Ailbies

Rectory of the Bicarian Islands Ilhas Bicarianas
Overseas territory of Urcea
Flag
Transferred from Cartadania	2021
Cathedral City	Nevada
Area
• Total	4,910.0 sq mi (12,717 km2)
Population  (2012)
• Total	1,627,073
• Density	330/sq mi (130/km2)

Bicariana, formally the Bicarian Republic, is an island nation off of eastern Levantia in the Kilikas Sea. The island group consists of the islands of Ceniza, Lluvia, Nevada, and Niebla. The total land area of the territory is 12,716 square kilometres (4,909.68 sq mi). The territory's capital is Nevada on the identically named island.

In 2010 the population was 1,602,551 of primarily Cartadanian or Gaelic ethnic origin, resulting in the formation of a unique Bicarian culture. Tourism is the primary economic activity, although there is a significant rum manufacturing sector. Farming is done on a relatively small scale on Lluvia and Ceniza, although it has seen a slow revival in recent years.

Previously the Gletscher Iselns of Fiannria, they were sold to Cartadania by Fiannria in the Treaty of the Gletscher Islands of 1826. They were classified as an organized, unincorporated Cartadanian territory. The Islas Nubes were organized under the 1966 Nevada Act and have since held five constitutional conventions. The last and only proposed Constitution, adopted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention in 2005, was rejected by the Cartadanian National Congress in 2006, which urged the convention to reconvene to address the concerns Congress and the Hernandez Administration had with the proposed document. The convention reconvened in October 2008 to address these concerns, but was not able to produce a revised Constitution before its October 31 deadline. In 2021, the island was transferred from Cartadanian control to Urcea, and the territory became an overseas Rectory of Urcea. In the same year, it was incorporated as part of the Levantine Union. In 2030, Urcea agreed to grant the islands independence as a new member-state of the Levantine Union, with a constitution for the new republic finally adopted on 2 February 2031.

Bicariana is a member of the Levantine Union.

History

Treaty of the Gletscher Islands and early Cartadanian influence

Sold to Cartadania as a means to pay of significant war debts from the vicious wars the newly found Commonwealth faced in it's early years.

Cartadanian control

Fiannan efforts to regain control

Beginning in 1890, the Commonwealth of Fiannria sent an offer to purchase back the Bicarian Islands (Gletscher Isles) annually on the anniversary of the original sale on June 30th 1826 as in accordance of the Treaty of the Gletscher Islands of 1826, which Fiannans call the "Tragic Sale". Every year, Fiannria sent a letter offering to buy back the islands from Cartadania, and later Urcea, with a different dollar amount every year, but always based on the value it was sold at in 1826. The letter continually cited the territorial, genealogical, and historical importance of the islands to Fiannria and request its return.

Corresponding with this, beginning in the early 1830s, native Levantines held protests and marches that eventually organized in 1853 in a Fiannan nationalist self-determination movement generally opposed to at the time Cartadanian occupation and Cartadanian settlers. Called the Braithre Gletscher, the movement was never inherently violent but typically was a political and social organization with annual demonstrations. However, it would be noted on two separate occasions in recent memory that the Braithre Gletscher demonstrations became violent. In 2006, following the rejection of the Fifth Constitutional Convention, and in 2021 amongst the news of transfer to Urcea instead of Fiannria.

Between 1966 and the independence of the islands, besides the annual letter requesting purchasing the islands, the Government of Fiannria made no official political issue or active support to the Braithre Gletscher, but among Fiannans to this day it remains a political talking point of territorial and nationalistic duty to bring back their lost siblings. These sentiments gradually declined following the independence of the islands.

Culture

Bicarian culture is descended from the Cartadanian and Fiannan cultures due to the various waves of settlement on the islands that have occurred since the medieval period, and accordingly it heavily incorporates traditions from both.