Burgundie

The Grand Thalassocratic Republican Principality of Burgundie and her Commonwealth, commonly known as the Thalassocracy of Burgundie, the Thalassocracy, or Burgundie, is a nation composed of 4 constituent countries, four self-governing territories, and four colonial possessions. At just over 2.9 million square kilometers (1.1 million sqmi), Burgundie is moderately sized country. With a population of around 380 million people, Burgundie is a highly-density nation with 132 people per square kilometer (342 people/sqmi). The capital of Burgundie is Vilauristre, located on the Isle of Burgundie, which is also the capital country, located just off the coast of southeastern Levantia across the L'Estrech. The country of Nostrestran is located along the southeastern coast of Levantia bound by the Sea of Istroya in the east, the Deric States in the north and west, and the Burgoignesc country of Faramount to the south. Faramount is adjacent to Nostrestran along the southeastern coast of Levantia. It is bound by the Sea of Istroya in the east and south, the Deric States in the north, and Urcea in the west. Equitorial Ostiecia is along the confluence of the Odoneru Ocean and the Tainean Sea. The four self-governing territories are the Alshari Overseas Territories (consisting of Isle des Coulettes, Antilles, Salarive, and Chaukira), Ayermer in the northeastern Pukhtun Sea,  Wintergen in the Kilikas Sea north of Levantia, and Sudmoll in the Okatian Sea. Burgundie’s three colonies are Nauta Normand in the Coscivian Sea north of Kiravia, Levantx in the Levantine Ocean, and Argea in the Omnium Ocean off the coast of Australis.

Burgundie and its territories stretch across 19 of the 24 time zones from Sudmoll in UTC -9 to Ayermer in UTC +9. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of Burgundie and its possessions make it one of the world's megadiverse countries.

Burgundie is a meaning that it considers itself primarily a maritime empire whose land holdings are secondary in importance to its maritime claims. This posture leads Burgundie to take enforcement of open and fair trade across the waterways very seriously and personally. The nation’s head of state, and its executive branch, the Court of St. Alphador, is a, a term that recognizes that the Prince of Burgundie is superior in authority all other provincial leaders, including the princes of Equatorial Osteicia, Faramount, and the Duke of Marialianus who nominally services as the prince of Nostrestran, the constituent principalities within the Thalassocracy. Because it is a its hosts a parliament called the Citizens Court of the National Assembly (|Burg: La Assemblee de Ciutadans de l'Assemblee Nacional, ACAN). The Assembly is the unicameral legislative body of the nation with representatives from the citizenry, the Church, the nobility, and the Royal Family. Each member of the council is afforded one vote and the great prince is legally bound to represent the decisions of the National Assembly. The country's third branch of government, the judicial branch, is called the Lazarine Court, and serves as the nation's supreme court.

Burgundie is a founding member of the League of Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, International Maritime Organization, World Food Program, International Red Cross, and other international organizations]]. Burgundie is a highly developed country, with a GDP of $19.1 trillion and a GDPPC of $50,170. It accounts for approximately a 47% of the world’s maritime shipping traffic which has made the country rich. However, since it lacks a diverse native manufacturing base it is susceptible to fluctuations in the global markets. The economy is largely, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the nation's shipyards keep the manufacturing sector world class. Burgundie is the world's largest importer operating on a massive trade deficit that it offsets with its taxes on the shipping industry as well an aggressive international loan policy. Burgundie ranks among the highest nations in several measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and productivity per person. Burgundie has a sizable military power in the world and is a preeminent political, cultural, and scientific force giving it significant power projection both in real and soft terms.

Being formally recognized in its current form in 1875, Burgundie, as a unified nation, is relatively new. Levantine Burgundie was inhabited by Celtic peoples known as the starting around 2800 BC. In the 500s BC the seafaring Adonerii civilization arrived along the southern coast of Levantia. In 158 AD the Latinic commander Julian Marcilius Corvus crushed native resistance on the Isle of Burgundie, then called Ipar, and established the Bergenddium, a state that lasted until it was broken up in the 1090s. Following the Great Confessional War the Burgoignesc, Estienne, and Martillian trading companies created massive overseas empires, free from the confines of Imperial rule. The greatest of these empires, the Burgoignesc South Levantive Trading Company started to collapse in on itself from overextension in the 1780s. Around the same time, the enlightenment and scientific revolution and then later the industrial revolution led to a series of anti-monarchist and pro-democratic/social revolts across the southern coast of the Kingdom of Dericania. The reactionary powers attempted to crush these revolts and led to the First Fratricide, which mediatized much of the Kingdom of Dericania and formed Burgundie from a number of the southern coastal principalities. The new nation set about a course of standardization, driven by scientists, industrialists, and new governments wanted to be considered a modern nation. By the early 20th century Burgundie was becoming as powerful in continental politics as the whole of the Kingdom of Dericania, in its own right. During the Great War Burgundie fought on the side of the Western Coalition, bringing it into the global spotlight. It was one of the powers, along with its ally Urcea that fought on all fronts of the Great War. After the end of the Great War Burgundie helped to establish many of the new globalist institutions that cropped up in that era. Burgundie did this as part of its self determined new mission and duty, as it sought ot find a place for itself in the post-Great War world. Burgundie set out to protect the liberties and freedoms it held dear, for all peoples around the world. This Occidental view of what the basic human rights were and its role in upholding them led to a series of anti-communist wars in Audonia and Alshar. This cotributed to and coincided with an urban and cultural revolution across the Thalassocracy that changed the country from a moderately authoritarian and reactionary holdover from the Holy Levantine Empire to a modern liberal. and the advent of both of which brought Burgundie into the 21st century at full tilt.

Etymology
Burgundie derives its name from the brugan (Eng. ), a that thrives in the  of the Belrac caldera's higher elevations on the Isle of Burgundie. In the classical era the heather was considered the "lighthouse at the end of Istroyan civilization" while there were additional settlements by the Istoryan civlization further north in eastern Levantia they never achieved the status of the principal core city-states that dotted northeastern Sarpedon and southern Levantia.

The spelling has been corrupted over three major linguistic shifts, suffering degradation in each of these transliterative occurrences. While the heather itself is still spelled and pronounced brug- (Burg: le brugose), the nation itself lost its direct connection to the heather and was no longer linguistically tied to it when Latin became the lingua franca of the area around 100 BC.