Empire of Cygnia (Joan of What?)

Not to be confused with the modern Empire of the United Cygnian States.

The Empire of Cygnia, commonly known at the time as Cygnia and distinguished from its successor states as the First Empire, was a sovereign state that occupied the western third of the Australian continent, and also from 1919 onwards the islands of Samudra and Java. The Empire was established by former King Alexander II of the United Kingdom in 1783 following the federation of the Cygnian colonies three years earlier.

Five of the six Cygnian colonies were originally established by the United Kingdom from 1650 to 1700; the sixth, today Swanstone, Cygnia's capital, is the exception, having been founded by the Dutch as New Rotterdam in 1614.

The colonies that formed the Empire federated in 1789 as the Kingdom of Cygnia, a constituent of the United Kingdom, and Swanstone became the seat of King Alexander I's government-in-exile after a revolution at home overthrew him and established what is today the Commonwealth of England. In 1792, the King crowned himself Emperor, and thus established the First Empire, declaring the country's independence shortly prior. A constitution was drafted and enacted one year after his coronation on 5 May 1793. The new Roman Empire did nothing to prevent the secession, and the new Cygnian state quickly gained international recognition.

Following independence, Cygnia went through periods of prosperity and decline, and its territory quickly expanded eastward. One of the most notable periods of economic boom for Cygnia began in the early 1840s, when prospectors in multiple locations discovered gold, including at Halls Creek and Kalgoorlie, both of which became huge settlements. Immigration increased dramatically, and the population skyrocketed. In response, infrastructure was also expanded, and the Goldfields Irrigation Pipelines initiative was one of the biggest engineering projects of the mid-19th century. Industrialisation followed swiftly after, and Cygnia became a centre of technological progress.

In 1914, the Cygnian government entered the Great War against the Teutonic Empire on the side of the Allies, invading the Teutonic South-east Asian colonies. With the achievement of an Allied victory by 1918 and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the Teutonic Empire was forced to grant independence to all of its colonies, including all of those in South-east Asia. Samudra and Java, which had been under Cygnian occupation since March 1916, voted to join Cygnia, and both islands were admitted into the Empire in 1919, with Samudra as a state, and Java being divided into several, smaller states before each being individually accepted into the federation.

Careful fiscal conservatism following the end of the Great War by the newly elected National Unity government pushed Cygnia into another economic boom in the 1920s, and in 1924 the treasury saw a surplus for the first time in over forty years. This resulted in the chartering and establishment of new government-owned corporations such as Imperial Cygnian Airways and Cygnia Rail.

The prosperity was not to last, however, nor was the Empire itself. On 3 March 1933, the Ellingham massacre took place at the hands of military agents of the National Cygnian Socialist Party, assassinating then-Emperor Theodore IV and much of his family; the sole survivor was the future Ellory I, who thereafter fled into hiding. The NCSP under the leadership of Franklin J. Heller then seized power and dissolved the Empire in 1934.

After the end of the Great Australian War and the Cygnian Revolution, the Hellerist government was overthrown, and the Empire was restored.