Volkstaat (1983: Doomsday)

Volkstaat is a Boer and Afrikaner survivor state in the former African nation of South Africa and is a member nation of the. Its name in Afrikaans means "People's Nation". The nation's origins lies in the trek led by General(?) Constand Viljoen to establish a free state for Afrikaners, free from danger.

Doomsday
Following Doomsday, South Africa was faced with many problems. For one, it was on the verge of collapse. Following Doomsday, several black revolutionists attempted to overthrow white Afrikaners from the seats of government. While South Africa itself was not affected in any physical form on Doomsday, the discontent of the apartheid which divided the races of South Africa, and the collapse of international trade all harbored a Black vs. White Revolution that brought the government South Africa to its knees.

Post-Doomsday
See Also: Azanian League

Following the fall of Pretoria, and what was left of the loyal South African military troops lead an exodus of over 600,000 white South Africans west. Thousands were lost along the trek, with many choosing to settle in the Orange Free State instead, where rumors that the White-African government was having better luck than in Pretoria, others simply to attrition due to lack of supplies. Many settled in abandoned farms along the route as well as taking up residence in what would eventually be known as Waterboersland, but eventually nearly 400,000 reached Cape Province around the town of Douglas.

It was here that Viljoen laid out his vision for the Volkstaat, a state Afrikanners could call their own. He planned to move further west, but that the going would be harder than already, and that if some wished to stay behind, he would leave some of his soldiers to protect them and upon the establishment of the Volkstaat they would be welcomed. A good number of the English-speaking refugees of the group, some 30,000 people remained, some staying in Douglas using their expertise as engineers to improve the terrain, and some spreading out to establish themselves as herdsman or farmers in the surrounding lands.

They continued to move west, and took the towns of Springbok and Vredendal. The trekkers soon began to settle in these towns and began to restart abandoned farms as well as the small amounts of industry present in both cities. Under the leadership of Viljoen, the settlements would develop successfully after the first years - which were filled with hardships. Eventually, the two towns would grow sufficient enough after trading with one another to once more begin expanding the area of their influence. And so, on December 17th, 1991, the Nation of Volkstaat was declared. Soon, the shreds of South African government that remained in the region were forced to accept the letter that declared Volkstaat's sovereignty and Viljoen's supreme control of the nation.

Coastal Expansion
One of the first acts of the new government of Volkstaat was not to go east, but to move west and secure the coast to ensure trade from the sea arrives safely and raiders do not damage goods and tradesmen heading to Volkstaat. Therefore, in January 1992, Viljoen ordered soldiers to move west and secure the coast and bring it under the full control of Volkstaat. His soldiers would move from Springbok and Vredrendal. Troops moving from Springbok would focus on getting to the coast and establishing small outposts. From here, they would begin to move southweard before meeting up with a small contigent from Vredrendal. Meanwhile, soldiers from Vredrendal would head south, moving down along the coast. They would take Lambert's Bay as they began to expand their area of influence and establish a small outpost for their soldiers. Both these events took around three years to complete, but by 1995 - most of the coast was secure and the nation could decide where to place their port.

Viljoen was personally consulted, and he decided to choose Lambert's Bay to become the premier port of Volkstaat. The town was renamed Lambert and almost immediately, migration to the small town was encouraged to try to create a suiltable dock for large trading vessels to dock with and trade and sell their goods.

A Brother
In the spring of 1992, a large group of white refugees, numbering around 10,000, arrived in Volkstaat. Heading west from the black-supremacist government of the Azanian League and the white-supremacist governments of Heiligdom and the Orange Free State, the trekkers were looking for a safe haven. And they were in luck, as when the entered Volkstaat territory, they were greeted warmly by the soldiers manning the outposts. However, confusion soon set in - as many of the soldiers recognised the man leading the refugees to be Constand Viljoen. But how could this be so? Viljoen was in the capital of Springbok.

By the time the refugees arrived in the capital, rumours were already flying around saying that Viljoen had gone to find more refugees in need of help. Viljoen himself had head these rumours and was waiting at the gates of the city to see himself what the fuss was about. Who he saw shocked him. It was someone who looked identical to him, and he remembered the person standing in front of his was none other than Abraham Viljoen - his identical twin brother. Constand was reportedly thought to have broken down at the sight of his brother as he had expected his brother to have died.

The brothers then spent time talking to each other, and through this, Viljoen got a picture of what was happening in the east of South Africa. The regions from where he had lead his initial exodus from had now reformed into the, while the had grown in power and population. This soon confirmed his fears that Volkstaat did not have many allies, and so he sent out diplomats to the states in the east to see if he could forge trading agreements and possibly alliances. The diplomats met with leaders from Waterboersland, the OFS, New Britain and then finally the Republic of the Cape. They generally got favourable responses from most nations and decided to pursue trading with these nations to try to expand Volkstaat's economy. However, the nation was shocked with New Britain - and what its origins were. They had not expected the British to have established a survivor state in South Africa. However, after initial hiccups, relations began to become better in comparison. Yet Volkstaat was still a bit hesitant pursing greater economic ties with the nation.

However, there was still the problem of where to house the refugees, who were beginning to strain the already stretched resources. So when news came that the small town of Lambet's Bay had been captured, Viljoen gave the orders to relocate the 10,000 or so refugees to the town, renamed to Lambert, to help make into a major port for Volkstaat. Along with the refugees, some 5,000 more travelled to the small town to settle it and expand its infrastructure.

"They can vote!"
As Volkstaat expanded its borders, it began to see refugees enter its nation from the Republic of the Cape - its main trading partner of the region. Although relations with the Cape were favourable, due to the moderation of Abraham Viljoen - the mixed and black refugees were allowed to stay and eventually helped to settle many towns which were short in population.

Soon, however, the central government under Viljoen, who by this time had formed an interim government which included his brother, began to face problems relating to raidings of their lands conducted by the warlords of the region. Thus, in 1995, the highly trained military of Volkstaat - formed from mainly army personnel of former South Africa began to combat this problem by taking out warlords who were threatening the nation. However, this proved to only anger the other warlords - many of whom formed an alliance against Volkstaat to combat the troops which were beginning to attack their lands. Volkstaat soon began to face a shortage in manpower - and they began to recruit Blacks with fighting experience into their armed forces.

Their numbers soon swelled and this soon led to a point that the army could not supply all the new recruits. To solve this, ammunition and guns seized from rebels were used to arm the troops. Using larger numbers, in the spring of 1996 - the Volkstaat Army began a large counter-attack against the warlords, killing a large number of them and beginning to absorb their forces into militia forces of Volkstaat and use them against other warlords. Not only did this remove many of the warlords, it helped expand the borders of Volkstaat eastward. Yet incorporating the warlord forces would be easier said than done. Not only were they unwilling to fight for the government, they did not have a motive to do so. To ensure they could gain their loyalty, the government offered the soldiers the chance to claim their own land and becoming governors of small towns if the land they owned had people arrive to work it. Many militiamen took up the offer, and convinced other militiamen - usually those under them in the hierarchy - to work with them and become part of small communities - making the person claiming the land a governor of the settlement.

This soon proved to be a master-stroke as it would not only allow the establishment of countless settlements, it would also ensure the loyalty of the militiamen lay with Volkstaat. Using these extra numbers, Volkstaat was able to successfully continue the fight against the warlords and either kill them or force them to leave the lands. This gave them roads which linked with major settlements within Volkstaat and also gave the nation a feeling of security as it now controlled regions which had no threats from warlords.

With this, in 1997, talks of election and a properly elected government began to take place. Issues began to arise almost immediately as much of the blacks and mixed population within the region wanted the right to vote in the election, while much of the white population was unsure of their view on whether the blacks and mixed peoples should be allowed to vote or not. Yet there was a significant minority advocating not giving the votes to the mixed and black peoples, or even the blacks.

It was at this point that Constand Viljoen affirmed to the nation why he was a good leader. In a historic statement, Viljoen stated over radio to the nation that "if blacks can die for us, they can vote!". Although many viewed the statement negatively, or even disgust, most believed this was the correct move and Viljoen's popularity within the nation reached an all time high. Thus, when the first elections occured on the 29th of August, Viljoen's party, the Volkstaat Front won a sweeping majority. They easily established control over parliament and within the year began to write the consitution of the nation.

The constitution, completed in early 1998, promised free and equal rights for all citizens of Volkstaat, regardless of race. However, it did stress Volkstaat as an Afrikaaner state and allowed for the teaching of Afrikaaner values in school. The constitution also looked to establish a sense of inclusiveness for all peoples with the creation of a nationalistic Afrikaaner state, but with the crucial difference of making sure that blacks were included; a difference from old Afrikaaner thinking, which only believed whites and coloureds could be Afrikaaner. This made "being Afrikaaner" a more nationalistic view compared to a racial one.

The constitution was an embodiment of the beliefs of Viljoen's party, the Volkstaat Front. Although largely supported, even by blacks - there were a few blacks who believed that inclusiveness attempts would fail because of previous race issues which had been the cause for the break-up of South Africa. Things were admittedly shaky at the start, yet things did go on to stablise.

The New Millennium
With the dawn of the new millennium, things were looking up for Volkstaat. After the hardships of the previous two decades, the economy of Volkstaat soon began to grow and people managed to move past subsistence farming and mining. With the growth of the economy and increased stability in the nation, Viljoen then began to lead an agreesive international policy aimed at conquering more land toward the north as well as establishing extensive trading links with the various states in the region in a bid to increase the nation's economic standing. He believed this would enable the economic output to increase, allowing for increased spending in other much needed sectors such as education and healthcare. Viljoen also established a healthy relationship with the Republic of the Cape, with the latter viewing the former in a positive light due to Volkstaat's extensive Afrikaaner policies, viewed positively in the Cape. Over the next few years relations between the two countries continued to better, with Volkstaat adopting the RZA Rand in the fall of 2001.

Volkstaat also established greater relations with other states such as New Britain, with Viljoen now being able to sympathise more with the Home-British in New Britain. However, the government had to walk a fine line between the Cape and New Britain due the the former's hate of Anglo-Africans. Viljoen was careful in appeasing both sides, and managed to do so successfully and as a result he was able to establish trading routes with both nations.

Volkstaat also came into contact with German South West Africa, another exodus state with origins the large number of refugees arriving from former Germany in the late eighties and early nineties. A small expiditionary party had travelled northward to scout the land for any more survivor communities as well as potential threats to the borders of Volkstaat, and had come across a small settlement flying the GSWA flag. Although there had been some contact between the two states through proxies, this was the first time the two nations' representatives met. In what was described to be a mostly friendly meet, Volkstaat soon learned of the hardships the other nation had faced. When Viljoen was alerted of what the expiditionary party had found out, he quickly looked to establish an official dialogue with GSWA. The leaders of both nations met in Springbok in May 2002 and Viljoen announced his intentions of investing in GSWA to help a fellow state grow economically, benefitting the local region.

Such positive actions allowed the Volkstaat Front to keep its majority in Parliament in the 2002 Parliamentary Elections. However, it also saw the rise of the Labour Party, which advocated more laws on equality and a greater effort to establish relations with other survivor states and possible unification. The Labour Party performed well in the elections, leading many to believe in the government that more efforts were needed on the international relations front.

Present Day
The present day state of Volkstaat

Economy
The economy of Volkstaat is primarily agricltural, with most of the nation's population living in rural regions. Economic dealings have allowed for a significant increase in crop yield - along with more favourable weather patterns which have allowed farmers to export a significant percentage of their crops. This has helped support the expanding of Volkstaat's industry. Craftsmaking is another factor of the economy.

The nation was economically tied to the Republic of the Cape and New Britain. However, the nation began to trade more heavily with its other NUSA partners and helped to cut its reliance on New Britain majorly, while helping the state of KwaZulu develop its industrial and military base.

Former currency: RZA Rand

Military
Operates 8,000 expert troops. 2,000 police troops. No reservists. Definately unisex armed forces due to the need to have troops - like Israel. Hardware partner - New Britain?

International Relations
Volkstaat was a member in the, an economic and geopolitical alliance that makes up several nations throughout former Namibia and South Africa. Since its establishment in 2004, the nations of the union grew closer - both geographically and relation-wise. The nations were beginning to act more collectively and economic co-operation was growing between them, but many political bigwigs in Volkstaat felt the country was being under-represented and early in 2014 began to distance itself from the other members. This culminated in the dissolution of NUSA on September 26, 2014 as other nations felt that NUSA's purpose was outdated.

It was represented in the League of Nations as the New Union of South Africa, however it has applied for a seperate membership.