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United Republics of Zacapican Cepancayotl inic Tlacatlatocayome Zacapican
Flag State Emblem
Capital	Tequitinitlan
Largest city	Tecolotlan
Official languages	Nahuatl
Ethnic groups	79% Nahuas  ∟ 49% Central Nahuas  ∟ 16% Northern Nahuas  ∟ 9% Eastern Nahuas  ∟ 5% Western Nahuas 8% Selk'nam 5% Mapuche 4% Iakan 2% Guarani 2% Other Groups
Demonym(s)	Zacapine Zacapitec
Government	Parliamentary Federation
• Great Speaker Cihuahuetlatoani	Nochcalima
• Chief Secretary Cihuacoatl	Chicacua Xiomara
Legislature	Necentlatiloyan
• Upper house	Mixcalli
• Lower house	Tlalcalli
Formation
• Huehuetlatolli Period	4,400-1300 BCE
• Colli Period	1300-17 BCE
• First Intermediate Period	17 BCE-21 CE
• Tlanepantla Period	21-1634
• Second Intermediate Period	1634-1707
• Yancuiliztli Period	1707-1760
• Revolutionary War	1760-1777
• Current Constitution	1961
Area
• Total	1,845,600 km2 (712,600 sq mi)
Population
• 2021 estimate	76,558,935
• 2019 census	75,785,909
• Density	33.4/km2 (86.5/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	2019 estimate
• Total	$2.08 Trillion
• Per capita	$27,474
HDI (2019)	0.888 very high
Currency	Amatl
Driving side	right

Zacapican, formally the United Republics of Zacapican (Nahuatl: Cepancayotl inic Tlacatlatocayome Zacapican or CTZ), is a Federation of Peasant Republics located on the southern terminus of Oxidentale, bordering Kayahallpa and Yadokawona to the north, the Makrian ocean to the west, the Amictlan ocean to the south and the Ooreqapi ocean to the east. The Federation is comprised of 37 Tlayacatl state level sub-divisions, of which 31 are constituent Republics, 4 are autonomous Totecuacan metropolitan areas and a further 2 are Federal territories. Zacapine government on both the state and federal level takes the form of a hybrid Republican Tlatoanate, in which executive authority is divided between the elected assemblies of the people and a judicial caste of the Speaker or Tlatoani. At the national level, the Great Speaker serves as the head of state, with authority over the judicial system and a consultative role in approving legislature, while the Chief Secretary is the head of government and chief of the cabinet closely tied to the national parliamentary Necentlatiloyan assembly. While Zacapican is a majority Nahua nation, significant minority groups inhabit the mountainous interior of the country which are incorporated into Zacapican through the long standing tradition of minority suffrage as well as pervasive religious and civic nationalism.

Modern Zacapican is shaped by a fusion of its ancient indigeonous traditions of land use, law and governance and the momentous developments of its early modern history that saw a series of revolutionary upheavals and challenges to these old ways that led to conflict and eventually resolution and synethsis of old and new ideas. This was known as the Yancuiliztli period, the Age of Novelties of the 18th century, which saw a period of prolonged conflict between social classes in Zacapican as their roles and standing in society rapidly shifted, culminating in the Zacapine Revolution which was a protacted civil war ending in 1777 with the foundation of the CTZ to govern Zacapican. This revolutionary struggle saw an alliance between elements of the old nobility of the traditional Zacapine empire and the peasantry and commonfolk against the landowning merchant class whose rise to prominence defined and precipitated many of the social changes of the Yancuiliztli period. The aristocracy sought to defeat the upstart merchant elite which had displaced them as the leading caste of society, while the peasantry wished to redress the process of enclosure and privatization of the commons. As a result of the defeat of the merchant elite in this struggle, the aristocracy regained leadership of the country while the land was reorganized under the system of common ownership known as the Calpolli system. Over time, Zacapican under the CTZ developed a system of mass democracy in which the populace gave risen to control executive and legislative power across the country while the institutions of the Tlatoanate were reformed into a judicial organ.

The socioeconomic system of Zacapican is based on state ownership and usufruct rights laid out in the Calpolli system re-established by the revolution. Under this system, all land within the country belongs to the state, while the local ward or town entity manages its use and acts as a common holding entity for economic activities carried out by its residents. The same calpolli unit forms the basis of direct democratic rule at the local scale, as families of the calpolli hold formal dominion over the political and economic entity of the calpolli in common with the other families, granting them democratic power over all political and economic decisions made by the calpolli and its administrative staff. These calpolli workers and economic entities form the backbone of the economy, acting either as individual entities or doing buisness with one another as a group of several calpolli operating together. Although Zacapican operates under a regulated market system, key features of its calpolli-based economy such as democracy in the workplace and collective worker ownership of economic assets relate Zacapican closely to the socialist and syndicalist economies around the world. It is largely for this reason that Zacapican is traditionally aligned with many leftist regimes and with the Kiso pact.

The Zacapine economy centers around a developed secondary sector of processing, manufacturing and engineering as well as a significant primary sector represented by widespread agriculture and a limited extraction sector based on iron and coal production. The primary sector of the Zacapine economy is focused primarily on domestic markets for food, products such as biodiesel and sunflower oil, and the intensive demand for steel from the manufacturing sector. Zacapican is a world leader in nuclear technology, and exports ships, naval and military technology as well as a wide array of industrial machines across the world. Internationally, Zacapican maintaigns good relations with powerful nations of varying political leanings such as Pulau Keramat, Latium and North Ottonia while persuing a polcy of detente with its traditional adversary Sante Reze. While in the past Zacapine influence around the world has been relatively limited to regions of the Ooreqapi ocean as part of its competition for regional dominance with Sante Reze, modern times have seen the broadening of Zacapican's international horizons as the nation has become involved in conflicts and alliances across the world, illustrated by its involvement in the Enyaman Civil War and establishment of a military base within its Norumbian ally Wazheganon.

Etymology

The common name Zacapican is derived from the nahuatl zacapi, itself a truncated form of zacapiliztli meaning to harvest or collect grasses, maize or other crops, along with the suffix -can. Thus together Zacapican can be translated as "place where the grass is harvested", a term which may have been assigned to the area in which the ancient migratory nahuas settled as they are believed to have imported sedentary agriculture to the region. Historians believe this name was originally ascribed specifically to the Zacaco grassland region in which the nahuas originally settled, stretching across what is now central and eastern Zacapican, and was only later ascribed to the broader nahua empire which grew to dominate the southern cone of Oxidentale but was always based in the Zacaco plains. Cepancayotl inic Tlacatlatocayome Zacapican is the formal name of the current government and translates directly as "union for people's states of Zacapican", but can be more faithfully translated as the United Republics of Zacapican. The country was once known as Zacapitlatocayopan, roughly breaking down into "dominion of the zacapines", or more flexibly "Zacapine Empire", and was used to refer especially to the Zacapine government in the Tlanepantla Period known in historiography as the Middle Empire.

Geography

Biodiversity

The Ahuatetz, a penguin species unique to Zacapican's Aztlacapallco region.

The varied environments of Zacapican house an abundance of life including many unique species found nowhere else. Zacapican is a megadiverse country with an myriad of ecosystems and biomes ranging from sub-tropical forest, wetlands, temperate, dry and cold steppes, mountains, semi-arid and even polar climate regions. The Zacaco region boasts a tremendous degree of diversity in fauna including the Capybara, Zacaco deer, Maned wolf and Ñandu. Mixtepemec is home to the Spectacled bear, the Puma and the Guanaco while Xallipan is known for its many species of scorpions and the Vicuña which often used as a mascot by Zacapine children's media. Aztlacapallco is better known for the species of the surrounding waters, but is nevertheless recognized for such unique species as the Southern river otter and varied avian species such as the Aztlacapalltli woodpecker. Much of the Zacaco, Xallipan and Aztlacapallco regions posses little forest cover and are mostly grasslands, with very few tree species, such as the native Ombu or imported Norumbrian sycamore. The mountainsides and valleys of Mixtepemec are heavily forested by pines and other evergreens such as the native Araucaria tree, and are the main site of logging activities in Zacapican.

In addition to terrestrial life, Zacapican is known for its abundant maritime biology sustained by highly fertile polar waters. An abundance of plankton and krill in Zacapine waters and parts of the surrounding ocean sustains not only a tremendous number and variety of fish species, but also larger and iconic marine species including penguins, seals and whales. The Orca, a common sight on Zacapine shores, is particularly prevalent in local cultures and is regarded as a Zacapitec national symbol. The extremely rich marine ecosystem of Zacapican's waters has sustained an extensive fishing industry particularly within the world-renowned Zacapine Sea Fishery off the country's eastern shore. This fishery specifically has suffered from overfishing historically, but is considered to be in the process of recovering its normal fish stocks thanks to fishing restrictions put in place by the Zacapine government for the express purpose of regenerating the economically important Zacapine Sea Fishery. Historically, many Zacapitec mariners undertook whaling as a means to exploit the abundance of Minke, Humpback, Sei and Cachalot whales. In response to the depletion of these species and the decline in economic demands for baleen and whale oil, whaling of any type has been strictly prohibited by federal law since 1910.

Conservation

Forestry workers harvesting lumber in Umatlacan National Forest

The relationship of the peasants and city-dwellers with the land is the single most important political question in the Red Banner Tribunal, thus placing a high importance on the matter of conservation and the management of natural ecosystems. Matters of forestry and resource management regarding wood, pelts, and other goods derived directly from the natural environment have been present in Zacapitec policy long before the Red Banner revolutions, since at least the Middle Empire period. Part of the reforms undertaken by the Red Banners upon taking power was the restoration of Middle Empire era institutions providing for the protection and sustainable exploitation of Zacapican's forests in order to ensure a stable supply of wood for fuel, building and manufacturing in the long term. Restrictions on clearcutting as well as the imposition of a national policy for reforestation and sustainable harvesting practices such as thinning trees for lumber were reinstated in the early 18th century by the Red Banner government and remain in place to this day. Other clear ecological services such as hunted meat, pelts and valuable furs as well as less immediate services such as pollination of crops and fruiting trees by bees have all led to similar protections of specific aspects of the ecosystem which a portion of the peasantry rely on to extract recourses for human benefit. Some of these conservation laws, such as those designed to maintaign a stable population of pelt-bearing animals for reliably lucrative hunts year after year, are regionally specific and are usually implemented at the calpolli level by the very communities which rely on that aspect of the ecosystem for their own sustenance or economic well-being. Others, such as those protecting pollinating insects affect large sections of agriculture or the preservation of important detritovores such as dung beatles or large carrion eating vultures, forestry or other human activities and so are implemented on a national level by federal authorities of the Empire. In both cases, the conservation of the natural environment when it comes to an aspect of the environment that is exploitable for human gain is generally spearheaded and upheld by elements of the public directly affected by the status of those natural recourses who benefit from long term stability and conservation intended to foster continuous long term exploitation of those recourses.

Unlike the conservation of directly beneficial ecological services which has a long history in Zacapican, the preservation of other aspects of the biosphere which are not directly beneficial to humans is less well established particularly where the steps required for natural preservation conflict with technological or infrastructural developments to benefit humans. In particular, attitudes of naturalists and vocal conservationists where highly opposed by public opinion during the period of Zacapitec industrialization in the latter half of the 19th century, during which industrial expansion of the major cities and across the country led to significant damage being inflicted on the surrounding biosphere and ecosystem. The revitalization of some damaged ecosystems deemed salvageable, particularly in and around urban regions, is now considered a priority and has gained in popularity in the 21st century Zacapitec public, along with the general cause of conservation and "good stewardship" over the lands and waters of Zacapican. This has generally led to a number of federal level policies which protect endangered species from being directly hunted or killed off, as well as addressing the problems of habitat destruction. Many nature reserves and national parks have been established by the government in the last 60 years years for the purposes of closing off vulnerable ecosystems and important habitats from any kind of development or anthropogenic disruption, while also creating new tourist attractions out of areas known for their natural beauty.

Government and Politics

Administrative Subdivisions

Zacapican is a federal state made up of 37 Tlayacatls operating as the principal political subdivisions within the federal structure of the country, each possessing a state level authority based in the principal city of that state, the Altepenayotl.

Economy

Agriculture

Agricultural staples such as cereal grains are produced in large volumes on the fertile Zacaco plain

The economic and political significance of agriculture in Zacapican is of central importance despite the increasing role of modern industrial activities, thanks in no small part to the central role of agricultural communities in the political system since the Red Banner uprisings. An estimated 9 million Zacapitecs, roughly 15% of the population, are farmers or belong to a farming household according to the 2019 census. All land in Zacapican is publically owned and held by the state, which subsequently divides lands designated for farming into individual parcels which form agricultural calpolli. Under the Zacapitec Calpolli system, usufruct rights for portions of the publically held land are granted to individuals and households to use exclusively or in common. While most often these small family operated farms are held exclusively by that household, the land is owned by the federal state and administered by committee under the local calpolli. A plot of farmland which falls into disuse for a certain period or is voluntarily given up by the rights holder returns as state property to be reissued again to peasants applying for their own rights to use the land. Under the Red Banner constitution, it is illegal for any tax or free to be charged to registered land users for their farmland, however profits from agricultural activities may be taxed by the calpolli, the Atlepetl and the federal government. Because only monetary profits from sale may be taxed, portions of an agricultural calpolli's land may be used to produce food for the farmers' own subsistence for free not accounting for any labor costs. Land use rights once granted do not expire and cannot be revoked so long as the land remains in agricultural use except by criminal penalty for misuse of the land or a separate conviction rendering the rights holder unable or unfit to exercise their use rights. Land rights can be inherited, particularly within the same farming household typically living on the granted lands allowing for inherited multi-generational farms without the need for private land ownership. Direct contribution of agriculture to the GDP has fallen to less than 15% since the waves of industrialization in the 1960s and the rapid expansion of other areas of the national economy and today contributes roughly the equivalent of $247 billion. However, agricultural products both raw and processed make up a significant portion of national exports. These exports have arguably served as the catalyst for the growth and modernization of the Zacapitec economy. Agriculture which considered to include pastoral farming as well as fishing is overseen nationally by the Secretariat of Agriculture, which also oversees the National Agrarian Registry responsible for issuing usufruct rights to farmers.

Agriculture in Zacapican is primarily based on cereals but includes a variety of other crops to maximize yields across Zacapican's many climate regions and soil types. In particular, maize, wheat and barley form the common crops and are used to produce most of the staple foods of the Zacapitec diet. Sunflower seeds, soybeans, sugar cane and grapes are also cultivated both for food and as the base elements of processed goods such as sunflower and soybean oil, refined sugar and wine. Orchards of lemon, orange and apple trees are also common particularly in the Zacaco region. Zacapican is the world's largest producer of Ca'a tea, which is a culturally significant beverage in the country but has also become popular in foreign markets. A significant portion of the agricultural sector in Zacapican is devoted to livestock, especially in less fertile steppe ecosystems such as those found in the Aztlacapallco region which are poorly suited for crop cultivation. Cattle are the primary livestock in Zacapican and are raised primarily for beef, desired as a dietary staple across much of the country as well as an important export since the advent of refrigeration. Poultry such as chicken and turkey are also raised, typically alongside crop fields as part of the average farmstead, for both eggs and meat. Historically, the pastoral regions of Zacapican also hosted large herds of sheep which produced wool for export. This aspect of pastoral agriculture has largely faded, as sheep are now far less common in Zacapican and are raised primarily for mutton.

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1919	33,124,894	—
1924	33,974,251	+2.6%
1929	35,025,002	+3.1%
1934	36,084,261	+3.0%
1939	36,820,675	+2.0%
1944	38,354,870	+4.2%
1949	39,541,104	+3.1%
1954	41,188,651	+4.2%
1959	43,817,714	+6.4%
1964	46,172,513	+5.4%
1969	48,348,182	+4.7%
1974	50,362,690	+4.2%
1979	51,760,216	+2.8%
1984	53,361,048	+3.1%
1989	54,729,281	+2.6%
1994	55,960,411	+2.2%
1999	56,986,162	+1.8%
2004	57,853,972	+1.5%
2009	58,438,356	+1.0%
2014	59,630,976	+2.0%
2019	60,785,909	+1.9%

Zacapican is considered a medium to large nation relative to the world standard, playing host to a variety of unique ethnic groups and populations. There are 60,785,909 people living in Zacapican according to the 2019 census carried out by the Statistics and Data Collection Agency within the Secretariat of Internal Affairs. 63.6% of the recorded population, roughly 38,659,838 people, is between the ages of 15 and 64 while 24.2% (aproximately 14,710,189 people) are under 14 while only 12.2% or 7,415,880 people were recorded as being over 64 years of age. In general, the population has a mostly balanced sex ration averaging 0.98 males to females across all ages, with a surplus of males under 15 at a ration of 1.05 males to females in that cohort, compared to a ratio of 0.72 males to females 65 and over. The average life expectancy is 77.14 years at birth. More than 80% of Zacapitecs identify as Nahua ethnically, while 88.9% speak Nahuatl as a first language compared to 97.9% of the population which are proficient in Nahuatl. 99.6% of those aged over 15 can read and write in at least one language. Over the past 40 years, Zacapican has maintained a relatively stable rate of population growth averaging at a 2.1% increase every 5 years. The nation experienced its most precipitous growth in the past hundred years between 1954 and 1964, a period of Zacapitec history marked by industrialization and urbanization, following which the growth rate stabilized towards its current norm.

Ethnicity and Language

Ethnic Composition of Zacapican
Central Nahua			49.08%
Northern Nahua			16.19%
Eastern Nahua			8.85%
Selk'nam			8.51%
Western Nahua			5.98%
Mapuche			5.10%
Yaghan			2.1%
Guarani			1.9%
Quechua			1.1%
Mutulese			0.8%
Values represent self identification

Zacapican is not officially an ethnically oriented state despite its strong nahuatl affiliation and history, as the Red Banner constitution defines a “Zacapitec” person as "any person born within the territories and possesions of the Panchichiltic Tlatoloyan, or any person having naturalized into the Panchichiltic Tlatoloyan by legal and social processes". Consequently, the term Zacapitec does not officially carry any ethnic connotation as a person so described could be of any number of ethnic inclinations which may or may not be nahua in character. The stance of the Zacapitec government is that nationality and ethnicity should not be equated in the contect of Zacapican, and that therefore the many peoples native to Zacapican as well as those who have migrated into the country should be considered by others and should consider themselves as members of the Zacapitec nation without conflicting with any ethnic identity they may hold. However, Zacapican is a heavily Nahua-inclined nation with an almost unbroken history of rule by Nahua groups as well as the historical and allegedly ongoing Nahuanization (assimilation into the Nahua ethnicity) of non-Nahuas.

Cultural assimilation is a controversial topic in Zacapican, which is claimed to have been resolved in the 1980s with a number of protections particularly preserving regional languages and enabling their public use to prevent their disuse and extinction. Statistics of self-reported ethnic identity show the proportion of Nahua groups growing relative to the whole. Disputed claims suggest this trend could be the result of higher population growth rates in majority Nahua areas, or ongoing processes of assimilation on non-Nahuas into the Nahua identity despite national intervention to halt this. Roughly 20% of the Zacapitec population self reported affiliation with a non-Nahua ethnic identity in 2019, including at least two groups considered to be non-native immigrant communities. However the majority of the non-Nahua population of Zacapican represent native cultures which have existed in the region for centuries or millennia and have become entrenched within their local communities to resist assimilation.

Nahuatl is the official language of Zacapican and is taught across all communities uniformly, irrespective of any secondary recognized language. Many regional dialects and variations of nahuatl are present in politics, within the workplace and in everyday social life and are nominally mutually intelligible with one another and the national standard verion. The Nahuatl League is an independent academic body endorsed by the federal government which serves as the pre-eminent authority on the Nahuatl language in both spoken and written aspects. Nahuatl Zacapiyotl, also called Zacapiyotl or "standard nahautl", is the state sanctioned dialect of the nahuatl language which is used in all official government documentation, is taught as a standard part of the curriculum in schools, and is utilized by most national and local publications. The council of the Nahuatl League advises the government as well as dictionary publishers on changes and updates to the standard nahuatl lexicon to be accounted for and acknowledged as an accepted common use of the national language.

Under the No True Foreigner Act (Huecachane Iztlaca Itlatlalil Tl.Itl 339) put into place in 1984, regional languages and the languages of recognized immigrant enclaves are protected from state repression and discriminatory treatment. As a result of this law a variety of local and federal government offices are required to offer documents and forms in multiple languages and to provide interpreter services at courthouses, hospitals and certain schools. Officially, language recognition and protections are applied at the calpolli level, allowing small minority enclaves to enjoy language protections within their neighborhood. Informally, large regions where a minority language is prevalent may form atlepetl and inter-atlepetl level organizations to standardize the status and treatment of the local language. In these regions, the recognized local language may be taught in schools alongside nahuatl through the calpolli level control over schooling, as well as used in public signage and government announcements. Publications in any language are freely permitted anywhere in the country under the constitutional documents of Zacapican since the 1780s.

Urbanization

Zacapican is a urbanized nation with close to 50% of the nation's population living within the city limits of the country's twenty largest urban centers. However, it is not uniformly urbanized across all regions. Most Zacapitecs live on the Zacaco plains and on the coastal strip of the Mixtepemec. These areas boast the most concentrated and densely packed population centers, as the Mixtepemec coast plays host to almost no rural communities although such towns and villages may still be sound in some quantity across the Zacaco. Conversely, the Mixtepemec highlands as well as the Xallipan, Aztlacapallco and Michnamanalco regions play host to few significant urban centers and host a widely dispersed rural population. According to the 2019 census, 82% of the Zacapitec population live in urban zones, whether inside city limits or within urbanized satellite communities.