| United Republic of Dakota République unie du Dakota Timeline: Cromwell the Great
República Unida de Dakota (Spanish) OTL equivalent: Dakota Territory, Iowa and Minnesota | |||||
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| Motto: Serit ut alteri saeclo prosit (Latin: One sows for the benefit of another age) |
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| Anthem: L'étoile de la liberté |
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| Capital | Des Moines | ||||
| Other cities | Yankton and Beauharnois | ||||
| Official languages | French | ||||
| Regional languages | Dakota-Lakota, Siksiká, Apasaloke[1]Cheyenne, Métis French, Michif and Spanish | ||||
| Ethnic groups | Europeans, Creoles, Native Americans and Maroons (free African slaves) | ||||
| Religion | Secular state (officially)
Roman Catholic, Native American animism and Deism (Cult of Reason) |
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| Demonym | Dakotan (French: Dakotain-e) | ||||
| Government | Unitary presidential republic | ||||
| - | First Consul | Magloire Thibodeau | |||
| Legislature | National Assembly | ||||
| Key events | |||||
| - | Independence from Royalist Louisiana | 1832 (Year XLIII) (regognized 1836 Year XLVII) | |||
| Currency | New France livre -> Dakotan sou (subunit 1/100 centime) | ||||
| Time zone | UTC-6 | ||||
| Date formats | dd mm of year yyyy (French Republican Calendar) | ||||
| Drives on the | right | ||||
| Membership international or regional organizations | Alliance between Equals and League of American Republics | ||||
AGRICULTURE, s. s. (Ordre Encycl. Histoire de la Nat. Philos. Science de la Nat. Botan. Agricult.) L’agriculture est, comme le mot le fait assez entendre, l’art de cultiver la terre. Cet art est le premier, le plus utile, le plus étendu, & peut-être le plus essentiel des arts.(...)
(Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers)
Dakota is an independent republic that seceded from Louisiana. It covers the Upper Louisiana and the Missouri River basin.
It is bordered to the north by Borealia; to the east by the Northwest Territories; to the south by Louisiana; and to the west by the Rocky mountains.
History[]
The Secession of Dakota of 1832 (Year XLIII) started the overthrow of Royalist Louisiana and the establishment of its republic. Among the reason for the Revolt these were: slavery - that Dakota abolished - unrest to the arbitrary and non local accountability of royalist administrators, conflicting economic interests with Lower Louisiana, and the exclusion of middle and small landholders in favor of large planters.
In April 1832 (Germinal Year XLIII[2]), under the leadership of Isidore Clifton the local national guard battalions and cavalry dragoons regiments of Des Moines occupied the executive premises of the Royalist Louisiana administration. News of the uprising led the central government to send forces by river to re-establish order a month later. However, improvised blockades along the river and the capture of the semaphore system rendered the plans to regain Dakota by the Royalist impossible and cumbersome. Also the winter in the Great Plains made it more difficult for the invading force to gather supplies as an embargo against them had been ordered by revolutionaries that was widely supported by local farmers.
The uprising - or Dakotan Revolution - was widely supported among the local population. One of the first measures was the abolition of slavery and its trade followed by the confiscation of the lands of loyalist planters and the Church that was sold in public auctions in favor to the public treasure, a new currency (Dakotan sou).
War wagons (fort de chariots) used by the Dakotan militias against Louisianan invasion
The Dakota Revolution and the return of what was left of the army of an improvised military campaign fueled discontent against the Loyalists and Bourbons being one of the sources of the Louisiana Revolution in 1833 that overthrew the monarchy.
A National Assembly was duly elected and in its first meeting declared the independent United Republic of Dakota (République unie du Dakota). The name of the new state, Dakota, was taken from the name given to the branch of the Sioux tribes which occupied the area at the time in Upper Louisiana. The word meaning in Dakota-Lakota "allies" or "friends". National Assembly as constituent body drafted and approved the Constitution of Year XLV (1834). This document was based on the French Consulate Constitution of Year XIX (1809).
Not fully recognized as independent by Louisiana but unable to assemble a military campaign to regain it back, Louisiana's First Consul La Fayette took the view, widespread among the radical citizens of Louisiana, to de facto recognize the Dakotan Secession. This policy was not favored by his political rival Jacques Lachance. The recognition sanctioned by the Treaty of Chartres of 1836 established a permanent peace and the Alliance between Equals (Alliance entre égaux).
For the young republic problematic were also the relations with the Dakota-Lakota or Sioux tribes of the west. The Treaties of 1838 between the Dakota government and the Council of Tribes established the status of dependent Indian nation[3]. The terms implied free movement, free trade, political autonomy, and non alliance in case of war with the enemies of Dakota. However, Dakota became their foreign representation and restrictions for foreigners, with the exception of agents of Borealia and the HBC, to trade or travel in Indian territories.
Dakota forms part of the Corn Belt (ceinture de maïs), that moved from producing mixed crops and livestock in the 1830s into becoming an area focused strictly on cash crops such as wheat, maize and soybeans. It includes the wheat producing areas on the colder north.
Heads of State and Government of Dakota[]
| Portrait | President of the Committee for Public Safety (Birth–Death) |
Term Office | Note | |
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Isidore Clifton | 1832-1834 | National Republican Association (Association nationale républicaine, ANR) | |
| Leader of the Dakota Revolution | ||||
| Portrait | First Consul (Birth–Death) |
Term of office | Political party/association | |
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Isidore Clifton | 1834-1844 | ANR, later National Republican Union (Union républicaine nationale, UNR)[4]. | |
| Signed the Treaty of Chartres (1836) and established the Alliance between Equals (Alliance entre égaux) with Louisiana. | ||||
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Ambroise Leblanc | 1844-1852 | Liberal Party of Dakota (Parti libéral du Dakota, PLD) | |
| Died in office | ||||
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Magloire Thibodeau (1776-1843) |
1852-1862 | People's Political League (Ligue politique populaire, LPP), split from the PLD | |
State Institutions[]
The main characteristics of the Constitution of the Year XLV are:
- An unipersonal strong executive vested in the First Consul elected for a ten year term with indefinite re-election. The First Consul promulgates the laws, appoints and dismisses the members of the Council of State, ministers, ambassadors and other foreign agents, officers of the army and navy, members of the local administrations, and the commissioners of the government before the tribunals. He appoints all criminal and civil judges other than the justices of the peace and the judges of cassation, without power to remove them.
- A fully elected unicameral legislative: the National Assembly.
- an independent judiciary: the National Court of Cassation is the supreme court assisted by the intermediate appellate courts and inferior courts of justice.
Dakota is divided in provinces, prefectures or general lands (unorganized territories), parishes or districts and communes. Local government is administered by the elected council of the communes.
Dakotan provinces
- North Rocky Mountains (Montagnes de Roche Nord or Rocheuses septentrionales)
- South Rocky Mountains (Montagnes de Roche Sud or Rocheuses méridionales)
- Platte
- Upper Missouri (Haute-Missouri)
- Lower Missouri (Basse-Missouri)
- Red River Valley (Vallée de la Rivière Rouge)
- Minnesota
- l'Iowa
Also included are the treaties with native tribes given them the condition of dependent Indian nation as is the case with the Great Sioux Nation, or friendly Indian nation as with the Comancheria.
Great Sioux Nation[]
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| Language Official |
Siouan or Siouan–Catawban language | |||
| Others | French, English, Spanish, Métis French and Michif | |||
| Religion Main |
Traditional tribal religion | |||
| Others | Catholicism and Protestantism | |||
| Ethnic Groups Main |
Sioux | |||
| Others | European | |||
| Demonym | Sioux | |||
| Government | Confederation. Dependent Indian nation (protectorate) of Dakota. | |||
| Legislature | Tribal Council | |||
| Principal Chief | ||||
| Established | Treaty of 1838 | |||
| Currency | Dakotan sou, Louisianian piastre, British pound sterling, Californian peso ($), tokens, and barter | |||
The Great Sioux Nation is the traditional political structure of the Sioux in North America. It is a dependent Indian nation of Dakota under terms of several treaties.
The peoples who speak the Sioux language are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires. The seven member communities are sometimes grouped into three regional/dialect sub-groups (Lakota, Western Dakota, and Eastern Dakota), but these mid-level identities are not politically institutionalized. The seven communities are all individually members of the historic confederacy. In contemporary culture, the designation is primarily a linguistic, cultural, and for some, political grouping.
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