Virginia

Virginia, officially the Republic of Virginia ( Anglois: République de Virginie) is a country located in southeastern Vesperia, bordering the Republic of Louisiana, the Republic of New England, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. A country of lowland marshes, grasslands, rivers, and mountains, Virginia is home to a large population of Anglois Europeans, African-Vesperians, and Indigenous Vesperians. The majority religion of Virginia is Vesperian Orthodoxy.Virginia is a federal republic consisting of 15 states. It is a founding member of the Vesperian League as well as a major member of the Vesperian War. Virginia is famed for its cotton, which is a backbone of the Vesperian textile industry. Virginia was first established as a colony of the Angevin Empire in the 16th century and was named after an Angevin noble from England named Victoria. Later, the colony declared its independence around the same time as New England.

Virginia has faced international criticism for its political system and extensive use of slavery. Ever since the creation of the Republic of Virginia, it has been a dominant-party state ran by the Whig Party and the Virginian planter class. The Constitution of 1845 outlines a legal planter class, defined as the only citizens in Virginia with the right to vote or run for political office. The criteria for becoming a member of the planter class includes owning private property, a certain number of slaves, being of the male gender, and being of Anglois descent. Only approximately 5% of Virginian citizens are members of the planter class, and they are legally the only group in Virginia allowed to vote in Congressional or Presidential elections as well as run for President or Congress. A majority of the Virginian economy relies on the usage of legal chattel slavery, known in Virginia as the Peculiar Institution. Almost the entire African-Vesperian population of Virginia is enslaved. The current president of Virginia is Eugene Talmadge.

Since the Virginian Panic of 1894, the Republic of Virginia has been embroiled in an armed conflict with the self-proclaimed socialist and pro-abolitionist Virginian Liberation Army, consisting of escaped slaves and sympathizers. They have since dug into the mountains in Northern Virginia.