Nzardom of Gandoor

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Nzardom of Gandoor
1603–1902
Flag of Gandoor
Motto: For the Grace of God and Nzard
CapitalNew London (1603-1625)
Rulookia (1625-1841)
Great Palace City (1841-1902)
Common languagesEnglish
Religion Church of Gandoor (Protestant)
GovernmentAbsolute monarchy (1603-1885)
Constitutional monarchy (1885-1902)
Nzard 
• 1603-1631
Alexander I (first)
• 1889-1902
William II (last)
LegislatureRoyal Parliament
(1837-1849)
Parliament of the Nzardom of Gandoor
(1885-1902)
Chamber of Loyals (1837-1849)
Chamber of the Citizenry (1837-1849)
History 
• Crowning of Alexander I
15 March 1603
• Gandoor Revolution
28 July 1900
• Abdication of William II and dissolution
9 September 1902
Area
19028,313,213 km2 (3,209,749 sq mi)
Population
• 1902
35,106,310
CurrencyGandoorese pound (until 1779)
Gdyn (after 1779)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Gandoor Grand Council
Interim Revolutionary Government
Today part of Gandoor

The Nzardom of Gandoor was the historical Gandoorese state that existed from the crowning of Alexander I in 1603 until the abdication of William II in 1902, two years prior to the establishment of the modern Democratic Republic of Gandoor.

Originating as various independent settlements by English exiles, the Gandoor Grand Council was established as the first unified government in Gandoor in 1587. Prior to dissolving itself, the Fourth Gandoor Grand Council passed an act declaring the establishment of a monarchy after it dissolved, which came to pass on 15 March 1603 with the crowning of Alexander Jacobson as Alexander I, Nzard of Gandoor.

While the Nzardom Gandoor would consist of merely a portion of the northwestern and western part of the Gandoorese landmass at its establishment, expansionist policies would see the territory growing rapidly, with almost fifty percent of Gandoor being under control of the Nzardom by 1700.

From its establishment until 1885, the Nzardom of Gandoor was an absolute monarchy, although an elected and weak parliament did briefly exist from 1837 until 1849. The Nzards and Nzarinas of Gandoor were free to govern as they pleased and any advice given to them by their advisors was merely considered suggestions on how to govern.

In 1885, during the reign of Alexander III, the Gandoorese Parliament was created, a permanent legislature that couldn't be dissolved by the monarch, followed shortly by the codification of a constitution, turning Gandoor into a constitutional monarchy and limiting the monarch's power for the first time in history.

Despite the creation of a permanent legislature and checks on the monarch's power, however, the Nzardom of Gandoor would be dissolved in 1902 following a non-violent revolution that began in 1900. The monarchy would be replaced by an Interim Revolutionary Government and ultimately by the modern Democratic Republic of Gandoor in 1904.

History

17th Century

On 25 February 1603, the Fourth Gandoor Grand Council passed an act declaring that a monarchy would be established shortly following the impending dissolution of the Gandoor Grand Council. On 15 March 1603, two weeks following the dissolution of the Gandoor Grand Council, the Nzardom of Gandoor was formally established with the crowning of Alexander Jacobson as Nzard Alexander I.

As the first Nzard of Gandoor, Alexander I began his reign by attempting to unify Gandoor religiously, he declared Protestantism the official religion of the state and sent messengers to make it known to the Catholic and Jewish minorities that they were to convert or face punishments. Despite facing resistance, he held firm with his declaration and, in 1605, declared that the mandatory conversion to Protestantism would also apply to slaves, who had previously been granted the freedom to continue practicing their native religions.

In 1607, war was declared on the Tetsu Peoples, one of the native tribes of Gandoor, beginning the Gandoor-Native Wars which would last until 1835. Shortly after the start of the war, Alexander I declared that 'The savages who border us will be eliminated, whether it is via them being conquered and assimilating into our European culture or their deaths doesn't matter to us, savages have no place on the Island of Gandoor'.

Gandoor would achieve quick military dominance over the Tetsu Peoples in their war against them, conquering nearly half of their land by the time the new capital city of Rulookia was established in 1625, which was located in a part of the Nzardom that had been Tetsu territory only a few years previous.

Alexander I died on 29 August 1631 and was succeeded by his son, Joseph. While Joseph I would only reign until 1648, dying at the age of 58 due to complications from pneumonia, his reign would see a peace treaty between the Nzardom and the Tetsu Peoples in 1645.

Unfortunately, the peace treaty between Gandoor and the Tetsu Peoples would be revoked in 1657 by Nzard Frederick I, the successor to Joseph I, who would resume the campaign of aggression against the native peoples, which would lead to the total conquering of the Tetsu territories by 1674.

During the rest of the 17th century, Gandoor would continue to expand its territory, conquering any native villages and tribes and forcing them to assimilate or face destruction. By the time the century came to a close, the Nzardom of Gandoor controlled nearly half of the Gandoorese landmass and had begun a war against the Zor Tribes of southern Gandoor.

18th Century

In 1710, Alexander II (who reigned as Nzard from 1686 until 1716) partially rescinded the mandatory conversion to Protestantism declared by his great-great-grandfather and namesake, stating 'Whilst the Protestant Church of Gandoor shall remain the official church of the state, I shall permit Catholics to practice their beliefs in private and in Catholic churches, so long as they do not attempt to convert followers of Protestantism'.

The longest serving Nzard of Gandoor was Rebecca I, who was also the first female Nzard and was formally styled as Nzarina. Rebecca I became Nzarina in 1741, at the age of 18 following the death of her grandfather, Nzard George I, and reigned for seventy-six years. Rebecca I is considered a more 'liberal' monarch in modern Gandoor and, while she didn't end the wars against the native peoples, she formally ended the policy of the destruction of native people in 1783, stating that 'the natives of this land deserve better than their destruction, they should be welcomed and taught the ways of the Gandoorese, as this will lift them from their uncivilised and savage lifestyles into one that should be seen as the end goal for all natives and savages around the world'. That same year, she officially abolished slavery in Gandoor, freeing the estimated 11,000 slaves in Gandoor at the time, who were predominantly from Indonesia, the Philippines, and China.

In 1779, the Gandoorese pound, which had been used since the establishment of the Gandoor Grand Council in 1587 was replaced by the gdyn, a decimal currency divided into 100 cendyns, which remains the currency used in Gandoor to the present day.

19th Century

Rebecca I's seventy-six year reign ended upon her death in 1817. She was succeeded by Joseph II, who ironically would have the shortest reign out of any monarch, only being Nzard for nine years. Due to his short reign, he was unable to enact many of his plans for Gandoor, including introducing some democratic reforms to the nation's governance.

In 1830, his successor William I passed a law granting all male landowners who were aged 30 or older the right to vote and run for office in local elections, as well as the right to establish political parties. This law legalized voting for the first time since the establishment of the Nzardom of Gandoor. Within a few weeks of the passage of the law, the first two political parties in Gandoor were established, the Traditionalist Party and the Progressive Party.

The Gandoor-Native Wars would come to an end in 1835 when the Ganba Peoples, the sole remaining native people who's land wasn't completely conquered by Gandoor, were completely forced off the mainland and established the Kingdom of Ganbano on the island of Descar, 50 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Gandoor. Gandoor and Ganbano signed a treaty formally recognizing the independence of the Kingdom of Ganbano, the first and only treaty where the Nzardom of Gandoor acknowledged a native nation as independent.

The first Gandoorese legislature was established in 1837, the Royal Parliament. Unlike legislatures in other countries, however, the Royal Parliament existed only at the whim of the monarch, who was responsible for determining the total number of seats for both houses, appointing the seats in the upper Chamber of the Loyals, as well as determined when elections took place. While the Royal Parliament would move with the monarchy to the newly constructed capital city of Great Palace City in 1841, it would ultimately be permanently disbanded in 1849.

William I would die in 1853, at the age of 90 and was succeeded by Gandoor's second and final female Nzard, Nzarina Rebecca II. In 1855, two years after coming to power, Rebecca II controversially ordered that the former Royal Palace in the City of Government, which housed the Gandoorese Royal Family from 1623 until 1841 be torn down, with its materials used for the expansion of the Palace of the Nzards.

Rising unrest during the late 1870s and early 1880s culminated in the Revolts of 1884, in which citizens marched upon both Great Palace City and the City of Government demanding the reestablishment of democracy in the national government, which had formally ceased following the dissolution of the Royal Parliament by Nzard William I in 1849.

In response to the Revolts of 1884, Nzard Alexander III declared the establishment of the Gandoorese Parliament in February 1885. In his declaration, he also stated that he would press for Parliament to codify a constitution for Gandoor, establishing the rights of citizens of the Nzardom and establishing checks and limitations on his own power. The Constitution of the Nzardom of Gandoor would be codified and passed by the Gandoorese Parliament on 13 July 1885, three months to the day after the first Members of Parliament elected took their seats on 13 April, formally transforming the Nzardom of Gandoor into a constitutional monarchy.

In 1886, following years of negotiations between the two countries, an agreement is signed between the Nzardom of Gandoor and the Kingdom of Ganbano which sees the dissolution of Ganbano and its replacement with the Descar Territory, a partially self-governing Gandoorese territory. As part of the agreement, all Ganba people were granted Gandoorese citizenship, becoming the first indigenous people to be unconditionally granted citizenship.

Following Alexander III's death at the age of 76 in September 1889, his son became Nzard William II. As the first monarch to rule entirely under constitutional authority, unlike his father who had been Nzard for fourteen years prior to establishing Parliament, he was sometimes referred to as Nzard of the Gandoorese.

While he openly declared that he wished to reform Gandoorese society, due to widespread economic inequality and poverty among the lower-classes; electoral corruption resulted in the election of MPs who either represented the desires of the upper-class or were members of the upper-class themselves, which led to only minimal reforms being passed by Parliament. Among these reforms included the passing of minimum wage laws in 1897, establishing a national minimum wage of 45 cendyns per hour, one of the first minimum wage laws in the world.

20th Century

On 28 July 1900, Chiba Masato, leader of the Gandoor Communist Party, to a crowd of 15,000 people in the City of Government delivered his Declaration on a State of Rebellion Against the Nzardom of Gandoor speech, an event considered the start of the Gandoor Revolution. In the speech, Masato called for a peaceful revolution emphasizing non-violence against the monarchy and the upper-class who abused their wealth and status at the expense of the poor and lower-class. The day after his speech, all MPs from both the Gandoor Communist Party and New Democratic Party announced their refusal to vote upon any new legislation in Parliament. As the two parties had the majority of seats in Parliament, this effectively brought the Gandoorese government to a standstill.

In early 1901, William II invoked the Royal Authority Act of 1885, enabling him to assume complete authority over the government as Parliament was refusing to perform their duties. Seizing the opportunity, the revolutionaries immediately began a relentless propaganda attack upon him for this decision, depicting him (and the monarchy as a whole) as tyrants who cared not for democracy but would easily return to the pre-1885 absolute monarchy if it suited them.

Encouraged by his personal advisors, William II began meeting with the revolutionaries near the end of November 1901. While adamant about preserving the monarchy, even entirely as a ceremonial one with no powers whatsoever, incidents during negotiations, including the announcement that the Conservative Royalist Party, the strongest supporter of the monarchy in Parliament, was dissolving itself in May 1902, led to the realization that the future of Gandoor would very likely be sans monarchy.

In a public appearance alongside Chiba Masato in July 1902, William I publicly announced his decision to abdicate and dissolve the throne of Gandoor, stating that incidents within the past several months led him to come to the decision that this was best for the nation, as he was afraid of what would happen had he remained on the throne. While he did not publicly state what he was fearful of, he had privately admitted to the revolutionaries that he was worried that a civil war would outbreak if he did not abdicate the throne.

On 9 September 1902, the Nzardom of Gandoor formally came to an end when documents were signed by William II officially declaring the dissolution of the House of Jacobson, which had ruled Gandoor since 1603, and that all government institutions were to be transferred to the control of Chiba Masato and the revolutionaries.

Demographics

In 1902, the Nzardom of Gandoor had an estimated population of 35.1 million, a significant increase over the 412 thousand recorded in the first census of the Nzardom of Gandoor in 1603.

While most citizens of the Nzardom were of English ancestry, there were small minorities of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French, German, and Dutch citizens who immigrated and moved to the nation, especially during the 18th century. Japanese and Russian immigration started to Gandoor in the late 1850s and, by 1900, it was estimated that 4% of Gandoorese citizens were of Japanese ancestry and 7% were of Russian ancestry. With the exception of the Ganba people, who were unconditionally granted citizenship when the Kingdom of Ganbano became the Descar Territory in 1886, indigenous Gandoorese could only attain citizenship if they were 'fully assimilated to into the culture of the white majority with no traces of the savagery of their ancestors left'.

The state religion was Protestantism, specifically the Church of Gandoor, with the level of religious freedom that was given to citizens varying throughout the years. For the first century of the Nzardom of Gandoor, adherence to the Church was mandatory by law and the Catholic and Jewish minorities were required to convert or face punishments.

During the 18th century, the freedom to practice their religion in private or in churches was granted to Roman Catholics, although followers of the Church of Gandoor were prohibited from converting. However, if a citizen could prove that their family had been a practicing Catholic prior to being forced to convert to the state church, authorities would give them permission to return to the Catholic Church of their ancestors. In 1789, the requirement for Jews to convert was lifted as well. Despite allowing Catholics and Jews to practice their religions, there was still widespread discrimination against them and they were forbidden from participating in many occupations and, in many regions of Gandoor, prohibited from voting following its legalization in 1830; they were also prohibited from being elected to the Royal Parliament.

The 1885 Constitution would reaffirm the Church of Gandoor as the state church, but also declared the freedom for all citizens to practice their own religions, establishing complete freedom of religion for the first time in Gandoor's history. Unlike in the Royal Parliament, non-members of the Church of Gandoor could be elected to the Gandoorese Parliament.

Despite the varying levels of religious freedom throughout the years, most citizens were members of the state church. In the 1885 census, 92% of citizens reported being a member of the Church of Gandoor.

Per the 1885 Constitution, the official language of Gandoor was English. According to the 1895 census, 87% of the population reported speaking English 'very well' or better.