South Africa

240AD - 340AD

The **South African Federation**, also known as just *South Africa*, was an African nation that controlled most of its namesake region. During its peak, it held all of Southern Africa, large parts of Central Africa as well as the island of Madagascar, in addition to colonies in Australia, as well as Borneo for a short period. The nation was controlled by two players as a joint nation. However, disagreements between the players ultimately resulted in Australia breaking away to form their own country, leading the collapse of South Africa's dominance in its region of the world.

Two decades later, the election of Belay Olivier led to a period of South African revival, with it once again expanding north, reaching all the way into the Sahara during this era. However, his death severely weakened the country again, and they only recovered after defeating Mozambique in a war. Exactly 100 years after its founding, South Africa dissolved completely. The nation remains infamous for its primary player's actions.

## History

### Founding

South Africa was founded in 240AD in modern-day South Africa, several years following the solar flare. It established control over a small part of the region formerly controlled by Byzantium. The formation of South Africa coincided with several other new nations that were founded throughout Africa, although many of the other states did not last very long.

### Expansion and early controversy

The nation quickly grew along the coastal regions of southern Africa, before expanding north from South Africa inland and annexing most of the interior of southern Africa. They also conquered Madagascar, increasing their strength. South Africa eventually also expanded north of the Zambezi river, and began to prepare for colonization of Australia. Around the same time, they became quite expansionist, attempting to threaten the Ottoman's claim upon North Africa before backing down twice. Tasmania was successfully colonized in 262AD, and the entire island was conquered soon after.

The nation then colonized Borneo. This caused the Second Finnish Empire to threaten South Africa, due to them colonizing the island which was within Finland's claimed zone in the region. This resulted in a large international dispute that ended in South Africa conceding to Finland's demands. After this, South Africa expanded into Victoria, NSW, and South Australia to regain the land they had lost in Borneo. However, the nation was still angered by the loss of Borneo and began planning to destroy Finland's empire. Part of Western Australia was colonized by SA in 264AD. South Africa also attempted to colonize Jordan, however Oman blocked their passage through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, due to the tensions caused by South Africa's short-lived conquest of Borneo.

The nation continued to look for new routes for expand its overseas empire, the first of which being the island of New Guinea. They attempted to split the island with their New Guinean ally, however this failed. They also attempted to colonize the Torres Strait islands, but this also failed due to international backlash. The nation attempted to claim that Finland was going to conquer New Zealand, and that they would block them at the Torres islands, before claiming that it was a joke. This resulted in South Africa becoming one of the most unpopular nations at the time, with even some of their allies disliking them.

After this, the nation continued expanding in Western Australia and mainland Africa. South Africa also attempted to create plans to reach both Vancouver Island and Russia, but both of these failed due to the extreme distances and poor planning. They also began conquering more and more of South Australia, as well as Western Australia. South Africa eventually expanded all the way up into the Congo basin, while also continuing to expand within Australia, connecting their South Australian and Western Australian colonies. They agreed to give New Zealand land in NSW in 268AD, in order to follow the previously established boundaries. The nation reached the Congo River by 269AD and fully bordered Oman's Zanzibar colony. There were minor tensions, but both parties agreed to not escalate things further. The Congo was also crossed several months later, with South Africa also reaching the Ubangi River.

### South African-Australian split

South Africa's final expansion before Australia split was in 271AD, with the nation annexing Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The co-leaders of South Africa, Bleedz (placeholder) and Noch, got into a heated argument, with the two of them disagreeing about the future of South Africa. Bleedz's main goal was to establish a pan-African empire through aggressive means, which Noch disagreed with. The Australian colonies, seeing the instability caused by Bleedz and his dreams of uniting Africa under his leadership, banded together behind Noch and declared independence from South Africa. Strangely enough, South Africa allowed them to gain independence. This resulted in the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 272AD. Many people within South Africa, angered by the loss of Australia and Bleedz's incompetent rule, began to protest against him. Bleedz was himself assassinated by a disgruntled government official, leading to more chaos amongst the South African people. The newly elected leader pulled from all territories north of the Zambezi, and made peace with most of the rebels.

### Post-Bleedz Era

South Africa stayed dormant following the split of Australia and the loss of their central African territory. In 292AD, Belay Olivier was elected as the president of South Africa. Belay's main goal was to re-establish South Africa as a major African nation. To do so, the nation began expanding once more. Zambia was reintegrated into South Africa in 293, allowing the nation to continue expanding north. In 295, Angola joined South Africa. The nation continued expanding north, bordering the Congolese and taking many of the lakes within east Africa. The Congolese eventually also united with South Africa in 297AD, following their offer. Them and Scandya got into a minor border dispute the following year, due to Scandya wishing to claim the entire Ubangi river as their border. It was resolved when South Africa themselves crossed over the Ubangi and expanded north.

South Africa quickly expanded into Central Africa, bordering France, Bharat and New Guinea. The nation then expanded west, reaching Lake Chad and cutting off Scandya from the rest of Africa. They also bordered Bharat once more in west Africa. South Africa then began to expand across the Sahara, reaching the borders of the CSA. Belay's popularity due to his reconquest of southern Africa led to him winning every election following his first until his death. South Africa's height under Belay was the year before his death, in 313AD. Unfortunately, Belay Olivier died of a heart attack in the year 314AD. The resulting chaos led to South Africa being reduced all the way down to only the lands south of the Orange and Vaal rivers.

### Collapse of South Africa

South Africa remained as a minor nation once again, until Mozambique declared war on South Africa on 333AD. Despite Mozambique's early gains, aid from the Second Libyan Empire and Empire of Japan allowed the South Africans to turn the tide of the war against Mozambique, eventually allowing them to capture Maputo. In the Treaty of Maputo, they annexed the vast majority of Mozambique's former land, turning many of its northern territories into puppets. However, this led to more political instability. Most of these puppets were abolished for unknown reasons in 335AD, with Zambia breaking off as well. Some of Zimbabwe was abandoned in 338, while the rest was annexed. South Africa collapsed in 340 after much turmoil, exactly 100 years after being originally founded. The collapse occurred due to a heavily disputed last election, which caused a civil war that led to the dissolution of the country.