Florencia

Union of Florencian Republics Velorénsia 4 other names Belyaruthen: Flarencyja Sajuz, Flarencyja Native Florencian: Fosuautikka Kanosoni, Fosuarika Elyrian: Velorénsia Zhenian: 벨로렌치아
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: She seeks with the sword, a quiet peace under liberty
Anthem: So Long Glorious Motherland
Capital	St.Catherine, D.F.
Largest city	Serrapolis
Official languages	None (de facto: Belyaruhenian)
Other languages	Elyrian, Zhenian, numerous other native languages
Ethnic groups (2019)	23.3% Mixed Race 22.6% Elyrian Florencian 18.6% Slavic Florencian 15.5% Zhenian Florencian 8.2% Other Auroran 7.9% Other Minorities
Demonym(s)	Florencian
Government	Socialist Federal Semi-Presidential Republic
• Princeps	Rias Antonia II
• President	Maxim K. Tyroll
• First Secretary	Gabriela Cantacuzino
Legislature	All-Union Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	Assembly of the People
Unification
• as the Velorénsian Empire	December 1, 1866
• as the Union of Florencian Social Republics	November 2, 1919
Area
•	6,523,955.2 km2 (2,518,913.2 sq mi)
• Water (%)	2.21%
Population
• 2019 estimate	212.0 million
• 2019 census	212,113,831
• Density	32.513/km2 (84.2/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate
• Total	$7.132 trillion
• Per capita	$33,621.2
GDP (nominal)	2019 estimate
• Total	$7.231 trillion
• Per capita	$34,110.3
Gini (2019)	37.7 medium
HDI (2019)	0.910 very high
Currency	Florencian Ruble (FLR)
Time zone	UTC-7, -6, -5, -4 (Florencia Western Standard Time (FWST), Florencia Mountain Standard Time (FMST), Florencia Central Standard Time (FCST), Florencia Eastern Standard Time (FEST))
Date format	mm-dd-yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+12
Internet TLD	.fl/.flor/.florencia

The Union of Florencian Republics (UFR) has come a long way from it's desperate origins as a small patchwork of partisans, patriots and oppressed peoples. The Florencian Union rose from the ashes of an autocratic empire and forged a socialist federal republic that now takes its first hesitant steps into the greater world. It is a union of free peoples created to uphold the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. And an expansive defense force and well armed populace exist in order to defend these rights from future invasion—both foreign and domestic. As of yet the UFR has enjoyed near complete isolation from the rest of the world due to its previous revolution and subsequent reconstruction. Florencia is great in both population and free spirit and she eagerly marches towards fulfilling her destiny on the world stage.

History

Traces of the Florencian state originates with the native peoples of the central New World. Disparate sedentary empires and nomadic tribes among the mountain peaks, temperate forests, grasslands, and deserts of the present day UFSR would have entered a post-classical stage of development featuring distinctive metallurgy, booming cities, and a limited comprehension of writing language by the 1100's. Technological progress and population expansion would only boom with the introduction of Zhenian horses and paper. Later East Asian contact with the central New World would see the growth of commerce on the continent with the establishment of Zhenian trade cities by the late 1500's. Ultimately the peak of Zhenian interaction with present day Florencia would see the establishment of a colony; the Viceroyalty of Shinjin, which would reach a mature stage of population development and government by the late 1700's, solidifying a sizable East Asian population in the eastern UFSR.

Native interaction with the Auroans would be less fruitful and see the forced establishment of a Thracian colony in the western portion of Florencia, a direct counter to East Asian ambitions in the East. Whereas eastern Florencia would experience a more nuanced synthesis of native and East Asian populations, the west would experience a dominated hierarchy by the Aurorans and forced Elyrianization. The less habitable grassland interior of the current Florencian nation would be left to nomadic natives that would steadily be infringed upon by foreign settlers. The discovery of gold in the Thracian colony would prompt a sponsored series of immigration from Slavic peoples to toil the land, send resources back to the empire, and further displace the native population that had been wracked by war and disease. This would be a trend that would continue well into the existence of the current Union state.

During the 1780's the Zhenian viceroyalty would rebel from the mainland and organize itself as an independent republic. The same would be said of the western Thracian colony, where in the early 1800's unrest at home would see a bloodied revolution establish the Velorénsian Empire. Velorénsia itself would be the Elyrian translation for Florencia, which is itself a bastardized synthesis of both the native name for the nation and the Elyrian translate. The drawn out revolution that created the Velorénsian Empire might have begun with enlightened republican ideals, but was hijacked by a minor Thracian noble and brilliant tactician who would go the way of a Napoleon and capitalize on unrest, disorder, and exhaustion to crown himself Emperor and Autocrat. The Emperor of Velorénsia would end up marrying the exiled princess of Elyria. Both the first Emperor and later his son would expand and consolidate the realm, gobbling up the independent eastern former Zhenian colony by the 1860's in an event known as the War of Unification.

The Velorénsian Empire by the 1900's had become a cosmopolitan state with a sizable Zhenian minority on the East Coast, a thoroughly Elyrianized West Coast, and a large number of Slavs, natives, and other Auroran migrants everywhere in between. Growing agitation with a despotic emperor would led to the Empire's entry of the first world war on the side of Zhenia, no doubt with the hope of unifying the nation and getting rich off the war. However famine, pestilence, monarchical disconnect with the populace, a type of serfdom share-cropping system, a tanked economy, and imperial performance in the war ending horribly would lead to a relatively quick revolution that would depose the Emperor and see the establishment of the Union of Florencian Social Republics in 1919. The events of 1919 are categorized as the Great Revolutionary War.

This new Florencian state would be influenced by enlightenment republican ideals and early socialist/syndicalist thought, synthesizing into the homegrown ideology of social republicanism, rejecting such ideas as blood and soil and idealizing this new doctrine as the foundation of the nation. The fabric of the UFSR would be woven by a multi-ethnic fabric of citizenry from a diverse religious, ethnic, and racial background all united behind the ideas of life, liberty, and property.

Politics

The statue of Mother Florencia stands proudly before the "Congressional Building" that is the center of the legislature in the capitol city St. Catherine, D.F.

The Florencian Union considers itself a social federal republic; in the sense that the republic controls the commanding heights of the socialist market economy. According to the Declaration of the Freedoms and Rights of the People, it is the patriotic duty of the population to partake in democracy and specifically the workers, farmers, and petite bourgeoisie to manage the economy. State control of heavy industry, decentralized and democratic-self management, affirmative action, welfare, and entrepreneurship exemplify the socialist market economy. Government management and regulation of the economy alongside the expansive welfare state provides for the commonwealth of the Union, uplifting the worker, farmer, and all other laborer to an equitable proper standard of living.

The Declaration of the Freedoms and Rights of the People was a statement adopted by the Constituent Revolutionary Congress in representation of the whole of the Florencian people. The declaration formalized the intention of the patriots to form a republic and espoused the inalienable rights granted to the people. This decree issued amidst the conflict of the Great Revolutionary War helped shape the basis of the Union. According to the constitution, the principles of freedom and liberty enshrined in the declaration have constitutional value. The Constitution of the Union, which bonded together the many different guerrilla states and factions that arose in coalition during the revolution espouses a firm commitment to the peoples life, liberty, and property within the framework of a republic. It also details the capacity of the federal government, lists a bill of rights, and organizes the whole of the social federal republic, while explicitly outlining a separation of powers divided among three branches of government in the Montesquieu model.

Government

Union Congress

Congress of the Union assembled during a joint session in the Congressional Building.

The legislative power is invested by the Florencian people and entrusted within the bicameral All-Union Congress. The upper house of the Congress constitutes the Senate which represents the republics within the Union, whereas the lower house; the Assembly of the People, represents the whole of the Union. The Senate is comprised of 36 senators; that is, three senators represent one social republic, chosen through individual state-wide, universal direct elections. The Assembly of the People, on the other hand, is comprised of a total of 572 representatives, who are elected on the basis of mixed-member proportional representation, with the rule there be one representative per 700,000 people in a social republic, accounting for 434 of the total of 572 representatives. Public organizations, such as the trade unions, national academies, youth organizations like the Pioneer Scouts, political parties, and other groups elect representatives to 100 reserved seats. Each branch of the armed forces are also, individual social republic legislatures, and recognized religious institutions are eligible to elect one representative to the Assembly. All nation-wide elections for the All-Union Congress of the Florencian Union (as well as the President) are compulsory, universal, and done by secret ballot for all persons over the age of 17.

The Union Congress has the power to declare war, regulate both foreign and union commerce, elect the First Secretary, investigate, scrutinize, and impeach the President along with his Cabinet of Ministers, admit republics into the Union, create laws, power of the purse, among other duties. Senators and representatives to the Congress are elected to a term of six and three years respectively, with a limit of four terms each.

The Executive Branch

The "Grand Florencian Palace", once home to the Emperor, is the residence of the President.

The President and the Cabinet of Ministers comprise the executive branch, which is the main instrument of government within the republic The cabinet is de facto headed by the President , who is elected via a Union-wide electoral college. De jure leadership of the Cabinet of Ministers resides in the post of the First Secretary, who is elected by the Union Congress and usually of an opposing party. The First Secretary and his deputies are charged with nominating the Cabinet, implementing domestic policy, and the basic administration of the state. The First Secretary is also the head of state and is often described as the second most powerful person within the Union, second only to the President; the First Secretary reports to and works through both the Congress and the President.

The President appoints his ministers whom advise him and are the chief administrative officials of the government. They also work with state governments to implement policy and administer the Union. Ministries are the primary arm of federal bureaucracy and are focused on specific areas, whereas committees are less numerous and far more powerful or deal with several branches of governance. For instance the Ministry of Education establishes policy for educational guidelines, collect data from Florencian schools, and regulate state run public primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions. Particularly, the State Economic Planning Committee is responsible for the management of the decentralized heavy industry apparatus and regulation of the greater economy within the Florencian Union.

The President is the Union's head of government and nominally the most powerful person within the country. The President is elected via an electoral college with electors proportional to the amount of seats in the Union Congress. The President serves a four year term and is only eligible to serve two terms consecutively, before waiting another four years to be eligible for re-election. The powers granted to the Presidency and thus the cabinet by the Florencian people include; negotiation of foreign treaties, appointment of state positions, both the power to veto and propose legislature, regulation of the socialist market economy and capitol, implement foreign and (somewhat) domestic policy, and maintaining the defense and security of the Union.

Cabinet of Ministers

The President appoints his ministers whom advise him and are the chief administrative officials of the government. They also work with republican governments to implement policy and administer the Union. Ministries are the primary arm of federal bureaucracy and are focused on specific areas, whereas commissions are less numerous and deal with several branches of governance. For instance the Ministry of Agriculture establishes farming guidelines and works with farming cooperatives to ensure the Union can be feed. While the State Planning Commission is responsible for the establishing the three year plans along with the management and regulation of the greater economy within the Florencian Union. Additional members of the Cabinet of Ministers include the First Secretary, who also holds the position of Speaker of the Assembly of Peoples, and the Princeps who officially acts in an advisory role. The federal ministries are primarily concerned with national matters, so quite a few constituent republics adopt a similar ministerial organization to perform and administer similar functions dealing with their locality.

The Princeps

Princeps Rias Antonia II and her T-72E Wolf tank on patrol.

The Florencian Union is solidly a constitutional republic dedicated to the cause of freedom and democracy. There exists no monarchy, the separation of powers ensures no tyrant can seize power, and the checks and balances system maintains a government responsible to the masses. However in the pursuit and great contest for liberty, equality, and property that the Florencian people found themselves in, a great ally to the social republican cause was found in the so called "Red Prince" of Alexander Antonia I.

The Red Prince expressed a rabid commitment to the revolutionary cause of the masses, democracy, and freedom unseen of any within the disgraced aristocratic class or the ruling imperial dynasty of the previous regime, the Krasaves. Indeed the Red Prince would defect from the Empire with an entire elite cavalry division that would provide crucial aid to the patriots in the early stages of the revolution. When the Great Revolutionary War was finally concluded and the Florencian people stood victorious over autocracy, a decision was made for the creation of a symbolic post of national and cultural significance as well as provide historical legitimacy to the new social federal republic.

This posting is the Princeps, the "first among equals" that was granted to Alexander Antonia I and what ancestral successors he would have. The powers and duties of the Princeps are well enshrined in the Constitution, effectively none, either than to maintain themselves as a "patriotic, respectable, and responsible symbol of the Florencian people, their history, their culture, and their nation." However command of the All-Union Guard's Armored Cavalry Regiment is often given to the Princeps, should they have completed proper training and service within the Union Army.

The Judicial Branch

The Palace of Justice, home of the Supreme Court of the Union.

The Supreme Court of the UFSR is the core of the judicial branch and is the highest court. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the President and approved by the both the All-Union Congress and the First Secretary before serving for life, or till retirement. The constitution stipulates that there shall be a limit of 17 Supreme Court justices, with one holding the post of Supreme Justice. The Supreme Court is granted the authority by the people to interpret the Constitution, interpret law, and the broad authority of judicial review over both the President and the All- Union Congress.

Constituent Republics

The Florencian Union is a federation of constituent sovereign Social Republics. Some of these republics represent homogeneous titular nationalities or cultures, others are a grouping of heterogeneous minorities or slim majorities of different peoples that have ultimately emerged as distinct from other republics. Three republican governments follow a federal structure as a Social Federative Republic (SFR) and further broken into autonomous republics to politically represent the diverse peoples and groups living under such the state, whereas the other nine Social Republics (SR) are organized as unitary governments. The executive head of a Social Republic is the governor-general and each state organizes it's legislature into a bicameral assembly mirroring the Union's own, though a select few republic's have adopted unicameral legislative. Besides retaining their own government, republics are guaranteed their own respective judiciary forces and provide contingents to the Army National Militia.

Demographics

Ethnicity

Ethnic Groups in Florencia
Ethnicity			Percentage
Native Florentine			23.3%
Elyrian			22.6%
Slavic			18.6%
Zhenian			15.5%
Other Auroran			8.2%
Mixed/Other			7.9%

Religion

Religious Affiliation in Florencia
Religion			Percentage
Salvonicism			31.6%
Atheism/Agnositicism			30.5%
Vayonism			10.3%
Albigensian Cathar			9.3%
Florentine Wuism			7.6%
Shemism			3.2%
Florencian Mormonism			2.9%
Bygospielism			2.5%
Other			2.1%

Culture

The culture of what can be defined as the Florentine people is as ever changing as the demographics that make up such a Union of diverse peoples.