Mursian cuisine

Encarnação, officially known as the Island Republic of Encarnação is an island nation and dependency of Jungastia located in the XXX area of Avalonia. It is located nearby the nations of XXX to the south, XXX to the east and XXX to the north. Encarnação is composed of a total of 5 islands, with the primary island of Encarnação being the most populated by a large margin. The secondary islands of Salvação, São Tomé, Trindade, Coração and Ilha Bárbara contain significantly smaller populations and are primarily populated by groups of XXX peoples, the native peoples of the island group.

The island has been populated by the XXX peoples for centuries prior to the arrival of Jungastian settlers in the year XXX, who claimed the island for the Jungastian crown. Settlers primarily used the nation's agricultural capacity for the production and export of cash crops such as cotton and tobacco, industries that continue to exist to this day. Relationships with the native populations were cold at first, and sometimes violent, but a policy of integration with settler populations allowed for peaceful coexistence through most of the country's later history. The islands remained a dependency of Jungastia for several centuries until the year 1912, when independence was declared following negotiations with the mainland and ideological differences with the then ruling monarchist government. The islands, however, still remains part of the Jungastian commonwealth at large, having their head of state be the King of Jungastia. The country underwent a short military dictatorship shortly after independence, but democracy was restored in 1957 with the first democratic vote for a president and members of parliament.

The nation's primary economic products are agricultural, with the nation being one of the major producers and exporters of cotton and tobacco through its history. Other than its agricultural produce, the nation has a large service industry with offshore insurance, reinsurance, and tourism being major industries within the nation.

Early Colonial History (1600s to 1700s)
The first settlers to reach the island of Encarnação came in the first decades of the 17th century, as the island was discovered by Jungastian explorers and relations with the local native population were established. The island was named by explorer Romão Cruz, who was the first Avalonian to set foot on the island. The first interactions with the native population were relatively peaceful, with trade ships coming through the region trading clothing and tools for food and other basic needs for their ongoing journey. The first settlement on the island was established by a colonial emissary from mainland Jungastia called Fabrício Mateus, who declared the whole island chain to be now property of the Jungastian crown and founded the capital city of São Vicente, naming it after the patron saint of his family, in the northern area of the primary island of Encarnação. Other settlements such as Monte Real in the south were also founded in the coming decades as more settlers flocked to the island due to its agricultural riches and beautiful geography.

Early into the history of Encarnação, the island colony was primarily a producer of cash crops, which were traded with sailing trade ships in exchange of produced goods from the mainland as the island had a population too small to sustain advanced industries and was under threat of native aggression. The primary agricultural goods produced on the island through its history were tobacco and cotton, but other products such as sugar cane and beef were also common. Exports were mainly directed towards mainland Jungastia, but many traders from nations such as Agrana y Griegro came by the island in several occasions. Slavery was also a major part of the Encarnação economy, with Keshian slaves being used for manual labor in the island chain's many plantations. The institution of slavery left a relatively large black minority in the nation, which had to struggle for its rights later down the country's history.

Relations with the native population were cold, with native raids happening relatively commonly, but no direct act of war happened between both sides at any point in history, allowing for relationships to eventually settle in peace and cooperation down the line as the local government afforded better liberties and rights to the natives of the island, essentially making them equal status citizens to the Jungastian settlers.

Piracy was one of the primary threats to the well-being of the colony, with many early settlers being lost to pirate raids of the island and the capital city even being occupied by Mero-Curgov privateers early in in its history. The piracy issue caused many shortages of necessary goods endangered the continued existence of the colony as traders sometimes outright refused to visit the ports of Encarnação due to the danger tied to the island. Piracy slowly receded as a threat as the Jungastian navy further extended its reach better into the surrounding areas and could better assure the safety of traders in the region.

Takeover of 1654
Early in the history of the colony of Encarnação, the island group found itself under constant threat of pirates and privateers from rival nations of Jungastia. In 1654, these threats became worse as privateers from the nation of Mero-Curgovina attempted a violent takeover of the island chain through landing on the capital of São Vicente with a large contingent of ships and men in an attempt to seize the lightly guarded colony for the Mero-Curgov crown. Colonial troops in the island were too weak and unprepared for the sudden takeover and surrendered a day into the fighting as the capital saw itself overwhelmed and bombarded from the shores. News did not reach Jungastia until weeks later, by which point the entire crisis had already ended.

At this time, the colony of Encarnação had a small population and was not fully capable of defending itself without assistance from the mainland. Local militia forces under the command of militia captain Paulo Abreu prepared for several days to fight back the occupying force entirely by themselves, as they seized local colonial government armories and armed themselves in preparation. The local civilian population was highly non-compliant with the occupation force which made the continued takeover of the island more painful and difficult than was originally expected. Attrition took a toll on the occupying forces as guerrilla attacks were conducted on their camps by the militia forces of Abreu and the constant refusal to cooperate from civilians forcing them to resort to thievery and foraging to acquire food and basic resources to survive.

Finally by the 10th day of the occupation, the highly demoralized occupation forces were fought back by a combined effort of militia forces, reorganized colonial troops from other areas of the island and civilians armed with boiling water, batons, pots and pans. Enemy forces retreated back into their ships and sailed off from the island having failed their objective of quickly and successfully seizing the fledgling colony. By the point friendly ships reached the colony, there was no privateers to be found on land and the colony had returned to normal operations as usual. This moment in history has been ingrained into the history of the nation as a show that the country was capable of defending itself against invading forces without the need for homeland assistance, and became part of the cultural tradition of the new nation as an agreement for independence was reached centuries later.

Late Colonial History (1700s to 1800s)
The later periods of the country's colonial history were marked by a consistent upwards growth in population, as immigration and local fertility rates skyrocketed. The nation's economy saw itself become more robust as time went on, with the diversification of its agricultural output and the appearance of the first large scale manufacturies and refineries in the nation. Cotton was further refined into cloth and clothing, tobacco into cigars and eventually cigarettes, sugar cane was refined into spirits, meat was salted and exported for use in the slave trade as slave food. All these goods were then exported at a hefty profit to other Avalonian states and the Artemian mainland. The country saw itself grow from a small colony of no more than 100 thousand people into a million souls within 2 centuries, and growth kept doubling up until the modern day.

One of the major questions in the country's history through this period was the question of slavery. A large portion of the population was composed of slaves with no rights, uprisings became a common occurrence as slaves managed to create underground communication networks. While it was technically possible for slaves to purchase their own liberty or be freed by their owners, it was a very uncommon occurrence and freed slaves remained a tiny portion of the general population in the country.