The Republic of Displaced Calvinists

The Republic of Displaced Calvinists (La République des Calvinistes Déplacés) was founded by a group of persecuted Calvinistic French Protestants belonging to the Reformed Church who were forced to flee their homeland. Starting as a tiny band of Huguenots, they sailed for West Africa and built a small colony in order to practice their faith in peace. They were later joined by several families of Scottish Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed backgrounds who wished to lend their support to the fledgling colony.

The Belgic Confession Rocks!

Nation Information
Displaced Calvinists is a growing nation with citizens primarily of French ethnicity whose religion is Protestant Christianity.

Foreign and Domestic Policies
The Republic of Displaced Calvinists has emerged from being a tiny plantation colony into a full-fledged nation with a developing economy and technology. It is currently researching nuclear technology for the use of nuclear power plants but believes nuclear weapons should be banned. The Republic's paramilitary police force, La Gendarmerie Nationale, has been positioned at all border crossings and is arresting all drug traffickers.

Displaced Calvinists allows its citizens to protest their government but uses a strong police force to monitor things and arrest lawbreakers. It has an open border policy, but in order for immigrants to remain in the country they will have to become citizens first. Displaced Calvinists believes in the freedom of speech and feels that it is every citizens right to speak freely about their government. The government gives whatever is necessary to help others out in times of crisis, even it means hurting its own economy. Displaced Calvinists will not make deals with another country that has a poor history of inhuman treatment of its citizens.

Geography and Climate
Flat. Flat as all get-out. Just a few hills up in the north. Hot and fairly humid with frequent electrical storms, too. Guess we moved too close to the Equator for our European Colonialist tastes. Dang, those mosquitoes are big....



Located in the Volta Region between Ghana and Togo in West Africa, Displaced Calvinists has a tropical climate. Annual rainfall is a minimum of 20 inches per year. There are two rainy seasons. The first is between April and June, followed by a relatively mild period between June and September. The second rainy season hits in September and October, with temperatures between 70 and 85 degrees, Fahrenheit. November through March is hot and dry, with temperatures reaching as high as 100 degrees.

Told you we moved too close to the Equator....

Cities

 * New Batavia Colony is the nation's largest city and the capital of the Republic. New Batavia Colony serves as the center for radio and print media, governmental administration, rail and bus transportation, French culture, and research into peaceful uses for uranium.

Other notable settlements include:


 * Coligny -- Third largest town and the center of the nation's water bottling business. Located along the Volta River, southwest of New Batavia.
 * Huguesville -- hub for the Republic's cattle ranching and meat packing industries. Located northeast of the capital in the flatlands.
 * Cauvin -- the nation's largest chicken ranch and home to Ferrel's Geneva Fried Chicken Fast Food franchise.
 * St. Giles Village -- suburb of the captial. Center for Scottish culture, the Knox Junior Hamburger restaurant chain, and the nation's International Airport.
 * Mont Jan-Hus -- site of the Republic's international shortwave radio station, Radio RCD-2: Voice of the Huguenots. Located in the hill country north of New Batavia.
 * Port Saint-Paul -- Second largest town and major sea port, located along the coast on Cape Saint Paul.
 * Nouvelle Rochelle -- minor sea port and naval base.
 * Fort Saint Marc -- Gendarme military outpost and airstrip on Lake Volta.



Government
Displaced Calvinists government has recently changed from a Republic to a  Democracy. Elected representatives rule on behalf of the people, but the people have been given more of a direct role in electing these officials as well as influencing public policy. Capitalist candidates have won enough seats in recent elections to control the current legislative session.



The Head of State is the colonial Governor-General, currently Sheldomar Bolak, who is serving a five year term.

The Parliamentary Legislature is called the Synod (formerly called the Classis, which now refers to town and district councils). The Synod consists of eighteen elected secular businessmen and twelve Protestant clergymen. Each member of the Synod serves a one year term. Rev. Ian MacKenzie has just been unseated as the Moderator of the Synod, and is being replaced by newly elected businessman Roland LeBlanc.

Until recently, the Governor-General served as the mayor of the captial city, and the Synod-Classis served as the capital's city council. The governmental bodies of New Batavia Colony and the Republic have just recently separated in response to demands for better national representation from outlying areas. The Classis has been reduced to the status of the town council for the capital city, and the National Legislature has been split off from the Classis and renamed the Synod.

The nation's Judicial system is based on Reformed Church canon law. A panel of Protestant ministers and church elders form a board called the Consistitory, which serves as the nation's court of law, and judges all cases. Rev. Pierre-Paul LeFevre is currently the Stated Clerk of the Consistitory.

Political Parties
Political parties are just now being organized within the Republic. Differing opinions in public affairs are still represented more by the various church denominations, rather than through organized political efforts, but this is slowly changing. The majority Reformed Church holds the sway of influence over the Republic, but the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, and Jewish populations also have a voice in matters. In this regard, the nation may be considered a theocratic democracy, dominated by Calvinistic Christian thought.

As the nation's political process matures, the primitive seeds of political parties are slowly developing. What promises to be the future political parties of the Republic are centered around the pro-Republic church elders of New Batavia, Cauvin, and Mont Jan-Hus (led by the Reverend Ian MacKenzie), the pro-Democracy cattle ranchers of Huguesville (led by the Huguesville Cattlemen's Association), and the pro-Capitalist businessmen of Coligny and Port Saint-Paul (led by businessman Roland LeBlanc). Roland LeBlanc has recently organized his followers into the "Capitalism Now!" ("Capitalisme Maintenant!") movement. This event is expected to cause the other interest groups to organize their own political parties separate from the religious institutions of the Republic.

Military


Public Safety Minister Yves Purdue is head of Displaced Calvinist's paramilitary police force, La Gendarmerie Nationale. State security, national defense, civic police work, disaster response, and search-and-rescue duties all fall under the umbrella of La Gendarmerie Nationale.



La Gendarmerie National has been undergoing a modernization program lately, upgrading their armament from a hodge-podge of mostly surplus equipment purchased from other nations over eBay into a more modern, professionally equiped force. Heavy armament consists of several 50-caliber machine gun crews, mortar crews, and recoilless rifle crews. River patrols are conducted by several converted bass boats, each mounted with a recoilless rifle, and couple of converted barges each sporting several 30-caliber machine guns, two mortars and a rather large Vietmam-era recoilless rifle.

A newly organized Armored Brigade rounds out the Republic's recent land-based modernization upgrades.

The Navy consists of a single WWII surplus minesweeper and several patrol torpedo (PT) boats built by the nation's fledgling ship building industry. Their primary duty has been to patrol the coast for smugglers.

Displaced Calvinists's Air Defense Corps has recently been organized, but details have been withheld from the public. Several military aircraft have been spotted flying on maneuvers between St. Giles Village and Huguesville, and rumors abound of a recent shipment of cruise missles arriving at Port St-Paul.

Economy
Displaced Calvinists' pro-business administration has provided a healthy atmosphere for thriving industrial ventures. International trade has vaulted this tiny plantation colony into a moderately successful and prosperous little nation.

Currency
Since its days as a plantation colony, the Republic has adopted the Central African Franc (CFA) as its unit of currency.

Natural Resources


The primary natural resources that form the base of the nation's ecomomy are cattle and water. Cattle ranching is the largest industry in Displaced Calvinists, as evidenced by the large number of ranches dotting the mostly flat countryside. Bottling water from the famous Volta River in West Africa serves as a second major source of exportable income for the country.

Trade
Displaced Calvinists' oldest trading partner is The Bismarck Nation, which serves as the source for the country's aluminum and rubber supplies. The Democracy of Yasnaya Polyana is the major source of furs and spices, and the country of Chafer supplies Displaced Calvinists with sugar and uranium. The new seaport near Cape Saint Paul on the Atlantic coast has been completed and has brought new life to the nation's ecomomy, helping to bring in lumber, pigs, wheat, and oil.

Domestic Industries
Besides cattle ranching and water bottling, Displaced Calvinists has a thriving Fast Food industry, with Ferrel's Geneva Fried Chicken chain giving a healthy competition to the popular Knox Junior Hamburger restaurants, famous for their Trumpet-Blaster Burgers and Iconoclastic Milkshakes.

A newly established brewing industry has begun producing beer for domestic consumption. Despite the nation's theocratic tendencies, the people are free to drink in moderation, and beer has become a popular commodity in some circles. Cheap, low-quality, mass-produced beer is outlawed, as it is seen as promoting drunkenness. The government enforces strict quality standards, forcing the brewing industry to craft finer quality ales and stouts. The Coligny Springs Brewery and the Port Saint-Paul Bottling Company are the most well-known domestic brands.

Displaced Calvinists' research into the peaceful uses of atomic energy, until recently, added a significant boost to the economy. This industry has recently collapsed due to the sudden expiration of the nation's uranium trade agreement. A small atomic energy plant at New Batavia is now in shut-down mode, and the burden of the Republic's electrical energy needs have been shifted over to the series of hydroelectric dams along the Volta River in the Coligny District.

The nation's Bible printing house produces Bibles, psalter-hymnals, and Protestant Christian literature in several languages for distribution world-wide. This particular venture is subsidized by the government directly, as it is not a profitable enterprise, but does provide employment for several dozen citizens.

Failed Ventures
Other attempted businesses, such as starting coffee plantations and salt mines, have proved to be less financially rewarding, causing these failed industries to shut down as resources are diverted toward more profitable ventures.

Protestant Christianity


Having been founded as a colony of refuge for persecuted Huguenots (French Calvinistic Protestant Christians), Displaced Calvinists' major and official religion is the Reformed Church. The Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism are actually placed in an appendix on the end of the nation's constitution. The Reformed Church is the heart and soul of the Republic, making up 80% of the population between its French and Dutch members. The citizens of Displaced Calvinists, having been persecuted for their beliefs and driven from their homelands, tend to hold their faith in high regard in both their personal and public lives.



The Presbyterian church, which is almost indistinguishable from the Reformed Church, makes up an additional 12% of the population. Both the Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church are Calvinistic, can trace their roots directly back to the reformer John Calvin, and have a presbyterian form of church government (similar to a republic where elected elders oversee the church.) The major differences are that the Presbyterian Church is from an English-speaking background, is more influenced by John Knox's Book of Church Order, and adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith rather than the Reformed Church's Belgic Confession.  For all intents and purposes, the government treats the Presbyterian church the same as the Reformed Church in its status as the official state religion. Together, they make up 92% of the Republic's populace.

Freedom for Protestants is guaranteed under law. Other major Protestant traditions, such as Lutheranism and Baptists, are given equal standing along side the majority state-sanctioned Reformed and Presbyterian churches. The majority of these Christians are also from a French background, and are also considered to be Huguenots. Together, these two minority groups make up 5% of the nation's people.

Altogether, the nation is 97% Protestant Christian, broken down into the following groups:

French Reformed Church (76%) Scottish Presbyterian (12%) Dutch Reformed Church (4%) French Lutheran (3%) French Baptist (2%).

Groups officially labeled by the government as "cults" (such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Third Wave Charismatics) are banned, and the penalty for attempting to spread these faiths within the boundaries of Displaced Calvinists is immediate deportation. Simply holding to any of these officially "aberrant" faiths is not considered a crime unto itself in the civil courts, but may lead to excommunication from the Reformed Church. The government is considering lifting a ban on the practice of Roman Catholicism within its borders. There currently is no government policy regarding Eastern Orthodoxy or Pentecostalism within the Republic.

Officially, there is a broad tolerance provided for non-Christian religions, particularly Judaism.

Judaism
The largest non-Christian religion is Judaism at approximately 2% of the population.

There is a unique relationship between the Christians and Jews of Displaced Calvinists. By law, the Jews are required to observe the Jewish sabbath (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday), while Christians are required to observe Sunday as an official Day of Rest. While the majority Christian population is observing their Day of Rest, the Jewish working population keeps the infrastructure of the nation running, holding important positions in the military, public safety, police, and health-care industries. Most of the Jewish population of Displaced Calvinists migrated as part of the hired military-police protection for the colony at the invitation of the Public Safety Minister, Yves Purdue. A recent influx of additional French Protestant immigrants into the nation has reduced the percentage of Jews from 3% to 2% of the population, even though their actual numbers have remained steady.

Other Religions
Other religions, mostly followers of Islam and Indigenous Animists following a religion closely related to Voodoo, comprise nearly 1% of the population total. Estimates are 0.55% Animism-Voodoo and 0.4% Muslim.

These are made up of the local native population who have attached themselves to some of the outlying ranches and plantations as ranch hands. While efforts have been made to convert them to Protestant Christianity, there is no penalty or discrimination for those who do not wish to become Christians. Approximately half the native Ewe population has converted to Christianity, and have become members of either the French Reformed or the Lutheran churches. The French Calvinist Baptist Union is attempting to evangelize the other half of the Ewe population.

People
98% of the nation's inhabitants are colonists and immigrants from an European background (mostly French).

The ethnic and regional origins of the Republic's inhabitants are broken down as follows:

80% French. 13% British Isles and North America 4% Netherlands 2% Indigenous Native (Ewe peoples) 1% Other

Culture and Media
Much of the culture of Displaced Calvinists has been imported from the native lands of its inhabitants, and is currently dominated by a French Protestant world-view. Freedom of religion for Protestants, the Bible and psalm-singing currently play prominent roles in the national psyche.

Media consists of the national daily newspaper, The New Batavian Herald, and the country's state-owned AM radio station network (Radio RCD-1). A Bible publishing house, New Batavia Press, produces written materials for both domestic use and for distribution overseas.

An international short-wave radio station, Voice of the Huguenots (Radio RCD-2) has just been built as a cooperative effort between the government and the Republic's French Reformed congregations. A privately owned series of commercial FM radio stations are being planned under the financing of businessman Roland LeBlanc.

John Calvin Memorial Stadium hosts the nation's growing sports interests, inclucing croquet, lawn bowling, football (soccer), lacrosse, and rodeo events. Competition croquet is fast becoming the most popular sport in the urban centers, while rodeo is gaining in popularity in the rural cattle districts.

The Region Prior to 2005
Called the Gold Coast by early European explorers, the region was originally settled by the native Ewe peoples. The area currently occupied by Displaced Calvinists was first colonized as part of German Togoland between 1884 and 1914. During World War I (1914 - 1918), combined French and British forces invaded, and split Togoland between them. The portion that includes modern-day's Displaced Calvinists' current territory went to the United Kingdom after the war, and was added to what became the nation of Ghana as the Volta Region in the 1950's.



New Batavia Colony
At the collapse of world order in 2005, France was given back the administration over several of its former colonies, including French Togoland. Ghana relinquished the Volta region to French control, and France subsequently allowed a band of exiled French Protestants to create New Batavia Colony there as a city of refuge from persecution. When the settlers realized that they had simply been dumped off and abandoned by their home government, they declared independence in October of 2006, creating the Republic of Displaced Calvinists.

At first, the plantation settlement of New Batavia Colony and the Republic of Displaced Calvinists were identical entities, with the same government for both the town and the nation. However, as the Republic began to mature, the national boundaries quickly grew far beyond the city limits of New Batavia, and encompassed other settlements as well. Plans to separate the government of the nation from that of its captial city have not gone along as quickly as the outlying areas have hoped. This has become a source of tension between New Batavia Colony and the other towns within the Republic, especially Huguesville, where the local Cattlemen's Association has taken up arms to demand fairer representation.

For further details, please refer to the articles New Batavia Colony and the personal history of Sheldomar Bolak. Please also view the Current Events below.

Current Events
Straight from the Headlines of the New Batavian Herald !

BREAKING NEWS:

Displaced Calvinists Fast Food Crisis: Day 3
In the aftermath of losing its supply of Sugar, the RDC is experiencing a serious economic, psychological, and gastronomical system shock with the closure of the nation's beloved Fast Food industry.


 * Increasing numbers of citizens are reporting a vague, unfamiliar, and uneasy feeling that doctors are describing as, "healthy."
 * Not only have the nation's Fast Food restaurant chains closed down, but the numerous brands of snack foods that have previously been available in overabundance in local stores have all but disappeared. The last six-pack of RC (Reformed Calvinist) Cola ™ was sold at auction in Coligny this morning for a record 3,500 Central African Francs to Water Industry tycoon, Roland LeBlanc.
 * Public Safety Minister, Commandant-Major Yves Purdue, has ordered his Gendarme soldiers to commence with a nation-wide series of BBQ hamburger feeds in an attempt to control citizen discontent over the closure of the Knox Junior Hamburger chain. The Presbyterian community has been the focus of a series of emergency bacon-burger distribution programs in St. Giles Village. Meanwhile, military helicopters from the base at St. Marc have been spotted doing air-drops of fried chicken and garlic cheese-fries over the hard-hit rural regions of the Huguesville and Cauvin Districts.
 * Calvinist Diplomats are attempting to establish trade deals with foreign members of the Blue Trading Team to restore the sugar trade, but no agreements have been secured yet.

Fast Food Industry Collapses!
''Nation of Chafer Disappears... Supplies of Uranium and Sugar cut off... Dozens of Atomic Technicians jobless... Fast Food Industry Collapses... Knox Junior Hamburger & Geneva Fried Chicken chains close... Nation's popular culture left shaken....''

February 4th
 * The nation of Chafer, our source for Uranium and Sugar, has disappeared off the map, taking their resources with them.
 * The loss of Uranium imports has shut down our nuclear reactor on the outskirts of the capital, and has left the Atomic Research team without employment. Fortunately, the recently repaired hydroelectric dams along the Volta River have taken up the slack, providing enough electricity to cover our nation's needs.
 * Worse for the common citizen is the collapse of our beloved Fast Food industry. No more Knox Junior Hamburger Restaurants! No more Triple Trumpet-Blaster Bacon Burgers to keep the populace happy! No more Ferrel's Geneva Fried Chicken stands! The foundational icons for our nation's popular culture have vanished overnight! And the people are getting nervous.
 * Calvinist Minister of Public Safety, Commandant-Major Yves Purdue, has quietly put La Gendarmerie Nationale on alert, in case there's trouble. An unnamed Gendarme officer told the Herald, "We might be facing a coup attempt here in downtown New Batavia Colony if this crisis doesn't get resolved before too long."

Race Riots Rock Republic!
French Baptist and Ewe neighborhoods in capital burn as protest turns ugly....


 * An anti-Baptist demonstration by representatives of the Ewe community turned violent last week as members of the French majority responded with a counter protest that degenerated into a full blow riot. The Ewe peoples, bussed in from the outlying rural areas of the Huguesville District, were demonstrating outside the headquarters for the French Calvinist Baptist Union.  They were protesting efforts of the French Baptists to evangelize the Islamic and Voodoo populace of our Republic, when a counter demonstration of the "We Speak French Here, Buddy" ("Francophone Ici, Copain") movement materialized.  Things quickly spiraled out of control.  Details are sketchy, but the end result was the torching of the French Calvinist Baptist Union headquarters, a print shop used by the Baptists to produce evangelistic tracts, the Ewe Cultural Center, and an apartment building housing migrant Ewe workers.  It was a tragic scene, but providentially, no deaths have been reported.  La Gendarmerie Nationale responded by restoring order, which allowed the immediate rebuilding of the damaged structures.

For past news stories, see the Archives of The New Batavian Herald.