History of Candvia

Candvia has a very long and rich history. This article examines that history.

Prehistory
The islands of Candvia were settled for the first time ever several thousands of years ago by various groups of peoples that have come by boat from islands all over the Sub-Antarctic region, notably from the Culldrome Isles and the Yowien Sea. Various small settlements were founded all across the islands, such as a settlement near the village of Reginter in the region of Felicia and, most notably, near the Morcoma cave in Facites on the Populi lake.

Archaeologists have discovered remains of prehistoric penguin settlements and they have discovered various drawings carved primarily on rocks and stone in caves. Archaeologists have discovered that the prehistoric penguins of Candvia were primarily focused on fishing at the Populi lake. Archaeologists have also, interestingly, discovered that there were fights between the various tribes that settled the island over fish, and the destruction of a prehistoric tribe is described in the cave near Morcoma.

It is currently unknown when the prehistoric tribes left the island or when they disappeared, but archaeologists estimate that they have stayed at least 600 years on the islands and a maximum 900 years based on how old the fossils and inscriptions found were.

Early Tribes
Between 100 and 50 BC was when another wave of tribal migrations happened and more tribes came from all over the Sub-Antarctic islands. Five tribes settled on the island and they were called by the Candvians the Losenses, Niceni, Gartuni, Sacupae and Mortuni. The most powerful of the tribes were the Sacupae, but the Niceni have special significance for the Candvians because they founded a settlement on the Tacitae river on the location of what is now Ventides, the capital and largest city of Candvia. The settlement was founded there around 312 AD.

Ventides was, according to historians and archaeologists, a wealthy and prosperous city for its time. The Noceni named the city Horkrake, meaning fair winds in Noceni language. This is to the city's favourable littoral position and pleasant winds blowing in its direction. The city also had a very distinct and unique location on the little peninsula that it shares names with. This made the city the main target of the three tribes that would raid the islands in the 7th century AD - the Cents (Centi), the Wines (Vines) and Sires.

Those tribes spread all across the islands and in the 9th century the Cents and the Wines united to form a single country called Principality of Cantwin.

Principality Era


The Principality of Cantwin immediately became a significant country on the world stage and started expanding outside of the Candvian archipelago. While that was going on, the Sire tribes in the north had to be destroyed or assimilated into the new Cantwin nation in order for the entire island archipelago to be secured. What occurred was a mixture of both destruction and assimilation as the Sire tribes never had a single state, instead having multiple countries, and they were all at war with each other multiple times, preventing their further expansion and causing a stagnation in population growth. Cantwin took advantage of this and by the 11th century AD had them completely reined in. By the 16th century the Sires became completely assimilated into the Cantwin (later Candvian) culture.

During this era, the settlement that formerly was Horkrake and became called Ventides was upgraded into a large-scale trading city. The population of Ventides started booming and all the money from trade added quite a lot to the national treasury. In the 13th century the city of Ventides had as many as 500,000 citizens, making it one of the largest cities in Antarctica by population.

It became one of the three greatest powers of the time, along with the High Penguin Confederacy and Osloven Empire. Cantwin, however, did not aggressively expand too often and it had many royal marriages with other nations. This resulted in a 40 year long personal union with the Oslovens in the 12th century and the import of the Latin language into the High Penguin Confederacy, which made Latin a global language by the end of the 14th century.

In 1234, a horrible fire happened in Ventides that resulted in the destruction of nearly half of the city and decimated nearly half its population. It was the greatest disaster in the nation's history. The project to rebuild the city would take several decades to complete, but it was also a blessing in disguise not only because gold and iron was discovered in caves underneath the city's surface and near the city, but also because the city's equipment and buildings were very old and the city maintenance has been poor for decades. The reconstruction of Ventides resulted in making large new squares, parks, avenues and the creation of new buildings to fit a new style of a new age. Architectural styles with Renaissance tendencies were implemented in Ventides at the end of the 13th century, though the Renaissance itself arrived as far a century later.

In the 13th century, the country stopped being a principality and the country was reformed into an absolute monarchy called the Kingdom of Cantwin. This was done in order to allow the leader to use more power to calm internal tensions and struggles down as the country had become increasingly unstable. He successfully calmed down tensions and introduced stability and peace into the country.

Kingdom Era
There were little to no struggles and almost no tension in the country for a few decades, but tensions were reignited in the 14th century as dukes, princes and generals started the Black Rose Rebellion (Latin: Rebellio nigrae rosae). The Black Rose Rebellion ended after 3 years and resulted in the king's victory and all dukes, princes and generals involved in the rebellion were punished with execution at the Market Square (Latin: Forum mercati) in Ventides. The country remained extraordinarily stable and powerful until the mid 15th century, when the country once again slipped into war between conflicting factions pretending to the throne.

The Fifty Years' War lasted for 64 years (though tensions started calming down after around 53 years), from 1453. to 1517. The country was split into three parts, all led by people who are pretending to the Candvian throne after the death of king Julius, who had no heir: Pars Bernardi (Bernard's part), Pars Alfredi (Alfred's part) and Pars Georgii (George's part). Initially, none of the three controlled the capital city of Ventides. Alfred managed to conquer Ventides in 1471 and expelled all Bernard and George supporters out of the city. An epic battle at a town near Ventides called Saxumvilla in 1487, however, resulted in the destruction of Alfred's forces and the death of Alfred himself.

George would quickly go on to conquer the city of Ventides. Instead of expelling Alfred's former supporters, he instead decided to welcome them and allow for them to live peacefully in the city so long as they do not make any harm. He additionally gave bread and circuses to the people, something many considered to be a distraction for George's incompetence and scandalous life as well as internal national problems, and this resulted in the creation of the phrase "panem et circenses" (bread and games), which is used when politicians promise only something (bread and games) to the people only in order to get their support and calm their rebellious attitude down.

In 1506, George decimated Bernard's forces in the Battle of Frigens Hill on the Bontrigis river in southern Candvia, resulting in Bernard seeking peace with George. The peace process lasted for 11 years, and resulted in Bernard getting large swathes of land in the Bontriges and Permontes regions in southern Candvia. Another consequence of the end of the Fifty Years' War was the Kingdom of Cantwin renaming itself to the Kingdom of Candvia, a name it retains to this day.

Early Modern Era
The country was pretty stable during the first few decades after the end of the Fifty Years' War, but that stability was short lived. In the middle 16th century Snowprus had an abrupt rise as a global power and with its enormous navy raided the Candvian islands. The Snowpriots colonized several islands in the eastern Candvian archipelago that they retained until the middle 18th century. These islands quickly became very well influenced by Snowpriot culture and the architecture of those islands still reflects Snowpriot architecture to this day.

Meanwhile, in 16th century Candvia, especially Ventides, the Renaissance was in full swing. The arts were flourishing and people welcomed this new movement. The Renaissance Era resulted in life in Candvia being changed in an unprecedented level. Ventides was once again improved and reached a population of over 1,000,000 by year 1600. Art museums were created in the city of Ventides and the city became one of the cultural capitals of the entire continent. The Latin language also became even more popular and used than ever before - Latin joined Penguinian in becoming one of the undisputed "lingua francas" or global languages during the Renaissance era. The Penguinian language also started to decline as a result of Latin's rise and by the 19th century almost all its speakers were concentrated in the High Penguin Confederacy only.

In the 17th century, Queen Emily entered a marriage with a very rich and devious Osloven duke Phillip. The Osloven Empire would soon establish a personal union over Candvia, a union supported by most Candvians. The Candvians and Oslovens became two nations that were the greatest of friends, and their friendship still exists to this day and is partly because of the close, intimitate personal union they've had between each other. Thanks to internal conflicts in the Osloven Empire, however, the union ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century. This was, however, an era of prosperity in Candvia and an era of enlightenment.

Modern Era
Candvia, as a result of the breakup with the Osloven Empire, became a mere shell of what it once was. It needed reform, and fast. The country was not as significant as it used to be. It managed to reconquer the lost islands that were taken by the Snowpriots, but it had no further conquests after that.

Candvia had been rather unstable in the first half of the 19th century and protests were common place and the citizens were unhappy. It all changed with the rise of King Cyrillus in 1852 and his coronation the following year. He immediately got to work on restructuring the government and country and completely changing the system, and this was, of course, not without opposition. He survived an assassination attempt in 1856 that would have rendered the country heirless and likely caused a civil war. He successfully reformed the country and in 1857 proclaimed the creation of the 'United Kingdom of Candvia (Latin: Regnum Unitum Candviae), consisted of four countries: Captagonia, Geobonia (Gibonia), Candonia and Vinedia.

Cyrillus' reforms were successful and his country went through a golden age in the 1880s and 1890s as a result of a sharp population and industrial boom. In 1880. the city of Ventides had a population of around 2,000,000 and by 1915. it had a population of around 2,500,000. Thanks to this massive population growth, Ventides became one of the most populated cities of Antarctica, and it became heavily overpopulated. The city was a mess in the 1900s and the 1910s and as such numerous projects were created to greatly expand the city and even build new skyscrapers.

The project that was called "Vitaespatium", meaning "Living Space", never came to realization as a result of the Khanzem War. In 1915, two years after the start of the Khanzem War, despite its best attempts to remain neutral, Candvia was forced to sign a treaty entering the war on the side of Khanzem. This resulted in the 27 March Coup (Latin: Colaphus de 27. Flocrese). Just days later, on April 6, Ventides was bombed by Khanzem and a big part of the city had been razed to the ground. The country spent the next three years fighting to resist the Khanzem regime and the Candvian Partisans (Latin: Partisanes Candviae) were successful in that struggle.

Candvia lost a big chunk of its population, especially its young male one, and Ventides' population was reduced from around 2,500,000 to 2,200,000 people. A big part of Ventides had to be completely rebuilt. Unfortunately, Candvia was a slightly impoverished country after the Khanzem War and the newly established government of the Republic of Candvia (Latin: Res Publica Candviae) failed to get enough money in order to rebuilt the city and nearly went bankrupt in 1930.

20th Century


The Republic of Candvia was heavily unstable. The newly established unicameral legislative body called the People's Congress (Latin: Congressus Populi) could be described as a massive circus show as it was always unstable and the members of the Congress were always fighting. In 1929, a nationalist member of Congress rose from his seat took out his gun and shot a fellow socialist member in the heart, prompting all members of the Congress to flee. The socialist died almost instantly. The nationalist would later commit suicide in order to escape prison. This was the single biggest tragedy that ever occurred in the Candvian legislature, and a plaque to commemorate this incident was put in the park in front of the Parliament in 1930 and still exists to this day.

As a result of chaos and instability, in mid-1932 a constitutional convention was called and the country was reordered. The constitutional convention lasted for several months and an agreement was finally reached in late 1932. The country would once again become a monarchy, this time centralized and a constitutional monarchy in contrast to earlier near-absolute, if not absolute, monarchies. In addition to a change of the head of state, laws regarding elections, freedom of speech, gun rights, private property, business and the economy were also created.

Candvia spent the 1930s paying out its foreign debts and solidifying relations with other nations. In the 1940s the False War began and the world came to be polarized between the Nationalist Bloc consisted primarily of Bridgestadt Pact affiliated countries such as Ed Island, Magyaria and Snowiny and the Communist Bloc (Comintern) consisted of the Snowviet Union and its allies. Candvia found itself pressured by all sides and it was a battleground for the diplomatic fight between the two blocs, with both blocs trying to support extremist parties inside the country to topple the government and set up a fascist dictatorship in case of Nationalist Bloc victory or a communist dictatorship in case of a Communist Bloc victory.

Indeed, the country was on the verge of falling apart once again as fascist and communist parties started to rise; the Communist Party of Candvia (Pars Communisma Candviae) won 27% of the seats in the Parliament in 1951 and the fascist Patria League (Liga Patriae) won 13% of the seats. The country was in a state of disarray and a period known as the Years of Lead (Anni Plumbi), named after the large amount of bullets fired during that period. In 1952 Lucas Calderon, leader of the conservative Candvian People's Party (PPC - Pars Populi Candviae), became Prime Minister of Candvia. A staunch anti-communist and anti-fascist, he immediately began moves to suppress the extremist movements and end the Years of Lead that have torn the nation apart. By the end of the decade he had successfully suppressed a large number of extremist movements, and in 1961 Candvia, along with several other nations, participated in the creation of the Unaffiliated Bloc (Frons Disiuncta).

Candvia began to stabilize in the 1960s - most fascist and communist movements haven't yet died out and have continued with their violence, but their support has drastically fallen. Candvia began trading and cooperating with both the Nationalist Bloc and the Communist Bloc - this resulted in anger from a big part of the populace that were vehemently anti-fascist and anti-communist. Still, Calderon's party won successive re-election victories in 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1968. In 1969 Calderon resigned from his office and was succeeded by Hugo Marius, whose premiership was highly unstable. The Candvian People's Party lost power in 1973 and Syro Scaro of the centre-left Socialist Party (FS - Factio Socialista) was elected Prime Minister; his premiership was short, however, and Hugo Marius and the PPC returned to power in 1976.

In 1978, the economically right-wing, radical Josua Sylvester from the Candvian People's Party was elected Prime Minister. As a result of his policies, the 1980s were the most prosperous decade in Candvian history when Candvia connected with the world, the economy boomed and living standards were growing to unprecedented levels. Businesses started moving to Candvia and the country came to be known worldwide, and was even considered a key player on the world stage. The 1980s were, however, also marred with political instability as the False War was coming to an end and the STINC War, a war that Candvia had little no involvement in, resulted in the fall of STINC-zachal. The instability continued into the early 1990s - in 1991, the far-left Communist Party and the far-right National Front fell apart and dissolved. The Candvian People's Party continued scoring landslide victories in every election throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s; in 1993, Josua Sylvester resigned from the premiership, and his successor Phineas Anthinus failed to retain power for the Candvian People's Party and Jacobus Carmena of the Socialists was elected Prime Minister in 1996.

Contemporary History
The early 1990s were a time of recession - the sluggish economy, however, recovered in the mid-1990s, partly as a result of the opening of the Internet to the wider audience. However, the country did not do much to capitalize on this success, and the country decided to remain strictly and vehemently neutral in an increasingly globalized world. It stayed out of the Snowinn Civil War even when the Snowinian government sank a Candvian vessel carrying 197 barrels of oil on 23 April 1998 - an action the people of Candvia were furious about.

Candvia remained largely on the sidelines during the 2000s, even as critical decisions were made and large events happened. There was no attempt to change the direction of the country and the leaders kept on insisting on being neutral, stating that it brought unprecedented peace to the country. However, in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the geopolitical situation started to change with the rise of Snowzerland and Shops Island, both of whom threatened Candvia repeatedly. Candvia came to be increasingly afraid of invasion by the Snoss after several major wars happened, and Candvia was on the brink of being involved in the Great Yowien War started by Shops against the Yowiens as a result of its convenient location northwest of the Yow Kingdom.

Out of fear for Candvia, in 2013 the newly elected Prime Minister Maria Creslana of the Socialist Party set off to getting Candvia involved on the world stage by seeking allies. Her country joined the United Antarctic Nations on October 28, 2013, and managed to find close friends in Snowiny, a former fascist country that became a democracy in 2003, and Tropicalis. Her country became close allies with the Western Union upon its inception, and in 2018 applied for its membership and successfully joined it as the 8th member on 1 April 2018. The country experienced a major economic boom in the 2010s as a result of Creslana's major economic and political reforms and increased involvement on the international stage, resulting in a landslide victory for her Socialists in the 2018 parliamentary elections.

Creslana's foreign policy was a complete shift from her predecessors foreign policy, and resulted in the country partially abandoning neutrality - the country clearly affiliated itself with the Western Union, but at the same time also sought to preserve its enviable position in Antarctic politics. Creslana was not entirely successful at doing that, and relations with countries such as Shops Island were torn apart during her premiership, with moments of culmination of tensions being The Great Yowien War, the discovery of oil in the archipelago, the country's entry into the Western Union and the country's vocal neutrality during the Achadia Crisis (which stood in contrast to her usual policy of always picking a side in cases of injustice). Overall, Creslana during just her very first years as prime minister revolutionized Candvian politics and society, and is slowly becoming recognized as one of the "great leaders of Candvia", the others being Diana Rosamunda (1940 - 1947), Lucas Calderon (1952 - 1969) and Josua Sylvester (1978 - 1993).