Tournesol

  

Continental Republic of Tournesol République Continentale de Tournesol
Flag Grand Seal
Motto: Paix, Terre, Dieu (Peace, Land, God)
Location of Tournesol in North America
Capital and largest city	Topèque
Official languages	French
Recognised regional languages	English German
Ethnic groups	Franco-Tournerser, Tourneser Métis, Afro-Toruneser, Native Tourneser, Anglo-American
Demonym(s)	Tourneser
Government	Unitary one-party continentalist state
• General Secretary	Gaston Rousseau
• President	Jeanne-Lucille Desmarais
• Premier	Christophe Armand
Legislature	People's Congress
Independence  from the United States
• Louisiana Purchase	1803
• War of Contingency	1866
• Treaty of the Tournesol River	1867
• Tourneser Revolution	1920
Area
• Total	275,395 km2 (106,331 sq mi)
Population
• 2019 estimate	4,921,985
• 2010 census	5,141,120
Currency	Tourneser Franc
Date format	mm-dd-yyyy
Driving side	right

Tournesol ( listen), officially the Continental Republic of Tournesol, is a sovereign landlocked state in Central North America. It has a territorial extent of 275,395 km² (106,331 sq mi). It is located between the Kingdom of Superior to the north, the Republic of Brazoria to the south and west, and the United Commonwealth to the east. The capital and largest city in Tournesol is Topèque. The country is largely formed of two different types of eco-systems: the Dissected Till Plains in the east, which consists of mostly wood-covered plains and gentle rolling hills, and the Great Plains in the west, a largely barren prairie perfect for cattle-grazing.

The sovereign state is a unitary republic, consisting of six departments (French: département) and four districts including the capital district around Topèque, which are further divided into either communes or arrondissements. Nearly three-fourths of the country's population resides in Eastern Tournesol, with the largest cities being: Tournesol City, Ouichite, Topèque, and Tours.

Tournesol has had a long history, with its most earliest recorded history by French explorers, but with oral traditions going back further through the Native Tournesers. The first Native Tournesers known to the French were the Kansa or Cansez, a tribe of Siouan people. The Kansa lived on the land controlled today by the Continentalist Republic of Tournesol for about a century before the arrival of the French, having moved in the area along with other related tribes such as the Quapaw, Omaha and Osage during the Dhegihan migration. In 1673, French explorers Louis Joillet and Jacques Marquette discovered the Kansa and established relations with them, and after they learned of the great fertility of the soil, they spread the message and many people from New France and later from Louisiana began migrating there to exploit the land. It quickly became the second-largest producer of food for Haiti, only after Louisiana, and the eastern parts became as populated as French Louisiana. While some settlement of free blacks happened before, a large influx of free and enslaved blacks from Haiti began to come as it declared independence from the French Empire. After brief Spanish governance, the territory was sold by Napoleon Bonaparte to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase, which was later referred to as the Grande Trahison.

During the period of time modern-day Tournesol was under U.S. rule, the area was organized into the Tournesol Territory and although it appealed to be incorporated as a state in the union similar to Louisiana, its overwhelmingly Catholic and Francophone population made the Anglo-American elites of the United States nervous, and it remained an unorganized territory throughout the early and mid-19th century, much to the resentment of the local French farmers. Policies of Anglicanization, conversion to Protestantism and colonization by non-Francophone settlers led to further resentment. By the time Tournesol was even considered for statehood, the two factions of Anglo-American settlers, for and against slavery, started fighting over whether the territory should become a slave state or a free state, a conflict that raged on as the debate continued in Washington, D.C., in a conflict known as Bleeding Tournesol (French: Tournesol saignant). While the Tourneser Francophone population had their own inner splits in their community for and against slavery, the built-up resentment against the U.S. administration for allowing the conflict to rage within the territory by new settlers in their own lands. Tournesol was admitted as a state in 1861 after the start of the American Civil War as a free state, but the state legislature was elected with a majority French representation, and as soon as the War of Contingency started, the state declared independence from the United States and proclaimed the Republic of Tournesol, inspired by the Confederate Uprising and the secession of both Superior and the Northeast Union. Tournesol saw some of the worst fighting in the war, both from an invading American army, as well as internal Anglophone militias, and only an alliance led by Sierra and Brazoria on the western front lead to the success of the alliance and the secured independence of Tournesol. Most Abolitionist settlers in Tournesol emigrated to the United Commonwealth after the war, but a large community of Southern émigré fled the South to Tournesol, the community becoming the biggest American colony of its kind.

After independence, Tournesol felt the ongoing division between between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions which was felt since before the death of the Union. Even though Tournesol had been admitted as a free state into the Union, many laws regarding the illegality of slavery were rescinded by the Francophone administration, and the issue was never solved, with the cultural split between the Tournesers bubbled up again after the country had been formed. The issue was debated internally for several years, and the socio-economic influence the American colonies filled with Southern émigré communities eventually lead to the country tipping over into civl war. Tournesol would be divided between north and south, ironically similar to the United States' predicament before the war, leading to the Tourneser Civil War, which was won by the Nationalist Party and abolitionist allies, which cracked down on the American colonies within Tournesol. The Republic would remain stable until 1917, when during the Revolutions of 1917-1923, the Tourneser Continental Revolution and Free States broke out, in tandem with the Continental Revolutionary War in the United Commonwealth and the failed Buffalo Uprising in the Northeast Union, led by Pastor Émeric Vigouroux, who hosted Aeneas Warren and Zhou Xinyue in their flight from the Kingdom of Sierra and were influenced by their political and economic philosophy. Following conflict between the Continentalists and Free States anarchists, Tournesol was unified under a single-party leadership under the Continentalist Party of Labor. During Great War I, Tournesol collaborated with the United Commonwealth in invading Brazoria and Superior. Throughout the Cold War, Tournesol remained a satellite state of the United Commonwealth and was dependent on Continental trade and aid.

Tournesol is a developed country and is a member of the League of Nations, the Chattanooga Pact, the Organization for Mutual Economic Assistance and Development, and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Its official language is Tourneser French. English and German are also widely-spoken. Other indigenous languages such as

Etymology

The name Tournesol is derived from the French word 'tournesol', meaning “sunflower”, and comes from the large amount of sunflowers found by French explorers, which led to the area being named La Terre des Tournesols. The flower's name in French comes from the fact that sunflowers seem to turn towards the sun during the day, thus giving them their name. The name of the flower eventually gave the name to the Tournesol River, which in turn gave the name to the U.S. territory in 1805. The demonym for people from Tournesol is Tourneser (French: tournesolaire).

History

Main article: History of Tournesol

Pre-Columbian era and first contact with Europeans

This painting by Guillaume Lafayette portrays Father Jacques Marquette giving a mass to the Kansa on the banks of the Missouri

The plains of Tournesol were already settled by Caddoan and Siouan-speaking tribes such as the Wichita (French: Ouichite), the Pawnee (French: Poni), and the Otoe (French: Oteau) when the first European to visit modern-day Tournesol, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado arrived in the area searching for the Seven Cities of Gold. He met the ancestors of both the Wichita and Pawnee, and is said to have abandoned his goal to reach the Seven Cities of Gold at the Hautes de Coronado. While his expedition was a failure, as no such cities existed, he introduced both the Pawnee and the Wichita to ride horses, greatly expanding their effective range. During the 17th century, the great Dhehigan migration took place, and two tribes, the Kansa (French: Cansez) and the Osage (French: Osage) settled in eastern Tournesol, in the Tournesol and Arkansas river valleys, respectively.

The territory was first discovered by Europeans in 1673 by explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, who were tasked with mapping the upper Mississippi River, inadvertendly also exploring the lower Missouri River. During that expedition, while exploring the lower reaches of the Missouri, the sight of canoes at the mouth of the Tournesol River prompted the expedition to go up the Tournesol River, where they discovered both the Kansa people and the fertile land of the Tournesol River valley, in particular the massive sunflower fields. They made contact and traded with the Kansa, and after they reached the mouth of the Arkansas River, where they turned back towards the Great Lakes and spread the news of a fertile valley perfect for settlement and farming. While Marquette would die before he could return to present-day Tournesol, Jolliet led settlers from New France towards this new land in 1683, a year after Louisiana had been named and colonized. These first settlers set foot in Tournesol, establishing the first settlement at Cansezville, the oldest city in Tournesol.

French and Spanish colonial era

Tournesol River in Twilight by Richard Prester portrays the still somewhat wild banks of the Tournesol River in the early 1800s

Relations were very good between the Kansa and the French settlers, and many settlements were established along the Tournesol and Missouri rivers, with the two parties mostly coexisting peacefully, with only few disagreements between the tribes. The Kansa readily accepted Roman-Catholicism as their religion, and in turn showed the French settlers how to cultivate maize, squash and sunflower. Soon, settlements of both Kansa and French origin sprung up in the Tournesol River valley, notably Manincatudie, the first Kansa city, Topèque, named after the Kansa phrase Tó Ppí Kˀé, meaning "a good place to grow potatoes", and Saint-Laurent. Many farming villages came to appear between Manicatudie and Cansezville, and as the French colonists brought wheat with them, the Kansa soon adopted the practice of growing the cereal, solidifying their transition from a semi-nomadic tribe to a sedentary civilization along the banks of the Missouri and the Tournesol.

The first big conflict between the settlers and other Native tribes came in the form of the French-Otoe War, after skirmishes along the Missouri River and on the north bank of the Tournesol river between Otoe tribesmen and white settlers, in which the Otoe were defeated by a combined French-Kansa force, driving the Otoe back north to the mouth of the Nemaha River (French: Némahe). At the same time, trappers explored the surrounding lands and made contact with the Osage at the Arkansas River (French: Arcansa). The Osage had encountered the French before, who came up the Arkansas from Lower Louisiana, and due to the friendly relationship between all the involved groups, the Osage, who controlled territory in modern-day Tournesol, United Commonwealth and Brazoria, remained friendly, with some groups along the Arkansas river slowly adopting a more sedentary agricultural lifestyle. The Pawnee (French: Poni) were encountered to the West along the Republican River (French: Republicaine) and the Platte River (French: Plate), and while skirmishes occurred between the tribes and the French, they mostly just traded along the river. At the same time, French fur trappers and explorers used Cansezville to explore the rest of the Missouri river, with Étienne de Verand, Sieur de Bourgmont, who helped establish Fort Orleans on the Missouri River, using Cansezville to explore the mouth of the Big Sioux River, being one of the first Europeans to explore the far reaches of the Missouri River.

In 1720, during the War of the Quadruple Alliance, the Spanish governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México sent out Pedro de Villasur with several Spanish men and Apache guides to the Tournesol River valley. This happened due to Spanish concerns with the expansion of French colonial power in the Great Plains, an area the Spanish Empire claimed for itself since the Coronado expedition. Once there, the Spanish raided Manicatudie and sacked Saint Laurent. The Kansa and the French colonists begged the Osage, Otoe and Pawnee to unite against the threat of the Villasur expedition. Once there, under the command of Étienne de Verand, now the colonial administrator of the Tournesol Country (French: Pays des tournesols), the Franco-Indian coalition fought against the Spanish at Saint-Charles-des-Tournesols, defeating the force and killing Villasur and his second-in-command, the Hopi-African José Naranjo. The Spanish had to flee back to Santa Fe and after the Treaty of the Hague, the Great Plains were recognized as French territory.

After the war, Fort Orleans and a few small settlements along the Missouri river, as well as Sainte-Geneviève connected modern-day Tournesol, then organized as the Tournesol Country, to Lower Louisiana (French: Basse-Louisiane) and the Illinois Country (French: Pays des Illinois). Tournesol became a major provider of grain and maize for Lower Louisiana, as most of the food produced there was shipped off to feed the colony of Saint-Domingue, along with the more sparsely populated Illinois Country. Seeking to replicate the success of the Tournesol River's colonial enterprise, but wanting to remove the remoteness of the river valley, an expedition was sent in 1722 up the Arkansas River by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, led by explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, who had previously sailed up the Red River. This expedition led to further interaction between the settled Osage on the upper Arkansas, Verdigris (French: Verdegris) and the Neosho (French: Néocheau) rivers, as well as with the Wichita tribes of the area who waged war against them. After establishing a fort in what is modern-day Ouichite, he brokered a peace between the Wichita and the Osage, and returned a year later, establishing a settlement at Fort-Ouichite, which became the settlement Ouichite. Several trading posts appeared on the lower Arkansas, and more farming settlements popped up in the area, called the Osage Country (French: Pays des Osages). The Osages and the northern Wichita, which agreed to settle there as well, converted to Christianity and soon several settlements popped up in the area, most importantly Saint-Nicolas-les-Salines, where salt was discovered and mined on a small scale. The Osage Country never was as populated as the Tournesol Country, but it was nonetheless an important food production area for Lower Louisiana and Saint-Domingue.

This painting shows a Comanche warrior trying to attack an Osage native on horse. Such a sight was typical of the French-Kiowa War, where the Comanche were allies of the Kiowa in their attacks against the Pawnee and Osage

Tournesol Country settlers started travelling north, to settle along the banks of the the Nemaha River, the Platte River, the Missouri River and the Big Blue River (French: Grande Bleu). While the Otoe accommodated and settled into an agricultural lifestyle, they did not, as Catholic missionaries hoped, convert to Christianity, leading to tension between the two groups. Cities were founded, such as Châteauneuf-sur-Missouri, Sainte-Béatrice, Neuilly-sur-Némahe and Louisville, as well as smaller villages dotting the countryside around those rivers. Conflict soon arose though, as the Kiowa (French: Quiouà), Plains Apache (French: Apache du Plain) and the Comanche (French: Comanche) began assaulting the Osage, Pawnee and other allied groups in the western Great Plains, starting the French-Kiowa War, which was an ongoing war against the fearless Kiowa, Apache and Comanche, as well as renegade Wichita tribes. At the same time, free black and creole settlers, as well as slaves started to appear from Louisiana and Haiti, forming the basis of the Afro-Tourneser population. Missionaries also began using Tournesol as a base for their activities to convert the Great Plains tribes to Catholicism.

While modern-day Tournesol wasn't involved in the French and Indian War, after the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the territory was ceded by France to Spain, along with all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi to the Spanish Empire. The Tournesol and Osage Countries became one entity known as Luisiana Alta during the Spanish years, and after a fire ravaged Ouichite, it was rebuilt in Spanish Colonial style. The Spanish era was very quiet, with little Spanish presence, and only small conflicts with the Comancheria and their allies. The vast majority of modern-day Tournesol, bar a small area of land in the southwest south of the Arkansas River now known as the Jaime Strip, is given back to the French in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso and confirmed in the Treaty of Aranjuez. Napoleon Bonaparte tried to reclaim Haiti in the Saint-Domingue Expedition, but after the total failure of the expedition to reclaim the highly profitable sugar plantations of Haiti, the territories of Louisiana were completely useless, and as such, were sold to the United States after negotiations between 1803 and 1804, later known as the Louisiana Purchase, with the exceptions of the territories left to the Spanish, which was confirmed by the United States several years later. Tournesol was added to the Louisiana and later Missouri Territory.

Territory of the United States

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the US expedition to find a way from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, and who made their last stops in areas settled by Europeans in Tournesol.

After the creation of the Louisiana Territory, Tournesol became one of the last supply stages of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark tried to find a way from the East Coast to the West Coast of North America by land. They and their party stopped after the trek up the Missouri in Cansezville and Châteauneuf-sur-Missouri, to reach supplies and hire several Tournesers to help them guide them up the Missouri River, and as intepreters for tribes. Of the settlements along the Missouri and Cansezville in general, William clark wrote:

"After travelling up the sparsely inhabited lower Missouri River, we knew that we arrived in civilized areas when we saw two pirogues travelling up the river. When we asked the travellers where they were headed, they looked confused, not understanding the language. After having one of our guides translate the phrase in French, they said they were headed to Kansaville (sic), which was not very far, and that they would make it by nightfall. Through the sheer luck of wind in our sails, we managed to arrive there just at sunset. The glorious town stood over us, smoking chimneys and a bustling river harbor. It was clear to us that we arrived in a golden, civilized land. These streets, though only a century old, carry the culture and traditions of centuries and milennia. When the commander of Fort Kansa greeted us, he gave us a warm bed to sleep in, and in the morning, surprised us with a great many supplies. He said, that if we ever need more, we could stop along the river until the Platte, where all settlements up the Missouri suddenly stop. And in the morning, we left this beautiful town behind, to an uncertain fate."

It was believed by Tournesers that Tournesol, which was compared to other territories slated up for statehood already settled, would become a state very soon. Originally, Tournesers petitioned for statehood along with Louisiana in 1812. However, concerns of distance from most settled parts of the United States made statehood very unrealistic in the short term, and Tournesol became part of the Missouri Territory, administered from St. Louis. As Missouri was settled though, the area became less isolated, and after Maine and Missouri were added to the Union, Tournesol petitioned once again for statehood. This time, however, the fear of imbalance within the legislature by both free states and slave states, as well as the Missouri Compromise and distrust of the Roman-Catholic and increasingly mixed population of the area prevented Tournesol from statehood, leading to massive demonstrations in Cansezville and Topèque. So as Missouri was admitted as a state in 1821, the Missouri Territory was called the Tournesol Territory, and the northern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase were administered from Cansezville. The obvious and blatant attempts to deny Tournesol, a territory with significant population statehood due to racial policy and religious fears of Catholics led to the Tournesol River Uprising in 1832, in which the Kansa, Otoe and French Tourneser populations all along the Missouri and Tournesol rivers rose up against the United States government, seeking either statehood or independence. The uprising was led by Kansa chief Louis Monchousià, who was a powerful political figure in the Tournesol territory and his son and Métis scout Andrè Monchousià. The uprising took Fort Kansa and other nearby forts by storm, and managed to even make incursion down the Missouri with help from local French-American, Métis and Native populations. However, this rebellion was put down in two years by joint efforts of the US military and Missouri state militia. This led to the expulsion of almost all French-speaking and Native populations out of the US state of Missouri, with heavy US military presence in Tournesol from now on. These troops regularely harassed natives of all races, and governors were imposed on Tournesol. Louis Monchousià died in captivity in Cansezville, while his son André fled to Canada, seeking refuge there and becoming an influential figure amongst the Métis there. From 1833 until the Tournesol-Nebraska Act of 1854, Tournesol was led by a local legislature overseen by the US military post in Fort Kansa, leading to vicious crackdowns on local rights, something that was criticized in the northern states.

Louis Monchousià, known as White Plume, was the leader of the Tournesol River Rebellion and won many victories before being defeated at Saint-Laurent in 1833. He was kept in captivity and died at Fort Kansa in 1836.

The removal of Native Americans forced many tribes to leave the lands east of the Mississippi River, and many of them sought refuge with the French and Kansa inhabitants of Tournesol, such as the Shawnee (French: Cheauni), the Kickapoo (French: Quicapou), the Sauk (French: Sauc), the Meskwaki (French: Mescouaqui), the Potawatomi (French: Potaouatomi) and the Ioway (French: Aïoué). They were granted the right to either integrate or to choose their own lands up from the settled areas in the Tournesol Territory by the territorial legislature. Besides a few tribes like the Shawnee accepting the decision to integrate, the tribes decided to settle in other areas of the territory, with the Kickapoo settling on the Grasshopper River (French: Sauteriau), the Sauk and Meskawki on the lower Solomon River (French: Salomon), the Potawatomi on the lower Saline River (French: Saline) and the Ioway on the lower Ashen River (French: Cendrée). While tension between the new tribes and the Pawnee and Kiowa was building up due to the closeness of their lands and also Kiowa and Pawnee territoriality, these conflicts usually remained small-scale ambushes between the groups, due to other tribes mostly remaining uninvolved and due to inner rivalries between the Kiowa and Pawnee. Even then, the new tribes were fast allies of the Métis, Native and French population, due to their shared hatred of the United States government. Raids by the Pawnee and Kiowa remained common west of the confluence of the Ashen and Republican rivers, and the new tribes, left with no help from the US military, has led to more hate for the government in Washington D.C.

During the Mexican-American War, it was feared that the Francophone populations of the Tournesol Territory would rebel and side with Mexico, but the troops from Tournesol distinguished themselves, fighting against the Mexicans and gaining nationwide respect, further exposing their plight and the corruption of the local US troops commanded from Fort Kansa in Cansezville. This caused widespread outrage in the North, but nothing was changed for the situation except that the comamnder of Fort Kansa, Andrew Buchanan Moore, was courtmartialed and executed for raping and murdering a 17-year old girl named Joyeuse Chartrain, and all the officers complicit were replaced with less corrupt ones. This didn't placate the population too much, but was seen as a start of better relations by some in the territorial society. Contact was established with the elites of Brazoria and Sierra, and André Monchousià began leading a newspaper about the injustices done to the Tourneser Métis in in the United States, called the Star of Tournesol, which became a symbol of resistance amongst the émigré populations in Porciúncula and Austin and was also imported by anti-American Tournesers in Ouichite and Topèque. The Jaime Strip (French: Bande de Jaïme) was added to the Tournesol Territory following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, completing the borders of the territory for the first time since the Third Treaty of San Ildenfonso.

Bleeding Tournesol, American Civil War and the War of Contingency

As people started to seek their fortune west during the California Gold Rush after the Mexican-American War starting in 1849, Anglo-American settlers came into Tournesol, mostly settling on the outskirts of pre-existing settlements, but mostly in and around Cansezville itself. The territory was not open for large settlement yet by the decree of the government, a result of Southern legislators trying to curtail the potential Catholic influence of Tournesol and the still quasi-military rule of Tournesol Territory. That changed after President Franklin Pierce signed into law the Tournesol-Nebraska Act, opening the possibility of desired statehood for Tournesers. This was, however, thought not possible until a significant amount of Anglo-American settlers arrived in Tournesol, confirming many of the suspicions Tournesers had about the United States. Protests broke out in Cansezville, Ouichite, Topèque, Châteauneuf-sur-Missouri, Saint-Laurent, Sainte-Béatrice, Manincatudie, Cap-Domingue and Ézanoua, which led to a violent suppression of what historians later called the Act Uprising. Afterwards, the leaders of the community were split in two, between the appeasers who wanted to appease Southern-minded legislators from Missouri to accept Tournesol as a slave state, while the more anti-American faction wanted to rally sympathy from the North and eventually gain independence, if necessary with the help of Brazoria and Sierra. These two groups formed their own party, being the Agrarian Party (French: Parti agrare) and the Tourneser People’s Party (French: Parti populaire tournesolaire). The Agrarian Party quickly made overtures to become associates of the Democratic Party, while the Tourneser People's Party remained staunchly independent despite Whig and later Republican courting.

However, as statehood became an ever clearer possibility for the Tournesol Territory, national debates, from which Tournesol was mostly removed, gained the spotlight. The question over whether Tournesol should become a slave state or a free state, due to the Tournesol-Nebraska Act essentially nullifying the Missouri Compromise, made waves both in New England and in neighboring Missouri, where settlers were sponsored to settle within the territory in order to swing its vote one way or the other. The two factions became known as the Free-Staters, which were Northern settlers trying to abolish slavery, and the Border Ruffians, who were mostly Southerners from Missouri. This soon escalated into a local conflict, after the territorial legislation set to transition the area into statehood which was elected, barely won with a plurality of pro-Slavery votes, due to many Franco-Tourneser along the Missouri voting pro-slavery. However, it is of massive importance to understand that the native Tournesers were majoritarily pro-slavery, and that the second-strongest party in that election, the Tourneser People’s Party, mostly received support on a nativist, anti-immigration platform.

However, the Free-Staters and Tourneser People's Party refuted the results, saying that had the vote not been manipulated by Missouri residents, the Tourneser People's Party or the Free-Staters would have won. This lead to the establishment of two territorial legislatures, the 'legitimate' one in the newly-established Lecompte, and the 'free-stater' one in Topèque.

Aftermath and Slavery Issue

Tournesol was devastated by the war, which killed an estimate 200,000 tournesers has been killed. Reconstruction projects took initiative, and the country seeped over their losses. Despite all this, and the apparent unity the country had shown in rebuilding itself, one issue still bothered the government: Slavery. a majority of the population and government supported slavery, though there was a great minority that opposed it, which troubled the People’s Party and the Government Greatly. The People’s Party, fearing a slave revolt, and possible civil disobedience from the big minority of anti-slavery people caused the People’s Party to change it’s position, and for it’s law makers in Topète to propose a new anti-slavery law, which passed unopposed. Even though slavery was outlawed, the issue still caused the creation of the modern day political Party known as the “National Party” and is still a strong minority part today.

20th century

At the dawn of the 20th century, Tourneser was an agricultural powerhouse. It produced most of the continent’s agricultural products, and was thriving because of it. Tournesol Supported the Sierran Cultural Revolution which popped up in the early 1900s, and ended in the mid-1950s.

Government

Main articles: Politics of Tournesol and Government of Tournesol

Tournesol is Unitary Parliamentary Presidential Republic under a dominate party system. De facto, Tournesol is a One-Party democracy, as the ruling party, the People’s Party, has been ruling the country ever since independence in 1860. The grounds for the political system of Tournesol is based on the Charter of Law (signed in 1860). The Charter of Law establishes the powers of the parliament and the president which both act as a check and balance System and keep democracy rolling in Tournesol.

The President is the head of State and head of government of Tournesol. The President is elected by popular vote in a national election. The president may run as a candidate for a Political Party or May choose to run Independent. The president can be impeach by a majority vote by parliament.

Political parties and elections

The Continentalist Party of Labor plays an important role in Tourneser government as it has been the leading force in Tourneser politics for 200 years, and continues to hold a strong grasp over it to this day.

The Party is always the majority in parliament, and faces little real opposition, which has allowed it to pass laws they drafted, and to also support the President’s laws (which the president is always a candidate of the PPT).

The PPT has a National People’s Congress every 5 years to discuss national and internal party issues, along with possible political candidates for the next election. These congresses don’t effect much in terms of laws and the nation as a whole, but are definitely important as these congresses will describe the Party’s upcoming plans and the new leaders of the nation.

Parliament

The Parliament of Tournesol is the legislative body of Tournesol. It is in charge of passing laws, drafting legislation, and keeping the President in check, and have the power to dismiss him from the position. The Parliament's seats are currently made up of the Tourneser People's Front, which is dominated by the Continentalist Party of Labor and a number of smaller political parties.

Parliament has acted a rubber stamp for PPT legislation, though more controversial policies that divide the PPT itself usually have mixed results when presented to parliament. Whenever the PPT loses faith in the current president, it usually results in parliament taking a vote of no confidence, which further proves the ineffectiveness of the Parliament as an independent institution. Most of the other parties in parliament are partners with the PPT and usually vote in line with the PPT’s policies, though it is isn’t rare to see some opposition to certain proposed laws by some parties, but since they hold a small portion of seats in parliament they have little impact in end result.

Judicial Branch

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Tournesol is the highest court of law in the nation. It’s job is to review the constitution and make decisions based on the constitution, essentially making it the Constitutional Court as well. The Supreme Court, similar to parliament, is under the control of the PPT, and the justices of the Supreme Court make decisions based on both the morals and ideas of the party in addition to what the constitution says, thus it has become a controversy on where a Supreme Court Justice loyalty lies with, the nation or the party.

Nevertheless, the court does enforce a fair justice system and has made critical decisions in the past that have greatly effected the society of Tournesol, like the decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1930s, or giving women the right to vote in the late 1950s.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Tournesol