Republic of Moon Island


 * Not to be confused with the current Moon Island, which is a state of Shops Island.

 Moon Island (Typhoonian: Mŏn Eland, Latin: Typhonia, Chinese: 彎月島, Freezestonian: Kuu saar), officially the Republic of Moon Island and typically abbreviated RoMI, is a sovereign state located northeast of Shops Island in the Asiapelago region founded after the fall of Shops in 2027. It is organized as a federal presidential constitutional republic, with a president that is elected every 4 years in universal direct presidential elections, and with a Parliament called the Moon Island Council that is elected every 4 years on the same date. It is comprised of 12 states and 1 autonomous territory (the Freezestonian Autonomous Region) and the country's capital is Dancing Penguin City with a population of 265,000.

Moon Island has a long and traditional history as an independent kingdom. The founder of the Kingdom of Moon Island is Dps the Great, who led an army that established the kingdom in 1914. In 1915, Kingdom City, now known as Moon Island City, was established with a population of 590,000. Dps the Second is often credited as the founder of modern Moon Island as a result of his great economic policies which resulted in the GDP growing dramatically and unemployment falling to an all time low. In 1999, he was overthrown by his nephew, who was overthrown in a revolution in 2005 by Rockhopper. In 2012, the country was annexed into Shops Island as an autonomous state - as a result of its fall in 2027, however, it became an independent state once again, this time a republic.

Moon Island is one of the smallest countries in the world yet also one of the economically greatest performing due to its urban development, small size and convenient position, leading to some calling it "the Club Penguin of the South". Moon Island is a tax haven and has little to no regulations for corporations and enterprises, which resulted in many companies moving their headquarters to Moon Island to avoid taxes in their home countries. Moon Island's GDP boomed as a result of this, and the country has one of the highest standards of living in the world - however, crime is on the rise in recent years and so is political instability, and the mafia is very powerful. The country has also been dubbed in the 2030s as one of the Sea Lion Economies as a result of their outstanding economic growth, alongside the Seal Islands and the Finipines.

History


See also: Moon Island

Moon Island was established as an autonomous state within the Democratic Industrial Island of Shops in 2012. As a result of the Shopper annexation, it experienced an industrial and economic boom largely thanks to immigration and Shopper investments. Moon Island became one of the economically most powerful regions of Shops Island. In the 2020s, however, the country's economy went through steady decline and the Shops Civil War broke out in 2026 following the inauguration of David Franklin as governor of Moon Island.

In 2027, as the fall of Shops Island its impending destruction became imminent, the Council of Moon Island drafted a resolution declaring independence from Shops Island and establishing a federal presidential constitutional republic under the official name Republic of Moon Island. The Council passed the bill unanimously, and the Governor subsequently signing the bill into law, and the new Republic was born. The Council immediately elected Dps04, leader of the United Moon Island party, as Acting President, and he subsequently won the presidential elections the very same year as the only candidate running.

Under the Dps04 administration, many economic and military reforms were passed with the ultimate goal of fixing the broken Moon Island economically. Unemployment was at a record high thanks to the worldwide post-Shops financial crisis, and Dps04 was forced to deal with the threat of potential annexation by powers such as Snowzerland and Zhou. The threat was incredibly high, and the country was put under alarm. In order to serve as a deterrent from possible attacks from the two countries, Moon Island entered into the Shops Union along with several other nations and also signed a formal partnership with the increasingly bigger Western Union. The small nation of Acadia also attempted to protect the new country from foreign aggression, and the United Antarctic Nations and SATO helped intervene as well.

Under Dps04's administration, the Republic of Moon Island was established as a respectable sovereign state. Two major parties were formed by the end of his first term in the country - the United Moon Island party, a conservative catch-all party, and the Liberal Democratic Party, a classical liberal party, although with minor socialist factions due to huge influence from scrubs. In 2031, Dps04 won re-election with a landslide margin of 86.6% to 9.1% in the first round. Dps04's approval at the end of his second term was around 85% - he, however, chose not to run for a third term out of respect for democracy and out of desire to return to a more simple life.

A major shocker took place in 2035 when Penstubal won the presidential elections as the Liberal Democratic Party's candidate with 50.4% of the vote in the second round (he barely got elected). Immediately upon his inauguration he set off to changing what he calls a "broken system that is horribly unfair to scrubs". During Penstubal's first term, "scrub culture" flourished in the country and Moon Island became one of the most prominent centers of scrub activities. Many laws were passed with the goal of protecting the scrub populace from violence and bullying, and the legislation was rather successful for the scrubs as it managed to protect them, but it came with the cost of false accusations of bullying becoming very commonplace as a result of the laws, winding countless numbers of penguins in prison for no real reason at all.

In 2037, a referendum was held in the country, proposed by Penstubal, to ban the creation of political parties in an effort to heal the partisan divide in the country and end factional loyalties in the country. The referendum passed 66% to 33% and took effect the same year. This was rather called one of the greatest changes carried out under Penstubal's presidency. Penstubal also heavily invested in infrastructure in the country, in particular the roads and railroads. The country's economy boomed and recovered from the post-Shopper recession. In foreign policy, Penstubal was known by his belligerent attitude towards Chill Island and Ed Island, the former thanks to his traditional rivalry with Chill57181 and the latter to protest Ed Island's treatment of High Penguins.

President Penstubal won reelection with 54.1% of the vote in 2039, a much more comfortable victory that he won primarily because of the economic recovery and not his scrub protection laws and his aggressive foreign policy. His economic policies were slightly nationalistic but also free trade oriented - business thrived in the country under his leadership, and his country was brought closer to the Western Union, which he unsuccessfully tried to have his country join.

Crime sharply rose in the country in 2040s and the mafia was getting increasingly stronger, and President Penstubal also found it increasingly harder to combat it. Corruption was also on the rise, leading pundits to question how successful President Penstubal's policies really were. Additionally, Penstubal was a very divisive personality and he polarized the nation, making it harder for future presidents to unite it and lead it forward. Dps the Fifth, Penstubal's successor, however, failed to achieve nearly anything at all in both domestic and foreign policy, and his failures made memories of Penstubal's administration a lot more better than they really were.

Government
The Republic of Moon Island is a federal constitutional presidential republic with a president who is elected every 4 years through direct universal suffrage. The country is divided into 12 states and 1 autonomous community, who all have a right to manage their local affairs with limited interference from the national government (although the national government's will triumphs the will of the states). The judicial branch of the Republic of Moon Island is the Supreme Court, which is comprised of 9 Supreme Court justices. A Supreme Court justice is appointed by the President and approved by the Council with an absolute majority of the vote, and a justice may be impeached with more than 75% of the vote in the Council and the approval of the President. A Supreme Court justice may not be part of any political party.

The way the judiciary branch works and the lack of power the legislative branch has over the executive branch made the nation relatively unstable in the later decades of the 21st century.

Cabinet
The executive branch of the Government is headed by the President (elected every four years at equal and direct multiple-round presidential elections). The Cabinet convenes every Wednesday. The following table presents the composition of the Cabinet shortly following the inauguration of President Penstubal in 2035. 7 cabinet members are male and 5 are female, and among the most prominent cabinet members were Jack Whiteflipper, Quackerpingu and Jolly Timmy.

Economy
Moon Island's economy is broadly diversified among many industries, but the services sector is the largest employer of Moon Islanders. The finance sector, one of Moon Island's oldest industries, is still a powerhouse. However, thanks to the rise of other industries, it no longer held a large chunk of the nation's economy. Aside from local banks, many foreign-based financial institutions also opened branches here, notably those from the USA, Shops Union, Zhou, Malesia and Calada. There are three stock exchanges in Moon Island - the Dancing Penguin Stock Exchange (DPSE, located at Dancing Penguin City), the Moon Island City Stock Exchange (MICSE, located at Moon Island City) and the Wizzint Industrial Stock Exchanges (WISE, located at Wizzint).

Moon Island's manufacturing industries are established with the intention of cutting off imports from other nations and increasing exports to other nations. In order to be a "self-reliance" state, the government invested equally in each manufacturing industries. However, some of Moon Island's manufacturing industries are still more prominent than the others, such as the electronic/electric products industry, computer industry, silk-manufacturing industry and chemical-engineering industry.

Some regions of Moon Island are known for being the base of certain industries, with examples being how Golden Coast is known for its arms-manufacturing industry and Tanthu being renowned for its automobile-manufacturing industry. The pharmaceuticals industry of Moon Island is best-known for producing high-quality and cheap medicine. Its advancement allowed the government to provide free, excellent healthcare service to Moon Islanders without the need of high taxations, to a certain extent that is.

A majority of Moon Islanders are employed in the service industry. Many types of services are available in the nation. Information Technology is a powerhouse in this sector.

With the exception of a few mineral deposits scattered around the island and the occasional oil or natural gas deposit near its coast, the mining industry is practically non-existent. In its early years, Moon Island imported petroleum from other members of the Shops Union, as almost every automobiles run on petroleum. However, technological advancement that resulted in every transportation vehicles running on biofuel, solar energy or electricity cut the need for petroleum five to six years after its establishment. Moon Island imports other types of minerals from its trading partners, the most notable being Chill Island.

Finally, we have the agricultural industry. As previously stated, Moon Island is the primary exporter of butter to Chill Island. In order to exploit this, the nation created a diary products industry. However, aside from its butter-for-minerals purpose, this industry doesn't bring much income for its investors, most of which are penguins living in rural areas. However, this wasn't to say that the agricultural industry is useless to MI. Moon Island is one of the largest manufacturer of cotton in the Asiapelago. Many of MI's cotton plantations are located at the city of Pheonix, Golden Coast.

In order to fund the arms-manufacturing industry, government officials encouraged local plantation owners to switch to planting cotton, which was seen as a cash crop. A few years later, however, the cotton industry was no longer seen as an industry whose purposes are to fund the arms-manufacturing and textile industries. It was seen as an important itself, with a commodities exchange dedicated to it - the Pheonix City Cotton Exchange (PCCE, located at Pheonix City). It is the most important cotton exchange in Antarctica, but it received competition from other cotton exchanges too.

Demographics
The Republic of Moon Island has extremely diverse demographics throughout its whole existence, and as years passed they got even more diverse than ever before. In 2030, 74% of inhabitants were of Moonian ethnicity while 20% were of Freezestonian. In 2040, those numbers were 65% Moonian, 17% Freezetonian, and others 18% (among those others are Zhouese, Antarcticans, Amatarians, Snowinns, Acadians, Margatians, Tropicalians, Ducks, etc.). The country owes its great ethnic diversity to international migration as Moon Island became one of the most popular immigrant destinations in Antarctica in the 2030s thanks to its economic growth and improved standards of living after the fall of Shops.

The number of immigrants slowly started to decline in the 2040s as the global economy got a lot more better, and Moon Island lost its prominence as a top destination for immigrants. Living standards fell under Dps the Fifth's administration, even causing many immigrants to leave the country. Aquamarina's presidency in the 2050s, however, led to renewed economic growth and optimism, and so again an increase in migration to the Republic of Moon Island occurred. Less than 60% of the inhabitants of the country were of Moonian ethnicity in 2060, leading to a rise of Moonian ethnic nationalism in fear of their ethnicity getting completely wiped out from the face of Earth.

Geography


Moon Island does not have a very diverse geography, but it does have a lot arable land on the southern, northeastern and northern coasts. The inner parts of the country are mainly filled with various types of forests and also large mountains in the center that are known as the Central Mountains or simply Mount. The tallest peak of the Central Mountains (and the whole Moon Island) is Mount Moon at 3011m and the second tallest peak of the Central Mountains is Mount Rockhopper at 1876m (the second tallest peak of Moon Island is Mount Sakura, which is located in the state of Moonholm), and they are popular destinations for ski tourists worldwide. Snow falls there every year, starting as early as October and covering the entire mountain in snow by the end of November, before most of it melts off by April.

The Republic of Moon Island is divided into 12 states and 1 autonomous territory. The states are, from north to south: Moonholm, Norholm, Dancing Penguin State, Conholm, Mount, Sirpathe, West Mount, Hamshire, Moonover, Wizzintine, Golden Coast and Tanthu, and the autonomous territory is the Freezestonian Autonomous Region (FAR). The most populous of these states are the Dancing Penguin State, Moonover, Wizzintine and the Golden Coast. As the name suggests, Golden Coast is filled with gold mines and is thousands of workers migrate each year to the state to mine in the gold-rich cave systems. This has enabled the state and the country's economies to grow, and living standards to improve. The area of Mount also has an abundance of coal and iron resources.

Culture
Moon Island has a very diverse and old culture in contrast to the rest of the former Shops Island countries. Moon Island has strong cultural and historical ties to Zhou, and a large portion of the country's population is of Zhouese ethnicity. Moon Island today is a largely consumerist society, and this is reflected in the political views of the country's voters as they tend to vote for corporatist, right-wing parties while left-wing alternatives get less than 20% of the vote each election.

In an effort to increase the wealth of citizens of the country, to grow the economy and encourage more investment and economic development in the country, as well as to improve standards of living and enforce national unity, in 2012 in Dancing Penguin City a government-organized event called the House of Fame was organized. It takes place at the end of every year, and the point of it is for everybody to donate money to it. The one who donates the most money wins all money donated. This event became incredibly the first time it was held, but after a few years the criticism of the program grew as it enabled the rich to get even richer while poor people went bankrupt thanks to this scheme. It was closed following a lack of donations in 2016, and it wasn't returned until 2036 under Penstubal's presidency - with the House of Fame continuing to bankrupt many citizens every year since then.



Under Penstubal's presidency, the number of adherents to Hrastism rose as a result of his profoundly Hrastist beliefs. It rose from 2% by 2035 all the way to 17% by 2043, a rise in 750%. The number continued to slowly rise after Penstubal, before starting to drop after it reached 24% in 2050. The rise of Hrastists in Moon Island came concurrently with the rise of Hrastists worldwide as a result of people turning to mysticism out of desperation and desire for salvation as a result of a post-Shops financial crisis that destroyed the global economy. The number of Hrastists started declining in the 2040s following the end of Penstubal's presidency but remained a significant minority well into the 2050s.

The Republic of Moon Island is also famous for its literature and some of the greatest literary classics in Antarctica. One of the most famous Moon Island authors is Penstubal, who greatly influenced the culture of Moon Island through his works such as "Salt and the City" and "Good Morning, Penstubal", as well as "rebel" songs such as "Hymn of the Scrubs" and various other similar songs. Moon Island is also famous for haiku poetry brought to the country by immigrants from Japaland, those immigrants being primarily concentrated in Moon Island City.

Transportation
Moon Island is located in a slightly isolated yet very important position in the Asiapelago as the seas east of it are major trade routes of Antarctica. A lot of cargo goes through Moon Island every year, usually from other parts of the Asiapelago and UnitedTerra to the Sub-Antarctic Islands and the Western Union and the other way round. It is geographically located very close to the Western Union as two Asiapelago countries (Finipines, Amataria) are its members, and this has served to the country's advantage, increasing its leverage over the Antarctic economy as a result of multiple trade and partnership agreements between Moon Island and the Western Union.

Internally, Moon Island has a slightly underdeveloped road and railway transportation system as a result of a lack of investment in said things during the years when the country was under the rule of Shops Island. Under Penstubal's presidency, millions were invested, both by Moonians and foreigners, in improving the country's transportation system and rebuilding roads, railways, bridges, tunnels and airports. This continued under Dps the Fifth's administration, when almost all projects were successfully finished. Additionally, under Penstubal's administration, a metro (subway) system was created in the city of Wizzint, and there already was one in Q City before that.

A detailed map of the country's highway system, showcasing the highway system in four different years (2017, 2027, 2036, 2044) can be found here.

Military
Moon Island has a very small military of less than 50,000 soldiers and relies on the Shops Union for defense. Shortly after getting international recognition, however, it signed a defense partnership with the Western Union, therefore giving it the protection of some major powers - deterring Snowzerland and Zhou from potentially invading the young country. Moon Island has only a dozen ships and no aircraft carriers. Moon Island is capable of mobilizing only up to about 185,000 penguins. The Republic inherited technology from former Shops and as such was on a very highly advanced technological level in the 2020s. However, in the 2030s, Moon Island started falling behind the rest of the world as the technology inherited from former Shops became outdated. Under Penstubal's presidency, the Republic's military was incredibly weak technologically and was heavily dependent on the Western Union.

Foreign Relations

 * CandviaFlag.png Candvia - Good. The two countries have fairly decent relations, although they did not interact much. A visit by the Candvian Prime Minister in 2030 significantly improved relations between the two countries.
 * Snozerland Flag 2 edited-1.png Snowzerland - Horrible. The country never hid, or attempted to hide, its contempt for Moon Island and it was always open about its intentions to conquer the Republic and force it to serve Swiss Ninja and be part of his empire. The Republic of Moon Island is always on a state of high alert whenever Snowzerland makes a threat against the Republic's independence, and membership in the Shops Union, support from the Western Union, support for the status quo by the United States of Antarctica, and Acadia's friendship with Snowzerland might be the only things stopping the Snoss from launching an attack against the Republic.
 * USA flag.PNG United States of Antarctica - Very Good. The two countries have very good relations and the United States of Antarctica supported the Republic's independence when it was declared.
 * Western Union 2017 Flag.png Western Union - Excellent. The two have excellent relations and the Western Union became one of the only friendly organizations in Antarctica to Moon Island. Moon Island was heavily dependent on the Western Union during the first 20 years of its existence, although it gradually got less dependent.
 * AcadiaFlag.png Acadia - Excellent. Due to the friendship between Brant Esser, the President of Acadia, and Penstubal, who was an influential politician in the country at the time of Moon Island's founding, Acadia deployed around 15,000 soldiers to protect the country's sovereignty after the fall of Shops. This act solidified the friendship between the two countries and Acadia often convinced Snowzerland not to invade Moon Island.
 * DuckNewFlag.png Duck Island - Excellent. Duck Island is one of the first countries to recognize the Republic of Moon Island as an independent state. Moon Island appreciated this gesture by Duck Island and a friendship was created. In 2036, almost immediately upon being elected to the presidency, Penstubal proclaimed Duck Island as Moon Island's greatest ally alongside Acadia and proclaimed the duck species as "the victims of discrimination and intimidation across the world", proclaiming them "brave" and "strong" and also some of the greatest fighters for scrub rights. Penstubal also signed a treaty of alliance with Duck Island, much to the dismay of the Shops Union.

Trivia

 * It is a member of the Shops Union, although Penstubal during his presidency sought to leave it and instead join the Western Union to no avail.
 * Even though he was no longer a politician, an ailing and very aged Lavender still made his opinions about the Republic quite clear, calling the new-found state a "perversion of Shopper ideals" and an "abomination which spits in the face of everything I've worked for". This is mainly due to the high concentration and prominence of what he called "scrubs".