The Aqumis Free State

The Aqumis Republic, formally known as the Aqumis Free State, is the smallest of Minecraftia's three nations, having been founded during the early Fourth Era. It consists of a series of tropical islands. The population is small, equal to the Imperial city of Helmira. A president is elected every 5 years. Two trade companies, the Western Trade Company and the Eastern Trade Company control the large amount of trade that brings Aqumis it’s wealth. Aqumis, relative to its size, is the wealthiest nation in Minecraftia.

History

The Republic began life as a remote Alcanzari colony, where a small elite ruled over a large slave population who had been moved to the island from mainland Alcanzar to tend to its chocolate plantations, under the Alcanzar Trade Company or the A.T.C.. During the early Fourth Era, a violent slave rebellion erupted when the future first president of Aqumis, a slave by the name of Carlos Guerrero killed his masters at the Cortez Plantation, after which he, together with the other slaves of the plantation, stormed and captured the undermanned Ruiz Sea fort. Using the fort's vast armoury they began a campaign of freeing the other plantations on the numerous islands that made up the Aqumis colony. The governor's militia was comprised of a small force of the Alcanzari Provincial Army, the vast majority of which were slaves themselves. The majority of the slave soldiers of the militia quickly mutinied and sided with the rebels, joining Guerrero's cause.

The governor, Lord Fernando Mendoza, managed to organise a small civilian home guard of the free citizens of the islands capital, Puerto Esperanza, and they prepared for a siege. A ship of the Alcanzar Trade Company was used to send an emergency message back to the Alcanzari capital city, Solleria.

Upon receiving the news of the rebellion, High-Lord Vinkhuys personally rode to the Empire's capital, Helmira, for an audience with the Emperor. He was however denied, only receiving a brief audience with the Grand Chancellor, due to rising hostilities between Kythira and Imperius during the Great Arms Race. The Crown, deeming a bunch of breakaway slaves a minor threat that the Kythirans could easily snuff out, only gave the Alcanzari High-Lord access to two small ships of the Mediori Fleet and 100 infantry soldiers of the Imperial Legion. This "fleet" was send out two months after the High-Lord had arrived in Helmira.

When this force eventually reached Aqumis, Puerto Esperanza had already fallen. The governor, Lord Mendoza, had been imprisoned by the rebels, but most of the upper class population of Aqumis had been butchered in a series of raids across the islands' settlements and plantations. A short battle occurred on the beaches of Puerto Esperanza, where the Kythiran army of 100 soldiers was thoroughly defeated by the Freedmen Armies of Guerrero, which at this point numbered around 8000 men. The latter, having found the historical epic 'Historia' in the library of the governor, had found inspiration in the Federation of Provinces rudimentary forms of Republicanism in the Second Era, and had taken up the title of President of Aqumis.

When the Crown learned of the defeat, the Alcanzari High-Lord was blamed for the disaster, due to both not properly informing the Tower about the severity of the rebellion, as well as not having send their own soldiers into battle. High-Lord Vinkhuys however had predicted that sending the Alcanzari slave armies into battle against the rebels would pose the significant risk of the spirit of rebellion spreading further across the province.

President Guerrero send an envoy to the High-Lord, offering peace and the safe return of Lord Mendoza, as well as allowing all surviving free Alcanzari to leave Aqumis, in exchange for formal recognition of Aqumis as an independent state.

Due to the Lotrican Genocide in the late Fourth Era the Republic saw a great influx of refugees from the former Duchy of Lotric.