Baltican Westward Expansion | Šematija Balticas Siberia |

[Baltica]

Baltican Westward Expansion | Šematija-Balticas Siberia | 

Greetings everyone. I'm here to bring you news on an expansion I have long been talking about over on Discord, that I hope many of you have seen/followed as I've been teasing various planned plotlines, maps and other work on the area. This thread will go into detail about my planned Western Expansion, giving insight into the stats, cultural makeup, actual planned threads and stories etc.

Ethnic Groups of Šematija

• Pilkininkai: Old Prussians inhabiting the twin rivers. (Area 1)

• Juvečiai: Yotvingians, inhabiting the large mountains and mountain plateaus. (Area 2)

• Lešokiai: Coastal people that live around the flat Mediterranean climate. (Area 3)

• Razečiai: Ras folk who diverged and became their group, mainly because of the influence from other eastern Gintarian groups and separation from Baltica proper. (Area 4)

• Žedogiai: Based on a mix of Baltic tribes to be decided. (Area 5)

• Kemučiai: Related Kalnijans living in what is Western Kalnija. (Area 6)

These Six ethnic groups will make up Šematija, although the actual number of states will be reduced to 3 to make the expansion more coherent and simpler on my end. These six groups will all be a part of the greater Gintarian culture/language group, specifically making up the “Eastern Gintarian Group”. As expected, these people are very closely related to the Baltican Gintarians, specifically the Ras-Kretin, who share many language and cultural aspects with the Eastern Gintarian groups. This will hopefully make the area a bit easier to manage when it comes to the “Language Issue” (Part of the long-term questions to be answered as time goes on), as well as the “Culture clash” which may occur as the region is integrated. Below is a map of the ethnic group areas, corresponding to the Area numbers listed above. 

(Map of the culture group boundaries as well as major areas of importance aka cities)

The Three States and Their History

As mentioned previously, Šematija will be split into three different nations: Pilkinarvia, Auksenija and Karapalna. The main historical event that ties these states to one another and Baltica is the great Western Anarchy. The Western Anarchy was a result of the first Baltican Civil War, which saw the Monarchy get overthrown by the “Republicist” faction during the Civil War. The war itself, and the subsequent success of the “Republicists'' would spark similar movements across the Western states, especially as those Western states were long-term trading partners of Baltica, relying heavily on cheap Baltican grains to sustain their ever-urbanising populations, and make up for the natural lack of arable land. The situation in Baltica would quite obviously cause a mass food shortage in the West, which would only add to the increasing anti-Monarchist movements, which were also heavily sponsored and supported by the Baltican Republicans, and the Raskian-Kauni Federation. All together, this would contribute to the “Western Anarchy”, with all the monarchies of the existing states being overthrown, and the original 10 states that once made up the land to devolve into constant fighting with one another. This would then lead to 3 states forming in the aftermath, the previously mentioned Pilkinarvia (Technically the Union of Pilkinarvia and Juvečija), Auksenija and Karapalna (Technically, the Union of the Eastern Kanijan States). 

The modern history of these three states is not as interesting, but important. Again similar to Baltica, the states that formed in the aftermath of the Western Anarchy would struggle with their newly established democratic ideals, often resulting in the establishment of oligarchies, dictatorships and general autocracies. Post-anarchy however, all three states were able to develop their devastated industries and economies, with minimal success. Karapalna would become overly reliant on the export of minerals for most of its economy, whilst Auksenija and Pilkinarvia would try to make the best of their previous industries…

(Map of Šematija.)

(Flags of Šematija in order left to right, Auksenija, Karapalna and Pilkinarvia)

 

Stats and Story Plans

Population: (1) 21,543,234.

GDP Per Capita: (1) 6,000

Land Area: (2) Approximating 200,000-300,000

So my main ambition for this expansion is for it to be mainly a population-oriented expansion. In that sense, the main thing I aim to achieve from this expansion is substantially expanding the Baltican population. This is why all of Šematija will account for over 21.5 million people, which is almost doubling the Baltican population putting it on par with other states like Advocatius, Variota and Delamaria. The reason I chose for the GDP per capita to be so low (Only 6k), is that I don't want to grow too much in terms of GDP since I still love doing economic posts and I don't want to grow so much economically from this expansion that they will stop having as much impact on Baltica. My logic is that by being larger in terms of GDP, is that these concentrated economic posts will have less overall impact. Also, since I've shown quite a large track record of following up on economic posts, I'm confident that I can grow Balticas economy well enough without an economic expansion, and I find it more engaging and more rewarding to do it that way rather than doing it through an expansion. That being said, due to the large pop gain, the total GDP gain from this expansion will still be 129.2 Billion, almost doubling the Baltican GDP, putting it on par with the likes of Dolchland, Stedoria and Kertosono. 

Due to the size of the expansion, I expect it to be a lengthy and high-quality one. The goal is to make it a mixed historical/current expansion. The Historical will focus on the Individual histories of the three states, how they came to be and their current political/economic situations. Meanwhile the current will focus on tense negotiations and multiple economic plans between Baltica and the Western States. One of my main plans is to connect the Baltican railway system to the western one and build a rail line that will hopefully start in Eastern Baltica and spread to Omaska. Hopefully, I can enlist the help of some nations to sponsor / aid in the construction and planning of the railway (I've already talked to some people about this). Additionally, another big plan is to gradually ease the Western states into the Gintarian Economic Community or GEC, which currently consists of Baltica and Kalnija. GEC is a customs union and economic block that will allow for the gradual transition of the western states into the Baltican sphere, hopefully following the construction of the Trans-Keelpijip railway. Lastly, I am to introduce a new currency to Baltica and its GEC partners, this being the Littermark, which I intend all the Western states, as well as Baltica, to adopt. The Individual cities I also intend to focus in-depth, going into their specialities and attracting both foreign investments on Baltica's behalf and investment from Baltica itself.  I've got various descriptions and details on cities written already in advance that I've just yet to put here so as to not clutter up the post further. 

 

Conclusion and Last Messages

So thanks for reading and looking over this massive fall of text and images. As always, I make these OOC posts in advance of any planned expansions or plans in general, mainly to gauge the community and what they think of my plans since that's a key part of my plan-making process. A quick ping for @Leszczawkaand @Poja , my two neighbours to get their approval/thoughts as well. Again thanks for reading, looking forward to all your questions  

Edited September 22 by Baltica
Added Underlines (see edit history)

[Xio]

Honestly I see nothing wrong with this. You've proven yourself to be a very competent writer and I trust you'll be sensible in how much effort you believe an expansion of this size is worth 👍
I know on the Discord Poja has been approving of this expansion, but I'll give both of them some more time to respond if they're still mulling over it in their mind.

[Poja]

I don't really see a problem with this expansion.