Liberta

Liberta, Libertae, and Λιβεῥτᾰ
The Trinitarian Parliamentary Republic of Liberta (/lɪbɛrtɑ/) is a sovereign state in the Atlantic Ocean, laying on the Great Meteor Seamount with a Trinitarian System of Government. Liberta lies west of the Moroccan coast and south-west of the Iberian Peninsula.

While Libertas land area is quite small in comparison to other countries in southern Europe, it has a nautical territory of 203,252 km2, in which it also occupies Hyéres and Plato Seamounts, and Cruiser Tablemount. These areas have been subject to multidisciplinary research. Liberta solely consists of the city of Liberta itself, together with “defense-walls” and McGarrett island (solely built for the construction of McGarrett International).

The fauna of Liberta solely consists of megafaunal taxa of corals, sponges and sea urchins, together with 53 different species of fish, all originating from the seamount.

The Trinitarian Parliamentary system is unique to Liberta, where it is fully executed. The system works in partial terms of a parliamentary republic and consists of one chamber, being the hall of decision in the City Hall of Liberta. In the hall of the decision, there would be 100 men called the cardinalises, these men where to be elected locally each fifth year, parallel to the potissimuses, three men that together are the head of government and state. Another way to compare the trinitarian parliamentary system is by thinking of the cardinalises as the chamber and the potissimuses as the presidents since that are the actual roles they are executing.

History
Ace Aquarius was the son of Argento Aquarius. Ace Aquarius father (Argento Aquarius) was a very powerful man, he had a large influence over Greek politics and owned many mines in Greece and Italy. After his father died, Ace realized how cruel he believed the Roman Empire was, and how its political systems were horrible. Ace quickly took over his fathers remains, including his mines.

He decided that he would flee from the Roman Empire. After visiting Crete, Ace started building large cargo ships, he ordered 150 men working in the mines to go with him on Aces own boat “Aquaria”. After sailing to Morroco he headed south. Out of sheer coincidence, he saw large bubbles erupting from the sea. He ordered his men to hoist down large stone blocks, each attached to a tightrope. After 400 stone blocks were hoisted down, then a small part of the rope lay on the surface water indicating a shallow seabed. After two hours the 180 large cargo ships following Aquaria had arrived to next to the shallow seabed. The shallow seabed was, in fact, the Great Meteor Seamount. Ace ordered all of the cargo ships to hoist down large stone blocks, just like he had done. The 180 boats made a circle formation approximately 5000m in circumference. Since all of the cargo boats hoisted down the around 200 stone blocks, it created the shape of a cylinder with all of the stone blocks. After this long process was finished, Ace left 20 boats on the location and sailed back to Morroco where he called for more stone bricks via a messenger boat. He then ordered that 20 boats were to sail back to the other 20 boats at the stone cylinder. This process was to be repeated every third day.

After Ace had spent around 2 months in Morocco 240 cargo boats with stone blocks had arrived. Ace immediately set course back to the Stone cylinder. After arriving at the location, the 240 boats started hoisting down large amounts of stone blocks within the stone cylinder. After two days the process was completed. Ace built houses and streets on the small plateau that he had made. He declared it a nation, and Ace’s son Baptiste was appointed the successor to his fathers new-made land. The “nation” was mostly a puppet play of a society. Ace only invited his family to come to the “nation” and nobody else. The “nation” was not a fully working one under Ace’s rule.

When Ace died Baptiste was appointed a king over the island, however, Baptiste had bigger plans. He ordered 24 200 meter long cargo boats to be built, each day 1 boat would leave from Athens to the “nation”. This way a new boat would arrive at the “nation” every day since the travel time was around 22 days.

Baptiste named the small nation to Liberta, presumably from the Latin word for liberty. As Liberta grew, Baptiste set out to find peasants that were willing to live in Liberta. He ordered 12 men to travel to Greece and find these peasants. After 2 years the men returned with 2000 people on smaller ships. All of these 2000 people were given citizenship to Liberta. Baptiste ordered 40 more men to find 10 000 people around Europe for a larger payment. Under the 8 years, it took for the forty men to find 10 000 people Baptiste had made stone cylinder much larger using the same technique as his father. When the men returned with 10 000 people they were immediately given citizenship. Baptiste built libraries, schools or as he wished to call them “educational facilities”, he stamped a common currency for all of Liberta to use, he built for the time advanced water treatment facilities. Baptiste died in 9 BC for unknown reasons, most likely from leprosy.

Baptiste had a son, Cato. Cato was the age of 19 when his father died. He was very shy as a child, however, he became the man that would forever change Liberta. Cato was a poet with a strong interest in politics. He saw the flaws with the monarchy, the system that his father had used and grandfather had established on Liberta. Cato imagined a system much like a modern-day representative democracy. He ordered to build a giant city hall. After 2 years the hall was finished. Cato decided that three men were to rule Liberta together. These men were to be elected by all citizens every 5 years. There would be 100 people who would vote on different issues. The 100 people would be elected by regional voting in each of Libertas districts and be called Cardinalises. These 100 people would represent different opinions (that they themselves would choose) and would then be elected by the residents of that neighborhood. This would happen every two years. The Cardinalises would then present the different issues that they had voted on. These different issues were designated by the residents of each district (several neighborhoods geographically next to each other). After the Cardinalises had voted on these issues the ones that passed through the majority decisions the issues would then be brought up to the three leaders of Liberta (known as the potissimuses). Either the Potissimuses accepted and let the issue be made a formal proposal (with cost and possibility taken into consideration), vote for an “excuse” (a significant change tweak on the issue) or they rejected and abandoned the issue completely.

Before the change fell into action he decided to make the 15 principles. The principles were as follows:

1. All citizens of Liberta are always to have political freedom.

2. This principle is not to be changed unless a majority of the Cardinalises agrees on it over a 15-year span.

3. All citizens are free to criticise the government in any way, as long as it does not damage property or people physically.

4. All potissimuses can only be elected 2 times (term) under a ten-year span, five years per term.

5. The nation of Liberta does not declare war, military actions are only for defense.

6. All cardinalises can only be elected 2 times (term) under a ten-year span, five years per term.

7. The cardinalises must have a political position.

8. Political censorship is banned.

9. Informatory censorship is banned until it is vulnerable to Liberta as a nation.

10. Literacy is required for a citizenship to be granted, and every child under 10 years of age must be able to read.

11. Only police enforcement enforces the laws.

12. The Cardinalises must always take Libertas future into consideration before making a choice in the hall.

13. The potissimuses must always take Libertas future into consideration before accepting an issue.

14. The Cardinalises must always designate a formal proposal so that it is not only possible but affordable and beneficial to either the public, the nation or the society.

15. The Potissimuses must always be three.

Parts of this political change fell into action 4 years after the city hall was completed, Cato however, appointed himself ruler until he died. The Potissimuses-Cardinalises system was still running and working under Cato’s rule. Cato had a fascination for Taggiasca olives and made a small park where he planted many olives trees. Cato died in 59 AD, from age. He had left a son under his rule, Konstantin. Konstantin never had any political influence however, he still owned all of the mines in Greece. Konstantin sold all of his father's mines to the Libertan State for 40000 equal coins. He used that money to live in luxury. Konstantin was a poet, and never intended to follow his father’s passion for politics, instead, he spent most of his life as a writer. At the age of 70, he died from an epilepsy attack.

130 – 200 AD
As the population of Liberta grew, so did the manmade island that Liberta stood upon. The small island grew from an area closer to 2km2 to an area about 8km2. The Cardinalises voted for an idea to put large stone walls around 4 km outside of the city. The issue passed and was signed by the Potissimuses. At the same time, Liberta started ordering their cargo ships to return back to Liberta. However, two cargo ships a day left for Athens and arrived at Libertas harbor. After a cargo ship had been plundered Liberta only allowed one cargo ship to leave for Athens each second day. The Potissimuses decided that for Liberta to respected in international trade they needed a military force. Out of that idea became the Libertan Navy, known for their fierce warfare on their Navibus Ignem ships. The Libertan army only consisted only of the navy, who only focused on maritime warfare. Since the 15-principles did not allow offensive warfare, the building of the giant stone walls 4 kilometers outside the island was accelerated. The walls stood finished 154 AD and gave the navy a significant upper hand in case of an attack. As military pride began to rise so did patriotism. As patriotism rose so did Libertas national identity, knowledge was considered a powerful weapon and with it came the first standardized school curriculums. As literacy was obligatory, for every child under 10 years of age the schools were even more standardized and featured several subjects and designated times. The first real subjects you could study towards were arts, economics, and politics.

200 -  500 AD
Libertas population had now increased to over 120000 people at an area of around 16 km2. As trade had shrunken over the 3rd-century, so had diseases from Europe. Liberta had the luck of incredibly low infection rates thanks to the separation between clean water and wastewater. Because of this Liberta experienced a baby boom. Between 238-256 AD the rate of babies being born doubled. This, in turn, led to a massive population increase, which led to an expansion of area, something the Libertan Government did not want. Strategically, the sudden expansion was horrible, since the city border came closer to the defense walls, meaning an increased vulnerability to outer forces. The defense ministry started petitioning for a larger stone wall, a wall 18 meters in length instead of the previous 6 meters. The issue fell into order in 288 AD according to the Magno Vicipaedia. During the start of the 4th-century citizens as well as cardinalises started taking notice of the difficulty of owning, raising and keeping cattle. These issues had largely been ignored, however in 302 AD Lucjuzs Octavio had taken notice of sicknesses plaguing the farmers. Because of this the farmers and their animals were sent to the defense walls around the city to not infect other citizens. The grass was planted on the plain side of the defense walls so that the animals could feed. Before these animals were only kept in smaller enclosures around the city. Olive trees were also soon planted on plain sides of the defense walls, as well as other trees, plants and vegetables. In October of 322 AD, a large storm hit Liberta. Windspeeds were reportedly high to extreme and whole trees and houses were torn down. After the calm had settled the defense ministry called for even more spending on reinforcement of the defense walls, something that the government approved – with a small margin. As morale in the Libertan identity had shrunken several large parades showing a strong, unified and a militarily strong Liberta, the truth wasn’t much different. Liberta had a small manpower, but technically advanced boats, weapons, and armor, morale within the military was significantly high. Since Liberta was a small country, it could not only afford to pay more per soldier but also more on weapons and armor. The armor consisted of a mixture of bronze and iron chest plate, a tangerine-gold colored helmet that consisted of iron, gold, and copper, a greave around the whole leg, a neck-protecting piece of armor connected to the chest plate. Arm-protecting sleeves made of copper, iron, and gold were specifically designed to fit each individual soldier. Advanced and sharp spears were constructed, which often had two small bird-like wings attached to the spearhead which gave better precision and longer throwing distances. Large, thin, and carefully decorated swords were often carried on the dominating side of the hands, together with a shield connected to the arm-protecting sleeves on the non-dominating side of the hands. The soldier's shoes were also carefully fitted for each individual soldier and were made by equipping sandals with a tight leather skin around them. On the top of the helmet, the Libertan Circle was put. The armor was easy to take off so that hurt soldier would easily and quickly be taken care of, and soldiers fallen in the water easily could swim to safety without any additional weight. In Liberta, the soldiers, as well as the military, were celebrated as brave and “savers of freedom”. The military wasn’t obligatory because so many people wanted to join it, it was something children looked up to and wanted to one day become, the military became a protection and the soldiers the role models. Ancient archeologic findings show catch-words of the military written by people on houses and in alleys. Liberta was not a military state, however. Upon all, the most celebrated subject by Libertan citizens and politicians was knowledge. “Knowledge is power” is written on the banner of the national seal on top of the roof of the city hall, the national libraries and on the first ever temples in Liberta. Quentin Salvadore, a famous potissimus once said: “Knowledge of the world is not to be interfered by the religious beliefs”, and therefore religion never played a big part of the Libertan society, especially in the 4th and 5th-centuries. This very quote is what was the founding of the ideology today known as Liberism.

500 -  1000 AD
After bad diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire, the Byzantine Navy attacked Liberta in the year 524. Libertas army, however, had the upper hand. What is now known as the battle of Unda had begun. The Byzantine Navy had large boats, but the Libertan Army had larger. Most of the collisions were either on the defense walls or desperate soldiers swimming for their lives, eagerly trying to get to shore. Many of whom died by the dawn. Of the 5000 byzantine men sent. Only 200 managed to escape death and Libertas deadly shores. The Libertan Army had seen little to no casualties. Of the 7000 soldiers, there were reports of only a dozen dead. Shortly after these Libertan diplomats sought to seek peace with the Byzantine Empire, which shortly thereafter happened. Because of the loss of 4800 men, Liberta had to pay by giving the Byzantines 2 large and expensive cargo boats. By the end of the 7th-century, Liberta had a population of 200000 and constantly growing. Liberta became known for their excellence in educational facilities such as the Vidal Universitates, the foundation of modern-day Universities. This “blossoming” of academic institutes were later given their own period, known as the Libertan apathetic years. This was a combination of peace-ideology and romantic nationalism. Under these years famous academic institutes were founded, such as Kolm University, Gaius University, and the school of Cato. In 758 the banning of owning slaves was brought into action. The rumor of Liberta being a country with endless education and luxury was spread through Europe. Liberta became a sanctuary for slaves being mistreated if any of them ever had the chance, the few ones being able to sneak into cargo boats, hide in boxes or just pay their way to Liberta were granted citizenship.

1000 – 1500 AD
The Libertan apathetic years ended in 1000 AD, and so begun the Libertan Medival Era. As diplomacy between the Byzantine Empire and Liberta became even more steady, so did their alliance. As the 15 principles (comparable to a nations constitution) prohibited the navy from actively participating in wars in an offensive role the navy instead sent several large warships to the Byzantine Navy, these were known to be quick and effective. These were mainly used in the Byzantine–Arab war, the Byzantine–Bulgarian war, the later Rus'–Byzantine wars and the Byzantine–Norman war.

Liberta was a valuable resource to many countries, as it allowed for naval contact with Morroco from the east. Liberta was seen as a checkpoint, if Liberta was taken under control by a foreign empire then that would allow for the naval control of the Moroccan, Iberian and French coastline.

For many empires, however, Liberta was out of reach.

Liberta successfully avoided the plague in part because of geographical distance from Europe. This is why Libertas population kept growing while many other countries population fell.

1500 – 1700 AD
As the first Greek migration occurred the Greek intelligentsia fled to western Europe. Many of the also fled to Liberta. Liberta regained its reputation for excellence in education during the 17th-century. The “the big three” (Kolm, Gaius University and school of Cato) and the whole of the Libertan educational movement weren't affected by the scientific oppression during the renaissance, partially because of the ideology of Liberism. Historians agree that distance from Europe played a large part in avoiding the scientific oppression as well.

During the age of discovery, Liberta became an important “key” to the Atlantic and served as a checkpoint for ships sailing towards other continents. Since slaves were illegal in Liberta slave ships had to avoid Libertan nautical territory, sometimes slaves jumped overboard and tried to swim to shore as some slave ships still came dangerously close to the city itself.

As friendly relations with the sharifate of Marrakesh increased so did the influence of Morrocan culture. This is the age that the Water Palace was built to symbolize friendship between the two nations. This short period of time between 1650 and 1700 is known as “the age of friendship”.

1700 – 1940 AD
The industrial revolution completely changed Libertan society as manufacturing and transport became easier. The trade expansion made Liberta wealthy as a nation, thriving of Libertas high standards (for its time) of manufacturing. The introduction of steam power led to dramatic increases in production capacity.

World War I
Liberta was a common bystander during the first World War. The nation itself thrived of selling the Allied Powers arms and explosives. However, a deep conflict between joining or staying out of the war was still actively ongoing in between the citizens of Liberta. The cardinalises and potissimuses during the time were unified in their decision to stay out of the first world war.

World War II
Liberta was a neutral nation during the second world war since they had nothing to win from partaking in the war, just like WW1. However, a small voluntary part of the Libertan navy partook in operation Dragoon. These soldiers became known as the “brave few” and are still to this day celebrated in Libertan culture.

Aftermath of  the second world war – present day
Liberta was a driving force for the creation of the United Nations and was one of the first nations to join. Libertan doctors were sent out by the Libertan government to war-hit nations, together with other aid.

Geography, Climate, and Environment
Liberta itself only consists of the city of Liberta, the surrounding “defense-walls”, and the McGarrett island which hosts the McGarrett International Airport. The city of Libertas foundation consisting only of 1 by 1-meter large cubic rocks laying on top of each other held together by large ropes, has been reinforced several times and hosts a home to many species of fish. The “defense-walls” are now mostly used for small agriculture such as olive trees, wheat, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, grapes, and oranges just to name a few. Some parts are also used for cattle.

Libertas fauna is solely based of the Great Meteor Seamount and largely consists of fish, sponges, corals and sea urchins. The great meteor seamount itself has become one of the best-studied seamounts globally, with research aimed at better understanding the connections between oceanic motion around seamount structures and biological distribution patterns. Pigeons are also common in the city of Liberta and surrounding areas.

Libertas flora originated from greek plants bought and transported by the state, such as olive trees, Florina pepper, and Fava sortinis. The state also bought many different flowers, such as the roman orchid.

Demographics
The Libertan Census Administration estimated Libertas current population to be around 3,000,000 people in 2013. Since then, the Libertan population has not grown nor shrunk, it has instead stayed extremely stable at around 3,000,000 people since 1989.

Liberta is the 135th most populous country and is the only nation that hasn’t grown nor shrunk by population 28 years in a row.

According to a survey in 2014 2% of citizens identify themselves as LGBT, while 98% identified themselves as straight. This is an increase of 0.02% since 2009.

Language
English is the de facto national language in Liberta, although Latin is still the only official language. English was made a national language in the 19th century, because of the quick shrinking amount of Latin usage. Although Latin has an official recognition, it isn’t widely spoken, only 1.3% of Libertans can speak Latin fluently, and around 16% of Libertans know more than a sentence in Latin, this is usually the national motto (Libertas. Scientia sit potentia). The second most common language is Greek, which only about 0.03% of the population speaks fluently.

Religion
Religion has never played a large role in Libertan politics, everyday life, nor society. Ever since the middle ages, Libertas population were mostly atheist or agnostic. Religious beliefs are almost never taken into account in for example courts. Today only about 3% of Libertans are religious and 0.9% are religiously active (going to a place of worship, actively praying, etc.).

Government and politics
Libertas government is based on trinitarian parliamentary republican system and follows Libertas constitution known as the 15 principles.

Every five years three potissimuses (presidents) are elected through majority decision by the people in a recurring election every five years. Either the Potissimuses accepts an issue and let the issue be made a formal proposal (with cost and possibility taken into consideration by the cardinalises together with the supreme national court), vote for an “excuse” (a significant change on the issue) or they reject the issue. If the issue is rejected the cardinalises can abandon the issue completely or vote for it again but with a significant change.

The cardinalises are 100 men and women together assembled in the “hall of decision” or chamber and vote on different issues presented by a representative of a district. These issues are passed to a representative of a district every two months by local citizens.

The cardinalises are elected on the exact date that the three potissimuses are elected on. These cardinalises come from different districts, where they are voted upon by local residents in that very district.

Every cardinalis and potissimus must identify themselves to one party, the largest parties in order are:

Prosperity Party 39.8% (Socialdemocracy)

Liberta First 33.2% (Social conservatism)

One Liberta 17% (Green Liberalism)

Wing Party 4.3% (Leftwing Conservatism)

National Liberta 3.7% (Conservatism)

Other 2%

Military
The first national military force was the Libertan navy, founded during the 3rd century. Its main mission was to protect Liberta itself, rather than act with offensive tactics as it was prohibited by the 15 principles. Until the 17th century, this was the only military force other than their coastguard that Liberta had. Today the navy is still the major part of the Libertan Army with around 80 thousand soldiers.The second military force was the coastguard which was introduced in the 9th century, the coastguards sole purpose was to surveillance the nautical territory of Liberta. Today the coastguard still protects the territory of Liberta with around 2 thousand men.The third military force introduced was the Army alongside the Airforce in 1909. The Army has ten thousand soldiers in manpower and the Airforce has around 7 thousand soldiers, ground troops, and pilots in manpower.

Economy
Liberta has a stable and high-tech economy and enjoys great wealth per capita. Liberta is home to many large corporations including GERC, Amnac, Fierre, and Speedster. Liberta also has one of the most powerful economies in the world, and 5 of the best one hundred universities in the world. But by far, the most important sector of the economy is the manufacturing of steel, marine biological instruments, pharmaceutical products, biotechnology and chemicals of different sorts. Taxation is one of the lowest in the world

Education

The education system in Liberta is completely free of charge and obligatory from 6 years of age all the way to University, because of this system Liberta has the highest literacy rate, number present in educational facilities per day on average and graduation of any country. There are 7 universities completely free of charge owned and operated by the government and five universities owned by private institutions. The primary school selection is based on learning capabilities by pupils. Pupils with a faster learning capability receive an education customized for them, while pupils with a slightly slower learning capability receive an education customized for them. This system has been criticised for “separating children with higher intelligence quotient”, however, this system is widely effective compared to traditional education systems.

All of this is regulated by the Administration of Education, which receives an annual budget of around 800 million equal dollars per year. Because of this large spending the schools, upper secondary schools, higher education facilities, and universities are well organized, perfected, and ultimately customized.

Healthcare

Healthcare in Liberta is free. Checkups are mandatory every 24 months, for every citizen. This is, of course, a possibility for conspiracy theorists believing that “the state is keeping records of me to one day enslave me” by famous conspiracy theorist Jay E. Fallman.

The healthcare is regulated by the council of national Health.

The healthcare is very similar to other developed nations and is ranked in the top 10 for lowest infant mortality rates.

Culture

The Libertan culture originated from the late Archaic period in Greece since that is Ace Aquarius, the founder of Liberta came from. The Libertan culture later changed into a mix between Scandinavian, Greek, Roman and Spanish culture, mainly however greek. Libertan became a separate distinct culture 19 BC when the Scandinavians, Greeks, Romans, and Spaniards together mixed their traditions with the greek-alike society.

Food

Olives together with fat milk have for a very long time been associated with Libertan cuisine. The traditional food of Liberta usually consists of fish, meat or chicken together with a wheat product or potatoes, and with olives and usually tomatoes and cucumber.

Literature

Literary works have been made by several famous Libertan poets such as Cato, Quentin Salvadore, Gaius, Konstantin, and Lucjuzs Octavio. Many great poets wrote books during the Libertan Apathetic years. Works such as “Where we originated from”, “Our beloved freedom”, “Humans and how we control them”, “The understanding of this world” shaped early European poetry and “A story of origin” laid the foundation of the theory of evolution together with Rusell Wallace.

Media

Broadcasting television quickly became a standard in Libertan society and was experimented with in Libertan universities, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the world, News Today originated in Liberta and are still locally operating from Liberta.

The media university of Liberta has become the “heart” for indie-film creators to seek an education and many indie films were shot partially or completely in Liberta, for example, the movie “The people of the ocean: a 1961 story” was entirely filmed in Liberta, since it was about Libertans as a people.