NationStates Jolt Archive

Jipangu, meaning Land of Gold, was the name that Marco Polo initially gave to Japan, based on rumors of its inexhaustible wealth. To her east, cutting across the Tropic of Cancer, Jipangunesia saw relatively little outside involvement for an unusually long time during the early colonial period, and as such kept the name, supposedly meaning, "islands that are near Japan" even after Japan had ceased to be known as Jipangu.

Later, especially as trans-Pacific commerce grew in importance, Jipangunesia's 1,807 mid-ocean islands (612 of which are permanently inhabited) gained significance as stop-over points and as direct sources of timber and other goods. More recently they have provided cheap labour, and lately encouraging fossil fuel prospects, ensuring that their division and exploitation has seen no end. Today a number of different factions and individuals claim to be the effective or rightful government, with Samepeng being most usually considered the capital. Low-intensity armed conflict is somewhat chronic, further hindering the long-suffering, reclusive land's modernisation.

Only recently has Jipangunesia's isolated population begun to grow significantly, creating new problems and increasing the intensity of competition and of resulting clashes. Natural hazards in the form of tropical diseases, earthquakes, volcanic activity, tropical storms, an incalculable weight of dangerous fauna, and dependence upon monsoons that may be threatened by artificially motivated climate change hardly make life easier or brighten Jipangunesia's future.

1,401,021sq.km total area
1,297,498sq.km land area
103,523sq.km water area
-Jipangunesia's gigantic sprawl adds to complications, but at least gives the growing population somewhere to go.

In relatively sophisticated (in parts) Samepeng, local media outlets have taken -with a morbid sense of self-deprecating humour- to lampooning the on-going power struggles, with one popular radio personality mocking a smarmy, self-interested politician's attempts to win support by pleasing everybody from ambitious urbanite to paeleolithic tribesman. "Shrunken-heads for some, digital-watches for others!" exclaimed the talk-show host.

(If anybody would like to get involved in RPing with Jipangunesia, they can post here or telegram me to make modern diplomatic advances or to ask that their nation be considered one of the many that has historically visited or even exploited and tried to colonise parts of the archipelago.)

(Hurrah! No views! A triumphal introduction :( )

(Bump so that at least somebody will have heard of Jipangunesia when I decide where to start things from!)

His Excellency
President Bongo
of the
Democratic Republic of Phonque

offers his fraternal greetings and those of the people of the Democratic Republic to the people and leaders of
Jipangunesia

OOC: *tag* : I can only keep one story in my head at a time, but I'll be back, oh yes siree!

OOC: Perhaps you ought just to make a statement to the world saying your opening yourself up for trade, investment and embassy exchanges.

When Jipangunesia has called-out to the world, it has done so with numerous voices barking in disunity. With over six-hundred inhabited islands and a history of exploitation by multiple foreign powers, the Pacific chain -certainly not America, but somehow not quite Asia, either- contained no small number of ethnic groups, mostly of quite closely related Asian stock somewhere in prehistory, often living in fairly extreme isolation and with their own cultures and political and economic systems.

For example, President Syungma Santosoputra had recently been seeking international recognition of his self-proclaimed title, inviting foreign statesmen and businessmen to his recently-declared capital of Samepeng. Sadly, it was highly questionable as to whether a majority of even that city recognised him as their leader, let alone a majority on the big island of Tingun upon which the city was based, and certainly there was no majority support or even familiarity for Mr.Santosoputra across the whole of the Jipangunesian Archipelago.

Just to the south across the Chowhaiil Strait, another primary (one of the larger half-dozen plus) islands, Powlomo, boasted a mountainous jungle interior covering tens of thousands of virgin square kilometres housing untold numbers of stone-age tribes who recognised no leadership beyond their own ill-recognised territories. On the east coast of that island, Benging called itself capital of the Ban Kingdom under Emperor Ban Xuande, who believed himself regent of the vast island regardless of what the primitive tribes and villages thought, and certainly did not recognise Samepeng's authority.

Similar situations existed throughout the chain, and even within Samepeng there were challenges to Santosoputra's authority. They came from eccentrics who called themselves emperors, tribal leaders, businessmen who had their own preferred canditates, students attempting to organise plebiscites, leaderless communes, and just about anything and anyone else that could be imagined.

One might call the whole nation a cold war just short of the boil.

I think that I will try to start a proper RP thread based in Jipangunesia, quite soon, so this is just another chance to have a look at very very basically what the nation is like before I work out some more details and get things going.

Perhaps people will be interested to know these facts ahead of time-

*1,807 islands comprise Jipangunesia

*612 are permanently inhabited, many others are visited by hunters from other islands and sometimes by foreign adventuring tourists and explorers or scientists, while a few are home to primitive migrant populations that move back and forth for reasons largely unknown

*22 are larger than 1,000sq.km, most other inhabited islands contain only tiny paeleolithic tribes or generations-old estates formerly belonging to colonial ambassadors, governors, or entrepreneurs and now owned by anything from experimental utopian communities to eccentric self-made kings of precious few subjects.

It may be possible for other nations to have ex-pat individuals who have set themselves up on tiny [not more than a few square kilometres] islands, as insane rulers or members of experimental communities. This would not be a land-grab for foreign states, but an oportunity for others to RP a slightly unusual, less stately character or characters in isolation. Just shout if interested, and I'll eventually start a thread dealing with Jipangunesia's various factions as they try variously to unite, divide, buy, sell, destroy, and save the vast archipelago!

OOC: I'd like to have an ethnic Phonquian population descended from indentured servants imported by their colonial masters to work on Jipangunesian cotton plantations, or similar. Except I don't want to have to RP some kind of uprising, cos I'm already doing one! (Khuduk rebellion in Kanarra! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=392028))

I'll RP the history of this once we get started, and I promise to think up some kind of story to tell with these guys too.

BTW: Loving your work on Murky Depths (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=392534) so far.

Jipangunesia's six hundred and twelve permanently inhabited islands fostered many things. While unity and central government weren't amongst them, fishing certainly was. :D

Thanks!

I think that you should be welcome with that idea, yes.

The chain is going to pretty much explode with every imaginable type of society, government, faith, and ideology trying to get hold of territory left and right, and foreign nations may wish to become directly involved to push their own agendas, but in a sea of conflict there can always be oases of calm or whatever may be going on at a forgotten plantation. Probably no faction will want to fight on all of the hundreds of islands, so one such as that which you propose may be able to have peaceful contact with various others, in time.

I don't know, yet, I'll just have to see how to incorporate the big issues of the nation at large with the many small elements dotted around. For now, I'll go and have a look at that uprising of yours :)

(A bump for views and interest in the archipelago while I think about how to start the chaos)