The Age of Empire and Power in the Orange Free State: 1550-1670
The Orange Free State was once a grand empire, that at one time during the height of its power, around 1550 CE, controlled a large portion of modern day western Nikolaykraina, Northern Christmas Day, and Southern Beth Gellert and Ninot. Around 1600, after a series of periodic wars with neighboring countries, much of the great empire’s land had been lost, much of it to the growing empire of Nikolaykraina. In 1650, and new king came to power in the nation, King Yarslov III. Yarslov III attempted to regain the power of the former Empire, and raised a massive army to do just that. After 6 years of brutal and devastating war, in 1660, Yarslov III had regained much of the former Empire. After Yarslov’s death in 1670, a series of weak kings came to rule over the new empire. The army was cut back, and in only a few years, all land outside of the Nikolaykrainian territory was lost.
The Scientific Revolution: 1673-1677
With the ascension of Mikhail II to the throne of the Orange Free State, a scientific revolution began in the nation. Mikhail II, a fervent supporter of the sciences, spent huge sums of money on scientific research, spawning a whole system of state sponsored experiments in all fields of science. In many respects, the Orange Free State, due to this state sponsored method, surpassed all surrounding states, and even many of the more advanced southern states in such fields as chemistry, anatomy, mathematics, and even philosophy. Many Universities were established, the leading of which was the University of Ingria in the then capital of the empire. After Mikhail II died in 1677, with no heir, his brother, Ivan III cam to power. Ivan, a staunch Orthodox Christian, cut off all state funding to scientific thinkers, and funding for the universities were cut back. Though it would remain a scientific center, the Orange Free State were never reach the peak it did in the short four years of Mikhail’s rule.
Nikolaykraina’s Push for Empire: 1680-1696
After a short war with Nikolaykraina, in 1680, the Orange Free State was reduced to about seven times the size it is today, and severely weakened. The Orange Free State was nothing more then a Nikolaykrainian dependency until 1696. In 1696, a new king had risen to power in Nikolaykraina. Peter the Great, as he was called, modernized the Nikolaykrainian army, and that same year, invaded the Orange Free State. The war, known as the Nikolay-Orange War, didn’t last long. Due to a small and ineffective army, the Orange Free State was quickly absorbed into the vast Nikolaykrainian Empire.
It was then, in 1696 that Peter the Great established the capital of the new Orange Free Province, moving it from inland to the new port city of St. Petersburg, named after Peter himself. The “Window to the West”, as it was called, St. Petersburg would become an economic and cultural center of the new, vast, Nikolaykrainian Empire, and for a short time, during Peter the Great’s reign, would serve as the capital of the Empire.
Enlightenment in the Age of Imperial Domination: 1754-1784
Now under the influence of the enlightened emperors of Nikolaykraina and not the Orthodox kings of the old lineage, intellectual thought flourished in the Orange Free Province. Beginning in 1754 with the establishment of the University of St. Petersburg, the “Enlightenment” that had been spreading across the continent, finally reached the Province. The University of St. Petersburg and the University of Ingria were the centers of the Enlightenment in Nikolaykraina, expanding upon many of the established sciences, religion, and social sciences.
By 1779, many “Liberal” societies had been created. They discussed everything from the state of the current political system, to the established religion, to the humanist belief of individual rights. Religion was the target of many of the Enlightenment thinkers, who eventually came to agree with the ideas of Deism, where God was simply there to set natural laws in motion. The Orthodox Church, who stilled maintained much control in the system, attempted to suppress these new age thinkers, but to no avail, due to their popularity, and some support from the Nikolaykrainian Emperors of the time. The movement culminated in 1784, when liberalism was the dominant force in the province
The “Popular Revolution” and the Orange Republic: 1789-1795
Liberal Thought, the father of all Revolution, was rampant in the region at this time. In particular, the various provinces of Nikolaykraina were in open revolt. St. Petersburg, now a center of Liberal thought for the Province and much of the western empire, began to speak out against the government, and called for reform. Finally, in 1789, a group of predominant liberal revolutionaries, head by Alexi Zeitzev, led 1,500-armed militiamen and stormed the local noble’s estate. The estate was ransacked and burned to the ground, and the noble, the Nikolaykrainian Emperor’s second cousin, Baron Peter Brenov, was executed in the city center.
The “Popular Revolution,” as it was dubbed Zeitzev, had begun. The Orange Free Province was declared the Orange Republic, and Alexi Zeitzev was elected President of the new republic. Zeitzev quickly established a senate, and began raising an army for the impending Nikolaykrainian retaliation. When that retaliation never came, due to the empire attempting to crush revolution in other provinces, Zeitzev, a former general himself, led his new Republican Army on the offensive. The army, almost 150,000 strong, invaded Nikolaykraina in 1790.
The Orange Republican Army added in the independence of the provinces of Beth Gellert and Christmas Day, and with their combined armies, Nikolaykraina began losing large portions of their western frontier. For two years, the Republican Armies would advance, with the Orange Republican Army coming within miles of the imperial capital.
In 1794, wit the threat of other parts of the empire contained, the massive Nikolaykrainian army turned its sights of the western Republics. Within six months, Nikolaykraina had pushed the Republics back to their original boarders.
Quickly invading Beth Gellert and Christmas Day, those Republics were quickly subdued and reintegrated into the empire. The Orange Republic as next, and for the next six months, the province was mercilessly bombarded. Finally, on December 17, 1795, in the midst of a raging snowstorm, St. Petersburg was captured and Zeitzev executed. The Senate was shut down, and its members imprisoned for treason. A new Baron was put in place in the province, and imperial authority was restored in the Orange Free Province.
Revolution, the Great Independence, and the Spread of the Revolution: 1920-2003
In 1920, the grand Communist Revolution spread across Eastern Europe, with its roots in Nikolaykraina. The Monarchy in Nikolaykraina was swiftly, and brutally deposed, and all aspects of the former rule were eliminated. St Petersburg, one of the premier symbols of the monarchy, was renamed after the one of the father’s of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin. Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was renamed became a central city of the Baltic Area, becoming a “Capital of the Revolution.”
Beginning in 1989, Communist Governments were falling all over Eastern Europe. In Nikolaykraina, the Communist Government there was stagnating, devastated by corruption from mod bosses, and calls of a scrapping of the whole system from constantly protesting citizens. Finally, the Communist system in Nikolaykraina collapsed, leaving the country devoid of government and law. A weak democracy was quickly assembled, and law and order slowly returned to the country. On January 1, 1991, Leningrad, and a host of other neighboring cities, declared their independence from Nikolaykraina. This was the beginning of the City-State Republic Period, which only lasted a short time. The 14 city-states quickly slipped into conflict, with the short City-State Wars. Nikolaykraina, not wanting to get involved, let the city-states conduct their war, which was carried out with the utmost brutality and total disregard for civilian welfare. Leningrad, who did not take a side at the beginning of the conflict, allied itself with the other eight Leninist States, as the southern city-states came to call themselves, against the six Federalist States, as the Northern States came to call themselves. The City-State War ended on November 7, 1993 when the Leninist States finally subdued the Federalist States. That same day, New Leningrad, the largest of the now loose confederation of City-States, declared it’s dominance over the other 14 City-States, and declared them all Districts of the new Federation of Districts, and the Federation of New Leningrad was born. Only a short year later, two other cities declared their independence from Nikolaykraina. The Federation quickly swept in, and annexed the two City States, and declared them Districts of the Federation. Resenting this annexation, the Districts of Slav, Kolpino and Pushkin have ever opposed this action, and that is why the Whig Party, an opposition party to the Leninists, only dominates those three districts. In 1995, while still rebuilding, a wave of Finnish Immigrants began to flood into New Leningrad, many of them agreeing with the Federalists, but openly accepted by the Federation.
In 2003, the Federation was abolished, and the Commonwealth was born. With this, New Leningrad, the name the small country had gone by since the Great Independence, was changed to its traditional name, the Orange Free State. Along with these many changes, the Communist system that the founders had fought to preserve was abolished, and was replaced with a new Socialist System. This marked the beginning of a new vigor to spread the Great Socialist Revolution. Later that year, with its ally Beth Gellert, the Orange Free State invaded the former nation on Ninot, adding the southern part of the country to the Commonwealth. Also that year, along with its allies, the Orange Free State invaded its former dominator, Nikolaykraina, after the government there collapsed.
