This topic is out of date. Please see the nationstates FPS Factbook for information about the Federated Alliance.
[s]History
The Codex Conclave colonized the Free Pacifican archipelago in the twelfth century. The Codexians devastated the native population through disease and warfare and seriously outnumbered natives by the thirteenth century. The Conclave renounced its colonial aspirations in 1576, though, and withdrew from all of its colonies that year. A large number of Codexian settlers chose to remain, however, and established a democratic “New Codex.” The native population gained suffrage in 1596 through a concerted political effort. The Conclave thrived until 1665, though it created no military force, a severe error.
1 Infinite Loop invaded New Codex in 1665, toppled the defenseless government, and divided the nation into five provinces. The Looplite administration pillaged the country, raping its culture, while resistance groups carefully destroyed all advanced technology. The Packo Empire “liberated” the area in 1787 during the Packo-Looplite War, found that New Codex no longer existed in anything except theory, and transformed the five Looplite provinces into puppet states. The Empire controlled these states completely until the 1820s, when the Packo Emperor recognized the waning power of the Empire, and granted semi-autonomy to the Packo-appointed rulers.
The five countries took advantage of this semi-autonomy to organize a rebellion then declared independence in 1848. The Packo Empire tried to retake the colonies three times in the next twenty-five years, however, the Emperor ultimately admitted defeat. The five newly recognized states ceased any real cooperation at this point, though a few Codexian experts used the term “Free Pacific States” to describe the culturally similar Faramount Empire, Zalebano Federation, Mengesk Confederation, Beren Kingdom, and Tilden Republic. But these nations retained no political similarity and bickered constantly during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The Faramount Empire and Beren Kingdom, which allied in 1906, took that bickering to the next level by invading Tilden Isle in 1914. The Zalebano Federation and Mengesk Republic, which allied in 1909, immediately declared war. The Great War devastated the Free Pacific States over the next five years. Tilden alone escaped destruction by quickly repulsing the enemy invaders then focusing on naval defense. But Zalebano, Mengesk, and Tilden achieved victory in the end; the Faramount Empire collapsed while the Beren King abdicated.
The five nations decided in 1920 to form an Alliance of Free Pacific States to avoid future conflict. The Alliance succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of its founders. It resolved the border issues that caused the Great War in 1923, implemented a free trade program in 1925 that caused significant growth, coordinated stimulus efforts during the Great Depression, united each country’s mail services in 1933, and formed a joint defense force in 1935. The Alliance planned a conference regarding the creation of a confederation for 1936.
1 Infinite Loop interrupted that conference when it invaded in 1936. Looplite forces devastated Free Pacifican defenses in days, captured the Alliance capitol within a week, and soon moved onto capture the capitols of Tilden, Zalebano, and Mengesk. The five states panicked amidst the sudden, massive military attack, and coordination fell by the wayside as each leading Alliance official met his death or capture. A single Alliance administrator, Christopher Grissom, escaped capture or death. The Postmaster of the Alliance, Grissom operated out of Liberty City, a small but centrally located town in Faramount. Grissom rallied the remnants of Alliance forces in Liberty during 1937 and convinced the remnants of all five Free Pacific States to recognize his authority in 1938.
Grissom immediately acted to save the Alliance. He took direct command of the forces of each Alliance nation, ordered an end to discrimination on racial or sexual grounds to facilitate conscription, advocated for universal conversion to Unitarianism, and essentially ignored the five member-governments of the alliance. The Beren King alone objected to this unification but lacked the influence to stop it, especially after his capture in 1940. Grissom caused real controversy, though, by ordering much of the Alliance abandoned to facilitate regrouping far from the coasts.
The new Allied Command undertook a conventional defense in 1938, just after it reorganized under Grissom, based around a defense of Faramount, the sole remaining national capitol. But Looplite forces captured Faramount in 1940, despite heavy losses, and Allied forces met defeat after defeat both before and after that battle. Grissom ordered Allied forces to undertake a guerrilla campaign at that point, forcing the Looplites to focus on occupying conquered lands, and sparing the last few areas free from Looplite attack.
Despite the best attempts of Allied forces and national partisans, Looplite forces advanced steadily until 1942, when it bogged down in Liberty City. Over the previous four years, Liberty had grown from a tiny town to a massive city, and had become the industrial center of the unoccupied portion of the Alliance. Grissom personally stayed in the city to oversee its defense, secretly ordering his deputy to surrender in the case of its fall. But several months into the epic battle for the city, the Lizards invaded 1 Infinite Loop, and the Looplite government cut reinforcements to the Free Pacific States.
Looplite forces lacked the manpower to continue the bloody fight for the city without reinforcements, though, and retreated from its boundaries in 1943. The Allied Command simultaneously undertook a conventional push and guerrilla uprising at that point, recognizing the low morale of Looplite forces, and actually advanced for the first time to date. Free Pacifican forces achieved victory after victory after that point, especially as 1 Infinite Loop began to lose to the Lizards, and the Alliance signed a cease fire with the Looplite Occupying Authority in 1945. The last Looplite troops left to fight back home in 1946, a year later, and the new Lizard government signed a formal peace treaty with the Alliance after it defeated the Looplites in 1948.
But the war demolished the Alliance. The constant fighting and brutal Looplite occupation decimated the population, leaving more wounded and malnourished than healthy. Few businesses survived the conflict except for the arms factories that fed the war effort and even those were mostly nationalized before the end of the war. And none of the Free Pacific States truly continued operation after the 1940, when the Beren King died.
Believing that recreating the five now-defunct national governments would merely elongate the process of reconstruction, Grissom called for the unification of the Alliance. The Alliance Council endorsed this decision in 1949, though it chose not to hold a public constitutional convention to save time, and instead just amended the Alliance Charter to turn the Alliance into a nation. The Federated Alliance was born later that year.
The newly established Federated Alliance of Free Pacific States held elections for the first time in 1950. The Grissom-led Unification Party swept most contests across the country, taking a majority in the Federal Forum, and securing the presidency. The Unifiers succeed greatly once in office, establishing new state governments and implementing the Charter fully. The party collapsed in 1953 due to divisions regarding government policy, however, and Grissom decided to retire rather than pick sides.
The Socialist Party swept the 1954 federal elections with a pledge to rebuild the country. The Socialists revitalized the economy through extraordinary stimulus spending, raised standards of living through massive welfare programs, and reinforced universal suffrage with equal rights projects. The Free Pacifican populace re-elected the Socialists repeatedly due to these successes and the Socialists kept full control of the government though most of the 1960s.
The Capitalist Party ousted the Socialist Party in 1968 amidst growing discontent about economic stagnation, bureaucratic inefficiency, and government corruption. The Capitalists privatized the government industries, eliminated most welfare programs, seriously cutback government bureaucracy, and reduced taxes by half during the 1970s. But the Capitalist paved the way for most businesses to fail, given that they were not ready to immediately compete on an open market, and also created massive dissent, because it eliminated the programs that served the unemployed. The “Great Recession” sent unemployment through the roof, caused the economy to shrink (where it was previously just not growing), and allowed the Socialists to retake control of the government by the time of the 1976 elections.
The Socialist Party nationalized important industries, re-established many welfare programs, and invested heavily in stimulus programs to jump-start the economy. The Socialists successfully ended the recession as a result, however, they lost popularity quickly when they tried to re-nationalize the economy. The Capitalist Party swept the 1980 elections, as a result, and did so in the midst of an economic boom.
The Capitalists continued to shrink the government, eliminated most economic regulation, and again privatized most industries. The Capitalists stimulated further growth as a result of these actions, which proved helpful in the midst of a boom. But regulatory cutbacks led to a number of scandals in the 1980s and the Capitalists alienated much of the population in 1992 with a proposal to privatize health care.
Billionaire Jackie Sushi sough to gain the presidency in 1994 by taking advantage of this situation. Sushi established a “Centrist Party,” committed to implementing middle-ground policies unlike the Socialists and Capitalists, and poured much of her money into the race. Sushi won a majority of votes in the 1994 presidential election and immediately set to work reforming government operations in every way possible without Forum approval. The former businesswoman proved highly successful at this game and Centrist candidates took advantage of her newfound popularity to take the National Forum in 1996.
Chief Ambassador Matthew Terrus won the presidency in 1998 under the Centrist banner. A black horse candidate, Terrus won the Centrist nomination thanks to Sushi, and won the general election thanks to Centrist support. Terrus continued to reform the government, like Sushi, and notably nationalized the education system. But he achieved fame by refusing to coalition with the Isolationists, who controlled the Department of International Affairs from 1954 to 1994, and instead undertook to establish the Federated Alliance as a member of the international community.
Terrus did not seek re-election in 2002, per Free Pacifican tradition, but won re-election after the Centrist Party drafted him as nominee. Terrus continued to establish the Federated Alliance as a major regional player during this period, notably negotiating an end to several regional conflicts. But he failed to establish a solid policy towards the Pax, who dominated the Free Pacifican economy in 2004, and poorly managed the Pax Cybernetic Drone Insurrection of 2005.
The Drone Insurrection wreaked havoc across the nation, though it lasted only three weeks, and completely changed the face of Free Pacifican politics. The Socialist Party and Capitalist Party collapsed after the conflict and the few loyal Socialists and Capitalists fled to the second-tier Isolationist Party and Reform Party, respectively. The conservative Nationalist Party and the liberal Liberty Party rose from the dust to compete with the Centrist Party for national control.
Vice-President Henrik Kroidrik won the Presidency in 2006 on the coat-tails of Terrus, who remained relatively popular when he retired, despite the damage done by the Pax. Kroidrik faced a Nationalist-dominated Federal Assembly, however, which completely blocked him from any domestic policy success. The former Vice President found his foreign policy hampered by two troublesome peacekeeping missions, too, and he ultimately admitted the failure of one of those missions.
The Nationalist Party took advantage of Kroidrik’s incapacity, a Pax-Free Pacifican military standoff, and an extremely capable presidential candidate to seize control of the government in 2010. The new President, Christopher Arctoris, pledged to immediately strengthen the nation and restore it to its pre-Kroidrik glory.[/s]