Sappania

Council Republic of Sappania Raadsrepubliek Sappaniën (Asteriaans)
Motto: "Werkers van die wêreld, verenig!" "Workers of the world, unite!"
Capital and largest city	Aurora
Official languages	Asteriaans Estmerish
Recognised regional languages	42 Indigenous Languages
Ethnic groups (2017)	31% Creoles 22% Asterianer 20% Estmerish 10% Bahio-Sappanian 6% Indigenous 3% other Euclean 2% Satrian 2% South Coian 2% Southeast Coian 1% Gowsa 1% other
Religion (2017)	81% Sotirianity 8% Irreligion 7% folk religion 2% Zohism 1% Badi 1% other
Demonym(s)	Sappanian
Government	Federal socialist directorial council republic with elements of a direct democracy
• Presidency	Tjaart Arendse (Chairman) Abraham Pretorius Charlize Botha Ricus Morkel Stanley Morrow Maurice Sanders John Li Tinus Steenkamp Zandre Blaauw Iracema Marshall Stacy Rodgers Arabella Van Dyk
• Speaker of the National Congress of Workers	Kelsey Hansen
• High Justice	Dolinde De Villiers
Legislature	National Congress of Workers
Establishment
• Claimed by the First Hennish Republic	13 September 1545
• First settlement	9 November 1549
• Annexation by the Duchy of Flamia	29 April 1719
• Annexation by the Kingdom of Estmere	3 November 1747
• Independence from Estmere	4 June 1796
• Independence from the Asterianer Confederation	7 August 1817
• Sappanian State	4 August 1922
• Second Republic of Sappania	16 June 1938
• Democratic People's Republic of Sappania	12 April 1958
• Council Republic of Sappania	20 August 1982
• Current constitution	8 July 1983
Area
• Total	1,003,144 km2 (387,316 sq mi)
• Water (%)	0.5
Population
• 2023 estimate	37,227,915
• 2017 census	36,058,982
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Per capita	$21,863
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Per capita	$11,647
Currency	Labor voucher (internal) Sappanian shilling (SS) (external) (SPS)
Time zone	UTC+13 (Sappanian Standard Time)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy CE
Driving side	right
Calling code	+389
Internet TLD	.sap

Sappania (Asteriaans: Sappanië), officially the Council Republic of Sappania (Asteriaans: Raadsrepubliek Sappaniën) is a sovereign state in southwestern Asteria Inferior bordered by Nuvania to the northwest, Aucuria to the north, Satucin to the northeast, and Azure Coast to the east.

Archaeological evidence shows Sappania has been inhabited by indigenous peoples since at least 10,000 BCE. The Shingu were among the first to develop an advanced civilization, building large and complex planned settlements deep in the jungle interior between 1000 and 1400 CE, connected by roads and bridges. Around c.1450 CE the various culturally similar Shingu tribes united to form the Shingu Confederacy which soon came to dominate the Sappanian rainforest. Sappania was first discovered by Eucleans in 1533 when Luzulese explorer Álvaro de Mascarenhas, sailing on behalf of Gaullica, mapped the Sappanian coastline.

In 1545 the area was claimed by the First Hennish Republic, and settlement began in 1549. Colonization and exploration of the interior intensified under the Sotirian Commonwealth, which lead to contact being established with the Shingu in 1656. Initially relatively peaceful and friendly, hostilities emerged as the Commonwealth sought to further colonize the interior and aggressively tried to convert indigenous peoples to Sotirianity. Following the collapse of the Commonwealth in 1719, the colony was transferred to the Duchy of Flamia, which would finally subjugate the Shingu after the Shingu War in 1734. Sappania, along with the colonies of Nuvania and Satavia, would be annexed by Estmere in 1747 following a war in which it defeated Flamia. Estmere continued to settle Sappania, with many Estmerish colonists populating the coastal cities. Tension grew between Estmerish and Asterianer settlers, who settled further in the interior due to pressure from Estmerish colonists. This in turn intensified hostilities between the settlers and indigenous peoples, and throughout the 18th and 19th century there were several revolts from both Asterianers and various indigenous tribes. These revolts were often met with harsh crackdowns from colonial authorities, especially against indigenous people, which some in modern times have characterized as genocide. Pro-independence and Asterianer nationalist sentiment grew during this period, primarily among Asterianers. In 1795 slavery was abolished, which led to a massive uproar among Sappania's Asterianer population, culminating in a full-scale revolt in both Nuvania and Sappania 1796 and the declaration of the Asterianer Confederation, with Nuvania and Sappania as its constituent states. After a five-year war of independence, Estmere finally recognized the Asterianer Confederation as an independent state in 1801.

However, following independence, there was significant disagreement among the revolutionary leaders regarding the direction of the country. Enfranchisement was limited to burghers, free land-owning Asterianer men, and excluded creoles, indigenous people, and both free and enslaved blacks. There was disagreement over the political structure of the nation, between the Centralists and the Confederalists over what degree of power should be granted to the national government versus the constituent republics and local governments, with the centralists favoring the former and the confederalists the latter. There was also tension between Nuvanians and Sappanians, and a desire among many for the respective republics to be independent states. Tinus Blignaut was elected as the first President of the Confederation, a member of the Centralist Party. Blignaut became increasingly authoritarian during his presidency, and eventually declared himself Emperor in 1811, ending the Asterianer Confederation and replacing it with the highly centralized Asterianer Empire. The Empire was very unstable and short-lived, and was overthrown in 1815, with the restoration of the Confederation, this time under the leadership of the Confederalists. In 1817 the Confederation was dissolved, and both Sappania and Nuvania became fully independent republics, leading to the establishment of the First Republic of Sappania. Due to widespread ethnic tensions, Estmerish Sappanians were granted burgher status in 1820, allowing them to vote. However, non-landowning and non-white people could still not vote, leaving much of the country disenfranchised.

The First Republic ended in 1830 when a military coup overthrew the government and established the Centralist Union of Sappania. A military junta subsequently took control and ruled with an iron fist until it itself was overthrown and the Second Republic of Sappania was established in 1842. From 1842 until 1891, Sappania was dominated by the Conservative Party, with the Liberal Party as the main opposition. The Conservative Party mainly represented the interests of Asterianers and rural landowners, had a more protectionist economic policy, and was isolationist, while the Liberal Party was mainly supported by Estmerish Sappanians, especially Estmerish merchants and businessmen, and supported free trade. The Conservative-dominated Second Republic was very hesitant to implement social change, only granting universal suffrage for free white men in 1869, and doing so only because of increasing internal pressure. It remained adamant in maintaining slavery, which caused it to become almost a pariah state during the late 19th century. This ended in 1891 with the Liberal Revolution, establishing the Third Republic of Sappania, and bringing the Liberal Party to power. Many reforms were introduced during this period, including the abolishment of slavery. The Liberal Party remained in power until 1915, when they lost the election to the Conservatives due to the Great Collapse.

Both major parties, however, failed to adequately bring relief to the nation as it went through the depression, and unrest and political radicalism grew. The council communist Sappanian Section of the Worker's International, or SSWI grew rapidly. The Bekkerist faction, so named for its leader Maghiel Bekker, which adopted agrarian socialist and Sotirian socialist positions, soon took over the party, and subsequently gained support primarily from the more rural and traditionally conservative Asterianers. On the far-right, the para-functionalist and Estmerish chauvinist National Unity Front also grew during this period. Initially drawing its base mostly from the urban Estmerish middle and upper-classes, it also began to grow in popularity with the working class due to its economically populist rhetoric. In 1922, with the support of sympathizing sections of the military, the NUF seized power in a coup d'état and banned all other political parties, forming the totalitarian Sappanian State. The SSWI attempted an abortive rebellion against the new regime, during which Maghiel Bekker died, causing him to be seen as a martyr by the socialist movement in Sappania. The SSWI then went into exile into Aucuria, where it later joined the Aucurian resistance to the entente during the Great War. The Sappanian State implemented numerous policies discriminating against Asterianers and other non-Estmerish ethnic groups. The Asteriaans language was banned from all schools and media and the Estmerish language and culture was touted as "superior". Rampant discrimination against Asterianers caused tensions to rise between Sappania and the Volksfront regime in Nuvania, and Sappania became diplomatically closer to the future Allied powers, such as Estmere and Werania, despite being more ideologically more similar to the Entente. During the Great War, Sappania went to war with Nuvania, which it eventually won. However, the war caused devastation to Sappania's economy and infrastructure, and this combined with its diplomatic isolation due to its functionalist orientation caused significant unrest within the nation. Furthermore, in 1937, the SSWI, which had been exiled in Aucuria, re-entered the country and began a protracted guerrilla insurgency. In 1938, a coup by moderate military officers led by William Shaw overthrew the Sappanian State, and reorganized the NUF into the more moderate national conservative Sappanian National Party, or SNP, establishing the Fourth Republic of Sappania. State discrimination against Asterianers ended, other political parties were legalized, and the government shed its more overtly functionalist characteristics. Nevertheless, it remained authoritarian and repressive, and ethnic minorities, such as black and indigenous people, remained heavily discriminated against.

During the late 1940s and 50s, SSWI militants conducted a series of large offensives that were mostly successful. Around this time the government was growing weaker due to ongoing unrest that culminated in a series of major strikes and riots in the mid-to-late 1950s. Increasingly unable to control the nation, the regime collapsed in 1958 as the SSWI seized power, establishing the Democratic Republic of Sappania, known by its acronym, the DPRS, or the Fifth Republic. Ostensibly a directorial republic, it was in fact controlled by the Chairman of the SSWI, Arno Nel, who synthesized Bekkerism with Equalism and Tretyakism, creating the ideology of Nemtsovism-Focșeanuism-Güerièrism-Tretyakism-Bekkerism, or simply Tretyakism-Bekkerism or Nelism, which emphasized Sappanian "revolutionary patriotism" that in practice was essentially an Asterianer nationalist ideology. The DPRS was highly totalitarian and repressive and persecuted Estmerish Sappanians, who were largely considered "bourgeois". It was unique among socialist states in its adoption of agrarian socialism and Sotirian socialism as a result its Bekkerist ideology. The SSWI promoted a synthesis of Nemtsovism and Kasperist theology, and was thus not as staunchly anti-clerical as its counterparts in Chistovodia and Euclea, at least, not towards Kasperist clergy. The DPRS under Nel was brutal, purges were carried out against political opponents, and the Guards of the Revolution, known by their Asteriaans acronym WR, the secret police of the DPRS, kept a watchful eye on the populace to suppress any dissent. The WR would later become infamous for its brutality, often detaining citizens without trial and torturing and executing thousands of prisoners. In 1959, several militant groups that opposed the regime began a low-intensity conflict known as the Years of Trouble that would last for several decades. The DPRS, due to its Tretyakist and Asterianer nationalist character, wanted to establish a "Pan-Asterianer socialist republic" that incorporated Nuvania and Satavia. Consequently, this period saw aggressive saber-rattling against its neighbors, particularly Nuvania and Satavia, and several border skirmishes with the former, which threatened to erupt into all-out war on multiple occasions.

The death of Arno Nel in 1966 and the ascension of the more moderate Sebastian Wessels as chairman, combined with Chistovodia, the regime's main sponsor, losing the Great Asterian War and abandoning Tretyakism, caused the regime to reform somewhat, relaxing some of the repression that took place under the Nel era. In 1969, Wessels denounced Nel in a speech exposing the true extent of Nel's reign of terror, which was considered shocking in its day, especially in Sappania where many had been raised on Sappanian propaganda that developed a cult of personality centered on Nel. Wessels began a policy of "de-Nelization" that scaled back on some of the repression and censorship in the DPRS, even allowing some limited political pluralism within the SSWI. This period became known as the Wessels Thaw. However, Sappania remained a strongly authoritarian state, and stayed ideologically committed to Tretyakism-Bekkerism. In 1982, a group of radical reformists won a majority of seats in the National Congress, causing Wessels to attempt to hold on to power in an abortive self-coup. However, this only provoked massive unrest and he soon was ousted from power in the August Revolution, after which the nation saw drastic changes and transitioned into a democratic multi-party council republic, known informally as the Sixth Republic, that abandoned its authoritarian and Asterianer nationalist characteristics. The Years of Trouble also came to an end, with a general amnesty granted towards insurgents and a treaty in 1985 bringing an end to much of the violence, although a few dissidents continued to rebel until 1996. Since the August Revolution, in addition to political liberalization, the economy shifted from being based on central planning to participatory economics, and has maintained relatively high levels of political and economic stability, though this has been shaken somewhat due to problems created by organized crime.

Today, Sappania is classified as a developing and newly industrialized country. It is also generally considered a regional and middle power. It ranks highly in metrics such as life expectency and healthcare, and has one of the lowest rates of economic inequality in the world. However, Sappania deals with issues of organized crime, particularly drug cartels that deal in illicit substances such as cocaine, which has led to problems of internal violence within the country. This ties into a larger issue of black markets in Sappania, despite the lack of the existence of formal markets due to its economic system. Sappania's closest ally is Chistovodia, as the other major socialist power in the Asterias. Since 1958, the two countries have maintained close diplomatic, economic, and military ties. Like Chistovodia, it has been criticized for its aggressive and militaristic stance towards its neighbors, which it justifies by pointing out their strongly anti-socialist foreign policy. Sappania is also close to other socialist countries such as Asase Lewa and Valduvia. It is a full member of the Community of Nations, Association for International Socialism, the International Forum for Developing States, and the International Trade Organization.

Etymology

The name Sappania, or Sappanië in the original Hennish, is derived from the native brazilwood trees, recognized as related to the sappanwood trees native to Southeast Coius and Satria. Although sappanwood never came to refer to the local brazilwood trees, the name nevertheless continued to be used to refer to the nation. The term sappan ultimately derives from the Penduk sepang, derived from the term !Proto-Malayic*səpaŋ, which ultimately comes from !Proto-Malayo-Polynesian.

History

Main article: History of Sappania

Precolonial History

Sappania is known to have been inhabited by humans since at least 10,000 BCE. The oldest pottery in Sappania dates to around 6,000 BCE. By the time of Euclean contact, most indigenous people spoke languages in the Jeh, Tupian, Cariban, Arawan, Panoan, and Arawakan families. These indigenous peoples were mostly semi-nomadic, living by subsistence through hunting, gathering, fishing, and migrant agriculture. These indigenous people were divided into tribes led by a chief.

The De Goede culture, so named because it developed along the southern tip of the De Goede peninsula, was an advanced civilization in Sappania, known for its sophisticated pottery that existed roughly from c.1100 BCE to around c.1400 CE. The De Goede culture developed complex social structures with social stratification and chiefdoms, and built mounds. They appear to have gone into decline around the 14th century, and likely collapsed by c.1400 CE.

The Shingu people further in the interior also developed an advanced civilization, creating large, densely populated settlements between c.1000 and 1400 CE. They built pre-planned villages with circular plazas that included, surrounded by pallisades, entry gates, and moats, and connected to each other through bridges and roads. Around c.1450 CE the various Shingu peoples united to form the Shingu Confederacy, against more hostile and warlike neighboring tribes such as the Bororo and Shavante. Originally Arawak speakers, in the 17th century they would go on to incorporate Tupian, Cariban, Jeh, and Trumai speaking tribes in the Confederacy, as they were pushed inland by Hennish colonists. They would go on to adopt Shingu cultural practices while maintaining their distinct languages and tribal identities.

Euclean Discovery and Hennish Colonization

Sappania was first discovered by Álvaro de Mascarenhas in 1533 while sailing on behalf of the Empire of Gaullica. He mapped the coastline, but did not make landfall. In 1545, Hennish explorer Martijn de Goede landed on Sappania and claimed the land for the Hennish Republic, dubbing it Sappanië for the brazilwood trees that resembled the closely related sappanwood trees in Southeast Coius, and giving his name to the De Goede peninsula. He returned in 1549 to establish Aurora, the first permanent Euclean settlement in Sappania. During the late 16th century, the Colony's most important export became cane sugar. To cope with the increasing international demand for Sappanian sugar, large sugarcane plantations were created and hundreds of thousands of slaves were imported from Bahia.

Beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the rise of avonturiers in Sappania led to further colonial expansion in the interior, which was intensified following the discovery of gold in 1607. The avonturiers initially intended to capture indigenous slaves, however later became motivated to find gold mines after 1607. They often took indigenous wives and became the ancestors of much of the modern creole population.

Sotirian Commonwealth

Colonization intensified under the Sotirian Commonwealth, which sought to increase its economic and military power, as well as spread the Kasperist faith. This combined with the continued expeditions by the avonturiers led to further exploration, settlement, and conquest of the interior. In 1656, first contact was established with the Shingu confederation, though the two polities had known of each other indirectly through other tribes that they traded with for a few decades. The Shingu were initially somewhat ambivalent of the Hennish colonists, but they soon established trading relations. Kasperist missions were established and some of the Shingu converted to Sotirianity, but many still remained steadfast in their traditional beliefs and highly skeptical and even somewhat hostile to the outsiders. The Shingu soon became divided between pro-Hennish and anti-Hennish factions, with the former, including those who had converted to Sotirianity, seeking to establish closer economic and political ties with the colonists, hoping they would assist in their conflicts with neighboring tribes, and the latter fearing their sovereignty was at threat at seeking to preserve their cultural and religious identity.

Duchy of Flamia

Conquest of the Shingu

After taking over the colony, the Duchy of Flamia continued the Sotirian Commonwealth's policy of aggressive proselytization and colonization. However, the previous missions in Sappania that were established were Kasperist, and Flamia sought to spread Catholicism. Among the Shingu, those who had converted to Sotirianity had converted to Kasperism due to proselytization from the Sotirian Commonwealth. Nevertheless, their willingness to adopt "civilized" practices and accept Hennish influence led them to be tolerated and closely aligned with Flamian colonial authorities.

The continuing divide between the pro-Hennish and anti-Hennish factions among the leaders of the Confederacy pushed ever closer to internal conflict among the Shingu, exacerbated by pressure from Flamian authorities. In 1731, civil war broke out between the two factions, leading Flamia to intervene, thus beginning the Shingu War. By 1734 the pro-Hennish faction was victorious, and the Shingu Confederacy finally submitted to Hennish rule.