Name: The Hancock Federation
Capital: Ellsworth (location:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellsworth,_Maine)
Government: Plutocracy
Economic: Capitalism
Social: Nationalism, Militarism, Fundamentalism
Foreign: Multinationalism, Expansionism
Domestic: Authoritarian
History: The Hancock Federation was built by survivors of the Great Calamity, as it is most commonly known in the Federation. The federation was started as a simple survivalist community, based and entrenched in the city of Ellsworth as they struggled to survive the dual pronged danger of disease and shortages. As the group combed the myriad small towns surrounding Ellsworth for survivors and salvage, however, their population boomed and they eventually managed to put together enough parts, fuel, and personnel to begin launching serious raids into the Maine countryside. The relatively wealthy group brought promises of medicine, food, and shelter to impoverished survivalist groups throughout Maine and, eventually, began to branch out over all of what used to be Hancock County.
This culminated in the official formation of the Hancock Federation a few years after the Great Calamity, centered in the old county seat of Ellsworth. The population has dispersed dramatically in the time since, taking over several small towns surrounding Ellsworth and rebuilding roads and tilling farmland. It wasn't until some time after the formation of the Federation that an official central government was put into place. The people still had a firm belief in democratic tradition and a government was elected: the first, and only, term of President Henry Jordan featured the institution of a constitution, a legislative branch, and the first printing of the Hancock Dollar.
Though President Jordan was largely considered a good president by the general populace, the upper class land-owning, sharecropping bourgeois disliked his left-leaning policies that infringed on their extensive political and economic privileges, especially President Jordan's attempted legislation to legally end sharecropping and revoke some of their extensive rights. After Jordan's term was up, a representative of the bourgeois named Jonathan Schatz was put forward as a puppet for pushing through their needs and wants. Thanks to a series of unfortunate accidents and large amounts of food and Hancock Dollars being passed around, Schatz won a majority of the votes (though at this time only two other candidates were capable of taking office and consisted of an aging, bearded liberal and a doomsday predictor).
Under the leadership of Schatz, the bourgeois flourished as restrictions were lifted and immigrants from outside the Federation continued fuel the growing Hancock agriculture industry. An official, standing military was finally established along with some of the first factories shortly after Schatz's second term and, finally, the Immigration Workforce Act was passed in his third. This bill proposed that all new migrants could earn a Hancock Federation citizenship by serving up to 5 years in the army, 4 years as a farmhand, or 2 years as an industrial worker. This did nothing but further reinforce the power of the bourgeois faction, as the steady flow of immigrants that made up the majority of the Federation's population growth were now firmly underneath their thumb, depending on them for food and shelter. Challengers to this act, and the many other smaller laws that increased the power of the Bourgeois Faction, were crushed and spirited away to labor camps by the Department of Internal Security.
All of this were the ingredients of revolution. A home-grown revolution in one of the agricultural colonies around Ellsworth, a small and isolated town named Waltham, sprung up, led by a communist by the name of Philip Martin. The operation lurked in the desolate woods and lands around Ellsworth, slowly gathering support before they would conduct a storming of the presidential palace, Bastille style. On the eve of the revolution, however, they were struck with treachery, their plan revealed, and the Federal Army was mobilized. The lightly armed, undisciplined, and unorganized rebels didn't stand a chance against Hancock regulars; half were killed or wounded in the first battle, and the rest captured shortly afterwards. After a sham trial and a public execution of Philip Martin, President Schatz announced that the Federation was in a state of emergency, and the Constitution and legislature were suspended.
Culture: The culture is split relatively evenly between two groups; one group, derogatively referred to as Rednecks, are a group who live primarily in the outer reaches of the Federation and generally serve as farmers, soldiers, miners, or other grunt work. They tend to be far more conservative, less educated, and are looked down on by the residents of the larger towns, who tend to be more liberal, more educated, and tend towards the service industry or administrative jobs.
Internal Issues: The Federation isn't particularly stable, and with the end of any semblance of democracy or representation, the common man isn't particularly fond of its government. The bourgeois faction controls things from behind the scenes, focused on cementing their own power and increasing their wealth. The government is staffed by bourgeois puppets (President Schatz and his lackeys) and the large immigrant segment of the population is indebted towards them for a place to sleep and eat while they earned citizenship. Arms production and the military are firmly in the bourgeois' pocket, and regular patrols through the largest towns keep rebel activity down. The Federation has weak industry as well, with little being put out of the factories besides canned food and military goods. Due to the overstep of bourgeois power, communist and socialist sentiment in the Federation have skyrocketed as well, and hushed voices speak of a democratic revolution in bars and workplaces throughout the federation.
