Voltan Democratic Republic
Voltan Democratic Republic | |||||||||||
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| 1864–1924 | |||||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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| Anthem: Gelübde | |||||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Köstritz | ||||||||||
| Official languages | Dolch | ||||||||||
| Spoken languages | Tlaloc | ||||||||||
Banned languages | Voltan | ||||||||||
| Religion | Aroman Catholicism | ||||||||||
| Government |
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| President | |||||||||||
• 1864-1901 | Eugen Rathenau | ||||||||||
• 1901-1912 | Friedrich von Baden | ||||||||||
• 1912-1924 | Otto Schmitt | ||||||||||
| Legislature | National Congress | ||||||||||
| Historical era | 1860's-1920's | ||||||||||
• Independence from Shffahkia | 12 December 1863 | ||||||||||
• Established | 17 May 1864 | ||||||||||
• Eugen's coup | 14 April 1876 | ||||||||||
• Start of the Voltan Civil War | 17 January 1917 | ||||||||||
• Proclamation of the Socialist Federal Republic | 14 April 1923 | ||||||||||
• End of the Voltan Civil War | 21 January 1924 | ||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
• Total | 349,800 km2 (135,100 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Currency | Voltan Gulden (₲) | ||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Voltan Standard Time) | ||||||||||
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (Voltan Daylight Time) | ||||||||||
| Date format | DD/MM/YYYY | ||||||||||
| Driving side | right | ||||||||||
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The Voltan Democratic Republic was a nation that existed from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. It governed over present-day Volta and was located in Aurelia. Though it started as a democracy, it became a dictatorship after the 1876 Voltan coup d'état in which it's first President Eugen Rathenau, assumed absolute power.
Establishment
After Volta gained independence in the Voltan War for Independence, the Provisional Government of Volta exercised authority over the country as a temporary measure while a constitution was drafted. The new constitution was finalized and the Voltan Democratic Republic was declared and de jure established on 17 May 1864. However, the government wasn't de facto established until after the first Voltan elections on 12 November 1864. Prior to that the same institutions that made up the provisional government continued to exercise de facto authority. This time was mostly spent by the provisional government setting up the groundwork for the first Voltan election.
The election ended in a victory for Eugen Rathenau and the National Republican Party. Eugen Rathenau won the presidency with 71% of the vote, while the National Republican Party took 52% of the seats in the National Congress of Volta. After this election the institutions that made up the provisional government were either disbanded or absorbed into their counterparts in the new government.
Early years
The first few years of the Voltan Democratic Republic saw some measures introduced through compromises by the National Republican Party and the Federalist Party. Namely, a rudamentary form of what would eventually become Volta's former contract labor system was established. This was done as an attempt to deal with a labor shortage caused by a decline in the native Tlaloc population, as many Voltan plantations and farms relied on Tlaloc slave labor. In addition smaller measures were taken, such as the first steps to standardizing Voltan time zones, the establishment of the first Voltan currency, among many other measures. However, the Federalists found that their demands for federalization of the country weren't even being considered, with even the most basic of compromises moving in that direction being rejected by the National Republican Party.
Eugen won a second term after the 1868 Voltan general election. Shortly afterwards, the Federalist Party began engaging in obstructionism, objecting to any and all legislation brought forward by the National Republicans and using the filibuster to stop all legislation not proposed by them in its tracks. This was an attempt to force the National Republicans to compromise and enact some form of federalization for the country. However, this only led the National Republicans to also obstruct and filibuster and and all legislation proposed by the Federalists. This dedlock continued for the entirity of Eugen's second term, and would continue into Eugen's third term.
Eugen's third term started after the 1872 Voltan general election. The first few years of this term was mired by similar political obstructionism, and eventually Eugen decided that in order to get his full reforms into place he would need to stay president. He propsed a constitutional amendment that would elimintate the three-term limit, causing the Conservative Party and Liberal Party to split from the National Republican Party. The National Republican Party would rename itself to the National Party shortly thereafter.
1876 Coup
Eugen, facing his term limit and not wanting to give up power without implementing his reforms, decided that the only course of action left for him was to perform a Wikipedia:Self-coup. In preparation for this he conspired with the military and the national Party. On 14 April 1876, the Voltan military seized key locations in Köstritz. Though the opposition took refuge in eastern Köstritz and tried to impeach Eugen, they were quickly captured. A small number of revolts did attempt to stop the coup, but as the military was fully loyal to Eugen these rebellions were quickly put down and many who took part in them were summarily executed. Within a week after the coup, Eugen had gained full and absolute control over the country.
Eugen and the National Party then drafted a new constitution for Volta, that was adopted in a referendum of disputed legitimacy. The new constitution eliminated presidential term limits and gave Eugen absolute power over the country. Though elections continued to take place after this, they are widely regarded as being unfair at best and fraudulent at worst. The Conservative Party, Federalist Party, and Liberal Party continued to exist after the coup, but were never again allowed to threaten Eugen's authority. This coup effectively ended democratic rule in Volta.
Later years
Eugen quickly began working to implement his own policies after gaining power. He immediately began attempting to suppress Tlaloc and Mischling culture. He went so far as to ban the Voltan language from use in public places. This law in particular was impossible to enforce, but did result in the Voltan langauge being denied any official status. Furthermore he implemented policies that allowed more Tlaloc's to be forced into slavery, including those that had already been freed by their owners. He also prohibited labor unions and cracked down on dissent.
Perhaps Eugen's most infamous policy is his contract labor policy. Under this system, Mischlings would be promised a fixed wage in exchange for them living on a plantation or farm and working there for a certain amount of years. However, these contracts could not be canceled once entered into, and had no sections protecting workers rights. Furthermore, nearly all contracts included a clause stating that if the worker was in debt to the plantation or farm owner the contract could be extended until the debts were paid off. Plantation and farm owners exploited this by charging workers more than what was being paid for basic necessities such as food and shelter. This system effectively guaranteed plantation and farm owners and endless pool of cheap, exploitable labor. Critics of the system often described it as "slavery with extra steps".
While these policies were widely popular with the Voltan upper class, they proved highly unpopular with the working class. As a result, Eugen's popularity among the general population began to rapidly decline. By the time of his death in 1901 he was widely unpopular. Eugen's successor, Friedrich von Baden, largely continued the same policies and also proved highly unpopular. Friedrich did attempt some reforms, such as implementing a minimum wage. However, this minimum wage was below the average wage of a plantation or farm worker, and on plantations and farms that did pay below the minimum wage they simply raised the cost of living. Friedrich did little to combat efforts by plantation and farm owners to find ways around his reforms, and as a result his reforms were largely ineffective and did not change the situation for the general population.
However, Friedrich did not seek the presidency after his third term, in an attempt to create a tradition of presidents only serving three terms. In 1912, after serving three terms, he handed the presidency to Otto Schmitt.
Voltan Civil War
The Voltan Workers' United Front, led by the Communist Party of Volta, revolted, sparking the Voltan Civil War. The communists quickly gained control of eastern Volta, forcing Otto to relocate the government to Friedburg. Otto assigned General Gustav von Bothmer to lead his governments offensive against the communists. However, despite some initial successes, Gustav's efforts ultimately failed to stop the communist advance. Desertion and defection was a massive problem for Gustav's forces, something that Gustav attempted to deal with by expanding conscription. Though this did temporarily help Gustav's manpower issues, it only caused the government to lose more support among the people. Gustav himself was killed by a stray bullet during one of his offensives, after which Otto took direct control over the military. However, he was unable to stop the communist advance, and after the Battle of Friedburg the communists controlled 3/4 of the country and Otto's armies were constantly on the retreat.
At this point many who did not support the communists, particularly the pure-blooded Dolch upper class began fleeing the country. Furthermore, many within the government also began to flee. The first political parties to flee the country was the Liberal Party, closely followed by the Federalist and Conservative Parties. These three parties would regroup outside of Volta and form the Voltan government-in-exile.
The National Party at first refused to flee. Otto himself implemented a number of drastic reforms, including abolishing slavery and the contract labor system, guaranteeing workers rights, and implementing reforms to grant more political freedoms. This was all in an attempt to win the people over and cause them to revolt against the communists, and did win Otto some level of support, but it is widely considered to have come to late to change the course of the war. When the communists controlled 90% of the country, Otto Schmitt and the Nationalist Party also fled Volta. They requested to join the Voltan government-in-exile, and though the three other parties were initially reluctant, they eventually allowed them to join.
After the defeat of Otto's last troops in the Siege of Schipe, the Voltan Democratic Republic ceased to exist.