The Established Territories of Southern Florida (Spanish:Territorio sur de la Florida) is a Constitutional Representitive Paralimentary Republic located in Southern Florida. It strechs from Brooksville in the the Far North of Tampa all the way down past Lake Okeekobee to Port Saint Lucie.
It holds a population of 3.2 million, most of which are resident in Port Saint Lucie, Cape Coral, Naples, The Everglades and moderately radioactive Homestead which has burdened the state which a high cancer and mutations count due to the stubborness in moving residents or the historical capital away from highly radioactive Miami.
The Republic consists of 5 territories and 2 restricted districts which the state regards as to highly radioactive, the St Petersburg-Tampa Radiological Zone and the Miami-Dade Radioactive Zone. Each Territory forms as an independant country, unified by the one Federal Government in Homestead AFB which they all pay taxes to, in return the Federal Government provides protection and relief effort.
On December 13th 2033 the nuclear attack warning systems sounded, many flooded onto the streets in panicked and the Florida State National Guard as well as FEMA began the evacuation of Miami, Tampa, St Petersburg, Port Saint Lucie, Cape Coral, Homestead, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Melbourne aswell as other Major Florida Cities such as Jacksonville, Daytona and Gainesville which are not currently apart of the South Florida Territories. As the West Coast was hit riots erupted on the streets, delaying FEMA proceedings. The Alarms sounded at 6:23 am and the bombs hit at 13:06 pm.
The Impact[]
The First Bomb hit St.Petersburg at exactly six minutes past one in the afternoon, thousands died on impact, blasted into oblivion.
Then within seconds much of Tampa and St.Petersburg were in nuclear fire, some heavy then light bombing with nuclear weapons occurred all down the West Coast. Orlando was heavily bombed along with Gainesville and Jacksonville by 13:12 and by 13:16
Nuked locations in Southern Florida, their radius and blast waves
Small bombs were being bombed down the Mid-East Coast. Towns like Vero Beach, Palm Beach and Port Saint Lucie experianced bombing, eliminating sizeable numbers of the population, but many surviving the initial impact. Then Miami experianced bombing at 13:18. By 13:22 Miami was esentially a large Crater, the coast expanded inwards over much of the soil which had been bombed below sea level, this has left Miami a dead swamp of islands and lagoons as the sea level fell in the coming months.
Aftermath[]
Homestead AFB in a picture taken by a survivor over six days after the nuclear war, when the sky briefly cleared up
In the minutes and hours after the bombing subsided, there was panic in the streets, millions were dead, millions were dying, millions were severely injured. 67% of Hospitals were destroyed, those that weren't struggled to cope with numbers along with a lack of staff. FEMA tried getting people out of the cities, but they proved to radioactive to go further than the suburbs, even then over a million are estimated to have gotten out of nuked cities with the direct help of FEMA alone. Various camps were ordered to be constructed near the Everglades to house those least sick to retain a healthy population. Efforts to construct such camps usually failed as radioactivity, disease, heat and wildlife would pick off workers, although many workers, their families and refugees settled in so called Floating towns and tree towns in the Everglades National Park.
Many Survivors evacuating from Miami when the bombs hit took shelter in Homestead, finding their cars no longer worked due to the EMP, on the advice of Miami-Dade County Sheriff, Herald Lowe, many of them took shelter in the nearby Air Force Base- Homestead Reserve Air Force Base. They found it had been moderately damaged by a low-power atomic bomb, three of which were detonated in Homestead. Much Radiation was accumulating and the survivors had to be quick in getting to the bases survival shelter, which had over a years supply of water and food. In the following days the dams at Lake Okeekobee broke, much of south Florida flooded, including Miami but Homestead was saved.
The Formation of a Society[]
Herald Lowe was elected first leader of Homestead AFB six weeks after the 28 survivors of the AFB voted to set up a democratic process. As food began to run low on the 12th month many people began going on supply runs, this was dangerous and over 12 died from radiation poisoning, it seemed that the community was doomed to fail due to their proximity to Miami. Within four Months the radiation had begun to decline, and a storeroom containing radiation supplies and medical supplies was breached in the Air Force Base. The remaining 16 survivors accepted another 10 people, including 3 Military officers into the base after encountering them on a supply run. In the next 2 years 18 people had died from Radiation Poisoning, Starvation, Disease and Murder, but over 36 had joined the community. This left the community numbers at 44 people. This number remained at a small growing number and the peoples of the bases began salvaging objects in their travels, selling them to people in exchange for food, mostly canned and filled with preservatives in 2047 the community had grown to 86 people and a Republic was declared with the arrival of the Constitution.
An Early Expansion[]
As the Radiation began to fall in Homestead to moderate levels and to low levels in rural areas, the Republic began to flourish. By 2065 all of Homestead (exc. highly irradiated North Homestead) had been fully annexed, a wall made of scrap such as burnt out cars, trucks, buses, billboards ect began to be placed around the town walls as petty raider gangs began to migrate towards the city as canned food supplies ran out in rural areas, they were largely in search of valuable items to trade, which a Air Force Base would be full off. The population reached the 10,000 mark on 7th January 2067 and four weeks later the Homestead Armed Guard was formed using former National Guard Supplies.
After an attack by a small town south of Homestead who had been reduced to Cannibalism. By now only Herald Lowe, Ella Marks (who was a young girl of 11 in 2033) and Eliza Marks, her mother were the only of the original 44 to survive, many of the others had caught cancer. The Towns Police Force combined with the Town's Armed Guard to defeat the town with 2 casualties on the attacking side, and a 78% death rate among fighting aged men on their side. The town was annexed, much of the women and children were incorporated into the New Republic Of South Homestead. The rest of the men were executed or sold into slavery, a business that is quite popular in South Florida that supposidly began that day. The Homestead economy flourished with the introduction of Slavery, which sold for more than the junk people had been trading, originally people traded with Barter but this eventually progressed to bottle caps.
On 9th March it was held in a referendum to succeed from the now -unknowing to the residents of Homestead- United States, many infact had remained angry at the US thinking Florida had been abandoned as rumors of the US establishing full order and perfect food rations in Texas lead to many leaving in search of the Federal Government in the North and West. These rumors many have contributed to the early success of places such as Texas City.
Expansion West and the Slave Trade[]
In the later years after the annexing of the small town south of Homestead the Town's Armed Guard was renamed the South Florida Provisional Militia (SFPM). Many more towns along the edge of the Glades optionally joined, and when they refused- it was taken by force. Towns of little interest that refused usually were left alone provided they didn't seem to hold anything of value, but in 2074 the slave trade really began to boom, and suddenly these towns felt the hard blow of human desire and consumption. Men, Women and Children were sold as slaves for all kinds of humanities needs, from housework to sexual favours to hard labour to just having a friend.
In 2075 The New Republic of Homestead renamed itself the Republic of South Florida, the various communities of the Glades agreed to annexation under a federal not Unitary Government, which was agreed upon and the Constitution was altered for the second time.
After following abandoned highways, the got to the West Side of Florida and found that Naples had little radiation. The town was divided by two competing communities. The Republic sided with he Kingdom of East Naples to defeat the South Naples Tribe at the battle of Bonita Springs. With this regional force, they established full control of Naples and latter annexed the Kingdom after funding a democratic coup. They later moved north to Bonita which was essentially just a town filled with refugees, they keenly signed up to the republic and now one more town took the fancy of the Republic. The Town of Cape Coral was heavily populated by the children of Refugees and FEMA members, this began inducing doubts that the US was still intact somewhere, as why would they just abandon the FEMA members in the FEMA camp? The Town was bitterly divided over annexation. The process went ahead and a open revolt happened on the streets in the following days. It was quickly silenced.
Federal Republic[]
Herald Lowe devoloped Cancer at age 69 in 2076 and in his final year in politics he made true to his fellow politicians promises to develop a federal system, which along with the abolition of Slavery he had campaigned for for a long time. In his last month of life he managed to see the Federal System developed.
Government[]
The Government of South Florida is a Constitutional Representative Parliamentary Republic, meaning that 20 politicians are elected from each constituency to represent that constituency in the administration in Homestead AFB in Homestead, Glades Territory. There are 100 seats in the Meeting Hall of the AFB where the politicians meet and draw up taxes, laws, policy and schemes. They are paid double the average South Floridan in Flords.
South Florida uses an personal trial laws system. You can legaly kill somebody if they have tried to kill you, failed to repay a debt or harmed a loved one, but other than this all disputes are solved through a court system sililar to that of pre-war Florida.
A map of Territories and Special Zones
[]
The Lower Legislature comprises of 50 people elected by Trade Unions to make sure each person in every occupation is treated fair.
Administrative Districts[]
Territories[]
There are 5 Territories of South Florida. Territories are the South Floridan equivilant of US States. Each Territory sends 20 representatives to Homestead.
North Florida
Port Saint Lucie
Naples-Glades
West Miami
South Glades-Homestead
Special Zones[]
There are two special zones in South Florida, living in these zones is illegal due to their high radio-activity. The Government of South Florida had many missions trying to coax survivors out of the ruins and finding new communities unfound before, they also have many scavenger missions in the cities.
St.Petersburg-Tampa Radiological Zone
Miami-Dade Radioactive Zone
Counties[]
There are 11 Counties in South Florida, they hold more power than territories, they function as independant countries more so than territories, which only are in place to accumilate enough population to send politicians to Homestead. Territories have little control over laws and taxes, a county may besituated across two or three counties. Each resident from different territories in that case vote as apart of their Territory in Federal and National elections and referendums only, otherwide they vote as apart of their county, which has control over 65% of taxes, social laws, and has control in iniciating county programmes such as sate funded scavenging.
Economy[]
The economy of South Florida is almost purely based on salvaged technology and agriculture. The Glades have a large craft Economy. Fishing is very popular on the South Coast which helps sustain the population. Farming occurs mostly in Central County, where the soil is just fertile enough to farm, recently over 400,000 have migrated there in hordes as the governemnt has begun giving land for free to those willing to work it.
The Federal Government stays out of economy mostly besides imposing a 5% Sales Tax and a 3% Slave Tax. Until 2103 there was no official currency of South Florida, but on April 1st the Monetary system came into place. Production of Floridan Dollars came into place, unlike the previous dollar system of the US one and two dollar aliminium coins were also produced
South Florida Slave Trade[]
After the first expansion of what was then the Homestead Republic, Slavery has been apart of South Floridan life. Although it is not mentioned in the consitution and the society's founding members were very moraly against slavery. Nevertheless Slavery has been the pin point of Florida's Economics. Without Slavery Florida would most likely recieve a death-blow economic collapse due to the lack of reliance on other forms of income.
Many people come from the various Great Tribes of North Florida and Georgia and as far away as Texas and North Carolina to purchase slaves on the Miami Market in Central Homestead or the more expensive, less radiation exposed slaves in Naples, while in Cape Coral Slavery is looked down upon by the residents, who have been at the front of The Florida Abolitionists in recent years, although Slavery still does happen there but in less density.
Education[]
Education is widely availible in cities like Naples, Cape Coral, Port Saint Lucie and Homestead. Education is largely organized by local councils, although the Federal Government funds various Government Schools in isolated Evergaldes towns where it's hard to reach with even the best equipment. Education in rural and marsh areas is usually provided in shanty shacks made from steel sheets and wood while people in the ruins of towns and cities usually have these services availed of in the ruins of pre-war buildings, mainly old librarys, schools and other educational facilities.
Many are still illiterate in South Florida, only 48% of the population can read and only 36% can write. These are regarded as basic assests in life, but like much of the wastes not many have them.
Oil and Natural gas have a small export number.
Recently a University opened in Naples and has over 700 students. To get in you have to have basic writing, reading, maths and spanish skills. Many in the region speak Spanish and travelers from Texas and the Former South West US usually find comfort in this since Spanish is now much of what was Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Texas' main language.
Foreign Relations[]
The Established Territories of South Florida has remained in constant contact with major powers like the Texas Republic and other smaller city and town nations. It has large trade programmes with many nations, mainly with slavery.
The Republic also has contact with many of the regions tribes, even some tribes from as far north as Georgia. It is currently on bad terms with the tribes surrounding and in Orlando, as South Florida wishes to annex the region
Culture[]
The Culture of South Florida is very diverse, people of the Everglades adapted by acting as a tribal society, the towns often have Shamans and smoking is quite popular there. It is often taboo in these societies to use modern technology. Hunting here is often performed in a very ritualistic way and using certain methods only, the animal then must be drained of blood before cooking.
Mardi Gras is a major festival in South Florida, where people come together and consume vasts ammount of food, normally salvaged chocolate.
