NationStates Jolt Archive

Yes, today the Commonwealth of Bungussi and Djanvallaland is an independent nation, but its history is full of holes.

I am looking to have a role-play set in the past, probably the early/mid Cold War period in reality, to deal with the nation's founding.

I need one or two European-style (well, white, anyway, ideally at least one English-speaking) nations to be former colonial powers ruling what is now the Commonwealth, and could possibly accomodate a minor role for a third.

What's going to happen

Djanvallaland's white elite minority is to unilaterally declare independence, and send security forces into neighbouring Bungussi, which is less populated, poorer, and has an even smaller white minority.

In the end, the Djanvalla Republic will essentially annex Bungussi and create the modern minority white lead Commonwealth.

Djanvallaland certainly needs a Euro-style colonial power that established it as a moderately prosperous African outpost and put in place some of the structures that exist in the current white-dominated government.

Bungussi could be ruled by the same power or a second Euro-style colonial power. It is land-locked, and hard to access by any way other than Djanvallaland, and this partly explains how little Djanvallaland is able to over-run it without larger, richer colonial powers being able to stop it.

The resulting conflict should be relatively low intensity, because the colonial power or powers don't view small, poor Bungussi and Djanvallaland as top priorities at the time, or because their populations are feeling uneasy about being imperialists. Otherwise Djanvallaland will just get smacked down, and what's the point in that?

If there's another involved power, it could be because a third Euro nation originally colonies Bungussi and/or Djanvallaland, but were overwhelmed by the eventual masters. Sort of like Dutch colonists in South Africa. So perhaps some of the whites would identify more with that nation than with the actual colonial power of the day.

Anyway, before I go on, is anyone interested? Post WWII, pre modern era low intensity bush war, where you only use only a small fraction of your military strength and ultimately lose, or at least are forced to give up on the conflict and pull out because it isn't worth the resources that would be needed to win.

The Commonwealth could end up friendly with one or other involved colonial power, or enemies to all, I don't really mind!

Today Bungussi and Djanvallaland is a racially segregated nation, where 15% of the population is white and holds virtually all of the power over more than 80% population of blacks and a few other tiny minorities.

I'll do it. Exponent is a nation that had an African Empire until the early 1900's, when it couldn't keep up anymore and just fell in on itself. During the 60's it got stuck in Vietnam like scenes, andhad a rough bunch of years ahead of it, fell into isolation, and eventually collapsed, and was rebuilt as the Confederacy

Sounds like that might work.

I'm nearly finished here for the day, so will have to start it later in the week, but that'll give us time to get some ideas, I suppose.

In the meanwhile I'd like to see if anyone else wants to be the former ruler of Bungussi, or if it's just going to end up having been yours as well.

Whoever does rule Bungussi will have to have been largely reliant on your colony of Djanvallaland for access to Bungussi. Bungussi really is a dump, where the natives were in a daily battle to survive when colonists came along and thought they'd take over just because they could, not because they really stood to gain much from it. If anyone tries to defend it, it will probably be because of pride more than anything.

Sounds good.

Okay, I just tried to post an IC thread, but it isn't showing up. I think it might be because my account is new, and I'm hoping that it'll show-up once a moderator has checked it or something, but obviously I can't link it until then!

Just incase it is lost and I have to re-post it, I'll put a copy of it here, and you and anyone else who is interested can have a look, tell me if anything's wrong, and prepare a response for when the thread eventually shows up.

10th of April, 1962, Djatini, Dominion of Djanvallaland

"...is, in this, the year of our Lord 1962, absolved of allegiance to that Empire."

A standing ovation greeted Lumboldt Kircher as he concluded a historic speech that unilaterally declared the independence of Djanvallaland and the creation of the Djanvalla Republic. What was perhaps most astounding was that the local administration had not even informed the government back in Exponent of the plan to hold a parliamentary vote on independence. Hardly less surprising was that the vote had passed without a single dissenting voice in Djatini, the Dominion's capital, which the new Republic's parliament was about to rename Kircherstadt, in honour of the colonial Prime Minister it intendend to make President.

The Djanvalla Republic was sticking out its very young neck by the unilateral move. Populated by just 4.5 million souls, Djanvallaland was a small part of the African empire commanded by vastly more powerful Exponent, and the breakaway Parliament was a 100% white affair in a nation with three blacks for every European.

Possibly even worse for the Republic's future, Djanvallaland had thousands of square kilometres of world-class agricultural land on which crops and, more importantly, prime livestock had been raised for years to relatively great financial benefit in the Empire, and also contained large deposits of gold as well as economically viable deposits of iron, other useful metals, and natural gas, and had smaller but not entirely insignificant oil reserves. The Republic had the potential to become quite wealthy as African nations go, but perhaps also reason enough for the declaration of independence to be seen as more than just an affront to honour.

Worse yet, the dominion's small but fairly well-regarded white-dominated security forces appeared to be mobilising...

OOC thread here! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=553783) Drop by, we're still interested in getting one or maybe two more colonial powers involved, and I'm open to wider international reaction. We're starting out in the 1960s, as you can see, in order to build my nation's history and explain how we came to be a racially segregated pariah state.

Sounds good. One quick thing though....Exponent is actually a white African nation that ran an Empire on the continent, is that ok? I am really hoping you say yes because this would be huge for my nations storyline too. In fact, if you do say yes, I have a whole series of RP's we could have together at later dates.

Ah, all right then!

I imagine Bungussi to be certainly landlocked, and Djanvallaland is either also landlocked, or has a very small coastline that probably lacks good natural harbours et cetera, so perhaps another African nation arriving in Djanvallaland over-land makes more sense, anyway.

Here is the IC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=553875), I'll just see if I need to fiddle with the details a bit, now.

If anyone else is interested, now's the time to speak up!

As another African nation you may be interested by this:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13597424#post13597424

I think I could fill any role you really wanted me too. From '62 to '77 the Uir Blue Party was internally split right down the middle on social issues. The Prime Minister was what could've been considered a 'hippie' while the President was 'traditional'. This led to harsh rule in the few colonies Uiri had at the time but very liberal stances on social issues within the homeland.

Ah, cool. This all kicks off in '62, when Djanvallaland declares independence from Exponent, but Bungussi could be part of Uiri's empire, if you like.

As I say, Bungussi will be pretty backwards at the time, and you can only access it easily through Djanvallaland. It's possible to get in other ways, but natural barriers -jungle, rivers, cliffs, desert- and sheer distances have prevented the development of proper infrastructure, so it isn't viable to maintain the sparsely populated colony without the railway that runs through Djanvallaland to the fringes of Bungussi. I'm assuming that nobody's wanted to spend millions building a major road or railway through thousands of kilometres of this terrain just for the sake of a backwater little colony with a few thousand whites and a few tens of thousands of blacks, and there's probably only a couple of little old aircraft, like DC3s or something, operating off a dirt strip runway somewhere in the country.

At the moment, not much has happened in Bungussi, but the situation in Djanvallaland will be cause for concern for anyone who wants to hold on to Bungussi for political reasons, or because they've got wind of the possible mineral deposits that are yet to be explored in the remote interior.

Sorry for the delay, guys.

I'd be interested in joining in.

My nation was quite isolationist during the sixties but would have acted to protect any investments in Bungussi-Djanvallaland, particularly the farmland.

Whites? Not pure. I suppose you are not aware of Uiri's deeper history. Uiri was itself a colony and knows the pain of oppression and whatnot. The natives are Micronesians so it would be english-french-native hybrids and due to the fact that they know the pain of colonization and the risk of the governor being killed they would do basically whatever to avoid revolution.

Yes, I realize that this basically contradicts what I said earlier. Think '50's social attitudes but avoiding revolution by any means necessary.

from '77 to '87 the Blues were trying to legitimate their harsh rule on the colonies and finally lost to the Green Party. The Oranges struggled against the Green Party and the Green Party held rule over both houses before people realize the effect they had on the economy and the Blues have been ruling since.

The Green were doing foreign policy from '87 to '02 and the natural resources of colonies who were colonies at the time but brok away in the late '90's would have very well preserved resources.

Vetalia is in fact an African nation, with Russian-speaking white citizens. It's pretty likely if you're located in West Africa that we had something to do with you at one point or another.