Ponant

The Republic of Ponant is a country located on the Lemurian Archipelago in the Northwestern area of Pacific Ocean. With approximately 1,103,415 square kilometers and with more than 240 millions inhabitants, it is the most populated and the greatest country in  the Pacific Region. His capital is Phoenix (locally called Fenizo) which counts more than thirty millions habitants and which is the largest city in the world by its urban area and population.

The country is a Federal Republic (Republiko Federeta) which counts twenty two provinces, sixty regions and 224 departments. Nearest regions is the Hawaii archipelago which is 1,200 kilometers to the east south east. The country is the most populous of all the Pacific region and Oceania: its population actually represents more than 90% of the total population of Oceania. About seventy percent of inhabitants in the Ponant are from malayo-polynesian ancestry, and fifty percent is from amerindo-european migrants.

The climate of the island is tropical on the coast and temperate in the highlands. The highest point located in the republic is the Monte Nevita (2,443 meters) and the lowest is the Pacific Ocean (0 meter). About five percent of the total area is water : the Lago de Dragon is the greatest lake of the country and alone constitutes 70% of the freshwater resources of the island.

Pre-European Settlements
According to specialists of the scientific community, the actual native Lemurians were peoples who emigrated from actual Micronesia, Japan and Taiwan. Firsts traces of habitation were found on the western and northern coasts of actual Vascon Province. Thoses traces dated from the middle of the fourth century. Those peoples, the Proto-Lemurian peoples, according to human remains recovered, were of southern Asian type : their haplogroup (in the Y chromosome) seems to correspond to Southeast Asian ethnies. Some tools have also been recovered near Tausan and was dated from 250 CE. According to specialists, the archipelago of Lemuria was therefore one of the first far Pacific islands to be populated. First by early Austronesian peoples and later by melanesian and polynesian peoples.

The Proto-lemurian people lived in villages inhabited by more than 100 persons and were mostly semi-nomadic. The food was abundant, semi-nomadic peoples became gradually sedentary, but the territory is vast and constituted villages lived in a quasi-autarky. Isolation maintained ancient languages which became isolate progressively in the time, and some of which are still spoken nowadays like Auma, Iwi or Na'e languages, which later influenced Aka language.

The Austronesian peoples from the current archipelago of Micronesia came to colonize the coastal regions and the southern region of Lemuria to the seventh century, and mixed with Asian populations from inner regions.

The 7th century knew the emergence and the expansion of Lakhang civilization ; his culture influenced all other cultures throughout Lemuria. From that time, prays, biographies and chronicles written in Lakhang script were also recovered. From the 7th to the 12th century, Lakhang language was used for most of literary works.

In 1150, Lakhang civilization and culture declined. This period marked the vulgarization of Lakhang languages and the emergence of Lakhan languages, many vulgar languages appearead. It's in this moment that began to appear and modernize most of actual Lemurian languages. Aka language, derived from Proto-Lemurian languages (Auma, Na'e, Iwi), was more and more used and dialects increasingly distant of the mother language appeared circa 1400.

The population was estimated to be around 220,000 inhabitants.

In the 14th and the 15th centuries, explorers from the Hawaii Archipelago began to settle in the southern Lemuria ; their languages influenced and were influenced by local dialects.

European Colonization
First european to discover the Island was Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in 1606 and built a colony names Providencia first inhabited by about one 117 persons. Exploration of the island was finished in 1608. After building Providencia, they sent a first and a second to Acapulco and to Manila to bring the settlers.

After Quiros death in 1614, Providencia, the only spanish colony of the archipelago, built in the actual Janalando province, counts 20,887 inhabitants : trade with neighboring indigenous populations are growing and the population of the colony grows as fastly as shipments bring settlers from Manila or Acapulco. But gradually as the colony grows, native inhabitants are driven from their lands revolted, leading to the massacre of the colony in 1622. the survivors of this massacre decided to ally with local tribes, leading to wedding and miscegenation. Descendants of the survivors decided then to build a new town called Nueva Providencia (actual Nova Providencio) located 220 kilometers norther. This town is a free town, not a colony. The free town thrives independently of supplies from the Philippines and New Spain. The city flourished and grows to such a level (she had over 50,000 inhabitants essentially from polynesian ancestry and arount one hundred of euro-polynesian descendants) so its governor in 1644 decided to found the city of Santiago, intended to be the basis for future marine explorations. In the same year, the city of Puerto Nueva (actual Porto Nova) has been founded by Pedro Salamanca.



In 1650, Pablo Fernandez, the governor of Nueva Providencia, commissioned Hernan Váez to gather settlers in order to colonize southwestern californian Coast and was appointed viceroy of California. With five other ships, he landed near the actual city of Santa Cruz and founded the colony of Esperanza. In the archipelago of Lemuria, the free town of Santiago became more and more powerful by encouraging interethnic exchanges, weddings and by inciting indigeneous naitons to join the Confederation of Santiago. In 1662, the free town of Santiago changed his names to become the Confederate Nations of Lemuria (Naciones Confederados de Lemuria) which considered as a citizen any person which has one parents who belonged to a nation which was a member of the confederation.

The First Era
The Confederate Nations of Lemuria (CNL) was created as a result of the Pledge of Nations (Juramento de las Naciones) in April 14th 1665. This pledge was binding on the indigenous and European nations among themselves. The leader of the CNL is elected by the People's Assembly among leaders of Nations of the confederation. The elected leader led the confederation during six years.

The population of the CNL was estimated between 550,000 and 640,000 inhabitants (with 22k from european descent). About the whole archipelago, it was estimated between 800,000 and 2 million inhabitants.

Fearing this powerful new the CNL, rival nations joined together to form several confederations, which themselves were trained to form the Union of the Ten Nations, which was led by the Tunguna Kynnutuyubisan also called as Bayanghintsungsagana Antziyu ("Chief-of-the-Ten-Nations the First"). He managed to unite all the nations of Eastern and Northern. Thus was formed the Confederacy of the Ten Nations in January 23th 1671. This confederation based his headquarters in the village of Tayumaya (act. Urbo Tunguna).

First Lemurian War
Military pressure was constant. Their armed forces were equal and a war between the two nations would lead to an unprecedented bloodbath. However, the CNL had a naval force largely superior to the Confederation of the Ten Nations.

Bayanghintsungsagana and his wife were found murdered in his bedroom the morning of April 17, 1675. Co-leaders of the deceased leader accused the leaders the Confederate Nations to sponsor the murder. To choose a new leader, a council was held and Amaktuya, a Bayanghintsungsagana's brother, was designated to succeed the deceased leader.

Immediately after being designated. Amaktuya condemned the CNL for having commited such crime. An ultimatum to was issued by the Confederation of the Ten Nations and a compensation was asked. That ultimatum was refused by the CNL as it doesn't recognise officialy the Confederation of the Ten Nations. After ultimatum, the was against the CNL was declared.

The Ten Nations Army invaded the CNL territory on March, according to historical documents, more than 170,000 soldiers were enrolled by the army of the Ten Nations during the First-Lemurian War. The seven nations of the CNL had about 180,000 soldiers plus 33 warships.

The Confederate Nations of Lemuria was technologically superior to Ten Nation's army, mainly because of spanish settler descendants who brought their expertise in weaponry (gunpowder, steel etc.). The "Great War" lasted nearly twenty years (1677 - 1696) and ended with the capitulation of Amaktuya and the dissolution of the Confederation of the Ten Nations.

The war was extremely catastrophic in terms of human toll : nearly 660,000 dead (approx. 1/3 of the total population). The situation was even more catastrophic economically : hundreds thousand of hectares of farmland were destroyed, making starvation more frequent which forced people to emigrate to California, less affected economically by the "Great War" than the rest of Lemuria ; thus, during the ten years following the end of the "Great War", nearly seventy thousand people migrated to California in search of a better future. In 1700, the population is estimated between 140,000 people in Lemuria, 200,000 people in California (with 100,000 migrants).

The Second Era (1700-1788)
After the dark period that lasted from 1700 to around 1715, the reconstruction of the country ravaged by war started. The crops abandoned by their owners were starting to produce, reducing starvation in the countryside and poverty and disease in the cities. Crops are so productive that the population started to increase : in the 1720 first census the Confederate Nations of Lemuria counted 428,400 inhabitants : the empty caused by emigration was filled but manpower started to be insufficient because there were many mouths to feed : to remedy this, we brought slaves from California, they were Native Americans for a good portion of them, because Africa was too far.

The country was back again prosperous and viable, but manpower was still rare and expensive. The population is very fastly growing (more than four percent per year) because of increasing of agricultural productivity and a decrease of illness and starvation.

In 1720, the population in Lemuria was estimated to 850,000 person, with more than 420,000 living in the East Coast. This population was unevenly distributed due to internal migration of people who are attracted from rural Northern and Western regions to the fertile and prosperous lands of Ilineo.

In America, colonies of California are very prosperous and had over a million and half people. However in 1744, an expeditionary force with nearly a hundred thousand men came back from Mexico the land. Then follows a war followed by a famine that killed nearly a quarter of the people of California formerly so prosperous. In 1748, Defeated by New Spain, Lemurian colonies of California were abandoned and from 1745 to 1769, more than 580,000 settlers left California to take refuge to Lemuria. Thus ended the colonization of Lemurian California.

In addition to the loss of the so prosperous colony of California, the CNL suffered a coup d'état masterminded by Ta'o Natana, a leader of Tungi origin. He proclaimed the Kingdom of Lemuria, became the king of the kingdom of Lemuria under the name of Ta'o I and ordered the closure of the country to foreigners and prohibited citizens to leave the country. Thus was decreted the autarky policy in July 1769.

The new kingdom, although again become prosperous by the arrival of settlers returning from California, was closed to foreign products and goods in order to develop local industries and then accelerate the country development with local manpower and financing methods. During the Kingdom Era from 1769 until 1815, population has increased sharply throughout the archipelago : It went from two to six million in less than 60 years. This demographic surge is due to people's health improvement with the eradication of starvation in the countryside.

Ta'o I died in 1788, and his son Ta'o II succeeded him, continues his father's autarky policy and reformed the education. He imposed the Criollatina instead of Spanish as official language of the Kingdom and was written in that language the Book of Rights and Duties (Criollatina : Libro dos Derejos y dos Deveres).

But all is not well in that period of economic prosperity, even during the autarky politic. Indeed, some regions who are very far of the East Coast like in the Lingkang region are still poor because of lack of infrastructures like practicable and secure roads which would allow them to sell their harvests in prosperous regions.

Fragmentation of the Confederate Nations of Lemuria
In 1788, the country wiped away two terrible droughts that destroyed nearly two-thirds of cereal crops, which provoked a revolt that spread from region to region, fueled more by the disapproval of the new king's reign, which appeared more low in the eyes of the Lemurian. Believing that King unable to run the country, many nations broke the Oath of Nations and seceded. The cities of Rio Pablo, Ciuda Jaui and Veracruz did likewise and elected their own leader. Between 1788 and 1791 twenty-four independent States shares the archipelago of Lemuria. The population was estimated at nine millions of inhabitants. Demographic grow in that time was very high (it was estimated to be at about 4 or 5 percent because of a birth rate of 85 per thousand)

The 24 independent state were relatively peaceful. Making the local language as official language, the 24 countries maintained good business relationships and were in peace and industry started his development, especially in the central and the eastern regions.

Main spoken languages by the independent states were Spanish, Aka and Criollatina. Some states changed local dialects to make them usable as official languages (Criollatina : Dialectos oficialis). Almost all countries abandoned autarky policy set up by Ta'o Natana.

Third Era (1791-1888)


The Archipelago of Lemuria is now fragmentated in twenty four independent countries. The Third Era began with the partition of the Confederate Nations of Lemuria, and ended with the total reunification of the archipelago and consequently the establishement of the Republic of the Ponant in 1889.

In 1800 the independent states in the archipelago of Lemuria are :

Demographic
According to June 2010 official census, the population of the Republic of the Ponant is 244,013,670 inhabitants, (3.5% of the global population), the country is the fourth by its population. Its population growth reate is 1.44% per year ; this makes the most fertile country in Oceania.

Economy
The Ponant is the third or forth largest economy of the world by GDP. The country is a major industrial power thanks to its skilled and abundant workforce. The current level of industrialization and development of the Ponant was the result of more than 120 years of modernization and development efforts undertaken by the elites and supported by politicians.