04-14-2018, 10:29 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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[World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
Names removed to protect the innocent - and the guilty.
Let's make a hypothetical insular nation on Lake Victoria in Africa, about the size of Lichtenstein or Andorra, nestled in a sliver of land between Kenya and Uganda. The region has been settled for over a thousand years by tribes descended from both Bantu and Kushan/Nubian stock. The rulers of this area have only recently (say, the last 40 years) discovered a source of Unobtanium present nowhere else in the world, and while they've exported a small amount of the Unobtanium for a sizable amount of wealth, the ruling family has benefited from the wealth the most. This essentially makes the nation a "banana republic", though because they've had a national identity for hundreds of years they're more stable than most. In western political terms, they were part of the British East Africa colony, though they managed to retain practical self-rule even through WWII. This nation declared independence and closed its borders almost entirely in '63 when its neighbor Kenya also obtained independence from Britain. However, something happened at some point in the past to make them an insular culture, possibly even before the Unobtanium was discovered. What could this "something" be? Ideas?
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
04-15-2018, 05:03 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
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2) They aren't actually human. They are either a variant of homo that has a dim view of their cousins ability to live with another rival species or some humanoid aliens who want to keep their uniqueness hidden for similar reasons. 3) They are hiding a Big Secret and know that once betrayed their lives will never be the same again.
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Michael Cule,
Genius for Hire, Gaming Dinosaur Second Class |
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04-15-2018, 05:33 AM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
This one's difficult. If most of the people know it, someone will be fool enough to think he can make a lot of money by leaking it. If most don't know it, how is this different from a tyranny?
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04-15-2018, 06:45 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
Many, perhaps most, cultures are fairly insular by default. Our tribe is human, everybody else are some sort of scum no better than animals, or possibly worse than demons, is a standard human belief that rather discourages outside interactions. If you want to support that somehow, the standard method is the same one that provides you with the word insular - geographic isolation. Put them on an island, or a valley, or crater, or mesa, that's hard to get into or out of.
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-- MA Lloyd |
04-15-2018, 10:08 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
The biggest thing that generates insularity is physical boundaries that impede travel anyway. You need to be surrounded by rough, even dangerous terrain, and probably hostile neighbours.
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04-15-2018, 03:11 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
Remember, though, I've put this, so the location is already pre-determined. This would be on the north end of Lake Vic (head-waters of the Nile River, btw), with two much larger nations bordering it (and each other).
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
04-15-2018, 10:40 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
Have you looked at information on Rwanda and Burundi? They're somewhat comparably small, I think, and in the same general region within sub-Saharan Africa. They might spark some ideas.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
04-16-2018, 04:52 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
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I admit I'm thinking of Very Weird secrets like: Our nation is the homeland of all tulpa...
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Michael Cule,
Genius for Hire, Gaming Dinosaur Second Class |
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04-16-2018, 06:50 AM | #9 | |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavķk, Iceland
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
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Burundi area 10,747 square miles, population 10,5 million. The countries mentioned as comparable in size to the fictional country in the opening post: Andorra area 181 square miles, population 77 thousand. Liechtenstein area 62 square miles, population 37 thousand. So, how are they somewhat comparably small? |
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04-16-2018, 09:40 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [World-Building] Hypothetical insular banana republic - why insular?
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Though the prototypical "banana republics" are Guatemala, population around 17 million, and Honduras, population around 7.4 million; Rwanda and Burundi seem to fit that scale a lot better than those European postage stamp countries do. If you want a European country that's the size of a banana republic, you look at Denmark, not Iceland. Whatever forces keep Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, or San Marino independent are likely very different from those that keep Guatemala and Honduras so. Though it may be that the problem is not the choice of examples but the choice of a misleading label for those examples.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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