staznesX: All Under Heaven

[Lord_Iggy]

Métis Confederacy
CAPITAL: Manitou Bah (South of Lake Winnipeg)
RULER: François Dubais / Lord_Iggy
GOVERNMENT: Republic (Amateur)
CENTRALIZATION: Coalition
POPULATION: Tiny (1)
AREA: Small (2)
CONFIDENCE: Growing
ECONOMY: Faltering (2/2/1)
TECH. GRADE: Enlightenment Age
ARMY FORCES: 1 Cavalerie (Horseback Soldiers with Firearms) Brigade (Regular)
ARMY BASIC: Regular
NAVY FORCES: None (Untrained)
NAVY BASIC: Untrained
EDUCATION: Illiterate
LIVING STANDARDS: Sparse
INFRASTRUCTURE: Poor
PROJECTS: None
BACKGROUND: The Métis are mixed-race. Their fathers are descendents of the French Voyageurs and Coureurs de Bois who were the very first European traders and explorers in the region. Their mothers are the first peoples, Ojibwa, Cree, Assiniboine, Dakota, Blackfoot, and others. Together, they have formed a culture combining the technology and religion of Europe with the culture and traditions of the first nations.

The Métis have a strong history of trading, most likely as a result of their mercantile roots. They, like the first nations of the plains, live well off the titanic herds of buffalo- the Métis are famed in local lore for their skilled horseback hunting. Despite this, agriculture is growing ever-more common around the Red River heartlands of the Confederacy.

In recent history, the population of Métis settlements has begun to rise rapidly, as many Québecois settlers have fled persecution at the hands of the Anglophone settlers. The struggles of the Hudson's Bay Company due to war and instability have given the Métis a near- monopoly in the lucrative fur trade. This combination of rising population, economic advantage, and the encroaching threat of the British, Americans, and Louisianes were the catalysts for nationhood.

François Dubais, a man of Franco-Assiniboine birth and Québecois education, would be the one to do this. At the age of 26, he was chosen as the leader in the major community of Manitou Bah, which he ran with great success, transforming the settlement over the course of a little over a decade into a thriving trading city. Churches were built, a schoolhouse erected, and the population continued to thrive and grow.

However, Dubais came to realize that this situation could not continue indefinitely. The Louisianes were beginning to encroach from the south, and the British from the east. The French, for their part, either considered the Métis to be beneath their consideration or thought of their lands as French territory. The English considered them to be mere runaways from Québec. He had seen what became of those who were conquered by the colonials. He could not allow it to continue.

Thus, Dubais set out on a mission, traveling throughout Métis lands, with a message of unity and combined prosperity. This was met with general success, and where it didn't, shows of military force did. Once they had joined the Confederacy, each settlement would elect a representative to speak at Manitou Bah, from which the Confederacy is governed.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

How long until the update?

 

[Luckymoose]

How long until the update?

He said the deadline for orders is Friday.

 

[alex994]

OOC: STOP ASKING Neverwonagame, how many times have you asked so far?

@Iggy, your education and living standards are as good as the Chinese

 

[BananaLee]

@Iggy, your education and living standards are as good as the Chinese

And better than the successor state of the Mali Empire. :S

 

[Dachs]

And you're ascribing uncharacteristic colonial mindsets and activity to the French. "Encroaching" my tuchas.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Well, I've received lots of inluxes of settlers from New France, given their rather poor treatment at the hands of the British. Also, the quality of life is fairly good, because there is a large availability of food and the trade is profitable- there aren't the problems in established urban civilizations yet. At any rate, I leave it to Azale to knock them down a few more levels if he wishes to, but I think that 'Sparse' and 'Illiterate' are fairly appropriate adjectives for the living conditions and typical education level of the Métis.

On a similar note, here is a map showing the maximum extent of Métis influence. The core areas of my population are in the east, around the capital which I have drawn into the map. Naturally, this territory is not all part of my nation, the Métis Confederation would be the core territories in the East, and around Manitou Bah.

 

[alex994]

OOC: Why are you doing this instead of updating?

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Because there's Spore as well, and my neck has recovered from too much head bobbing at prom.

 

[Symphony D.]

TECH. GRADE: Enlightenment Age

OOC: I express criticism of this in light of issued tech grades, though I also continue to maintain the current tech allocation is wonky at best.

 

[Azale]

OOC: I express criticism of this in light of issued tech grades, though I also continue to maintain the current tech allocation is wonky at best.

If I've done well enough where your greatest criticism is the tech allocation, then I feel like I've done my job

@iggy, hmm...the only thing I might knock down is the education, but that remains to be seen. Oh, and your general level of tech development is below the "Late Enlightenment Age", as Symphony pointed out.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I put myself in the Enlightenment Age, not the Late Enlightenment Age. I wasn't sure about that, and I'd be fine with being in the Pre-Enlightenment Age. However, a lot of the material technology that I use (notably firearms) is from the nations bordering me, and I'm inheriting technology from New France (albeit quite indirectly).

Yes, I can see education being knocked down, and that's fine by me. My main difficulty with determining that stat was the odd adjectives- low education doesn't necessarily mean naiveté, so I was hesitant to put it at a lower level than 'illiterate', which I repeat, seems to be a good description of the current education system among the Métis.

But this is really just semantics, isn't it? I'm fine with any changes you want made in the stats.

 

[Disenfrancised]

@Alaska: Dis is both happy and unhappy about his prediction on colonies being proved correct before the first update .

Also I would like to massively protest the Marathas education level being 'naive' - whats with that? This is an era when India states are relatively rich and large exporters to Europe.

 

[Azale]

The education should be illiterate, 'twas a minor oversight. Don't forget to remind me of it in your orders.

 

[Symphony D.]

low education doesn't necessarily mean naiveté, so I was hesitant to put it at a lower level than 'illiterate', which I repeat, seems to be a good description of the current education system among the Métis.

OOC: Actually since this is strictly representing learning, and things like common sense and "street smarts" do not fall under its aegis, "marked by unaffected simplicity" and "deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment" does a pretty good job of describing someone who is below the level of even being illiterate.

You could argue about what kind of learning this is being benchmarked against, but it's rather obvious it's the industrialized Western standard anyway.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Yeah, the issue is that the word implies something which has little or nothing to do with formal education in the form we typically recognize it in.

 

[Abaddon]

Have we a deadline for orders yet?

 

[Shadowbound]

He said the deadline for orders is Friday.

This should go on the front page. In large, bolded letters.

 

[Symphony D.]

Yeah, the issue is that the word implies something which has little or nothing to do with formal education in the form we typically recognize it in.

OOC: Um, no. As I just provided definitions for the word (the ones in quotes, courtesy Merriam-Webster), you could easily call somebody who knew even less than reading and writing to be naive. It is an effective description of the state of being essentially unlearned. Maybe you have some other definition of the word, but what I provided works in the context of knowing nothing other than how to functionally navigate your localized surroundings, which is an adaptive function, not a function of having an education.

Even the "dumbest" of nations will still be able to fend for themselves vis-a-vis food, clothing, and shelter. That sort of knowledge has nothing to do with an educational statistic. If you don't know jack other than what your mama taught you and what's around the block, you are naive.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Symphony D, I was going to correct you, but I found this definition for naive. (Emphasis mine)

marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience; "a teenager's naive ignorance of life"; "the naive assumption ...
primitive: of or created by one without formal training; simple or naive in style; "primitive art such as that by Grandma Moses is often colorful and striking"
inexperienced
uninstructed: lacking information or instruction; "lamentably unenlightened as to the laws"
uninitiate: not initiated; deficient in relevant experience; "it seemed a bizarre ceremony to uninitiated western eyes"; "he took part in the experiment as a naive subject"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn