Khokharsa
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Khokharsa, officially the Khokharsan Federal Republic, is a country on North Skathia. It is bordered by Bisica to its north, and Central Tambossa to its northeast. It has a population of many people. Oslanburgan and Khokharsian are the official languages, and over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, some of them having regional status.
The climate is equatorial, with significant rainfall during the Quartyr-Dein season and harsh winds the remainder of the year. It was an important producer of cocoa and rubber in the early 14th century, and it has an important mining industry.
Khokharsa was an Oslanburgan colony before declaring its independence on Septem 24, 1357. The Arch-Kingdom of Oslanburg did not recognize the independence until 1370, with the signing of the Treaty of Omninanberg. Magnus Bard became the first elected president in 1383, and the 1382 Constitution is one of the oldest of the continent. Khokharsa was able to maintain and keep its independence during the rest of the colonial era.
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Etymology
Khokharsa derives from the word Khokhara in Ohuba language, meaning "liberty", therefore it can be translated as "Land of the Free". The name was coined by Hjalte Farfatter in 1377, and officially accepted in the 1382 Constitution. Previously, the country was named as the Equatorial Skathian Commonwealth, from 1359 to 1382.
History
Early history and colonization
The Salty Coast has been inhabited by indigenous peoples of Skathia at least as far back as the 8th century. Ohuba-speaking people expanded northward, forcing many smaller ethnic groups eastward toward the Novangian Bay. The Jami, Zambawi, Nagonian, Kukua, Akeemi were some of the earliest documented peoples in the nearby inland areas.
Between 6th and late 10th century, Lanlanian, Oslanburgan, Castlian, and Vallish traders had contacts and trading posts in the region. The Vallish named the area Côte Salé ("Salty Coast") due to the abundance of salt-tolerant mangrove trees. Brigidnan traders would barter commodities and goods with local people.
Oslanburg established several settlements in the northern coast in the early 11th century. In 1066, they founded Rimesia, in today Bisica, which became one of the most important trading posts of northern Skathia. It was founded with a hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. It was fortified in 1071 and elevated to a township in 1080. The Castlians established other trading post in the westward coast, principally trading in Skathian slaves for Magentinian plantations. Local slave dealers provided a large number of slaves for Oslanburg as well, usually sold in exchange for manufactured goods from Brigidna. This Skathian slave trade in the area continued until late 14th century.
During the 11th and 12th centuries, Oslanburg expanded considerably inland, founding many towns and slave plantations. During that time, the region was officially known as Oslan Equatorial Skathia. In the 13th century, Castleon expanded its colonial territory southward, although its control over much of its claimed territory was minimal compared to the Oslanic colonies. Famines and epidemies were recurring in the Castlian colonies; they may kill one-fourth or one-third of the population, destroying the demographic growth of a generation and forcing colonists back into the river valleys.
A Treaty in 1269 fixed the region's borders, delineating the boundaries of Oslanburgan and Castlian claims in the area. Trade between Castleon and her Skathian territories also rapidly increased in the early 14th century as a result of protective tariffs, leading to increased development, as well as a wave of new Castlian settlers.
The 1349 Revolt
By the late 13th century, Oslan Equatorial Skathia had become one of the main supplier of the world's cocoa. It had also, along nearby Castleon's Sierra Morana colony, an extensive coffee and sugar plantations. Cocoa production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Skathians in the harsh Oslan colonial plantation economy. Most of the slaves were northern and central Skathian natives, although Oslan also exported some slaves from northeastern Skathia.
Slaves in Oslan Equatorial Skathia had no rights, and the life of most slaves was harsh and miserable. In 1298, the Oslan settlers began passing legislation restricting the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. They could be classified into four different groups. One were the Oslan noblemen or royal envoys, who were the ruling class in the region. The second one were the Oslan colonists, which could be generally subdivided into the plantation owners and a lower class of whites who often served as overseers or day laborers. A third group was the free Skathians (usually mixed-race), which tended to be educated and literate and they often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Some of them were dedicated to slave trade or even operated their own plantations and were slave owners.
The fourth group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of Skathian slaves. There had been already a few minor slave revolts in the early 12th century. The Castlian and Oslan planters lived in fear of slave rebellion. They extensively used the threat of physical violence to maintain control in the plantations. If slaves left the plantations or disobeyed their masters, they were subject to whipping, or even death penalty. Oslan government had attempted to regulate the treatment of the enslaved population several times, but slaveholders openly and consistently ignored the law, and local legislation reversed parts of it through early 14th century.
There had been already a revolt of Skathian slaves in parts of the Castlian territory of Sierra Bella on Vintyr 2-6, 1331. The conditions in the sugar plantations in the Castlian colony were, in some cases, even harsher than those in the nearby Oslan colonies. While the start and causes of the revolt remain unknown, on Vintyr 2 between 80 and 200 enslaved men marched from sugar plantations toward the city of Chingudi. They collected more men along the way. Some accounts claimed a total of 800-1000 slaves participated. During their three-day march, they burned nine plantation houses (six completely), several sugarhouses, and crops. They were armed mostly with hand tools. They were led by Mwame Mbossa, a slave from Tambossa. Although only eleven Castlian settlers were murdered by the insurgents, the insurrection created a great panic and chaos in the nearby provinces. Castlian settlers led by officials formed a militia company to hunt down and kill the insurgents. Over the next month, about 100 aditional insurgents were executed after a public trial. Executions were by hanging or decapitation, and the bodies of the executed were displayed as a warning to intimidate other slaves. The heads of some were put on the pikes and displayed at nearby plantations.
Many in Oslan Equatorial Skathia saw the revolt in the Castlian colony as an ominous sign. Laurent Thumerelle, a Vallish military officer and explorer, was one of them. He had married the daughter of an Oslan settler, and wrote several books about his travels in Equatorial Skathia, the Mandavines, and the Castlian colonies. He predicted a general slave revolt in the colonies, if there were no serious social reform. Thumerelle's prediction came true on the night of 22 Dein 1349, when the slaves of Oslan Equatorial Skathia rose in revolt and began to kill their masters and plunged the colony into civil war.
The revolt started in Alnhagen, a town five miles from the Gulf of Bisica, and expanded quickly inland and eastward. Within the next three weeks, slaves had taken control of the entire northwestern province and much of the south in an unprecedented and violent slave revolt. By late Elva, the number of slaves who joined the revolt reached about 50,000. Several thousands of Oslan settlers were murdered, and about 100 plantations were destroyed or burned. Oslan settlers kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. By mid-1350, the slaves took the province of Ligeria, effectively isolated all the southern and eastern territories from the coastal settlements. About 5,000 Oslan settlers were murdered in the next month only in that central province. After that, several Oslan expeditinary forces from the Mandavines arrived to Bisica.
Kean Siljberg, a self-educated former domestic slave, proved to be a successful Skathian commander. In 1351, his forces were able to take over Monraunberg, today Monrassa, after defeating Oslan troops led by Colonel Jens Mogensen. He proclaimed the abolition of slavery in all the continent, and proclaimed himself Governor of Equatorial Skathia. More slaves joined the insurrection, specially in southeastern provinces. At the end of the year, the slave army had between 100,000-200,000 men, according to several sources. In 1353, he led an invasion of neighboring Sierra Morena, and fought against Castlian forces for nine months.
Independence
The war, known as War of Independence in Khokharsa, lasted for eight years. In 1356, in the Battle of Opar, Siljberg's army was able to force the Oslan army to withdraw further to the northeast, but it suffered a high cost: about 90,000-120,000 Skathian soldiers died, while the Oslan forces only lost about 15,000-20,000 soldiers in the battle. Several weeks later, the Castlian army launched an offensive, forcing the rebel army to withdraw from Sierra Morena, and kept advancing unopposed. They also seized most of southwestern Oslan Equatorial Skathia, which had been mostly unaffected by the slave revolt, where they were received as liberators by white Oslan settlers.
The Skathians abandoned convential warfare and reverted back to guerrilla tactics, making the Castlians hold over much of western Equatorial Skathia. Oslanburg offered Castleon an alliance to completely crush the slave revolt in Equatorial Skathia. However, the Kingdom of Castleon rejected the Oslan offer, as they aimed to annex much of the former Oslan colonies than their armies now controlled. The Castlian army attacked several Oslan ports in the Mandavines, threatening Oslanburg supply to their Skathian colonies. By late 1356, Oslanburg decided to sign a treaty with Castleon, known as the Peace of Skoven, in which Oslanburg ceded large possessions of Oslan Equatorial Skathia to the Kingdom of Castleon.
The Castlian army kept advancing but epidemies during the rainy season caused many casualties in their forces. In 1358, Castleon decided to offer a peace to the Skathian leadership, which had declared officially its independence only six months before. On 26 Nueva 1358, the Treaty of Fuencaliente was signed between both sides, which established a buffer state between both countries, as Castleon was not willing that their slaves fled to the new state. As consequence, Equatorial Skathia lost about 1/3 of their territory before the war.
Equatorial Skathian Commonwealth
Kean Siljberg became President for life, and a Skathian Council -mostly formed by a group of Skathians military commanders and notables- was selected as legislative body. The Declaration of Independence had abolished slavery, and declared that all lands would be under state ownership, while peasants would be attached to a plantation, based on an open-field system administered by the military authority. This established a form of serfdom in practice, although this was not always established in practice in those areas with a smaller population or far away to the main urban centers.
Equatorial Skathian economy had been completely destroyed by the war, and Oslanburg kept a blockade along the Gulf of Bisica, which isolated the country from world trade and forced it to develop a subsistence agriculture.
President Siljberg died in 1361, and the following years were years of political instability, with six presidents between 1361 and 1365. In 1364, it was promulgated the Basic Law, which established a more clear and rational state organization, including the creation of detailed judiciary system and the abolition of military courts. During that time there were created community schools, although the progress on literacy were very slow.
In 1368, it was approved the Bill of Rights, which granted some political rights, such as the abolition of corporal punishment - although this was barely imposed in practice. It also banned non-Skathians to own land in the territory of the Commonwealth, and banned the death penalty.
Eastward Expansion
During the late 1360s, the economic situation was dire, and there was rural unrest in many provinces of the new state. At that time, Equatorial Skathia was surrounded by a large group of tribal societies and small kingdoms, some of them still undiscovered by Brigidnan explorers. After minor clashes, the Commonwealth government approved the annexation of nearby lands, in order to secure the borders of the nation.
In 1367, under the initative of Secretary of Treasury Hjalte Farfatter, it was approved the Purchasing Land Act, which allowed the state to sell land and individual citizens to buy land, effectively ending the practice of peasants to be forcely attached to the land, and therefore abolishing serfdom. Although this was aimed to the quickly development of lands sparcely inhabited and recently annexed, it were military and political officials along urban merchants the main ones which beneficted of this measure, contributing to the creation of a new economic elite.
The Eastward expansion also contributed to create alternative commercial route from the Tambossan region to the Gulf of Bisica. The annexation of lands were done through several methods. In some cases, they lands were simply annexed, and the natives were invited to join the new lands as labourers. In other cases, the local inhabitants were forced to escape further east, while in other cases tribes were decimated and hunted down for allegedly security reasons. In less than a decade, the Commonwealth expanded considerably its territory, more than three times by 1380.
The expansion of the Commonwealth created concern to some Brigidnan powers. Oslanburg and Castleon opened talks for a joint invasion of the Equatorial Skathian Commonwealth, as some slaves from their colonies were trying to cross into the Commonwealth territory in order to be hired as labourers. This, however, was avoided as the Castleon-Nyland war unleashed in the 1370s.
The Constitution of 1382
The Constitution of 1382 was the first constitution of Khokharsa, still in force although amended several times during the last two centuries. Although the constitution was aimed to integrate constitutional agreements such as the Declaration of Independence, the Basic Law of 1364, and the Bill of Rights of 1368, it was largely modeled on the Constitution of the Nylander Republic. It was mostly written by Hjalte Farfatter, a Khokharsan politician who had visited Nyland to establish diplomatic relations and study the education system there. The constitution officially changed the name of the country from Equatorial Skathia to Khokharsa, officially known as the Khokharsan Federal Republic. It was proclaimed on 4 Septem 1382, shortly after the first elections to the Khokharsan Senate.
The Constitution created a federal state governed by three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The executive branch was led by the President of Khokharsan, elected by popular vote of all land-owning citizens to a three-year term. Legislative power was held by the Federal Assembly of Khokharsa, a bicameral body made up of a Khokharsan Assembly and a Senate. The judicial branch consisted of the Supreme Court of Khokharsa, made up of a chief justice and four associate justices, and circuit courts created by the Legislature. Article One of the Constitution enshrined civil liberties similar to those protected by the Nylander Constitution.
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The Constitution, however, limited voting rights to the economic and political elite, formed by urban merchants and land-owning citizens. Only 5% of the male population had right to vote until 1440.
Magnus Bard was the first elected President of Khokharsa, and Hjalte Farfatter became Vice President, an office created by the Constitution. Previously, from 1370 to 1382, the president was elected by an electoral college formed by military commanders and rural political appointees.
Politically, the Khokharsan Federal Republic was soon dominated by two political parties. The Moderate Party was supported primarily by mixed-race Skathians from urban backgrounds and rural landowners, while the Liberal Party, established in 1386, received much of its following from the richer urban merchant class. From the first presidential election of 1383, the Moderate Party held political dominance.
Massacre of Ligeria
In 1387, Khokharsa defeated the Kingdom of Bocamo in the four-month war known as First Khokharsan-Bocamian War, from late 1386 to early 1387. As consequence, the Khokharsan Federal Republic annexed several provinces of the Kingdom of Bocamo. Many of those lands were inhabited for Castlian settlers and although most of them decided to move the nearby Castlian colony, some of them decided to stay, as Khokharsa seemed more stable. Their hopes did not last, however, as after the 1389 state elections, most of the settlers were forced to move to nearby state of Ligeria, ruled by the controversial Governor Franz Hasane.
On Dein 1389, a Skathian Khokharsan girl, Alaafia Pápáme, was found murdered in the town of Mbame, and after another teenager who committed suicide by poisoning herself was declared dead in a charity hospital founded by Messanic Castlian settlers, several regional newspapers insinuated that both children had been murdered by the local Castlian community. After a state senator made similar insinuations, it sparked violence against non-Skathian settlers. Governor Franz Hasane promised to start an official investigation about the cases, but his words, promising vengeance if foreigners were proved to be guilty, instigated more attacks rather than the contrary.
The massacre began on Dein 25, and lasted until Tolven 4. The second most popular newspaper in Ligeria, owned by a candidate of the Conservative Party, regularly published articles with headlines such as "Death to the settlers!" and "War against the Brigidnan oppressors!". Riots expanded quickly to twelve towns on Dein 27, and several hundred were killed, 89 were severely wounded and 200 were slightly injured, more than 500 houses were destroyed, and 100 stores were pillaged. Herlev Krøniker published a forged dispatch by Khokharsan Secretary of Homeland to the governor of Ligeria, which supposedly gave orders not to stop the rioters, but, in any case, no attempt was made by the federal government to intervene to stop the riots until mid-Elva.
By early Tolven 1389, some 2,000 to 4,000 people had been killed, and the white Castlian settlers were practically eradicated. Only three categories of white people were selected as exceptions and spared from the violence: non-Castlian foreign citizens; nurses and doctors in federal hospitals; and those Castlian settlers who were working for the federal administration or had connections to Khokharsan officers and politicians. Of the Castlian settlers, only 200 survived the massacre.
Some Khokharsan newspapers and politicians, including Senator Hjalte Farfatter, called the federal government to stop the massacre. However, with the massacre happening only a few months before the presidential elections, the federal government only indirectly intervened a month after the beginning of the massacre, and even after that many candidates did not openly condemned the massacre during the electoral campaign. Nikolaj Kagawasan Bard was elected president in 1390. He visited the state of Ligeria in Vintyr 1389, during his electoral campaign, but no mention of the massacre can be found in local newspapers reporting his visit.
The Nylander New Fenridge Times described the events in Lungsodia, a town nearby the state of Gunam:
The anti-settlers riots in Lungsodia, Ligeria, are worse than anyone could imagine, bringing back memories of the 1359 Skathian revolt. There was a well laid-out plan for the general massacre of settlers the day after the local government left the town for unclear reasons. The mob was led by prominent people of the province, and the genral cry, "Kill the foreigners", was taken-up all over the city. The settlers were taken wholly unaware and were slaughtered like sheep. The dead number 200 and the injured about 500. Some of them were able to escape to the state of Gunam, but a few were returned for no reason. The scenes of horror attending this massacres are beyond description. Babies were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied and bloodhthirsty mob. The local police made no attempt to check the reign of terror. At sunset, the streets were piled with corpses and wounded. Those who could make their escape fled in terror, and the city is now practically deserted of Castlian settlers ("Settlers Massacre Denounced", New Fenridge Times, Elva 19, 1389).
There were rumours in the national and regional media of a Brigidnan invasion to stop the massacre. This, however, did not happen.
The massacre had a negative and long-lasting effect on the international view of the Khokharsan Republic. Only a few Khokharsan citizens were prosecuted for their role in the massacre. Most of them were pardoned by President Nikolaj Kagawasan Bard a few years later. The survivors were given an economic compensation and they were allowed to leave the republic if they wished so. It also increased racial and political tensions inside the republic.
The Second Bocamian-Khokharsan War
The Kingdom of Bocamo was created as a buffer state between Equatorial Skathia and the Castlian colonies. The Kingdom was an absolute monarchy, ruled by ethnic Maisog. Most of the population, non-Maisog Skathians, along a minority of servants brought from the Mandavines by the Castlian settlers, were reduced to either slavery or serfdom. The Kingdom lived mostly of slave trade, but when world slave trade was abolished by late 14th century, the Kingdom of Bocamo entered in decline.
In 1387, the Kingdom of Bocamo had already lost territory to the Khokharsan Republic, and six years later, it was forced to sign a treaty with the Castlian colony, in which this annexed 20% of Bocamo northern territory. Tambok I, King of Bocamo for more than thirty years died in 1416, he was succeed by his elder son Mubo, but he was murdered only eleven months later. Tambok's daughter Babayinah became Queen, but shortly afterwards, Tambok's brother Ngamhanan claimed the throne, starting a civil war.
Babayinah was forced to withdraw toward the south, with a small number of loyalist forces. She promised to abolish slavery if she won the war, although she didn't immediately, and established diplomatic relations with the Khokharsan Federal Republic. After Liberal Party candidate Ib Farfatter was elected Khokharsan president in 1417, the Khokharsan government trained and armed slaves who had fled the Kingdom of Bocamo. In Elva 1418, after a number of skirmishes along the Bocamian-Khokharsan border, the Khokharsan Assembly voted for a declaration of war in order to restore order in the western kingdom.
The invasion started a month later, starting the Second Bocamian-Khokharsan War, also known as Khokharsan National War (1418-1424). The Khokharsan Republic proclaimed the conflict to be an ideological war, against slavery an for republican freedom. Most of the southern and eastern Bocamo was already occupied by Khokharsan forces in early 1419, and Queen Babiynah was moved to Lombuanda, central Khorkharsa, where she met with President Ib Farfatter and spent most of the war there.
However, on 2 Quartyr 1419, Castleon and Oslanburg demanded the Khokharsan government to stop the invasion and threatened with war. On 28 Septem and 4 Ochtyr Castleon and Oslanburg, respectively, invaded Khokharsa. By the end of Ochtyr, the Khokharsan army was forced to withdraw from Northern Bocamo, while Oslanburg occupied most of coastal Khokharsan, effectively ending commerce between Khokharsan and world trade. Six months later, the Oslanburgan army seized Malagwi, and Castlian and Oslan forces were able to siege the capital city of Khokharsa, Monrassa, for ten months. On Marth 11, the Oslan army seized Pembassa, the six largest town in Khokharsa at the time, and looted and burned most of the city. Meanwhile, the Castlian army was not able to advance that far in Western Bocamo, as the rainy season, and the brutal opposition of Bocamian slaves, who feared that the Brigidnan armies would reintroduce slavery, who started a guerrilla war against the Brigidnan army.
Oslan kept advancing, however, and by the end of the year, the Brigidnan armies already occupied more than half of Khokharsa territory before the war. General Gabriel Sakoa, who took control of the Khokharsan army only two months before, prepared and launched an offensive in 28 Dosa 1421, which surprised the Oslan army and forced them to retreat to the Khokharsan capital. On 4 Fein 1421, the Battle of Monrassa started, which lasted three months. By the end of Ochtyr, Sakoa was able to seize Monrassa, being a whole Oslan division completely slaughtered. Meanwhile, the Castlian army was suffering on yellow fever, which killed thousands of soldiers, and the morale of the Castlian troops were collapsing.
On late 1421, it started the Battle of Malagwi, which lasted for six months. It became the most bloodthirsty of all the war, with 28,000 Castlian and Oslan soldiers, and along 200,000-300,000 Khokharsans, dead. The Khokharsan were unable to take the city, however, and did not launch any that massive offensive in more than a year. On Septem 1422, the Castlian army withdrew from most of the Kingdom of Bocamo, after a new offensive by Bocamian and Khokharsan irregular forces. On Dein 1422, the Khokharsan army launched a minor offensive against Stollig, but they failed to take the city or causing major loses.
The war continued without important changes until Vintyr 1423, when General Gabriel Sakoa seized the main road which united the Castlian and Oslan armies. Sakoa launched another large offensive two months later, this time in Northwestern Bocamo, which resulted in a failure, but caused the concern of the Castlian leadership which feared that the Khokharsan army coud be able to seize territory of the Castlian colony. While in the next months the Castlian and Oslan started to advancing into Khorkharsan territory again, they started negotiations with Khokharsan government, fearing being involved in an unending military conflict.
The Treaty of Malagwi (1424) ended the war, with the Castlian colony and Oslan government annexing large chunks of Khokharsan territory, even those under control of the Khokharsan army at the time the treaty was signed. The Castlian colony expanded considerably eastward, while Oslanburg received an important part of northeastern Khokharsa, with the territory of Bisica doubling its own size. As consequence, the Khokharsan Federal Republic had lost about 20% of its territory before the war.
Regarding the Kingdom of Bocamo, it was officially abolished, Queen Babayinah forced to abdicate, and its territory divided betweeh the Khokharsan republic and a protectorate administered by the Castlian colony. Eastern Bocamo became officially part of the Khokharsan Federal Republic after the ninth amendment was passed, in 1431, and the state of Kukuanland was created. The Protectorate of West Bocamo would be officially annexed by the Castlian colony in 1441. Queen Babayinah remained living in Khokharsa until her death in 1448, in Opar, Khokharsa. While most Castlian settlers in East Bocamo decided to move to the Castlian-controlled protectorate or back to Brigidna, a minority of them decided to stay in Khokharsa. Eventually, many of those Castlian settlers would settle in the northern coastal states, where they found easy to flourish economically, helped by international trade.
The Treaty also forced the Khokharsan Federal Republic to pay harsh economic compensations to both Castleon and Oslanburg. They would not be fully paid until 1479 and 1504, respectively.
Reconstruction Era
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As consequence of the long military conflict, the Khokharsan economy had collapsed and many main cities, included the capital, had been destroyed. Between 2-4 million Khokharsan citizens had died during the war as well, so many regions found depopulated. The former territory from the Kingdom of Bocamo annexed by the Khokharsa republic barely compensated the territory lost in the north, not only it was a poorer and barely developed area, but it had been devastated by the war.
Ib Farfatter was surprisingly reelected president for third term in 1423, but the resigned in early 1425, allegedly for health reasons. Vice President Ove Paprika replaced him, but he became a very unpopular president, mostly because the Treaty of Malagwi was considered too harsh despite the military effort, and because the country was in a deep economic depression. Hunger and unemployment was rampant, and the government soon proved unable to control the rising inflation. Paprika became the first Khokharsan president to be impeached, six months before the 1426 elections.
Eigil Umkhandi, the Moderate Party candidate was elected president in 1426, but he was unable to improve the economic situation. Ib Farfatter would run again as Liberal Party candidate, winning the 1429 elections by a landslide. Before him, noone had served more than ten years as president before. During Ib Farfatter's four term, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth amendments were passed, increased the latter the presidential terms from three to five years. Farfatter, however, was defeated by General Gabriel Sakoa, who run as Moderate Party candidate, in 1432.
Sakoa became the longest serving president in Khokharsan history, serving from 1432 to 1447, after being reelected in 1437 and 1442. Sakoa was an authoritarian but very popular president, which had an important impact in this period of Khokharsan history known as Reconstruction Era, usually dated from the end of the war until 1457. This period of time is known for its social unrest and political instability, after Sakoa and until 1562 no Khokharsan president was able to win a reelection.
The consequences of the war imposed deep economic and demographic changes in the country. The integration of East Bocamo into Khokharsa proved a complicated process in the middle of economic troubles. The relations between Bocamian dominant ethnic group, the Maisogi, and the minor ethnic groups of the annexed kingdom increased racial tensions, while many in pre-war Khokharsa blamed the Bocamian peoples for the war. The Reconstruction Era aimed to solve all those problems, with not only the reconstruction of state and society, but the integration of the Bocamian peoples in the Khokharsan nation.
The fourteen amendment, passed during President Sakoa's second term, removed the constitutional clause which gave the citizenship from "oppressed Skathian nations" who decided to settle in Khorkharsan territory, setting the foundations of a concept of nation-state based on more conventional terms. This would be confirmed and expanded with the 1440 Naturalization Act. Sakoa also expanded voting rights. This decision would prove decisive in his second reelection in 1442.
While slavery and serfdom were abolished in the former lands of East Bocamo, the well-being of their inhabitants only improved slightly. Most of the lands were declared state property first, and they were soon sold to rich Khokharsans and, in some cases, to veteran Khokharsan military officers. Former slaves were forced to remain working in the same plantations under harsh conditions or moving to elsewhere facing high unemployment. Recent research has showed that salaries for agriculture workers in Khokharsa only raised from $0.22 to $0.31 in the twenty years after the war.
Golden Age
The reelection of president Egede Agbejovo in 1462, the first Liberal Party president to win a reelection since 1423, is considered the end of the Reconstruction Era and the beginning of the Golden Era, a period of Khokharsan history which will last until the end of the century. While the Golden Era was a time of economic growth and cultural flourishment, the term Golden Era derives rather from the expansion of the mining industry in the country during those years.
One key political figure of that time was President Dirsch Onkqwe. He served as Secretary of Treasury (1457-1462), Vice President (1462-1467), before being elected and reelected president in 1467 and 1472, respectively. During his presidency, it was passed the controversial fifteenth amendment, removing the constitutional clause which banned non-Skathians to own land in Khokharsa. Business-friendly legislation was passed, and foreign investment increased considerably, mostly by Nylander companies, in the mining industry and in railroads construction.
While the Golden Age was one of the periods of Khokharsan history with the highest and constant economic growth, the formation of a small middle-class, and unemployment declined considerably, there was a perception of increasing corruption, and inequality grew considerably as well.
Geography
Khokharsa is the third largest country in Skathia. It is comparable in size to Sequoia, or twice the size of Gehenna or Valland. It lies mostly between lattitutes 20° and 33°S, and longitutes 22° and 40°E. Khokharsa is bordered by Bisica to the northeast, Central Tambossa to the south, and the Mandavine Sea, in the Gulf of Bisica, to the north. Khokharsa capital, Monrassa, is on the east, not far from the central region of the country.
- Geography of Khokharsa
Akama beach in the Erakawon Islands.
Hakemburgan on the northwestern coast of Khokharsa.
Fakame Falls, Khame River on the border of Khokharsa and Central Tambossa.
Green Rocks at Makaagi near Nowuro.
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Climate
Khokharsa has a tropical climate with two seasons, a wet season from Dein to Marth and a dry season from Quartyr to Nueva. Climatic conditions, however, vary depending on altitude. Rainfall is heavy along the coast and decreases in the southern and central regions. Annual precipitation varies from 500 to 900 mm (19.7 to 35.4 in) depending on the region, with an average of 590 mm (23.2 in). Cyclones are common during the wet season. Average temperature ranges in Monrassa are from 13 to 24 °C (55.4 to 75.2 °F) on Dein and from 22 to 31 °C (71.6 to 87.8 °F) on Nueva.
There are known to be 1,321 bird species in Khokharsa, including 50 globally threatened species and sixty introduced species, and over 200 mammal species endemic to Khokharsa, including the critically endangered Tambossan zebra and 13 other endangered or vulnerable species.
Protected areas of Khokharsa include sixty-four forest reserves, twenty-two national parks, eleven nature reserves, fourteen frontier conservation areas and seven wildlife or game reserves.
Governance and politics
The Khokharsan Federal Republic is one oldest constitutional governments of Skathia, with a constitution dating from 1382. It is a constitutional presidential republic and representative democracy. The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the 1382 Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. In the Khokharsan Federal Republic, citizens are usually subject to three level of government: federal, state, and local. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, although there is in some cases at lower levels.
The federal government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: the bicameral Federal Council, made up of the Senate and the Khokharsan Assembly, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, approves the federal budget, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
- Executive: The President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to parliamentary override), and appoints the members of the federal cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
- Judicial: the Supreme Court and lower federal courts, who judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.
The Khokharsan Assembly, the Lower House of the Federal Council, has 333 members, each representing a electoral district for a four-year term. The Senate has 60 members with each state having four senators; elected to five-year terms. Half of the Khokharsan Assembly are up for election every two years, while one third of Senate seats are up for election every year. Khokharsan Assembly seats are apportioned among the states by population every eighth year. The Khokharsan Assembly and the Senate have several distinct powers. For example, treaties are only approved by the Senate, while the Khokharsan Assembly has the exclusive power to initiate bills for raising revenue, to impeach officials, and to choose the President in the case the incumbent has been impeached by both houses of parliament (this only happened once, in Septem 1426). The Senate and Khokharsan Assembly are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented. The Senate is informally referred to as the "upper house", and the Khokharsan Assembly as the "lower house".
The state goverments are usually unicameral, with an elected assembly with representatives elected from single-representative districts similarly to the Khokharsan Assembly; only the states of Monraoun and Kukuanland are bicameral, with a structure mostly identical to the Federal Council. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.
The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states, and expanded many individual rights granted in the 1368 Bill of Rights. The Constitution has been amended 16 times. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled by the courts to be in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the sixteenth amendment, passed in 1544.
Political divisions
Khokharsa is a federal republic of 13 states, two federal cities and four territories. The states and territories are the principal administrative districts in the country. These are divided into subdivisions of counties and independent cities. The most populated state is Monraoun while the federal city of Monrassa contains the capital of the Khokharsan Federal Republic.
The Khokharsan Federal Republic also observes tribal sovereignty of the Skathian Native Nations to a limited degree, as it does with the states' sovereignty. The Skathian Native Nations are Khokharsan citizens and tribal lands are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Council and the federal courts. Like the states they have a great deal of autonomy, but also like the states tribes are not allowed to make war, engage in their own foreign relations, or print and issue currency.
| Name & postal abbreviation | Cities | Established | Population | Reps | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | Largest | |||||
| Federal city of Monrassa | MA | Monrassa | Septem 4, 1382 | 2,497,031 | 10 | |
| Federal city of Fotenburg | FO | Fotenburg | Septem 4, 1382 | 7,401,885 | 30 | |
| Monraoun | MO | Kviumstaden | Gedahbia | Septem 4, 1382 | 12,458,748 | 51 |
| Bongastaden | BN | Nagorabi | Nowuro | Septem 4, 1382 | 5,821,338 | 23 |
| Siljbergmark | SK | Opar | Omashana | Septem 4, 1382 | 5,814,101 | 23 |
| Gunam | GM | Malagwi | Septem 4, 1382 | 6,697,421 | 27 | |
| Arawa | AR | Sakoarsdal | Alhagen | Septem 4, 1382 | 7,399,907 | 31 |
| Ibadia | IB | Ontjupa | Septem 4, 1382 | 1,666,387 | 6 | |
| Alawokun | AL | Tetikenberg | Kunsati | Septem 4, 1382 | 3,329,564 | 10 |
| Rivermark | RI | Okun | Ereheke | Vintyr 17, 1382 | 4,980,969 | 20 |
| Montepious | MT | Godskersdal | Johansenborg | Marth 24, 1383 | 4,978,072 | 20 |
| Marylland | MR | Ny Bosse | Zambawia | Zechyr 2, 1388 | 5,796,636 | 23 |
| Ligeria | LI | Mbame | Lombuanda | Zechyr 2, 1388 | 5,899,746 | 24 |
| Freedonia | FA | Soyansund | Farfatterland | Nueva 19, 1401 | 3,602,696 | 13 |
| Kukuanland | KU | Kukuamia | Dein 22, 1431 | 4,959,765 | 18 | |
| Maritaimia, territory of |
TM | Fiskeja | Alvan 9, 1383 | 78,221 | 1 | |
| Ologun, territory |
TO | Ologun | Irekome | Alvan 9, 1383 | 437,788 | 1 |
| Erakawon Islands, territory of |
TE | Nzamzund | Alvan 9, 1383 | 146,571 | 1 | |
| Alabonia, territory of |
TH | Mpakestari | Fein 11, 1509 | 101,747 | 1 | |
List of Khokharsan presidents
List of Presidents of the Equatorial Skathian Commonwealth (1358-1382)
| Nº | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of Office | Political Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kean Siljberg | Marth 1358 | Nueva 1361 | No political affiliation |
| 2 | Therkel Grubb | Nueva 1361 | Vintyr 1361 | No political affiliation |
| 3 | Knud Brae | Vintyr 1361 | Quartyr 1361 | No political affiliation |
| 4 | Jacob Jensen | Quartyr 1361 | Fein 1363 | No political affiliation |
| 5 | Jens Awoyin | Fein 1363 | Dein 1363 | No political affiliation |
| 6 | Rudolph Awe | Dein 1363 | Elva 1363 | No political affiliation |
| 7 | Arne Haugen | Elva 1363 | Septem 1367 | No political affiliation |
| 8 | Per Kvium | 1367 | 1370 | No political affiliation |
| 9 | Svend Toosbuy | 1370 | 1373 | No political affiliation |
| 10 | Per Kvium | 1373 | 1378 | Moderate Party |
| 11 | Mads Kulungile | 1378 | 1381 | Moderate Party |
| 12 | Godske Johansen | 1381 | 1382 | Constitutional Party |
List of Presidents of the Khokharsan Federal Republic
| Nº | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of Office | Political Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus Bard | 1382 | 1388 | Moderate Party |
| 2 | Lars Mogensen | 1388 | 1390 | Moderate Party |
| 3 | Nikolaj Kagawasan Bard | 1390 | 1399 | Moderate Party |
| 4 | Nils Olagun | 1399 | 1402 | Moderate Party |
| 5 | Soren Reinhardt | 1402 | 1405 | Liberal Party |
| 6 | Niels Frandsen | 1405 | 1414 | Moderate Party |
| 7 | Jeppe Back | 1414 | 1417 | Moderate Party |
| 8 | Ib Farfatter | 1417 | 1425 | Liberal Party |
| 9 | Ove Paprika | Marth 1425 | Septem 1426 | Liberal Party |
| 10 | Primo Ixesha | Septem 1426 | Vintyr 1426 | Moderate Party |
| 11 | Eigil Umkhandi | 1426 | 1429 | Moderate Party |
| 12 | Ib Farfatter | 1429 | 1432 | Liberal Party |
| 13 | Gabriel Sakoa | 1432 | 1447 | Moderate Party |
| 14 | Bryan Ravn | 1447 | 1452 | Liberal Party |
| 15 | Jakob Salomonsen | 1452 | 1457 | Moderate Party |
| 16 | Egede Agbejovo | 1457 | 1467 | Liberal Party |
| 17 | Dirsch Onkqwe | 1467 | 1477 | Liberal Party |
| 18 | Gustav Wilke | 1477 | 1480 | Liberal Party |
| 19 | Claus Calvino | 1480 | 1482 | Liberal Party |
| 20 | Anker Bondam | 1482 | 1487 | Moderate Party |
| 21 | Losse Vestager | 1487 | 1497 | Liberal Party |
| 22 | Lars Nielsen | 1497 | 1502 | Liberal Party |
| 23 | Ayo Iwogun | 1502 | 1512 | Moderate Party |
| 24 | Abidemi Arup | 1512 | 1517 | Liberal Party |
| 25 | Oluwaseun Gade | 1517 | 1527 | People's Party |
| 26 | Martin Curth | 1527 | 1532 | People's Party |
| 27 | Morten Carlsen | 1532 | 1537 | Liberal Party |
| 28 | Henrik Soya | 1537 | 1547 | Democratic Party |
| 29 | Pral Bankye | 1547 | 1550 | People's Party |
| 30 | Rasmus Dam | 1550 | 1552 | People's Party |
| 31 | Valdemar Wichfeld | 1552 | 1562 | Democratic Party |
| 32 | Knud Milius | 1562 | 1567 | Democratic Party |
| 33 | Kayode Blixen | 1567 | 1572 | People's Party |
| 34 | Benedict Dacian | 1572 | 1582 | Democratic Party |
| 35 | Gustav Back | 1582 | 1587 | Democratic Party |
| 36 | Chika Odbazor | 1587 | 1597 | People's Party |
