Kingdom of the Samsonites

### Religious Makeup

Unitarian Samsonism - (66%), Trinitarian Samsonism - (12%), Unaffiliated - (13%)

### Official Languages

Heratlandish / Imperial Samsonite, Rothringen, Pfilsteijner, Esloran

## Summary

Prior to 1955, the Kingdom of the Samsonites was a synonymous term for the Samsonite Empire, typically only used in reference to the "Dual-Kingdom" status between Samsonia and Lycurgia. Following the period of Decolonisation enforced by the World Congress in the 1950s, the Samsonite Empire released most of its foreign territories, except for the Southisles, which remained mostly ethnically Samsonite and voted to remain under the Samsonite government. The Empire officially changed its name to the Kingdom of the Samsonites as the first act of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm III. This change in name was, per Wilhelm himself, a denunciation of the oppressive and abusive nature of imperialist ambitions, which had resulted in complacent and apathetic rulership in the farthest reaches of the Empire.

## Foundation and Cold War

The change in the name of the government also came with the expansion of the Samsonite Bill of Rights, as well as the abdication of several authorities that the Kaiser previously held. Wilhelm III recognised the objections that the Nationalists had raised toward the previous government, and believed that his own authority needed to be limited in order to ensure a better reign.

In 1956, Wilhelm abdicated his authority over the Armed Forces as Commander-in-Chief and his authority over the Samsonite Imperial-Royal Intelligence organisation. The Volksversammlung assumed control over these organisations thereafter, and SIRI became formally integrated into the nation's Justice Department.

Wilhelm spent the next few years finishing the recovery of the nation from the destruction of the Second World War. His Father, Laurentz V, had already begun the process nearly a decade prior, and Wilhelm mostly oversaw the slow withdrawal of the "Reconstruction" legislation that Laurentz had put in place. Samsonia's economy didn't outright shift away from the production of wartime materiel, however. The constant high demand for innovative weapons and machinery over the entirety of Laurentz V's reign had led to the development of a number of high-quality weapon's designers and manufacturers. The Foremost among these being Lothricsling Industries, a company which had existed in Samsonia since the time of Samson XIII, but had been slowly approaching bankruptcy prior to the 1st World War.

The global economic devastation following the Second World War led to much unrest and debate surrounding the proper methods for recovery, and many nations turned toward Socialist and Communist ideologies, in a series of revolutions across the world, especially in Draecia and in the International Slavic Commonwealth. This trend caused great alarm for Samsonia and the Esloran Republic, which had held strong capitalist mentalities throughout their histories. When the nation of Pyancheon, a former Samsonite tributary and one of the strongest economies in Draecia, fell into a bloody civil war against communist revolutionaries in the 1960s, Samsonia and Eslor staged a military intervention, which nearly resulted in a 3rd world war. After global tensions regarding this intervention reached a boiling point, the two nations withdrew from Pyancheon, and adopted less direct methods of combating the spread of Communism.

Wilhelm's strong anti-communist mentality soured relations with the Slavic Union, eventually leading to the two nations ending their foreign-exchange program and Samsonia dropping the Slavic Language from its public school curriculum in 1974. The nations never resorted to military escalations, however, as the two cultures still respected one-another for what Dagor the Elder called "the Moral Exchange," which had taken place between the two nations. The Slavs had been deeply appreciative of the Samsonite assistance in the War of Intrigue and in the Slavic Modernisation, and had been taught that the Union's involvement in the Second World War was a matter of repaying that debt by coming to the aid of the Kaiser. Wilhelm, on principle, refused to meet with Slavic Diplomats, but always remained cordial when interacting with Dagor the Elder in Congressional meetings.

## Samsonite Strategic Arms Treaty (1993)

Samsonia continued its military expansion throughout the Cold War, and acquired an Exclusivity contract with Lothricsling Industries in 1970, for an indeterminate period. Throughout this period, Samsonia began heavily investing in the development of weapons and vehicles for its Marines and the Samsonite Air Service. Throughout the 1980s, Lothricsling produced a number of small-arms for the government, specialising in compact weapons such as the MP5 and G36, which were designed for use by SIRI and the newly-formed SAS Special Operations Group. Lothricsling also made forays into vehicular weapons with the development of the Minigun and the GAU-12 Gatling Cannon.

The Esloran Government expressed interest in Samsonia's military developments in 1989, seeking to acquire a production license for Lothricsling models. The Samsonite Government initially rejected this idea, wanting to keep its designs to itself. However, in 1993, they proposed an alternative solution which would become the Samsonite Strategic Arms Treaty.

The SSAT acted as a defensive alliance and materiel-exchange system, allowing its signatories to exchange materiel between one-another. The first exchange of this type occurred between Samsonia and Eslor, where Samsonia traded a number of AH-64 Gunships for several Esloran Heavy-Lift Helicopters.

The treaty has expanded since 1993 to include the nations of the New Broeklands & Pyancheon.