Mambiza

Mambiza
City and Province
A sunset view of Mambiza, overlooking the Chipungowe district and its beach
Coat of arms
Nicknames:  Iron City
Motto(s):  "Guta relron" ("The city of iron")
Coordinates: 8º41'N 33º39'W
Country	Garambura
Province	Mambiza
Founded	1656
Incorporated (city)	1841
Renamed	1970
Government
• Governor	Rupenyu Majange
Area
• City and Province	1,253.9 km2 (484.1 sq mi)
Elevation	13 m (43 ft)
Population  (2014)
• City and Province	3,873,288
• Density	3,089/km2 (8,001/sq mi)
• Urban	3,762,000
Demonym	Mambizan
Time zone	UTC+4 (Eastern Bahian Time)
Area code	85
Climate	Cwb
Website	cityofmambiza.co.gb
Dialling code 85 (085 in Garambura)

Mambiza (/'mæmbi:za/; officially Saint-Germain until 1970) is the largest city in Garambura. The city has one of the largest designated metropolitan areas in Garambura, at 1,253.9km² (481.4mi²), and an urban population of 3,762,000 in 2014, with a total population of just under 3.9 million inhabitants. Mambiza itself is a metropolitan province of Garambura, and is represented by its elected governor Rupenyu Majange. The city sits on the expansive Gonda Delta and its coastal location makes it a popular destination for global trade.

The city was founded as a trading outpost in 1656 by Gaullican merchants, who named the city Saint-Germain after the Sotirian venerated figure. It served as a stopover for trade between Euclea and southern Coius, namely Xiaodong and Senria, and so the city's wealth grew under the Gaullicans. It was designated as the capital of Baséland when it fell under full Gaullican sovereignty in 1813, and was designated a city in 1814. Mambiza was the site of Charles Dumont's famous Droits de l'homme speech in 1919, before he was executed in the city by national functionalists. Many of the city's inhabitants were conscripted during the Great War. The capital was moved and the city renamed to Mambiza in 1970 after Garambura secured its independence.

History

The original charter for Sainte-Germaine issued by the Crown of Gaullica in 1655

Merchant city (1656–1813)

The location that the city of Sainte-Germaine would be settled on would be granted as a charter to the newly-created Gaullican Lower Gonda Company, founded in 1655 to subsidise colonial ventures in the region, by the Crown of Gaullica. The Gaullians settled the delta of the Gonda river sometime around October to November if 1656, with native contact being made shortly after. Early evidence suggests that the Gaullicans exhibited a native co-existence policy for the city, and thus the city had some natives as an early populace. This early contact between the natives and Gaullicans is estimated to be the likely emergence of the Palatara creole, now spoken in the city.

Due to this city's location in a natural bay and on extremely fertile and arable land, it grew quickly and established itself as one of Gaullica's primary ports for the transportation of Bahian slaves to the Asterias at the height of the Asterian Slave Trade. The city's predominantly white populace combined with the policies of Toubacterie exhibited within the city led to many of the city's Euclean residents becoming wealthy property and land-owners, with some choosing to employ natives as labourers and others choosing to expand the city's infrastructure with their plot of land, with many residential areas, including early hotels and inns, being constructed during this period.

When slavery was abolished throughout the Gaullican Empire, the city's connections throughout the empire, particularly those back to Euclea and to Gaullican holdings in the Asterias, allowed it to stay as a financial hub in Bahia and retain its wealth while many other settled ports by Euclean nations dwindled as their main exports were severely neutered. The city also prospered due to its large fishing industry, an industry which many native residents of the city were employed in. As such, Sainte-Germaine became known for its exotic fish markets in the 18th century, with the exports of fish and the tourism into the city contributing to a significant chunk of its economy. This was only amplified when the Gaullican Lower Gonda Company began expanding its holdings inland and across the Garamburan coast, with Sainte-Germaine functioning as the de facto capital due to its history as the influential city on the Garamburan coast. The city's economy did take a brief hit, however, during the Plundering of Sainte-Germaine, where Karame Mabuti I and his forces raided and plundered the city for encroaching upon native territory in the central portions of Garambura. Its economy swiftly recovered after the 1774 Battle of Ingezi which marked the effective dominance for Gaullica throughout most of the Gonda river region.

Under the Gaullican Kingdom (1813–1919)

Vivien Lemaigre (second from the right) and his family outside the Sainte-Germaine Colonial Court after the 1907 ruling

Sainte-Germaine was essentially unanimously designated for the capital of the Baséland colony when it was officially established in 1813 after the Gaullican Lower Gonda Company was ordered to transfer its holdings to the Gaullican Empire. The colony's administrative divisions and military supplied lines were organised in a way that funneled most colonial business through either Sainte-Germaine, mainly in the populated south, and Albertsville, in the scarcer and less populated north. Sainte-Germaine benefited massively from its role in the colony, as well as many resettlement and migration programs promoted throughout Gaullica and its holdings towards Sainte-Germaine, and it quickly became one of Bahia's quickest expanding colonial cities. The influx of population led to an increased military presence within the city, with many military bases and installments constructed throughout the early-to-mid 1800s, with the last of four major bases completed in 1848.

The city was, however, subject to a series of oppressive colonial ruling by the many governors that ruled the city, and by extension, the colony, throughout its existence. Whilst natives were seen as "Gaullican" by the higher-ups in Gaullica, there was still significant racial prejudice between the upper-class white citizens of Sainte-Germaine and the lower-class native citizens. To preserve colonial wealth, governors would often side with the white populace in the colony. Brutality heightened during the Sougoulie rebellions and in particular following the Sinking of the NMS Insulaire by Alphonse Amsalu in 1883, after which Yebase rights were curtailed, many positions revoked and their positions in the empire questioned. These policies would continue until the accession of Charles Dumont to the position of Governor of Baséland in 1906, where he would quickly introduce more native-friendly policies, including the restoring of the Yebase to many of their traditional positions. His legacy as a native-friendly ruler was solidified whenthe court ruled in favour of the native Vivien Lemaigre in the Vivien Lemaigre case in 1907, where the accused white land-owner was forced to pay reparations to Lemaigre for violating his, and many other employed natives', labour rights. Dumont's tenure is regarded as extremely liberal compared to those he succeeded, however he was captured and arrested for treason by the national functionalists of Gaullica after they took power in the mainland, executing him in the city's harbour on October 22, 1919.