History of Ventora

The history of Ventora dates to when peoples first migrated to southwest Alutra. They began establishing communal settlements and continued exploration of the region and beyond. Ventorans have been seafaring peoples since the times of the first boats. As settlements grew, trade expanded, and exploration gave rise to more trade and influences from outside the region. Increased contact beyond the local area also led to the need for self-defense. Early coastal settlements soon developed s to meet this need. The hillfort settlements were a key step to facilitating the development of city-states. Increasing trade and the success of the city-states led to many of them becoming to Haksarad. Expanding influence over their surroundings led to the city-states becoming dominant in their environs aided by the Haksar introduction of the concept of nobility, naming the lords of the city-states as counts.

Waning influence of Haksard with the demise of its tributary system led to several counties agreeing to form confederations. The confederations served to facilitate trade and provide for increased defensive capabilities among the members. The return of the Haksar empire in the mid-6th century saw the confederations become tributes on behalf of their member polities, now duchies. Haksarad sanctioned the forming of the Kingdom of Ventora to subsume the confederations in 959 with Clemente I as the first king. The kingdom established hegemony over portions of eastern Tagaraš and then drove Watan into a tributary relationship in 1038, which lasted until 1328.

Ventora secured the release from its tributary status to Haksarad in 1740, granting the great majority of Tagar holdings independence at the same time.

During the First and Second World Wars, Ventora sided with its historical ally, Haksarad. The royal family perished when the royal train derailed in 1961, which led to the War of the Three Capitals. The Treaty of Terelle resulted in the layering of the commonwealth form of government as an overlay to the monarchy with an elected regent as head of state.

Prehistory
Archeologists have determined that early man arrived in southwest Alutra sometime around 60,000 years ago. Evidence of prehistoric settlements dating to around 15,000 BCE along the Abayadi Sea coasts has been found in several locations of present-day Ventora.

Early history
With growing settlements, trade expanded. More exploration gave rise to increased trade and cultural influences from outside the region. Further contact beyond the local area led to the need for self-defense. Early coastal settlements soon developed hillforts to meet this need. The hillfort settlements were a key step to facilitating the development of city-states.

Rise of city-states
Around 1,000 BC, Nauigio rose to regional prominence, becoming a. It held sway over surrounding villages which provided it with food and workers while the city-state provided benefit in the form of trade and defense.

Nauigio's success gave rise to other city-states along the southwestern Alutran coast of the Abayadi Sea. By around 500 BC, there were a half dozen. Each were trade centers and each extended their influence inland. After the Flax Tax Revolt of 226 BCE in Nauigio, the economic center of the region shifted to the nearby city-state of Plenas, which then overshadowed Nauigio's prestige, supplanting it as the dominant regional power by 225 BCE.

First Haksar tributaries
By 100 BC, Ascara had grown substantially in stature and became the biggest trade rival to Plenas. In the last half century BC, Haksar sway grew in the region. Plenas was the first city-state to become a to Haksarad, giving it a trade advantage. The other city-states soon followed suit.

Distance across the sea kept Haksarad from having a strong dominance in southwestern Alutra, however. To offset this, the empire introduced the concept of nobility to the area in 49 CE, naming the rulers of the city-states as counts. As a result, the city-states were clearly no longer independent even if they remained largely autonomous. As the tributary system began collapsing in 249, the city-states became independent counties after Zabarko's death in 252.

First Threazari-Challuyo War
In the mid-200s, Threazari built numerous forts, including in areas claimed by the duchy of Challuyo. These encroachments led to the First Challuyo-Threazari War (281-282). Following a minor victory by Threazari, Challuyo paid a small amount to secure peace and a negotiated new border. The revised boundary left Challuyo's former county of Lucuá in Threazari territory and is the source of a territorial dispute lasting to the present day. Challuyo joined the Coastal Confederation on December 9, 282, primarily as a means to reduce the likelihood of future Threazari expansion.

Confederation period
In an effort to expand influence, Reinaldo de Montaña Asís, the Duke of Ascara, solicited the formation of a loose confederation of surrounding duchies for economic and defensive purposes. The Confederation of Montaña was formalized May 22, 263. This spurred the coastal duchies to form their own Coastal Confederation on June 20, 274. Neither confederation had a central authority beyond their Councils of Dukes, which represented each constituent duchy. Despite this structure, the Dukes of Ascara and Plenas held sway over their respective bodies.

Second Threazari-Challuyo War
In the mid-600s, economic hardships in Threazari appeared to present an opportunity to Duke Rucat de Challuyo y Bultén to reclaim Lucuá, lost nearly four centuries earlier. A focus on maritime trade in the Coastal Confederation resulted in only tepid support for the Second Challuyo-Threazari War. Challuyo churned through its resources and, despite the disintegrating conditions in Threazari, the fighting sputtered to a stalemate. Despite the end of combat, a formal truce was never declared nor signed, with the status quo simply tolerated by all parties.

Inclusion of the Kanakan region
During this period, the northern regions of modern-day Ventora were not unified in any significant way. The area began to develop some identity as the Kanakan region of the Alutran Steppe through increasing contact with the nomadic peoples. The people remained nomadic and the region was considered barbarous and even ungovernable by some, which did not stop attempts to subdue it. The Montañan Confederation was particularly engaged in efforts to include the region under its dominion.

Second Haksar tributaries
With Ashniqir's restoration of the Haksarad empire in 511, trading ties with the confederations grew again, particularly during the latter half of the sixth century. Beginning around 600, the confederations became semi-autonomous tributaries. This status did not bind the member duchies except as it affected their roles within their confederations.

Although the Haksar perspective of these tributaries was imperialistic, the southwest Alutran dukes saw them more as a military and trade alliance. The fact the confederations were the tributes relieved the dukes of direct fealty. To further enhance their independence and economic strength, the confederations formed a customs union in 783.

Kingdom formed
Observing Haksar conquests in Tagaraš, Montaña sought to expand its territory in 955 by seizing Tagar land to its west. Although militarily successful, the confederation found itself stretched. The Kanakan region in the northeast had become less passive. Differences of opinion on priorities among its dukes led to the Montañan Confederation becoming less stable, with limited ability to maintain control across its vast lands. As a result, Teodosio de Salamanca, Duke of Ascara and Montaña, petitioned the Coastal Coalition for assistance with the northern lands.

Recognizing an opportunity to increase influence in southwestern Alutra, Haksar Emperor xxx offered the pair of confederations the opportunity to become a united kingdom under tribute. Clemente Duque de Plenas used the situation to shift the balance of power from the wealthier Montañans to the more rural eastern Coastal Confederation. This suited the Haksars and the Montañans agreed in order to retain what prestige they still had a grasp of and gain military aid from the southeastern duchies.

On August 17, 959, the member dukes of the confederations signed the Concords of Plenas creating the Kingdom of Ventora. Clemente I of the House of Carres was the first king. The Concords dissolved the confederations but gave semi-autonomous standing to the duchies. The kingdom’s charter established it as a tributary of Haksarad. The name Ventora clearly signified coastal prominence in the kingdom as did naming Plenas as capital.

Expansionist period
With the added resources of the former Coastal Confederation, the new kingdom was able to secure hegemony over significant portions of eastern Tagaraš. Much of Clemente's reign involved pacifying the area of the new holdings and bringing about reduced military expenditures. With his death in 972, the War of Ventoran Succession ensued as Clemente's sons vied for power. The war ended with the elder Florencio I retaining the throne. He gave is brother, Serim, the majority of the family's ducal holdings as the duchy of Arava. Florencio issued the Mandate of Sovereignty to solidify his position as monarch and clarify the manner of royal succession.

Having good trade relations with the Watanese, Ventora sought to compel its smaller neighbor into a tributary relationship, which was established in 1038. King César I saw this as a means to both expand Ventoran prestige and help pay for efforts at pacifying the northern regions known as the Kanakan Steppe. Various areas of Watan were awarded to specific duchies of Ventora as provinces with arrangements for trade, defense, and administration.

Because of the nomadic nature of peoples of the steppe, the kingdom’s control over the region remained somewhat nebulous and its northern borders were often unclear. Ongoing needs for armed forces in northern Ventora and the success of the Watanese tribute state encouraged King César I to grant limited autonomy to Ventoran holdings in the eastern Tagar region in 1041. The holdings were obligated to become tributaries to Ventora in exchange. The change initially met César's objective of quelling periodic uprisings in the area but never fully eliminated the underlying dissatisfaction of the Tagar populace. Using agricultural knowledge gained from the Haksars, the kingdom introduced cultivation to arable areas of the Kanakan region in the 1100s. As farming became more accepted, the nomadic nature of the zone diminished, all but disappearing by the 1500s.

Various dukes of Challuyo lobbied for efforts to restore the county of Lucuá to Ventoran control. Notwithstanding the expansionist desires of the period, the results of the two Challuyo-Threazari wars dissuaded any significant interest in mounting a military effort to retake Lucuá. Even so, the area remains disputed territory claimed by Ventora to the present.

Although the Watanese remained semi-autonomous, a Ventoran custos appointed by his duke was placed in charge of each respective province. The arrangement continued for nearly 300 years. It was largely an amicable situation although the Ventorans had a tendency to treat the Watanese paternalistically. When disputes arose, they were often settled by a saber duel, a Watanese tradition the Venetorans viewed as honorable. Just such a duel resulted in the end of the tributary relationship in April 1328 when Ventora’s Provincial General, Pruspes Elizondo Quixada Penemar, Count of Otero, lost his duel with Watanese Prince Fábio. King Seve II of Ventora considered using the army to compel Watan to remain a tributary state, but the relationship had long been at least tacitly voluntary. As a result, there was little support at home for armed intervention and the King’s Council advised him to accept the result of the duel, which Seve reluctantly agreed to.

Independence
With waning Haksar imperial authority in the early 1700s, Ventora secured its release from tributary status on May 12, 1740. Since the Kingdom had been virtually independent despite its tributary status, the Release from the Charter was a technicality but legally important document which gives the signing date great significance in Ventora. Although not a specified part of the Release, Ventora agreed to release its hold over lands in eastern Tagaraš as a prerequisite to Haksarad's emperor signing the document. From Ventora's perspective, this allowed the kingdom to focus on fully incorporating the Kanakan region in the realm instead of dealing with local revolutionary activities in its Eshar lands.

Despite long-standing historical ties with Haksarad, Ventora took a position of neutrality in the Coffee Wars. The Kingdom did not want to damage growing trade with the northeastern Alutran countries, including Ordrey, Gladomyr, Edury, Salia, and Ecoralia. Ventora saw neutrality as the best way to renew trade with belligerents on both sides once the war was resolved. Its neutrality severely curtailed Ventoran trade during the Coffee Wars, however, since a majority of its trade partners were engaged in the wars.

World wars
During each of the First and Second World Wars, Ventora sided with its historical ally, Haksarad. In the first war, Ventora became involved as part of an agreement to avoid becoming a tributary of Haksarad again.

When Velorenkya sent troops into Tagaraš around 1940, Ventora joined the Haksar armed intervention to prevent expansion of Velorenkyan hegemony in the region. Coupled with growing displeasure at increasing Concert of Nations interference in trade and other matters of sovereignty, Ventora joined the Alliance in the Second World War. Although not considered a major power in any of the wars, Ventoran Armed Forces were involved in supporting activities as well as a number of combat operations.

From almost the start of the Second World War, the Ventoran Navy provided naval patrols and escorts throughout the Abayadi Sea. This allowed the major Alliance powers to allocate their forces more toward the combat zones. A number of Ventoran expeditionary air and army forces participated with other Alliance forces in several of the major battles. Because of the nature of the aviation arms race at the time, Ventoran pilots often trained for and flew combat flights in other Alliance country aircraft. This became the nucleus of the modern Ventoran Air Force. The country's wartime experiences at sea in the first two world wars, along with its longstanding maritime history, also explains Ventora's relatively robust seaborne capability in modern times.

Both of the earlier world wars were costly, both fiscally and in lives, for Ventora. A changed political climate, the advent of nuclear weapons, and what King Florián III saw as a lack of clarity between combatants and non-combatants, including civilian populations, in the Third World War were key reasons Ventora remained neutral during that conflict.

War of the Three Capitals
King Florián III and the entire royal family were killed September 13, 1961, when their train derailed in the Lorqui rail incident while en route back to the capital from the Summer Palace. With a lack of clear succession, the Council of State appointed Tácito Duque de Castellano as regent in the interim. After months of bitter discussions, Castellano declared the Council dissolved on March 10,1962, and used military forces to secure the capital city of Plenas. This led to the formation of monarchist, republican, and northern alliances, each with varying degrees of support. With no formal means of discussion, the rivalries degraded into open warfare, now known as the War of the Three Capitals, as three prominent dukes vied for the throne.

After two years of varying degrees of battles, the popularity of the war was waning with average citizens. The nobility also felt the economic impact of the war. Realizing continuing the fight could result in a complete loss of power, the dukes agreed to resume discussions on succession, meeting in the relatively neutral location of the Summer Palace at Terelle.

Commonwealth period
On October 18, 1964, the dukes signed The Treaty of Terelle. This resulted in the formation of the current commonwealth under a regent as an overlay to the retained structure of the kingdom. The dukes agreed to the duchies having a confederal arrangement with the national commonwealth due to the lack of a monarch.

Since mid-1967, the People's Emancipation Union (UEP), a Noyonist organization, has engaged in , typically  in nature, against police and the Ventoran Armed Forces. The UEP claims Ventora's commonwealth form of government under the regent is invalid and, therefore, so is the status of the nobility. UEP is, seeks an end to the nobility, and wants to radically restructure society and the economic system. Most of its support is in the north-northeast of the country in and around the Kanakan Steppe, largely due to decreased economic opportunity. Over one thousand people, mostly civilians, have been killed in UEP-sponsored bombings, shootings, and attacks on government personnel and facilities, all of which the government classifies as.