Aguazul

The Republic of Aguazul (la República del Aguazul) was a massive, economically powerful nation in the Shell Shock Troop Clan. A government classified as "corrupt" and "dictatorial" focused its attentions on various impractical military endeavors and was too distracted by them to accomplish much else. Following the overthrow of the dictatorship, the nation and its nearby occupied territories merged into the nation Shell Shock Troop Clan.

Though the country originally had a tropical rainforest climate, Aguazul experienced significant desertification. El Río de los Piratas stretches across the country, and was a haven for smugglers across the region.

As Aguazul's population skyrocketed, urbanization transformed its demographics. Historically, the cities were the home of rich companies while farmers struggled to get by. Now, the inner cities are hotbeds of poverty, while their exurbs blur together. The result is the "supercentro"--a sprawling group of most of the country's largest cities that stifled expansion. Resourceful military officers combatted this problem by encouraging settlement beyond the country's official borders.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its brutality and inequity, Aguazul boasted a strong national football team and professional league.

History
The area now known as Aguazul has been inhabited for a long time, though it is not believed that the indigenous tribes were affiliated with larger empires. Some historical artifacts might imply complex scientific knowledge among the earliest peoples, but there is no commonly accepted interpretation. For example, the thirteen circles engraved around a large piece of stone found in the northern rainforest (giving their name to the city of Trecelunas) were heralded as signs of astronomical knowledge, or alternatively the ability to carve circles into rocks until you run out of room.

The area was colonized by an empire that introduced the Spanish language and Christianity (specifically, Roman Catholicism). Both became intrinsic (and mandatory) strands of national culture. The conquistadores--and the foreign diseases they brought with them--eliminated much of the native populace without widespread resistance. During the colonial era, the future nation was named the viceroyalty of Rioro, with its capital at San Pablo. Ironically, a lack of resources is considered one factor in the colony's ties to the overseas nation--it was not granted independence as early as some of its counterparts--as there were few precious metals to contribute to inflation.

Nevertheless, a disenfranchised class grew discontent with their status. These aguazuleños desired an independent nation. To qualify this, however, the vast majority of these original revolutionaries were ultimately of foreign descent rather than indigenous. Of these, Aramis Peralta emerged as a leader, as much because of his charisma as because of his tactical skill. He organized a military and was able to fight an effective war, culminating in a battle outside what was then known as the city of San Juan. While the battle itself did not have any clear winner, the heavy amount of casualties inflicted by Peralta's troops was impetus enough for Rioro to be granted independence. Anniversaries of the Battle of April 2nd are still days of national jubilation.

Post-independence
Newly-independent "Rioro" was not so for long, due to sufficient desire for a complete break with the foreign power. There was serious discussion of naming the new nation after Peralta, but this was ultimately bypassed in favor of simply renaming the city of San Juan in his honor, which then became the capital. Peralta, "El Libertador", became a de facto president for life: his overwhelming popularity meant that nobody else would have stood a realistic chance in an elections, and indeed, they have never been held.

Following Peralta's death, Neifi Lopez took over as "president" of the "republic". Lopez continued the lack of elections, but promoted a much stronger economy than Peralta. This led to resentment, and the formation of a loose movement that hoped to replace Lopez with a communist leader. César Garcia was, for some time, the militant leader of this organization, which functioned on a small scale: with poor communication, each small band of rebels functioned essentially independently. Leaders such as Garcia attempted to oversee and coordinate their activities, but the diffuse spread made this difficult.

Second to Garcia in importance in this endeavor was Suyapa Runasi, a mestiza whose songs inspired hope for peaceful change. Although in public she was a staunch ally to Garcia's cause, they disagreed wildly on the best way to achieve their goals, with him criticizing her idealism as too ineffective and she dismissing his plans as too aggressive. Runasi was captured and executed by the military.

The advantage of terrain was unequivocally with the dissidents; despite widespread deforestation, there remain significant tracts of rainforest where they could hide. Despite the fact that all youth must theoretically serve in the military, the standing army was unable to effectively draft many of the rural poor who live in isolated farms or members of native tribes that rarely interact with the rest of the nation. (Unsurprisingly, enforcing nationwide law in general is also difficult.)

Several military coups replaced Lopez with effectively interchangeable dictators, such as Ramón Macorís and Calixto Salinas. Unsatisfied with the futile struggle at home, they attempted to expand Aguazul's reach overseas, declaring war on Blackacre, Lilliputia, and those tiny islands from the xkcd map. They were somewhat more successful in taking over the territory to the west of the mainland, since the rest of the region had basically dissolved by then.

When revolution came, it surprisingly was not inevitable or even spearheaded by mainlanders. Claudia Hernandez, a Blackacre nationalist, attempted to start a patriotic movement there to express the territory's culture through sports. When this, and her comrade's more strident megaphone-aided declaration of independence, went poorly, she travelled to Aguazul proper to start a revolutionary movement based on the choice of a better way forward, rather than trusting to historical determinism. A rally in the Supercentro got out of hand, but she succeeded in finding sympathizers in the military (which was too dumb to notice the infiltration). Aiding the cause were savvy observers who convinced a bordering microstate to stand up to the teetering dictatorship, and sell off the city of Grisolon's nuclear arsenal to prevent retaliation. The collapse was, under the circumstances, remarkably peaceful, and the united "Shell Shock Troop Clan" coalesced shortly thereafter before embracing isolationism.

Culture
Catholicism was the official religion of Aguazul, with approximately 85% of the population identifying themselves as Catholic in the last census before it was mandated. The remainder included practitioners of indigenous religions (often, the two faiths have overlapped--Nanabos, with his rabbit and turtle familiars, is an (in)famous trickster spirit in native mythology) and nonreligious individuals (especially among Garcia's followers, many of whom were disillusioned with traditional religion). As with much else, although the government proclaimed Catholicism mandatory, this was impossible to enforce in practice, but formally linking the government with the institutional church has led to the continued promotion of conservative social values. For example, a general tendency towards large families is partially accountable for the nation's high rate of population growth.

Spanish was the de jure official language of the nation, and a national academy claimed to regulate its grammar and usage, but literacy was so low it didn't really matter. Many indigenous languages remained in use, often among uncontacted peoples. (Akatiri, with 237, is believed to be the language with tenth-smallest nonzero number of native speakers.) As per the previous, attempts at actually stamping them out are impractical. Neither the "vos" or "vosotros" grammatical forms are used.

Music is very popular nationwide, with the guitar a favored instrument. Football is the most popular sport, with baseball a distant second. After Aguazul's first thriving league went bankrupt, however, the government consistently dismissed requests for funding as a waste of taxpayer pesos. The four remaining football clubs thus joined the MUFN. This inspired a larger following of football nationwide, eventually leading to the formation of the Liga Aguazuleña and ultimately the national football team.

Economy
Aguazul's "powerhouse" economy operated with little governmental interference. The leading industries--Arms Manufacturing, Automobile Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining --are appropriate indicators of national tendencies towards militarism (though only a fraction of the society was affluent enough to own automobiles, many were sold overseas). While collectively such enterprises generated a great deal of wealth for massive corporations, individual workers were by and large poor. The growth of drugs was also lucrative.

Major cities by population
As above, the large cities are disproportionately concentrated in the "Supercentro," and their suburbs have grown together. This does not list cities outside "mainland" Aguazul, although some of those are now part of the united SSTC.


 * Ciudad Peralta: the aforementioned capital.
 * Ciudagua: a center of Aguazul's "culture"...that part of it that wasn't banned, anyway.
 * San Pablo: also aforementioned, San Pablo is about the only city without overwhelming population growth as it stagnates.
 * Rofi: a major manufacturing city, where the Arms Manufacturing industry is centered.
 * Arcrés: a commercial hub, where those who actually can buy arms, automobiles, uranium cakes and the like did.
 * Grisolon: located on the border, Grisolon is a major port...or perhaps not, the way boundaries rise and fall as nations come and go.
 * Trecelunas: somewhat isolated in the northern part of the nation, where the forest is denser.
 * Condadore: home to a large reserve of jaguars. The jaguar is Aguazul's national animal, though the widespread deforestation has pushed it to the brink of extinction.
 * Ciruelas: enjoys quite a high standard of living compared to much of the nation.
 * Íguen: relatively forested for the Supercentro, Íguen also boasts rich wildlife diversity nearby. Unlike Condadore, the animals are actually, well, wild.
 * Sanube: located near many uranium mines; great for industry, not so great for quality of life.
 * Mapabore: known as Proclo in colonial days, Mapabore was also renamed in honor of revolutionary Cristóbal Mapabo.
 * Quemavilla: along the lines of Arcrés, with an economy more driven by retail than manufacturing.
 * Dénprade: relatively late to have grown so large, much of the city's development took place post-desertification.
 * Cerabos: an early agricultural base, useful for the colonizers.
 * Burgosque: yet another city to be renamed post-revolution, for Julio de Burgos, until then known as Rojoca.
 * Blén: site of a particularly bloody defeat for the revolutionaries.
 * Villago: a hotbed of the automobile industry, with plenty of expensive toll roads.
 * Granagua: the site of several possibly "intriguing" ruins, presumed to be hoaxes but nevertheless prompting rumors of an extensive civilization predating the colonial era.
 * Manzalle: home to even more jaguars, plus other animals. Mostly in cages.
 * Dunede: once an agricultural base that has since switched to producing uranium cakes with only a few misinterpretations along the way.
 * San Luis: the site of the nation's first automatic gun factory, an innovation which quickly spread.