City of Franciston

*Not to be confused with Franciston (State)*

## Franciston

**Franciston**, officially the **City of Franciston,** not to be confused with the State of Franciston, is a city and the capital of the Calliebrimium state of Franciston and the national capital city for the Republic of Calliebrium. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the Pacific Ocean and the largest city in Calliebrium with a census population of more than 300 million as of 2023. The city is the seat of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the government since the republic's foundation.

Standing on the River Delphine, the city serves as the cultural, financial, and economic centre of Calliebrium. It is also home to the Parliament of Calliebrium, and the National Palace, the official residence of the Lord Protector of the Republic. Franciston was first founded by British settlers in 1812 as a naval port and a shipyard before eventually emerging as the capital for the new British colony from 1814-1877 before being incorporated into the British West Pacific Territories (BWPT) as a member nation. Franciston remained as the seat of the local British Governor before achieving independence in 1888. Before the conquest of Hawaii, Franciston remained as a major city in the short-lived Republic of St. Peter Islands until 2022, reemerging as the new national capital for the Republic of Calliebrium.

The city of Franciston is the capital city of the State of Franciston and is home to the largest concentration of religious and secular academic institutions in the region. Since 2022, the city has undergone major developments such as industrialization and became one of the leading cities in shopping and tourism.

The city also houses one of the largest churches in the world, namely the Franciston Anglican Cathedral and the St. Bartholomew Cathedral. Almost 98% of the city's residents are Anglican Christians, with 71% of the population being ethnically Greek and 29% being classified as Samoan/Pacific Islander.

## Etymology

The city's name comes from the original British settlement that was named in honour of British explorer Francis Light as a form of tribute. There are other original names before Franciston, the most popular being "Kaliburum". It is proposed that the name was named after a mythical British explorer whose first name is Callie, which became a popular local folklore. However, there are no evidence that suggests the existence of this explorer.

## History

### Early History

Before the arrival of the British, the area of present-day Franciston was settled by Austronesians who established the very first tribes on the Western islands here. The tribes then established fishing villages around 1000 BCE. Archeological findings suggests that Franciston was a site of a large city-state whose residents spoke Malay as a lingua franca and regularly established trading routes between other city-states on the Calliebrimium islands. There are folklores that tell the stories of the foundation of these early city-states, which is founded by a legendary Austronesian warrior named Laponoanepe who built the city-states from mixing clay with water from the ocean.

The first documented visit into Franciston by a European was in 1566 by Andrés de Urdaneta, an explorer from Spain in the service of the Spainsih crown. He charted the islands as a part of the Pacific Ocean but did not make contact with the locals on the island. In 1788, the English explorer George O'Neill rediscovered the natural harbour of Franciston while searching for the Hawaiian Islands. He proceeded to land on the shore of Franciston and claimed the site as a new British port. He later returned the news of the discovery of the natural harbour to the British crown, which later gave O'Neill permission to establish a port to repair ships. He named the port as Franciston as a tribute to Francis Light, the British captain who established a British colony on Penang Island.