Qenitoyna

Qenitoyna, formally known as the Free Republic of Qenitoyna, is a state in Avalonia.

First Colonists
First colonists gain exclusive rights either through conquest or trade deals, (which of the two is really up to the colonizing country,) and are able to use enforce these rights over an expanding territory known as Pastoyna. These rights allow them to dismantle institutions of the Qenitoynan Empire and press native populations into slavery,

Later Colonists
Alongside those seeking fortune, there were clergymen, both performing administrative work for the colony and doing missionary work among the natives. The Missions and Monasteries established in the area were, with (Catholic?) church support able to assert their autonomy from the aristocracy of the first colonists, and provide protection to the Christianised natives living and working in the monasteries. The most notable of the Monasteries were those established by the Society of Jesuits which were bolstered by an influx of Jesuits expelled from their homeland in the year 1XXX.

Other colonists who failed to assert rights over territory or arrived too late to claim rights over territory, were hired to do work in the colonies as skilled tradesmen, but their descendants born and educated in Pastoyna would be considered less competent than those who received education back in their homeland, putting those who couldn't afford to be educated back in the homeland only just above Christianised natives in the colonial hierarchy.

Natives in Pastoyna
Under colonial rule, native peoples were forced into heavy labor extracting resources and farming cash-crops for the profit of the colonial aristocracy. Some tribes were exempted from grueling manual labor because they were considered more valuable doing other services; the Pipil, for example, had a long history of conflict with the Qenitoynan Empire and were favored as fighters and the enforcers of colonial law. Those natives who both converted to the colonial religion and spoke the colonial language were generally able to avoid forced labor (though they might still be obliged to take a paid position leading laborers.) Those who only adopted one of the colonial practices, on the other hand, might be exempted only if they were favored by someone higher in the hierarchy. Because of their position in the hierarchy, there were numerous native revolts and mutinies, the colonial empire gradually enacted reforms elevating the lower classes, culminating in an isolated citadel, Aztetepec, --where Qenitoynan institutions and religion had survived-- being granted the same autonomy as Christian monasteries, and the empire declaring a policy of self-rule in Pastoyna.

Pastoynan Self-Rule
The so-called "self-rule" of Pastoyna simply meant removing imperial troops and oversight from the colony. With no higher authority than themselves, the Pastoynan aristocracy were able to reverse some of the egalitarian policies most recently introduced by the empire and assert their authority as superior to that of the monasteries.

Qenitoyan Revolutionary War
(a lot of this section should go in a separate article eventually.) The Aztetepec Monastery in particular was seen by the aristocracy as a hotbed of insurrection and sixteen raids were made against subversive elements within and around the monastery before the Siege of the Citadel. The party of the seventeenth raid, on XX/XX/XXXX, was forbidden from entering the Citadel and in-turn blocked anyone from leaving the citadel until their target, XXXX XXXX, had been apprehended. Tensions escalated the six days later when reinforcements arrived and began intercepting any supplies entering the city. At first, they simply searched people and told them they would have to bring their supplies in later, after the situation was resolved, but after three days, they began turning everyone away and seizing any food for themselves. On the eleventh day of the siege, they intercepted a cart carrying weapons into the citadel (some sources say it was only carrying gardening implements) that same day they started firing on the citadel. After two days of small arms fire, light weapons were set up and breached the Eastern wall within a day, but the breach could not be further exploited before a force came to relieve the citadel. The Siege of Aztetepec, being seen as an offense against both the rights of natives and the autonomy of religious institutions, caused hostility towards the aristocrats throughout the country. There was unrest throughout the country and volunteers organised themselves to liberate the fortress. On the sixth day of fighting (the seventeenth day of the siege) the first revolutionary force arrived to relieve the fortress. By the ninth day of fighting (the twentieth day of the siege) the relief forces had established a chain of command and completely encircled the besiegers, but all attempts to break the siege by opening a line of communications to the gate or sally ports proved useless. On the twenty-seventh day of the siege, an hour before midnight, a small party led by Xoana Zihna, a polyglot from the Jesuit mission of Santa Maria de Fe, reached not the gate or the sally ports as other parties had attempted, but the breach in the Southern Wall. With the citadel rejoined, the revolutionaries shortly captured or drove off the remaining besiegers.

During the fighting at Aztetepec, columns sent in support of the besiegers had been decimated by guerrilla fighting. After the siege, the aristocratic forces gave up on maneuvre warfare, and focused solely on defense of important palaces and fortresses, hoping the advantage of defense would allow them to hold out long enough for imperial forces to come relieve them. The revolutionaries, meanwhile, were organizing themselves from the defacto capital of Aztetepec and preparing to lay siege to the colonial fortifications, but it would not be until the mutiny of 'XX at XXXXXX armory that they would acquire the arms with which to begin campaigning against the defenses.

Revolutionary Free Native's Qenitoynan Commune
At the Siege of Aztetepec, the beginnings of a military dictatorship intent on reviving the Qenitoynan Empire had been formed, and this government would go on to assert itself over all of Revolutionary Qenitoyna. This administration would promote the language, religion, and culture of the Qenitoynan Empire, while suppressing other cultures (primarily the colonial culture, but other native Avalonian cultures as well. The Revolutionary Government would also nationalize the enterprises of the aristocrats, and keep them running with a Qenitoynan inspired system of conscript service and corvée labor. The conscript service led to a proliferation of small arms, while the corvée labor, especially in the mining and logging industries, was seen as no better than the servitude in early colonial rule. In an effort to appease the populace, (and in no small part influenced by the costs of rebuilding the mines after an earthquake) the government shut down its mining and logging operations, drastically reducing its budget for modernisation and infrastructure projects, leading to an overall decline of the country. As the national government declined, corruption in the state owned (coca? poppy? marijuana? tobacco?) farms increased, while the militias would become more loyal to local leaders than to the state. These two factors together would lead to a rise regionalism, factionalism, and small scale conflicts.

Liberal Reforms
In the year 20XX dictator for life, XXXX XXXXX died, and his wife Xoana Zihna de XXXXX took power. The XX year old proved to be a surprisingly capable stateswoman, despite her old age. She would introduce a series of reforms to rebuild the economy and stabilize the country. Firstly, she liquidated the defunct state mining corporation so she would have capital for other reforms. The de facto autonomy of various tribes, monasteries, and regional militias was acknowledged and these organizations were given de jure civil authority and representation in a newly formed legislative branch, but regional militias were to accept restructuring of the military (though, for some time, members of the First, Seventh and Fifteenth Pipil's Militias, being wary of the central government, resisted reform under the Guise of the Last Pipil's Army. Most of the militias were transformed into local police agencies, but some were transformed into national organizations, like the Nahuatl People's Revolutionary Militia being reformed into the Guarda Ilhuicaatl, where the air and coastal defense assets would be concentrated.

Shares of the (defunct) state logging enterprise and (corrupt) state (insert pharmaceutical here) plantations would be sold which in addition to the liquidation of the mining assets, would be used to help offset the costs of restructuring of these enterprises. To facilitate these enterprises and encourage foreign business, Qenitoyna rewrites some laws to be more conducive to international business and more cooperative with international arms and drug control, while taking out loans for infrastructure projects, including major expansions of the harbour and airport in the capital, and of transportation connecting these to the rest of the country.