Sainte-Mélitine

United Phalansteries of Sainte-Mélitine Phalanstères-Unis de Sainte-Mélitine Phalanstéria-Petéïna Karaïpire-Mélitine
Flag Emblem
Motto: "Joie, Fidélité, Droit" "Via, Jérovia, Léï" ("Joy, Faith, Law")
Capital and largest city	Tétan Marangatou
Official languages	Principean Paurois Tchatchais
Recognised regional languages	Blaykish Runasimi Tatinawa
Demonym(s)	Melitinian
Government	Semi-theodemocratic kritarchic council republic
• High Elder	Marie-Proserpine Alençon-Dumas
• Vice High Elder	Maïnumpé Hôvuin
Legislature	Assembly of the Phalansteries
Establishment
• Colony of Sainte-Mélitine founded	November 2, 1566
• Marceaunian War of Independence	May 12, 1802
• Melitinian secession	May 3, 1831
• United Phalanteries established	May 10, 1910
Area
• Total	1,840,056 km2 (710,450 sq mi)
• Water (%)	1.11
Population
• 2022 census	45,288,473
• Density	24.6/km2 (63.7/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	estimate
• Total	$2.062 trillion
• Per capita	$45,522.80
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$1.416 trillion
• Per capita	$31,279.12
Gini (2022)	14.4 low
HDI (2022)	0.790 high
Currency	Livre tétanois (₶) (LTM)
Date format	yyyy-mm-dd, CE
Driving side	right
Calling code	+20
Internet TLD	.sm

The United Phalansteries of Sainte-Mélitine (Principean: Phalanstères-Unis de Sainte-Mélitine; Paurois: Phalanstéria-Petéïna Karaïpire-Mélitine), commonly known as Sainte-Mélitine, is a country in southern Marceaunia Minor. Bordered by Amandine to the north and Rocia to the northeast, Sainte-Mélitine covers an area of 1,840,056 km² of diverse landscapes. Over 45 million people are citizens of Sainte-Mélitine, largely living in self-organized political units called "phalansteries". Each phalanstery is home to between 1,000 and 3,000 inhabitants and there are over 20,000 phalansteries in Sainte-Mélitine. The largest urban centre and political core of Sainte-Mélitine is Tétan Marangatou, an ancient fishing settlement that became the colonial capital of the region. The political system of Sainte-Mélitine is a council republic with socio-religious elders acting as representatives for their communities. While ostensibly a theocratic state, there is no state-enforced religion in Sainte-Mélitine, nor any requirement for worship or religious activity for political involvement.

Prior to Auressian colonization, the area of modern-day Sainte-Mélitine was inhabited by indigenous Paurois-, Tchatchais-, and Runasimi-speaking tribes. The indigenous societies cultivated maize, cassava, and yerba-mate, and established communalist agricultural societies across the region. In the 16th century CE, the Tchatcha kingdom of Calquouin was the predominant hegemonic power in the south of the continent. Auressian explorers made expeditions along the coasts of southern Marceaunia Minor in the first half of the 16th century, making contact with indigenous groups in the 1540s The colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was established as a Blaco-Vervillian possession in 1566 CE, based in the stronghold of Fort Dumont. Throughout the early-17th century, Auressian influence in the south expanded through the seizure of arable land, displacing indigenous groups into the arid and mountainous interior. Indigenous persons were also enslaved in service of the planter economy, which was reliant on the cultivation of cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and tea. In 1796, the Belmont Revolution initiated a series of wars of independence in the Auressian colonies, culminating in the formation of successive revolutionary governments. In 1831, the planter aristocracy of the south seceded from the Confederation of Southern Marceaunia, founding the independent Republic of Sainte-Mélitine and triggering the beginning of the First Continental War which lasted until 1836. By the turn of the 20th century, the Republic was embroiled in civil conflict between the planters and an alliance of indigenous tribes and adherents of the Alençonist movement, culminating in the overthrow of the plants in 1910 and the foundation of the United Phalansteries.

Sainte-Mélitine has a developed late-industrial economy, though it retains a significant agricultural sector. In addition to acting as political administrative divisions, phalansteries are also core economic units in a market socialist economy. Leading exports include lithium, salt, textiles, garments, and heavy manufactured goods.

Etymology

The colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was named for Saint Melitina, a Perendist saint of Savolian origin who became particularly venerated by a sect of sailors in Marbonne. The area of present-day Sainte-Mélitine was not known to the indigenous population by a single name. The Kingdom of Calquoin referred to the continent of Marceaunia Minor as "Bougouäpie-au-Houäpie", or "big island". Specific regions were generally known by geographic features and/or the tribes that inhabited them.

The term "phalanstery" was coined by Jules Alençon in 1877 as a portmanteau of "phalanx" and "monastery" as describing a planned utopian community centered on socialist labour and worship. While the specific forms of phalansteries have often diverged from the conceptions of Alençon in the 19th century, the term encapsulates the basic political and economic units of Sainte-Mélitine.

History

Pre-colonial history

Evidence of human habitation in southern Marceaunia Minor dates to the fourth millennium BCE, though it is likely that traces of material culture from earlier human societies have not survived to the present. Major ancient archaeological sites have been identified by middens along the eastern and western coasts of the continent. Mound-building activity in the interior region dates to the first millennium BCE with the Éleau culture. The Éleau culture inhabited the southwestern quadrant of present-day Sainte-Mélitine where they left ruins of large-scale settlements, geoglyphs, and burial sites with mummified remains. Large portions of present-day Sainte-Mélitine were also controlled directly or indirectly by the Tainã-Kan Empire and later by its successor nations.

The Paura and Tchatcha societies emerged as distinct cultural-linguistic groups likely between the eighth and ninth centuries CE. The Kingdom of Calquouin was a Tchatchais-speaking society that came to prominence in the 14th century, with its capital near modern-day Quelicoura in the country's southwest region. The Calquouinians constructed large earthworks and forts and had an important silver-working tradition. By the 14th or 15th century, Calquouin was also producing copper weapons and tools.

Auressian contact and colonization

The first Auressians to land in present-day Sainte-Mélitine were members of an expedition of Juan Carlos de Caracol, a Palian explorer and navigator, who made contact with a Paurois-speaking group while resupplying fresh water. Caracol's expedition established a trading post near Piroitevéoua, though it was destroyed sometime before the expedition's return to Jaén in 1542. At the apex of the Caracol expedition, banks inhabited by multitudes of pollock drew interest in establishing fisheries in the region. The details of Caracol's journey along the southern coast spread across the nascent colonies and back to Auressia, driving competition between the Kingdom of Palia and the Blaco-Vervillian Union. In 1551, Eustache d'Hiberville's expedition from Saint-Georges in Amandine encountered the Great Jouquille saltpan in present-day central Sainte-Mélitine, spurring further competition to acquire the resources of the southern region.

Competing Palian and Blaco-Vervillian colonies were established along the coast, with factory posts connected to Saint-Georges and Corneille in Amandine. While both powers pressed their claims, spearheaded by their colonial administrators, the legal status of each claim remained unsettled. In 1564, competition between the colonies in Sainte-Mélitine rose to hostility. After a tepid two-year campaign, all Palian settlements below the 19th parallel south had either been captured or destroyed by Blaco-Vervillian colonists, and the colony of Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine was officially founded on November 2 of 1566 on the southern coast of the continent.

The Melitinian colonial economy relied on two major sectors: fisheries and plantations. The fisheries industry predominantly motivated the first waves of emigration from Auressia as the poorer commoners could reliably seek their fortunes overseas. As the first colonial settlements developed, the indigenous Paurois and Tchatchais were forcibly displaced or pressed into service by the developing planter aristocracy which began enclosing land and cultivating cash crops. Cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane, which are endemic to Marceaunia, were cultivated on a large scale joined by imported crops such as tea, coffee, and wheat. Between 1580 and 1730, cash crops supplanted most major subsistence farms, growing to make up roughly 85% of the agricultural sector. While fisheries continued to be a major draw for emigrants, the plantation economy was the leading source of extracted wealth for the colony.

Colonial plantations were owned by different individuals. Some were created by wealthy Vervillian colonists, others were parts of large corporate ventures in the region. Even by the early 1600s, plantation workers were universally slaves, including captive indigenous persons or imported Idican slaves. As the plantation economy grew, chattel slavery was instituted to maintain the population of the workforce, such that the descendants of slaves would be born into slavery as well, justified by racist ideology. Population growth from slavery began to rapidly outpace Auressian emigration to the colony as well.

Long 19th century

Great Upheaval

Following the 1785 War of Tyrnican Succession, the Blaco-Vervillian Union was dissolved and ownership of the Marceaunian colonies passed to Blayk alone, despite the fact that a majority of colonists were of Vervillian descent. In 1793, the Rythenean Revolution overthrew the monarchy and instituted a new liberal republican government. Liberal theories and the notion of popular rights had been spreading across the world over the course of the 18th century, including the rise of the Blaco-Vervillian parliament after 1723. Veterans of the conflict who arrived in Marceaunia fomented revolutionary intent among the colonists, who benefited from colonial enterprises but were subject to gubernatorial rule and the extraction of wealth eastward across the sea. In 1796, the Belmont Revolution was launched to win independence for the Vervillian colonies. While the revolution was suppressed, it provoked reactionary favouritism for Blaykish colonists which caused more tensions in the colonies. In December 1797, the Palian colonies on Marceaunia Minor seceded and formed the Aillacan-Rocian Union.

In Terre-de-Sainte-Mélitine, Vervillian colonists seethed as valuable plantations were transferred to Blaykish ownership and management. As tensions brewed, repressive measures across the colonies were augmented with draconian edicts and the arrival of Blaykish troops to enforce order. The 1799 Agricultural Privileges and Means Act was instituted to exact harsh quotas on plantations in the colonies, further narrowing the margins of Vervillian plantation owners who faced possible repossession of their lands if they failed to meet their obligations. With poor harvests in 1800 leading to further outrage among the planters, the act was reformed in 1801, though the damage was already done and many Melitinian planters merely saw the reforms as a poor attempt to placate the population. With the outbreak of the Blaykish Civil War in the same year, the relative autonomy of the colonies was further repressed, including direct administration and conscription to suppress the republicans in Auressia. Despite these demands, most of the colonists were more sympathetic to the Blaykish republicans. As the Blaykish monarchy was under threat in the old world and more revolutionaries arrived in Marceaunia, a full rebellion was becoming inevitable.