Rapa Rapa

Rectory of Rapa Rapa
Overseas territory of Urcea
Flag
Rapa Rapa from the east
Colony established	1862
Cathedral City	Rapa Rapa City
Government
• Rector	Jennifer Cesco
Area
• Land	11.29 sq mi (29.2 km2)
Population  (2020)
• Total	5,539
Demonym	Rapan

Rapa Rapa is an atoll in the Polynesian Sea that is part of Urcea. It is located to the west of Truk and southeast of the Saukhin Islands. The island is presently contains an outlying Urcean Royal Navy base as well as a small urban population which coalesced from five ancient villages around the activity in the port and naval base. Rapa Rapa was settled by Polynesian people, who lived in relative isolation for most of the island's existence until the arrival of Truk and Islam in the 13th century. Islam has had a significant cultural influence on the Rapan people, and their culture integrates many traditions from both Audonia and Polynesia. In the 19th century, Urcea colonized the island and established a coaling station on it, and since then the island has gradually been exposed to various Levantine and Occidental traditions as well. Though it remains a Urcean possession, the municipal government of Rapa Rapa City, which covers most of the island, has significant autonomy and is mostly self-governing.

Etymology

"Rapa Rapa" is the indigenous Polynesian name for the island. The term, which employs the Polynesian linguistic characteristic of reduplication, means "small island".

Geography

Rapa Rapa is an atoll actually consisting of three distinct landmasses, approximately 11.29 square miles in land area, much of which is in a main section of the island known as "the mountain" with smaller, thin and flat strips of land forming a partial lagoon by surrounding Rapa Rapa. Most, but not all, people living on Rapa Rapa live on the mountain, with the five historic villages surrounding the outer, low-lying perimeter of the main island though primarily clustered towards the western half of the island. The surrounding land enclosing the lagoon is colloquially known as "the shield", and has varying widths with mostly habitable land and some beaches along its length. The final major island within the atoll is known as Navy Island, which sits relatively near the opening to the lagoon in the western half of the lagoon. Navy Island is, as the name suggests, the primary location of the various Royal Navy garrisons and barracks on Rapa Rapa, though many officers reside in quarters on the mountain. The space between Navy Island and the mountain is usually referred to simply as the "Big Harbor", and the Big Harbor is the primary site of maritime economic and military activity, including the Port of Rapa Rapa and military docks.

Rapa Rapa and its lagoon as seen from space.

In terms of political geography, almost all of Rapa Rapa's 11.29 square miles are covered by Rapa Rapa City, an urban settlement which gradually integrated all five historic villages on the island after Urcean colonization. The city has varied levels of density throughout, with the five village centers remaining the most dense parts of the urban landscape. The overall city density, 313 people per square mile, means that significant parts of the island within city limits remain forested to some degree or are part of the main mountain dominating the island.

History

Prehistoric settlement and isolation

Rapa Rapa was settled by prehistoric Polynesian people with a range of dates proposed beginning around 2000 BC with the upper limit being around 1600 BC, when nearby Truk was settled. Whenever it was settled, the island coalesced generally into about five distinct villages, all of which survive today as parts of Rapa Rapa City: Waka Aiwiaka, Waka Ruaiihai, Waka Tiati, Waka Haetae, and Waka Wokolo. "Waka" is the local language name for "canoe", implying that each village was founded by a separate family settling as soon as they came ashore. The five villages existed in a state of political and economic equilibrium until the 13th century. Historians generally believe the villages kept to themselves in terms of marriage and social relationships, with extensive rituals required for individuals from another village to be integrated in. However, geneticists argue the island could not have sustained enough genetic diversity to survive if inter-village restrictions were heavily enforced, implying that some periods saw more lax enforcement of social norms than other periods.

Arrival of Truk

In the late 13th century, Rapa Rapa's long isolation and irrelevance came to an end with the rise of the Emirate of Truk. The new expansionist Emirate unified their home island region but also launched major expeditions to outlying islands in the Polynesian Sea, including Rapa Rapa. According to the traditional story, the villages of the small island of Rapa Rapa sighted a large flotilla of Truk ships off their shore and immediately welcomed the powerful foreigners onto shore. The Truk people taught the people of Rapa Rapa their newfound Muslim religion, and the general of the force named a paramount chief from among the villages. From the 1260s until the conquest of Truk in the 1670s, Rapa Rapa was an outlying dependency of the Emirate of Truk, paying occasional tribute and recognizing paramount chiefs chosen by the Emir. In this period, Rapa Rapa became almost entirely Muslim. The Trukite ascendancy over the island inaugurated a four-century long period of peace and relative prosperity on the island, though a lack of natural resources prevented significant economic activity beyond subsistence fishing.

Second isolation period

The destruction of the Emirate of Truk in 1675-76 brought Rapa Rapa's immediate political association to an end. Too far from the main new Daxian colony in Truk and too small to attract much notice, the island once again became largely isolated, though Daxian raiders would occasionally come and pillage the island until around 1690. Limited evidence suggests that the system of paramount chiefs may have continued into the 1700s, using a system of election among all the chiefs. By the time Occidental explorers reached the island in 1772, the unified political system had dissolved and the island was characterized by intermittent skirmishing and raiding between the villages. By this period, the people of Rapa Rapa had developed a martial culture following what appears to have been decades of unending struggle. Accordingly, the people of Rapa Rapa were extremely hostile to outside explorers arriving between 1772 and the arrival of Urcea in the 1860s. During this period, seven different Occidental exploratory vessels came to or anchored off the island, each time being greeted with extreme hostility.

Urcean colonization

As Urcea began to expand its interests abroad in the 19th century, it inaugurated a period of major expansion of its Royal Navy. These efforts accelerated following the acquisition of a naval base in Arona, giving Urcea westward access across the Polynesian Sea and Ocean of Cathay for the first time. As a new naval power in the era of coal-powered steam ships, Urcea was disadvantaged relative to other great powers in its lack of an expansive island colony network, a fact which limited its ability to project power due to a lack of coaling stations. Accordingly, the Royal Navy began to seek a new island in the Polynesian Sea to acquire as a forward refueling and logistical center, and after several options were examined Rapa Rapa was chosen, both due to its viable natural harbors as well as legal situation. The island had no Occidental claimant and was nominally owned by the Daxian government via its conquest of Truk, but Daxia had no interest in the island. Accordingly, Urcea purchased the island in November 1861 and dispatched a force from Arona to subdue the island in late January 1862.

Urcea's Brenedine Squadron arrived from Arona in February 1862 and deployed a small detachment of marines ashore. The expedition immediately experienced significant resistance; though the indigenous Rapans possessed less sophisticated weapons than the Urceans, their martial culture and the jungle of the mainland made it difficult to defeat their warbands, and by the end of the month all five villages had agreed to a truce to resist the encroachment. After malaria began to set in, a change of strategy occurred and the marines retreated from the main island to the less populous island now known as Navy Island, and established a fortified camp there. The ships of the expedition periodically bombarded the main island, while sailors from the squadron helped the marines clear Navy Island and, eventually, the lands of "the shield". Accordingly, throughout most of spring 1862, a stalemate ensued, with the Urceans controlling the outlying islands but the indigenous peoples remaining in control of the main island. Small scale skirmishes occurred that spring, with small raiding parties from the main island landing in canoes on Navy Island at night, but these efforts were insufficient to eject the Urceans. In early June, reinforcements arrived in the form of a regiment from the Royal Army. The Army forces, together with some marines, re-landed on the main island on 18 June 1862. The regiment was enough to pacify the island, as they far outnumbered the island's population at the time, estimated to be around 700-800. The Army established small garrisons in each village but allowed the tribal leadership structure to largely continue uninterrupted, with peace being kept while the naval base could be constructed. Civilian contractors arrived that July and by September 1862 Navy Island had been transformed into an adequately fortified coaling station and naval base. The base attracted a very small civilian counterpart, and by the middle of 1863 workers from the villages began to be transported for work on Navy Island. The Army would remain on Rapa Rapa until 1870, as their village garrisons remained key to keeping peace and order on the atoll; after 1870, smaller marine garrisons and civilian police took their place.

In 1864, a civilian rectory was established over the island. In 1866, the rector established the Municipal Corporation of Rapa Rapa, forming the basis of today's Rapa Rapa City. At the time, the municipality was envisioned more as a method to provide normal governance for the small civilian component of the naval base rather than the main island villages. The status quo remained in place on Rapa Rapa until around the late 1870s. The Urcean and indigenous parts of the atoll began to grow increasingly integrated due to the growing number of indigenous peoples working in and around the naval base in some form, and in 1879 the five villages submitted a petition for their incorporation into Rapa Rapa City. This request was granted and, effective 1 January 1880, Rapa Rapa City came to cover most of the atoll. Political and cultural integration were not instantaneous, however; most Rapans continued to prefer their village-oriented cultural and political structures for decades to come, with only the generation born in the 1880s and beyond viewing Rapa Rapa more as a cohesive whole rather than five villages. The villages had temporarily united to face the arriving Urceans in 1862 but the presence of the Urcean military had permanently halted the centuries of village feuding, allowing a new sense of the island's unity to grow in the following decades. Rapa Rapa remained relatively conflict free during the Red Interregnum and '97 Rising, recognizing whichever government held Urceopolis and its military forces being far too remote to participate in the conflict.

By around 1920, life in Rapa Rapa had changed significantly. Modern roadways connected the five villages in the preceding decades, and Rapan people began to live outside their villages for the first time. Levantine people began settling on the main island - largely in the spaces between the villages - in the early 1890s, and the main island began to take on a new urban cosmopolitan character. Construction began on a major port on the main island in 1925 to correspond to the naval base and port infrastructure on Navy Island, which was completed in 1929. Although foreign goods had become available via trade on Navy Island begnning in the 1860s, by the late 1920s Rapa Rapa was undergoing a cultural revolution as building materials, foods, clothes, and other outside goods became widely available for the first time. In the years immediately preceding the Second Great War, the island was undergoing a major transformation. The 1910s and 1920s also saw the first widespread adoption of Catholicism by indigenous Rapans, with the first churches having been constructed on the main island in around 1912. Missionary activity first began among the populace in around 1890, with only limited success among the workers of the Navy Island for the first several decades.

Second Great War

The beginning of the Second Great War and subsequent conflicts between Urcea and Daxia introduced hardships to the island not present in the preceding decades. Though the atoll was never directly invaded, it was subject to occasional Daxian naval bombardment, aerial bombing, and blockade, and generally speaking supply by Urcea to Rapa Rapa was difficult due to the presence of superior Daxian forces in Truk. Daxian agents were captured on Rapa Rapa on four different occasions between 1935 and 1937 attempting to foment rebellion among the indigenous Rapan people. As Urcea and Burgundie gradually established global naval supremacy during the conflict, the supply crisis eased by around 1938, but rationing was still in place for years after the war. The war also saw the Urceans construct a Royal Air Force airfield on the atoll in 1934, and this base helped prevent significant attacks from Truk on Rapa Rapa. The shared hardship had the effect of easing decades-old tensions between those of Levantine-descent and the indigenous Rapans on the atoll. Contemporaries noted that the Daxians had a poor reputation on Rapa Rapa prior to the arrival of the Urceans, and that the presence of a common Daxian enemy solidified bonds between the Rapans and Urceans in a way that a different enemy would not have.

Modern period

Rapa Rapa emerged from the Second Great War a more unified place culturally, with the hardships of war having eased tensions between the indigenous peoples and Urcean colonists. As a result, the municipal government of Rapa Rapa was trusted with additional responsibilities, and universal suffrage was expanded to all residents of Rapa Rapa in 1952. Elections were called for 1955, and 1952 is commonly cited as the beginning of the era of self-governance on Rapa Rapa. Significant cooperation with the Urcean government, particularly with regard to economic development, has existed since that time.

The decades just prior to the war had created new cultural integration among the indigenous peoples and had expanded economic opportunities on the island greatly, and the period between 1950 and 1980 saw tremendous growth on the island. This growth included major economic, infrastructure, and even demographic strides, and by 1965 nearly all distinctions between villages had been erased. The end of the Occidental Cold War in 1984 created a minor recession as the presence of the Royal Navy was partly scaled down, but the economy recovered by 1990. Steady, but slow, growth has characterized Rapa Rapa in the intervening years. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the Rapa Rapa municipal government has attempted to increase the atoll's tourist economy. Throughout the Occidental world, Rapan culture has gained increasing exposure and awareness since the 1990s, with Rapan cuisine, fashion, and music entering the lives of many Occidentals since.

Government

Rapa Rapa is a civil rectory of Urcea and is governed as an overseas territory in accordance with the provisions of the Rectory and Overseas Territory Law. Accordingly, the island is governed by a Rector appointed by the Apostolic King of Urcea by the non-binding advice of the Government of Urcea. A vast majority of day-to-day governing functions on Rapa Rapa are handled by the municipal government of Rapa Rapa City. The City functions in the style of a Urcean executive polis, meaning it has an elected mayor and city council, with a municipal administrative apparatus. As almost all of Rapa Rapa is part of Rapa Rapa City, the atoll is largely self-governing, and political scientists have observed the island functions more like a protectorate than an overseas territory. The Rectory's government is largely responsible only for environmental protection, liaising between the Government of Urcea and the City government, and serving as the main coordinating office between the Royal Navy and City government, given the importance of the Navy's base on the island. As stated, most of the atoll's landmass is part of Rapa Rapa City, with around 5% of the outstanding land area being part of environmental preserves and another approximate 5% under the direct ownership of the Royal Navy.

Rapa Public House and its associated complex, home of the Rapa Rapa City government.

Rapa Rapa City's government is led by its Mayor, an officer holding five year terms coinciding with those of the government of Urcea. The Mayor holds most executive authority and oversees the City's various departments and agencies. The All-Island Assembly serves as the city council for Rapa Rapa City and is comprised of 17 members elected proportionally at large, also serving five year terms. There are two political parties on Rapa Rapa: the Rapan Action League (RAL), which is pro-autonomy, cautious of increased economic globalization as it relates to Rapa Rapa, semi-nationalist, and socially conservative, and; the Island Prosperity Association (IPA), which is pro-global trade, agnostic on the issue of increased political autonomy, and largely culturally cosmopolitan. The RAL is associated with Urcea's Solidarity Party, while the IPA is associated with the National Pact. The Rapan Action League has held the Mayor's office and Assembly majority since 1995.

Culture

Rapan society and culture is heavily influenced by its historic association with Islam brought to the northeastern Polynesia region by Sayed Ali Qumi in 1251, bringing together the Rapan peoples' original Polynesian-descent culture with various ideas and traditions from Audonia. However, due to Qumi's own mystical predilections, intensive interaction with Polynesian polytheism and Daxian religious influences, as well as the island's longterm bouts of isolation, Islam as practiced in Rapa Rapa is extremely divergent of mainstream Islamic trends. However, most Rapan Muslims identify themselves as "just Muslim" rather than as a local sect or divergent school of thought. Islamic influence is such that many Islamic religious traditions - such as calls to prayer, specific prayer times, specific prayer orientation, and keeping Halal - have become generalized Rapan cultural items observed even by non-Muslim Rapans. Accordingly, Rapans do not eat frog or alligator despite the introduced presence of both on the island following Urcean colonization. People of Rapan descent living in Urcea, who are predominantly Catholic, have been widely observed to keep halal.

Levantine influence began with the arrival of Urcea in the 1860s, and various items from the Urcean culture slowly became commonplace among Rapan society. For instance, Rapans generally follow common Occidental fashion trends for everyday life and business, while retaining more traditional clothing for religious ceremony. The introduction of Catholicism has had a significant impact on the Rapan people, as both non-indigenous people on the island combined with a number of indigenous converts has introduced religious pluralism to the island for the first time.

Rapan cuisine typically consisted of small fruits and various kinds of fish, with the availability of various maritime birds serving as a delicacy until the 19th century. Following the arrival of Urcea, a wider variety of foods became available on Rapa Rapa, and numerous local interpretations of ingredients from abroad create a unique style of Rapan Modern cuisine. All Rapan cuisine remains halal, with lamb, seabirds, and various cow meat imported from Stenza serving as the most popular choice of protein. Fruit-based food, such as Levantine-style fruit salad, remains a common side served with most dishes.

Music

The traditional Rapan style of music is a blend of traditional Polynesian island music with introduced influences of Islamic music, particularly music related to religious ceremony. Most historians believe Islamic music related a purely liturgical form of music for the first several centuries after the introduction of Islam to Rapa Rapa, with Rapan culture viewing it as an elevated worship tool and different than the "folk" music popular outside of worship. Common instruments include traditional pre-Islamic instruments such as the nose flute and types of wooden drums, which exist alongside Islamic-influenced vocal styles and some other Audonian innovations, most especially gongs. Due to the lack of natural metal resources on Rapa Rapa, gongs were highly prized during the pre-Urcean period and only rarely available, and accordingly gongs have a place of prominence in some traditional Rapa Rapa music as being associated with clerics or powerful chiefs.

Rapan music has become influential in the wider world of Occidental recorded music, with several prominent artists traveling to Rapa Rapa or sponsoring Rapan musicians to travel and record on their songs.

Architecture

Archaeology suggest Rapan architecture prior to the arrival of Truk consisted of buildings using varying styles of construction but primarily based around wood from the various tropical trees present on the atoll. The arrival of Islam necessitated a change in architectural development, as the need for minarets created the need for rudimentary mining and stoneworking on the island, and the central mountain of Rapa Rapa provided small amounts of usable stone. Between around 1300 and 1600, several dozen stone minarets were constructed on the atoll, with the historical and archaeological record suggesting that the five villages were competing to build the largest, best adorned minaret as a competition for prestige and piety. These minarets, most of which are still around, were gradually iterated upon by generations of builders, and in time the stone towers which cover the mountain grew both in architectural complexity and in ornamental design. Rapa Rapa is sometimes called "island of the towers" by the indigenous peoples, and the minarets are an important symbol of Rapan culture.

Rectorhouse, a 1927-built example of the Neo-Mosque style.

The development of the minarets created a new style of architecture for the island which came to be used in other important structures, fusing some of the basic elements of Audonian Islamic and Truk architecture with local techniques and styles. The best examples of this are the Mosques throughout the island, as stone minarets were only later accompanied by stone Mosques. The Rapan style of Mosque uses a traditional Polynesian style - the appearance of an "upside down boat", with very large interior spaces made by curved wooden roofs - but employing stone masonry for the outer walls. Gradually, this style was expounded upon with various architectural flourishes. The arrival of Urceans and availability of new techniques and materials via international trade revolutionized the "Rapan Mosque style" which became the "Neo-Mosque style". Rapan designers began to build new buildings using these international techniques and materials but using the same shape and form factor of the traditional Mosque and public gathering buildings. As a result, a building boom occurred on Rapa Rapa between around 1880 and 1930, as traditional wooden houses and buildings gave way to more elaborate structures. Neo-Mosque remains the most prominent architectural style on the island, existing alongside a handful of buildings from styles popular abroad. The Neo-Mosque style is used in all sorts of structures, including not only Muslim worship sites but also Christian Churches, government buildings, and homes.

Demographics

Religious affiliations in Rapa Rapa (2030)

  Islam (62.5%)

  Catholicism (36.9%)

  Other Christian (.4%)

  Other (.2%)

As of 2020, the permanent population of Rapa Rapa was 5,539. The vast majority of people living in Rapa Rapa - 91.2% - identify as ethnically Rapan. Accordingly, the vast majority of people speak the Rapan dialect of the general Polynesian linguistic tradition. A majority, around 54%, are also fluent in Julian Ænglish, a figure that has risen significantly since the year 2000.

Most Rapans - 62.5% - are Muslim. A sizable minority, 36.9%, are members of the Catholic Church, introduced to the island following Urcean colonization in the 1860s. These are the two predominant religious traditions on the island.

Economy

Rapa Rapa has an urban-focused economy; though the island is relatively lightly populated, the extent of Rapa Rapa City over most of the island's land area means the urban economy, and its accompanying sectors, are the main economic activity on Rapa Rapa. Traditionally, the island engaged in subsistence fishing activity and very limited trade, but the arrival of the Urceans introduced port-related economic activity to the island following the construction of their coaling station on the island in the 1860s. The presence of the Royal Navy on the island and various Urcean support personnel stimulated a need for a service sector economy on the island to support the expectations of their Levantine-based lifestyle. Accordingly, since the arrival of the Urceans, port infrastructure and the service economy have become the two largest industries on the island, with fishing remaining an important third leg of the economy. The Port of Rapa Rapa employs 1,284 Rapans and many non-residents as well, by far the largest employer on the island. Many lower class Rapans remain dependent on the fishing industry for work, and fish are the primary form of food processed and sold on the island.

Unlike many Occidental possesions in the Polynesia region, Rapa Rapa historically does not have a major tourism industry. The remoteness of the island, combined with a lack of easy aerial access, made the island difficult to reach for most travellers. Efforts by the Rapa Rapa municipal government since the year 2000, however, has gradually increased the tourist appeal of Rapa Rapa in the 21st century. Efforts are underway to examine the construction of an airport on Rapa Rapa, possibly using land reclamation, and various tax incentives have been provided to international hotel and travel companies. Beginning in 2008, the Rapa Rapa municipal government began sponsoring tourism commercials and advertisements in the Levantine Union, and tourism has modestly increased as of 2030.