Principality of New Free Derry

The Principality of New Free Derry (initially the Commonwealth of New Free Derry), also known simply as New Free Derry, was a constitutional monarchy comprised of largely autonomous islands in the Great Spawn Ocean. It was formed in 1824 after a revolution against the previous nearly 3000-year old theocratic absolute monarchy, the Holy Nation. Based on values of federalism, secularism, and representative democracy, it proved a stark but initially popular contrast with the overthrown regime. It rarely expanded militarily aside from an attempt made in the Four Years War in which they invaded the Spawn Empire. Despite being much smaller in total size and initial population than its predecessor, it became a powerful economic, political, cultural, and scientific force in its own right during its nearly 200 years of existence.

Although initially abolishing the monarchy, it was begrudgingly reinstituted it as a largely ceremonial role after tense parliamentary negotiations with various right-wing and monarchist parties in 1929. It is generally regarded to have reached its height in the 1930s and 40s in the midst of a massive economic and cultural boom, expanding its influence to every corner of the Realm. However, it began to stagnate and decline after a long-term economic slump and civil unrest in the 60s and 70s. After several particularly harsh years of economic turmoil and political instability, It was overthrown by then Colonel Dex Moonfire in January 2020, making way for the People's Democratic Republic of Dexistan, a one-party socialist state.

Age of Revolution (1824 AD)
The Principality of New Free Derry arose amidst the collapse of the Holy Nation, an absolute theocratic monarchy that had existed since ~1000 BE. Although the country had been decaying long before the 19th century, a regent named Buzz Killington enacted a sales tax policy that proved to be the final straw for the populace. Riots began and the military was deployed into major population centers. Villages began revolting and engaging government forces in skirmishes and the regent, during a bid to escape the country, was captured and killed by a mob.

A group of military officers and nobles, men who would later become the Founding Fathers of the Principality of New Free Derry, stormed the Imperial Palace during urban unrest with a small detachment of loyal troops, and declared the new government. (Note: It was not initially called the Principality of New Free Derry but rather the Commonwealth of New Free Derry. This change occurred in 1929 when a monarch was appointed. For simplicity, it will be referred to as the Principality.) They laid out a pre-written provisional constitution to the public and announced that riots and rebellions would be abated and order would be restored to the country. Although some contingents of the military attempted to remain loyal to the practically disintegrated government and others deserted and struck out on their own, most declared their service to the new government.

After hearing of the formation of a new government, many revolts in the countryside ceased, fearing harsh reprisal from a resurgent centralized authority. Although some stopped, many more remote areas had to be suppressed by force by the reorganized military. Most urban riots dissipated after the government had declared a temporary cessation to most taxes as well as all spending besides military. Within weeks, order was restored to all cities and while some holdouts of rural revolts remained, they ceased to be a large problem.

The government declared the beginning of a national recovery from the chaos of the months prior on May 8th, 1824 and began to organize the first ever elections to take place in Solicia. Voting was opened to all property-owning males with no criminal record, this was the most liberal voting system of any major country at the time and it is generally regarded as the first modern democracy. Three other major reforms executed by the new government was the abolition of serfdom, a policy that keep peasants and their descendants indebted to a lord or land, as well as the separation between church and state, no longer was the leader of the country also simultaneously the head of the Holy Church of Ebako. The final reform was that of voluntary association. The jurisdiction of every former territory of the Holy Nation could decide whether to integrate into the new country or become independent. The vast majority of territories opted to join the Commonwealth and it retained much of the territory of the former Holy Nation. Since only a provisional constitution was in place, the electoral system was ill-defined and as the deadline for the election drew near, the interim government decided upon a simple popular vote mechanism for the entire nation. The interim Executive Minister, William Foster, ran on a platform of stability and progress, promising a full-fledged Constitution by the end of his term if re-elected. His opponents included an array of culturally and ideologically diverse candidates including some hardline monarchists who wanted to return the country ostensibly back to before the revolution and on the opposite end, some anarchist and proto-socialist candidates.

None of the opposition campaigns managed to mount a coherent or unified challenge to the relatively popular incumbent and Foster trounced the dozens of other candidates, receiving 79% of the vote and winning all territories on September 30th, 1825 (voting began on this date although it took until mid-November to receive and count every vote).

After several meetings of a body known as the Constitutional Convention, a patchwork organ of several hundred members from many different walks of life representing key interest groups, an official Constitution was created and proposed on November 4th, 1827. Although the ratification process took some time, it was widely praised as a historic document that laid the foundation for democracy everywhere. It was officially adopted on May 8th, 1828.

Age of Stabilization (1828 AD)
The unrest prior to, during, and after the revolution had ravaged many of the cities and areas of the countryside. The Foster administration liberalized trade laws and abolished several government monopolies in order to ensure swift economic growth. Taxes were also kept low to encourage investment in the country. Coupled with the return of importation and trade with the Empire of Spawn, an economic boom soon took place. Millions were lifted out of poverty and the urban population exploded.

The Holy Church of Ebako, a previously preeminent institution in the daily lives of the Holy Nation's citizens began to recede with membership dropping sharply. This was mainly due to the fact that government employees no longer had to be apart of the church by requirement. This sharp decrease gave rise to the Third Great Awakening, a religious upheaval that gave rise to hundreds of new churches and several new denominations of Ebakianity, most of which were declared heretical by the Holy Church. The Constitution did not establish term limits for Executive Ministers and as such, any party or coalition could theoretically be in power eternally as long as they retained a certain number of seats in the newly-created Council of Commons (COC). Perhaps the greatest criticism of the Foster administration was their perceived overstay of rulership as Foster and his Federalist Party stayed in power for 28 years. Its support only collapsed after the death of the charismatic and experienced Foster in 1851.

The Federalist Party was succeeded by a center-right reform-minded party called the Liberal Democratic Alliance, a populist big tent party that in reality, continued many of the policies of Foster albeit with slight adjustments. They campaigned on being fresh, young, and visionary leadership that would work for every Derrian. Their party stayed a major force in the nation's politics until the very end, being in a governing coalition prior to Moonfire's coup.

Age of Growth (1850 AD)
The country continued to grow in territory, wealth, and population leading into the mid 19th century. The Liberal Democratic Party introduced some minimal new taxes and enhanced trade protections for Derrian merchants but for the most part, it remained true to its classical liberal roots, garnering a steady support base of middle-class artisans and businessmen. Several territories voted via referendum to be included in the Commonwealth thus expanding the country further.

Despite the consistent economic growth and technological progress, signs of socio-economic issues and widespread resentment began to appear and fester. Large conglomerates began to monopolize industries by using their considerable wealth and political sway to buy out and hinder their competition. By 1875, the Solician Oil and Mining Company controlled over 70% of the market share for fossil fuels and standard use kerosine oil with similar occurrences in other industries increasing in frequency.

The political situation became increasingly unstable as many small parties began to crop up seemingly out of nowhere, representing narrow interest groups. This event caused a phenomena unseen in Derrian politics before; parliamentary coalitions. The larger parties now had to negotiate and compromise with smaller parties, compromising their values and policy objectives in order to retain power.

The Liberal Democratic Party began to kow-tow to ethnic and religious minority parties to increase their COC majority, leading to the erosion of their traditional support base. Right-wing and monarchist parties began to materialize as living memories of the revolution faded and died. The increasingly rocky political situation coupled with mounting social and economic inequality began to take its toll on the country as it entered a new era of turmoil and tension.

Age of Turmoil (1880 AD)
After the first parliamentary defeat of the Liberal Democratic coalition in history, the fabled stability of the country began to collapse. Riots due to unemployment and inflation began to occur as both far-left and far-right ideologues were whipped into a frenzy, vowing to solve the countries mounting problems. The violent suppression of labor protests by private police at Southbarc Station in Slavia only solidified the papalable social tension throughout the country. In 1887, an attempt was made on the Executive Minister's life by a young anarchist with a revolver. Although Executive Minister Bixneed survived, the nation was shaken by the incident and a subsequent swift crackdown on civil liberties and political freedom in order to purge anarchists and communists initiated throughout the nation. The definition of what constituted a threat to the public and government varied widely with most actions being delegated to local authorities. Imprisonment, deportation, and even execution of political dissidents began and workers' movements were suppressed heavily in the name of rooting out communists.

Although the internal politics were turbulent, the foreign stage seemed even more so. Spawnish privateers constantly attacked Derrian merchant ships and vice versa. Violent clashes on the high seas became common and escalated. A series of incidents involving violent skirmishes between Spawnish and Derrian military vessels as well as the murder of a Spawnish citizen by a Derrian sailor in a port city came to a head and the ruling party known as the National Congress, desperate both to maintain power internally and re-assert the country on the Realm stage, narrowly passed a declaration of war on the Spawn Empire through the Council of Commons on August 20th, 1896. This war would drag on until November 1900 and would later be aptly called the Four Years War.

This war would go on to claim more than 200,000 lives and included sweeping military actions unheard of on the Realm before, including an amphibious invasion of the Spawnish islands of Altis and Stratis and the brief capture of a major city by the Commonwealth. Ultimately, the war would result in no significant territorial changes for either side and ended in an armistice on November 11th, 1900. After the war, many workers and families were decimated by the losses of the conflict and the reopening of trade was delayed significantly, leading to a drop in productivity and wages and an accompanying spike in poverty and unemployment.

This deep depression would last for nearly 30 years with political leadership frequently switching hands throughout. It is estimated the economic depression was drastically prolonged due to the flood of Japanese refugees resettling in other areas of the Realm, following the collapse of the Shogunate of Japan in 1918. This drastic flood of unskilled labor destabilized the country and led to economic and racial tensions. A recovery started to begin in the mid-1920s although it was slow moving and mired by an external global economic recession, limiting trade for the nation. One of the most notable changes in the depression and slow recovery was the resurgence of right-wing and more specifically monarchist movements in the Commonwealth. This rapid growth in power culminated in the return of the monarchy in 1929 when a new Emperor was coronated per the request of the Council of Commons. Although a regal lineage is claimed, there is little evidence Emperor Crakkaria was closely related to the last monarch, Dougal Flopguy.

Reflecting the change in governance, the Commonwealth of New Free Derry was renamed the Principality of New Free Derry and nominal power was handed over to the Emperor. The only real power possessed by the monarch from that point onward was the veto power to override Council of Commons motions that passed without a supermajority. Although, it was certainly a far cry from the absolute theocratic monarchy of the previous government, it was a massive rhetorical and symbolic victory for the monarchist movement in New Free Derry.

Age of Revival (1930 AD)
Along with the institution of a monarch and an overall revitalization of national pride and zeal, a economic boom soon followed after the nearly three decade long depression. The National Progress Party gained a landslide victory in the COC elections of 1930 on a platform of economic populism and civic nationalism. Trust-busting was initiated in all vital industries and fierce protectionism was implemented throughout the country. A infrastructure package was developed and signed into law in 1931 by Executive Minister Jefferey Joobert which interconnected the disjointed territories of the country with bridges, railroads, and ferries, allowing for an explosion of economic activity.

Following this swelling of patriotism as well as a surging economic recovery, a cultural revival was initiated in the country with literature, architecture, celebrations, and sports booming. Many Derrian authors such as Melville Richardson, Neel Chandran, and Tyrone Biggums write novels such as The Adventures and Exploits of Okabe Johnson, The Rushening, and Cousin Giorgio's Cabin, that became underrated classics in their time period but have become widely admired as some of the greatest Solician literature of all time in later years.

This Age of Revival was very peaceful for Solicia and involved little territorial expansion, military or otherwise. The 1930s and 40s were also the time of the highest point of national cohesion. Since the founding of the country as well as dating back to the Holy Nation, citizens typically thought of themselves as members of their region or local culture rather than firstly as citizens of the country, largely due to its decentralized nature. This changed after the aforementioned cultural revival as well as the economic boom that physically connected the country via trade and travel.

Many new cities began to boom, most notably the island of New Free Derry, the namesake of the country. It had largely been an administrative and governmental capital city that had little to offer in terms of visitation. In the late 40s, several development companies began to move in and construct both apartment buildings and single family housing all across the foothills of the island. Previously, many housing companies had been reluctant to build there given the constantly rising sea levels as well as the perceived inadequacy of hills for large-scale housing. Concerns largely disappeared when levees were built and roads began to form through the hills of the island.

The economic boom began to taper off as economic investment again reached lower and more stable levels. Although the boom dissipated, the economic prosperity stayed in the longest and largest economic expansion since the founding of the country. Home and car ownership skyrocketed and birthrates similarly jumped. Although materially they were the best off than ever before, dissent began to brew as the economy became sluggish and a new more rebellious generation was born and raised.

Age of Unrest (1960 AD)
Due to the decentralized nature of the Principality, many territories with significant minority populations enforced a racial caste system in which Solicians were favored for job opportunities, bank loans, and a multitude of other things. At the bottom of the hierarchy were Villagers who were the last choice for nearly everything except for in their small, isolated, and impoverished communities. Starting in the early 1960s, protests and unrest formed in territories, most notably New Jersey and Alabama, provinces with racial laws as well as the highest Villager populations. Although the official position of the national government was that of condemning the racial laws, many representatives in the Council of Commons from these areas argued that enforcing a national law against these practices was a violation of the Derrian Constitution and the promise of decentralization made by the initial vanguards of the nation in 1824.

After protests including marches, sit-ins at discriminatory establishments and even some riots, the issue was once again brought to the forefront of the national discourse. Groups such as the Solician League and the Blueshirts formed in order to intimidate Villager leaders, occasionally with violence. Teutons and other groups lower on the hierarchy resented the attention Villager activists were receiving on the national and global stage and began joining Solician supremacist organizations or forming their own to counter Villager activism. One such group, the French-Solician Brotherhood Alliance, committed numerous attacks, most famously the assassination of Malcolm Y, a Shia-Jihabist Villager nationalist.

In 1962, segregationist members of the COC put forward a constitutional provision to forbid any national intervention in a province or territories' policies towards racial discrimination. After extensive deal-making as well as a compromise enacting a sunset clause after 25 years, it passed extremely narrowly in the COC. It was initially expected that Emperor Burger would veto the bill given its extremely controversial nature and his personal opposition to the policy of racial discrimination but after massive protests involving hundreds of thousands in favor of what would be called Provision 88, the Emperor decided against a veto and the law came into effect on October 11th, 1962. Unrest erupted on the other side of the aisle as heavily Villager cities became engulfed with intense riots. Governor of New Jersey, Jorge S. Barrier, declared the restoration of law and order in the capital of Omaha to be "imperative" and requested national troops. The Executive Minister and Emperor released a joint statement the day after the formal filing of the request, rejecting the allocation of troops and lambasting the allegedly opportunistic and hypocritical nature of Barrier, as well as other segregationist leaders, and their requests. Enraged, Barrier ordered a swift and merciless crackdown on all rioting in his territory and began secret negotiations with the neighboring province of Alabama regarding secession from the Principality.

The riots were met with swift and unrelenting force including the shooting of several by police. Over 500 people were arrested within a day of the start of the deployment of riot police with two being shot dead for failing to comply. These shooting incidents only inflamed tensions further and drew condemnation from many prominent members of Barrier's own party. The riots continued as police presence only intensified. After several days and nights of continuous rioting and looting, the unrest was abated after tensions cooled due to both local Solician and Villager groups, especially churches, discouraging violence and giving aid to those affected.

Incidents of police brutality increased support for Villager nationalist groups, such as the Tan Tigers and the Nation of Villigayia, who began perpetrate political and racial violence. The New Birmingham church bombing in Alabama on September 15th, 1963, a terrorist attack orchestrated by the Tan Tigers which killed four Solician girls, was a tipping point decisively against the up and coming nationalist groups. This, however, increased support for the resurgent Solician League which began to rely more heavily on violence to achieve its political aims. The Solician League was suspected in over 50 cases of politically and racially-motivated violence in the Omaha metropolitan area alone. Their infamous calling card was the use of branding on their victim's bodies with the initials of the group "TSL".

Ahead of the 1965 election, societal tension was at an all time high. The traditional parliamentary coalitions had all but collapsed. The ruling party by a slim majority were the Liberal Democrats, their platform on the civil rights issue of the day being that of moderation. They positioned themselves as the rational and forward thinking stewards that wouldn't use government to enforce a rigid ideology but secure the best outcome for the largest number of people. They were staunchly opposed to the mandated caste-like system and supportive of some discrimination protections but believed that businesses should be able to refuse service within "reasonable limits" without the central government interfering.

There was significant opposition to both their left and right as they attempted to seize on their slim majority. The National Party, a right-wing populist party whose COC delegates were the main drivers behind Provision 88, attempted to stoke fears of a Villager nationalist uprising and attempted to exploit other social tensions of the day such as the growing counterculture movement. They postured themselves as the party of law and order, promising more funding for internal law enforcement agencies to better track and counter "subversive and destructive terrorist groups". Their main appeal to many Solicians as well as other races was their promise to uphold the provincial racial laws and strengthen Provision 88 in pursuit of further decentralization and maintaining the racial hierarchies of the traditional Solician society. The left-wing opposition to the center-right establishment party was the New Progressive Party, a social democrat and overall left-wing party. They pledged a repeal of Provision 88 and an expansion of centralized civil rights legislation. They had a fanatic base among the youth and in urban areas while also appealing to more conservative leaning workers with their left-wing populist economic message. Their poll numbers were further bolstered by an exodus of more libertarian leaning socialists from the Workers and Peasants Party of Solicia, later the sole ruling party of Dexistan.

Outside of various polling stations throughout the country on Election Day, there were protests and in some place, violent clashes between opposing groups, most commonly National Party and New Progressive voters. Rumours of fraud began to circulate even before some polling places opened and armed guards came to protect caravans of voters for every party. A fatal shooting occurred in the outskirts of Omaha in New Jersey between two armed groups of Tan Tigers and Solician League militiamen after a verbal altercation outside of a polling booth, resulting in the deaths of two Tan Tigers and the injury of a bystander Solician.

Despite the great anticipation of the election, the results were largely inconclusive with only minor gains for the New Progressive Party due to boosted youth turnout. The Liberal Democrats created a coalition with multiple minor centrist parties and successfully formed a government soon after. Both the political left and right were outraged by this outcome and protests on college campuses soon occurred in support of the New Progressives. National Party loyalists blamed their loss on smaller right-wing parties causing "vote-splitting" in key races thereby spoiling victories in close elections.