Khanate of Jazirat Alshahwa

## History

### Origin

16th century, independent tribal territories - 1523, Khanate of Jazirat Alshahwa - 1929, the Free Republic of Va'a Mamao - 2018, Khanate of Jazirat Alshahwa

## Administration

### Seat of Government

Ulu/Minalnakhil

The **Khanate of Jazirat Alshahwa**, also known as the **Vaʻa Mamao Islands**, is a tropical archipelago within the sphere of influence of the Sultanate. Current Khan is Samir ibn-Mustafa.

## History

### Kyrenaian Colony

In the late 16th century, Kyrenaian explorers discovered a small island group in the middle of nowhere, where a small indigenous population lived. A year after the discovery, the Sultanate took possession of these islands, which were called Va'a Mamao by their inhabitants. Due to the beauty of both land and the people living there, the Kyrenaians renamed these lands Jazirat Alshahwa. In 1599, they founded their capitol of the colony, Minalnakhil (Palm-Harbour), which was, for a time, Ulu.

What followed was a colonial rule blood and iron, sugar cane and slavery. It was not a pretty chapter of Kyrenaian history, one, which they like to sweep under the carpet whenever it comes up.

It was a rather profitable venture, both falling into a comfortable routine broken up by the occassional uprising, the last of which succeeded: In 1929, the Free Republic of Va'a Mamao was formed and began its life with the execution of every man, woman and child of Kyrenaian descent they could grab on their islands, putting most of their assets to the torch.

The Sultanate responded later in the same year by sending a group around the battlecruiser *Nazar*, Sharaf-class, which proceeded to barrage the coasts of the islands without discrimination, a short war of independence raging from 1929 to 1930.

But the inevitable happened anyway: Va'a Mamao had to be released into independence and into poverty.

### Independence

It didn't take long and the Free Republic was reformed as a Socialist Republic, which tried to follow the teachings of their ideology the best they could, soon starting to give up more and more of its ideals to simply keep food on the tables of their population.

A famine in 1965 was only survived by help-shipments of food - from the Sultanate, a young Ilkhan Aaron claiming, that, although there was a lot of bad blood between the two peoples, a famine was not the right time to look at the differences.

By 2000, the Socialist Republic was Socialist in name only, open to foreign, that means Kyrenaian, investment, who began to drill for oil and to establish a tourism industry, the low prices for staying overnight in a beautiful country with beautiful people making it a secret tip amongst tourists the world over. The rather lax drug laws, low prices for company and beautiful photographs might have helped as well.

In 2013, the daughter of the Ambassador of Va'a Mamao to Kyrenaia, a Miss Luana Fiafia, stressed the diplomatic relations further by having intercourse with Princess Aurelia bint-Damir, causing the Fiafia-Scandal.

However, that all did not stop a group of nationalists in 2015 to band together and to form a political block, which aimed at getting the foreign investors out, the tourism regulated and stricter laws in place - for two and a half years, they protested peacefully, undeterred by spoken and unspoken threats, until they were elected into the parliament in late 2017.

One of their first actions as new members of the parliament was to call for their stricter laws and regulations and as discussions began in earnest, a group of Concerned Kyrenaian Businesspeople (a trademark of the Ministry of Trade) appeared at the Court of the Azure Hall, the court of the Sultana of Kyrenaia, and voiced their concerns. The Sultana responded by assuring them to keep an eye on the situation.

Meanwhile, the discussions went back and forth, three votes in parliament had to be cancelled over the next months, protesters clashed in the capitol of Ulu, veritable street battles went down, which the police could not control despite the best efforts... and it became too hot for the Sultanate.

### Khanate Again

In the night of the 11th of March to the 12th of March 2018, Kyrenaian Forces led by the Guided Missile Cruiser *RKN Nazar* and by Admiral Shirin Mawja, occupied the islands and re-established the Khanate. Fleet Group Nazar, acting on orders from the Lord-Commander of the Navy, proceeded with a quick and brutal night of occupation until the morning, when the occupation was finished, destroying parliament and a few other buildings. This caused the Va'a Mamao Incident, which in turn led to a diplomatic ice age with several nations, who had nationals within the Islands (which were repatriated after a few days).
Several Governments in Exile formed, chiefly amongst them a fascist, a nationalist and a tribalist faction.

Ten days before the visit, the Governments in Exile of Va'a Mamao met under mediation of Ambassador Fiafia in Markaz to discuss the possibility for an alliance in order to get the country back. The Tribalists used the opportunity to take out the other governments, before in turn being taken down by the local police forces. Ambassador Fiafia died in the shootout. At the same time, the daughter of the Ambassador, Luana Fiafia, was sent to Kyrenaia in order to lay the foundations for an agreement, a meeting, which didn't end too well.

In August 2018, Khan Samir announced the plans to leave the local administration in the hands of the locals, only wishing to act as the superstructure and mediator to the Sultanate's Government. The plans were mostly received well among the locals.

In late January 2020, it became known, that the newest edition of nautical charts handed out by the RKCG would have the name Minalnakhil for Ulu, the old name of the Colonial Capitol. While that caused a small outcry in Jazirat Alshahwa, it mostly went unheard all over the world.

In March 2020, a new children's ward began being built at the Minalnakhil General Hospital, financed by Khana Amina bint-Karim and several friends of hers, by the ways of her clothes sales and other sources, but not from their private funds.

In May 2020, Princess Amana bint-Samir began to take a more active and official role in the politics of the Khanate, becoming a Katibi, a minister, in the local government - both by her father's request and by the request of the Wasita, the head of the Khanate's government. Her area of expertise is supposed to be the education.

## Economy

Much of the current economy of the Khanate relies on unearthing resources and shipping them elsewhere, as the tourism industry took a bit of a dip due to the Incident. It is expected, that the tourism industry mostly recovers by 2020.

Another major industry is fisheries, with an own shipyard building and maintaining a small fleet. In the past, the Free Republic was cautious in who they gave the fishing rights to and enforced that right quite harshly.