Pennsylvania (13 Fallen Stars)


Flag	Coat of Arms
Location of Pennsylvania

Motto
Virtue, Liberty and Independence (English)

Capital Harrisburg

Largest city Philadelphia

Other cities Akron, Allentown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Wilmington

Language
official English (de facto)

others Pennsylvanian Dutch

Religion
main Methodist

others Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite

Demonym Pennsylvanian

Government Full-presidential federal republic

Legislature Congress

President

Hillary Rodham

Vice President

Charlie Crist

Area 188,016 km²

Population 21,140,692

Established 1790

Currency Dollar (PAD)

Time Zone (UTC-5)

summer (UTC-4)

Internet TLD .pa

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, commonly known as Pennsylvania, is a nation located on the Atlantic coast of North America. Pennsylvania borders New Netherland to the northeast, Canada to the northwest, and Maryland and Virginia to the south. Established in 1790, Pennsylvania is a federation of states, initially established between Province of Pennsylvania, the Delaware Colony (which had existed as a satellite colony of Pennsylvania), and the territories initially populated by Connecticut colonists.

History[]

Colonialism[]

Historically, Delaware was a "satellite colony" of Pennsylvania. This came about because Pennsylvania was the only colony to not have direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, but also under the desire of the Delaware colonists to not become part of the Catholic-dominated Maryland (seeing Pennsylvania's Quakers as the "lesser of two evils"). Not wanting to be completely merged into Pennsylvania, William Penn (the founder of PA) allowed the "Three Lower Counties" to retain their own assembly, but still were under the leadership of the Governor of Pennsylvania.

Independence[]

In 1776, Delaware officially became a separate state, with the blessing of Pennsylvania. In a federation, it would be okay. But with the end of the confederation, Delaware was stuck. In a similar boat, Pennsylvania also wanted to retain a coast on the Atlantic. The obvious solution was to reinstate the unification of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Willing to compromise, Pennsylvania agreed to the establishment of a federation between the two. The name "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" would be retained as the name of the nation, with the region "Pennsylvania" adopting a new name (with Susquehanna becoming popular).

During this constitutional convention, another question arose: should "Pennsylvania" be further divided into new states? The main supporters of this idea came from the Wyoming Valley (populated by settlers from Connecticut) and the Ohio Valley (populated by settlers from Virginia). Both regions requested to become their own states to the Congress of the Confederation, with both being ignored. Now independent, the two regions attempted again.

The main drive that eventually lead to the formation of Pennsylvania as a federation of (initially) three states and a massive territory came from the events of the ongoing Vermont War. Pro-New England Vermont was fighting for their independence from New York. This gained some sympathy from the once Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley, who only recently had agreed on a deal to end regional fighting between Pennsylvania and the settlers. There was some fear in Philadelphia that these settlers may attempt to gain sympathy and maybe even aid from New England. On the other side, the settlers were primarily hoping to gain more regional say.

In 1790, an agreement was finalized, ending with the recognition of Pennsylvania as a federation of three states: Delaware, Susquehanna, and Wyoming. The remaining territory would become separate from the three states, and would be open for future states to come in (with Westsylvania being the first years down the line).