Kingdom of Crotona
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Kingdom of Crotona | |
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1660–1892 | |
Flag (1850) | |
Kingdom of Crotona located within modern Urcea | |
Status | Dissolved |
Capital and largest city | Toulonium |
Official languages | Latin, Julian Ænglish |
Religion | Catholicism |
Government | Crownland of Urcea |
History | |
• Kingdom organized | 1660 |
1892 1892 | |
Currency | Taler |
The Kingdom of Crotona was a crownland of the Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea established out of Urcean territories on Crotona in 1660. It was dissolved during the Crown Regency of Gréagóir FitzRex and divided into four provinces - North Crotona, South Crotona, Tromarine, and Halfway - as part of the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892. THe Kingdom also included a small amount of territory belonging to the current province of the Cape.
The Kingdom was created from a constellation of minor territories, vassals, and dependent free cities on the island of Crotona which had been acquired piecemeal by Urcea since the 13th century. The Principality of Halfway, Urcea's key possession in the Sea of Canete and previously a mostly autonomous holding, was also incorporated. Tromarine was intended to be added to the Kingdom upon its foundation, but the complete envelopment of the island by Urcea did not occur until 1676, when it was incorporated into the Kingdom.
The establishment of the Kingdom had the effect of centralizing control over the island and improving its economic condition due to the removal of internal tariffs and trade barriers. It also lead to the concentration of industrial and mercantile interests around Toulonium, its cathedral city, leading to the development of that city into one of Urcea's largest metropolitan areas.
History
The Kingdom of Crotona was established as part of a general reorganization of Urcea's possessions in the Sea of Canete with the consent of both the Emperor of the Levantines and Pope in 1660. Previously, the territories of the Kingdom consisted of the Principality of Halfway, roughly twenty city-states established as formal tributaries of the Apostolic King of Urcea, three counties established during earlier Urcean conquests of the island, and one duchy which comprised nearly a third of the current province of South Crotona. While these arrangements had allowed the Urcean King to effectively dominate the island, it left uneven administration of the island as well as a degree of autonomy to the tributaries which had become problematic in time. The island also contained around a dozen small city-states which were not formally under tributary agreements but largely under its greater geopolitical sway. As part of the establishment of the Kingdom, the Emperor and Pope recognized the claim to all of Crotona including lands not under direct formal agreements with the Apostolic King. Accordingly, the establishment was followed by a brief military campaign in the summer of 1661 to depose the governments of those city-states not directly already administered. In 1665, the island's feudal and urban governments were deposed en masse and replaced with a rationalized system of eighteen subrectories.