Sylvania

The Nation on the Sea, sometimes abbreviated as NoS and formally known as Sylvania, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean located approximately 371 nautical miles Southwest of Hawaii. Prior to the 2007 invasion and government take over by Russia, Sylvania was one of the most powerful and economicly sound nations in the world. The nation was founded in 1890 by European explorers and at one time had territoies from five different nations. NoS has a land area of approximately 32,000 square kilometers, divided into 7 states. NoS has a population of about 15 million citizens. The capital city of NoS was originally Sylvania City but after the Russian invasion, the capital was moved to a new city which is simply called The Capital. The government of The Nation on the Sea is a Totalitaruan dictatorship with the President being Mathew Chong and the Chancellor being Harry Ledge.

Discovery & Colonization
The island nation was completely unexplored territory until 1834 when Spanish explorers landed on the Northwestern shore and claimed an area of roughly 1,500 square kilometers for Spain. The exploration of the island continued until 1885 when European settlers formed the first village on the Northern tip of the island which was named Sylvania. Many more colonies were built in the European territory before the citizens declared it a country in 1890 which they named for the original colony, Sylvania, which was destroyed in a fire. Other international territories were established on the island which included settlers from China, Germany, and even the United States.

Expansion as Sylvania
The first major expansion by the British founded nation of Sylvania included the anexation of the Chinese territory in 1902 which added roughly 7,200 square kilometers to the nation. As a result, Chinese was quickly adopted as a secondary langauge next to English.

The nation wouldn't see its next expansion until 1918 when it obtained both the Spanish territory and the United States territory, The Spanish territory added 1,500 square kilometers to the nation while the United States territory added a string of four islands located off the Northwest coast located one nautical mile away from the Spanish territory.

By 1934 the French and German territories were added to the nation of Sylvania which now covered the entire island. The French territory, which was the smallest of any territory, was on an island in the Southern part of the nation which was on an island inside a cove which became the official Sylvanian Millitary Base.

World War II and Aftermath
In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland which estentially trigured the Second World War. After France declared war on Germany, German-Sylvanian citizens wanted Sylvania to enter the war to support Germany but the Sylvanian government had wanted to stay neutral. However, some citizens felt strongly enough to write to Germany falsley stating that Sylvania was building nuclear weapons and were planning to invade Germany. Once word got to Adolf Hitler, he planned an attack on Sylvania which started in the South with a bombing of the millitary base. Dubbed the Battle of Sylvania, it lasted for just under a month before Sylvania was deafeated and the government agreed to aid in Germany's war efforts by building planes, ships, and weapons and shipping them to Europe.

Following the Battle of Sylvania, the country did not fight another battle but simply shipped material to Germany however the nation secretly joined the Allies in 1941 following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in the United States. Sylvania began sending the majoriety of its war material to the United States, telling official in Germany that money was running low and they were unable to produce much to help the war.

Following the Invasion of Normandy by Allied forces and the subsequent end of World War II, Sylvania began expanding and strengthening their millitary in case another invasion or war was to break out. However, the nation would not enter into another millitary battle until 2007.

Russian Invasion
Following 62 peaceful, war-free years, Sylvania was once again under attack. For reasons unknown, the Russian millitary invaded Sylvania using the same method used by Nazi Germany in 1939, bombing the millitary base. Different from the German invasion though, Russian troops never set foot on the Sylvanian millitary base. The Russian army invaded the Northeastern capital city of Sylvania City, successfully assainating the President and taking control of the government.

After overthrowing the government, Chinese-Russian citizen Mathew Chong was chosen to serve as President of the ocupied nation and he later announced American-Sylvanian citizen Harry Ledge as the new Chancellor. Originally, the occupied Sylvania was meant to be semi-presidential state like mother Russia but the new President quickly transformed the nation into a dictorship. Chong issued many politcal changes besides the government which included re-naming the country after its national anthem, adopting a new flag, and a new coat of arms both of which were deisgned to represent Russia's control of the nation.

In 2011, a group of rebellions atempted to overthrow Chong and reclaim Sylvania. The rebels were executed and a new law was imposed which called for more street police to patrol all hours of the day and a national curfew was set up. No citizen was to be seen outside their home after 10:00 SST (Sylvanian Standard Time).

Culture
The Nation on the Sea contains just over 15 million citizens as of the January 2009 census. The official language of NoS is English and Russian but there are four other secondary languages, French, German, Chinese, and Spanish. Each secondary language are mostly spoken only in parts of the country where their respective countries once held territories.Prior to the 2007 Russian Invasion, there were hundreds of various religions and beliefs protected by the freedom of religion, but after the invasion, only Orthodox Christianity was allowed to be practiced within the nation's borders.

Since 1975, professional sports have been played in NoS and are still played to this day although the leagues' names have been changed following the transfer of power to Russia. Sports played in the country at a professional level include American football (National Football League of the Nation on the Sea; World American Football Federation), baseball (NoS Baseball League), soccer (Major League Soccer; The Nation on the Sea Soccer League), basketball (International Basketball Federation; The Official Basketball League for The Nation on the Sea), and ice hockey (NoS Hockey League).