Argentstan
Argentan People's Republic ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາຊົນຈັນ Sathalanalad Pasason Chan | |
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 Flag
 Emblem
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 Location of Argentstan in Septentrion, as it appeared upon gaining independence. Dark green: controlled areas. Light green: claimed areas. Red: demilitarized zone. | |
| Capital | Vien Chan |
| Largest city | Ao Mangkon |
| Recognised regional languages | Kedi Taleyan |
| Ethnic groups (2019 est.) | 85.1% Argentan 7.2% Creole |
| Demonym(s) | Argentstani |
| Government | One-party state |
• President | Buphavanh Tauaenthong |
• Vice President | Thongsing Bunphan |
| Sovereign State | |
• Vien Chan founded | 312 CE |
• Independence from Menghe | 1519 |
• Independence from Innominada | 6 June 2019 |
| Area | |
• Total Land | 180,316.15 km2 (69,620.45 sq mi) |
• Water (%) | 1.2% |
| Population | |
• 2019 census | 10,659,000 |
• Density | 59.11/km2 (153.1/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2019 estimate |
• Total | $97 billion |
• Per capita | $9,061 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2019 estimate |
• Total | $46 billion |
• Per capita | $4,315 |
| Gini (2019) | 39.8 medium |
| HDI (2016) |  0.694medium |
| Currency | Argentstani Kip (ARK) |
| Time zone | UTC+5 (Vinh Chan Time) |
| Date format | yyyy-mm-dd; CE(AD) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +96 |
Argentstan (ປະເທດຈັນ, Pathet Chan), officially the Argentan People's Republic (ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາຊົນຈັນ, Sathalanalad Pasason Chan) and also known as the Chan People's Republic, is a country in South Hemithea. It is bordered to the northwest by the People's Republic of Innominada, to the south by the the Republic of Innominada, and to the northeast by Menghe, with its western coast running along the South Menghe Sea and facing Isla Diamante across the Diamante Strait. It became independent on June 6th, 2018, making it the youngest state in Hemithea and one of the youngest in Septentrion.
A collection of small kingdoms existed in the are of present-day Argentstan from the 3rd century until the late 10th century, many of them centered around the city of Vien Chan in a loose tribute system. These small kingdoms were briefly united under the Sultanate of Ao Mangkon, which collapsed in 1142 but did succeed in converting most of the population to Shahidism. In the early 14th century these kingdoms came under the control of the Menghean Yi dynasty, regaining independence in 1519 after the Menghean Black Plague weakened Yi control. In 1563 the northern section of Argentan territory was reintegrated into Menghe's Myŏn dynasty, and in 1671 the remaining southern area was annexed by the Sylvan colony of Innominada. For the next 347 years, the Argentans were a stateless people, who faced persecution and discrimination on the Innominadan side of the border. After Innominada collapsed into civil war in 2014, Menghe and Maverica intervened to prop up rival states, partitioning the country into Northern and Southern zones. The Southern zone was partitioned again in 2018, this time with unilateral Menghean assistance, after tensions between Argentans and Sylvan Creoles escalated into widespread violence.
Today, Argentstan is a one-party state led by the Argentan People's Party (APP), which previously played a major role in advocating for independence. It is led by President Buphavanh Tauaenthong (ບຸບຜາວັນ ຕາເວັນທອງ), who concurrently serves as General-Secretary of the Party. Bupavanh and his government enjoy strong support from the government of Menghe, which maintains a large military force on Argentstan's soil. Menghean investment has also played an important role in revitalizing Argentstan's economy, which was previously weakened by war, civil unrest, and regional discrimination under Innominada. Argentstan claims ownership over three majority-Argentan provinces in the People's Republic of Innominada, as well as the island of Isla Diamante, both of which are backed by Maverica and the members of the Able Vigil Accords.
Name
Argentstan is the official Anglian-language name for the country, and is derived from the name of the Argetnan people. Argentan is an exonym which Sylvan colonists applied to the people in northwest Innominada. It comes from the name of the Río Argento, or Argent River, which was named by Serenoran explorer Emmerico De Cesare. From there, the term became standard in all Casaterran languages, including Anglian, and it remains in use up to the present day.
In their own language, the Argentan people refer to themselves as the Chan (ຈັນ), an endonym likely derived from the old word for sandalwood. This term was imported into the Menghean language, in which they are known as the Chan (儧 / 찬) and their country is known as Changuk (儧國 / 찬국). Both terms date back to the 10th century, and long precede the use of Argentan.
Chan forms the basis of the Argentan-language name of the country (ປະເທດຈັນ, Pathet Chan or "Chan Nation") and its full, formal version (ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາຊົນຈັນ, Sathalanalad Pasason Chan, "Chan People's Republic"). In the leadup to its secession, Anglian-language media coverage referred to the new country as Argentstan, even though this name has no basis in the Argentan or Chan language. Official Argentstani documents initially accepted this standard-use form, though in August 2019 some Argentan activists began encouraging the use of "Chan" or "Chania" in English translations, denouncing "Argentan/Argentstan" as a colonial label. As of November 2019, official Argentstani documents still use the term Argentstan in Anglian translations. Note also that Argentstani is the demonym for a citizen of the country, while Argentan is the demonym for a member of its largest ethnic group.
History
Precolonial era
During the 3rd to 5th centuries CE, the previously disorganized rice-farming tribes in inland South Hemithea began giving way to a grouping of small organized kingdoms speaking Tai languages. By the 6th century, the city of Vien Chan ("city of sandalwood") had emerged as the center of a circle of tribute fiefdoms, though these lacked the fixed boundaries of an organized state.
Over time, this Chan confederation was eclipsed by a rival political center in Ao Mangkon, a coastal trading city dominated by a large Taleyan merchant population. The Sultanate of Ao Mangkon had annexed most of the Chan kingdoms by the beginning of the 11th century. Although it fragmented into local kingdoms again in 1194, the Sultanate left a lasting mark on Chan culture: most of the population converted to Shahidism, and many Taleyan customs were adopted or adapted into local practice.
In 1292, under the reign of the Chŏnsun Emperor, the Yi dynasty launched the Southwestern Expedition, a series of wars to bring the Lakkian, Argentan, and Kedi tribute kingdoms under Menghean control. The city of Ao Mangkon fell in 1298, and its territory was integrated into Menghe as the province of Changang. Though nominally a part of the Menghean Empire rather than a tribute state, the Chan province enjoyed relative autonomy, and Meng cultural influence was fairly limited compared with its extent among the neighboring Lac people.
After the Menghean Black Plague ushered in the collapse of the Yi dynasty, Chan lands rose up in rebellion, and in 1519 the Sultanate of Phan Dok declared its independence from Menghe. Phan Dok lost a portion of its lands in 1532, as the Menghean Myŏn dynasty brought the border to where it stands today, and reduced the Sultanate to a Menghean protectorate. Yet the Menghean guarantee of its independence shielded Phan Dok from the Sylvan conquistadors, who toppled the neighboring Kedi Sultanates between 1524 and 1543.
Innominadan rule
Sultan Khon Kham stopped sending tribute to Menghe in 1663, and Menghe responded by withdrawing its guarantee of Phan Dok's independence. Five years later, Sylvan forces in the colony of Innominada launched a full-scale invasion. Without Menghean support, Phan Dok suffered a series of severe defeats at the hands of the musket-armed Sylvan military, and in 1671 its lands were annexed into Innominada.
From the very beginning, Sylvan colonial administrators ruled Northeast Innominada with the harsh extractive technologies they had pioneered in South Innominada over the preceding century. The conquered territory was divided up into parcels of land, which were distributed to conquering soldiers as encomienda estates. The existing residents on these estates were tied to the manor as serfs, forced to work for minimal pay with no geographic mobility. The Sylvans also imposed a system of racial segregation, forbidding marriage between Sylvan Creoles and local Argentans and requiring the indigenous people to use separate village facilities. Mixed race persons, or Mestizos, occasionally born from illegitimate relationships between masters and serfs, were exiled as untouchables from both communities.
Serfdom in Northeast Innominada was abolished in 1885, but the serfs were landless on emancipation, and before long most had returned to a system of tenant farming on the same manorial estates. Racial segregation remained in place, and in the early 20th century its enforcement grew stricter. After the Greater Menghean Empire invaded Innominada in 1935, large numbers of peasants rose up against their masters, but the Sultanate of Innominada was little more than a Menghean puppet state in the Pan-Septentrion War. Returned to Innominada in 1945, the northeast remained restless, and a new wave of peasant uprisings broke out in the 1960s as the Menghean War of Liberation spilled across the border. Initially, the rebel leadership aimed to establish an independent state, but the syndicalist FRG-N revolutionaries in the west convinced them to join a united Innominada in return for the abolition of apartheid and immediate land reform.
Even with segregation officially abolished, inequality and unrest in the northeast persisted. The People's Republic of Innominada refused to establish autonomous provinces for Argentans, promoted the teaching of Sylvan in public schools, and led campaigns denouncing Shahidism as a "feudal religion." Race relations worsened under the rule of Presidents Vicente Arellano (1992-2000) and Hernando Santángel (2000-2013), who increasingly relied on Christian and Creole nationalism to drum up popular support. The Argentans, who were concentrated in the poor northeast and mainly followed Shahidism, were regularly called forward as a scapegoat, and security services and civilian Creoles alike targeted them in outpourings of violence like the 2004 Christmas Riots.
After a disputed election on March 9th, 2014 led to riots and the assassination of President Bienvenido, Innominada slipped into a chaotic and fragmented civil war. Argentans in the northeast staged an armed uprising, which was quashed by the large number of Innominadan Army units stationed in the area. Menghe initially declined to intervene, but after Sylvan forces occupied Isla Diamante and declared their intention to annex it, Menghe dispatched a large mechanized force across the Innominadan border to pre-empt further invasions. Maverica responded with an invasion from the north, and the two countries reached a last-minute agreement to partition Innominada into two polities and thus avert an escalation to large-scale conventional war.
Secession process
At first, Menghean authorities favored a strategy of keeping the Republic of Innominada unified. The three Argentan-majority provinces, Chaco, San Luis, and Flores, were given special autonomy, and Buphavanh Tauaenthong was appointed as a special chancellor to manage the Argentan autonomous region. Ethnic tension between Sylvan Creoles and Argentans remained tense, and by late 2017 there a string of small mob attacks and assassinations had rocked the area. On January 2nd, 2018, the Menghean Special Liaison to Innominada authorized an Argentstani secession referendum which would take place on the 10th, and indicated that Menghe supported a pro-independence result.
The resulting referendum showed 84.1% of voters in Chaco, San Luis, and Flores supporting secession, but it also drew criticism that voter intimidation and faulty counting had skewed the result. Sylvan Creoles in Nueva Meridia took to the streets as they had in 2004, looting Argentan storefronts and denouncing Menghe's occupation. The Innominadan Social-Republican Party, formerly Menghe's ally, issued a proclamation stating that they would reject the referendum's results and withdraw from the Namhae Front. Menghe responded by dispatching troops to retake control, ousting the Social-Republican Party and suppressing Creole rioters.
Following the operation, the Menghean Special Liaison announced that it would enforce the outcome of the referendum, and laid out a six-month timeline for Argentstan's transition to full independence. Though deeply unpopular among the Creole population, the announcement was met with widespread support from Innominadan Argentans, who would finally have control of their own state for the first time in 357 years. Argentstan was formally proclaimed as an independent entity on June 6th, 2018, though its government and military would still need several years to prepare enough staff to fill all high-level positions.
Geography
Current-day Argentstan covers most of the northeast region of what was formerly Innominada. The government maintains claims to the entire northeast, including the provinces of Mojana and Cauca, which controlled by the People's Republic of Innominada, and the island of Isla Diamante. At present, however, it only controls the former Innominadan provinces of Chaco, San Luis, and Flores, which were part of the Menghean-controlled zone in the Republic of Innominada.
In its current territory, Argentstan borders the Republic of Innominada, the People's Republic of Innominada, and Menghe, and shares a maritime border with Isla Diamante. On its southeast side, its coast runs along the South Menghe Sea. The long frontier with the PRI includes a demilitarized zone extending two kilometers to either side of the border.
Argentstan's territory is centered on the watershed of the Khong Ngam river (ຂອງງາມ), formerly known as the Río Argento. Historically this was a key shipping conduit in the local kingdoms and sultanates: the capital of Vien Chan lies upriver on Lake San Ta (ສານຕະ), and the city of Ao Mangkot sits at the river's estuary. Prior to 2018, these cities were known as San Luís and Nueva Meridia respectively, but upon independence the government restored their precolonial names. Argentstan's southwest corner touches the Sierra Verde mountains, which loop around further north to rejoin the border. The country has a tropical savanna climate in the south and a humid subtropical climate in the north, and receives most of its precipitation during an extended summer monsoon season.
Government and politics
Since independence, Argentstan has been administered as a one-party state, closely based on the Menghean model. The Argentan People's Party (ພັກປະຊາຊົນຈັນ, Phak Pasason Chan) is the sole political authority in the country, and along with three puppet coalition parties (the Argentstan Kedi People's Party, the Christian Alliance, and the Shahidic Brotherhood) it controls all seats in the legislature. Mayors and governors are appointed by party-controlled higher authorities, as are judges, police chiefs, and the heads of state media companies.
Argentstan's President, Buphavanh Tauaenthong (ບຸບຜາວັນ ຕາເວັນທອງ) won the 2018 Presidential Election with 98.73% of the vote, and concurrently serves as General-Secretary of the APP. Under the transitional Republic of Innominada government, he served as Special Administrator of the Argentan Autonomous Zone; before then, he was the leader of the Argentan Movement for Freedom, a secessionist organization. Between 2009 and 2015, Buphavanh lived in exile in Menghe, where he worked with IUFOI and developed a strong affinity for the Menghean government, which cultivated him as a loyal ally in the Innominadan opposition and later nominated him to lead Argentstan.
The APP's ideology rests mainly on ethnic nationalism, tapping on Argentan resentment over unequal treatment under colonial rule and rallying pride over Argentstan's status as a newly independent state. This has been accompanied by hostile rhetoric against the Sylvan Creole minority still living in Innominada, and to a lesser extent against Argentan Christians. Multiple human rights groups have accused the Bouphavanh regime of engaging in ethnic cleansing against Creoles and white Mestizos, particularly through forced relocation to the Republic of Innominada, and state security forces have aggressively cracked down on pro-Creole and pro-PRI speech. On the other hand, independent surveys by Menghean political analysts indicate that Bouphavanh and the APP enjoy genuinely high popularity in Argentstan, possibly due to a combination of post-independence euphoria and nationalist appeal.
Foreign relations
The Argentan People's Party claims to be the rightful governing authority of all former Innominadan territories in which the Argentan people comprise a majority of the population. This includes the Innominadan provinces of Mojana and Cauca, which are controlled by the People's Republic of Innominada, and the island of Isla Diamante, which was annexed by Sylva in 2014 and later promoted to commonwealth status. The Party officially disavows any claim to the Argentan Semi-Autonomous Province in Menghe, though some of its members have expressed criticism of this policy in private.
These claims put Argentstan in a hostile relationship with the People's Republic of Innominada, which claims authority over the full territory of what was once Innominada. The People's Republic of Innominada is backed by Maverica, which is a member of the Able Vigil Accords. A number of states have refused to extend official recognition to Argentstan, regarding both it and the Republic of Innominada as Menghean puppet regimes.
Argentstan's main international ally is Menghe, which backed its secession process after invading Innominada in 2014. Menghe maintains a large military presence on Argentstani soil, with some 350,000 ground troops of the 4th Army stationed along the border with the People's Republic of Innominada. Menghe also provided generous logistical support for the transition process, training Argentstani military officers at the Menghean National Defense Academy and assigning ethnic Chan from Menghe to serve as military officers and upper-tier civil servants until an adequate number of Argentstani trainees are available. President Buphavanh holds a particularly favorable view of Menghe, having lived in asylum there after being exiled in 2008, and has actively modeled the new Argentstani state on Menghe's system of government. This close dependence does not sit well with some lower-ranking Argentstani officials, who fear that Menghean oversight has compromised Argentstan's sovereignty and note that Menghe itself rules over a large Argentan population.
Military
To protect against the threat of invasion from the People's Republic of Innominada, Argentstan instituted a policy of mandatory military service, requiring that all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 serve three years of active service, six years of reserve service, and twelve years of militia service. The end goal of the Defense Improvement Act, issued in 2018, is to achieve a standing military force of 250,000 personnel, or 2.3% of Argentstan's population. With reserve personnel and paramilitaries included, this number would swell to 1.5 million, though as of 2019 most Argentstani militia are poorly trained and equipped and the 1.5 million number exists only as a future projection.
The Argentan People's Armed Forces (APAF) also face a severe shortage of properly trained military officers. Under the old Innominadan regime, most officers were Sylvan Creoles, and officer training in the Republic of Innominada only began in 2016. The Menghean National Defense Academy offered to train all Argentstani officers until a suitable academy in Vien Chan can be established, but its four-year training course presents a long time lag until all officers are prepared for service. Leaked reports suggest that in the interim period, most command positions in the APAF are being filled by ethnic Chan-Argentans transferred from the Menghean Army.
Argentstan also relies on Menghe for the vast majority of its military equipment. Given Argentstan's recent formation and strained finances, and the total lack of transparency in Menghean defense sales to Argentstan, many international defense analysts consider it likely that Menghe armed and equipped the Argentan People's Armed Forces either free of charge or through a heavily discounted long-term loan.
Economy
Before 2014, Northeast Innominada was already regarded as a rural, impoverished hinterland, in contrast to the more industrialized West Coast region. Both the civil war and the Menghean invasion inflicted disproportionate collateral damage on future Argentstan, damaging infrastructure and provoking capital flight. Despite a small recovery in 2015-2017, Argentstan was the poorest and least industrialized of the four former Innominadan Republics on independence.
Menghe has responded with a major injection of capital funds. As part of the Southern Circuit trade promotion project, Menghean private and state-owned companies have invested heavily in Argentstani transportation infrastructure, including a high-speed rail line linking Ao Mangkot and Vien Chan to the Menghean high-speed network. Many companies have also relocated their factories from Menghe to Argentstan in pursuit of its lower labor costs. The ongiong restructuring of the Argentstani economy has succeeded in reducing high youth unemployment, a major cause of prewar unrest, though some analysts fear that low wages and poor labor conditions may feed nostalgia for syndicalist ideology and have advocated for improved labor and environmental protections.
Demographics
Out of all the former Innominadan republics, Argentstan has the highest proportion of native peoples, as it was annexed by Sylva more than a century after the rest of the colony and faced a restrictive intermarriage regime from the outset. According to the 2011 census, the last of its kind carried out before the outbreak of civil war, the ethnic composition of the three provinces that became Argentstan was as follows:
- 74.9% Argentan
- 12.2% Mestizo
- 5.8% Kedi
- 5.5% Creole
- 0.9% Taleyan
- 0.6% other
As one of its early reforms, the Argentan People's Party abolished the racial "Mestizo" category, requiring that all individuals formerly identifying as mixed-race choose the major group best representing their heritage. Most chose to identify as Argentan, either out of affinity for their precolonial identity or in order to win better government treatment. An official government estimate conducted in 2019 yielded the following totals, reflecting both re-identification and wartime population movement:
- 85.1% Argentan
- 7.2% Creole
- 5.9% Kedi
- 0.9% Taleyan
- 0.9% other
Ever since the second Menghean intervention allowed the secession process to go forward, the Argentan People's Party set ethnic nation-building as its main priority. As part of the independence proclamation on June 6th, the APP established Argentan as the official language of government, and changed most place names to their precolonial Argentan versions. Nearly all public schools also switched instruction to Argentan for the 2018-2019 school year, though private schools in minority areas are allowed to teach in Kedi and Taleyan. Thus far, implementation of the new linguistic policy has been patchy, due to shortages of teaching materials and strained state capacity; as of November 2019, many street signs still use the original Sylvan text, particularly in Ao Mangkot. Prior to secession most Innominadan Argentans were bilingual, learning Sylvan in public schools but speaking Argentan at home.