General History

Vilzland, officially the Kingdom of Vilzland and also unofficially known as Túsenland by French nationalists, is a fictional nation centred in the North Sea. It holds a mix of Benelux, French, British and Germanic heritage, which are represented in the different cultures of Vilzland's provinces. The Kingdom has had a long history since its inception, dating back to its existence as part of Doggerland, it's predecessor, all the way to its involvement in World War II to the modern day.

Early Civilisation
The early civilisation and first human settlements of Vilzland was during its existence as part of Doggerland in the North Sea. With rising sea levels at the end of the Weichselian glaciation and the mega-tsunami caused by a large submarine landslide off the coast of Norway called the 'Storegga slide', Vilzland was detached from the European continent and Britain, the two landmasses it had previously been connected to, at around 6000BC.

The island was left alone for the millennia that followed. Nomadic Germanic tribes followed the natural migration of animals across the island until they were invaded by the Roman Empire around 30AD. The conquest lasted ten years; however, uprisings were commonplace between the natives and the Romans. Widespread economic decline in the fourth century forced the Romans to withdraw, leaving the Saxons and Frisians who now dominated the land to divide the island.

This led to the growth of the sub-roman Vilzland. The cultural similarities between the Saxons and the Frisians allowed for cooperation in the coming centuries, preventing the raiding and invasions of the Vikings. Aside from this, they lived separately most of the time; thanks to the Romans, they had settled down and, upon much cultivation, became a prosperous nation.

Contests of England and France
All was well for centuries, until Henry V ascended to the throne of England. War moral was low in the never-ending war with France, and he looked to prove God was on his side. He saw Vilzland as an easy target - and he was not wrong. Being left alone meant the locals were largely unarmed, and the English army stormed both the Saxons and the Frisians. Both Kings surrendered their respective kingdoms and lived as vassals of England. The Saxons did not have much trouble adapting, however adopting Christianity was a chore. The Frisians struggled more but did not have the means to fight back.

Throughout the Hundred Years War, Vilzland became a pawn between England and France. No matter who was in control, the population were oppressed and banned from owning weaponry unless they joined the English or French armies depending on where they were.

Soon, a treaty was signed: France would retain control over the areas they had kept in the South, which became known as Túsenland, and England would control the areas they kept in the North. This idea angered the Frisian peasants, but they were soon crushed by Henry VI.

This system remained. The period of 1453 to 1648 were known as the era of turmoil. Constant rebellions from the Frisians led to ethnic tensions brewing. This was until the Dutch revolt; Frisians seeing their countrymen fight the Spanish for independence saw them unite with the English (and later the French) to defeat the Spanish. The treaty saw the establishment of the Three Petty Kingdoms; the Kingdom of Túsenland (French dominated), the Kingdom of Doggerland (English dominated) and the Kingdom of Northern Friesland (Dutch dominated). This saw a new period of free trade and prosperity on the island. The Industrial Revolution hit and the nations jumped on the new inventions as soon as possible; brighter times were on the horizon.

Newfound Independence
In 1832, the Kings of each nation met in Ljochstéd, the city that had been divided into three since its conception, to discuss the possibilities of a confederacy like the Swiss. Parliamentarians in each kingdom were organising a rebellion, thus change was needed. The Ljochstad Accord was signed; a precursor to the modern constitution. This established the three Kingdoms as united under the Kingdom of Vilzland, the traditional name. This established the democratic political system that remains today.

Three houses were established: the Senate, which functions like the House of Commons in the UK; the House of Honour, a house made up of experts from a variety of fields picked by the commons to advise and scrutinise new legislation; and finally the House of Aristocracy, whose power is only to nominate the new King from the list of heirs, as a means to ensure no one nation's royal family is favoured.

The three regions became duchies, and powers of the King became purely ceremonial. This new constitutional monarchy is what exists today.

The Houtzagers Premiership
For the most part, the political system worked. Elections came and went, new Prime Ministers took the mantle and a transition of monarchy was peaceful and convenient. However, in the late 1870s, a nationalistic French wave emerged, calling for a return of Túsenland, believing that Vilzland's system was corrupt in its selection of anti-French politicians. In 1881, controversial Anglo-Dutch parliamentarian Jochum Houtzagers was elected as Prime Minister - much to the disgust of the French populace in places like Epienne, Parac and Canesse. French gangs that had formed in the provinces became Houtzagers justification to instate martial law, which sent the South ablaze.

Riots and protests kicked off through the winter of 1881. Houtzagers was declared a tyrant and a despot, and calls were made by delegates of the French provinces for King Robrecht I to dismiss the Prime Minister. King Robrecht, who saw Houtzagers as a strong and powerful symbol both nationally and diplomatically, refused to dismiss him. The final blow came with the Act of Southern Suppression in January 1882, which gave the police the ability to arrest and detain 'suspicious' individuals within the protests. The House of Honour, who were handpicked almost specifically by Houtzagers' hegemonic Christian Democrats Party, waved the Act into being. French provincial delegates then declared they would listen to the demands of the French revolutionaries. In March 1882, loyalist French soldiers turned on their garrisons, and the southern provinces declared their formation of a new nation, the Republic of Túsenland. Seeing a national emergency, Houtzagers declared the nation illegitimate, and the new Republic declared war.

The Violence Begins
The Civil War started with movements on both sides. The French made advancements into southern Waalhoven, but were stopped. Advancements in Troonstad failed, and it seemed a stalemate would be put in place. Nevertheless, the French remained vigilant and violent, and citizens who did not swear loyalty to the new Republic were beaten, sometimes to death.

The main perpetrator was Arnaud Laframboise, the provincial delegate of Epienne, who was nominated and named the first President of the Republic of Túsenland. Laframboise declared that he would fight to the last breath until the legitimacy of the Republic was accepted. Houtzagers, who had met Laframboise on several an occasion, described him as 'radical and dangerous to the stability of the nation'. Such predictions had clearly been correct.

The Chappuis Stalemate
An 1883 offensive conducted by French general Thibault Chappuis resulted in an advancement into Troonstad, slightly further than before, and it looked like the French were about to siege Ljochstad. When an attempt was made to seize the city, Houtzagers called on mass conscription, and the defence was brilliant. What followed was known as the Chappuis Stalemate, a year of overnight bombardments of Ljochstad from the French garrison, and continued pushes from both sides over the respective borders.

The Chappuis Stalemate lasted from May 1883 to June 1884. It seemed the Civil War would be unwinnable. In the meanwhile, Laframboise began to build up his new Republic, boosting its newfound economy. On the outside, Britain, France and the Dutch watched on the Civil War. The British and the Dutch refused to help Houtzagers' government as to not antagonise the French. The French refused to help Laframboise's government as to not antagonise the British and the Dutch. Both sides knew war would be a travesty for them. They believed an outcome would be reached independently, similarly to the American Civil War two decades prior.

The Vaugrenard Offensive and the Battle of Epienne
Luck came in 1884 for the Houtzagers government. In May 1884, Laframboise's economic plans had begun to falter and the war was putting a toll on the new Republic's ability to survive independently. It was not deemed legitimate by any of the European powers, and trade was still sent to Ljochstad from the North, which remained under Houtzagers' control. In the midst of this economic chaos, French general Silvain Vaugrenard defected sides, and listed to the Houtzagers' government the Republic's battle plans, and their points of vulnerability. When Vaugrenard had proved his loyalty, he was put in charge of a post, and he launched an offensive into Epienne.

The battle was costly and decisive, but with Vaugrenard's intuition of the enemy battle plans, the trail to Epienne was opened. Troops marched towards the capital of the Republic, and President Laframboise declared Vaugrenard 'the most-hated traitor of the Republic'. Vaugrenard led the offensive straight to Laframboise's doorstep, and with the French soldiers tired out and distraught, they faced no resistance in taking Laframboise and arresting him. Parac and Canesse soon followed suit in laying down their arms. Laframboise was put on trial in front of the Prime Minister, who sentenced him to death for his crimes.

To this day, Túsenland sentiments remain high in the south. The mention of Vaugrenard to Túsenland loyalists is nothing more than hate speech, and it remains a dominant political question to this day: should symbols and heritage of the Civil War be remembered or censored?

Great War Neutrality and Interwar
The Civil War had left a scar on the Kingdom of Vilzland's military history. The divisions within their own nation meant joining the Great War would be, quite frankly, disastrous; they couldn't risk invasion, and held scepticism over which side to join if they were to join the war. Germany would easily be able to invade if they joined the Entente, and Britain and France would easily be able to invade if they joined the Central Powers. Therefore, when the Great War was called, the Kingdom of Vilzland declared its neutrality, however agreed for some Entente ships to resupply their ships in the ports.

Remi Badeaux
When the war ended, Vilzland was thanked for its minor contribution and offered a seat in the League of Nations in 1921. During the Interwar period, Vilzland built up its own economy, and a French Christian Democrats politician, Remi Badeaux, was elected Prime Minister. His premiership from 1924 to 1929 and then again from 1930 to 1933 saw a rebuild in relations between the north and the south, and it seemed that Túsenland sentiments were being forgotten.

Badeaux was assassinated in 1933 by an unknown assailant, and his death marked mourning from both the north and the south. Radical southerners declared his death to be a martyrdom of the peace they had tried to hard to create, and ethnic tensions began to boil again. These, however, were not as high as before, and a statue dedicated to Badeaux was erected in Ljochstad. Remi Badeaux remained a largely symbolic figure to northern-southern relations from the remainder of the Interwar period.

The Start of World War II
Prime Minister Nicolaas Stoevenbelt had predicted the tide of war was coming between Germany and Britain once again. In 1939, when Germany and the USSR both signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Stoevenbelt stated that 'war is inevitable. And once again, the Kingdom will not choose sides'. Vilzland had declared neutrality once more.

This would not always be the case. As Germany continued its wild-ride of Europe, in 1940, it set its eyes on the British Isles. But Vilzland, however, would be a good port. Stoevenbelt, seeing what was coming, quickly mobilised his army. Agreements were made between Stoevenbelt and Churchill, and Vilzland joined the Allied Powers. Soon after, Hitler knew what was going on, and launched a full invasion of Vilzland.

Invasion and Annexation
Vilzland remained united in the face of German aggression. In June 1940, Hitler launched the invasion of Vilzland, codenamed Operation Atlantis, and the south fell within a week. German troops blitzed through toward the north, and evacuations from Ljochstad and other important cities were conducted; those who remained were doomed to become slaves of the German Reich.

Stoevenbelt himself and his government fled to Britain, establishing a Government in Exile from London. The Germans annexed Vilzland as their own, forming it into a Reichskommissariat. An influx of German civilians moved to it, establishing high German populations in the newly established provinces of Wagnerbeck and Dubenring, which were already highly industrialised. Vilzland military preparations were put to good use - for the Germans. Despite controlling the island, the Germans still had very little control of the English Channel and the North Sea, and an invasion of Britain was still a difficult accomplishment, one the Germans never saw happen.

Allied Counterattack and Liberation
In June 1944, as part of the D-Day Landings, Allied forces landed in Vilzland and began to take out the newly fortified German defences. With Germany already on the backburner, the liberation of Vilzland came within a few months, and the remainder of the German navy docked in their ports were moved back to the German mainland. Hitler declared he would return to Vilzland, but very few had faith he actually would.

The German population, however, remained, and Wagnerbeck and Dubenring were controversially recognised by the Stoevenbelt government. The Prime Minister justified this by stating that 'there had to be national unity, no matter the ethnic tensions'. Vilzland troops who were stationed in London now joined some of the D-Day Landings, and helped in taking back key Vilzland ports from remaining German occupiers.

When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Vilzland rejoiced for its liberation and independence. An election was held soon after, in December 1945. Despite his controversial decisions to implement Wagnerbeck and Dubenring as legitimate provinces, Nicolaas Stoevenbelt was still re-elected as Prime Minister, and continues to be Prime Minister until this day in 1950.

The Abdication
In January 1946, evidence surfaced and circulated in the press that King Philippe I had held Nazi sympathies during World War II, and had openly invited Hitler to visit the Reichskommissariat in 1943. When such claims could no longer be refused, republican sentiments grew rapidly, and Philippe I announced he would abdicate. The House of Aristocracy selected his nephew, Robrecht van der Straeten, to become the new King, Robrecht II. Robrecht took the throne at the age of 24, and committed himself early to the royal duties. He himself would soon face a crisis, however.

The Rodier Crisis
In 1948, King Robrecht II announced his intention to marry French divorcee Christine Rodier. This sparked a constitutional crisis that remains unsolved to this day. The young King justified this as 'a matter of love', but high ranking officials of the Christian Democrats, especially Stoevenbelt himself, opposed the marriage given the religious duties of the king as a Christian monarch. The Rodier Crisis still remains a looming problem for the status of the monarchy, and gave rise to the Democratic-Republican Party who suggested the role of the monarch should be abolished, and that Vilzland should pursue a republican approach.

The Upcoming Election
Nicolaas Stoevenbelt announced in 1949 that he would not be seeking another term as Prime Minister, and stated he would step down as leader of the Christian Democrats in 1950 when the new election would occur. Given the Abdication of Philippe I, the ongoing status of the Rodier Crisis and the Democratic-Republican Party, challenges to the hegemony of the Christian Democrats is likely. A new Prime Minister must take the mantle, and carry the nation forward into the Cold War - whether once again neutral, or a vassal for either side, should opinions change for the better or worse.