| |
| Official language | Lucayan Taino; all official government documents written in Lucayan, Catalan, and English |
| Capital | Nema City |
| Largest Metros | Nema City Bahama City |
| Population | 54,600 |
| Independence | From Florida - 1964 |
| Currency | None; pegged Taino Dollar (TND) and Florida Dollar (FLD) accepted |
| Our Timeline Equivalent | Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands |
| Location | |
Lucayan National Hotel on Paradís Island, just off Nema Island.
Lucaya, is a nation southeast of Florida, and on the northeastern edge of the Taino Sea. Lucaya gained independence from Florida in 1964, and is currently freely associated with Florida. It imposed Government Mandated Vegetarianism in 2010.
History
Human presence on the Lucayan Islands, as with the other islands in the Taino Sea, began centuries ago when aboriginals from various parts of Pemhakamik and Pacha traveled across the Taino Sea to established new settlements on the previously uninhabited islands. Eventually, the descendents of the first Lucayans began developing their own culture, including local versions of the Taino language and faith. This trend continued at undisturbed for the next few centuries until the arrival of the Europeans.
The first Europeans to contact with Lucayan Aboriginals were the Spanish around the time that the Spanish exploration of Florida began. As with Florida, the Spaniards were generally disinterested in the Lucayan Islands due to the perceived lack of economic opportunity, and left the aboriginal populations alone after a few failed attempts at communication. Sadly, contact with Old World diseases wiped out many of the Lucayan villages. Even though the majority of the population was able to safely quarantine the infected villages before the diseases of the Old World could completely annihilate the indigenous population, the outbreak made the survivors extremely paranoid of outsiders. This new found xenophobia also included other non-Lucayan Taino people, and would result in a policy of self-imposed isolation that would last for nearly two centuries.
The Lucayans’ xenophobia presumably ended in the middle of 18th Century when people who were described as speaking an unknown Taino dialect began appearing on the Eastern Coast of Florida. Supposedly, these unidentified visitors claimed that they were the indigenous people of Lucaya. They also claimed that their civilization was in a state of cultural stagnation, and that it was their mission to seek out new ideas to help reinvigorate society on Lucaya. As a result, these visitors began studying Floridian society in terms of language, religion, economics, etc. The Lucayans’ visits continued until the early 1800s, while visits to other locales in the Taino Sea were reported only in the 1760s.
After over fifty years of these seemingly mysterious visits by the Lucayan Aboriginals, the Catatanian government decided to send a small fleet to the Lucayan Islands to figure out the true purpose of the Lucayan Aboriginals in the early 1810s. The fleets result astounded the Catatanian government. Many of the Lucayan villages were populated by Lucayan Taino converts to Catharism, and many of the Lucayan Aboriginals’ leaders had become fluent Catalonian and or Occitan. It was soon discovered that the leaders of the indigenous Lucayans had indeed sent scouting parties all across the Taino Sea in an attempt to expand the indigenous Lucayans’ intellectual horizons, and eventually chose Catatanian Florida as their source of inspiration. The biggest surprise the Catatanians received though was a rather unusual offer from the leaders of the Lucayan Aboriginals.
From about the 1560s to 1810s, the Catatanians had taken it upon themselves to protect the Lucayan Islands and their people much like they protected Kiskeya from the outside world. Still, the job was relatively easy due to a complete lack of interest in Lucaya among other European Powers who also considered Lucaya to be as much a part of Catatania as Florida was. On the other hand, the Catatanian government never felt a need to forcefully annex Lucaya due to perceiving the same lack of strategic value that the other European nations perceived. Thus, the Catatanians were confused to no end when they wondered why the Lucayan Aboriginals’ leaders wanted Catatania to annex Lucaya. Despite this initial surprise and even reluctance, Catatania officially annexed the Lucayan Islands in 1817.
While the then present Catatanians never fully understood the Lucayans almost gleeful surrender of sovereignty, the Lucayans considered the results of the affair to be completely in their favor. At this point in time, a “national” Lucayan identity had yet to develop. Thus, there was no emotional sacrifice among the indigenous Lucayans “to surrender” their homeland’s sovereignty to a nation that the world considered Lucaya’s de facto owner. In addition, the Catatanians had agreed to help build schools and other forms of infrastructure in exchange for almost complete access to Lucaya’s natural resources. Despite the economic abuse that would have resulted for other countries in similar situations, the Lucayans correctly predicted that the Catatanians would make little use of the islands resources. Indeed, Lucaya under the period of direct Catatanian colonial rule (1817-1841) achieved its greatest increase of NPAs. Of course, the deal with the Catatanians did result in some side-effects that the Lucayan Aboriginals did not predict. The most prominent example was the immigration of Catatanian professionals such as teachers and doctors whose descendents would become permanent Lucayans. After all, it was from these immigrants that the majority of Lucaya’s current European population descends from. Another unexpected side-effect of the 1817-1841 Era was the start of urbanization that would lead Lucaya to becoming one of the most urbanized nations in the world.
By 1841, Lucaya’s time as a separate colony came to an end when Catatania forcibly combined Lucaya with Florida. The “official” purpose of the unification was to simplify the organization of Catatania’s over-seas territories, but current conspiracy theories blame Floridian leaders who wanted to gain prestige in the eyes of the Floridian Population. In any case, the lack of Lucayans’ voice in the matter greatly angered the vast majority of Lucayans. This anger towards both Florida and Catatania only grew and was seen in the Floridian Independence Referendum in 1891. Instead of voting for either Floridian independence or the status quo, the majority of Lucayans voted “None of the above” to protest both Florida and Catatania’s control of Lucaya, but since Lucaya was legally Floridian territory, the islands soon found themselves under the control of the Republic of Florida.
Fortunately for Floridian Leadership though, the next few decades were a period of great prosperity for Lucaya, and this prosperity helped numb the Lucayans’ animosity towards the Floridian national government. It was also during the first three decades of Floridian independence that Lucaya experienced the second “Great Migration,” but instead of being Catatanians, the new immigrants were predominately non-Lucayan Taino from the rest of the Taino Sea. This period also saw the establishment of “Lucayan” as a national identity instead of just an ethnic identity. Starting in the thirties though, debates discussing what it meant to be a Lucayan lead to the birth of the modern Lucayan independence movement. By the 1950s, support for independence had reached an all-time high. Thus, the Floridian government relented, and set up an independence referendum for Lucaya in 1962. When the pro-independence faction won over 90% of the vote, negotiations began to define the new relationship between Florida and Lucaya. It was eventually decided that Lucaya would be in free association with Florida. In addition, Florida would also receive additional economic privileges in Lucaya in exchange for militarily protecting Lucaya. Once all the details were worked out, Lucaya achieved its independence in 1964.
The decades following Lucayan independence would see massive changes in Lucayan society. Reforms in fields such as economics, education, and international relations would result in not only in economic growth, but also give Lucaya one of the highest HDIs in the world. Still, Lucaya’s most controversial reform would come in 2010 when the nation established a policy of Government Instituted Vegetarianism. Unlike other nations who weaned omnivores off meat or still allowed meat in forms such as subsistence fishing, Lucaya established the policy without any attempt to accommodate the nation’s non-vegetarians. This abrupt policy change has naturally resulted in much controversy among the world’s non-vegetarian population.
Economics
For centuries, the primary economic activity of Lucaya had been subsistence farming and fishing, but that would soon change after the start of the 20th century. In the early twenties, foreign visitors (particular those from Great Britain and New England), began to view Lucaya as a vacation paradise, and helped start the construction of its now famous tourism industry. On the other hand, Lucaya would experience its most drastic economic change in its first few post-independence years. Lucaya's first economic move after independence was to not establish a national currency. Instead, the Lucayan government decided to use stronger foreign currencies to protect the nation from inflation. In addition, banking reforms modeled on the Swiss system greatly increased the financial strength of Lucayan banks. Indeed, it was through these reforms that Lucaya earned the nickname "Switzerland of the New World," and by the start of the 1980s, Lucaya's reforms had helped its Banking and other information industries replace tourism as the nation's dominant economic activity. Overall, Lucaya's economic reforms (along with others such as those in education) have helped transform Lucaya into a highly developed nation with one of the world's highest HDI scores.
Demographics
Vegetarianism
- 97% Vegetarian (Government Mandated Vegetarianism is in effect)
- 67% Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian
- 26% Vegan Vegetarian
- 04% Lacto Vegetarian
Ethnic Groups
- 70% Lucayan Aboriginal
- 11% Other Taino
- 10% European
- 02% African
- 02% Oriental
- 03% mixed ancestry
- 02% others
Religions
- 81% Nonreligious
- 56% atheist
- 25% agnostic
- 13% Cathar
- 03% Taino Religion
- 02% Christian
- 01% other
Languages
- 82% Taino
- 07% Occitan
- 05% Catalan
- 03% English
- 03% others
Note: Many people are bilingual or even trilingual. Approximately 95% can speak Taino, 61% Occitan, 54% Catalan, and 51% English. A secondary language class is mandatory to take from middle school through high school, and is encouraged in most universities as well.