte-Mélitine Phalanstéria-Petéïna Karaïpire-Mélitine
Flag Emblem
Motto: "Joie, Fidélité, Droit" "Via, Jérovia, Léï" ("Joy, Faith, Law")
Capital and largest city	Tétan Marangatou
Official languages	Principean Paurois Tchatchais
Recognised regional languages	Blaykish Runasimi Tatinawa
Demonym(s)	Melitinian
Government	Semi-theodemocratic kritarchic council republic
• High Elder	Marie-Proserpine Alençon-Dumas
• Vice High Elder	Maïnumpé Hôvuin
Legislature	Assembly of the Phalansteries
Establishment
• Colony of Sainte-Mélitine founded	November 2, 1566
• Marceaunian War of Independence	May 12, 1802
• Melitinian secession	May 3, 1831
• United Phalanteries established	May 9, 1910
Area
• Total	1,840,056 km2 (710,450 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.11
Population
• 2022 census	45,288,473
• Density	24.6/km2 (63.7/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	estimate
• Total	$2.062 trillion
• Per capita	$45,522.80
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$1.416 trillion
• Per capita	$31,279.12
Gini (2022)	14.4 low
HDI (2022)	0.790 high
Currency	Livre tétanois (₶) (LTM)
Date format	yyyy-mm-dd, CE
Driving side	right
Calling code	+20
Internet TLD	.sm

The United Phalansteries of Sainte-Mélitine (Principean: Phalanstères-Unis de Sainte-Mélitine; Paurois: Phalanstéria-Petéïna Karaïpire-Mélitine), commonly known as Sainte-Mélitine, is a country in southern Marceaunia Minor. Bordered by Amandine to the north and Rocia to the northeast, Sainte-Mélitine covers an area of 1,840,056 km² of diverse landscapes. Over 45 million people are citizens of Sainte-Mélitine, largely living in self-organized political units called "phalansteries". Each phalanstery is home to between 1,000 and 3,000 inhabitants and there are over 20,000 phalansteries in Sainte-Mélitine. The largest urban centre and political core of Sainte-Mélitine is Tétan Marangatou, an ancient fishing settlement that became the colonial capital of the region. The political system of Sainte-Mélitine is a council republic with socio-religious elders acting as representatives for their communities. While ostensibly a theocratic state, there is no state-enforced religion in Sainte-Mélitine, nor any requirement for worship or religious activity for political involvement.

Prior to Auressian colonization, the area of modern-day Sainte-Mélitine was inhabited by indigenous Paurois-, Tchatchais-, and Runasimi-speaking tribes. The indigenous societies cultivated maize, cassava, and yerba-mate, and established communalist agricultural societies across the region. In the 16th century CE, the Tchatcha kingdom of Calquouin was the predominant hegemonic power in the south of the continent. Auressian explorers made expeditions along the coasts of southern Marceaunia Minor in the first half of the 16th century, making contact with indigenous groups in the 1540s The colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was established as a Blaco-Vervillian possession in 1566 CE, based in the stronghold of Fort Dumont. Throughout the early-17th century, Auressian influence in the south expanded through the seizure of arable land, displacing indigenous groups into the arid and mountainous interior. Indigenous persons were also enslaved in service of the planter economy, which was reliant on the cultivation of cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and tea. In 1796, the Belmont Revolution initiated a series of wars of independence in the Auressian colonies, culminating in the formation of successive revolutionary governments. In 1831, the planter aristocracy of the south seceded from the Confederation of Southern Marceaunia, founding the independent Republic of Sainte-Mélitine and triggering the beginning of the First Continental War which lasted until 1836. By the turn of the 20th century, the Republic was embroiled in civil conflict between the planters and an alliance of indigenous tribes and adherents of the Alençonist movement, culminating in the overthrow of the planters in 1910 and the foundation of the United Phalansteries.

Sainte-Mélitine has a developed late-industrial economy, though it retains a significant agricultural sector. In addition to acting as political administrative divisions, phalansteries are also core economic units in a market socialist economy. Leading exports include lithium, salt, textiles, garments, and heavy manufactured goods.

Etymology

The colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was named for Saint Melitina, a Perendist saint of Savolian origin who became particularly venerated by a sect of sailors in Marbonne. The area of present-day Sainte-Mélitine was not known to the indigenous population by a single name. The Kingdom of Calquoin referred to the continent of Marceaunia Minor as "Bougouäpie-au-Houäpie", or "big island". Specific regions were generally known by geographic features and/or the tribes that inhabited them.

The term "phalanstery" was coined by Jules Alençon in 1877 as a portmanteau of "phalanx" and "monastery" as describing a planned utopian community centered on socialist labour and worship. While the specific forms of phalansteries have often diverged from the conceptions of Alençon in the 19th century, the term encapsulates the basic political and economic units of Sainte-Mélitine.

History

Pre-colonial history

Evidence of human habitation in southern Marceaunia Minor dates to the fourth millennium BCE, though it is likely that traces of material culture from earlier human societies have not survived to the present. Major ancient archaeological sites have been identified by middens along the eastern and western coasts of the continent. Mound-building activity in the interior region dates to the first millennium BCE with the Éleau culture. The Éleau culture inhabited the southwestern quadrant of present-day Sainte-Mélitine where they left ruins of large-scale settlements, geoglyphs, and burial sites with mummified remains. Large portions of present-day Sainte-Mélitine were also controlled directly or indirectly by the Tainã-Kan Empire and later by its successor nations.

The Paura and Tchatcha societies emerged as distinct cultural-linguistic groups likely between the eighth and ninth centuries CE. The Kingdom of Calquouin was a Tchatchais-speaking society that came to prominence in the 14th century, with its capital near modern-day Quelicoura in the country's southwest region. The Calquouinians constructed large earthworks and forts and had an important silver-working tradition. By the 14th or 15th century, Calquouin was also producing copper weapons and tools.

Auressian contact and colonization

The first Auressians to land in present-day Sainte-Mélitine were members of an expedition of Juan Carlos de Caracol, a Palian explorer and navigator, who made contact with a Paurois-speaking group while resupplying fresh water. Caracol's expedition established a trading post near Piroitevéoua, though it was destroyed sometime before the expedition's return to Jaén in 1542. At the apex of the Caracol expedition, banks inhabited by multitudes of pollock drew interest in establishing fisheries in the region. The details of Caracol's journey along the southern coast spread across the nascent colonies and back to Auressia, driving competition between the Kingdom of Palia and the Blaco-Vervillian Union. In 1551, Eustache d'Hiberville's expedition from Saint-Georges in Amandine encountered the Great Jouquille saltpan in present-day central Sainte-Mélitine, spurring further competition to acquire the resources of the southern region.

Competing Palian and Blaco-Vervillian colonies were established along the coast, with factory posts connected to Saint-Georges and Corneille in Amandine. While both powers pressed their claims, spearheaded by their colonial administrators, the legal status of each claim remained unsettled. In 1564, competition between the colonies in Sainte-Mélitine rose to hostility. After a tepid two-year campaign, all Palian settlements below the 19th parallel south had either been captured or destroyed by Blaco-Vervillian colonists, and the colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was officially founded on November 2 of 1566 on the southern coast of the continent.

The Melitinian colonial economy relied on two major sectors: fisheries and plantations. The fisheries industry predominantly motivated the first waves of emigration from Auressia as the poorer commoners could reliably seek their fortunes overseas. As the first colonial settlements developed, the indigenous Paurois and Tchatchais were forcibly displaced or pressed into service by the developing planter aristocracy which began enclosing land and cultivating cash crops. Cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane, which are endemic to Marceaunia, were cultivated on a large scale joined by imported crops such as tea, coffee, and wheat. Between 1580 and 1730, cash crops supplanted most major subsistence farms, growing to make up roughly 85% of the agricultural sector. While fisheries continued to be a major draw for emigrants, the plantation economy was the leading source of extracted wealth for the colony.

Colonial plantations were owned by different individuals. Some were created by wealthy Vervillian colonists, others were parts of large corporate ventures in the region. Even by the early 1600s, plantation workers were universally slaves, including captive indigenous persons or imported Idican slaves. As the plantation economy grew, chattel slavery was instituted to maintain the population of the workforce, such that the descendants of slaves would be born into slavery as well, justified by racist ideology. Population growth from slavery began to rapidly outpace Auressian emigration to the colony as well.

Long 19th century

Great Upheaval

Following the 1785 War of Tyrnican Succession, the Blaco-Vervillian Union was dissolved and ownership of the Marceaunian colonies passed to Blayk alone, despite the fact that a majority of colonists were of Vervillian descent. In 1793, the Rythenean Revolution overthrew the monarchy and instituted a new liberal republican government. Liberal theories and the notion of popular rights had been spreading across the world over the course of the 18th century, including the rise of the Blaco-Vervillian parliament after 1723. Veterans of the conflict who arrived in Marceaunia fomented revolutionary intent among the colonists, who benefited from colonial enterprises but were subject to gubernatorial rule and the extraction of wealth eastward across the sea. In 1796, the Belmont Revolution was launched to win independence for the Vervillian colonies. While the revolution was suppressed, it provoked reactionary favouritism for Blaykish colonists which caused more tensions in the colonies. In December 1797, the Palian colonies on Marceaunia Minor seceded and formed the Aillacan-Rocian Union.

In Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine, Vervillian colonists seethed as valuable plantations were transferred to Blaykish ownership and management. As tensions brewed, repressive measures across the colonies were augmented with draconian edicts and the arrival of Blaykish troops to enforce order. The 1799 Agricultural Privileges and Means Act was instituted to exact harsh quotas on plantations in the colonies, further narrowing the margins of Vervillian plantation owners who faced possible repossession of their lands if they failed to meet their obligations. With poor harvests in 1800 leading to further outrage among the planters, the act was reformed in 1801, though the damage was already done and many Melitinian planters merely saw the reforms as a poor attempt to placate the population. With the outbreak of the Blaykish Civil War in the same year, the relative autonomy of the colonies was further repressed, including direct administration and conscription to suppress the republicans in Auressia. Despite these demands, most of the colonists were more sympathetic to the Blaykish republicans. As the Blaykish monarchy was under threat in the old world and more revolutionaries arrived in Marceaunia, a full rebellion became inevitable.

Marceaunian wars of independence

In 1802, the Republic of the Amands was proclaimed by the Body of War and Correspondence: the central revolutionary group opposing Blaykish interests in Marceaunia Minor. The Body standardized the Amand tricolor flag as the symbol of revolution which was adopted by revolutionaries of Vervillian origin in Sainte-Mélitine as well.

The military threat of monarchist military forces against the revolutionaries abated by 1806, however, internal conflict was sparked with the Amand Revolution (typically referred to as the National Revolution within Amandine) which saw mob violence purge Blaykish influence from the nascent republic. Former soldiers, governors, and even civilians of Blaykish origin were taken by mobs or arrested, faced charges of sedition or conspiracy, and were routinely convicted at ad hoc show trials before facing summary execution. In the territory of Sainte-Mélitine in particular, indigenous groups were similarly subject to mob and state violence, rationalized by a lack of loyalty to the revolutionary republic. In addition, the Republic of the Amands set about a new cultural program by invoking new canon to the Perendist faith, establishing a new calendar, and removing Blaykish placenames.

The violence of the Amand Revolution in Sainte-Mélitine was largely limited to the expropriation of plantation land from Blaykish landowners and the displacement of indigenous peoples. By 1808, the Amand Revolution had run its course, impeded in large part by many of its most fervent proponents falling from grace or being subsumed by violence. In 1809, the Collaborative, a government branch dedicated to establishing revolutionary fervor through ideology and reliable logistics, launched a coup against the National Legislative Body and established the Republic of Amandine. In the process, many of the more esoteric projects of the revolution, including the calendar, were abandoned with the goal of creating a more stable state than the Republic of the Amands.

The Republic of Amandine was reconstructionist but faced a number of major obstacles including a bank run crisis that damaged its currency reserves, poor crop yields, and a stagnated taxation system. Within the legislature, opposition to the centralized government grew rapidly within the liberal-dominated post-revolutionary intelligentsia that had seized power. After merely a decade of reformed government, the Republic of Amandine was dissolved into its constituent states into the Confederation of Southern Marceaunia which afforded its 13 states greater economic and political independence. Sainte-Mélitine, for its part, was relatively distant from the metropole based around Colette and the governors consistently self-identified as Melitinian first and Southern Marceaunian second. Despite this, economic autonomy provided a degree of revitalization to the region which had suffered especially from poor harvests in the previous decade. Much of the recovery, however, was borne out of artificially sustained high food prices; much to the chagrin of neighbouring states.

In 1829, Armelle, the state to Sainte-Mélitine's north, raised a permanent standing army "for the moral and secure needs" of their state. This development was interpreted by the south as a belligerent reaction to Melitinian economic dominance. In response, Melitinian governor Étienne d'Harpagon called on the confederal government to intervene and deploy the National Guard to prevent Armellian raids into Sainte-Mélitine. The confederal government in Colette deliberated for months in committee, failing to act swiftly and violence broke out across the south of the Confederation as Melitinian militias formed to confront the Armellians. At the precipice of outright civil war, the confederal government finally declared an emergency and deployed the National Guard to defuse what had become known as the Crisis of 1829.

First Continental War

While civil war was narrowly averted, the Crisis of 1829 prompted serious concerns over the confederal government's ability to ensure stability and protect the Confederation's citizens. In Sainte-Mélitine, the 1831 state elections saw the rise of the anti-confederal Republican Party. Less than five months after Republican governor Joseph Albert Leblanc took office, the state of Sainte-Mélitine proclaimed its secession from the Confederation of Southern Marceaunia and ordered the recall of Melitinian members of the National Guard. Separatists in Armelle rose up soon after, launching strikes against the confederal government in the state. The Confederation responded swiftly to the declarations of the separatists, launching the First Continental War.

The confederal response to Sainte-Mélitine's independence was disorganized at first, with National Guard units within the new Repiblic in complete disarray. The Melitinian Republican Army was bolstered by cavalry militia units which raided storehouses and antagonized confederal supply lines. After a few months of war, the confederal government enacted the Emergency Conscription Act, expanding the draft and centralizing power even further in Colette. The state government in Armelle protested the Act and froze confederal troop movements within its state borders, further ensnaring confederal attempts to put and end to the Melitinian secession. As tensions flared further, the Armellian government official declared independence from the Confederation as well.

By early 1833, the Confederation had effectively collapsed and the State of Beaufort founded a new Republic of Amandine, The states of Sainte-Marianne, Clémente, Maiara-et-Tessouat, and Tecumseh united with the new republic to form the Federal Republic of Amandine in 1835. In the interim, the Republic of Sainte-Mélitine had continued to consolidate territory to the north, effectively doubling its territory. Fighting continued between the Melitinians and both confederal remnants and Armellian separatists. The First Continental War was ultimately concluded with two treaties in 1836, the Treaty of Anne-Marie and the Treaty of Dumont, which recognized the formal dissolution of the Confederation of Southern Marceaunia, the independence of the Republic of Sainte-Mélitine and the Republic of Lorena, and the official recognition of Armelle as an autonomous state of the Federal Republic of Amandine.

Republic of Sainte-Mélitine

Following its independence, the Republic of Sainte-Mélitine was free to determine its own economic and diplomatic policy. In addition to guaranteeing novel liberal rights for free men, Sainte-Mélitine's new constitution cemented the power of the planter class by apportioning voting power in elections according to ownership of productive (arable) land. The planters had largely funded and led the separatist movement and ultimately formed a plutocracy in the new republic. In part due to the onset of the Amand revival period and partly due to changes to agrarian policy, Sainte-Mélitine rapidly lost its prominence as a food supplier on the continent as Amandine secured its own supply and Sainte-Mélitine invested further into cash cropping, rapidly developing its economy for a swift post-war recovery.

Capitalizing on its territorial gains from the war, the government launched the National Enclosure Program in 1838, auctioning and settling acquired territories, clear-cutting forests, and forcibly displacing indigenous communities to the interior. The 1840s also saw some industrial development in the interior region with vital salt production and iron mining. Despite these efforts, the Melitinian economy was firmly rooted in the plantation system, with cash crops making up the bulk of exports in exchange for consumer and industrial goods. While the 19th century saw a global decline in the slave trade, the expansion of the Melitinian planter economy saw both an increase in pressed indigenous labour and the mass importation of indentured labourers from Idica and Surucia. To the north, Amandine's economy over the subsequent three decades had rapidly industrialized and improved national infrastructure, creating a form of hegemony over the regional market for industrial goods. This soft power over the regional economy saw Amand politicians dissuade international use of the southern route around the continent, thereby divesting Sainte-Mélitine's ports of a large amount of commercial traffic.

Wealth inequality in the Republic became a substantial concern as the 19th century drew on. Prior to the revolution, the extractive mandate of the colonial economy made planters and merchants the core stakeholders in its governance. Fishers, sailors, and artisans each occupied a secondary place in society as most did not own land or at least any substantial amount of property. Most of the second classes were certainly affected by the ebbs and flows of the colony's economy and society, but had little power to actually influence it. At the bottom, slaves and indentured workers were considered to have effectively no agency. Particularly following the secession in 1831, the Republic of Sainte-Mélitine had increasingly centralized power with the planters with a subordinated merchants class. Non-propertied individuals were effectively disenfranchised and the revolution had failed to effect the radical change it had promised.

While decades of peace had supported a northward turn for the economy, the status quo was shattered in 1865 with the onset of the War of the Adrienne Sea between Amandine, Albrennia, and Audonia. Protracted naval conflict and raiding in the sea drove commercial traffic to safer waters in the south, opening up the southern route once again. While the conflict concluded in 1869 with the cementing of Amand naval supremacy in the Adrienne Sea, the loss of soft power from the war and the threat of conflict led Sainte-Mélitine to retain a steady flow of commercial traffic through its ports.

Following the war, Amand industrial development continued to outpace that of Sainte-Mélitine, especially at the turn of the 20th century with the development and extraction of oil. The planter economy was successful in maintaining the wealth of the plutocrats. Internal security was maintained by the Republican Police Service, founded in 1889, and a patchwork of personal militias. While, social and economy strains on the second classes, migrant workers, and slaves became increasingly dire, repressive measures continued to maintain the status quo and Sainte-Mélitine came to be regarded as a stable and reliable trading partner on the world stage.

Phalansteries Revolt

Background

In the 1890s and early 1900s, the Alençonist movement rapidly grew in Sainte-Mélitine's undeveloped interior. Alençonism, named for its founder Jules Alençon, was a socialist-spiritualist movement that syncretized hermetic living and socialist modes of production and promoted "phalansteries" as basic social units. Successful phalansteries were established in independent mining and industrial communities which maintained commercial relations with broader Melitinian society. Social organization within phalansteries was radical, with gender equality and principles of industrial democracy governing economic activity. Several early successful phalansteries were established by free Mestis people and many became sanctuaries for escaped slaves and formed alliances with Indigenous tribes. In the early 20th century, phalansteries were increasingly becoming concerning for the central government who saw them as havens for political dissidents and radicals. Furthermore, many phalansteries based around mining industries were in control of vital resources that the state coveted as industrialization spread across the world.

By 1905, skirmishes between armed phalanstery militias and private security agents seeking to impose control over mineral deposits became commonplace in an era known as the Little Jouqille War. In February 1908, the National Enclosure Program was amended to allow the government to break up phalansteries in the interior. The Melitinian Republican Police Service was mobilized for a campaign lead by Chief Commissioner Joachim Esterville, planning to successively strike several large phalansteries in one fell swoop. Unbeknownst to the MRPS, however, the phalansteries had organized into a united front and prepared for the campaign. The subsequent clash between rebel and government forces on March 17-20, 1908, initiated the Phalansteries Revolt when the MRPS forces were routed. The same year, the Great War broke out between the Tyrnican-backed Galene League and the Coalition led by Rythene. The Republic of Sainte-Mélitine remained neutral in the conflict while Amandine supported the Coalition, leaving the world distracted from the internal strife of Sainte-Mélitine.

Irregular warfare and response

On April 12, 1908, the Maintenance of Order Act was passed by the republican legislature, instigating a series of raids by the MRPS reinforced by the Melitinian Republican Army. The republican forces pushed into the country's interior, imposing martial law on phalanstery and Indigenous communities. Rallied under the charismatic leadership of Jean-Marc Marois, the phalansteries organized a substantial military force called the United Phalanges, drawing from the military half of the "Phalansteries'" etymology. The United Phalanges relied primarily on stockpiled and scavenged equipment, but were able to expand their own manufacturing capabilities for munitions. Both sides were unable to rely on foreign imports due to the material demands of the Great War abroad. The MRPS and MRA were significantly better equipped than the Phalanges, with standard-issued repeating and bolt-action rifles, respectively. On the other hand, the Phalanges were largely equipped with single-shot hunting rifles and machets. The Phalanges also had a slight advantage in numbers, with an estimated strength of 100,000 fighters compared to the 30,000 MRPS members and the 60,000 full-time professional members of the MRA at the outbreak of the war.

By April 28, the MRA and MRPS were facing harassment from irregular opponents as they advanced into the interior. Despite this, the organized government forces were able to demolish a number of phalansteries in the country's eastern interior, though the phalansteries' occupants had fled prior to the arrival of the government rather than engage in pitched battles or sieges for their homes. Particularly in the south of the country, many phalansteries were geographically diffused and intermingled with incorporated towns and villages. As such, the government forces struggled to identify Phalange fighters among sympathetic non-landholding Auressians and unaffiliated indigenous communities. On June 1, 1908, the MRA and the Phalanges engaged in the first pitched battle of the war at Rempésie. While the MRA was victorious on the field and routed the Phalanges, casualties were significant on both sides and the MRA's morale suffered as the Phalange fighters seemed to melt away into the local community, rather than retreat away.

While the MRPS had engaged in a number of anti-insurgency operations against local indigenous groups over its history, the organization was strategically unprepared for a campaign on the scale facing the republic. On August 25, the republican legislature passed the Reconcentration Act: a drastic law that authorized the MRPS to relocate rural populations to fortified camps, ostensibly to protect the people from the Phalanges. However, in essence the law permitted the indiscriminate internment of whole populations who were suspected of either harbouring Phalange fighters or of including sympathetic supporters of the revolt. Individuals who resisted the relocations had one week to comply or be shot. The passing of the law saw the MRPS effectively form a political wing within the MRA, in which MRPS members directed internments and political arrests which were carried out by MRA soldiers.

The passing of the Reconcentration Act was immediately controversial, though protests within the major settlements were minor due to exceptions in the law. After the first major relocations in October 1908, many civilians flocked to the Phalanges in anticipation of being relocated to reconcentration camps. It has been estimated that up to 10% of the approximately 8.5 million population of the country was interned at some time during the Phalansteries Revolt. Between 240,000 and 270,000 people died in internment from food scarcity, disease, and exposure.

The beginning of 1909 saw a significant turning point in the war as more of the civilian population came to support the Phalanges despite significant ideological barriers. However, the Alençonist movement made significant inroads into the urban population through religious communities, targeting leaders of different congregations for support through an ostensibly non-denominational civil society network. While the Phalanges advocated for a thoroughly anti-capitalist economic model, Perendist church leaders were able to appeal to their communities' values of charity and emphasis on worship to appeal to broader segments of the population, even attracting the attention of industrialist benefactors such as Léon Dufour and Alix Robert who began to covertly supply the Phalanges with military equipment and munitions.