Union of Republics

The Union of Republics (U.o.R or UoR), commonly known as the Union, is a country primarily located in the northern-central regions of Alandria. It consists of 29 republics, a federal district, and some minor possessions. At [?] square miles, it is the world's [?]th largest country by total area. The Union of Republics shares primary land borders with Sakari, the Austellus Confederation, Victor, Eastia, Beciana, and the Oriental Republic, along with minor borders with Puria and Nevierzhinsk on the continent of Sierris. With a population of more than 424 million people, it is the Xth most populous country in the world. The national capital is Attora, and the most populous city is Vastecote City.

Paleo-Nattawes migrated across the Malagaz Ocean to eastern Alandria around 12,500 years ago, and Gretan-Phenan colonization began in the 11th century. The eventual merging of settlements led to the creation of the Holy State of Venra, a theocratic oligarchic state stretching across the entire north of the continent. With the gradual decline of Venra and the further worsening of civil rights, the Republican Revolution led to the unification of the thirteen northern provinces into the Union of Republics. Beginning in the early 19th century, the Union of Republics began to expand southward across the continent, stretching the territorial extent of the thirteen republics and drawing the Union into several small-scale conflicts with the Nattawe people and regional clans. The tribes and clans across Alandria and foreign treaties slowed Unitean expansion, and it was only in 1862 that the Union's territory reached the equator, spanning the continent from north to south. Discrimination against people of faith was legal across much of the Union of Republics until the faith rights movement of the 1940s.

Unitean expansion brought it into conflict with the Czetet Empire and Nevierzhinsk in the 1870s and 80s, demonstrating the poor quality of the Continental and Oceanic Armed Forces at the time. Eventually, the Vastecote Accord's victory over Allia in the Great War in the 1910s set the Union of Republics on the path to being a world power, with this position solidified by the Union's dismantlement of Feslandia and victory in the Second Brother's War in the 1960s. However, the Unitean Pacification by an international coalition significantly reduced this status, and by the arrival of the 21st century, the Union was one among many other superpowers. The Civil War and Third Brother's War sidelined the Union of Republics entirely until the 2110s, when foreign military interventions and the formation of new global alliances combined with an unprecedented military buildup saw it rise to challenge the positions of Allia and Czetetje once again.

The Union of Republics is a federal republic with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. It is a founding member of the United Alandrian Compact, ZTO, and UoT, along with other international organizations. Considered a "melting pot" of cultures and ethnicities, centuries of immigration have profoundly shaped and diversified the Unitean population. The Union ranks high in international standards of education, quality of life, human rights, racial fairness, economic freedom, and has low levels of perceived corruption. However, the nation has faced high levels of criticism, internally and from abroad, due to its inequality related to wealth, income, and ideology, the treatment of those of faith, the use of capital punishment, high incarceration rates, and lack of universal healthcare.

Etymology
The term "Union of Republics" is believed to have first been written by Daniel J. Attora in a personal diary in 1769, in which he described his hopes for a potential future "Union of Truly Free Republics across Venra". It was not until the Unitean Revolution and the proposed unification of the thirteen seceded northern provinces that the need for a national identity arose. Any notion that the new nation would continue as "Venra" ended with the expulsion of John Carmichael from the Republican Assembly, and a close contender for the new name of the nation was "Alandrian Republic". However, to avoid the notion that the newfound republic would be irredentist and expansionist, Attora personally made a point to avoid the usage of an "official name" for the new country, instead pursuing a descriptive national identity.