Porlos

Porlos, officially the Democratic Porlosi Republic, is a in southwestern Crona. Located in the heart of the Old Cartadanian colonies, Porlos shares land borders with the UR Territory of Radia, Ceylonia, Istrenya, Kelekona, Kartejya, and Pankara, as well as a maritime boundary with Malentina. The country covers an area of 483700 km2, making it the world's nth-largest country by area, but with around 18.5 million inhabitants, it is one of the least populous nations worldwide. It has a largely with subtropic zones, predominantly in the northern interior.

Although inhabited since the Paleolithic Era, what is now Porlos was molded by a mix of Cartadanian and Qabóri-Tierradorian civilization, due to the colonization from both empires. It began with the conquering of the Betlands region, which at the time would be referred to as the Soqweux, by Imperial Qabór. There, for close to 700 years, the Qabóri colonies were typically limited to just coastal settlements and trading posts, as the areas being as far as they were from the Qabóri proper area were heavily neglected by the central government of the empire. In 1351, Porlos and the surrounding areas were granted independence as the Woqalate of Soqweux. Eventually, Cartadanian settlers established small colonies and posts starting in the 16th century as the West Bay Colony. In the 19th century, Cognatian settlers slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. The Cartadanian colony that became Porlos did not have its present borders until the early 20th century because of resistance by native groups.

Porlos has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest-growing in the world, especially since the end of its civil war; however the standard of living remains low for a large part of the population, and life expectancy in Porlos is among the lowest in the world, a phenomenon exacerbated by the country's 1940s depression. Porlos' economic growth is uneven, with most of the nation's wealth concentrated in a disproportionate sector of the population.

Carto-Porlosi Conflict
The Carto-Porlosi conflict, sometimes referred to as the Luso Wars, was a series of conflicts between Cartadania and an insurgency in Porlos in the late 1930s. Cartadania had been the sovereign of much of southwestern Crona for just over 200 years at the beginning of the conflicts, reflecting a colonial ambition that was, at the time it began in 1691, one of the most far-flung in the western world. The conflict stemmed from a rebel militia, known as PLIAD, that had previously been present in the Porlosi capital city, Pacuí, storming the Ceylon-Porlosi border town of San Ysidro, where the toponymously named San Ysidro Army Base was located. Initially, the group of approximately 250 men and women entered the town square, looting a local department store and assaulting its employees and patrons. The group continued causing civil unrest, and while San Ysidro was quite small for a "city", with just over 8,000 inhabitants at the time, the community was largely military personnel, and the assault occurring throughout the area triggered a response from the Department of Defense.

Initially, military police began the response effort to curtail the rebellion by a series of arrests primarily around San Ysidro Falls, but when members of the militia began to storm the base itself, the Army mobilized in an effort to quell the rebellion altogether. In the coming days and weeks, the rebel militia, at this point known as Internal Liberal Party for Action and Defense (Cartadanian: Partido liberal interno para ação e defesa, PLIAD), had grown to well over a thousand people in the area, accounting for 1/8th of the bodycount in San Ysidro. The base was instructed to refrain from using live ammunition as Alahuela wanted to avoid a global response, but due to PLIAD's unbiased usage of lethal weaponry, President Leila Cavalcani dropped the order. The basis for the conflict was assumed to be independence due to ongoing talks about an autonomous government, but due to Alahuela's grasp on the region, it was reluctant to let go, and as similar sentiments continued to form across Porlos, the military had to mobilize its other forces.

Because Porlos is largely inland, the Department of Defense relied mostly on army and air force support. The conflict, more or less, went in favor of Alahuela, but due to the growing issues in Sarpedon around the Great Wars, it was forced to end the campaign to subdue the militia. As a result, on 8 August 1938, the National Congress authorized Porlosi Autonomy Act, granting the people of Porlos the right to govern themselves. For many living in Porlos, PLIAD had painted an idea of prosperity and cooperation, especially between Porlos and Cartadania. But while the relationship with Ceylonia has always been amicable and the independence it would receive 26 years later would be one of the most peaceful in history, the drawback of Cartadania from Porlos was so aggressive and abrupt, that it devastated the new economy. As a consequence of the act, Alahuela nullified all operations in the country and essentially forced all Cartadania-based businesses to withdraw from the country, dealing a bitter blow to the newly formed country. The blowback was so bitter that talks of reannexation came up multiple times, but Alahuela had turned its sight domestic and essentially cut all ties with the country. Cartadania's Air Force continued to patrol the airspace of Ceylonia, however, and reconnaissance near the border showed the disarray in Porlos, not caused by the combat in San Ysidro, but by optimistic independence.

Cold War era and present day
Following the devastation to the Porlosi economy, and a depression that lasted from 1943 until 1991, Cartadania's federal government, under the direction of the Hernandez administration, reopened ties with Porlos. Economic aid and stimulation, along with incentives to Cartadanian businesses to promote growth in the area and Porlos' adoption of the Escudo saw the economy take an upward turn. Though Cartadania's primary focus was homeland security, Hernandez stressed the importance of building bridges and not burning them. One of her major goals was the re-establishment of positive relations with Porlos, which had mostly been cut off from the west. In April of 1994, Hernandez took a trip to Pacuí to meet with then-prime minister Reinaldo Kimura, the first time a president had visited the country since 1937, a nearly sixty-year gap. After the trip, Porlos was also officially invited to join the Community of Lusophone Nations, which it officially joined in 1997.

Though they are neighbors, Ceylonia has kept its relationship with Porlos brief in order to maintain a stable relationship with Cartadania, though Congress has expressed no negative response would come from a relationship with Porlos. Softening attitudes towards the relationship between the two has seen an economic boom as Porlos continues to develop as an industrial economy, and as of 2009, Porlosi citizens are eligible for Express Entry into Cartadania, as well as reduced times for citizenship, should they pass citizenship tests.

Politics
Porlos is a unitary republic. Its governmental structure and fundamental law are prescribed by the Democratic Charter, ratified in 2023.