Maritime Trade Confederacy

## The Maritime Trade Confederacy

The Commonwealth of the Maritime Trade Confederacy is a large, yet sparsely populated nation in the far north parts of the world. They have a very weak central government, with most power being in the hands of the local authorities, in subdivisions called provinces. They have good relations with MidAtlantic Appalachia and United Alteria, and poor relations with Pius Desurongcrandis. The MTC is closely related to The Great Byzantine Empire and the Sküist Nomadic Commonwealth, although it does not have good relations with the former.

The breakup of the MTC created several new nations, such as Northreach, British Columbia, Yukon, and The Bower Lands.

## History

The MTC has one of the oldest histories in scoutenia, just barely younger than Pius, United Alteria, or MidAtlantic Appalachia. The MTC started out as a republic on the island of Newfoundland. Each city had an elected head, and these elected heads would then congregate and elect the ruler of all of Newfoundland. These electors were called "Jarls", and the ruler was called "The Jarl". Eventually, the Jarl of St John's was elected as the Jarl of Newfoundland, and he declared war on the neighboring city-state alliances to the south and west, Québec and New England. The war was a brilliant success, and the areas became tributaries of Newfoundland: the first provinces. The Jarl was so popular after this victory, that when he requested as his dying wish that his son be elected Jarl of Newfoundland, it came to be so. His family kept this going, where the voting became a ceremonial act as people forgot they actually had any choice as to who they could elect. The MTC was no longer a trade confederacy, but instead a monarchy. However, trade was still the most important part of their economy, so the Jarls continued to seek new lands to collect their wares from. Traders began attempting to cross Québec to the Hudson bay, and established a trade company there, yet another province to the MTC. Eventually, the Maritime border encountered the Piesian Border, and relations were alright at first. As the MTC improved in seafaring technology, more and more skilled sailors arose. In order to prove that a sailor was a competent sailor, they had to sail around the Arctic Ocean. Several merchants took this opportunity to get a profit by selling food at harbors around the arctic ocean, particularly in Barrow and Yar-Sale. These became the Yukon Province and the Siberia Province. Merchants also traveled to Gibraltar and Anatolia to get precious metals, and the MTC built forts along the route to protect the trade.

Eventually, the MTC encountered some other nations. The UA ruled over part of Québec Cité and GBE ruled out of what the MTC had thought to be unclaimed land in Anatolia. The MTC became increasingly militant until they finally reached a state of war with Pius. The MTC dug trenches in the wastelands of upstate Ontario, and the MTC and Pius reached a deadly standoff. The MTC had, at that time, an outdated military, still based largely on levies. Most soldiers were lucky to have a gun. The MTC exacted "safety tribute" from it's provinces, so as to not let them get conquered by Pius. With this money, they funded the MTC military, upgrading their outdated air force and ground forces. This move accelerated the MTC into the state of a world superpower.

The MTC was still locked in a standstill, so they called on allies to help. No nation was willing except GBE. This was the start of the relationship with GBE. UA denounced MTC's war, calling it hypocritical, thinking that the MTC should shrink. The MTC obliged and left northern Russia. This was also caused by GBE pulling out of the war, as a crusade was declared on the nation of Tedward Black. The soldiers were mad that they had to move out to the trenches despite not doing anything there. In order to stop a civil war over this anger at the government, the MTC started to give away territories so as to distance the people from the government. Québec was given to UA, who already had some control over the area. Joint control continues to this day, despite the nation being predominantly Alterian. Although there was negotiations over the giving of Yukon to MidAtlantic Appalachia and Saskatchewan to Empirissimo, this never happened, as Pius declared that they were going to hold olympics. GBE claimed that they were going to use slaves as athletes, prompting the second slavery war, with the MTC, UA, and MidAtlantic declaring war on GBE in order to stop the slavery there. The war culminated in nukes being dropped on GBE by MidAtlantic, and GBE attempted to retaliate by sending a nuke to UA. This nuke never reached its target, and it remains a point of controversy over what really happened to it. With this, the GBE surrendered. Not long afterwards, however, the GBE mentioned something about having a eugenics program, so yet again the MTC, UA, and MidAtlantic invaded. By this point, the nations became so close that they founded the North Atlantic Military Defensive Alliance, or NAMDA. GKS was initially included, however, they later chose to leave.

At this point, new nations started to spring up around the world. Two such nations were Socoran and Mithilia. Socoran expanded rather rapidly, taking the Former Maritime Siberia. They also pushed out all the way to Scandinavia, all the way to Fort Husevagoy, a fort established by the MTC to protect trans-Atlantic cables. They even reached out into Venezuela. Socoran and Mithilia didn't like the MTC's influence over the area, and formed a counter-coalition which culminated in a war with Pius, Socoran, and Mithilia forming one side, and NAMDA + GBE taking the other. Early on, Mithilia was nuked and utterly demolished by MidAtlantic, and was partitioned amongst NAMDA members, particularly the MTC, who had earlier formed settlements colloquially called "Weeb Territory". The war with Pius was slow going, however, with Socoran, MidAtlantic and the MTC did the majority of the fighting, with Venezuela being occupied by MidAtlantic and with naval battles off of Scandinavia occurring between the MTC and Socoran. The war eventually reached a standstill and a ceasefire, which continues to this day. De facto, the war is over.

After this, colonialism restarted and the government loosened more, until eventually the Jarl (Jarl Theedrick II) was killed. Today, the "Jarl" is the elected official of the MTC. There are two major groups into which candidates can be sorted: the Roundheads (so named due to the wide-brimmed circular helmets soldiers wore in trenches) and the Cavaliers (so named due to their origin with cavalry units from Saskatchewan, a cavalier center). The Roundheads were the ones who advocated for a republic, whereas the Cavaliers trust the authority of a monarch. After the ruling family was assassinated, however, the Cavaliers no longer had a monarch to put into power, so they now are just a group which represent similar ideals to what the ruling family did. This assassination shook the Maritime People, and with it came a weakening, almost a distrust of government, which increased local authority. Authority became so loose over certain areas (such as the Mediterranean) that the only thing common between the MTC proper and the Mediterranean was a shared military, and that did not last long.

After this, the Cavaliers made a push to centralize power to the government, as most roundheads, who lived in Europe, were under the jurisdiction of the Mediterranean Confederacy and could not vote on the matter. This angered the roundheads who did live outside of the Mediterranean Confederacy. Some provinces voted to secede from the MTC, such as Yukon, British Columbia, and Iceland. After this, the roundheads seceded to form Northreach, causing more Provinces on the border of Northreach and the remaining MTC to leave, fearing that they may soon have to pick sides if they remained.

## Provinces

*This list is incomplete, you can help by expanding it*

A list of all provinces. Ones that are now non-existent or no longer Maritimer are italicized

* Newfoundland
* Laurentian Coast
* *New England (Historical)*
* New England (Present day, Formerly South Laurentian Coast)
* Labrador
* *Québec*
* Hudson Bay
* *Yukon*
* Saskatchewan
* *Great Britain*
* *Nunavut*
* *The Islands*
* *Greenland*
* *Iceland*
* *Scandinavia*
* *Finnmark*
* *Ugria*
* *Barrier Island*
* *Svalbard*
* *The North Islands*
* Siberia
* *Arctic Coast*
* *Severnaya Zemlaya*
* Chukchia
* *Hokkaido & Sakhalin*
* *Nippon (AKA weeb territory)*
* *Indonesia*
* *New Zealand*
* *Delmarva*
* *Iberia*
* *Andalusia (formerly Gibraltar)*
* *Maghreb*
* *New Maghreb*
* *Morocco*
* *Narbonensis*
* *Lugdumnensis*
* *Narbonensis-Lugdumnensis*
* *Rhaetia (AKA Helvetica)*
* *Po Valley (AKA Italy)*
* *Crimea (Formally Taurica)*
* *Alania (AKA South Cossackstan)*
* *Cossackstan*
* *Anatolia*
* *South Africa*