Pre-BombNES IV: A New Hope

The Republic of Obregon

Spoiler :
Obregon's position, bounded by mountains and rivers into the most remote northwest corner of the North American continent, led to its becoming one of the last temperate areas in the new world to feel the touch of western civilization. While the land was first explored by Spanish and English explorers during the late 1500s, it had little contact with the outside world thereafter, beyond the odd French Coureur du Bois, Spanish adventurer or Officer of the British North American Trading League (BNATL).

The 'Final Frontier' remained loosely contested between Britain, France, and Spain throughout the greater part of the next three centuries, with no permanent agreement being reached regarding the fate of the region north of the 42nd parallel and west of the continental divide. While French fur traders were to be found throughout the area for most of its early history, the main conflict at the turn of the 19th century was between the Intendancy of Alta California, who viewed the region as a Méxican frontier, and the BNATL, who brazenly operated dozens of trading posts within the de jure Méxican territory.

The region finally rose to prominence with the entry of Great Britain into the Theodosian Wars. Simmering religious and political dissent in the United Dominions was pushed to the breaking point by the heavy taxation and large-scale drafting and impressment. Several uprisings took place across the British Colonies, though they would have little effect on the outcome of the war. The poorly-coordinated, and often mutually uncooperative rebels were put down one by one, and the haphazard revolution was over within months. Faced with their defeat, the leaders of the abortive uprising gathered their supporters, and set out into the west. If liberty from the politics and theocracy of Britain and its Dominions could not be made at home, then it would have to be forged on the frontier.

The British, distracted with their conquest of French and Spanish North America, were all too pleased to see the self-exile of the malcontents. The Spanish Empire-in-exile in México, while wary of the English-speaking settlers, was pleased to see 'El Territorio de Obrégon' (still a thinly-inhabited frontier at the extreme fringes of the bustling Intendancy of Alta California) filling up with a population hostile to the United Dominions. At any rate, the Empire, distracted as it was by the process of re-establishing itself, had precious little ability to resist the migration even had it desired to do so.

The Migrations of 1803 saw the transcontinental transit of roughly a dozen parties, setting out down the Ohio River and up the Missouri, before ascending over the Rocky Mountains and crossing into the Snake River basin. Setting out downstream, towards the Pacific Ocean the Migrants established a collection of settlements on the lower Columbia and Wallamet [OTL Willamette] Rivers. The early years were harsh, and the greater portion of these settlements failed, due to agricultural failures, recalcitrant natives, and a lack of cooperation between a few of the more radical factions of migrants.

The survivors of the failed settlements migrated to the more successful towns, and by the 1810s the Obregonian Migrants had coalesced into four broad entities. They were all republics in name, and while possessed of names bordering on the poetic and grandiose, none possessed a population significantly larger than a few thousand, or spanned more than a handful of settlements..

The most radical of the four was the Wallamet State, based out of the Wallamet River Valley. Rainier was founded by the expedition of Theodore Ashley, a leader of the Batesian Church, a Puritan sect which had rejected the heavily political and worldly ways of the Britannic Rite. Ashley's Party had stormed the BNATL trading post of Fort Wallamet to establish itself, and formed an austere society which would thrive for several decades.

The remaining three parties were considerably more similar to each other, being founded on ideals of secular liberal democracy, and founded upon a strong cultural undercurrent of rationalist deism. Down on the coast, around the mouth of the Columbia, was Oswald Headley's 'Free Republic of America'. While small, Headley's maritime settlement, which would come to share his name, would play a major role as Obregon's gateway to the outside world.

The Redwood Republic, whose founding expedition had been led by Baldwin Colton, was the sole state to develop away from the Columbia, on Hawkins Sound [OTL Puget Sound]. Here, Colton made deals with the Salish natives, avoiding the hostilities that many other Migrants had unwisely aroused.

Finally, William Jordan's Columbia River Republic was based around the confluence of the Columbia and the Wallamet Rivers. By dint of the good nearby farmland and Jordan's hospitality towards several of the failed parties, the Columbia River Republic would grow to be the most populous and influential of the Migrant Republics.

The Obregonians would continue to quietly exist for several decades, nominally a part of México, but functionally independent. This early period would come to an end with the outbreak of the Great North American War. While the war's causes were very far removed from Obregon, its impact would be huge. With Carolina and all of non-Anglo North America in Rebellion, the Northwest received a second wave of immigration, a diverse group who would come to be known by the catch-all term of 'Latecomers'. The thousands of new arrivals came from tremendously diverse backgrounds, including freedmen blacks, displaced natives, conscientious objectors, religious minorities, French who rejected Louisiana, Carolinan Abolitionists, and more. The Latecomers swamped the Obregonian Republics throughout the 1840s, swelling its population from a handful of thousands to nearly one hundred thousand. Standing its ground, the Columbia River Republic took the lead in managing the tremendous influx, helping them to settle in their own lands, and making agreements to provide space in the neighbouring territories. Throughout this period, the Columbia River Republic constantly increased its clout with the other four Republics, ultimately coming to oversee their peaceful union into a single entity, proclaiming the Republic of Obregon on August 22, 1844.

Two years thereafter, William Jordan Junior presented the independence of Obregon as a fait accompli, and managed to attain international recognition in the signing of the Treaty of Copenhagen. México opted to accept Obregonian independence, preferring a friendly buffer state to a hostile rebellion which could potentially spread down the Siskiyou trail into the goldfields of Alta California. At Copenhagen, a southern border was established with México, and an eastern border formalized with Britain.

With independence secured, Jordan Junior returned, and established the National Assembly in the eponymous city founded by his father. William Jordan II was elected by the Aldermen of Obregon to serve as the nation's first Thane (Prime Minister). Since then, the Thaneship has remained in the hands of several of the more influential Migrant families, who form Obregon's social and political elite to this day.

Since independence, Obregon has grown rapidly, but it still remains a vast and largely-empty nation. While the core regions of Rainier Province serve as a fine agricultural heartland, much of Obregon has little economic value beyond fishing, logging and mining. Over the past half-century, Obregon has developed a very significant offshore fishing industry, and is a major exporter natural resources. However, Obregon's industries are badly underdeveloped, leaving the country largely reliant on trade with its neighbours, particularly México, to attain refined goods. Despite all of the changes it has gone through, the ideals upon which the nation was founded remain quite strong, and the Obregonian people remain committed to personal freedoms and secular governance, all the while maintaining a fiercely independent streak.
 
The Kingdom of Louisiana​

Spoiler :
Ever since the early of the exploration of the North American interior, it has been clear that the Mississippi – and later its main tributary, the Pekitanoui – would be the key to controlling it. Even so, European explorers had a surprisingly difficult time finding the mouth of the Mississippi in the maze of marshland on the Gulf Coast – the first French voyageurs down the River finally arrived at the site that would later become Nouvelle Orleans in the early 1600s, founding the city in 1617. At first, the city was nothing more than a sleepy trading post, coordinating the southern half of the fur trade, and occasionally shipping supplies upriver.

As Nouvelle Orleans developed into a town in its own right, it attracted the attention of other states in the various wars between France and its opponents. The most critical turn of events, of course, came when the British conquered the colony – and all of Louisiana – in the early 1800s, culminating in its complete annexation in the peace of 1811, along with Greater Quebec.

Louisiana chafed under British rule for a number of reasons. The linguistic and cultural divide, of course, underlay it all, but there were economic and political currents, too: Louisiana's Queen Cotton and its attendant labor system did not sit well with the British public. This came to a head in 1841, when neighboring Carolina declared independence in protest of emancipation. Spurred on by forced conscription across the colonies, Louisiana followed suit, followed shortly thereafter by the former Canadian colonies. The combined armies of these rebellions, in combination with the intervention of Mexico and France, fought the British to a furious standstill. In the end, the Empire could subdue Quebec and the Ohio River Valley, but an enormous force of Mexican regulars, Louisianan recruits, and Osage and Lakota allies defeated the British at the battle of Sault du Sabre, and systematically eliminated the remaining British armies one by one, though they could not penetrate far beyond the Sault.

After securing independence in 1846 through the Treaty of Copenhagen, Louisiana crowned a popular noble from a junior branch of the French monarchy – Auguste I. Auguste proved an incredibly charismatic figure, and nearly single-handedly penned the Constitution of the state, establishing a tricameral, French-style legislature, with a prominent clerical and noble presence. He abolished slavery in time (though it would be replaced by a roughly equivalent sharecropping system), and ensured a fairly peaceful continent, even as the new country jostled for position with its traditional allies in Mexico, Obregon, and Carolina, and the new looming threat, the United Dominions. Without heavy-handed British restrictions, the small colony exploded across the face of the continent. The sleepy upriver towns of Trésor, Dupont, and Assumption became booming cities, and railroads snaked across the countryside. Indeed, the only barrier to expansion – beyond the economic limitations of laying down railroad track – proved to be Indiens in the deep interior.

The vast majority of the Indiens had proven an extremely positive force in Louisianan history, and indeed remained friendly, but they did not appreciate their lands being encroached upon, and wielded enormous military power as a direct result of allied armament during the Wars of Independence. Faced with the reality on the ground, Auguste signed the Indien Cession Act in 1878, which created the eponymous “Cessions” – huge tracts of land which would be given over entirely to tribal government, with the expectation that they would pay (limited) taxes, and supply military forces in times of need, eventually to be integrated wholly into the Louisianan army. The Cessions were vital in ensuring the two peoples rarely clashed over land disputes, though eventually around half the Indien population would come to live outside the Cessions simply for economic opportunities.

With the Indien question largely settled, the last entirely hostile tribe – the Comanches – would be divided by subtle diplomacy, and subdued by a coalition of Indiens, Louisianans, and Mexicans in the 1880s and 90s. The Plains provinces started to become an absurdly prosperous breadbasket, exporting both to the rest of Louisiana and to the cotton driven economy of Carolina, as well as to Mexico, which became the principal Louisianan trade partner. Cities such as Natchitoches, Augusteville, and Pueblo flourished as the railroads developed, and by 1900 dreamers were already planning a transcontinental railroad to descend into Obregon.

Louisiana stands relatively united by the numerous threats to its very existence, most particularly the large United Dominions to the east. Perhaps if it were not for this, the regional divides of the country might be more pronounced – farmers, miners, and industrialists in the provinces of Savache, Terre Auguste, and Aureline rarely get along with the agriculturalists in Coeur de Rive and Mississippi, while the urban Radical movement has been gaining traction in recent years. Nevertheless, with the country constantly on tenterhooks regarding the possible resumption of war, no one is eager to push domestic disputes too far.

Despite its relative youth as a country, Louisiana has produced a number of young artists, and indeed some entirely unique genres. The western, of course, is almost entirely a Louisianan/Mexican phenomenon, while the intriguing African-Louisianan tradition of jazz shows a lot of promise, only now starting to get the attention of the country's first serious composers. Authors and poets now live all along the Mississippi, combining into a uniquely Franco-African-Indien state in the heart of what might be the world's most promising continent.
 
Okay, so here is the preliminary list of claimed spots. I tried to assign this so as many people could play as possible, while still getting a country they wanted. Unfortunately, this did mean a few people ended up without something on their list of top five claims.

These people are: Ophorian, Sonereal, Mayor, ZeletDude, germanicus12 and SouthernKing. I want to be clear about this. This is in no way a slight against any of you. I would be happy to have all of you still play if you would like to pick from some of the nations that remain open. These nations are Bartica, Charcas, Sao Paulo, Hamburg, Denmark-Norway, Courland, Wallachia, Nayramids, Oman, Punjab, Nepal and Tibet. So that's eleven nations for the six of you to choose from, if you still wish to continue to play. All of you have first priority over any new applicants.

I also will allow trading of positions if both players agree to it.

Anyways, here is the current roster.

Spoiler :

North America:
1. Obregon: Lord Iggy
2. United Dominions: Shadowbound
3. Louisiana: North King
4. Mexico: Azale
5. Carolina: SamSniped
6. Haiti: merciary

South America:
7. Maracaibo: Immaculate
8. Bartica: Ophorian
9. Peru: Bonefang
10. Charcas: OPEN
11. Santiago: madviking
12. Sao Paulo: OPEN
13. Patagonia: Terrance888

Europe:
14. Britain: spryllino
15. France: Luckymoose
16. Burgundy: Thlayli
17. Hamburg: Mayor
18. German Union: Bair_the_Normal
19. Denmark-Norway: SouthernKing
20. Sweden: Tuxedohamm
21. Novgorod: Omega124
22. Courland: OPEN
23. Poland-Hungary: Symphony D.
24. Moldova: Brougal
25. Wallachia: OPEN
26. Rome: <nuke>
27. Venice: m.t.cicero
28. Austria: Perfectionist
29. Italy: BILLSIF
30. Papal States: thomas.berubeg
31. Naples: talonschild
32. Aragon: JoanK
33. Navarre: Wrymouth3
34. Castile: Milarqui
35. Portugal: Lord_of_Elves

Africa:
36. Morocco: erez87
37. Nayramids: OPEN
38. Abyssinia: J.K. Stockholme
39. Garanganze: Tsoate

Middle East:
40. Outremer: TheMeanestGuest
41. Ayyubids: Justo
42. Oman: OPEN
43. Demir Qoyunlu: Grandkhan

East Asia:
44. Punjab: OPEN
45. Marathas: Bestshot9
46. Nepal: OPEN
47. Tibet: OPEN
48. China: Masada
49. Siam: TheLastJacobite
50. Vietnam: Ninja Dude
51. Korea: Christos200
52. Japan: Crezth
53. Matsumae: ChiefDesigner


Edit: Ophorian confirmed as Bartica, SouthernKing confirmed as Denmark-Norway and Mayor confirmed as Hamburg.
 
Confirming Maracaibo. I look forward to progressing with this NES.

EDIT: I think Thomas B. will be a great pope.
 
Confirming la Serenissima.
 
Confirming Rome
 
Man, I was filing like a FOIA request, don't be puttin' me on no list without no data.
 
Kingdom of Portugal in da hizzouse. Y'all best recognize.
 
Okay, so here is the preliminary list of claimed spots. I tried to assign this so as many people could play as possible, while still getting a country they wanted. Unfortunately, this did mean a few people ended up without something on their list of top five claims.

These people are: Ophorian, Sonereal, Mayor, ZeletDude, germanicus12 and SouthernKing. I want to be clear about this. This is in no way a slight against any of you. I would be happy to have all of you still play if you would like to pick from some of the nations that remain open. These nations are Bartica, Charcas, Sao Paulo, Hamburg, Denmark-Norway, Courland, Wallachia, Nayramids, Oman, Punjab, Nepal and Tibet. So that's eleven nations for the six of you to choose from, if you still wish to continue to play. All of you have first priority over any new applicants.

I also will allow trading of positions if both players agree to it.

Anyways, here is the current roster.

Spoiler :

North America:
1. Obregon: Lord Iggy
2. United Dominions: Shadowbound
3. Louisiana: North King
4. Mexico: Azale
5. Carolina: SamSniped
6. Haiti: merciary

South America:
7. Maracaibo: Immaculate
8. Bartica: OPEN
9. Peru: Bonefang
10. Charcas: OPEN
11. Santiago: madviking
12. Sao Paulo: OPEN
13. Patagonia: Terrance888

Europe:
14. Britain: spryllino
15. France: Luckymoose
16. Burgundy: Thlayli
17. Hamburg: OPEN
18. German Union: Bair_the_Normal
19. Denmark-Norway: OPEN
20. Sweden: Tuxedohamm
21. Novgorod: Omega124
22. Courland: OPEN
23. Poland-Hungary: Symphony D.
24. Moldova: Brougal
25. Wallachia: OPEN
26. Rome: <nuke>
27. Venice: m.t.cicero
28. Austria: Perfectionist
29. Italy: BILLSIF
30. Papal States: thomas.berubeg
31. Naples: talonschild
32. Aragon: JoanK
33. Navarre: Wrymouth3
34. Castile: Milarqui
35. Portugal: Lord_of_Elves

Africa:
36. Morocco: erez87
37. Nayramids: OPEN
38. Abyssinia: J.K. Stockholme
39. Garanganze: Tsoate

Middle East:
40. Outremer: TheMeanestGuest
41. Ayyubids: Justo
42. Oman: OPEN
43. Demir Qoyunlu: Grandkhan

East Asia:
44. Punjab: OPEN
45. Marathas: Bestshot9
46. Nepal: OPEN
47. Tibet: OPEN
48. China: Masada
49. Siam: TheLastJacobite
50. Vietnam: Ninja Dude
51. Korea: Christos200
52. Japan: Crezth
53. Matsumae: ChiefDesigner

Could I claim Bartica, then? :)

EDIT: Reasons. I initially wanted Denmark-Norway, but changed my mind a couple minutes later. :D
 
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