Mexregiona
United States of Mexregiona Meksrídzeionai Egyesült Államok (Regic) | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Great Seal
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Motto: Még Mindig Itt Vagyunk (Regic) "We Are Still Here" | |
Anthem: Dicsőség és tisztelet (Regic) "Glory and Veneration" | |
 Location of Mexregiona (dark green) off the coast of Novaris (grey). | |
| Capital | Dropdatderp (de jure) Insulmin (de facto) |
| Largest city | Insulmin |
| Official languages | Regic |
| Commonly Used | Asendavian Staynish |
| Ethnic groups (2021) | Ailurine 83% Nekomimi 9% Human 6.5% Ursine 1.5% |
| Demonym(s) | Mexregional (geographic) Mexregionian (people) |
| Government | Federal Presidential republic |
• President | Mister Leader III |
• Scrivener of State | Janos Beartrot |
• Provost of the Assembly of States | Mark Ferterrano |
• Chair of the General Assembly | Zsofía Dat |
| Legislature | Federal Diet |
| Assembly of States | |
| General Assembly | |
| Establishment | |
• Altalandian Empire established | c. 2000 BCE |
• First Kingdom of Mexregiona | c. 1150 BCE |
• United States of Mexregiona established | 15 July 1854 CE |
| Area | |
• Total | 144,287.66 km2 (55,709.78 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2021 census | 2,787,387 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2021 estimate |
• Total | SHD $155,396,825,250 |
• Per capita | SHD $55,750 |
| Currency | Monsuu (MXM) |
| Time zone | UTC -11:00 |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +906 |
| Internet TLD | .mxr |
The United States of Mexregiona, commonly referred to as Mexregiona (/mɛks.ˈriː.dʒi.ˈoʊ.nə/), is an island country located off the northwestern coast of Novaris, to the north of Infinite Loop. Approximately half of the country lies above the Rotantic Circle. The country was a founding member of the League of Novaris in 2017, and is home to the headquarters of the Rotantic Congress, which was established in Dropdatderp in 2000. In 2021, Mexregiona was elected to serve on the International Forum Security Council.
Sapient inhabitation of what is now Mexregiona is dated to as early as 25,000 years BP (Before Present). Scholars debate whether the ailurine or nekomimi species reached the island first, as both appear to have been present very early after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Rotantic ice sheet receded. Ursines began migrating to the area approximately 3,000 years BP, though most continued on to mainland Novaris. Mexregiona has long been an important trading port and travel destination between Novaris and Yasteria. The etymology of the name “Mexregiona” is unknown, and is recorded as early as 1150 BCE. The Native Rodokans were indigenous to Mexregiona, but their entire population emigrated away beginning shortly after the first Mexregional polity was formed.
Modern Mexregiona is a federation consisting of five states which, despite the name of the country, are officially called parishes. The parishes enjoy significant control over their internal affairs, with the federal government primarily responsible for international relations and defense. The President of Mexregiona enjoys broad power in international affairs, is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, and has the authority to veto laws passed by the Federal Diet. According to a tradition in the country, as well as a clause of the Constitution since a 2004 amendment, the President must assume the name “Mister Leader” upon election to office. As such, Presidents are often referred to by number: Mister Leader I, Mister Leader II, and so on.
The President of Mexregiona is assisted by the Council of Scriveners, which is commonly referred to as the “cupboard” or “cabinet.” Scriveners are analogous to Ministers of other countries. The Scrivener of State is the country’s top diplomat, and also in charge of the administration of the civil service, making it a very powerful position in its own right.
A Rotantic country, Mexregiona is particularly cold, with the sun not appearing over the horizon for significant portions of the winter. However, due to significant volcanic and geothermal activity, as well as warmer ocean currents on its coast, it is less cold than it would be otherwise. While portions of the country north of the Rotantic Circle are covered in glaciers or snowpack, the southern portions of the country consist of tundra and taiga environments that can support some agriculture. The country’s primary economic driver, though, is aluminum mining and refining, along with other various metals and minerals. Mexregiona enjoys warm relations with nearby Asendavia as well as countries such as Great Morstaybishlia. Most of the food in Mexregiona is imported, primarily from Asilica, through the Tripartite Pact of Amity that removed trade barriers between those two states as well as Reijia.
History
Bronze Age and Early History
The first written records in what is now Mexregiona date to approximately 2000 BCE and were left by a semi-urban, literate human society that immigrated from northern Novaris. This society is commonly known as the Altalandian Empire, but the exact nature of its governance is unknown except for the presence of a King who may have served as an important religious figure. The name "Altalandian" is a 19th century invention meant to poetically indicate "people of the highest land;" no endonym used by people at the time is recorded. The Altalandian humans displaced earlier populations of semi-nomadic ailurines and nekomimi, who were forced northward by human expansion as the Rotantic Ice Sheet receded. Archeological evidence indicates that the human population rather quickly came to dominate the island, likely within less than a decade. The written records that survive from the Altalandian Empire era are predominately inventory lists and ledgers of mercantile transactions, and they indicate that a cycle of recurring famines was a regular part of life at the time. Due to the land being suitable for very few crops, the primary food source for the Altalandians was seafood. Though evidence is scant, some religious iconography discovered appears to indicate the leading deity in the Altalandian pantheon to be a whale god who may have been considered to control the harvests of food from the sea according to whether or not he held the people in high favor.
Some seven centuries after the first records of the Altalandians, evidence suggests that a political split began to form. While settlements on the smaller, more southerly islands (today called Insulmin and Insulmag) had become relatively wealthy with much more stable food supplies, settlements on the largest island (today called Marpa) still faced relative food insecurity. Records around the time of 1300 BCE speak of shipments of goods destroyed in conflicts, and by 1200 BCE, tax ledgers indicate changes in levies imposed by new kings, of which there appear to have been several distributed across Marpa, many of whom ruled over single settlements. Some of these petty kings cooperated with ailurine and nekomimi populations in the north.
The exact number of these petty kings, and their names, are lost to time. Extant records are unclear; some may refer to the same petty king by different epithets, and some may be semi- or totally mythological figures who never truly existed. What is known, however, is that by the mid-12th century BCE, a petty king by the name of Mekki—buffeted by an alliance with a majority of the ailurine tribes on the island—undertook a major military campaign that subjugated not only the other petty kings on Marpa but also invaded and took the islands of Insulmin and Insulmag. On or around the year 1149 BCE, Mekki declared himself to be the King of a realm called “Mekksrigena,” and while the exact meaning of the constituent words in this name are unknown, it is considered to be the first use of the name “Mexregiona.”
Iron Age and First Kingdom
By several accounts, the early years of Mekksrigena, commonly called the “first Kingdom of Mexregiona,” were marked by brutal political and martial rule under King Mekki and his descendants. A marked increase in religious written records in the era indicate that Mekki claimed divine descent and ordered the pantheon be altered to place him, as a living god, at its center. Despite having depended on them for his conquests, Mekki turned on the ailurines and nekomimi, declaring them “beast-kindred” and ordering that they be expelled from the kingdom. His opposition to these beast-kindred is believed to have been caused in part due to a sharp increase in maritime raids from ursines, who were in the process of migrating from Yasteria to Novaris. While these ursines did not stay in the kingdom, Mekki is said to have believed they were summoned or created by the ailurines and nekomimi to double-cross and usurp him.
Mekki also ordered the exile of another group, which records refer to as “carrion-kindred.” These “carrion-kindred” (in the Regic language: “dög-rokon”) were humans remaining loyal to their previous petty kings and were exiled for being political opponents of King Mekki. Royal scribes recorded that the dög-rokon subsisted on the corpses of their own dead and used the bones for dark magic rituals, but even contemporary records cast doubt on the literal truth of this claim, indicating it was likely political invective or propaganda.
The dög-rokon were recorded to have been centered in the southwest of Marpa, with King Mekki declaring that region as “infested with a great evil” that he said exceeded even that of the ailurines and nekomimi, who he at least permitted to return to the far northern tundra wastes on Marpa. Most scholars agree that the dög-rokon, who were noted for their clinging to the old, whale god-centric faith and centering most of their lives on boats, are the group of maritime raiders in northern Novaris who were the progenitors of the Rokoch people of northeast Volscina, dating to approximately 500 BCE, and the Rodokans who first appeared in the historical record around the turn of the first century CE.
Descendants of King Mekki continued to reign with largely the same repressive and martial attitude. However, the cycle of famines appears to have significantly lessened, if not almost ceased, and urbanization of the population increased significantly, especially on the islands of Insulmin and Insulmag.
Antiquity and the Peace of Dropdatderp
The First Kingdom era lasted until approximately 700 BCE, when a plague struck that wiped out as much as one half of Marpa’s human population. Nekomimi and ailurine populations were unaffected, and by 500 BCE, these groups had expanded to reclaim more territory than they had controlled for more than a thousand years, reaching even to the area of modern Dropdatderp. Governance among humans in this area largely returned to petty kingdoms that by 400 BCE had reunited under the name Kingdom of Ferterra, which controlled much of the area of the modern-day parish of that name as well as Insulmin and Insulmag, which began to be known by those names in that era—these names mean “small island” and “large island” respectively.
There was relative peace on Marpa in this era. The ailurine and nekomimi tribes coalesced into the Dropdatderp Confederation or Dropdatderp League, which consisted of an ailurine polity called Dropda to the north and east, and a nekomimi polity called Aterpa or Aderpa, in the center of the island. The League had its seat of governance at the city that continues to bear the name Dropdatderp. The two species had adopted a mutual language by that time, which entered the written record with the establishment of the League. This language, Dropdattic, is extinct today, but its influence is still widely felt in modern Mexregiona through the legacy of names of people and places as well as loanwords into Regic.
Peace between the species on Marpa allowed the city of Dropdatderp—which sat on the border between the League and Ferterra—to become a relatively cosmopolitan city and a center of shared knowledge and culture. Historians refer to this period as the “Peace of Dropdatderp.” A census undertaken by the King of Dropdatderp in 298 BCE counted precisely 10,001 people. The veracity of this number is questioned by modern scholars, with modern estimates ranging between five and eight thousand, but by any measure it was the largest city to have ever existed on Marpa at that point.
Coinage appeared on Marpa for the first time when the Dropdatderp League—controlling several rich metal mines in the north—began minting silver coins in around 100 BCE. Several denominations appear to have been struck over the course of approximately 300 years; by far the most widely circulated was a coin that came to be called the “Monsuu” after the image of the King on its face—while Monsuu reigned from approximately 45 BCE to 29 BCE, his face appeared on coins until the second century CE as he remained a popular, almost mythical figure, for his establishment of the first collection of written laws for Dropdatderp. The modern currency of Mexregiona is called the Monsuu after these coins.
Second Kingdom Era
The Peace of Dropdatderp ended in 211 CE when King Gejza of Ferterra besieged and conquered the city of Dropdatderp. Gejza claimed that raiders from Dropdatderp had sparked the conflict, while the League claimed there had been no such raiders and decried Ferterra as simply greedy for land. Ferterra was much more populous than the Dropdatderp League and the physically larger humans were difficult for ailurine and nekomimi to fight. The last King of Dropdatderp, Lapo, surrendered the entire League to Ferterra in 215 rather than see the rest of the League besieged and destroyed by Ferterran warriors. Lapo is commonly known as Lapo the Weak or Lapo the Coward. Gejza claimed the title of King of Mexregiona, hosting a lavish coronation and enthronement ceremony in 217 that infamously featured a sedan carried by ailurines transporting the King from his chariot to the throne so that his feet never touched the ground.
King Gezja was assassinated in 219, but his successors continued to maintain control over the entirety of Mexregiona. Rebels opposed to the Kingdom in the north continued to present a problem for decades, making it incredibly costly to access the rich mineral wealth of the north, until the Accord of Ingenlääp—a charter agreed to between King Álmos II and local rebel leaders signed in 254—accorded the ailurines and nekomimi a degree of self-rule as duchies and guaranteed that they would have representation in any council the King summoned for the purposes of taxation or legislation. The Accord of Ingenlääp remained theoretically in force until the establishment of the United States of Mexregiona in 1854, though its actual application during much of that time is questionable.
The Second Kingdom, while more populous, more cosmopolitan, and more educated than the first, was not able to replicate the eradication of famine the first kingdom achieved, with several periods of famine and plague causing significant damage. In a period known as the first Mexregional Dark Ages, contact between Marpa and the islands of Insulmin and Insulmag was almost entirely cut off for nearly fifty years, between 581 and 627. When regular contact was re-established in 627, King Zoltán I discovered that Lúis, a self-proclaimed human duke, had established control of the region around Dropdatderp and demanded the same legal recognition as the ailurine and nekomimi dukes of Ingenlääp. In no position to decline, Zoltán agreed. The modern parish of Lúisnaja is named in honor of that duchy, which like the ones established in Ingenlääp enjoyed at least some degree of recognition for much of history after its creation—though, at times, such recognition was only nominal.
As time went on and Mexregiona established more trade with others in the region, food supplies became more stable. While local instances of food insecurity did occur from time to time, the last recorded national famine was in 803, and the last major plague—likely borne in that famine—struck from 804 until 807. Mexregiona established trading relationships with Asendavia, Dallacqua, and the predecessor kingdoms of Cryria in this time, among others. Records of contact with the “King of Kúbertiin” in the tenth century would appear to indicate some contact with what is now Infinite Loop, but could also refer to any number of much smaller petty kingdoms in the region. The Kings of Vesienväl were at least aware of Mexregiona, with it appearing on maps dating to as early as the 13th century, though by that time the knowledge of previous travelers from Mexregiona, Rodokans, having moved through the country some 1,300 years earlier was lost. Some historians have purported that the Emperor of the Danvreas was aware of Mexregiona in the 14th century, pointing to a fragmented tablet now in Bana’s Federal Museum of History that appears to reference correspondence from a “King of Medzri,” though other historians consider the tablet to be a 19th century forgery.
Two civil wars are recorded in the Second Kingdom. The War of Two Kings occurred from 907 to 912 and saw King Zoltán V successfully fend off an attack on his throne from his uncle, who styled himself “King Gezja II.” The Dark Sky War occurred from 1216 to 1219. The reason for the name is unknown, but may refer to a volcanic eruption that obscured the sky at some point in the war. The Dark Sky War saw the nekomimi Duke Noruu of Ingenlääp launch an assault on Duke András of Dropdatderp, in what turned out to be devastatingly disastrous for the nekomimi. The much better equipped men from Dropdatderp undertook a scorched urth campaign that is believed to have killed more than half of the country’s nekomimi population. While András claimed the nekomimi regions of Ingenlääp as his territory, King Béla III refused to acknowledge the claims and had Duke András hanged, drawn, and quartered for dishonorable conduct.
Second Dark Ages
The longest recorded period of peace and stability in Mexregiona ended in 1484, more than 1200 years after the establishment of the Second Kingdom. King Zoltán XII, known as Zoltán the Mad, decided in 1484 to launch an invasion of northern Asendavia. While Zoltán proclaimed that after twelve centuries of civilization, Mexregiona had ascended to the highest tier of vaunted nations, the Kingdom was sorely outmatched by Asendavia, who had a population and armed forces several times larger.
Mexregiona was occupied by Asendavia for more than a century, from 1485 until 1599. During this era, usage of the Regic language was suppressed and adherence to the Ademarist religion was made mandatory. The nekomimi and ailurine Duchies of Ingenlääp were explicitly voided, the first time the positions did not remain even nominally filled since they were established. This was unpopular in Mexregiona, but the Asendavian authorities enforced the decree with violence, and by the end of the occupation, virtually all traces of the indigenous Mexregionan religion—extant in some form for 3500 years—were erased. The human proportion of the population also vastly increased, due in large part from immigration from Asendavia, and the ursine population expanded to some degree as well. The name “Dark Ages” refers largely to political and cultural repression rather than a dearth of written records, though the Regic language was almost lost during the period, with the only remaining unhindered native speakers of the tongue living in distant Vlöcivil, which due to its extreme climate and distance from other population centers remained somewhat independent. During the occupation, the seat of governance in Mexregiona was moved from Dropdatderp to Insulmin.
The occupation by Asendavia was finally ended through armed revolt by Mexregionans in a campaign from 1595 until 1599. In an echo of the first unification by King Mekki, the revolt began in the north, buffeted by non-human support, and moved southward to eventually retake Dropdatderp and then Insulmin and Insulmag. The effort was costly; virtually all of the city of Dropdatderp burned to the ground. However, in 1599, Asendavia agreed to withdraw from Mexregiona, and a nominal Third Kingdom of Mexregiona under King Béla VI was established soon thereafter.
However, Mexregiona was largely in shambles, and seeing this instability, Volscina launched an invasion of Mexregiona in 1610, seeking to capitalize on the country’s weakness to gain territory and international prestige, as well as to gain access to the country’s mineral wealth and trade routes between Yasteria and Novaris. Having had little time to rebuild, Mexregiona quickly fell once more, with King Béla VI fleeing by ship and dying at sea of scurvy. Béla VI would be the last King of Mexregiona, and is known as Béla the Last. The occupation by Volscina also lasted approximately a century, from 1610 until 1713. The occupation by Volscina was less socially oppressive, with restrictions on language use and religion partially lessened—though the indigenous Mexregionan versions of both were still discouraged. In later decades, some degree of Mexregional self-rule was established in the form of a Duke—the Duke of Meccireggia—appointed by the Emperor of Volscina from among the human population of Insulmin, which remained the seat of governance. The nekomimi and ailurine Duchies of Ingenlääp were also nominally recognized by the Volscine government in 1674, though the Emperor held a complete veto over any decisions they might make.
In 1711—a year selected as auspicious because it fell 1,500 years after King Gejza seized Dropdatderp and began unifying the Second Kingdom—a resistance movement built up first in Insulmag, spreading from there to Insulmin and Polgarimagna primarily through clandestine, coded correspondence, began targeting Volscine officials and, in 1712, the Volscine naval facilities in Insulmin and Polgarimagna. Outright war flared in 1712, but was relatively short lived, as Volscina agreed to withdraw from Mexregiona the next year. While Mexregiona’s north was rich in minerals, there were less extreme places elsewhere in the world to find them, and plans of dominating trade between Yasteria and Novaris had not achieved the success that was originally envisioned. The Diet of Dropdatderp, an assemblage of delegates from the major regions of the country, gathered and ratified a Constitution that established the Republic of Mexregiona on October 10th, 1713.
The Republic and Romanticism
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The Republic of Mexregiona was the first true democracy in Mexregiona, with an elected Parliament of 50 members—ten each from five parishes with the same names and borders as modern Mexregiona—that named a Prime Minister. Aleramo Cozzo, the last Duke of Meccireggia, was elected by the first Parliament to serve as a figurehead President of Mexregiona who was to serve for ten years. However, Cozzo died 7 years into his term, and because the Parliament could not settle on a new candidate it eventually agreed to leave the office vacant and transfer the scant, entirely ceremonial powers of the office to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which would then be known as the Executive Magistrate and Acting President for the remainder of the republic.
The primary goals of the early republic were to rebuild the country’s major cities and to restore the Regic language, which was estimated in 1715 to have only 40 remaining native speakers, of whom ten were younger than fifty years old. The Parliament established Dropdatderp University in 1714 and placed in its charter a mandate that it work to record, standardize, and restore the Regic language. By 1720, a Standardized Grammar and Phonology of the Regic Language had been drafted, and in 1730, Parliament required that all universities require Regic fluency as a condition for graduation. While signage in public was required to include Regic, in acknowledgement of the fact that even among the population that was literate most did not know Regic, Staynish and Asendavian were also commonly included, and the Parliament copied all acts and formal registers in all three languages. Volscine was notably not chosen, despite having been in use for more than a century under Volscine administration, as leaders in Parliament decided that Asendavian was easier to learn than Volscine, and Staynish was chosen for its use across the whole world in trade and diplomacy.
With the elite class of Mexregiona focused on restoring Regic came a desire to restore what was viewed as all of “classical Mexregional culture” to the country. While by the mid 18th century, Insulmin City was by far the largest urban area in the country, the capital was declared by law to be Dropdatderp as in the Second Kingdom—despite the fact that, after centuries of disregard and neglect, it was a fraction of its former size and had no buildings capable of seating the entire Parliament at once. Interest in the indigenous Mexregional pagan religion ballooned, and it became typical for nobles to claim adherence to what was called “the Cult of the Whale God.” (However, as no liturgy and very few myths of the faith remained, the so-called cult was almost entirely a modern invention.) The Monsuu was restored as the currency of Mexregiona, and while the Parliament initially insisted on the coins being silver coins of the same exact purity as the historic version, such coins were initially too expensive for the country to mint and for a time in the early 18th century, the value of the currency was so high relative to the nascent economy that ten Monsuu could buy a house.
After the Regic language restoration had made enough progress that Parliament no longer feared for the language’s ability to survive, the focus for successive governments in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was equality between the species. A significant portion of the human population of Mexregiona had left the country after the end of Volscine rule, and by 1800, the country was majority ailurine. The Equal Dignity Act of 1805 enshrined in the Constitution the doctrine that all species were equal before the law, and various laws passed in the early 19th century—very unusual internationally in that era—mandated certain percentages of judges, peace officers, and even university professors be filled by certain species. The Republic became known as “the Noble Project,” and the era is remembered as being a time of particularly high public feeling and faith in government, a so-called “romantic era.”
Toward the end of the Republic era, focus turned to the question of Mexregional defense. After two consecutive foreign invasions had wiped out their self-governance and their culture, Mexregionans were highly concerned that the progress they made might again be destroyed. By the turn of the 19th century, the economic position of the Republic was stable and wealthy enough to begin establishing a modern armed forces, including a standing navy. While ships and military equipment had to be bought rather than built domestically, it became a strict priority of governments of all political parties to ensure the establishment of a military that could reasonably defend the country, even despite the country’s small size. The Republic took out significant loans from various banks to finance the military expansion, particularly in the financial sectors of South Ethalria (later Asilica) and Reijia, forming economic partnerships that would become very valuable in the future.
The United States and the Modern Era
By the mid-19th century, however, cracks in the Noble Project had become apparent. While wealth, education, and standards of living had vastly increased compared to the Second Dark Ages—even in the far northern reaches of Vlöcivil, which established a university in 1829—there grew an increasing resentment that the much more sparsely populated parish of Ingenlääp had equal sway in Parliament compared to a parish like Insulmin, which had more than twelve times as many people in 1850. In 1852, a proposal to establish a Revenue-Marine to enforce customs duties in Mexregional waters was overruled by the 30 votes of Ingenlääp, Lúisnaja, and Ferterra over the 20 of Insulmag and Insulmin, despite the latter two each having more people than the other three combined. The Republic’s revenues had been waning, and the government was beginning to have trouble making payments on its debts.
In April of 1852, the Bank of Zalica threatened to collect on a loan the Republic had taken out by seizing the state’s assets held in the bank—which would have rendered the government literally destitute. The governments of Insulmin and Insulmag parishes offered, through their own separate treasuries (along with significant offered contributions from wealthy business people in those parishes), pay off the debt and agree to a higher rate of taxation—but only if the Constitution were amended to give each parish seats in the Parliament based on population. The other parishes, faced with the financial ruin of the entire country and the end of the Noble Project, relented. After the debt was paid in 1852, a series of Constitutional Conventions led to the replacement of the entire Republic government with a federal system, the United States of Mexregiona, on July 15th, 1854.
The United States Constitution made each of the five parishes sovereign over their own people and territory in almost all respects. Taxation was to be entirely handled by the parishes, with each parish required to remit a certain percentage to the federal government. A finite list of responsibilities was granted to the federal government—defense, international relations, railroads, the post, coinage and currency, and weights and measures—with all other matters reserved to the parishes, who were free to establish their internal governments as they saw fit. From 1854 until 1951, Lúisnaja was led by a hereditary Duke that faced a confirmation election when they inherited the office but then reigned for life. The executive of Ingenlääp is still known as the Executive Magistrate.
Insulmin and Insulmag immediately both established governance and policies that favored business, leading to an economic boom in both provinces that soon had their treasuries—as well as the federal treasury—more flush with cash than they had ever been. As these two parishes combined held a majority of seats in the new Federal Diet—a bicameral body with a General Assembly elected by population and an Assembly of States as a nominal, but largely powerless, upper chamber with three members per parish—business-friendly economics and policy remained in place largely uninterrupted for more than a century. Between 1854 and 1978, only for three non-consecutive sessions over 12 years did a political party other than the pro-business, anti-regulation Republican Democrat Party hold control of the National Diet, leading many to call Mexregiona a de facto one-party state.
The government of the United States continued to focus on maintaining a capable, well-equipped military, but also committed itself to remain staunchly neutral in international conflicts. The Constitution was amended to require neutrality in 1898, and though this amendment was repealed in 1910 in the wake of the Great War, the country remained neutral throughout that conflict. Mexregiona has not been in a state of war since the end of the Second Dark Ages. In the latter half of the 20th century, as Mexregiona reached the limit of how much equipment and personnel it could reasonably maintain, the country began to look into military partnerships with other countries as ways to further ensure defense while not incurring as much cost. Defense relationships were formed with both Asendavia and Great Morstaybishlia—Great War opponents—as well as with Kuthernburg. In 2006, Mexregiona became a founding member of the League of Novaris in a further attempt to shape Novaran security policy.
While population growth had ticked up gradually over the course of the Republic era, it exploded in the late 19th century. In 1900, the country’s population was estimated at about 250,000—already the highest it had been in recorded history—and that increased to more than 2.7 million as of the 2021 census. In addition to increases in individual wealth, population growth was also aided by the 1895 Tripartite Pact of Amity between Mexregiona, Asilica, and Reijia that allowed for citizens of each country to move and permanently live in the others. While such immigration has become a net negative from Mexregiona in the modern day, for several decades Mexregiona was a popular place to move for nationals of both countries due to, at the time, low property values. In the modern day, Mexregiona is by far the most populated Rotantic country, and by 2021 the government of Insulmin Parish had declared a housing emergency simply because there was no longer any available land that was zoned for residential use on the island. Overpopulation has become the most critical issue for the Mexregional government in the 21st century, with concerns of global warming close behind. Part of the country’s response to concerns about global warming, particularly as it relates to the High Rotantic, is the Rotantic Congress, an international organization based in Dropdatderp established in 2000 in part as an initiative of the Mexregional government.
Etymology
The etymology of the name “Mexregiona” is famously elusive and undetermined. The most common theory is that it relates in some way to the name of the first King of Mexregiona, Mekki. However, this theory is complicated by the fact that it is uncertain whether Mekki was that King’s name as used contemporaneously, or if it is an epithet that was applied later, possibly even after the name Mexregiona was established.
Other theories posit the name being related to Regic words such as “megakadályoz,” meaning “to thwart,” referring to the country resisting efforts from outsiders to subjugate it; “megkeresztel,” meaning “to christen,” potentially in reference to sacred religious rituals that were common in the era of the first Kingdom, or “megöregszik,” meaning “to age” or “to become old,” which could have originally been an epithet applied to King Mekki or have been a reference, even at the time of the first kingdom, that Mexregiona—a successor to the previous Altalandian Empire—was already considered to be “old.” However, these are modern Regic words. The exact forms of Old Regic and Proto-Regic are not yet entirely reconstructed and, due to significant loss of written records from the era of Old Regic, difficult to theorize and even more difficult to reach consensus on. The name of the language itself, Regic, is itself simply a shortened version of “Mexregionic” that became popular to use in the Republic era—quite famously because Dr. Janos Bajusz, the first Chair of the Regic Language Faculty at Dropdatderp University, decided “the language already has plenty of long and awkward words as it is.”
Government
The bicameral, federal system established in 1854 remains in force in Mexregiona, though with some amendments and changes. A 1982 Constitutional amendment significantly increased the power of the Assembly of States by granting it the ability to explicitly reject, rather than just delay, a bill passed by the General Assembly. The informal power of the office of President of the United States has also grown over time, due in part to increased legislative gridlock since the 1982 amendment. The Supreme Court has expanded the power of the Presidency by ruling that the Constitution bestows several “implied powers” on the federal government, such as the powers to regulate commerce between the parishes and to “audit and supervise” the governments of the parishes to ensure compliance with the Constitution.
Between 1854 and 2004, the Presidents of the United States of Mexregiona, once elected, were commonly referred to by the title “Sir Leader.” The tradition dates as far back as the first President, Csongor Kovács, who is said to have encouraged it primarily because he was annoyed when non-native Regic speakers mispronounced his birth name. While originally the title “Sir” was not necessarily considered to imply a feudal sense of nobility, as time went on, it was considered increasingly anachronistic and, to some, unacceptably monarchical—this even despite the enduring tradition of its use, which became to be seen by most Mexregionans as a way of both respecting the holder of the office but reminding them that, while in that office, their purpose was to serve the people. So strong was this tradition that, in 2004, a Constitutional amendment was passed that actually required Presidents to legally change their name to “Mister Leader” during their time in office. The amendment, the only one of its kind in the world, was passed unanimously by the parishes. Notably, the amendment explicitly notes that the name “Mister” shall apply to Presidents of all genders, which was included in large part because of uncertainty as to how to spell out the word traditionally written “Mrs.”
Presidency
The President is not directly elected by the population of Mexregiona. Instead, an Electoral College is called every four years to elect a President, the members of which being all the members of the popularly elected legislatures of each parish. However, despite each parish being able to decide how many people are in their legislatures, in the electoral college, each parish only has a number of votes equivalent to the number of Assembly Members it has in the General Assembly. Parishes are not allowed to split their votes, meaning that if Ingenlääp has three votes, it must give all three of them to the same candidate. Parish delegations decide to whom their votes will go by majority vote of their delegates. The Electoral College meets in Dropdatderp, making it the only government body to do so despite that city being the de jure capital. In the most recent Presidential election, 2020, there were 58 Electoral College delegates casting 35 votes.
The current President of the United States of Mexregiona is Mister Leader III, who was born Kevin Nogilny. Mister Leader III was elected in 2020, having previously served as the Mayor of Dropdatderp—the first holder of that office to ever be elected President, despite being in charge of the nominal capital. (Dropdatderp remains only symbolically the capital; a secondary Presidential Residence in use in the city between 1983 and 2017 was sold after scrutiny in relation to the housing crisis.) He was also the first human to be elected to the office since 1994. Mister Leader III is, as required by the Constitution, a political independent, but he was a member of the center-left Social Progressive Party for his entire political career prior to becoming President. In the election of 2020, a Social Progressive majority was elected in the General Assembly, but a center-right Republican Democrat majority in the Assembly of States, making it difficult for the Social Progressives to enact campaign goals.
National Diet
Each house of the National Diet also has elected leadership. The chairperson of the Assembly of States, the Provost, is first in line for the Presidency should the office become vacant with more than two years remaining in the fixed four-year term. (An election is held if there are less than two years remaining.) Currently, this position is held by Mark Ferterrano of Ferterra. The Chair of the General Assembly presides over that body and, in sessions where the Chair is of the same political party of which the current President was previously a member, is often seen as the primary political mouthpiece for the federal government in areas where the President is expected to remain politically neutral. The current Chair is Zsofía Dat of Insulmag.
General Assembly
The General Assembly consists of 35 seats. Each parish can determine how its representatives are chosen so long as they are elected by popular vote of the citizenry, though all of them have always used the method of first-past-the-post voting in single-member districts of roughly equal population. The 35 seats are required to be distributed to the parishes proportionally, with each parish granted a minimum of one Assembly Member. The seats are reapportioned each decennial census, but the number of seats given to each parish has remained unchanged since 1981 due to the proportion of populations remaining largely the same: 10 for Insulmin, 9 for Insulmag, 8 for Ferterra, 5 for Lúisnaja, and 3 for Ingenlääp. The Constitution requires all legislation that imposes a tax and all proposed Constitutional amendments to be initiated in the General Assembly.
Assembly of States
The Assembly of States has a total of 15 seats, with three Delegates per parish. The Constitution gives parishes the choice of either appointing their Delegates by vote of the parish legislature or allowing for direct election of Delegates. Since 2004, all parishes have used direct election; the last parish to switch was Ferterra. Under the original Constitution, the Assembly of States was largely a ceremonial, consultative body that held little concrete political power. It could only delay the passage of a bill passed by the General Assembly by referring a bill back to the General Assembly up to two times in one legislative session. The only concrete authorities the Assembly of States was originally given were the requirement that it approve a proposed Constitutional amendment along with the General Assembly to place it before the parishes for ratification, and the requirement that the Assembly of States approve the appointments of Supreme Court magistrates and the Chiefs of Staff of each branch of the Armed Forces, a power it held alone and a power which it still holds today. However, the Assembly of States can now directly reject proposed legislation since a 1982 amendment.
Judiciary
The Constitution establishes only one court at the federal level, the Supreme Court of Federal Appeals. This court has five members, one from each parish, but each case is only heard by a panel of three of these judges selected randomly by lot. There is no appeal to the full court once a panel of three has ruled on a case. The Supreme Court hears all appeals from every parish judicial system, including criminal, civil, bankruptcy, and tax cases. It also serves as the court of appeals for the military admirality court and has original jurisdiction in cases between parishes. The Supreme Court is granted the power of judicial review by the Constitution, meaning that it has the power to overturn laws passed by the legislature if they are determined to be contrary to the Constitution. The Supreme Court elects one of its own to be Chief Magistrate, while the other four are known as Federal Magistrates. Members of the court serve for terms of twenty years, with one seat up for reappointment every four years, and cannot be reappointed. The order of seats was established by random lot when the first court was appointed in 1854, with the first Magistrates serving truncated terms according to their draw. The order is Ferterra, Insulmin, Ingenlääp, Insulmag, Lúisnaja.
Below the Supreme Court are individual judiciaries established by each parish. The Constitution gives wide latitude to the parishes to establish whatever kind of judiciary they see fit. In Insulmag, almost all judges are elected and the parish High Court is explicitly denied the power of judicial review by the parish constitution, whereas in Ingenlääp, judges at every level are appointed by the Executive Magistrate (who, despite the name, is not a judge but equivalent to a parish governor.)
Constitutional Amendment
In order for an amendment to be made to the Constitution, it must first be passed by a simple majority of both the General Assembly and the Assembly of States. The Constitution permits two mechanisms for final ratification: either approval by four out of five parish legislatures or by three out of five of the parishes in referendums of their citizenry. However, amendments passed by the second mechanism are only valid for a period of 20 years before they are required to go before the public in another referendum, and as such, no amendment to the Constitution has yet been passed through that mechanism. The Constitution of the United States of Mexregiona has been amended eleven times since it was first ratified in 1854.
Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of the United States (EAFE; Regic: Egyesült Államok Fegyveres Erői) consist of an Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. As of 2021, the total number of Mexregionans serving across all four branches was 17,747. Of these, 9,894 were in the Army; 3,712 in the Navy; 1,146 in the Air Force, and 2,995 in the Coast Guard—whose proportion is high, relative to similar branches in other countries, due to Mexregionan emphasis on icebreakers to allow commerce along cold northern trade routes as well as a heightened concern for search and rescue in the frigid Rotantic.
The United States of Mexregiona has never used conscription, maintaining an all-volunteer defense force since 1854. Conscription was considered during the Great War out of concerns that the country would be caught unprepared if invaded, but the Chiefs of Staff decided that the risk of invasion could actually be increased by a dramatic uptick in the number of persons in the Armed Forces. Mexregionans of all species and all genders serve in the Armed Forces, with women being granted the ability to serve in combat positions in 2011.
Culturally, great emphasis has traditionally been placed on the Armed Forces by Mexregionans since the end of the Second Dark Ages and the dawn of the Republic era. After two centuries of outside rule, much of it brutal, due to military defeats, Mexregionans have considered a military capable of repelling outside attack to be a top priority. Even in the modern era, after more than three centuries of peace, “a strong military” continues to rank at the top when the public is surveyed about political policy preferences. In the 20th century into the 21st, it became recognized that Mexregiona had reached the limit of what military infrastructure it could reasonably sustain itself, and it began to reach out to global powers to form military relationships. As of 2021, three foreign countries maintain military bases in Mexregiona: Asendavia, Great Morstaybishlia, and Kuthernburg. These countries maintain personnel and equipment in Mexregiona for the defense of Mexregiona as well as for the advancement of their own interests in the High Rotantic region.
Partnership with Asendavia was controversial, with many questioning why the country would turn to a former occupying power for defense aid. When the Asendavian-Mexregional military cooperation agreement began in the 1980s, Mexregional authorities justified it by noting that the occupation had been over for more than four centuries and that Asendavia was a major military power and economy whose assistance could benefit Mexregiona. The Scrivener of Defense at the time, Allen Mixon, Sr., said "The Dark Ages are over, and Mexregiona and Asendavia are entering into this agreement as states of equal standing and dignity to jointly advance our interests. Part of repairing the damage done in the past is agreeing to move beyond the past."
In the 21st century, Mexregiona’s primary strategic focuses have been on ensuring reliable access for trade in the High Rotantic and in intelligence gathering. Both of these aims are furthered by Mexregiona’s membership in the Conference for Amity and Cooperation, a pact of four Novaran countries designed for military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and the mutual furtherance of other shared goals.
The Mexregionan intelligence service, MF, (Meksrídzeionai Felderítés, “Mexregionan Reconnaissance”) is legally organized as a sector of the Army, but for all intents and purposes is administered separately. The Director of Intelligence reports directly to the President, not to the Chief of Staff of the Army, though in times of declared war the Army Chief of Staff can legally override the Director of Intelligence in some matters. MF enjoys broad latitude under the law to act clandestinely overseas, though is significantly tempered in what it can do within the borders of the country. In 2020, the last year statistics are available, the top-line amount of funds allocated to MF was SHD $446,880,110 compared to a total budget for the entire federal government of SHD $24.8 billion—about 1.8% of the entire budget. Under the National Security Act of 2001, MF is exempt from nearly all budgetary reporting requirements except for the top-line figure of total allocation for the entire agency. Since 2001, the ratio of intelligence spending to the total budget has remained within 1.75% and 1.9%, peaking in 2004. The federal government does not comment on what its intelligence gathering priorities are, nor does it confirm or deny any alleged MF actions overseas.
Culture
Since the end of the Second Dark Ages, a significant emphasis on preserving Mexregionan culture has been present in Mexregionan society. Beginning with the restoration of the Regic language—which went from only 40 fluent speakers in 1715 to 95% of the population by 1850—the federal government has routinely made it a priority to maintain a distinct Mexregionan culture. The Federal Museums, a network of five major museums across the country, is one of the most acclaimed national museums in the world, maintaining records of more than five thousand years of civilization and tens of thousands of years of information on prehistory.
A 2015 survey of more than five thousand Mexregionans both inside and outside the country found that 95% of Mexregionans consider “patriotism” and 91% “equality of species and peoples” as central values of Mexregionan culture. Other leading values identified by the survey were “support of the military,” “bravery,” and “stubbornness.” At the other end of the spectrum, the least-identified values were “racial/species purity,” “ostentatiousness,” and “a compromising spirit,” all of which were selected by less than 1% of survey respondents.
The most internationally well-known facet of Mexregionan culture is most likely its cuisine—notably, Mexregionan food has a reputation for being particularly spicy. Peppers are not native to Mexregiona, nor are most food crops, but they were introduced to Mexregiona in the late 19th century through contact with Reijia, a tropical country, and through Reijia to products from elsewhere in Gondwana, such as Ayaupia, which is also noted for the prevalence of spiciness in its cuisine. In fact, the term “Ayaupian” (in Regic: Ajaupiai) is colloquially used to mean “spicy.” While the precise reason for this popularity is uncertain, it is a near-universally repeated anecdote that Mexregionans insist on spicy food to heat up what is otherwise a frigidly cold country. Some of the spiciest peppers on Urth, bred specifically for particularly high capsaicin content, are grown in specialty greenhouses and hydroponic gardens in Mexregiona. A tradition popular in Mexregiona is for people, on their birthday, to eat one pepper for each year they have lived—which the Mexregionan Federal Health Services System, since 2002, has regularly warned citizens not to partake in “due to a rapid increase in the spiciness of commercially available peppers that can in some cases exceed the body’s ability to tolerate.”
Kicsi Culture
For arguably obvious reasons, in recent years a popular trend in Mexregiona has been what has become known as “Kicsi Culture,” from the Regic “kicsi,” meaning “small,” or “kicsiség,” meaning “smallness.” In Kicsi Culture, things that take up less space become more valuable than things that take up more space, and reducing the amount of space one’s possessions consumes is seen as desirable. Whether or not this has a noticeable effect on the housing and overpopulation crisis is arguable, and likely negligible, but nevertheless it has become relatively trendy in Mexregiona for everything to be made as small as possible.
Beginning first in areas such as home decor, where furniture that contained storage space concealed under or as part of other functional surfaces became very popular—for instance, loft beds with dressers or desks underneath. It has also become popular to use vacuum-sealed bags to store clothing. Particularly unique setups trying to maximize all possible vertical space in a room—such as setting up rolling ladders and hanging clothes along rods mounted at the top of walls—are popularly shared on social media. Consumer electronics manufacturers have begun to sell smaller models in Mexregiona, and from 2010 to 2020 the volume of the average car sold in Mexregiona decreased more than 11%. An extension of kicsi culture, for those who own cars, is “kicsi car culture,” in which people live in their cars—a practice that some consider environmentally unfriendly and others consider potentially unsafe or unhealthy. The tiny house movement, as can be expected, is also popular in Mexregiona, though the availability of land for tiny houses remains an issue.
Economy
With a GDP (nominal) per capita of SHD $55,750, Mexregiona ranks high on lists of countries by relative wealth. However, the nature of the country’s small population means its total GDP (nominal) in 2021 was just over $155 billion, which is more toward the middle of the spectrum internationally. Mineral extraction, which has been the country’s primary economic sector for all of recorded history, continues to form the largest portion of the economy. In particular, Mexregiona has rich deposits of aluminum, titanium, iron, vanadium, silver, platinum, and palladium. While Mexregiona’s silver deposits, mined for some 3,000 years, were considered to be approaching depletion in 1990, further recession of the Rotantic Ice Sheet revealed newly available deposits believed to present more than one hundred years’ worth of further silver mining at current rates. In addition to mining these minerals, Mexregiona has a strong refinery sector of the economy—as the tundra in Ingenlääp Parish is unsuitable for most agriculture, the primary use of land in the parish is industrial.
Mexregiona has been a minor producer of oil since the 1970s, with domestic production far short of supply, but technological advancements as well as further continental shelf made accessible by ice sheet recession have significantly increased the potential for oil drilling. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the increased economic opportunity caused by global warming in contrast to the dire threat it presents to life in general has been a noted point of political friction in Mexregiona. In general, the political right has supported further economic exploitation of newly available resources while the political left has advocated for efforts to slow and reverse global climate change.
As can be expected, Mexregiona imports the overwhelming majority of its food, primarily from Cryria, Asendavia, and Asilica. Very little naturally grows on the island of Marpa, and there has been almost no functional agricultural space available on Insulmin or Insulmag since the 1990s. Crops that are grown in Mexregiona include root vegetables like potatoes and turnips, and other crops such as cabbage, kale, and cauliflower. One positive factor for agriculture in Mexregiona is that, due to a natural lack of insect pests, fewer pesticides need to be used. In recent years, a market for Mexregiona-grown organic vegetables has started to grow. Other crops are grown in greenhouses or hydroponic gardens, primarily vegetables.
Ferterra, Lúisnaja, and to a lesser extent Ingenlääp Parishes are also home to livestock. Until 1995, Mexregiona was self-sufficient in meat production, producing pork and beef, but since then demand for meat has outstripped domestic supply. Continued livestock agriculture is a significant political hot-button in these parishes, as the need for space for housing has reached a crisis point and livestock grazing lands seen as wasteful. Farmers, though, note that decreasing the capacity of the country to produce food will not render the country more habitable even if there are more houses to fit more people.
There is very limited manufacturing in Mexregiona, and what little there previously was has mostly left the country in recent decades.
The currency of Mexregiona is the Monsuu, abbreviated “(K)Mu.” The Monsuu remained legally backed by silver until 1994, notably late compared to other currencies worldwide. It is generally valued higher than the Standard Hawking Dollar, with an average exchange rate of 1.21 (K)Mu to the SHD across 2021. The Federal Reserve Bank of Mexregiona manages the country’s monetary policy.
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