Planicia

Planicia (Spanish: Planicia) (pronounced /pləniʃə/, /planisia/ in Spanish) officially known as the Federation of Planicia (Spanish: Federación de Planisia), is a sovereign state in South America. With a population of 55,000,654, it is the 25th most populous country.

Planicia is a federal presidential constitutional republic with a President as the head of state and a Vice President as it's deputy. It has 723 seats in it's parliament and is considered the most prosperous country in South America.

It's history started by natives exploring it, who were mostly hunter gatherers, though some cultures where in the northern areas. Soon, Spanish and Portuguese explored Planicia.

In 1809, wealthy landowners revolted against the already weak Spanish occupiers, and won. Planician landowners became rich faster than before, but the people still weren't happy.

In 1824, the Brazilian Empire invaded Planicia. The Planicians won the battle, but the oligarchy was weakened due to the amount of casualties from the war.

In 1826, there was a civil war in Planicia, and rebel democratic forces won it after three years, and installed a new government and constitution. Post-war recovery began, and Planicia was becoming a dominant power in South America even rivaling European countries.

Etymology
"Planicia" derives from the Portuguese word "planícies" meaning "plains". It was given by Portuguese explorers during the era when Planicia was a viceroyalty of Spain. "-ia" is a Latin feminine suffix, which is commonly put after names. It means a wide variety of things, but in this case it could mean "land of", so "Planicia" roughly means "Land of Plains", and Planicia would be referred to as a female.

War of Independence
For many slave owners and wealthy land owners, the Spanish were unfair to them. They wanted to have power over everything instead of the king, but the king of Spain would threaten many landowners seeking to revolt with harsh corporal punishment.

However though, Spain was then invaded by Napoleon and turned into a puppet state. Like other Spanish colonies, Planicia revolted. Wealthy land owners fought against their colonizers. Due to French occupation, Spain was weakened and couldn't send more troops to intervene. Thus, Planicia gained independence.

Period of Oligarchy
For 30 years since the independence revolt, it was an oligarchy ruled by the upper-class citizens. Many people weren't even allowed to do simple things, and slavery was extremely common. The leaders quickly started becoming richer than they were before, and slave shopping was a popular industry for the upper-class in this time period.

Brazilian Invasion
Planicia was invaded by the Brazilian Empire in 1824, due to Planician claims on Uruguay. With European weapons, after 6 months of heavy war on both sides, Planicia won and gained Uruguay. This would weaken Planicia though, with heavy casualties and half of their manpower lost. As a result, the country was weakened.

Planician Civil War
On October 23rd 1826, Juan Marcos and 200 other rebels took control of the city of Espera and declared the oligarchy to be illegitimate. Within days, the rebels had taken an entire province. The leader quickly sent 3,000 troops to deal with the situation, but another rebel faction sprung up in the north, the APP (Anarquía Para Planicia, Anarchy For Planicia) with the goal of bringing Anarchy to Planicia.

Eventually, it became a long conflict that lasted three years, with heavy losses on both sides.

Post-War Recovery
After the war, many Planicians started to protest against the Oligarchy for harshly dealing with the rebels and causing horrific crimes. Protests continued and the aristocrats in Planicia were in jeopardy. Eventually, protests started turning violent and the slaves went on strikes. Many Planician aristocrats fled to other countries for solace, but the remaining oligarchs had more and more to deal with.

Eventually, on March 2nd, 1839, the government was overthrown and a democracy was instituted. The new democrats promised to make a US style government and abolish slavery. Many reforms were made in this time. By 1845, slavery was abolished.

Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution started rising all over the world. Many planicians who were previously farmers used to make a good income from selling crops to the government and other countries found out they were getting less and less sales from other powers. They started realizing that there was a reason to this.

War with Paraguay
After the post-war recovery, Planicia was becoming a stronger country, even rivaling some European powers. When Paraguay invaded Brazil, Planicia knew Paraguay wouldn't be able to win, so they entered the war on Brazil's side. Within 6 days, Planician troops were in Asuncion. 3 days later, after having to deal with guerrilla warfare by Paraguayan troops, Planicia claimed victory over Paraguay. Planicia, following the war's results managed to gain all of Paraguay.

This cemented Planicia as a stronger country, and it was starting to worry some. Of course another side effect of this is Lopez feeling more like a failure, but that didn't matter to them.

Interwar Period
Planicia bought land in the Gran Chaco from Bolivia.

Politics
Planicia is a federal constitutional presidential republic, like the United States. Before the Planician Civil War, it was an oligarchy ruled by the wealthiest people, including ones that had slave plantations. But after the civil war, presidents have been elected. The country has seen political stability since.

A lot of Planician politicians have technical backgrounds, which would technically make the country a technocracy. The President of Planicia is the head of state and government, while the Vice President of Planicia is their deputy. The legislature has 723 seats.

Elections
Elections in Planicia are held every five years. There are two terms each five years, and they have to be consecutive. That means that if you lose the second term, you can't run for president again. And after two consecutive terms, you can't run for president again.

Electronic voting is popular in the entire country, as due to modernization people have looked to more efficient ways of voting.

Political Parties
Planicia uses a multi-party system, with the winning party getting at most 30% of the vote. The political parties that have gotten 20% or more of the vote in the past 10 years are the NPP, FPP and the PCP. Currently, the NPP is the new party. The NPP has slightly technocrat-oriented economic beliefs with right wing policies.

There are many minor parties in Planicia, though most of them don't have seats in the parliament.

Foreign Relations
Planician foreign policy is conducted by the Planician Agency for Foreign Affairs. Planicia has established relations with many countries. The country has been shown to be hostile and neglecting of Maduro's government in Venezuela and support Juan Guaido, while when Hugo Chavez was in power, they were neutral on their government.

They have had relations with the United States including summits at various places, though Juan Jose Ortiz said in a press statement: "The American policy in the middle east can't make it better. I request justice for these poor people." which was slightly controversial, though many think he was talking about George W. Bush rather than America itself.

They also met with Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Poland, U.K and 10 other countries. Juan Jose Ortiz is currently scheduling a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss peace talks.

During the Cold War, Planicia had involvement in the Rhodesian Bush War, due to them supporting Rhodesia only to prevent the spread of ZAPU due to Soviet backing, though the troops were only medics for Rhodesian soldiers. They were on the American side, though joined the Non-Aligned movement with Yugoslavia due to their "lack of a need for involvement."

Geography
Planicia is located mostly in the Rio de la Plata, a strategic region known for it's extremely high soil quality. In the northern area, the climate is usually hot and humid with rainy summers. The northern region's temperature ranges from 2 degrees celsius to 41 degrees celsius and an annual mean of 20 degrees celsius or above. The middle and lower parts of the country are subtropical. to temperate and have a 70 percent humidity level. The mean rainfall is 44 inches.

Plant life
Plant life in Planicia is diverse. In the east upper Parana basin, there are many forests with valuable evergreens, such as the Parana pine tree, valued for softwood lumber. The west area is mostly grassland used for cattle. In the flooded areas are plants in the wetlands like the hyacinth, amazon water lily, trumpetwood and guama. Along rivers and streams are palms like the muriti, carandá and various species of quebracho trees. The quebracho trees are valued as a source of tannin. In the Gran Chaco, there are clusters of bushes, trees and savannas, with drought-tolerant thorny shrubs. East of the Gran Chaco, there are lapacho trees and evergreen shrubs known as "llex paraguarienis", known for their leaves which are used to make yerba maté, a tea-like beverage popular in South America.

Animal life
Planicia is home to the rare La Plata dolphin, many species of sea turtles, catfish, surubí, manduva, patí, pacu, corbina, pejerrey, meat-eating piranhas and the dorado or the mahi-mahi, resembling a salmon, it is also the official animal. There are many reptiles in Planicia, there are two caiman species, iguana lizards, rattlesnakes, water boas, yararás, frogs, toads, and freshwater crabs. It is also home to many birds and herons and storks.

Education
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Economy
The GDP of Planicia is 2.456 trillion, and it's GDP per capita is 44,654, close to Japan's. Traditionally, Agriculture was a very big industry, but over time, exports from Europeans started the industrialization of Planicia.

Languages
The official language is Spanish. In the areas closest to Brazil, there is a large Portuguese speaking population. Spanish is the first language of many, but soon they learn English for trade purposes. Signs are monolingual in most areas, but in the Portuguese speaking areas, they are bilingual: Spanish and Portuguese.

Culture
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Media
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