[Vision statement] The Kingdom of Rhodellia

[Rhodellia]

(Due to a technical issue preventing me from posting in the Academy subforum, this is being temporarily posted here. It should soon be moved to the proper subforum)

Hatched from a cannonball, the Kingdom of Rhodellia is a warrior society upscaled to an entire nation-state. It began in 1594 as a number of Dolchlander overseas colonies. Unfortunately for the colonists, most natives already living around their region were already well-aware of the devastation colonialism wrought on other native peoples elsewhere on their continent. And so, half the natives were hostile from the very start. The other half were gradually assimilated into the Dolchlander colonies, either willingly or unwillingly. Desperate to prevent another foreign colonial power from dominating their continent, many native chiefdoms, kingdoms, and empires waged war after war to expel the new colonisers before they could become too entrenched. But the colonists and their native allies held their ground. And for that, their descendants (the future Rhodellian people) would be cursed to fight bitterly and fiercely to stave off extermination for centuries to come. The sheer distance separating Rhodellia from its parent kingdom allowed the former to develop down a radically more liberal path, but it also ensured that they had to fight every battle on their own. This would foster a burning spirit of independence, courage, and camaraderie among the Rhodellian people. But it would also give rise to the hypermilitarised society, hedgehog mentality, and ‘discomfortingly excessive’ martial culture Rhodellia is most notorious for. The nation still continues to fight low-intensity conflicts against native separatist insurgents and sporadic border skirmishes against its neighbours into the present day.

As of 2021, Rhodellia is a shadow of its former self. Its ill-fated struggles in two major conflicts in the first half of the 20th century showed that it took far more than just warrior spirit to win a modern war against numerically superior peer militaries. From 1914 to 1921, Rhodellia was invaded and decisively defeated by a coalition of its neighbours in what Rhodellians call ‘The Red Deluge’. The catastrophic peace treaty that followed (The Black Peace) entailed major territorial concessions; the expulsion of all ‘ethnic Dolchlander’ peoples from said territories; and the severance of all political, military, and economic ties to its parent kingdom in Argis. The Black Peace utterly humiliated the nation and deeply demoralised its people. The Rhodellian Crusade (1940-1948) was launched on the grounds of retaking all ‘rightful Rhodellian clay’ that was ‘stolen’ during The Red Deluge and renewing the nation’s shattered pride. But by the end of the brutal conflict, millions lay dead on both sides, no territories exchanged hands, and an inconclusive armistice meant that no scores were officially settled. To add further insult to injury, Rhodellian failures in defeating native separatist insurgencies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries resulted in further territorial losses, demonstrating that superior violence wasn’t always the answer. The battered and bruised Rhodellian people just had to be content that their country, as small as it had become, still existed.

Rhodellia’s traumatic experiences in the 20th century along with new social and technological developments have pushed its recent leaders to pursue the more peaceful path of building ‘soft power’, unlike their more warlike predecessors. Diplomatically, Rhodellia has failed to settle a lasting peace with its immediate neighbours (who still very much want the country and its people gone), and is thus turning outwards to the rest of the wurld for friends. It seeks to increase its international standing by lending help to other countries’ projects, participating in humanitarian aid efforts, and lending quality troops to peacekeeping forces. Militarily, Rhodellia is pursuing a purely defensive strategy of maintaining its current de facto borders, conducting COIN operations against Native Rhodellian separatist movements, and protecting population centres close to its borders from artillery and rocket attacks. Economically, Rhodellia seeks to build strong economic ties with other countries, court foreign direct investment (FDI), and expand and further modernise its infrastructure. Rhodellia wants to rebrand itself from a 'hyperviolent army with a state’ to a more welcome presence and worthwhile friend on the international stage.  Whatever it takes to survive the century.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Rhodellia (see edit history)