Santareyes

Federation of Santareyes
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Laro perro Perdidas! "Home for the lost!"
Capital and largest city	Penta-Verdd
Official languages	Reyeian, Mizrahish
Ethnic groups (2015)	Reyeians (72%) Mizrahs (23%)
Demonym(s)	Reyeian, Reyelander
Government	Federal Republic, semi-parliamentary democracy.
• Premier	Maria Floress (Independent)
• Prime Minister	Augustinos Perrelos (Socialist League)
Legislature	Chamber of Deputies
Establishment
• First Settlement on Isles	c. 750 ad
• Santareyes, Muderas and Tenerife	c. 1040
• Unified Confederation	22 May 1552
• Partition	22 June 1921
• Reunification	25 December 1967
Area
•	43,677 km2 (16,864 sq mi)
Population
• 2017 estimate	5,221,333
• 2015 census	5,134,119
• Density	121.465/km2 (314.6/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2018 estimate
• Total	$130.6 bn
• Per capita	$24,837
Gini (2016)	36.6 medium
HDI (2016)	0.851 very high
Currency	Paro (p)
Date format	dd-mm-yy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+334

Santareyes, officially the Federation of Santareyes, is an archipelago and sovereign nation. Santareyes includes eight islands and six administrative districts plus one consolidated city-capital. Santareyes is home to about five million people and covers an area nearing 44,000 square kilometers (17,000 square miles). The capital city, Penta-Verdd, is also the largest city, as well as the cultural and economic hub of the nation.

Permanent human habitation of the islands wasn't established until around 750 AD, when various Latin tribes settled the coastal regions. Centuries later, waves of Mizrah people arrived as well, primarily settling on the northern island of Cuelos. Initially, the islands were divided into several Kingdoms, before uniting under one banner in 1552, establishing Santareyes as a unified nation-state.

The nation was slow to undergo industrialization and fell victim to periods of strife, war and famine before the Civil War of 1920-1922 broke out, resulting in the division of the country, with a Marxist north and dictatorial, fascist south.

Since reunification in 1967, the country has quickly gone from an underdeveloped and impoverished nation to a relatively first-world country with a high standard of living. Despite this, chronic unemployment and underdevelopment in rural regions remains a pressing issue in Santareyes.

Santareyes is home to two primary ethnic groups, the Reyeians and Jewish Mizrahs, the latter of whom constitute a minority of about 23% of the overall population. The Reyeians, a Latin ethnic group, comprise about 77% of the population and are a majority group on all islands except Cuelos.

Culturally, Santareyes has become more progressive and sometimes liberal, though traditionalism and heavily Catholic values are still prevalent in the country, occasionally creating a sense of conflict between traditionalist citizens and younger, more socially liberal ones. Santareyes is officially a parliamentary democracy with a figurehead as Premier, though systemic corruption remains a setback for the relatively new democracy.

History

First Settlers

The ruins of Santa Ignacio, dated around 800 AD.

The first records of human habitation on the archipelago lends historians to the conclusion that the first Latin settlers arrived around 750 AD. The islands, each relatively far away from one another, initially had different medieval yet largely tribal based societies on each one, with the exception of the Western Isles.

The island of Picos quickly grew, and by about 1000 became the most populous and influential island in the chain. A kingdom, it was known as a hub for fishing and pre-industrial revolution forms of shipping and ship making. Cuelos rivaled Picos in terms of influence and size and battled a number of skirmishes between Picos before eventually uniting under the same flag. The newly formed Kingdom was called Santareyes, named after King Reyes III, who had been canonized as a Saint under the Catholic Church.

These two islands were the first on the archipelago to unite and performed a useful function as a stopping point for explorers, cargo boats and economic activity off the coast.

Divided Kingdoms

King Josu IV, an influential figure in the eventual unification of the archipelago

In Cuelos, waves of Mizrah settlers began settling on the island, forming a tight-knit and economically prosperous community. Judaism was introduced to Cuelos, though Catholicism remained the state religion of Santareyes, as well as the official religion of the other two Kingdoms, Muderas and Tenerife.

Several attempts to create national cohesion through consolidation of the Church and Monarchy were attempted, but were met with rebellion by the Jewish Mizrah people. King Josu IV, seen as a formative monarch, allowed for freedom of religion under the banner of Catholicism in 1275. Around this time, Santareyes was fighting a brutal war with Muderas over fishing rights. Several wars between the dominant Santareyes and the smaller kingdoms were fought in the 13th and 14th centuries, some of which were catastrophic for the cohesion of every island.

King Josu's successor, King Josu V, officially signed a peace treaty in 1309, establishing Santareyes official neutrality towards the western islands, particularly Muderas. While Santareyes prospered and developed at a similar pace as nearby inland nations, the other two kingdoms lagged behind in terms of development, not yet passing anything beyond a feudalistic, medieval system. This was seen as the catalyst for the unification of the archipelago.

Unified Monarchy

On May 22nd of 1552, the Union Act was signed by all three kings. The Union act brought all islands under the banner of Santareyes, which nearly doubled in population as a result. King Joaos III was the chief proponent of this act, his two predecessors before him championing the idea of unification.

The 16th and 17th centuries were prosperous and relatively peaceful, save for a few wars with larger powers, which ended poorly for Santareyes. Despite this, the two centuries post-unification were known as a "golden age" for Santareyes. Despite large-scale economic development and liberal reforms in terms of property ownership and freedom of religion, the duel-power structure between the monarchy and Church still wielded a powerful influence over the country. The divisions between the elites and largely rural population began to cause tension by the late 1700s, sparking mass riots against the monarchy between 1750 and 1762, all of which were brutally suppressed.

The Mizrah minority was the most vocal in their opposition towards the existing power dynamics of the time, causing many Catholics to convert on the island of Cuelos. To this day, Cuelos is a Jewish majority state.

As the industrial revolution was ushered in, Santareyes was fractured and featured a fragile monarchy that had faced several coup d'etats in the matter of just a few decades.

Industrial Revolution

The capital of Penta-Verdd around 1824, which was flourishing as a trading hub.

The industrial revolution brought with it the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1788, ushering in a decade long period of turmoil and instability, as dueling religious and loyalist factions fought for control of the Kingdom. A series of provisional governments were consistently defeated in the 1790s, and economic growth suffered.

Simultaneously, Santareyes fought a disastrous war between 1793 and 1795 with (tbd) that wiped out approximately 20-40% of Santareyes' military. By 1801, however, with national morale at an all time rule, the monarchy was thrust back into power under Queen Maria I. She reigned from 1801 to 1843 and presided over the greatest period of economic growth and stability in the history of Santareyes up to that point.

The country, while behind developmentally compared to many western countries, quickly industrialized. Fishing, while still comprising a majority of economic output, shrunk as the economy diversified, allowing for mining, textile development among other industries to flourish. In 1846, under the reign of King Josu VIII, democratic reforms were introduced, allowing for a lower house of Parliament, known as the Chamber of Deputies. Land-owning males were allowed voting rights, though the Upper House, appointed by the Monarch, still wielded a majority of the nation's legislative prowess and decision making.

As the Industrial Revolution came to a close in the early 20th century, the nation was marked by a series of severe economic downturns, many of which led to revolts and riots, all of which were again brutally suppressed. Divisions between self-professed socialists and Right-Wing Loyalists grew substantially, which would lead Santareyes into a Civil War.

Civil War and Partition

The socialists celebrating a victory at the Battle of D'Almences in 1919.

In 1916, the Civil War of Santareyes officially broke out, when right-wing, Catholic loyalists overthrew the left-wing provisional government. The Monarchy, while naturally sympathetic to the loyalists, condemned the coup d'etat without fully stopping it.

Amidst outrage from a coalition of Socialists, Marxists and students, militias were formed on both ideological lines. The war lasted for five years, with the socialists holding the northern coastal city of D'Almences as a "base," while the loyalists held out in the capital of Penta-Verdd. The Monarchy, fearing escalating violence against them, self-exiled themselves, fleeing to (tbd). With the socialists holding a vast majority of the north, as well as the sympathy of the Mizrahs, and the loyalists holding the south and the majority of Picos, most battles were fought in the mountainous regions in the center of the largest island of Picos.

Antonias Bolseneros, leader of the grouping of far-right militias, launched a campaign of vicious guerrilla warfare against the socialists. After five years of war, however, with no victor in the sight, a peace treaty was eventually signed on June 22nd of 1921, partitioning the islands. The southern and western islands would remain under socialist control, whereas the northern islands would be ruled by Antonias Bolseneros and the Monarchy, who had eventually sided with the far-right Bolseneros.

Through the next several decades, both sides of the archipelago stagnated developmentally, though the northern and socialist government progressed at a slightly higher rate than the south, which had declared itself to be fascistic. The longtime leader, Gob Steiner, of the Socialist Republic of Santareyes or "North Santareyes," promoted a degree of social progressivism, introducing women's suffrage, literacy programs and universal healthcare, but stopping short of allowing full representative democracy.

The entirety of the Mizrah population was based in the North, many of whom established various Jewish Kibbutzes, which was a boon to agriculture in an archipelago where agriculture was previously not a large sector of the economy.

A propaganda poster from the Socialist Republic, c. 1944, promoting trade unions

.

In the South, which simply referred to itself as Santareyes, the Monarchy and Fascist government remained in power. While human rights abuses and political suppression was known in the North, the government of the South brutally suppressed any and all attempts of political and institutional change, executing an estimated 80,000 people in the first decade of the regime. While the economy grew initially, the country found itself as a backwater internationally, relying primarily on foreign aid from a sparse number of allies to maintain stability.

By the late 1950s and 1960s, the South was on the brink of collapse, though both sides remained at an economic disadvantage compared to many of Santareyes' modern day neighbors. After the death of both Bolseneros and Steiner, the union was eventually re-established by popular will in 1967, as refugees from the fascist south established themselves in Penta-Verdd. On December 25th 1967, unification was officially restored, which has become known as the Christmas Declaration. Post-reunification, parliamentary democracy was re-established and the monarchy was again exiled, largely due to discontent by the population over the monarchy's implicit support of fascism.

Reunification and Modern Day

The provisional government that followed unification was socialist, though supported parliamentary democracy unlike the previous administration in North Santareyes. The first free elections were held nationwide in 1969, resulting in a victory for the left-wing and democratic socialist Socialist League.

This government, led by Martos Baum (an ethnic Mizrah), promoted social reform throughout the country, re-instating universal healthcare, affordable housing, and legalization of divorce throughout the country. Despite this, the South remained largely right-wing and traditionalistic, in contrast to the more left wing northern islands. The 70s were marked by economic growth and growing social progressivism.

Through the 80s and 90s, a series of both centre-left and right-wing governments ensued. The neoliberal wave of thinking, that struck most of the developed world in the 1980s, never arrived in Santareyes. While this was a boon to social cohesion and low levels of inequality, economic diversification lagged behind the average in the developed world, with Santareyes not achieving high income status until 2002.

Today, the country struggles with ideological tensions and deeper socio-economic divisions, largely brought on by a series of crippling recessions in the 2000s and 2010s. Youth unemployment remains high, and the divide between the older religious and non-religious younger citizens persists.

Socially progressive legislation was enacted largely in the late 2010s, with abortion being legalized in 2016 and same-sex marriage in 2018, the latter of which has polarized the country.

Geography

At 43,677 square kilometers, or about 17,000 square miles, Santareyes is a relatively small, though topographically diverse nation, spanning eight islands, two of which, Pico and Cuelos, comprise about 74% of the national population. Most of the islands are volcanic, marked by jagged cliff faces, as well steep and prominent mountains. These mountains create various rain-shadows, creating a multitude of different geographical environments in such a small country. The eastern portions of Pico and south of both Muderas and Grazzia are both considered deserts, while temperate and oceanic rainforests exist in Cuelos.

The highest peak in Santareyes is at Mt. Josus, located in the middle of Pico, standing at 2,344 Meters or 7,657 feet.

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  The Reyeian Coast.

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  Oceanic and temperate rainforest in northern Cuelos.

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  A lavender field in Western Muderas.

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  The red rocks of southern Tenerife.

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  The highest mountain in Santareyes, Mt. Josus.

Climate

The coastal regions of the archipelago, where most of the population resides, is home to an Oceanic climate, though with substantially warmer and drier climate than in most oceanic climates. Similarly, the arid regions of the nation feature a Warm Summer Mediterranean Climate, marked by summers nearly devoid of any rainfall. The wet, inland regions near the mountains are home to oceanic climates with a distinct temperate rain-forest feature, with occasional winter snow. The mountain peaks of Santareyes are generally seen with a snowcap for six or so months of the year, however, due to their polar climate.

The capital and largest city, Penta-Verdd boasts a pleasant oceanic climate with warm, bone-dry summers and cool, somewhat wet winters, where snow falls sparsely, about once every two or three years. Like much of the islands, a seasonal lag is present, with August and September being the warmest months.

Climate data for Penta-Verdd, Downtown. Averages 1981-2010.
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	17.2 (63.0)	17.8 (64.0)	22.1 (71.8)	27.4 (81.3)	30.4 (86.7)	32.6 (90.7)	34.9 (94.8)	36.4 (97.5)	36.8 (98.2)	28.8 (83.8)	23.3 (73.9)	18.4 (65.1)	36.8 (98.2)
Average high °C (°F)	8.5 (47.3)	8.9 (48.0)	10.4 (50.7)	13.6 (56.5)	17.6 (63.7)	21.9 (71.4)	24.0 (75.2)	25.1 (77.2)	24.1 (75.4)	18.7 (65.7)	11.2 (52.2)	9.5 (49.1)	16.3 (61.3)
Average low °C (°F)	1.7 (35.1)	2.5 (36.5)	4.2 (39.6)	6.7 (44.1)	9.5 (49.1)	12.4 (54.3)	14.6 (58.3)	15.0 (59.0)	14.7 (58.5)	9.0 (48.2)	5.0 (41.0)	2.9 (37.2)	8.3 (46.9)
Record low °C (°F)	−5.8 (21.6)	−6.4 (20.5)	−4.3 (24.3)	−1.4 (29.5)	2.1 (35.8)	5.1 (41.2)	8.4 (47.1)	8.6 (47.5)	6.3 (43.3)	0.9 (33.6)	−3.3 (26.1)	−4.9 (23.2)	−6.4 (20.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	104 (4.1)	122 (4.8)	93 (3.7)	72 (2.8)	43 (1.7)	33 (1.3)	29 (1.1)	20 (0.8)	34 (1.3)	55 (2.2)	82 (3.2)	94 (3.7)	781 (30.7)

Government and Politics

Administrative Divisions

Santareyes, being a country with a small population, is home to only six administrative divisions, one of which encompasses two of the country's eight islands. The remaining five administrative divisions each represent one island, and another representing the capital Penta-Vedd. These divisions are commonly referred to as provinces.

Each is home to their own legislature and is awarded a great deal of autonomy given the overlying decentralized political structure of Santareyes.

Licence plate letter	Region name	Administrative seat	Population (2011 estimate)
P	Pico	Curtilas	1,424,992
CT	Capital District	Penta-Verdd	1,229,113
C	Cuelos	D'Almences	1,002,775
MU	Muderas	Penta-Delmadas	683,444
T	Tenerife	Cordobas	192,114
F	Floreses	Cidade-Floreses	123,336
I	Ilhes-Ocidentales	Puerta Penasca	72,114
B	Banderitas	Agadire	44,901

Military

The Reyeian Naval Forces conducting a rescue mission.

The Reyeian Military is divided into only three branches, the Republican Reyeian Air Force, the Reyeian Naval Fleet, and the Republican Reyeian Army. While the military is quite small with a voluntary service (only about 40,000 people are enlisted between the three branches), the military has been known to punch above it's weight as it relates to international affairs, largely because of foreign investments into the armed forces of Santareyes.

Utilizing technology from foreign powers, Santareyes has a high-tech, if small, military. The government spends a mere 0.6% of it's GDP on the military, which includes spending on foreign aid. The military policy of Santareyes is generally non-interventionist, though Santareyes often provides military and foreign aid for humanitarian crises throughout the region.

Political Structure

The unicameral legislature of Santareyes, the Chamber of Deputies

Santareyes functions as a parliamentary democracy with the Prime Minister serving as the Head of Government and Premier serving as the Head of State. Much of the political power is vested within the unicameral Santareyes, a democratically elected body. The Chamber is home to 200 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are elected via Mixed-member proportional representation with a 4% threshold to attain seats for any political party.

Generally, elections are held for the Chamber of Deputies every four years, though snap elections are common in Santareyes, often due to coalition failures and disagreements. The Head of Government is the Prime Minister, who is generally the leader of the predominant party in the Chamber, though there have been exceptions. The current PM is Augustinos Perrelos of the Socialist League, who took office in March of 2016.

The Premier serves as the Head of State, though the Premier's role is largely ceremonial with few real executive powers beyond helping government coalitions form, approving constitutional reforms, among other things. The current Premier is Maria Floress, an Independent. Elections for Premier are held every five years and generally see lower turnout than parliamentary elections.

Political Parties

The largest party in the Chamber of Deputies is the Socialist League, which holds 82 seats. It is a broadly Centre-Left and Social-Democratic political party that occasionally bucks the trend of Social-Democratic parties worldwide in that many of its' members hold socially conservative and populist views. Left-Populism is a common ideology in the party. It's strongholds are in working-class villages, northern areas, cities and Cuelos.

The National Party is the second-largest party in the country, holding 68 seats. The Socialist League and National Party are almost always the two largest parties, often competing against one another. The National Party is Conservative and Nationalistic, it's views often being placed as Right-Wing. Despite this, their positions on economics often eschew typical right-wing positions, supporting greater state intervention in the economy and a welfare state, thus placing them in the centre economically. It's strongholds are in rural areas, the Western Islands, parts of Pico and nearly all of Muderas.

Other parties include the Liberals, a centrist and liberal political party that is often strongest in Penta-Verdd's business districts. It holds 21 seats. The Greens are a left-wing ecological party holding 20 seats, and it forms a coalition with the Socialist League. Minor parties include the far-right Heartland Party and far-left Communist Party of Santareyes (CPSR).