New Canciona

Not to be confused with Republica des Canciones Molestas or Canciona.

New Canciona is a benevolent dictatorship to the northeast of Occidentalis Major, which split off from the RCM during The Scourge. It is a member of the Homaric Alliance, and has plans to become a leading figure in the development of aviation.

It was formed in late 1908, CCRP years; or 8 January 2022, real time. New Canciona has a lot in common with the RCM; most differences are due to the change in location.

New Canciona is hosting the 1912 Olympic Games.



Players
The country is owned by @Tolkienfan, who rejoined Country Clash after months' inactivity but did not wish to regain control of her original country, the RCM (which is now owned by @Pixelation-Creations, and temporarily being controlled by @Fictia).

History
New Canciona split off from Republica des Canciones Molestas during The Scourge. It was the result of an uprising in the north of the country, where victims of the Scourge were attempting to break into the RCM. The uprising was led by Lady Nicholas Cangrejo, who appealed to Fictia for land in which to start a new country that would be unaffected by the governances of the RCM. Fictia gifted her a small island to the north of its main territories. This has resulted in a de facto alliance between the two nations, which recently was made formal along with fishing rights to the waters around the island, which has now been given back to Fictia.

Despite such a beginning, New Canciona was officially allied with the RCM. This is only partly to do with the RCM's membership in the Homaric Alliance. This alliance was rapidly broken off in 1910 due to the RCM's shameful conduct in WW1.

World War 1
It took a while for New Canciona to fully grasp the 1910 global situation. Unfortunately it was on two sides at once to begin with, being allied with both Fictia and the RCM. However, innate distrust of Spirovia and fierce loyalty to the Homaric Alliance won out. As Lady Nicholas Cangejo said in a radio broadcast: "Our country could not be put in a worse position, being plunged into a deadly world-wide war while still newly formed. We cannot overlook this threat to our allies and friends... our mother nation has betrayed us to Spirovia, so we must break free from it altogether... men of New Canciona, help defend our nation to the last."

Other nations (on the other side) have criticised the nation for this decision, but New Canciona can no longer trust its mother nation. The only things they need it for are trade, and alternatives can be sought out.

Although Socii was grateful for this display of loyalty, and several Spirova nations made threats against New Canciona, its entrance into the war had little effect on the war. Plans were made for New Canciona's contribution to the war, but the nation was unable to gather sufficient weapons and ships to put the plans into action until the war was already over.

Resources
Currently, the country is so new that it has not had time to build proper industry yet. Their new land has been gifted with a wealth of food commodities and soil, and has coastal waters abounding in fish. This effectively makes the nation self-sufficient in food supplies. It also has a decent supply of lead, tin and clay. As part of the Homaric Alliance, New Canciona has access to resources of all other members in exchange for generous provision of its own. It has plans to buy ships from Humerland, and has been gifted a small-ish fleet by Universia, and also wishes to begin an aviation industry. The nation has built Cangrejo Aviation Research Centre, which has an airstrip. Aviation development is still in its primary stage.

Exploration
New Canciona sent exploration missions to the west of the map as soon as it had a fleet. It was under obligation to return its occupied land of the time to Fictia in the event that there was indeed land to the west, as Fictia required the land for strategic reasons; however, New Canciona only required the land if there was to be no land to the west. Therefore, the arrangement suits both countries perfectly.

It subsequently discovered a peninsula and island chain on a hitherto unknown continent to the west of Occidentalis, which was named Occidentalis Major. It conducted a large-scale removal to this land, which involved completely deserting its previous location. The new land is now fully settled.

The country has a philosophy of only investing a lot of money in really important things, and merely making do with what will do the job for everything else. This philosophy manifested itself in its decision to buy outdated frigates from Humerland for their exploration, and then deciding it couldn't wait that long and buying them from the RCM instead.

Impact on industry plans
The country officially decided not to commence research and production of aircraft until their first exploration mission returned. Other countries have assumed this was because aviation currently had such a small impact on military at the time that it's not worth developing yet; however, Lady Cangrejo has been quoted as explaining that "I'm mainly waiting because if there's going to turn out to be a western continent, I don't want to build a dirty great factory floor here only to abandon it later".

The Cangrejo Aviation Research Centre was subsequently rebuilt on the nation's new portion of land, and intends to start production very soon.

Response to The Scourge pandemic
Since the main reason why New Canciona split off from the RCM was concern about The Scourge, the nation has taken biosecurity seriously. While being an island state, they are able to lock down without any major impact on the country; the only precautionary measure necessary was constructing an offshore quarantine dock for incoming ships, which is a compulsory stopping point.

Their new land is bordering other countries, making it more difficult to prevent access. However, the population has been fully vaccinated against The Scourge from the new vaccine discovered recently by Humerland.

These precautions have paid off, as the pandemic ended without New Canciona contracting a single case of the Scourge.

See also Big Fungus.

Culture
The author apologises for going overboard in descriptions of culture, but wants to leave them in anyway.

New Canciona's culture is very similar to that of the RCM (as recorded before the RCM was given to @Pixelation-Creations). The culture is inspired by third-world, capitalist Latin American countries.

Naming conventions
Pixelation-Creations established a cultural detail stating that in the RCM, male children inherit their mother's first name and their father's last name, and female children inherit their father's first name and mother's last name. Hence General Isabella Gamba is a man, and Lady Nicholas Cangrejo is a woman. Tolkienfan continued this tradition in New Canciona as it is entertaining.

As with Humerlandic names of locations, New Cancionish last names are often related to crustaceans. 'Cangrejo', for instance, is Spanish for 'crab'.

National anthem
The official national anthem, The Sun Cometh, was the one written by Lady Nicholas Cangrejo upon founding the country. Trying to break completely free of the RCM she wrote it from scratch to have no resemblances to the old one. However nobody likes it, and only sing it on official occasions. The unofficial national anthem is the old RCM national anthem (which has since been replaced).

The Sun Cometh is supposed to be symbolic of how New Canciona's split from the RCM is meant to be a clean, new, bright start, i.e. a metaphorical new day dawning. At least that's what Lady Cangrejo said. Everyone else thinks it's all soppy nonsense, which is why they prefer the original, and why the editor has refused to replicate the lyrics below.

The lyrics to the original, Están llevando los hobbitos a Isengardo, are as follows:

Están llevando los hobbitos a Isengardo

Gracias capitán obvio

Apaga esa horrible música podrida

Son más de las diez de la noche, conoces las reglas

Los que dicen

No reproducir música que sea audible desde fuera de su casa después de un tiempo especificado

Este no es el momento de practicar la tuba

A menos que lo quieras como sombrero permanente

El nuevo día es un gran pez

A translated version runs as follows:

Turn off that rotten music

It's after ten PM, you know the rules

The ones that say

Not to play music that is audible from outside of your house after specified time

This is not the time to practice the tuba

Unless you want it as a permanent hat*

The new day is a great big fish

* A reference to the traditional practice of, when somebody is playing a musical instrument very badly, jamming it onto their head.

Religion
The two main religions of New Canciona are pastafarianism and Coming of the Great Star Lobsterism. The latter is the belief that in the distant past, a huge star-dwelling crustacean attempted to eat the solar system but was discouraged by prayers to the Great Nephrops (see the state religion of Humerland). One day it will return to eat the entire universe. Other religions are tolerated but discouraged.

National dish
As with the RCM, New Canciona's national dish is 'cangrejo hervido en salsa Pepsi Max dos horas y servido en baguette', more commonly known as 'crab boiled in Pepsi Max for two hours and served in a baguette'. It is served on special occasions.

Festivale de la explosion de los oidas
Also known as 'Festival of the Exploding Eardrums.

This is the most popular event of the year- especially with sellers of hearing protection, who do a roaring trade for months beforehand and afterwards. During the day, a parade of learner musicians line up in no particular order and march through the streets at random while playing their instrument as loudly as they can. Typically no two musicians will be playing the same tune. None of them will have played ther instrument in public before, and some won't have played it at all. These musicians can make a lot of money out of participating, as spectators will pay them to stop. In the evening, families will play loud music long into the night to see how long it takes for a neighbour to ask the local constabulary to arrest them.

Festival de la Langoster Estrella Gigante
Also known as the Festival of the Giant Star Lobster.

The chief event of the festival is the Star Lobster Parade, where a giant papier mache lobster is carried down the streets by civic authorities. Citizens feed it seafood, meat and alchohol to appease its wrath against the solar system. At the end of the parade it is ceremonially burned on a bonfire. An ancient Cancionish law states that all pubs do business for free during the festival, which makes it very popular.