Antarctica (Le pays du salut)

Republic of Antarctica
République de Antarctique
Timeline: Le pays du salut
OTL equivalent: Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina
Republic of Antarctica République de AntarctiqueTimeline: Le pays du salut ; OTL equivalent: Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina
	flag
	Location of Antarctica
Capital; (and largest city)	Coligny
Other cities	Ste. Paul, Refuge, Rochelle, Asunción, Port Sûr
Official languages	French
Regional languages	Spanish • Portuguese
Demonym	Antartican
Government	Federal Consulative Constitutional Republic
Legislature	Antarctic Assembly
History
Area
Population
Currency	Antarctic Télare (ATE)
Time zone	Antarctic Standard time (AST) (UTC-3)

Antarctica, officially The Republic of Antarctica (French:République de Antarctique), is a large country in South America that shares a border with Brazil, Peru, Chile and Lusitania.

it is the most populous country in South America and the 5th most populous in the world, with the largest city being the capital, Coligny, with 9.4 million residents, making it the largest city in the Americas and one of the largest in the world.

Antarctica is a very wealthy and highly-developed country, and is largely considered one of the world's superpowers, with the third-highest GDP and second-highest GDP per capita.

it's currently a member of the Congress of Nation(CoN), and the Alliance of Democratic Nations (ADN) and the American Union.

Antarctica has a very diverse and eclectic culture, with it's roots being in the Huguenot settlement of Fort Coligny resulting in its deep French heritage whist maintaining a unique appearance throughout the Francophone world, combining classical French elements with unique Huguenot Architecture and Cultural queues, as well as a large immigrant population which has had a deep impact of every aspect of Antarctic society.

History[]

Main Article: History of Antarctica

Early Huguenot settelment[]

On 1 November 1555 French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1575), a Catholic knight of the Order of Malta, who later would help the Huguenots to find a refuge against persecution, led a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and colonists, and took possession of the small island of Villegaignon in the Guanabara Bay - in modern day Côte de janvier, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny. The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny (then a Catholic statesman, who about a year later would become a Huguenot), an admiral who supported the expedition and would later use the colony in order to protect his Reformed co-religionists. In the following years further expeditions with settlers, supplies and manpower would strenghthen the fort and scare the Portuguese, who would, in 1560, send Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, a command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, on 15 March 1560, he attacked Fort Coligny and, after a long and drawn put siege, a surprise attack by led by Villegaignon, nearly destroy the Portuguese attack force, with 1500 Portuguese casualties and 500 fleeing. This would result in nearly 100 years of relative peace for France Antarcrticqe.

Expansion, Autonomy and Independence[]

Following the failed Portugese assault, the Portuguese government would restrict further hostile action to merely sending privateers and coastal raid parties, due to a fear of another humilliating loss. This would lead France Antarctiqe to function as a safe harbor for many Huguenot families (as well as Calvinists and other Protestants), and by the 1600s some estimates believe that as many as 100,000 settlers would live along the coast and somewhat further inland, in roughly 30 villages. This huge influx would largely be due to the ongoing religious conflicts in France, as well as Henry II viewing the colony as a sort of "dumpster" where he could send the Protestant and largely forget about it and them, as such he wouldn't establish a proper colonial govenment and only sent 200 soldiers to defend against Portuguese attacks, which would also be recalled 2 years after the first assalt. The largely abandonment by France and relative peace with Portugal would lead initially to Villegaignon becoming the leader of the settlement, but with his death and the establishment of further villages would lead to a gradual decentralization, and by the 1600, the cities and villages of France Antarctique would become de facto independent, both from France and from each other.

War and Reunification[]

As the Dutch-Portuguese war would progress, the Dutch would invade in 1630 Brazil, and in the next couple of year the WIC would secure the northern coast. This, along with the good trading relations between Antarctica and the Netherlands, would lead the Brazilian governor-general, Matias de Albuquerque, to worry that Antarctic forces would invade brazil as well, and thus Portugal would authorize an invasion of Antarctic territory on the 4th of June 1637. There is no evidence to support said fears, as Antarctica at the time didn't have a unified government, but it is widely believed that this attacks was launched for a coupe of reasons, the first being that conquering said territory would remove a constant threat to Portuguese sovereignty over brazil, one that would benefit from a weakened brazil as it would be able to expand and settle there. The other one being one of morale, where if they'll secure a victory against another protestant enemy, they could convince their soldiers and settlers that god is on their side and that they should resist Dutch rule (It is important to note that some Antarctic volunteers did fight alongside the Dutch). The Portuguese would decide that a direct attack on Coligny should only be launched after securing the other villages, as it was heavily fortified following the last invasion attempt, and thus they would sent a 10,000 strong attack force to the small village of Hyères, which would fall in an hour, but it's mayor would escape to a nearby town and alert them to the Portuguese invasion. The news of the invasion would spread quickly and by the next day the mayors of all cities would decide to establish a council in Coligny to coordinate a united defensive front, this council would be known as the Council of thirty, and they would choose to establish a joint Antarctic militia to fight the Portuguese with the intention of forcing Portugal to relinquish its claims to Antarctica, thus starting the Antarctic Independence War. The Dutch would be very happy with this development, as they maintained good relations with the colony, and so they would sent envoys to the council to try and persuade them to join the Netherlands in an all out war to conquer and divide brazil between the two countries. Initially the council refused, as they wanted to focus on halting the attack, securing all Brazilian settlements close to Antarctica and getting Portugal to drop their claims on the region, and they also still view themselves as subject to the French throne and thus they couldn't discuss alliances without it's approval. Following the outbreak of hostilities there was expectation among the Antarticans and the council that France would come to their aid, as they were a French colony, and thus the council would sent an envoy to the French king Louis XIII, asking him to send aid and soldiers, but he refused, believing that sending an army to the Americas would be too costly and unjustified, and that Huguenots didn't deserve protection from the king, in addition he didn't want to antagonize the Portuguese further and risk full-blown war with them due to their alliance with England. This would infuriate the council and the general population and after months of consideration and debate, with the help of the Dutch envoys, the council will officially declare the independence of Antarctica in the Writ of Union, where they'll declare all the cities of Antarctica to be united in a confederated commonwealth, where each citizen would be a free man with no sovereign to rule over them, and with a new Grand Council, with elected councilors from each city sitting in it, functioning as a Government and a legislature, it would be able to write laws, make decrees, raise and collect taxes, control the army and navy all together and with majority voting for all decisions, making it a joint executive-legislative assembly and one of the most democratic assemblies at the time.

The war would continue until 1651, and would see many victories and losses for both sides. Initially the nascent confederation would try to stop the Portuguese advance at the battle of Port Surgères, in which their 25,000 strong Unified Militia would encounter 32,000 strong Portuguese invasion force. they Portuguese would secure a pyrrhic victory, winning the battle but losing many more men than Antarctica. After that the Portuguese commander Cézar de Silva, would move on to conquer and pillage many towns along the coast, further depleting his ranks, as the Militia would recover their strength. In early 1839 he would attempt a larger incursion siege the important coastal city of Rochelle, in a move anticipated by the Antarctic commander Valentin Chappuis, who would ambush their weakened forces.

Government[]

Antarctica is a Federal Consulative Constitutional Republic.

The country is a federation made up of 25 provinces and each has its own autonomous government. each province is headed by a Chancellor that is directly elected by it's citizens every 4 years. He is the head of the provincial government and he serves along with Provincial Secretaries which he appoints. each province also has a provincial Legislature and they are known as the Provincial Parliaments (French:Les parlements provinciaux) that has varying amounts of MPs. The provinces' governments and legislatures have their own areas of responsibility generally different than the federal government, being mainly focused on local issues.

The Consul of Antarctica serving as both the head of State and head of Government, and he is elected directly through a two-round system, he serves a 4 year term, with the ability to run a second term.

the Legislature of Antarctica is the Great Antarctic Assembly (French:Grande Assemblée Antarctique) commonly shortened to the Antarctic Assembly. It is a bicameral legislator, with the Chamber of Delegates (French: Chambre des Délégués) being the lower house and the Senate (French: Sénat), being the upper house.

The Chamber of Delegates consist of 630 Delegates that are elected every four years or after the Chamber votes to dissolve itself.

The elections to the Camber use a first-past-the-post system, with the country divided into electoral constituencies that each contain between 200,000-400,000 people , with the elections happening every four-years, along with the Consulate election and the senatorial election.

The Senate consists of (num. of states * 6) Senators with each state allotted 6 Senators, with two of them being elected every two years, and thus each servers six years.

Politics[]

Antarctica is a multi-party democracy that is considered as one of the most democratic nations in the world.

it has many different parties but these the main national ones:

The Progressive Party (French: Le Parti progressiste): a centrist- big tent party that was founded in 1910 as a Socialist party, it has since moved to the center and is currently in control of the Consulate as well as the Camber, but not the Senate. It supports progressive neo-liberal agenda, such as free market economy, equal rights to all, good welfare but with fair taxes and limited government spending.
The Heritage Party (French: Le Parti patrimoine): a center-right party that has both liberal and conservative elements owing to its creation from the merger of the Conservative party and the right leaning elements of the Liberal party. currently second in seats in the Chamber and controlling the Senate. it supports neo-liberal and largely conservative ideals, such as a somewhat conservative social system, though it does support higher equality and LGBTQ+ rights, capitalist economy, low taxes and regulation, relaxed gun control as well as support other populist agenda, like being tough on illegal immigration and being somewhat xenophobic.
The People's Party (French:Le Parti populaire): formerly the Social Democratic party, this is a center-left party that split from the Progressive party and merged with other socialist elements. it is in favor of wealth taxes and bigger governmental spending, but does support a largely free market with governmental oversight. currently, it is in a state of decline being third in the Camber and Senate by a large margin after years of mismanagement. In 2019 it has changed the traditional name of the party to the People's Party to symbolize a new chapter and invite young voters, this as of yet didn't help them electorally.