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Georgiana – The Gateway Island
(1/3)

 

Overview
A small tropical island south of Azania, Georgiana's history is one of refuge and revolution. Georgiana is an island situated at the northernmost end of the Nusantara Island Chain, on the boundary between Marenesia Major, Marenesia Minor, and Azania.

In total, the island is only 19,000 km2 in area with a population of 5,538,465. Despite its small size, it is split almost equally between two countries: the Republic of San Giorgio, and the Peasantry Republic of San Jorge. The former an ex-colony of Mantella, and the latter an ex-colony of Red Iberos.

This is the first of 3 planned factbooks on the island. The first is on the history of the island from its first settlers up to 1456 CE. The second and third factbooks are on the countries of San Jorge and San Giorgio from 1456 CE up to the present day.

 

The First Settlers – Maequdic Culture
The first people to arrive on the island and make it their home were the Proto-Azanians during the last ice age 40,000 years ago. It is not known what these people called themselves, however later Sahrabic settlers called them the Shier Maequd, the “Knotted Hair”, and is where we get the archaeological term “Maequdic Culture”.

The culture was advance for the time period and its isolation, with some of the oldest archaeological sites dating to the Maequdic Culture going back as far as 1600 BC. The Templo Sur de Veracroce in the Veracroce Reserve is the largest still standing Maequdic structure dated to 1050 BCE.

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:pic: The Templo Sur de Veracroce, Veracroce Reserve.

Very little is known about the Maequdic Culture, as their writing script (Munaqat A) has not yet been deciphered. Munaqat A was the writing system used by the Maequdic Culture, written by imprinting the end of a sharpened bamboo shoot into clay tablets. The writing system rose near the height of the Maequdic Culture, with clay tablets found across the island from 1400 BCE to 900 BCE. Many of the clay tablets found before 1000 BCE were baked uniformly, suggesting the intentional preservation of tablets for record keeping. From 1000 BCE to 900 BCE, however, the tablets show inconsistent baking and burns. Many of the ruins where these burnt tablets were uncovered also have ancient scorch marks on their surviving stone foundations, suggesting that the buildings were burned down with the tablets inside.

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:pic: Digitised Munaqat A Script Example.

It is not known what caused the collapse of the Maequdic Culture, as the arrival of the Chulese and Sahrabs from Ayubi arrived after the fall of their civilisation.

 

The Second Settlers – Chulese, Sahrabs, Marenai.
The Chulese partially settled the island, trading with the Maequdic people on the island, who had returned to a simple fishing culture. It is from these trading outposts that we have uncovered the writing script Munaqat B – derived from the old Munaqat A – that the fishermen had likely used to keep count of fish and trade. Munaqat B, like Munaqat A, is undeciphered. It was also through this trade that the Chulese introduced Europan diseases to the region.

By the time the Chulo Culture had fallen in the 2nd century CE, the island was almost entirely depopulated.

In the 3rd century CE, Sahrabs from Ayubi colonised the island. The Sahrabs largely stuck to the coastlines, building fishing villages and towns. Within the interior of the island, the last groups of the Maequdic people surviving in the highlands until the 8th century. The Sahrabs would eventually become the modern day Algenuba people, naming the island Aljanub — ‘the south’.

Throughout the first half of the 2nd millennium, Georgiana was a trading hub between the Marenai and Sahrabs. The second-largest city in modern day Giorgio, Aldagico, was the largest marketplace on the island. All weapons from Marenai and Sahrabic merchants were to be stored at the ports they arrived from. The island was split amongst several Algenuban emirates, who often fought and cooperated with one another.

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:pic: Hisn Jadid Castle, Aldagico. The castle was destroyed in 1302 during the Siege of Aldagico.

 

The Third Settlers – Mantellans

On 23 April 1300, Mantellan explorer Christóbal Bronzino landed on the island at the modern day port city of Alsciarki. Without consultation with the monarchy back in Mantella, Christóbal returned to the island with 300 Conquistatori in 1302 and overthrew the 3 emirs who ruled the island at the time. Christóbal renamed the island L’isola Georgiana after Saint George. Christóbal demanded that the Mantellan Kingdom grant him rulership over the island as “Emiro dell’isola Georgiana”. For 3 years, Christóbal ruled the island before admiral Monte Calvacanti under the orders of King Emmanuel IV forced Christóbal to return to Modena. In his place, Calvacanti took over the ruling of the island, where he became the first Viceroy of L’isola Georgiana.

As viceroy, Calvacanti sought the conversion of the Algenubans to the Mantellan Apostolic Church. Many Algenuban mosques within the largest towns and cities were converted into cathedrals, with many of the rest destroyed by the Conquistatori who formed roaming bands of pillagers and mercenaries throughout the interior of the island. It was only in 1328 did Calvacanti bring an end to the Conquistatori by force, using the armies supplied to him from Mantella to bring the Conquistatori leaders to court, where they were executed. Still, for the next several decades, smaller groups of self-proclaimed Conquistatori would terrorise Algenuban settlements in the interior of the island. In 1333 Calvacanti – with approval from the crown – divided the viceroyalty of L’isola Georgiana into three provinces – Provincia di San Giorgio, Provincia della Vera Croce, and Provincia del Venerdì.

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:pic: Map of the Viceroyalty of L’isola Georgiana in 1333.

Calvacanti also appointed two puppet emirs, both from the House of Shida in 1336. One emir was situated in the Provincia della Vera Croce, and the other in Provincia del Venerdì. In the Republic of Giorgio, the Emiro della Vera Croce of the House of Shida still remains as the figurehead of the Algenuba people, despite Muslims making up less than 10% of the Algenuba people in San Giorgio. The current Emiro della Vera Croce, Giovenco bin Averardo Al Shida, is a member of the Mantellan Apostolic Church.

In 1341 Calvacanti died at the age of 63, having ruled as viceroy for 27 years.

In 1342 Vincenzo degli Domenici was appointed the second Viceroy of L’isola Georgiana. Under Vincenzo’s governorship, the first attempt by the Ibericans to take the island from the Mantellans began in 1348 with the Iberic navy attempting a landing on the island. Vincenzo’s own fleet successfully repelled the Iberic navy twice before a storm forced the Ibericans to flee back north on April 4th 1348. It was also under Vincenzo’s reign that Mantellans were first encouraged to settle on the island. This was done in part to discourage future Iberican attempts to take the island from the Mantellan crown, as well as ramped up attempts at conversion of the local Muslim population. In 1353, he founded the Domenician Order – a Mantellan Apostolic Church organisation that would be used to spy on and arrest key Muslim individuals within the urban areas of the island. Later in 1358 the Inquisizione di San Giorgio was established as a series of judicial institutions across the island to uphold Catholic laws and for where Muslims arrested by the Domenician Order were tried and sentenced. Vincenzo died in 1363 at the age of 57.

Both men – Calvacanti and Vincenzo – remain controversial figures in Georgianan history, and especially so by the Algenubans. In 1992 San Jorge’s president Fernando Seve, the first president of San Jorge from the Jorge Rural y Partido Socialista Campesino (JRPSC) party, banned the erecting of statues of the two men in public spaces. Later, all statues of the men were either destroyed or placed in museums. In San Giorgio’s capital, Sabato, a statue of Calvacanti still remains at the Rotonda del 4 Aprile despite legislative attempts at having it removed in 1964, 1967, 1984, and 2023. The current president of San Giorgio – Celsco degli Salvadori – has publicly stated that he will “personally melt that damned statue down” during his campaign in 2022. For the Algenubans, Vincenzo is an especially controversial figure. Older generations praising him for his missionary work, whereas the younger generation vilify him as having stripped the Algenubans of their unique religious and cultural practises.

Throughout the rest of the 14th century up, several viceroys were appointed by the Mantellan kings. The Iberican Kingdom attempted to invade Georgiana two more times, in 1371 and 1398. Both times the Iberican navy was forced to retreat and never made landfall on the island.

In March 8th 1450, under viceroy Marco de Constantis, the 4th Iberican invasion of Georgiana occurred during the War of the South Byzantine. The Iberican naval officer Agustin de Segovia made landfall at modern day Santa Isabel. For five years Agustin’s army blockaded the island and siege the cities of Sabato, Aldagico, Abute, and Almendara in southern Georgiana. The war ended on the 6th of June 1455. Agustin himself travelled from Sabato to Santa Isabel where he was escorted by the Iberican navy to Constantinopla where the Treaty of Constantinopla was signed by all parties.

In the end, the provinces of Vera Croce and Venerdì were sold to the Iberican crown and the Viceroyalty of L’isola Georgiana was formally dissolved. On the Iberican side of the island, the Viceroyalty of Nueva Byzasia was created. On the Mantellan side, the Kingdom of San Giorgio with Leonardo II – son of Niccolo I, the king of Mantella at the time — as its head.

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:pic: Map of the island of Georgiana in 1456. Mantellan settlements, coloured and named on the map.

Edited by Xio
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