Veraise colony

Veraise colony was a colonial holding administered by the Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC) on the western coast of Crona from 1593 until 1812 at which point the primary cash crop, tobacco, saw a global decline in prices and it was no longer viable so it was sold to Ehemo. The land administered by the Veraise colony is not the provinces of Veraise and Credesia, both part of Alstin.

Veraise was settled by the Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC) under the navigator Jean-Claude Gastineau, establishing a trading post and way station that he dubbed Port-Verde (present-day Gastineau) in 1593.

Following the Great Confessional War (1555 - 1575) in southern Levantia, a massive population diaspora occurred. Tens of thousands of Protestant Levantines took to the seas to find new homes free from Catholic persecution. Many of these refugees were organized under trade companies formed in various principalities the form modern-day Burgundie. But not every trading company was built on the concept of bleeding the fleeing Protestants dry. The Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC) was chartered in 1579, under the newly ordained Catholic Duchy of Martilles "to control the trading interests of Martillien merchants from "the borders north of the upper reaches of the Kingdom of Dericania unto the lands at the zenith of the His terrestrial orb (read Kiravia)". Conspicuously absent were longitudinal limits on the charter.

Following reports of successful settlements in Altaic Sea basin the Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC) dispatched Jean-Claude Gastineau and a small fleet to establish a Catholic trading post in the area. Arriving in the Alstinian Isles in late 1591, they wintered in the wilderness far from the predominantly Protestant settlements. Cold, disease, and Protestant raids reduced the part from 153 men and 14 ships to 73 men and 6 ships. In the early spring, they made out for mainland Crona to find a suitable and secluded spot to establish a Catholic. After 4 months of surveying the coast, a number of suitable locations were noted. Gastineau returned to the Duke of the Martilles and the investors of the Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC) and presented them with his findings. The Archbishop of Martilles was more interested in the Protestant settlements in the Alstinian Isles and the decision of where to settle a trading post was shelved while Gastineau and his lieutenants drafted a report on military strength, fortifications, indigenous conversion efforts, and infrastructure developments. He became very frustrated with the delay and appealed to leave some lieutenants behind to finalize the report after he had departed to start the return journey. He was denied during each appeal. Ultimately, the report was completed after 6 months of writing and redrafting. After the Archbishop accepted the report, the Duke and the investors met again to pick a settlement spot. They made their selection and outfitted Gastineau with a contingent of 183 men (outfitted with the finest military materiel available in the Duchy), 16 ships, animals, and 5 priests. They arrived in the fall of 1593, establishing the of Port-Verde (present-day Gastineau).

In the following years trading between Port-Verde and Martilles increased and immigrants started to arrive in greater numbers as the vast "untapped" wealth of Crona became legendary in the coastal states of the Kingdom of Dericania. It remained the only Catholic Levantine colony in the area which led to low-level sea skirmishes with the Protestants on the Alstinian Isles, but there were no outright wars with the other Levantines. Expansion occurred in the early 17th century into the modern-day territories of Credesia. In 1604, Jean-Claude Gastineau was granted the title of of Port-Verde. He ruled with a focus on increasing trade and developing the port-city's harbor and defenses. The priests were underwhelmed with his agenda for converting the indigenous populations and taking the fight to the Protestants in Alstin.

In 1609, the Pope threatened to censured the Archbishop of Martilles until he could convince Gastineau to get his priorities straight, "...for his ambitious pursuit of material wealth over the pursuit of the spiritual salvation of the Alstinian savages, and their indigenous neighbors reveal his priorities to be in line with the Lutheran menace we have so recently divested from our sphere." The Archbishop passed away three months later, totally unrelated.....but the situation in Port-Verde remained unchanged. The Duke soothed the situation by limiting the charter granted to Gastineau for Port-Verde and granting a separate charter for Credesia colony to be jointly administered by a and a Catholic Bishop.

Port-Verde became a major exporter of timbers considered exotic on Levantia and for tobacco. The colony transformed throughout the 1600s, shifting from a small urban colony, predominately centered around the port city, to becoming a widespread agrarian-plantation colony focused on tobacco cultivation. By 1680, there were approximately 1,500 Levantines in Veraise, predominately from Martilles and Pumbria, as well as 2-3,000 Cartesian people who had either converted/adopted the Occidental lifestyle or who worked as laborers on the tobacco plantations.

The shifting global market saw tobacco prices drop in the mid 18th century in the coastal states of the Kingdom of Dericania which resulted in the economy of Port-Verde of failing as it had over-invested in that one commodity. By the 1770s the colony was in a steady decline. Smugglers from Alstin bought the tobacco for higher prices than the Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC). Pragmatic farmers began to form closer ties with Alstin, circumventing the monopoly held by the MNLC which led to tension and a series of taxes were levied on the Port-Verdiens, in the 1780s, to support the Kiro-Burgoignesc Wars. This further drove the Port-Verdiens into the arms of the Alstinans. The colony was primarily tied to Martilles in name only by the dawn of the 19th century. When Veraise was attacked by the Ehemoans, who were friendly to the Kiravians at the time, in 1804, 1809, and 1810 Martilles ignored pleas for aid, but Alstinians were happy to come to Veraise with promises of land grants. The attacks from Ehemo were repulsed, but the situation became more and more tenuous.

In 1812, Martilles accepted an offer to relinquish claims to Veraise colony and Credesia colony from the Ehemoans in return for 1600 tons of gold and non-aggression pact.