Innominada

Innominada is the name of a former country in South Hemithea. The term is also applied to the Innominadan Peninsula, a body of land jutting southward from the continent of Hemithea into the Strait of Portcullia. Today, the peninsula is occupied by four countries, which were divided following Innominada's collapse in 2014: the People's Republic of Innominada, the Republic of Innominada, Isla Diamante, and Argentstan.

The first human populations likely crossed the Strait of Portcullia an estimated 75,000 years ago, when a pronounced ice age lowered sea levels and exposed a large portion of the Innominadan Shelf. This was not a true land bridge, as there was still a 100-kilometer sea gap in between; early human crossings likely involved some degree of island-hopping. The first organized states on the peninsula formed in the 2nd century CE, as a collection of rice-farming kingdoms along the southeast coast and up the Argentan River Valley. These kingdoms flourished off of the lucrative South Menghe Sea trade circuit, which brought them into contact with Taleyan merchants from West Meridia. During this time, most people in the southeastern kingdoms were converted to Shahidism. The Menghean Yi dynasty conquered most of these kingdoms in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, bringing major Menghean cultural influences but allowing local trade and culture to continue flourishing. This prosperity was mainly confined to the southeastern region: northwest of the Sierra Verde mountains, most people lived in nomadic tribes, with a few small sedentary kingdoms along the coast.

In 1499, the first Sylvan explorers arrived on the west coast of the Innominadan peninsula, where they set up a small replenishment camp and paved the way for future voyages. With the Yi leadership thrown into chaos by the Menghean Black Plague, the many small kingdoms of the Innominadan peninsula broke away from Menghean control, only to find themselves quickly overrun by Sylvan conquistadors who were immune to the rapidly spreading disease. By 1543, all local peoples except the prosperous Phan Dok Sultanate had fallen under Sylvan control, and Phan Dok would fall in 1571. Sylvan authorities ran Innominada as an extractive colony, building an economy dependent on gold mining in the Sierra Verde range and plantation agriculture elsewhere on the eastern side of the peninsula. In the process, they established an exclusive racial hierarchy, with pure-blood Creoles at the top, native Argentans and Keudi at the bottom, and mixed-blood Mestizos in between.

Innominada became a semi-independent Commonwealth possession in 1883, though it retained close ties to Sylva. A more radical break came in 1963, when revolutionaries from Menghe and Maverica spilled over into northern Innominada, backing a Marxist movement that seized power in 1967. The resulting People's Republic of Innominada broke up large landholding estates and reorganized the economy among syndicalist lines. For a time it was the wealthiest Socialist state in Hemithea, but by the 1990s, lackluster reforms led it to stagnate economically. Under the leadership of President Hernando Santángel (1990-2013), ethnic tensions between Sylvan Creoles and indigenous groups escalated into violence, and foreign policy grew increasingly erratic.

In 2015, following a perilous intervention in Innominada's civil war, the country was partitioned into three states. Isla Diamante was temporarily placed under Sylvan control, and later transferred to a Sylvan-backed commonwealth government. The Menghe-backed Republic of Innominada was carved out of the provinces running along the South Menghe Sea and Strait of Portcullia, bordered inland by the Sierra Verde mountains. In the northwest of the country, Maverica established the People's Republic of Innominada, a rump state claiming to represent the deposed prewar government. The most recent change came on June 6th, 2018, when three provinces of the Republic of Innominada were carved off to form the state of Argentstan.

History

People's Republic of Innominada

In the 2000 presidential election, the FRG-S allowed opposition parties to run for office. Through ballot stuffing and other irregularities, the ruling party ensured that Hernando Santángel, its hand-picked choice, won the presidency. Like his predecessor, Santángel was a pure-blood Creole who viewed Innominada as a culturally Christian state. After polling ahead of the 2004 election suggested a closer margin of victory, Santángel responded by mobilizing Shahidophobic rhetoric against the Keudi and Argentans, setting off a chain reaction of violence which culminated in the Christmas Riots of 2004. Creole nationalists continued to stage isolated beatings of Keudi and Argentans well into the 2010s, while state security forces carried out raids on mosques and indigenous neighborhoods. Argentan separatists responded with a string of terrorist attacks, fueling a cycle of tit-for-tat ethnic violence.

Civil war and partition

See also: Innominadan Crisis

Hernando Santángel passed away in 2013, leaving the reins of power to his appointed successor, Vice President Pablo Bienvenida. In response to widespread protests about the undemocratic transition, the FRG-S announced that a special election would take place on March 9th, 2014. With the economy stagnant and racial tensions peaking, Bienvenida's popularity tumbled ahead of election day, and after initial exit polls showed the moderate opposition candidate Hernan Martínez in the lead, the FRG-S halted ballot counting and announced a victory for Bienvenida. Reform supporters responded by staging violent demonstrations in the streets, and a member of the Presidential Guard assassinated Bienvenida in retaliation for a deadly attack on protesters. Opposition supporters in the south rallied around Hernan Martínez, who had declared himself the rightful winner, and Argentan and Keudi separatists staged uprisings throughout the northwest.

In response to a string of pirate attacks in the Strait of Portcullia, Sylvan forces occupied Isla Diamante and declared their intention to annex it as a military base. This move deeply provoked Menghe, which launched a large-scale invasion on September 21st, 2014. As demoralized, worn-out government forces crumbled before the Menghean advance, Maverica moved troops into the northwest of the country to prop up the Innominadan regime. With the help of a last-minute diplomatic intervention from Hallia, the two powers were able to narrowly avoid escalation into a Third World War, and they agreed to partition Innominada into Northwest and Southeast zones. The new borders followed existing provincial boundaries, and also placed the Sierra Verde range between the two countries as a natural barrier.

At first, Menghe administered the Republic of Innominada with relatively light imposition, allowing Prime Minister Hernan Martínez's government to set its own political and economic policy. Even under the leadership of a moderate Mestizo, however, ethnic tensions continued to simmer. In late 2016, the Menghean Special Liaison to Innominada concluded that the policies of ethnic consociationalism and political autonomy were not working, and authorized a referendum on Argentstani independence. After the secessionist victory triggered another string of riots, which the Martínez government appeared to back, Menghean troops stationed in the country launched an organized crackdown. Argentstan's secession was allowed to move forward, with a continued Menghean presence in the country, and the Republic of Innominada's government was reorganized into a single-party regime with more active Menghean interference.