Nova Capile
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The Grand Duchy of Nova Capile Nova Capile | |
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Flag | |
Motto: "Für Thron und Reich" "For Throne and Empire" | |
Anthem: Heil dir im Siegerkranz | |
| Map of Capile -Capilean metropole (green) -Capilean protectorates (light green) Map of Capile
-Capilean metropole (green) -Capilean protectorates (light green) | |
| Capital | Saxtonburg |
| Largest | Kongsburg |
| Official languages | German |
| Recognised national languages | English |
| Recognised regional languages | French Dutch |
| Ethnic groups | German Capileans French Capileans |
| Demonym(s) | Capilean |
| Government | |
| Klaus I | |
| Wilhelm Knott | |
| Establishment | |
| 22 August 1681 | |
| 4-11 February 1945 | |
| 2-17 May 1953 | |
| Population | |
• 2018 estimate | ~1,104,619,232 |
• 2016 census | 1,100,572,961 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2017 estimate |
• Total | 26.39 trillion USD |
| Currency | Capilean Reichsmark (KRM) |
| Time zone | Gulf Standard Time |
Nova Capile, officially the Grand Duchy of Nova Capile (German: der Großherzogtum von Neu Kapil),
Etymology and Name
The name given to Capile by its original inhabitants, the Kosotho people, was _, meaning "_" in their language. When Arabic traders discovered the archipelago (c. 1200 A.D.), they named it Hiba (هبة; Arabic: "gift" or "bounty").
The name Nova Capile arose in 1533, used by Dutch explorer Pieter Lowell, the first European to chart it. After discovering the island, which he initally assumed to be much smaller than it actually was, Lowell named it after his hometown, Capile, a small village which has since been absorbed by the city of Rotterdam. Other names, such as Wilhelmsland, proposed by German explorer Friedrich von Mankeburg, were frequently used in maps and documents until 1680, when the Dutch government chartered the island and designated it Nieuw Capile (New Capile).
When German settlement began in the year 17__, germanized names such as Neu Kapil and simply Kapil appeared. These colloquialisms soared in popularity parallel to the German-speaking population, and when the German Empire annexed the western half of the island in 18__, the official name of Neu Kapil was adopted.
With the rise of imperialism, nationalism, and fascism in the 20th century, nationalistic names such as Kapilea, popularized by radical writers such as Wolf Cuno and Amadeus Skopp, came into widespread circulation. Though these names are usually negatively associated with fascism today, they are still occassionaly used by Capile's far-right political parties.
Although linguists dispute the origin of the term Nova Capile in English, it is commonly thought to have arisen due to an error by an English cartographer, William Hughes, who allegedly mistranslated "new" as "nova" when making one of his maps. Alternatively, Hughes may have simply inserted the phrase of his own accord, as historian Roland Mauser proposes.
History
Early history
Indigineous peoples
For most of its history, Nova Capile remained completely uninhabited. The first humans to inhabit the Capilean archipaleago were Africans, who had colonized the isles surrounding Capile by 900 A.D. These peoples, who quickly became isolated from other nearby groups on the African mainland, were known as the Kosotho. Kosotho culture was structured around the feats and legends of generations past, and the Kosotho practiced a form of ancestor worship. The Kosotho interred their dead in elaborate ceremonies on the island of Capile itself, which was considered sacred ground and forbidden to be inhabited, irrigated, or otherwise disturbed.
Seafaring Arabs made contact with the Kosotho people c. 1200 A.D. The Arabic traders and explorers greatly influenced the aboriginal people, imparting them with their language, religion, and culture. Islam soon began to supplant native beliefs, and long-upheld traditions were abandoned by newer generations of Kosothans, some of whom intermingled with the Arabs. As news of the island chain, called Hiba (هبة; Arabic: "gift" or "bounty") spread back to the Middle East, it attracted even more Arabs, especially merchants and traders. At first, these merchants traded goods with the Kosotho, offering gold and artisan goods in exchange for exotic fruits and timber. Eventually, however, the Arab traders began exploiting the Kosotho for slave labor, trading with native chiefs in exchange for slaves.
Arab colonization
The Arab slave trade was lucrative, as there was a large market for slaves in the Arab World. Arab traders soon began establishing permanent trading posts and slave markets on the coast of Capile. These establishments quickly grew into small settlements as the demand for slaves was driven ever higher, and more and more slave traders flooded into the area. Not only the Kosotho but also numerous East Africans, captured or bought on mainland Africa, were enslaved and brought to Hiba. By 1500 A.D., Hiba, after Zanzibar, was the second largest slaving port in Africa, with an estimated 25,000 slaves passing through it every year.
In the year 1521, as recorded by Capilean-born Arab historian Abdullah al-Salem, there was a massive slave revolt in the settlement of Palembe, one of the principal Arab slave markets. Kosotho and other African slaves broke free from their captors and overwhelmed them, taking control over the town and massacring the Arab inhabitants. Revolt quickly spread across the entire archipelago. Because of the sheer number of rebelling slaves, Arab officials were only able to keep order in the most well-defended of settlements. As the situation worsened and armed slaves began raiding other trading posts and slave markets, many Arabs panicked and fled the island, further weakening the Arab settlements. Within a few months, this slave rebellion, later known as the Palembe Revolt, succeeded in completely driving the Arabs out of Hiba. Future Arab attempts to resettle the islands were repulsed with force by the natives, and apart from occasional trade, Arab interest in Hiba had largely subsided by the late 16th century.
European colonization
Exploration and settlement
In the year 1631 a Dutch expedition under noted cartographer Pieter Lowell was dispatched from the United Provinces to chart the eastern coast of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Horn of Africa. Lowell accurately mapped much of the African coast before being blown off course near the end of his journey and discovering the island which would later become Nova Capile on 12 February 1633. The expedition did not originally think much of the island, which they dismissed as a microscopic landmass, but Lowell noted it in his charts, naming it Nieuw Capile in honor of his birthplace. After Lowell sent some of his sailors inland to gather supplies, however, it was discovered that the island was much larger than originally thought and that it had bountiful natural resources, as well. Lowell made note of this potentially colonizable location before setting sail again.
When the expedition returned to Europe and made public its findings, many European powers were eager to put them to use. The Dutch government dispatched a force of soldiers and colonists to establish a permanent settlement on Capile, intending it to be a resupply station for ships of the Dutch East India Company making the journey from Europe to Asia. Oranjestad, the first European settlement in Capile, was founded on 4 December 1634 on the eastern coast of Capile. Oranjestad quickly developed into a sizeable trading post and began to draw some immigrants from Holland. Immigration increased after the establishment of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1652, and Dutch colonists rapidly explored and settled the interior of the island.
Many other groups also settled on Capile. A large group of French Huguenots, fleeing Catholic persecution, settled Gravines in northeastern Capile in 1664. Many more Huguenots would flee to the Gravines colony or be exiled there following the Edict of Fontainebleau, which denied the Huguenots the right to practice their religion. A group of German settlers from Hanover established the settlement of Saxtonburg in western Capile in 1666, named after the Englishman who led them, John Henry Saxton. Numerous colonists from Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony also immigrated to Capile from 1660-80, establishing small communities strung along the coast of the island.
After 1680, however, settlement and expansion were dominated by the Dutch. The Dutch Republic claimed the entirety of the island that year in the Charter of Oranjestad, despite objections from settlers of other nationalities.
Interaction with native populations
The Dutch were the first to make contact with the native Kosotho. After initially peaceful introductions, and as a result of misunderstandings and mutual distrust, the Kosotho attacked the Dutch settlement of Aapdorp on 5 July 1655. They razed the town but soon found that they had earned the unshakeable ire of a much more powerful foe. Over the next decade, the Kosotho were targeted by Dutch settlers in a campaign of retribution that came to be known as the First Kosotho War. Conversely, other settlements established friendly relations with the Kosotho. The German and French Huguenot colonists both traded with the Kosotho, going so far as to supply Kosotho warriors with muskets and train them in their operation.
Due to the vast technological disparity between the two belligerents, however, the war resulted in a resounding Dutch victory. After the Kosotho leader, Ahmed al-Mukut, was slain in the Battle of Jan's Hill, a peace treaty was negotiated in 1658. The terms of the peace treaty were highly unfavorable to the natives and banished the entire Kosothan tribe into the inhospitable jungles of central Capile. The Kosotho were also forced to pay tribute to the Dutch in the form of slaves; nearly three-thousand Kosothans were enslaved and used as forced laborers on Dutch farms and homesteads, further crippling the Kosothan population, which had already been decimated by war.
The native tribes regrouped, however, and ignited the short Second Kosotho War on 17 May 1669. This time the Dutch colonists had the full support of the Dutch East India Company, which supplied the Capile colony with several hundred professional soldiers and a dozen cannon. The natives were soundly defeated in the Battle of Koeveld, and even harsher terms were enforced on them with the peace treaty of 1 August 1670. This firmly secured Dutch hegemony over Capile, preventing the aboriginal peoples from ever organizing an army of any sort and enslaving even more of their depleted population. The Kosotho would not be able to challenge the colonists again until 1887, when they were persuaded to fight for Germany against the Dutch settlers.
Boer culture
Over the next few decades, Dutch, French, and German settlers all worked together under the common government to establish their colony. They developed a plantation economy based on the export of timber, coffee, wool, and other animal products to Europe. The vast majority of colonists were rural, with 80% of all Dutch settlers reported as living on farms, ranches, and homesteads in the census of 1710. Nevertheless, sizeable cities, such as Oranjestad, Bloemenpoort, Saxtonburg, Gravines, Krugersburg, and Colditz emerged as centers of trade and shipping, and were vital as the arteries through which raw material flowed out and refined goods flowed in.
By the 1730s, a culture unique from that found in the Netherlands had emerged in Capile, one forged from Dutch, German, and French roots into a new creation entirely. These peoples called themselves Boers (Afrikaans: Boere), the Dutch word for "farmer." Their language now differed substantially from Dutch, drawing from French, German, and even native African influences; it would later be recognized as a dialect of Afrikaans. This Boer culture has been described as deeply pastoral and pious, and with a heavy focus on self-determination. For a Boer, life was a long journey, and one was expected to make several literal journeys as well. Boers were fond of leaving cities or settlements once they became too crowded or large, migrating continually to find greener pastures and settle new lands. This brought about the concept of the Great Trek, both a political and societal ideal that can be compared to manifest destiny in the United States.
The Boer population remained fairly small, however. A census performed in 1740 by the Dutch East India Company found that only about 10,000 Boers had settled in Capile, and the total white population of Capile was only about 14,000. By 1770, that number had grown to nearly 40,000, mostly through Dutch and German immigration. As immigrants continued to enter the colony, and assimilate into the Boer population, they were driven ever inward into the heart of the island, as well as into the territory designated for Kosotho settlement. This sparked further conflict between the two groups, but fortunately for both, peaceful solutions were found and no incident incited a third Kosothan war.
Colonial period
British occupation
In the conflagration of the French Revolutionary Wars, the Dutch Republic was destroyed by Republican France in 1795 and replaced with the Batavian Republic. To some Boers, this was of little concern, as the United Provinces had maintained a very loose administrative hold over the colony, especially during the last few decades with the decline of the Dutch East India Company. Many clamored for independence, ecstatic that they might finally have true self-governance. However, William V, after fleeing to Britain, asked the British government to occupy the Dutch African colonies to avoid them falling into French hands. Soon after, British warships successfully occupied the Dutch Cape Colony.
On 1 September 1795, British vessels invaded the port town of Bloemenpoort, securing it in the face of Boer militia, which had been hastily called to arms to resist the occupation. After Oranjestad and Gravines were secured in a similar fashion, the Dutch colonial governor, Rylond Kloosterhoek, surrendered Capile to the British. The British quickly forced a colonial framework on the Boers, who, unused and opposed to colonial oversight, immediately began to resent the new government.
The colony was given to the Batavian Republic in 1803, however, as part of the Treaty of Amiens. The Batavian government, with little capability or interest to manage their new, far-flung colony, largely left the Boers to their own affairs, which suited them perfectly. Just three years later, in 1806, the British again occupied Dutch colonies in Africa, including Capile, although this time the Boers offered more resistance. Without support from their mother country, however, they were quickly defeated, and a British colonial government was once again installed over Capile; this time, it was to last. British administrators laid the groundwork for Capile to become a major trading post and resupply port, rapidly expanding towns such as Oranjestad, Gravines, and Saxtonburg.
As British control over the coast tightened, many hundreds of Boers streamed inland, in a second wave of settlement. Once again this disturbed the balance which had been carefully struck between the native peoples and the Voortrekkers, the original inland settlers. Once again, however, a peaceful settlement was reached, likely because the Kosothan chiefs realized that any conflict with the Boers, and by extension, the British, would be disastrous for them.
Englishmen and Scots immigrated to British-owned Capile in small numbers, founding the modern-day cities of Rochefurt and Thanesstadt. German immigration also increased during this period, while French and Dutch immigration declined, owing to their mother countries' hostility to Britain in the Napoleonic Wars. The British incorporated Capile as the Capile Colony on 13 August 1814 under the terms of the Convention of London, in which the Dutch government officially ceded their African colonies to Britain. Under British rule, major Capilean cities such as Saxtonburg, Oranjestad, and Gravines were rapidly industrialized and transformed into major centers of commerce and shipping, through which vessels of the East India Company often passed to resupply, rest, or transfer goods.
Both the Boer and total Capilean populations continued to grow exponentially during the seventy-one years of direct British rule. In 1840, the Boer population had grown by over 1,000% compared to the census taken in 1740, with around 100,000 Boers living in Capile compared to 10,000. This exponential growth is attributed not only to an extremely high fertility and birth rate among Boer populations, but also to large waves of Dutch and other immigrants in the last quarter of the ((wpl|18th century}}. Meanwhile, close to 45,000 other white Europeans of various ethnicity were living in Capile in 1840, compared to just 4,000 in 1740. By 1880, the total population of Capile had grown to 216,000.
In late 1880, the First Boer War exploded in the British Cape Colony, the result of tensions which had been mounting between the native (South African) Boers and the British for years. The Afrikaner resistance inspired like-minded Boers in Capile. Several organized volunteer militias which fought on the Boer side in the Transvaal, whilst others plotted rebellions within Capile itself. Tensions between Boer and Anglo colonists in Capile were greatly exacerbated by the defeat of the British in Spring 1881, after which the United Kingdom recognized the independence of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. Plots to declare an independent Boer state in Capile were only halted by the arrival of several thousand British troops on the island in June 1881, which served to discourage potential rebels and restore public order. The enmities created between the Boers and their rulers would not be forgotten, however.
As European powers became increasingly interested in colonizing the previously overlooked African continent in what would become known as the Scramble for Africa, an international convocation of representatives from all the world's major powers was assembled. In this, the so-called Berlin Congress of 1884-85, the European spheres of influence in Africa were drawn and tightly regulated. As part of these terms, Britain agreed to cede the relatively small and unimportant Capile Colony to the newly created German Empire in exchange for German concessions elsewhere in southern Africa. The transition from British to German rule was swift and jarring to many of Capile's inhabitants, as Capile was directly incorporated into the German Empire as German Kapile in 1885.
German occupation
The German government, being a relative newcomer to the practices of imperialism and colonialism, took a deeply personal hand in managing their newfound colony. Under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, German businessmen were encouraged to immigrate to Capile and establish trading and coaling posts and other enterprises, whilst German peasants were offered vast tracts of land in Capile if they would immigrate there. This land was sometimes appropriated from Boer farmers. These programs brought many thousands of German immigrants to Capile, increasing the ethnic German population tenfold and leveling the disparity in numbers between German and Boer Capileans. In Boer populations, this prompted a third iteration of the Great Trek, and many more thousands of Boers migrated inland. Boers also retreated in great numbers from the German-dominated west coast, resettling mostly in the majority-Boer east.
The German colonial government also picked up where their British predecessors had left off in terms of industrialization, transforming cities on the western coast of Capile especially into centers of manufacturing, where some of the natural materials found in abundance on the island could be refined for export. A small naval base was established by the Imperial German Navy in the city of Gravines, greatly increasing its strategic and economic importance. In anticipation of a war between Germany and another colonial power, efforts to militarize German settlements were also undertaken. Several antiquated Capilean forts were renovated and turned into military outposts, whilst select German-Capileans in major cities were trained to resist an enemy invasion. The threat to Capile proved to be internal, however.
The Kongsburg Gold Rush
On March 12 1887, Boers in the mountain settlement of Winburg who had been running a largely unsuccessful mining operation stumbled upon large veins of gold, silver, and gemstones. It was later confirmed by geologists that these concentrations, later referred to as the Kongsburg Deposits, were alluvium deposits. In other words, the precious stones had been concentrated centuries before in bodies of water that later dried, leaving precious minerals buried in sedimentary parts of the Kongsburg Mountains. The deposit was later recognized as one of the largest and densest concentrations of precious metals ever discovered. To the destitute Boer miners who discovered it, it was a miracle. Even in the remote foothills of southern Capile, however, the news could not be contained. Before long, word had spread across the island that an unimaginable source of wealth in the form of gold, silver, and diamonds had been discovered.
The ensuing gold rush brought thousands of Germans and Boers into the area, and as news spread throughout the rest of the world, foreigners immigrated to Capile in the tens-of-thousands, eager to strike it rich. Immigration was strictly monitored by the German colonial administration, however, which severely restricted all non-German immigration. Still, thousands of Anglos, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Dutchmen, and even Americans migrated to Capile, and an estimated 10-35,000 Germans immigrated as well. In total, an estimated 50,000 people moved to Capile, drastically increasing the population. Capile was widely regarded as a new land of opportunity, evidenced by several entrepreneurs who had managed to stake their claims before the rush and were now multi-millionaires. The German government also benefited greatly from the gold rush, claiming areas of the mountains as government property and mining them privately, bringing much wealth to the German Empire.
The Capilean economy was invigorated in other ways, too. The amount of infrastructure needed to support such a large influx of immigrants was immense, and many entrepreneurs made their fortunes not by mining, but by selling prospecting equipment. The gold rush was also responsible for creating the city of Kongsburg, an industrial and commercial powerhouse in modern times. Without the population and wealth drawn by the gold rush, the location would have likely stayed rural and remote rather than becoming a major industrial area. Large deposits of coal and other, less valuable minerals such as iron and copper were found in the Kongsburg Mountains as well, providing resources that could continue to yield wealth after the gold and diamonds had been depleted.
New tensions and frictions rapidly arose, however, between the new immigrants and the original Boer settlers. The prospectors, aside from occupying Boer land and despoiling the peaceful countryside, frequently squatted on Boer farms and homesteads, and often committed petty theft and other small crimes against the Boers. The Boer families who had originally discovered the deposits were also angered because immigrants were mining on lands and extracting minerals that the Boers believed to be rightfully theirs. Armed confrontations between Boers and immigrants were not addressed by the colonial government, further exacerbating tensions. The Boer public was pushed over the edge when prospectors razed a Boer homestead on August 1, and, spurred on by secessionists such as J.W. de Wet and Piet Petrus, was incited to declare independence from Germany on 4 August 1887.
The Brothers' War
- Main Article: The Brothers' War
This new independent nation, proclaimed as the "Boer-Vrystaat" or "Boer Free State," set up a national government in Oranjestad, their self-proclaimed capital. The Volksraad (people's council), an assembly of 41 prominent Boer landowners and public figures, had passed the motion to declare independence unanimously, and after ratifying their Declaration of Independence, elected Piet Petrus, a well-respected war hero, as commander of their armies. Petrus proved to be a competent military leader, adopting a guerilla strategy that kept the Boer Free State alive against a numerically and technologically superior enemy.
The German Empire was, of course, alarmed that one of their colonies had broken away, and immediately declared war on the insurgents, dispatching a large force of German troops to aid Capilean militia in the ensuing conflict. Known in Capile as The Brothers' War (1887-92), it was a morally and economically devastating conflict that created divides between the German and Boer populations that still subsist in modern times. The Boers, a numerically inferior but highly mobile and well-led army, employed hit-and-run tactics, whilst the Germans used their superior numbers to gradually quarantine the Boers to smaller and smaller areas. Despite initial successes and the aid of several foreign states, including the South African Boer Republics, the Boers were eventually ground down by perpetual warfare, and the Boer heartland, the eastern coast of Capile, was occupied by German troops. The Boer government capitulated on January 12 1890, but fragmented Boer commandos continued to resist until late 1892.
The economic and political scars left by the Brothers' War took decades to heal, and resulted in the disenfranchisement and, sometimes, the outright subjugation of Boers in Capile. About 28,000 men lost their lives in the war; most were German and Dutch, but many were Kosothans (who were hired or persuaded to fight against the Dutch by the German-Capileans), Frenchmen (who mostly supported the Dutch and attempted to declare independence as well), and Englishmen (who mostly supported the Germans). In the aftermath of the war, the Boer population was expelled from central Capile to the eastern coastline, and even there suffered oppression at the hands of vengeful German governors. A large-scale policy of Germanization also took place in Capile, whereby entire cities and townships had their names changed from Boer to German, and much of the Boer influence was erased from western Capile. The war and these policies also served to create a sort of national identity for German-Capileans, who felt united against a common front, and, owing to a lack of German support at the beginning of the war, developed an identity separate from Germany.