User:ZKang123/Sandbox/Tarephia South

Geopoeia
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Taken from refriedsushi's talk page on OGF wiki... But more updated.

Purpose

The purpose here is to try to create a interesting, compelling history for our neighbourhood in Southern Tarephia (and maybe Northern Antarephia), which is certainly lacking it at the moment. A historical narrative is not needed for any specific reason, but like OGF, in general, it might be fun to have and to make. It might help guide the map creation a bit too. I find it hard to create without context, and our region has very little context. I and many of you would like to change that.

I have invited several mappers around the region who were interested in taking part. No one is forced to be a part of this (whatever we come up with), no one will be forced to rewrite their nation’s histories if they don’t want to (though personally, I do), and other mappers and territories may and should be added in the future. OGF is supposed to be inclusive, fun and interesting- if this historical focus stops being any of those things, we should abandon this exercise. I however am optimistic that we can make our little corner way more rich and interesting than it currently is.

OGF users invited (as of 16-0315)

Users who want to participate:

  • Refriedsushi - Mallorjhe (inactive)
  • _zM - Abrilleron
  • Subway - Meilan on Antarephia
  • tparigo - Broceliande
  • PortCal - Paroy
  • Histor - Latina has indicated Latina could have a meaningful relationship with the League, either as friend or enemy
  • Other users in northern Antarephia? Like Peaceland.
  • The Bai Empire as well.

Trade League Idea

I floated the idea of a once powerful but ultimately defeated maritime trade league to many of you and there was interest in it. I think it makes a lot of sense with the narrow Sea of Lyc likely being an important shipping lane. (This would be similar to something like the Hanseatic League, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League, a handful of cooperative nations “guarding” the entrance to the Baltic Sea and getting very rich off that trade.) This would be a great way to band together as a powerful group of relatively small nations with disparate cultures and histories. I like the sound of that.

Almost everyone in the area is a post colonial nation, most commonly of either Pretanic of Ingerish origin. I made a little chart below, please fill in or correct information as you can:

Country			Colonizer		Colonized		Independent
Paroy			Ingerland		1547			1733
			Pretany			???			???
Abrilleron		Ingerland		???			???
Mallorjhe		Maybe...		???			???
Meilan			Ingerland		1602			Assimilated
			Commonia		1705			1795
Latina			Castellan		1488			1823
Oridicanello		???			???			???
Broceliande		Maybe...		???			???

I would not consider Latina candidates for something like this (though maybe as enemies!), they are included in the chart for regional context. For the most part, the region was colonized around 1500-1600 and became independent / fully incorporated in the 1700's or after. That is later than I would have intended (the height of Venice / Genoa / Hansa mercantile empires was more like 1500's in Europe) but we can roll with this if everyone still likes it and thinks its feasible...

Ardoin Trade League

(Possibly headed by the Bai Empire?)

The Ardoin Trade League was a confederation of otherwise independent nations and commercially associated nations that formed in 1738 for the purposes of mutual defence and territorial control of the Sea of Lyc, and the lucrative shipping that traversed it. This confederation evolved in large part from the region’s history of organized, interdependent piracy. The League became very powerful quickly, and if analyzed as a single entity was the largest economy in Tarephia by roughly 1770. Member states fell victim to eventual infighting and petty conflict, and by 1880 the League was weakened to the point that conflict during The Prince's’ War caused the alliance to crumble (or maybe decolonisation of many states). The League was disbanded in 1880 a part of a series of treaties that ended that war, resulting in uneven territorial and economic losses for various member states.

Structure of the League

Member states and their time-frames

Member states, listed alphabetically:

Country Member Status Date Joined Date Left Notes
Template:Abrilleron Founding Member 1738 1880 One of the final combatants in the Prince's War
Bai Empire Founding Member 1738 1850 Forcibly expelled for illegal trade manipulation
Expulsion considered unfair by some members
Template:Broceliande Full Member 1790 1840 Assumed the membership of Troie after conquering that city-state
Template:Independent States of Paroy Founding Member 1738 1855 Membership assumed by Paroy after unification (date is placeholder)
Template:Mallorjhe Founding Member 1738 1880 One of the final combatants in the Prince's War
Mallortanie Associate Member 1738 1811 Formally annexed by Mallorjhe in 1811
Template:Oridicanello Full Member 1745 1850 Resigned membership to protest the expulsion of Andover
Template:Paroy Full Member 1855 1880 One of the final combatants in the Prince's War (date is placeholder)
Picard Associate Member 1738 1750 Formally annexed by Broceliande in 1750
Troie Founding Member 1738 1790 Formally annexed by Broceliande in 1790

Associated states and their relationships, listed alphabetically below:

Country Date Beginning Date Ending Relationship
Template:Castellán ??? 1823 Agreement to freely settle additional colonists in Ändeland
Formally revoked in 1823 with independence of Latina
Template:Freedemia ??? ??? Preferred Trade Partner: no transit fee, lower docking fees
Formally revoked in 1850 to protest the expulsion of Andover
Template:Latina 1745 1824 Preferred Trade Partner: no transit fee, lower docking fees
Assumed the association of Castellán upon gaining Independence.
Template:Meilan 1738 1845 Non-voting Member: no transit fee
Template:Narghana ??? ??? Preferred Trade Partner: no transit fee, lower docking fees
Formally revoked in 1850 to protest the expulsion of Andover
Template:Pretany ??? ??? Agreement to freely settle additional colonists in Paroy, Beaudry
Template:Thul ??? ??? Preferred Trade Partner: no transit fee, lower docking fees

History

Piracy in the Sea of Lyc

Beginning in the late 1600’s CE, maritime traffic transiting the Strait of Lyc and the seas around it had grown greatly in volume and value. As colonies expanded and former colonial nations such as Thul and Latina became independent, the nature of sea traffic shifted from larger, long distance convoys to smaller, far more frequent, single, local trade ships. This increase of high-value, solitary shipping funneled into a narrow sea lane began to attract pirates at various strategic points along the journey.

Early piracy in the Sea of Lyc generally took one of 3 forms:

  • Subsistence fishermen, working in small teams, operating out of their home villages and often working before and after fishing season. These groups would surround smaller vessels and intimidate the captain for a fee to “escort” his vessel through the seas. Violence was rare and in some cases the local knowledge of the sea lane was useful, for instance in rough weather.
  • Independent criminal organizations that operated primarily from small, remote island hideouts largely out of reach of national navies. These were ruthless brigands that were in constant conflict with each other and the law. Brutality was common, and paying a bribe was up-front was no guarantee of safe passage. These pirates were truly feared the seas over, and because of that dramatic renown this image of piracy on the Sea of Lyc has persisted to the present day in literature and film.
  • Privateers, funded wholly or in part by nation states. These pirates-for-hire were employed to do things that respectable national navies could not be linked to, such as theft of rival states’ vessels and collection of bribes. Often, these organizations were hired with very specific rules as to which nations’ ships could targeted and with what degree of savagery. The Republic of Beaudry (which controlled the Strait of Lyc) the Republic of Mallorjhe (which controlled the Capricorn Sea and Oridica Sea), and the Kingdom of Andover (which controlled the access from the Sea of Thul) were the most active and eventually best known sponsors of this “state piracy”, and became very wealthy in doing so.

Over time, legitimate national navies drove the gangs of fishermen and independent criminal organizations out of business. At the same time, these same nations secretly encouraged their state-sponsored privateer organizations to consolidate territory. Bloodshed and outright theft were discouraged (though not entirely eliminated) and instead passing ships were charged an entrance fee to use the Sea of Lyc at either end. The nations themselves drew up a secret set of treaties now called the Capricorn Agenda, designed to equitably share stolen wealth based on capital investment and to deploy privateer companies in organized ways. For example:

  • The Kingdom of Andover was responsible for collecting the usage toll at the far West “gate” of the sea lane, using 3 privateer companies based in the islands of those waters. These companies were not to operate East of the port of Melbourne.
  • The Republics of Beaudry and Paroy were responsible for toll collection at the East “gate” at the Strait of Lyc. These privateers could not operate West of the port of Lac Montagne.
  • Companies employed by the Republics of Mallorjhe and Abrilleron could operate the full length of the sea lane, and indeed had to as they were charged with checking “receipts” to ensure payment, hunting vessels that may have escaped paying at either end, and transport of usage fees from the outer “gates” to central distribution hubs. These companies were forbidden from collecting usage fees directly but rather took their cuts from other companies.

This usage fee was an annually-variable percentage of the value of goods being transported, as estimated and collected by one of many companies of privateers. A ship captain would be given a receipt to prove his payment to any further companies that might stop his vessel in transit. By 1729, maritime extortion in the Sea of Lyc had become systematized and streamlined to the point that major shipping companies charged customers a surcharge for shipping through the waters, with privateer organizations regularly publicizing the amount of the usage fee to shipping companies beforehand. Sea captains’ manifests were changed to include the precise value of the goods on board to help the pirate “appraisers” do a fairer job of assessing the usage fee. Sometimes pirates and sea captains would meet at pre-assigned locations and times to pay a discounted usage fee, and some trade companies were given flat-fee discounts based on volume and “friendliness” toward the trade nations involved.

Pirate Rebellion

As piracy became increasingly businesslike, sponsoring nations came to rely on that revenue stream and insist upon decreasing expenses while maximizing profit. The greatest expenditure involved was labor, in the form of the privateer organizations taking their cut from the collected usage fees directly. Beginning in 1735, sponsor nations attempted to reduce the percentage taken by the privateer organizations on the grounds that the trade had become less dangerous and more businesslike. This was effectively a pay cut for the pirates, however it was nearly impossible for a sponsor nation to ensure that its privateer companies were only taking their fair share from the usage fees. Thus, this rate cut succeeded only in angering the outlaws while doing little to cut expenditures (in fact, there is some evidence that labor expenses actually increased in this period.)

A tipping point was reached in 1737, when a company of privateers rebelled against their sponsor, the free city of Troie (in present day Broceliande), for attempting to further reduce their percentage of the usage fee. The privateers attacked the merchant navy by surprise, easily overpowering them, and seized their ships in a bloodless mutiny. The rebels then blockaded the port, attempting to extort the ruler for a percentage of the cloth exports made therein. After 41 days, the pirates surrendered the commandeered vessels back to the city in exchange for a renewal of their privateer commission at the former, higher rate. There were no injuries and no shots fired. This relatively minor incident had far reaching repercussions. The news was quickly exaggerated as a “successful pirate attack” on a sponsor nation, which provided a convenient pretext for action on all sides. Other pirate companies were suddenly emboldened to take arms against their sponsors, while sponsor nations saw an urgent need to confront the increasingly unruly outlaws before they too were attacked.

Thus, in the summer of 1737 the stable network of outlaws and sponsors fell apart amid a series of skirmishes between national navies and former privateers, now unemployed pirates. Engagements were generally small and consisted of naval squadrons hunting down and destroying whatever few ships had not run from their advance. The exception to this was the so-called “Freeman’s Last Stand” near the port of Lac Montagne on November 12, 1737; there, approximately 22 companies of pirates had formed a fleet to resist the Beaudrian navy as it sought to clear them from the strategic Strait of Lyc. This fleet was easily outmatched by the combined forces of Beaudry and Paroy. In the end all pirate vessels were sunk while a single Paroyan frigate caught fire and had to be scuttled. After this total loss, all privateer resistance in the Sea of Lyc evaporated.

A notable exception to the bloodshed of 1737 was in Mallorjhe, where then prime minister D’erente chose not to attack that nations’ privateer fleet. Mallorjhe had the previous year lost approximately 1/3 of its fleet when a sudden winter storm smashed the first fleet against shoals in eastern Mallortanie, and it was not clear that a naval engagement against the island’s large pirate employ would be successful. Instead, D’erente offered his privateer crews broad pardons and the opportunity to enlist in the national navy with their boats for a modest signing bonus. Most privateers signed on, and many of those that did not met their end at the Freeman’s Last Stand. In time, this enlisting of outlaws into the national navy became known as the Devil’s Workshop, and would lead to great, unintended consequences for the nation later on.

Formation and Prosperity 1738-1830

See full article: The Articles of the League of Trade

In the aftermath of 1737, the nations along the Sea of Lyc that had benefited most from the extortion trade were scrambling to repair it, however the use of privateers to enforce a usage fee was no longer an option. Fortunately a wealthy merchant in the Beaudrian port of Lincourt, Francois Ardoin, had been contemplating this scenario for years. Fearing that the rising distrust between sponsors and pirates would eventually lead to a breakdown of the tariff system, Ardoin and his sons had begun as early as 1735 to court foreign ambassadors and generals about a scheme to replace the privateer navies with national navies commanded jointly by many different nations, and with the purposes of defense and territorial control. This plan became the foundation for the world’s first proper trade league, and would go on to bare Ardoin’s name.

As early as February 1738, former privateer sponsor nations were coalescing around the idea of a renewed cooperation to tax the sea of Lyc, this time legitimately. On July 1, 1738, the Articles of the League of Trade were unveiled in a ceremony dockside in Trevers, in Paroy. Ambassadors from the founding member states were on hand to ratify the defensive treaty. The articles, in short, were:

  • Article 1 - The formal renouncement of the use of military force between member states.
  • Article 2 - The acceptance of the binding arbitration of the member body in the event that a conflict cannot be solved between two member states peacefully.
  • Article 3 - The commitment to a common defense. If one nation is attacked, all are considered at war with the aggressor.
  • Article 4 - The unrivaled control of the sea lane, now considered internal, domestic waters for all member states and to be defended as such.
  • Article 5 - The commitment to proportional revenue sharing for trade along the sea lane, commensurate with upkeep from the member nations.
  • Article 6 - The commitment to a common trade policy. One nation may not unilaterally engage in commerce not already sanctioned by the member body.
  • Article 7 - The commitment to a common foreign policy. One nation may not unilaterally enter into treaty with another except where already sanctioned by the member body.

By September 1, 1738 the defensive patrolling and taxed use of the Sea of Lyc had resumed, now under full control of national navies, formally organized and deployed by the League of Ardoin. The “usage fee” became a “transit fee”, ostensibly now to travel the domestic, interior waters contained within the League’s self-declared maritime boundaries. This fee, along with dockage fees, currency conversions, and commodities pricing, were set and renewed every two weeks by the League member body. Trade imbalances and grievances between member states were quickly cleared up. With a strong economic backbone and a committed common defense, a 140 year span of nearly uninterrupted, peaceful prosperity followed in Southern Tarephia and Northern Antarephia. This period of development is known as the Pax Ardonia.

Economic Impact

The economic impact of this league was vast and difficult to quantify. As an example, it is estimated by some historians that 25-30% of the total worldwide tonnage of shipped goods between 1800-1820 passed through the Sea of Lyc. Even split among the various nations sponsoring the privateers, the revenue stream was considerable. In 1807 in the country of Abrilleron, for example, official records indicate “sea usage tariffs” as constituting 21% of the income that year. The benefits of league membership, particularly for smaller nations, were considerable.

More on how economically rich everyone got

Examples of famous cultural and artistic achievements made possible by this wealth

Maturation and Decline 1830-1870

Associated States

Use of Article 3

  • Border skirmish between Paroy
  • Both nations invoke article 3, member body votes to defend Paroy
  • Idea of the common defense breaks down

Expulsion of the Bai Empire

  • Allegations of trade manipulation and racketeering (after all the Lyc Dynasty is corrupt)
  • Never went to trial - members voted to arbitrate
  • Several nations resign membership to protest the unfair treatment of Andover

Economic infighting

Fall of the League of Ardoin

The Latinian decree

  • Latinian ambassador formally protests transit fee hike
  • Latina and her allies will no longer allow taxation to transit the Sea of Lyc
  • Any interference with shipping is considered an act of piracy and war

Wavering alliance

  • Ändeland withdraws membership, will not fight against their colonial master, renounces "modern piracy"
  • Associate states declare neutrality in any future conflict.

The Prince’s War

  • Prince someone of somewhere's ship is lost in the Oridica Sea off the coast of Mallortanie
  • That country blames the League for failing to ensure safe passage, calls ally Latina to declare war
  • Short version: The league is politically unable to mount an effective defense, ends up surrendering after several ports heavily damaged.

Aftermath

Maybe there could be further conflicts which resulted in OGF Great War? After all, there can be conflicts over the Lyc as well when the Bai Empire tried nationalising the strait. See User:ZKang123/Sandbox/Bai in the World War.

After the World War, possibly another organisation is formed to facilitate better cooperation in the region. Like the Lyc League or something.

Latinas role in your "Hanse"

Clear is, that Latina has it own interest in shipping routes through the strait from the beginning (1500). Most and first blue shipping-line you see are drawn from Latina.

This commercial interest Castellán til 1800 and Latina itself since 1824 always will defense with military power and without mercy. Since the pirat-town of Belsante was defeated and now a part of Latina, they do not like pirates. As in Hamburg / Germany 1401 Klaus Störtebeker and his 72 fellowers are beheaded and her head are shown centuries, so the latinian "Hanse" will do with criminal attackers on sea.

On the other hand - if you are peaceful, you can make a lot of money with the trade with Latina. Latina is a liberal country and has open harbours. So you can spin your story and if Latina is involved, so let me know please. --Histor (talk) 00:07, 17 March 2016 (CET)

Histor, glad you are open to being involved. I sent you a message with details. --refriedsushi 18 March 2016