Flag: Soon.jpg Name: Pertochova Government: Constitutionally – A Republic Officially – Fascist dictatorship Territory: soon.jpg History: As a nation, Pertochova has a long history. One of the oldest single entities in the region, stretching back to before the 6th century. For millennia it was ruled by its humble princes and a central monarchy. While at times integrated into other kingdoms per the unions of different monarchs, it remained more a distinct entity in the regional politics than its peers, standing out as almost a sacred and blessed region to many in the area. The ecclesiastical and cultural blessing people believed to have in the region seemed to bear fruit as the Pertochovian kingdom was the first to blaze new ground overseas to become the first major maritime power and to establishment a broad network of overseas trading posts and colonies in foreign lands. These colonies brought to the mainland prestige and wealth through the flow of rich spices, luxuries, and gold. However the vast colonial wealth of Pertochova proved to be a boulder tied to its ankles. As history progressed and others entered into colonial ambition they were able to leapfrog off of the gains made by Pertochovian merchants and nobles in establishing colonial markets. The colonial competitions that raged became a game where by accident Pertochovian colonial adventures were cut off ahead of them. The horizon of new markets closed in and early colonial advancement became smaller and smaller as the world filled in around them. An era of stagnation ensued. This did not mean the realm was any poorer for it, and in fact the gentry and flowering bourgeoisie of the kingdom retained high rates of wealth and prestige. But neither class really ever chose to reinvest it in the home country. Instead, in reaction to closing boundaries the new colonial aristocracy living at home in the capital of Lelbella or the other large cities of Cealia or Goi cycled their profits through the colonies instead to raise new money. The excess profits came back home to only enlarge the splendid palaces of the nobility and merchants alike. Culture bloomed as a Renaissance flowered, but only surface level. As the colonies themselves grew in wealth and development and their managerial families chose to leave the growing ancien melancholy of the homeland for the vibrant new life of over seas the strongest colonies under Pertochovian control rebelled and obtained independence. Thus, forcing the loyal crown merchants to turn their developmental investment to the poorer colonies to make up for lost income and a bid to maintain some level of prestige. A golden bull period of power that last barely a generation and a half came to a declining end and the sun began to set on Pertochova. Through the 19th century and especially to the end some half hearted attempts were made to try and modernize the state and infrastructure, but this all lead up to resistance with the ancient hereditary powers and property rights of the old state and church. Ambitious railroad projects that would have helped reinforce the industry of the state were arrested in lengthy negotiations and easement rights with all numbers of counts and dukes littering the country, as well as the otherwise rough and rocky interior of the country. All of this frustrated the infant intelligentsia in the capital and large cities, who were frustrated that all their efforts to come into the royal court were being scuttled by what they thought was the ego of a backwards and reactionary elite whose only claim to historical wealth was little more than fields of wheat, barley, and goats. Tensions between the groups came to a head when just before the Great War a coup was orchestrated in the cabinet on behalf of the traditional nobility against the liberal intelligentsia that had for decades managed either a dominance or a majority of the presence in the royal court. Enraged at the legal coup that had manifested beneath them, the old liberals of the court mustered their supporters and launched a counter-coup that soon devolved into revolution. The narrow cordons and streets of the capital rang with “Freedom! Equality! Liberty!” as the Great War unfolded throughout Uriya. The act of revolution kept the nascent state out of the war for the most part, and the geographical position of the kingdom meant that it only played a side show in the greater conflict. The monarchy was fully abolished by 1910 and a provisional government ruled until 1911 while a constitution was drafted. All the while the provinces played against each other through the course of legal limbo the nation was in and there were a cycle of many low-level civil wars and disputes between the revolutionary and counter-revolutionary power bases. When the Constitution was finally organized and passed – with much dispute – elections were held and in spring 1912 a liberal government was formed. Later that year the new liberal government declared their allegiance with the liberal manifested Central Concordat. However, despite the declaration and the nation set onto the war path, The Republic of Pertochova was incapable of feasibly mobilizing their troops to the front. Since the revolution, the Navy was largely in tatters having fought its self in the course of the revolution. Further complicating matters the navy itself had been deployed to the colonies with contingents of troops to settle colonial conflicts that started in part because of the Revolution and the disruption of a series of tenuous and delicate colonial agreements the monarchy had made. The internal roads of the country were poorly maintained, and there was little to no civil rail infrastructure left out of the country because of the revolution. Despite the declarations, the Republic could do little more than offer tenuous support to their allies and a few hundred men were sent in what was little more than an observation corp. In the colonies, the bulk of the armed forces slogged it out with rebel armies in complicated battles and wars within wars in the jungles, highlands, and deserts of the remaining colonial possessions. The Guerro Overmar as it became known was in its full opening swings and would be a permanent fixture in all political dealings to come. The liberal government was itself not without threat at home and barely half way into its first full term an alliance of conservatives and reactionaries would plan and carry out a legal coup of their own, rolling out a vote of no-confidence in the government and impeachment after orchestrating a series of moves to force the resignation of liberal congressmen and ministers triggering a series of snap elections. The position of the Conservative Coalition was that joining the war put the nation too close to peril, despite no real threat having been made. Despite this reality the conservative papers published long lists and stories of daring hostile attacks on vital pieces of national infrastructure. They contended that one of the only three railroads out of the country had been sabotaged by both hostile and Concordat partisans when in reality the railroad had just been poorly maintained since the Revolution and the bridge out of country had merely collapsed of its own poor maintenance. Stories of spies and subterfuge abounded in the cities and Anarchist cells presided in all mansions of the liberal elite. They eroded the foundation of the liberal republic, who lacking resources, funds, and manpower was unable to resist and found itself entirely impeached by 1914. The incoming conservative government formally changed the diplomatic stance of the nation to a neutral participant and paid a five million peso parting sum to the Concordat powers as a token gesture of good will. Behind the scenes the government began to work secretly with the Iron Pact. A series of biparty trade deals were signed with Iron Pact nations to offshore their manufacturing to Pertochovia and Iron Pact agents were even sheltered from Concordat agents, who were ruthlessly expelled. The Conservative Coalition also passed sweeping secular laws, reinstating temple authority and effectively re-granting semi-feudal privileged to the priests. In response to the still ongoing Guerro Overmar more resources were committed to the colonial war-effort and the state purchased many outdated warships from the Iron Pact on credit to reinforce the state's navy. However as the war wound down the Republic did not find itself in any better a position and in-fact it got worse. As the war ended the factories the country had courted were closed and emptied and the workforces laid off. Wages plummeted and food prices sky-rocketed. The old Liberal Coalition, incapable to coming back since their removal from government thus attached themselves to the trade unionist movement and encouraged a socialist revolution in the hopes of returning to power. Mobilized by a laundry list of grievances – often conflicting – a general strike was declared in the capital of Lelbella in the hopes of strangling the government of prestige and seizing the offices of government by force. However the uprising was poorly coordinated and when the liberal leadership stepped ahead of the red banners to enter the parliament and presidential mansion to declare the high rights of “Private property, free trade, and tradition” over “Free land, bread, and peace” the revolutionary attempt came violently crashing down outright as the two factions brutally fought each other for power. The government, having retreated to the countryside was able to mobilize its own support base of the officer corp and raised a new army from the peasant militias who feared that the secular forces of the liberal party would damn the nation to atheism and they mobilized on the capital and carried out a brutal crackdown. Ironically, a faction of the liberal powers – the High Liberals – joined with the conservative forces that marched on the capital – The Black Legion – and went to war against the trade unionist forces they had themselves mobilized to try and seize power. In the following reprisal, three hundred people were killed over three days of violence and in the period of two weeks eighteen hundred more were killed in the provinces under condemnation of being “communists, anarchists, and non-conformists”. From the ranks of the Black Legion, a former army officer and professor from the Lelbella University of Saint Balthazar was elevated to the title of president of the Republic by a vote of confidence of the entire army. His name: Olivereio Antonio Carmona de Contantido or Oliver Contantido. Oliver Contantido, who had a mildly respectable career in the army as a colonel, before leaving to study economics and faith at the University of Lelbella was considered a man of bright virtue of shining intelligence. During the conservative government he had held three ministerial posts, The Ministries of Finance, Development, and the Maritimes from which he had built a reputation as being a bright economist. To the Black Alliance he was considered affable, intelligent, and a reasonable figure of pragmatic and level-headed thought much unlike the red and yellow radicals. And with the authority of the confidence bestowed in him he moved swiftly to resolve the situation. First and foremost he illegalized all independent union activity. From the day of his appointment he and his party declared a state of emergency across the nation, a rule of which being that all trade unions were to be absorbed into the Ministry of Industry and the Gendarmerie with unilateral powers to try and sentence any radical who might possibly threaten the stability of the state. This gave free reign to the national police to effectively liquidate all unionists to such a scale the right to trial was dissolved. Further, the right of property was declared important, and that also company of landowners should themselves be involved in any union activity with right to veto in decision making. The overseas possessions were confirmed by Oliver Contantido who declared that Pertochova was a multi-continental realm, that all territories within the traditional boundaries and outside of it answered directly to the government in Lelbella who reserved the right to veto any nominations of governors or even appoint their own. In years following the governing principle would be ennumerated and better defined, transforming from a series of isolated decrees rubber stamped by congress into a full system of government. Although the old Constitution was never formally abolished, it was merely shelved behind the defensive state structure the Contantido government declared as A Sociedo Nuevo; the New Society. Further rights were amended or abolished under the emergency powers of the New Society, from the abolition of independent parties and all new parties who sought participation in elections needing to be approved by a Congressional Electoral Security Commission, the censorship of the press, and even the outright end to colonial elections of overseas governors; all governments overseas were to be appointed by the government at home and from within the nation. Regime power was expanded, multi-racial marriages banned. Separation of races. Internal travel visas for colonial subjects. Existing state monopolies were sold, but privately only to regime allies and members of the government, and life-time government positions. Pertochova political society was restricted and shrank until only the Partido av Sociedo Nuevo remained, and who among them held any kind of power was effectively by appointment. Free press collapsed, except ironically in the capital where the support of the government was so strong that opposition press was untenable. The Gendarmerie grew from simple union policing to being in effect the secret police for the whole country. Though officially the powers and abilities of the two were separate, there was considerable overlap between the two and agents of either often sharing badges for both. Pressing Issues: soon.jpg Economy: soon.jpg Foreign Relations: soon.jpg