Republic of Calliebrium Wiki

# **Republic of Calliebrium**

**Calliebrium,** officially **Republic of Calliebrium** is an island country in the Pacific Ocean. The unitary parliamentary republic consists of fifteen states, separated by the Pacific Ocean into two regions: The Western and Eastern Islands. Franciston is the national capital, the country's largest city and the seat of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the government. With a primarily bicultural population and recognizing the need to respect all ethnic groups in the country, Calliebrium has four official languages: English, Calliebrimium Greek, Calliebrimium Malay and Samoan. English is the lingua franca among the primarily Greek and Pacific Islander population of the country.

Calliebrium has its origins in being one of the major trading islands in the 15th century, establishing many sovereign island city-states to trade basic goods and luxury items as far as Malacca and the rest of the Malay World. From the 19th century on, most island city-states has been incorporated into British Protectorates and eventually unified as part of the British Western Pacific Territories. The islands then achieved short-term independence before it was conquered by the United States in 1898 during the conquest of Hawaii. It remained as a US territory until it achieved independence via the Franciston Accords, which transferred ownership from the US to Jeremiah Nikolaidis, which then declared the Republic's establishment on the 22nd June 2022.

The country is multiethnic and multicultural, which has a significant effect on its politics. 57% of the country's population is ethnically Samoan/Pacific Islander, with a 43% minority being ethnically Greek. The country's constitution recognizes religious freedom, however almost 94% of the population are Anglican Christians, a product of British Imperialism.

Calliebrium is a unitary parliamentary republic based on the Westminster system and its legal system is based on common law. Although the country is a multi-party democracy with free elections, the government under the Libertarian Republican Party (LRP), a component party of the multi-party coalition, National Libertarian Coalition (NLC), wielded significant control and dominance over politics and society until the Second General Election, which the NLC failed to gain a majority in Parliament and conceded victory to the Socialist Front. One of the two founding members of APAC, Calliebrium is also a member of the World Assembly (WA), World Trade Organization (WTO), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and the Commonwealth of Nations.

## Name and etymology

The name "Calliebrium" is a highly debated topic in the politics of the country. The founder of the republic, Jeremiah Nikolaidis first arrived in Franciston in 2021 and decided to name the republic after the popular name for Franciston, "Kali Burum". The name "Kali Burum" was a Calliebrimium Malay corruption of the English words, "Callie" and "Equilibrium".

There are many theories for the origin of the word "Callie", most historians generally agree that "Callie" may have originated from the name of an unknown English sailor that arrived in Franciston in the late 17th century called "Callie" who, according to Francistonian myths, demanded "equal rights and an equilibrium of cultures" in the early settled regions of the island. The myths became widely popular in the Franciston region of the island and it was used in many uprisings during the British colonial era.

Francistonian Pacific Islanders generally called Franciston "Kali Burum" before the establishment of the republic during the colonial era. Other Pacific Islanders living in the Eastern Islands and other regions of the Western Islands did not have a name for the collective islands and only referred themselves as a local of their specific regions. Under the British, the usage of the term "Polynesian" rose to popularity and it became the primary demonym used by the locals. Native Pacific Islanders did not have a name for the collective islands until the conquest of Hawaii, which the locals then started using the term "American Polynesia" instead.

Today, all citizens of Calliebrium regardless of ethnicity generally refer to themselves as "Calliebrimium", while some may still use the demonym "Pacific Islander". It is also popular to use the demonym of their ethnic groups rather than their nationality, "Greek", "Pacific Islander" and "Polynesian" are the popular terms used in Calliebrium today.

## History

Evidence of modern human habitation in the islands of Calliebrium dates back to around 1500 BCE. The first inhabitants on the Eastern Islands are thought to be Austronesians that settled near modern-day Godmouth with archeological evidence supporting this theory. With the Austronesian settlements prominent on the St. Joseph Islands, they quickly expanded and settled on the Western Islands by 1000 BCE. The early Austronesian settlers maintained intimate sociocultural and genetic ties with Samoa before ties were cut off or lost by 100 CE. This prompted the rise of trading city-states and the foundation of early Calliebrimium nationalism with traditions being passed down orally.

Early Calliebrimium-Austronesians spoke a form of proto-Austronesian before shifting in favour of Proto-Malayic languages. By the 7th Century, many city-states were established and started trading with each other and the rest of the Malay World. According to Francistonian mythologies, 7th-century Calliebrimiums spoke a corrupted version of Classical Malay with no unified writing system, however some city-states opted to use Sanskrit and Jawi as a form of writing to establish early schools and temples.

The city-states play a major role in developing early nationalism on the islands. The earliest city-state established on the islands were Sungei Hitang, named after the river on St. Peter Island. Sungei Hitang was the first to establish ties with the Malay world and adopted Malay as a lingua franca. Upwards of sixty city-states were founded at the end of the 11th Century and continued trading with the rest of the world, developing major sailing techniques and maritime technology.

Some city-states developed into kingdoms but they did not last long and eventually collapsed due to polarizing linguistic identities among the natives as no lingua franca was established between the natives of the Eastern Islands and the Western Islands. Most city-states adopted creole languages, with some adopting Malay. Examples of them include, Kerajaan Melayu Golizi (Malay Government of Golizi) & Empayar Molatonado (Empire of Molatonado).

The first European contact with the islands was when the British arrived and settled in the Western Islands and founded Franciston as their capital for their new settlement. Franciston was named after British Explorer Captain Francis Light, who founded the British colony of Penang. Initially, the British established Franciston as a port to repair ships but it was said that one of the city-states' chief insulted the British Governor, which led them to a war between the city-states of the Western Islands and the British settlement. Allegedly, the British did not consult higher-ups of the British Government for their settlement in Franciston, and acted completely independently to overthrow local city-states. By the mid-19th century, the islands became British Protectorates and was incorporated into the British Western Pacific Territories.

After a series of British intervention and colonisation, city-states and towns on the islands were almost completely renamed, while native Pacific Islanders were largely converted into Anglicanism after the arrival of government sanctioned Anglican missionaries. In 1887, the British Governor issued a crackdown on native textbooks and strictly restricted the freedom of expression on the islands, resulting in intensifying outrage amongst the natives.

The native Pacific Islander population rebelled and staged a major uprising on St. Peter Island in 1888, with extreme violence and nationalistic movements sweeping across the entire country in the matter of months. The local British governor issued an emergency and called for a purge of the local population, which ultimately failed and resulted in the British exit from the islands after a violent overthrow of the colonial government. This granted the islands short-term independence until the conquest of Hawaii of 1898 in which the United States mistaking the islands as part of Hawaii and annexing it.

## Crisal Movement and the formation of the Republic

The foundation of the republic was an idea that was once introduced in the book "Homeland and Home" written by the popular revolutionary writer Sir Jean de La Crisal. Crisal was a writer during the Enlightenment in Greece during the 1700s and called for a new nation-state not bounded by ethnicity or religion, but by the common desire for freedom. Crisal argues that the Common Man cannot be truly free without being free from the chains of race and religion in the first place, and that the progress of a state can only be secured through representation, democracy and freedom.

In the 1800s, a civil rights activist named Ezra Augustus Prazal led protests and strikes in the heart of Athens. He was most famous for giving "Liberty Speeches" at the Parthenon Temple, and was arrested by the Ottoman Police numerous times. Prazal was an intellectual, one of the few intellectuals in Greece at the time, and was already popular when he was attending Oxford University. Prazal was a brilliant student with excellent writing ability and was thought to have mastered four different languages including his native language Greek, English, French and Latin. He was a brilliant writer, and would often write political books criticising the Ottoman government. He later on authored a series of books called "the New Age of Man", detailing his visions of a new world utopia based on the principles of freedom and democracy. He was anti-monarchist, and would often target the Ottoman sultan in his books, which also attracted attention of the British crown.

Prazal encountered Crisal's ideas when he was studying in Oxford. Inspired, after years of studying in Oxford, he returned to Athens in 1815 and founded a new political party to represent Crisalist ideas in Greece. The party was called the Libertarian Crisal Party, whose goals are to establish a freer republican Greece. However, Ezra and his party members were later banished from Greece and was forced into exile in London. In London, Prazal led strikes to protest the establishment of Greece, which then caught the attention of the British Government, who too exiled them to Saint Helena under the Sedition Act.

Crisalists and Prazalists that embraced the ideologies retained their traditions and ideas into the early 20th century while the Libertarian Crisal Party continued their struggle to establish a republic based on civic nationalism as opposed to racial and religious boundaries.

In 2020, activist Jeremiah Nikolaidis led protests to city hall and was arrested numerous times to preach for a new republic that is free from the shackles of racism and religion, a libertarian utopia under the principals of De La Crisal and a new world movement based on the principles of Ezra Augustus Prazal. Nikolaidis himself was later invited to give a speech in the UN General Assembly, and called for a freer state for everyone. Naturally, the Greek government disagreed and refused to make way for Nikolaidis. As protests raged on into 2021, Crisal-Prazalists worldwide led strikes in solidarity with the ongoing movement in Greece. Revolution was later declared by various parties across Greece and the EU, crippling the already weakened Greek economy.

The UN Security Council decided to propose independence to Nikolaidis by ceding multiple Pacific Islands. Under this proposal, acres of "unsettled land" will be given to Nikolaidis under the condition of halting all revolutionary activity in Greece and other Commonwealth countries. The United States then agreed to cede multiple islands in the Pacific Ocean to Jeremiah Nikolaidis.

Jeremiah Nikolaidis visited the islands and the islands' largest city, Franciston. Franciston had a local nickname called "Kali Burum" which became the name for the republic that Jeremiah later founded, the Republic of Calliebrium. Referendums were held across all the islands to decide on the borders of the newly found Republic. The republic was founded on 22nd June 2022 and the first General Election was held on 21st July.

## Government and Politics

*Main Article: Politics of Calliebrium*

The Republic of Calliebrium is a unitary state and a representative constitutional republic. Sir Isaak Georgios is the Lord Protector and head of state of the republic. The Lord Protectorate is an elected office, they are elected every five years by Members of Parliament (MPs). Traditionally, the ruling coalition party and the opposition will respectively submit names of nominees to be voted in via majority vote. The Constitution is the supreme rule of law in the republic and can only be amended with a 2/3 majority vote in Parliament.

Calliebrium is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional republic. The Parliament of the Republic is sovereign and it is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The main business of parliament takes place in the two houses, but royal assent is required for a bill to become law.

For general elections (elections to the House of Representatives), Calliebrium is divided into 15 states and 45 constituencies, 3 per state, each of which is represented by a member of Parliament (MP). MPs hold office for up to five years and are always up for re-election in general elections. The newly formed coalition, National Libertarian Coalition (NLC) and the Socialist Front are, respectively, the current first and second largest political coalitions.

The prime minister is the head of government in the republic. The prime minister is, by constitutional convention, an MP. The prime minister is appointed by the Lord Protector and their appointment is governed by constitutional conventions. However, they are normally the leader of the political party with the most seats in the House of Representatives and hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Representatives.

The prime minister not only has statutory functions (alongside other ministers), but is the Lord Protector's principal adviser and it is for them to advise the Lord Protector on the exercise of the royal prerogative in relation to government. In particular, the prime minister recommends the appointment of ministers and chairs the Cabinet.

Executive power is vested in the Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister. The prime minister must be a member of the House of Representatives, who in the opinion of the Lord Protector, commands the support of a majority of members. The Cabinet is chosen from members of both houses of Parliament. The Prime Minister is both the head of cabinet and the head of government. As a result of the first general election, Calliebrium was initially governed by the Libertarian Republican Party (LRP) administration, before forming the Coalition of Current Freedoms (CoCF) political alliance consisting of the LRP and the Greek Liberal Party (GLP) after the Proclamation Crisis which saw Prime Minister Jeremiah Nikolaidis resigning to form a new party.

Calliebrium's legal system is based on English Common Law. Although the judiciary is theoretically independent, its independence has been called into question and the appointment of judges lacks accountability and transparency. The highest court in the judicial system is the High Court, followed by the Court of Appeal.

### Administrative Divisions

Calliebrium is divided into 15 states divided into two regions; the Western and Eastern Islands. Each state is divided into 3 constituencies, 6 on the state-level, which are then divided into townships.

Governance of the states is divided between the Cabinet and the state governments, practically each state has no autonomy in enacting any laws. Each state has a unicameral State Legislative Assembly whose members are elected from single-member constituencies. State governments are led by Chief Ministers, who are state assembly members from the majority party in the assembly.

Lower-level administration is carried out by local authorities, which include city councils, district councils, and municipal councils, although autonomous statutory bodies can be created by the state governments to deal with certain tasks. The constitution puts local authorities under the exclusive jurisdictions of the state government, although in practice the government has full control in the affairs of the state governments. There are 154 local authorities, consisting of 14 city councils, 38 municipal councils and 97 district councils.

As of recent, the 3rd Prime Minister Jeremiah Nikolaidis has tabled a new bill to increase the seats on the state level from 6 seats to 18 seats minimum, with more being given based proportionally on the state's population.

## Demographics

According to the Calliebrimium Department of Statistics, there is about 1.886 billion Calliebrimiums as of 2023. According to a 2022 estimate, the population is increasing by 1.54 percent per year. Calliebrium has an average population density of 96 people per km2. People within the 15–64 age group constitute 69.5 percent of the total population; the 0–14 age group corresponds to 24.5 percent; while senior citizens aged 65 years or older make up 6.0 percent. In 2021, when the first official census was recorded in Calliebrium, the population was 8.11 million. 91.8 per cent of the population are Calliebrimium citizens.

Calliebrium is divided along local ethnic lines. 56% of the population are Samoan/Pacific Islander with the remaining 44% being predominately Greek. Ethnic groups play a dominant role in the politics of the Republic. Parties such as the Greek Liberal Party (GLP) and the Pacific Homeland Party (PHP) represent Samoan/Pacific Islander and Greek interests respectively in Parliament. However, it is a heated debate on whether such parties should be allowed to contest in elections as racial tension and violence tend to occur due to both parties being on both sides between the Government and the Opposition.

### Religion

The Constitution grants freedom of religion and makes Calliebrium an officially secular state, while establishing Anglicanism as the "religion of the Republic". According to the Population and Housing Census 2022 figures, ethnicity and religious beliefs correlate highly. Approximately 94% of the population practise Anglicanism, 4% declared no religion or did not provide any information and 2% practise Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and other denominations.

Historically, native Austronesians who settled on the islands practise native shamanism or animism until the early 11th century, where some minor city-states adopted Hinduism and Buddhism before dying out by the late 11th century. A few townships, due to rising trade between the islands and the Malaccan Empire, became predominately Muslim and adopted Islamic culture until the arrival of the British.

After the British Unification of the Islands, Anglican missionaries were widespread all across the islands and converted almost 99% of the population to Anglicanism. Most native governors or representatives adopted Anglicanism by the end of the 18th century while natives of other religions converted or left the islands to other places with Pax Britannica.

Roman Catholicism arrived in the 17th century and were spread by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries on the islands. However their missionaries were hugely unsuccessful due to rising British crackdown on Roman Catholics. After Republican Independence, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy became more popular due to mass Greek immigration. However, most "New Citizens" converted to Anglicanism upon arrival.

### Language

There are technically no official languages in the Republic of Calliebrium, however Greek and Calliebrimium Malay are both recognised as "national languages" while English is recognised as the "official lingua franca". Calliebrimium Malay (Bahasa Kaliburum) is a standardised form of the Malay language with the Latin script as the only official script of the language. Greek (or Calliebrimium Greek) is a standardised form of the Greek language, brought into the Republic due to mass Greek immigration post-Republican Independence.

In practice however, English is the dominant language in the Republic. According to a survey conducted by the University of Franciston, 71% of the population learn English as their first language, while 91% of the population uses English predominantly in daily conversation. Greek and Malay are usually learned as a second language due to ethnic or religious reasons. A majority of Greeks however, learn Greek as their first language. Traditionally, English is the administrative language of the Republic, with Greek and Malay usage being frowned upon in Parliament and other governmental sectors.

Calliebrium only recognises the use of British English as the official version of English and discourages the use of other standards of English in Calliebrium such as American English.

## Important articles

PlaceholderA page about your topicPlaceholderA Main CharacterPlaceholderThe First EpisodePlaceholderAn Important LocationPlaceholderA Key EventPlaceholderA Crucial Item