Floptropica
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Island Republic of Floptropica | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Anthem: Ye Hua Xiang (Scent of the Wildflowers) | |
| Capital | Flop City |
| Largest | Ciudad Potaxie |
| Official languages | English, Spanish, Flopa |
| Vernacular language | Floptropican Creole |
| Ethnic groups (2020) | 49.2% Black 38% Mixed 11.2% White 1.6% other/unspecified |
| Religion (2020) |
17.1% no religion 3.1% other |
| Demonym(s) | Floptropican Flop (colloquial) |
| Government | Federal presidential republic |
• President | Deborah Ali-Williams |
• Vice President | Jiafei Dai |
| Legislature | National Parliament |
| Senate | |
| House of Flops | |
| Independence from the United States | |
• Cession | June 10, 1980 |
• Self-government | December 8, 1980 |
• Recognized | December 18, 1980 |
| Area | |
• Total | 22,058 km2 (8,517 sq mi) (148th) |
• Water (%) | 2.4% |
| Population | |
• 2023 estimate | 2,790,000 (139th) |
• 2020 census | 2,710,382 |
• Density | 318/km2 (823.6/sq mi) (46th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2024 estimate estimate |
• Total | $92.030 billion (103rd) |
• Per capita | $34,085 (59th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2024 estimate estimate |
• Total | $64.800 billion (88th) |
• Per capita | $24,800 (44th) |
| Gini (2023) | 49.6 high (14th) |
| HDI (2023) |  0.819very high (59th) |
| Currency | Floptropican Florin (FFN) United States dollar (USD)` |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| Date format | mm/dd/yyyy |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +1 244, +1 277 |
| ISO 3166 code | FL |
| Internet TLD | .fl |
Floptropica, officially the Island Republic of Floptropica, is an island country in the eastern end of the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains about a half of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and most of its population. The archipelagic country consists of about 10 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, with the largest islands being Flop Island and Tate Island (the latter being the location of the autonomous region of Da Boyz, home to about 700,000 people), and is located north of the Dominican Republic and west of the island of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The capital is Flop City on Flop Island. Floptropica is the fifth-largest country in the Carribean by population, with about 2.7 million people, of which approximately 1 million live in the Greater Ciudad Potaxie area.
The islands were inhabited for centuries by the indigenous Flopa people. The first recorded European sighting of them was in the early 1500s. In subsequent centuries, they were claimed by both Spain and England, with the Spanish eventually gaining control in the 19th century. The British-controlled Tate Island eventually became part of 'Santo Domingo Norte', the Spanish name at the time for Floptropica. In 1898, following the Spanish-American War, Floptropica became an American territory, until independence talks began in 1976 and Floptropica became an independent nation in 1980. In 1987, fighting broke out in the then-province of Da Boyz, after police fatally shot a group of Da Boyzians during a protest, which ultimately led up to the Badussy War, which lasted until a treaty was signed in 2001, ending 14 years of fighting.
Floptropica is the most visited destination in the Carribean, and Ciudad Potaxie Airport handles the most passengers yearly in the Carribean, with 15.6 milion travellers passing through the airport in 2023. Resorts, beaches, coral reefs, and rainforests are major attractions. Floptropica is also home to the Carribean's second tallest mountain, Mount Poosay.
Naming and etymology
The name Floptropica is derived from a portmanteau of flopera and tropical , with flopera being a Flopa word, and tropical being borrowed from English settlers on the nearby Turks and Caicos Islands. Tourist guides often state that the name comes from the Potaxie dialect of Flopa, but many linguists argue that this is a folk etymology. Alternatively, Floptropica may have been derived from Flatropia, a local name of unclear meaning.
First attested on the c. 1523 Turin Map, Floptropica originally referred to Flop Island alone but was used inclusively in English by the early 1600s to refer to all nearby islands, including Tate Island.
History
Pre-Columbian era
The islands of the Caribbean were first settled around 6,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer peoples originating from Central America or northern South America. The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno moved into the Caribbean from South America during the 1st millennium BC, reaching Floptropica and the Lucayan archipelago by around 650 CE. These Arawakan peoples engaged in farming, fishing, hunting and gathering, and the widespread production of ceramic goods. The estimates of Floptropica's population in 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the islands vary widely, ranging from just thousands to about 300,000. By 1492, the island was divided into four distinct chiefdoms. The Flopa name for the entire island was Flopera, a Flopa word with unknown meaning.
16th century
In 1501, the Spanish monarchs first granted permission to the colonists of the Caribbean to import African slaves, who began arriving to Floptropica (then a newly captured territory) in 1530. Sugar cane was introduced to Floptropica from nearby Hispanola, and quickly became the islands' most profitable crop. The need for a labor force to meet the growing demands of sugar cane cultivation led to an exponential increase in the importation of slaves over the following decades, with the population of the colony nearly quadrupling. Poorer colonists subsisted by hunting the herds of wild cattle that roamed throughout the island and selling their hides.
The first European colony in Floptropica was founded on June 10, 1527, by a group of settlers led by lieutenants under Columbus, who were greeted by the native Potaxie people (a tribe of the Flopa people). However, Floptropica was mainly governed by leaders in nearby Hispanola. The following year, the colony was abandoned in favor of an islet on the other side of the island, named Jilu (a native Flopa word meaning harbor). In 1531, a second settlement was established on Tate Island, however, it was abandoned shortly. By the 1540s, the islands had developed the name Santo Domingo Norte.
The first major slave revolt in Floptropica occurred in Jilu on December 25, 1551, when enslaved people of the Potaxie tribe led an uprising in a sugar plantation just outside of the city center. Many of these insurgents managed to escape to the mountains where they formed independent maroon communities, but many of the captured escapees were hanged and beheaded in public.
While sugar cane dramatically increased Spain's earnings on the island, large numbers of the newly imported slaves fled into the nearly impassable mountain ranges in the island's interior, joining the growing communities of cimarrónes—literally, 'wild animals'. By the 1560s, cimarrón bands had become so numerous that in rural areas the Spaniards could only safely travel outside their plantations in large armed groups. In the 1570s, the estimated maroon population was about 2,500 people, living mainly in the central mountains near the main road between the north coast (where Jilu was located), and the south coast, where Ciudad Potaxie was located.
In the 1500s, the Caribbean Sea was raided by increasingly numerous French pirates. In response, Spain authorized the construction of Ciudad Potaxie and Jilu's fortified walls, and in 1560 decided to restrict sea travel to well-armed convoys. In another move, which would destroy Floptropica's (as well as several other Spanish colonies around the Carribean) sugar industry, Havana, more strategically located in relation to the Gulf Stream, was selected as the designated stopping point for the merchant ships, which had a royal monopoly on commerce with the Americas. In the 1560s, English privateers joined the French in regularly raiding Spanish shipping in the Americas.
With the conquest of the American mainland, Hispaniola and Floptropica quickly declined. Most Spanish colonists left for the silver-mines of Mexico and Peru, while new immigrants from Spain bypassed the island. Agriculture dwindled, new imports of slaves ceased, and white colonists, free blacks, and slaves alike lived in poverty, weakening the racial hierarchy and aiding intermixing, resulting in a population of predominantly mixed Spaniard, African, and Flopa descent. Except for the city of Ciudad Potaxie, which managed to maintain some legal exports, Floptropican ports were forced to rely on contraband trade, which, along with livestock, became the sole source of livelihood for the island dwellers.