Chenango Confederacy
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Chenango Confederate Republic Saunee Cheenango'an'aal | |
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 Flag of the Chenango Confederacy
 Coat of arms
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Motto: Frèash yonu se òs nouoy "Our brothers are our strength" | |
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| Capital | Mahatnoy |
| Recognized languages | Housatonish |
| Ethnic groups |
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| Religion |
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| Government | Confederation |
• President | Helki Adohy |
| Legislature | High Council of the Chenango Confederate Republic |
| Independence from Algoquona | |
| 2024 | |
| Population | |
• 2030 estimate | 8,682,669 |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | $27,628,252,758 |
• Per capita | $3,182 |
The Chenango Confederate Republic, commonly referred to as the Chenango Confederacy, is a country in Cusinaut. It became independent in 2024 from Algoquona during the Final War of the Deluge.
The Confederacy is comprised of three major ethnic groups - the Island Honeoye, the Great Chenango, and the Little Chenango. All three peoples were members of the Northern Confederation, and despite their outward differences, all three are bound together by a complex series of social ties known as omàmìwis. With the collapse of the Confederation and the Algosh coup, the peoples of the Chenango Peninsula were made subject to Algoquona. During the Final War of the Deluge, the three peoples aligned themselves with Urcea and declared their independence. Prior to 2033, the Confederacy held a larger de jure territorial sovereignty than it controlled de facto, including both Housatonic and Pachaug at various times. This occurred as a transfer of the original charter between Housatonic, Pachaug and Urcea while it was part of Algoquona's sovereignty. They were transferred from nominal Algoquonan sovereignty to Chenango sovereignty in 2024. Housatonic became formally independent of the Confederacy with its reorganization as a republic in 2030. In 2033, Pachaug was territorially integrated into the Confederacy.
The Confederacy is a member of the Nysdra Sea Treaty Association.
Name
The Confederacy's official name, the "Chenango Confederate Republic" was so-named in the Declaration of the Independence of the Chenango Peninsula. Despite common misconceptions, the Confederacy is named for the geographical feature rather than for the Great and Little Chenango peoples who form a major part of its population. The word Chenango is accepted to have derived from the Housatonish word O-chenang, meaning "land of the bullthistle."
Geography
The Confederacy is almost entirely located on the Chenango Peninsula, from which it takes its name. The peninsula is located on the eastern shore of Cusinaut and extends into the Sea of Nysdra. The entire country is within the subarctic climate region, and as such it has long cold winters with cool summers, though the coasts of the peninsula experience slightly warmer summer temperatures. Flora diversity in the area is extremely limited, with a small variety of hardy trees that cover much of the non-urbanized part of the country. Notably, bullthistle is present in the southern half of the peninsula, giving the country its name. The majority of human settlement on the peninsula is in urban centers along the coasts of the peninsula, though a smaller urban corridor exists roughly on the country's western border with the Algosh Republic.
History
Early history
The Chenango peninsula has had a documented human presence dating back thousands of years, with the first urban settlements emerging around 300-200 BC. The three peoples of the Chenango Confederacy share the same origin myth, which relates a story by which the peoples now living in the Confederacy migrated far from the south fleeing a variety of natural disasters which were a sign of displeasure and judgment upon that area by Makuahine. Historians and scholars posit a number of theories regarding these origin myths, with the two predominant theories being either a factual remembered migration from central Crona to Cusinaut prior to the Nysdran Collapse or a primarily mythical explanation of the story influenced by other origin stories common throughout the Nysdra. Geneticists have proven a DNA link between the peoples of the Chenango peninsula and central Crona, with shared genes with Varshani people, though some have attributed this to medieval and later interactions between Cusinaut and central Crona. Whatever the case, the three peoples now occupying the Confederacy almost certainly diverged from a common ancestral people that settled the peninsula in the first milennium BC.
Medieval period
Northern Confederation
Algosh domination
Confederacy established
Pachoy Rebellion aftermath and integration
Government and politics
The Chenango state is a confederacy of four units, each with large autonomy over internal affairs and public administration. The Constitution of the Chenango Confederate Republic is loosely based on the Northern Confederation who coordinated its members external affairs but mostly left members to govern themselves autonomously with loose conflict resolution powers. The Constitution grants extended powers to the central government, however, such as binding arbitration, making it illegal for the Republics to defy a conflict resolution order from the government, as well as centralized custom controls, powers to tax for, create, and regulate transportation networks, and critically the central government is empowered to raise and maintain armed forces. Some observers have noted that the Constitution provides for something more like a "loose federal republic" than a "strong confederacy".
The Confederate central government has two branches, an Executive and Legislative. All judicial matters are the matters of the Republics and disputes between Republican courts are resolved by a direct act of the Legislature. The Legislature is unicameral and is referred to as the "High Council of the Chenango Confederate Republic", which is elected every five years in years beginning with 0 and 5. Seats are apportioned in a system known as "proportional plus five", wherein the seats are assigned each decade in proportion of the population of each Republic out of a pool of 85 seats. After apportionment, each Republic receives an additional five seats. This system was designed to ensure a relative balance between the four Republics. The High Council has authority to approve or reject treaties and has all legislative powers over the limited authority delineated to the central government. The Executive branch is lead by the President, who is elected nation-wide using an electoral college in the same terms as the High Council. The President negotiates treaties, generally conducts war and peace on behalf of the Republic including oversight of the military, and has administrative control over the Transportation and Customs Departments, the two main agencies of the central government.
Due to the foreign influence exerted on the Confederacy by Urcea in supporting its constitution, the Chenango Confederacy is sometimes referred to as a benefactor confederacy.
Republics
The Confederacy consists of four confederate units known as Republics. Unlike many other confederate and federate states, each of the republics is numbered rather than named for the place or people it encompasses. Accordingly, the First Republic encompasses the lands of the Great Chenango people, the Second Republic of the Little Chenango people, and the Third Republic of the Island Honeoye. The Republics are largely free to determine their own form of government and how it functions. In 2033, the territory of Pachaug was incorporated as the Fourth Republic.
The First, Third, and Fourth Republics share the same form of government which is based on the model of the Urcean province except with unicameral rather than bicameral legislatures that elect the Republic's chief executive, in each case referred to as the "Republican Executive". The unicameral legislature for both the First and Third Republics are simply referred to as the "Republican Constituent Assembly", which assigns its own electoral districts on a decade-by-decade basis. Republican Executives are typically chosen by heritage rather than by political party within the First, Third, and Fourth Republics, with relatives typically succeeding along clan or tribal basis. In both of these Republics, terms for the legislature are five years along Urcean lines; the Republican Executive serves at the confidence of the legislature.
The Second Republic has a hybrid-legislative model wherein all legislative and executive powers are invested in the Council of Five, the leader of whom normally represents the Council but has limited institutional power over his or her peers. The Council is comprised of the hereditary heads of the four largest clans of the Little Chenango people which represent the vast majority of the population. The fifth member is elected from a constituency of all Second Republic citizens who are not members of the four largest clans. The clan leaders serve for life unless removed by a vote of their clan, which a non-governmental function, whereas the fifth, elected, member serves four year terms.
Politics
Political movements in the Confederacy are organized as "Leagues", loose alliances of similar political parties and groups within each of the four confederate republics. These leagues themselves generally consist of a shifting group of omàmìwi, the clan-like social institutions which dominate Confederate society. There are around seven to ten major leagues within the Confederacy at any one time, with the most powerful one being broadly associated with traditional values,a nationalist ethos, and a vaguely pro-Urcean foreign policy.
Culture
The Chenango Confederacy comprises of three main cultural groups, with the Great Chenango making up a majority of the population, the Little Chenango a sizable minority, and the Island Honeoye a small minority, which was slightly increased by the integration of Pachaug into the Confederacy.
The three main ethnicities are the cultural backdrop, rather than the primary organizing element, by which the Confederacy should be understood. Instead, cross-ethnic networks of common ancestor worship are the main societal institution within Confederate society. These clan-like groups are called Omàmìwi, a term that means a kind of kinship group that is larger than family but larger than nation, and should not be understood to be synonymous with tribe. The omàmìwi are distinguished from one another by their shared Kānenaka or revered ancestor. Crucically, the omàmìwi are cross-ethnicity; the milennia of intermarriage between the three ethnic groups means that many people from all three groups could see a common ancestor as Kānenaka despite their other cultural or linguistic differences. Scholars have observed approximately two hundred and eighty four major omàmìwi within the Confederacy. Due to their prevalence, the Confederacy is sometimes casually referred to as the "Republic of the Omàmìwi".
Due to the nature of elevating a Kānenaka within the M'acunist religious tradition, some omàmìwi are divergent from others by identifying a different ancestor within a same familial line. Though individuals are typically born into the omàmìwi, this conflicting and divergent nature of the group identity means individuals can and do switch omàmìwi to identify more closely with one Kānenaka claimant than the other. These "rival" omàmìwis have generally hostile social relations with one another and do not readily associate, but many omàmìwi are what would be considered "neutral" towards one another due to unrelated ancestry and non-conflicting Kānenaka claims. Accordingly, the omàmìwi groups are not only religious in nature but also political and economic. Different omàmìwi will engage in specific "ancestral" trades, support certain political causes (especially those led by their fellow omàmìwi member) and individuals based on the balance of power between the various omàmìwis, and will often heavily discriminate based on one's omàmìwi affiliation. The omàmìwi ties are understood to be the major social cohesion between the otherwise disparate members of the Confederacy, binding it together as a single society rather than three nations allied together for political reasons. Most prominently, Pachaug - despite sharing common ethnic and linguistic ties with the Island Honeoye - does not have a significant network of omàmìwis, which is part of the reason why it was excluded from the Confederacy at its foundation.
Professional sports, particularly the Northern Crona Lacrosse Association, are very popular in the Confederacy, and lacrosse is widely played at both the scholastic and popular level. The country's enduring poverty and lack of significant capital has precluded the expansion of professional lacrosse to the country, though foreign investors and even some development organizations such as the Urcean Agency for Cronan Economic Development have been working since the late 2020s to site and construct a professional sports facility within the country.
Demographics
In 2030, the population of the Chenango Confederacy was 8,682,669. Of these, self-identified Great Chenango made up a majority of the population with 57%, followed by the Little Chenango at 38%, and the Island Honeoye forming just 5% of the population.
Economy
The Chenango Confederacy is one of the world's poorest countries, and it sits at the brink between a developing country and a least developed country. The Chenango peninsula was historically always the poorest part of the Northern Confederation, with few natural resources, limited agricultural viability, and poor positioning relative to the Confederation's major economic drivers. Pachaug was the sole economic light of the area, serving as an important port with a bustling fishing industry. The economy was significantly impacted by the fifteen year period of Algosh domination between the Algosh coup in 2009 and the declaration of the Confederacy's independence in 2024. Many of the country's leading technical and academic experts were relocated from the already-limited urban centers of the country to Algosh institutions, and in many cases much of the portable wealth of the country was literally carried away to the Algosh heartland during the period between 2009 and 2011. Another major economic blow came in 2017 when Pachaug became independent of Algoquona following Operation Western Blizzard, most of the economic ties between the peninsula and its most prosperous city were severed. This led to a major wave of deprivation, famine, and outmigration. It also precipitated a second round of expropriation by the government, as any strategically valuable industry was moved out of the now-vulnerable peninsula into the Algosh heartland. By the time of the declaration of the Confederacy's independence in 2024, the Chenango peninsula had recorded economic decline every year for the last fifteen years.
The reincorporation of Pachaug in the 2030s stimulated the economy slightly, as post-rebellion reconstruction and economic reintegration of the city precipitated renewed investment in the eastern tip of the Chenango peninsula.
The modern Confederacy is one of the world's major recipients of development aid, and is a priority area for the Urcean Agency for Cronan Economic Development.
The military is one of the largest sectors of domestic economic growth and is the top funding priority of the Confederacy's government.
Military
The Chenango Confederacy has two military branches as well as a shared naval force. The primary component of its armed forces is the Trinational Army (TNA), which is the Confederacy's ground-based military force with some limited maritime and airborne assets as well, primarily helicopters of various kinds. The Trinational Army replaced the Organized Militia of the country, which conducted operations during the Confederacy's quest for independence in the Final War of the Deluge and operated from 2023 through 2026. Unlike the Organized Militia, the Trinational Army is a professional, standing army, and in 2032 it had an on-paper strength of 38,000 men, though many of these personnel are still considered to be in training or fit only for garrison duty. The TNA is organized into three mechanized brigades, a marine and coast guard regiment, an artillery regiment, an engineer regiment, a logistical regiment, and several specialized battallions as well as a training center command. In 2026, the Trinational Army sent its 1st Mechanized Brigade to serve in the joint League of Nations occupation of Varshan, the only Cusinautic country to do so. The mission there concluded in 2029 and served both as a participation in the international mission as well as a continued training and military development exercise, as commanders and personnel from the TNA regularly interacted with military personnel from other occupying countries. The TNA is largely equipped with refurbished versions of previous generation Urcean equipment, but in 2032 it placed orders for more modern Urcean equipment to be delivered in the future. The TNA is the fourth largest army in NSTA, following the armed forces of Urcea, Quetzenkel, and New Harren. In 2032, the TNA entered Pachaug to suppress the Pachoy Rebellion. Although professionally organized, the TNA is generally thought by most international observers to have performed poorly during the rebellion, including and especially in their partially failed attempt to rescue hostages during that conflict as well as during a high profile friendly fire incident. In the wake of the rebellion, the TNA contracted with Intrepid Enterprises to examine its shortcomings, retrain officers and key personnel, and offer recommendations for future improvements to the Army.
The Trinational Air Force is a small air force designed to largely conduct operations in tandem with the larger Urcean Royal Air Force.
The Nysdra Sea Guard serves as the navy of the Chenango Confederacy as well as of several other NSTA members.
The military composes a large part of public expenditure in the Confederacy, and its preeminence has become a significant domestic political issue given the country's poverty.