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Republic of Florida
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of Republic of Florida
Location of Republic of Florida
Anthem "This Land Is Mine"
Capital St. Augustine
Largest city Gainesville
Other cities West Palm Beach, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, St. Augustine, Apalachicola, Daytona Beach, Port St. Lucie, Sarasota-Bradenton, Ocala, Naples, Key Largo
Language
  official
 
English (de facto)
  others Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Creek
Religion Christianity, Judaism, Santeria, irreligiousness
Ethnic Group Floridian
Demonym Floridian
President
Vice President
Area Approx. 60,000 mi²
Population 2,000,305 (2020 Census)
Independence 2010
Currency Floridian Dollar (1:1 CF Dollar)
Organizations Caribbean Federation

The Republic of Florida is a North American nation on the Floridian peninsula. It was formed from the unification of Republic of Gainesville, First Coast, and South Florida on the New Year's Eve of 2010. In recent years it has been a net exporter of agricultural products, owing to the greater stability offered by the peninsula's re-unification and its natural ports allowing for cautious re-integration into the global economy. With the help of the United States Atlantic Remnant and neighboring Neonotia, it has finally achieved its costly goal of pacifying the peninsula and allowing the rebuilding process to begin in full swing.

History[]

Since the late 1990's, talks of a unified Florida had been proposed. Although swathes of the coasts had long since depopulated or evacuated elsewhere, and the Orlando metropolitan area had literally sunk back into the swamp which it had been carved out from only decades prior, large swathes of Florida had remained civilized and populated through the years following Doomsday, but their slow fragmentation and isolation left them as little more than pieces of stability in a sea of chaos. These discussions on whether Florida could be re-united under a functional government would be nothing more than fanfare or wishful thinking until the turn of the century. In 1997, a Gainesville ambassador to South Florida had brought up the idea of uniting under a confederation, but since South Florida had problems of their own, and Gainesville having few resources to spare at the time it was not possible.

In 2000, people began to take this more seriously. Large-scale bands of raiders had been pushed to the brink of extinction, (owing to a "bottleneck" created by the presence of the Neonotians above the panhandle) to the point that every day more and more small communities were being discovered throughout Florida. At first, talks between Gainesville and the First Coast proposed a union with the idea that South Florida could be asked later. With roads in disrepair, some considered a naval compact to join the north and the south, but the First Coast rejected this as inefficient due to practically no maintained ports on the east coast of South Florida. Finally, a third option, depending on the slow annexation of land in between the three states, won out. The sea coasts of each state would then be considered to belong to the whole nation.

In 2003, representatives from all three states officially met in Gainesville to decide on the issue of unification. The vote was unanimous. Although plans had been to finalize the reunification in 2009, complications arose with internal affairs of the states that caused a postponement until the end of 2010.

Unification[]

On December 31, 2010, a special ceremony occurred from 6 PM Eastern Time to midnight. All the incumbent leaders stepped down allowing a new set of leaders - a president, vice president, and a newly created post of "Leader of the House" - to be sworn in, each coming from the three different states. By 8:00 PM, December 31, the opening ceremony has finished, with Governor of the First Coast giving his speech, followed by that of South Florida, and lastly the leader of Gainesville. The three nations then become sovereign states of the Republic of Florida with the three leaders signing the final ratification of the Bill of Independent Union, the new constitution.

However, unification continued as the military establishments of the three states took until 2013 to be combined, with conflicts arising and being rooted out, especially where previously opposed "citizens militias" were concerned. Meanwhile, the state governments continued to act on their own as an appropriate federal legislature was being formed. In 2015, the first session of the new legislature was held.

Other Floridian Survivors[]

Although the three larger nation-states form the core of the new nation, there were smaller political entities in the form of formerly unaffiliated city-states that joined as well. The city-state of Ocala, for instance, on the road between South and North Florida, voted to join the republic as part of the state of North Florida. Others followed suit.

As the government began to rebuild its legislature in Gainesville, one of the first orders of business was to resume the dream of reclaiming "west Florida," the wilderness west of the destroyed state capital of Tallahassee. The state of North Florida had adopted the Apalachicola River as its official western border in the days when it was independent. Its authorities had sent expeditions along old I-10 in search of out survivors, but had found few. That region had been claimed to be under the jurisdiction of the Republic and called "West Florida" in all official documents.  It was not until expeditions had searched the coastline that outposts had been found of what is now the state of Apalachicola.

Decennial[]

In late 2010, during the Florida Expeditionary Commission delegation, board member Robert Newman reported that, "Floridian troops, colonists and supplies were able to enter Ocala and several cities inside of central Florida, as well with areas around southeastern Florida metropolitan area and the Florida panhandle." It was around this time that Ocalan representatives began to be integrated into the larger Floridian state.

Another member of the Commission introduced Larry Holmes, a longtime survivor of the formerly independent Republic of Apalachicola.  Holmes stated that he was the "vice president" of the republic that now sought to join the Republic of Florida as a state.  The legislature heard the report and formally recognized Apalachicola as a state of the Republic by the end of its winter session. What had been claimed as "West Florida" was renamed "Apalachicola" for future maps of the expanding republic.

For years trade and governance was hampered by the uncontrolled area stretching across central Florida, effectively separating northern and southern Florida. Following public outcry for this to change the government launched an offensive which cleared out the mid-western coast of the peninsula, in order to connect the northern and southern parts of the nation by repairing I-70.

The long-populated region of South Tampa was formally annexed as the capital of the "Tampa Bay Reconstruction Zone" and served as the base of logistical operations for the largest singular land grab undergone by the unified Republic. The region was extensively mapped and cleared of gangs, squatters, despotic settlements and otherwise unsavory qualities for reconstruction.

On the decennial anniversary of reunification in 2020, the Republic of Florida's incoming presidential administration announced its final territorial operation to reclaim the entirety of the former state of Florida, pledging that the peninsula would offer "liberty and justice to all from coast to coast." A joint offensive between Neonotia and Florida was undertaken to pacify the rest of the panhandle, commencing with Neonotian troops besieging the 6,000 strong pirating settlements based out of Fernadina Beach on Amelia Island as Floridan infantry marched through the ruins of Jacksonville. Support would later trickle in from the Caribbean states and the US Atlantic Remnant, who tired of the sporadic attacks by pirates based out of the eastern coast. The siege would go on for several months until Remnant artillery and naval bombardments led to capitulation. With a combined offensive force of roughly 60,000 (a 1:2 split between combatants and auxillary), the entire coast east of US-1 and I-95 was under Allied control by New Years Day 2021.

The highway system in particular would prove crucial in the speedy advance, Pushing into the interior, however, would be a much more arduous task, given the destruction of many of the canals that had previously prevented the area from returning to the Everglades.

After a final offensive in the fall of 2021, Floridian and Atlantic Remnant forces had secured the last bit of peninsular coastline, with the areas parallel to the A1A North of Palm Beach County and South of Titusville falling under occupation of the Atlantic Remnant. The Remnant was particularly interested in the ruins of Cape Canaveral and the Space Force at large, with several expeditions into the ruins to determine if anything, whether material or knowledge, was salvageable from the former facilities. Although the details of this expedition remain classified to both Remnant and Floridian civilians, the presumption was offered by state spokespersons that nothing life-altering was recovered from these sites.

While the center of the state from the partially-submerged ruins of Orlando to the shantytown holdout of Sebring remain a bastion for fugitives, hermits, luddites, cultists, and the occasional bandits, life is nevertheless returning to every corner of the state. As of 2022 it is possible to drive via automobile in a "round trip" across Florida, from the northern core interior to the capital, and then to the southeastern and southwestern coast. The Republic of Florida agreed to grant the Remnant exclusive rights to both the Dry Tortugas Fort, an early Doomsday outpost of theirs, a base at Amelia Island, the former Naval Base and the resettlement proper of long-abandoned Key West under the condition they assist in rebuilding the Canals which would allow the long-flooded roads linking mainland Monroe County to the rest of the state, finally establishing a land route between the Keys and the rest of Florida for the first time in 40 years.

States[]

North Florida[]

Though less developed than its neighbor to the south, North Florida retained the structure of the old state of Florida. It's advantage was its proximity to destroyed Tallahassee and the presence of the states largest University.

South Florida[]

The most advanced of the states due to escaping the bombs, fallout, and having ease of access to economy of the Caribbean Federation, South Florida was slow to take to the idea of giving up its independence to its fellow Floridians to the north. However, with a spirit of their shared history as the Sunshine State, the citizens convinced the leadership of the wisdom of unification. The west coast is now the more populated, although life has been fast returning to the former Remnant bastion of West Palm Beach.

East Florida[]

Though tiny compared to its neighbors to the west, East Florida was proud of its heritage, choosing as its national name First Coast. With sheer determination, historic Saint Augustine and internationally famous tourist attraction and auto sports mecca Daytona Beach co-operated to form a working nation out the strip along the first national highway of the old United States—US 1. With nothing more than a few old manufacturing plants and two surviving cruise ships, East Florida struggled for recognition along side of the Bahamas just off the coast to the south.

Apalachicola[]

Long thought lost to the chaos of a string of coastal nuclear strikes, the state of Apalachicola was confirmed when the Florida Coast Guard vessels docked in the military outpost of Apalachicola. After navigating along the barrier islands, personnel spotted a flag flying from buildings near docks of the historic downtown area, which seemed to have been converted into some sort of fortress. After establishing contact, Florida expedited the admission of it's fourth state in a little less than a year. Apalachicolans proudly rejoined the republic, glad to have been reconnected after nearly thirty years of isolation.

Reconstruction Zones[]

Tampa Bay Zone[]

This area has been under South Floridian surveillance for well over two decades now, as the St. Petersburg area was home to raiders operating off the western and northern fringes of the peninsula. The Tampa Bay area is inhabited and represented in South Floridian local government, whereas the remaining populace of the region (21,000) continues to live in unincorporated territory. This area is crucial as it contains the only highway link from southern to northern Florida, by-passing the irritated marsh between Orlando and Cape Canaveral which has consumed the mid-eastern portion of the former state.

Quarantine Zones[]

These are zones which are strictly prohibited from unauthorized civilian entry, due to either radiation concerns (melted down reactors), or security concerns (the most entrenched remaining raider networks, impervious to attempts to remove without wholesale destruction of community)

Cape Canaveral Atlantic Remnant Military Research Facility
Tampa Airport Detainment Center (prison for former raiders, area outside perimeter remains destroyed and returned to wilderness)
Miami Exclusion Zone (one-third of former county returned to marsh, Critical radiation at former site of Turkey Point)
South Jacksonville Exclusion Zone (Undetonated core reported, blocks of suburbs remain in hostility despite Operation Spearhead)

Economy[]

The backbone of the Floridian economy consists of trades, services and agricultures, in many ways, the "business of business" is driving the economy - construction projects, the lunch carts that serve them, the inns housing their workers, etc. 40 years after Doomsday, Florida's growth constitutes a forward-focused pattern of growth that has been sustained in part due to a strong currency backed by lenders in its partner economies, making the Floridian dollar one of the few on the continent not considered "funny money" and being listed in foreign exchanges, putting it on par with currencies such as the Canadian dollar, Texan and Vermont dollar, and Victorian Crowns.

Agriculture[]

Citrus, sugarcane, grains, cattle and fish form the bulk of Florida's exports. Its citrus farms in the southwest portion of the state which went untouched by bombs and fallout are some of the very few not covered under the South American Confederation's blanket ban on "radiated" North American agricultural products. The Northern states offer ample lumber, while the southwest cypress forests has been used for construction projects throughout the peninsula. With the ports of Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Clearwater and St. Augustine open to regional and international trade, goods have begun to flow through the Republic through its neighbors in former Georgia and Louisiana. Untapped gas deposits dot the coral reef surrounding the state, although the government has yet to open these deposits for foreign drilling, cautious after seeing the devastated oceans once before.

OrangeBloss wb

Florida's number one export across North America, "scurvy's bane" - oranges

Services and Tourism[]

To a limited extent, tourism has returned to the state of East Florida. Although not as exotic or renowned as established Caribbean destinations, those who live in the Southern Hemisphere have found the quiet, plentiful beaches on the Gulf Coast, the historic capital of St. Augustine, which is both the oldest Western settlement in the Americas, and by extension the oldest to survive Doomsday, and the salvage-car races of New Daytona to be quite a draw.

Florida has become a popular "port of entry" for Southern hemisphere goods and individuals who have business deeper in the continent.

EvergladesOilDrilling

Florida has access to modest oil deposits. A rig in the Everglades, c. 2011.

Culture[]

Each of the four states that make up the Florida Republic are culturally distinct from the others. The rural majority of North Florida is almost entirely Southern in culture, being predominately conservative, distrustful of outsiders, although irreligiousness and aloofness are characteristic in contemporaries. The city of Gainesville and its University of Florida is a noted exception, containing young students, athletes, professors and doctoral candidates from all over the country and world who were stranded after Doomsday, intermingling their ideas into the greater community consciousness.  

Its neighbor to the west, Apalachicola, is even more conservative and, as anyone who lives there will attest, is even more religious. In some cases the lifestyle and perspective of the new state has been considered "extreme," even by North Floridian standards.

East Florida is not too dissimilar, although there is a more cosmopolitan presence in the capital city of St. Augustine in recent years, and recent contact with the ECF and the US Atlantic Remnant have opened up the "First Coasters," as they still prefer to be called, to Caribbean culture.

South Florida is almost the exact opposite from North Florida, and rest of the South for that matter - as the saying went, "The further South you go, the further North you really are". The Caribbean influence and liberal social mores are evident in South Florida, especially on the Keys which can be considered the most liberal area in Florida.

Sports[]

The main sport in Florida is football. Daytona Beach is in the NAFL under the Daytona Dolphins, with their home stadium being Petty Stadium, opened in 2014 in Daytona Beach and named after NASCAR legend Richard Petty, who won the Daytona 500 motor race seven times.

Another large sport in Florida is motor racing. Daytona Beach is home to the Daytona International Speedway, home of NASCAR and, since 2015, the Daytona 24 Hours. Sebring, in South Florida, is home to the Sebring International Raceway, a racetrack built on an old WW2 bomber base and using some of its concrete runways. The track hosts the 12 Hours of Sebring and, since 2017, Formula One.

Demographics[]

The 2020 Census designated roughly 80% of Florida as white, 15% Black as well as a 4% mixed population, with .5% Asian and .5% Native American population as well. 10% of this population had at least one Hispanic parent.

With the population finally surpassing 2 million, the Floridian peninsula now sits above its 1940 population levels. It is now one of the Top 10 Most Populated American States. Between 2010 and 2023, it is estimated roughly one hundred and fifty thousand Americans from the Caribbean and Mexican wings of the American diaspora repatriated to their former homes in Florida, with thirty-thousand alone returning at the end of Operation Spearhead. Comparatively, immigration from foreign nations remains minimal, although the scant Bahamian and Brazilian immigrant homesteader is not a rare sight along the more recently reclaimed shorelines. However, there are tens of white-collar thousands of Colombians and Brazilians who travel to Florida on a work basis to oversee various projects funded on their coin.

The Hispanic community is largely composed of second-generation Cuban expatriates who were either refugees of the South Florida strikes or from elsewhere in the state, Mexicans around the Okeechobee area who were pushed into South Florida, and Puerto Ricans. There are also significant Haitian populations in larger towns, along with a Colombian community of several thousand, many having been recent arrivals on Doomsday. In recent years the Colombian community in particular has helped forge business relations with the prosperous South America.

Religion[]

While Florida itself is a secular state the majority of the population is Christian of various denominations. Methodists and Baptists are plentiful in the north, whereas Catholicism is the plurality denomination in South Florida.

There is a Jewish population of about 130,000, the largest of any other North American survivor state. Largely concentrated along the southern coastlines in the Florida Keys, Palm Beach Fort Myers, as well as in Gainesville, which is largely made up of both former students and faculty of the University of Florida. Palm Beach area at 25%, has the highest proportion of Jewish population in Florida, and is thus the "most Jewish city in North America". There are an additional 150,000 Jews originally from Florida that have since re-located to various Caribbean countries permanently.

Variations of the Yoruba belief system, some of which are known as "Santeria" and "voodoo" have survived, with a precise tally being impossible to gather due to the discreet nature of many practices. In spite of the great decimation of the traditional practitioners of these beliefs across Florida after the attacks (and an equally large exodus as many returned to their home countries) it is believed that this faith system has attracted practitioners from unexpected walks of life,

Sunni Islam, largely practiced among some of the extant Caribbean population as well as some Arab, Pakistani, and African diasporas scattered throughout Florida, tallies roughly 12,500 adherents across the land. Shia Islam and Zororastrianism exist in the greater Tampa-Sarasota area (as the area is home to Iranians and their children who had left after the deposition of the Shah, including some of the Shah's own descendants) although numbering only in the hundreds and dozens respectively.

International Relations[]

The Republic of Florida is a member of the League of Nations. It is active in various endeavors of the LON.

Florida is also a associated member-state in the Caribbean Federation, retaining its Dollar due to the demands of the Gainesville party during the annexation talks. Nevertheless, with the Floridian Dollar or "Conch" being in 1:1 parity to the Caribbean Dollar by law (barring an Emergency Order which can un-peg the Conch during a time of crisis), this makes the Caribbean Federation Dollar the official currency of the Floridian state in practice.

As of 2022, Florida's largest trading parters are Cuba, the South American Confederation, Mexico, and the Caribbean Federation.

The separate states which coalesced into the united Republic of Florida had each formed some alliances over the years, each based on their geography. North Florida had trade relations with Neonotia to the north and had some contact with the coastal regions of Hattiesburg via their limited maritime trade. South Florida had made contact with Cuba and Jamaica, as well as the American survivor states of Puerto Rico and what they usually referred to as the "Virgin Islands." The Virgin Island government, however was in actuality a provisional government known as the United States Atlantic Remnant. Through these connections, the world was aware of survivors in Florida even before the League of Nations was formed in 2008. East Florida had a lively trade with the rest of the Caribbean nations through its connections with the Bahamas.

Since 2010, contact has been maintained with the new United States. With the Atlantic Remnant's foreign policy coalescence into a single polity with the Torrington-led United States, this has brought Floridians into increasing, almost daily contact with modern-day "American" citizens. The Buffalo Dollar's presence in coin collections and exchange booths has become a common fixture in recent years, with some of the older generation even being vocal supporters of reunification. With the Atlantic Remnant's inescapable and nominal presence on the eastern coast and Keys respectively, its laws regarding (re)claiming American citizenship have opened doors for many curious Floridians in recent years, with tens of thousands of the older generation trading in their long-expired documents for pristine American Atlantic Social Security cards (a guarantor for American military medical treatment in the East Caribbean Federation) and roughly 57,000 Floridians born after Doomsday now possessing American passports.

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