Sleevania

Sleevania is a small&#160;democracy of several islands about 200 miles west of the coast of France. It started out small but now has a population of 2,829,340.

Founding
Sleevania was founded in 1956. The Sleevania Expedition(so named afterward) was the expedition that originally founded Sleevania. The 'expedition' was very small. It consisted of 13 men and 7 women in two helicopters. Their names were:

The Idea
While scanning an old map, Thomas H. Jordan, a moderately rich fellow, came upon an unclaimed island in international waters. He decided he wanted to found a country there. He wasn't quite sure how to do it. Luckily, his friend Veronica Thomsen, had some ideas. They eventually decided that they would gather their friends and fly them there.

The Trip
Thomas made a flag and got his twenty-person expedition into two helicopters. In eight hours, they arrived. They found that the islands were bigger than they had even hoped. And, in addition to the island he had seen on the map, there were seven others its size. They got out of the helicopter onto the largest&#160;island (later named Aartarius) and crowned the islands Sleevania.&#160;

The News
Word of this new country reached many of his friends back home, and they passed it onto their friends, and so on. Everyone who heard about it wanted to come, and within a year of its founding, the tiny Sleevania had a population of 5,440. The people kept coming for three years, at the end of which Sleevania had spread to all eight islands and had a population of 25,630. It was around this time that France (but only France) began to respond to Sleevania as a country.

Politics
After the people stopped coming, the Sleevanians lived in peace for several years, but with a very low population increase. Thomas H. Jordan (by now President) decided to take action. In 1960, inspired by the effectiveness of the space promise of the Americans, he started the Sleevanian Immigration Project. He took several large loans and built an airport on the main island Aartarius. He then spent the rest of his loans on advertising his project and making Sleevanian Immigration Forms widely available. There was a boom in Sleevanian Immigration. In the first year, the population jumped from 25,750 to 49,982. The airport also created lots of tourism. The interesting food, way of thinking, and extreme diversity were great tourist attractions. With funding from tourism, the renewed support of all Sleevanian people, and worldwide attention, Thomas knew that he should "just keep running with it." He commisioned parks, buildings with amazing architecture, and gave government subsidies to create the Sleevanian Air airline. Sleevania continued increasing in population, and in 1967 the population was half a million. The tourist business was booming, and was making almost $100 million a year. But Thomas didn't stop at that. He created the Sleevanian Space Program. In 1972, after multiple probes and unmanned&#160;craft,&#160;the first Sleevanian&#160;astronaut&#160;orbited the earth. Many tourists came to watch the launches, so the space program was well funded. But Thomas Jordan had already been president for three terms. He had two years left. In his last two years, Thomas set aside a fund so that the tourism could continue. His farewell speech was televised internationally. As soon as he was out of office, his fellow founder and good friend Veronica Thomsen ran for president. She won the election and continued in the ways of Thomas, promoting tourism. But the new, exciting idea of this new country wasn't so novel anymore. The tourism industry started failing, and with it went the economy. The space program came to a halt. The Sleevanian people needed tourism. But it was gone. For three years, the Sleevanian economy fell as the people hoped for renewed interest. The stock market bottomed out, and the education system was running on almost no money. The Sleevanians used up the entire trust Thomas Jordan had left, but it didn't work. After several years of this, people began to realize they needed a new industry. That was when the diversity began. People started branching out, and soon all types of shops were appearing in Sleevania.