Bloom

The Federal Republic of Bloom was a sovereign nation in the southeastern area of the -,- on CivClassic. At the height of its power Bloom included the island of the Capital Territory, the Great Northern Territory, the Former Territory of Angullia, and many smaller islands. Bloom is a unitary parliamentary democracy and semi-presidential republic. The republic's capital and largest city is Bloom, a city that serves as a hub for global immigration and is the economic and cultural center of the nation. Bloom consists of two constituent territories: Capital Territory and Great Northern Territory. Within both territories and also outside of them are various townships, 8 in total; these include Capital, New Siata, Narda, Marseille, Angullia, DRK(Democratic Republic of Kek), High Velothi, and Capita.

At the start of 2019, Bloom was comparable to Mt. Augusta and nearby Icenia as a newfriend and architectural centre. Around this time Bloom developed a powerful legal system, strict building codes, extensive rail connections, and a militia that had a large presence in domestic affairs. The capital city of Bloom saw fast development, much of building being concentrated in the western end of the capital. Bloom was historically a member of the United Northern Congress was a member of the United Defense Front with its neighboring nations, Icenia and Imperial Truidence.

During the Infinity War in 2020, Bloom was ousted from the UDF by Columbia over concerns about their ties to enemy combatants NATO. Almost all of Bloom's population departed shortly afterwards for CivRealms, leaving its land in the care of Ashelor resident Slushhi and neighbouring ally Icenia.

Civclassic History (April 2018 - present)
Bloom officially moved to Civclassic on May 19th, 2018, after 47% of citizenry voted in favour of the move. Bloom's first claim was a small forest island, as seen in the image below.

Bloomeans lived underground for several weeks while they gathered resources and supplies to build up Capital. Each citizen was allowed 1 small 5x5 room that were all connected to a main hallway. As wealth began to circulate, people began to construct their homes above ground. The first two builds were the Parliament building, and Slushhi's apartment building.

After more buildings rose, Parliament had its first major dispute. Aleh56's Free Democratic Party wanted to enclose the capital in a wall and trench, much like NYC (New Yoahtl City). Slushhi's Libertarian Party opposed this as Bloom, the main argument being that it would make it harder for people to trade with Bloom and it would hurt Bloom's economy. Though Bloom did not have the volunteers needed to complete such a task. Construction of the wall and trench began shortly after Bloom joined Civ but expansion of the trench was called off after a month and the walls have remained incomplete ever since.

The Slushhi Ministry
In September of 2018, Slushhi won the election for Prime Minister. His first act as Prime Minister was opening Bloom to the rest of the server. He built several entrances going over the trench into the city. During the beginning of his ministry, he worked primarily on international rail lines connecting Bloom to the rest of the server. He lead many Bloomeans to complete lines to 0,0, Mt. Augusta, and Gensokyo. He also dug many internal lines connecting the capital city to Bloom's varying biomes.

After the necessary infrastructure was set up, Slushhi campaigned to expand Bloom's capital westward. This began with buying out property and building new roads connecting the walled-in city to the fresh land. This expansion sparked development and the size of the capital nearly doubled in just a few months. With the new development, Bloom became widely known on the server as one of the top starter nations. Many newfriends came to Bloom and activity peaked.

Sensing frustration from other Prime Minister candidates, Slushhi retired from running to give others a chance to lead Bloom.

The BoomBox59 Ministry
BoomBox59 won the election for Prime Minister in February 2019. He was quickly criticized by many Bloomeans for failing to make much progress and being relatively inactive. His most notable project was the restoration of 0,0. An early election was called, and Slushhi became Prime Minister again.

Aleh56's Resignation and Constitutional Reform
After months of inactivity in-game, Aleh announced his resignation from President in June of 2019. An election was then held where the citizens voted in Slushhi to lead Bloom. As President, Slushhi heavily edited the constitution, in which he abolished the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister's powers were then given to the President and Home Secretary. He also created the House of Lords, which can act as both Parliament members and Judges.

Truck_Man1234 was voted in as Home Secretary and he began to expand Bloom's defensive infrastructure.

Infinity War and Decline
The server-spanning conflict known as the Infinity War led to significant challenges for Bloom and ultimately resulted in its decline as an active nation. In 2020, Bloom was a member of the United Defense Front against NATO. Columbia, a fellow UDF member, became increasingly concerned about Bloomean Home Secretary Truck_Man1234's personal friendships with members of NATO.

These concerns came to a head one night in 2020, when Columbian Emperor Shadedoom made an announcement in the UDF Discord server and issued an ultimatum - if Bloom didn't leave the UDF, Columbia would. As Columbia represented a significant ally for UDF members due to its military and geopolitical power, this went unchallenged and Bloom was forced to leave the alliance.

The manner in which Bloom was expelled from the UDF overall soured relations between it and other members - the ultimatum was unexpected, and surprisingly unchallenged by those they considered allies. Due to this, Bloomeans felt that they were not welcome in the -,- and their contributions to the war were not valued. The decision was made to move Bloom's community to another server, and the majority of the population moved for a fresh start on CivRealms.

President Slushhi remained as the last active member of Bloom, maintaining its vault and other infrastructure. The claims of Bloom, while still formally owned by the nation, are as of January 2021 under the administration and protection of nearby Icenia. While some members log on from time to time, overall Bloom as a functioning political entity has effectively ceased to exist as of January 2021.

Government
Bloom was a semi-democratic Nation, with the Home Secretary and President being initially elected but incumbent until impeachment, then the House of Lords, who act as judges and vote on laws. Followed finally by elected Parliament members, depending on Bloomean activity the amount of MPs fluctuate.

Territory of North Island
Former territory of Bloom, reannexed into Bloom after State Senators either became inactive or returned to the core territory.

City of New Siata
Former settlement ran by dBeatzx which became inactive. Due to be torn down, work was halted by the Infinity War and the the ghost town remains standing.

Law & Criminal Justice
A judge resides over a case, listens to both sides and follows according to this document.

Foreign Relations
At its peak, Bloom maintained rather positive relations with most nations in Civclassic. During the Infinity War, most relations became strained and eventually negative, leading to the group's departure from the server.

HJE-Bloom Relations

Bloom's foreign relations with the HJE started on its first day. Bloom first was in contact with the HJE, who gave starting materials such as picks, snitches and bastions to the young newfriend country. The HJE provided jobs for Bloom through digging work at HJE vault projects - these actions would kickstart Bloom's economy and help them to become a regional economic power. Due to the Infinity War, relations with HJE became strained due to Bloom's membership of the UDF.

SATO-Bloom Relations

Bloom had mostly positive relations with SATO, but had little contact with them due to distance and differing goals. Following the dissolution of the UNC, Bloom sought to join SATO but was turned away.

NATO-Bloom Relations

Bloom's relations with NATO were mixed. Due to their strong relations with the HJE, Bloom at one point considered joining FRIENDS, a precursor alliance to NATO consisting of many of the same members. Bloom eventually decided to go with the UNC after its formation, setting it at an opposition to a group filled with many friends.

Mir-Bloom Relations

Bloom had very little contact with Mir, as their location and isolationist policy made contact very sparse and far between. Mir and Bloom are sometimes mistaken for one another due to their similar flag designs which led to a running joke between the two nations.

The UNC

The UNC was a primarily -,- alliance formed with mutual defense in mind, Bloom while not militarily active within the alliance served more as a transport node for the alliance, Bloom flourished in this alliance, trade was high, infrastructure projects were at a peak, and stability was a common luxury. The UNC had never been in a conflict besides the common raider and maintaining its neutrality in the Mir-NATO war by dismantling illegal structures constructed primarily by NATO in its territory. The UNC eventually quickly became an unstable alliance after Varkonia left due to an incident involving Corvus, and other lesser known reasons. After that Varkonia sent a letter of denouncement to Bloom, Bloom responded by both poking fun at the derogatory slander in the Varkonian letter and with a second, more official response. By this point the damage was done though, and the UNC dissolved leading to what is currently a rather unstable region of the world, where mistrust, and silence is leading among former allies.

The UDF

The United Defensive Front was formed post-UNC as a defensive alliance between multiple developing nations including Icenia, Imperial Truidence, and Bloom. Blooms large reason for founding this alliance was a hole left in it's ability to defend itself because of the UNC collapse and the SATO rejection, along with a major healing in relations due to diplomacy attempts by Truck_Man1234 making Icenia and Bloom closer to allies. The UDF has ended up being a very positive alliance between the founding countries, members like Lagiacrus11, SoundTech, and more have nothing but sponsored Bloomean economic growth, and Bloom in turn theirs. Unlike the late-stage UNC defensive meetings, the UDF meetings weren't quiet and uncomfortable for all attending parties, the UDF meetings are active, all heads attend, and issues discussed in a warm manner due to the likeminded goals of all parties involved. Bloom has been responsible with it's international network for the intelligence aspect of the UDF, along with a large bit of experience on civclassics helping Icenia with their policy/infrastructure. Imperial Truidence has served as a sort of connection between the UDF and Entente,. All nations carry weight with their memberships and Bloom has been able through this alliance to "start up it's engines" and continue with major infrastructure projects that were put on hold after the UNC collapsed, and at a faster speed. Bloom was later kicked out of the UDF over its friendships with members of enemy alliance NATO.

General Geography
Blooms geography is primarily Extreme Hills +, with most populated areas in the Forest biome, Blooms forest biome features some of the most annoying to remove trees on the server, Bloom features 2 small savanna biomes, 1 large Mesa biome, ceded to Bloom by Gensokyo. and another small Mesa biome, and features a dark oak forest up north. Most of Blooms territory is lined by beaches, Bloom features a nether island and a Mooshroom island.

Great Northern Territory
The Great Northern Territory is the largest governed area, covering all of Bloom's tundra and its savannah region. Due to its diverse climate and large unoccupied space, the territory has become Bloom's primary space for farming, with large pumpkin and potato farms, both public and private, sprouting up there. The area was originally home to an abandoned fort, which Bloom took over.

Town of Angullia
Anguilla is a town north of the Capital Territory. Originally the town was it's own separate nation, Casia. The town has rail connections to both the Capital and the Great Northern Territory. The buildings that populate the municipality are various now abandoned homes, small farms, and the old church. Bordering north of Angullia is the town of Haven, which is home to a fort.

Capital Territory
The Capital Territory is the oldest area of Bloom, the most populous, and the center of economic activity and government. The Capital Territory is also home to multiple townships, including Bloom.

Bloom
Bloom is the most populated area of the Capital Territory and of Bloom as a whole. The city is a hub for government activity, with the Parliament building, Bloom is also a transportation hub for the country, and a central node for the -,- rail travel along with Gabon, with the rail station serving many national and international connections.

Other Settlements
Being the first territory and also the only one for a good portion of time, the Capital Territory is home to many other settlements. Apart from Bloom, two other towns are in the territory, Narda and New Siata, connected by the South Rail and governed by Nessie97 and dBeatZx respectively.

Railway
Being a large country and one with many distant settlements, Bloom has developed a large interconnected railway system, with many national connections and a connections to various international hubs. The two primary railways for national transport is the South Rail, connecting Bloom to Narda and New Siata, and the O.R.I.N, connecting Bloom to Anguilla and the Great Northern Territory.

Prime Ministers of Bloom
Every elected Prime Minister of Bloom since the first elections were held in June 2017.

Founding
The Republic of Bloom was founded in January 2017 by dBeatzx, the first and only President of the Republic. It was founded on the principles of freedom and democracy. Originally the capital itself consisted of several Victorian style manor houses and a small quartz town hall - the original town was eventually demolished to make way for a much larger city plan.

Much of Bloom's early population came from the town of Angullia, led by Slushhi, which agreed to join Bloom. By the end of May Angullia's citizens had organised into a political party, Angullia Republic.

The first general election was held from the 1st to the 4th of June, 2017.

Building the capital
.

In the final days of his term, Aleh56 launched 'Project Bloom'. This was a plan to massively expand the city, creating a large, flat area with looser restrictions on what you could build. The layout was marked out for the roads however progress was slow.

Monaco/Angullia split
Stagnation

Autumn of Discontent
By the end of Summer 2017 Bloom began declining, largely due to server issues. The Autumn was marked by slow growth and personal conflict between the remaining active citizens.

Cazards Ministry
* cut upkeep

During the Cazards Ministry, a New Republic MP, Arumos, helped keep Bloom alive. He carried on and completely much of 'Project Bloom' on his own and continued inviting new citizens to Bloom.

Arumos Ministry
As voting commenced for Prime Minister a dispute arose between Arumos and darkhorse18909 over the ownership of a snow golem grinder. After an inconclusive first round, Arumos was elected Prime Minister with 4 votes to 3 in Parliament in the second round. Over the next two weeks progress was completely stalled as Arumos and darkhorse18909 engaged in arguing, minor griefing and attempting to raid each others homes. An ultimatum was issued by the Conservatives who were supporting Arumos in government for the disputes to end or he would be voted out of office. With the conflict continuing, then a Conservative MP, Nessie97 started a vote of no confidence in Arumos. The Conservatives, now led by Rakoch_, decided to push for an early general election instead of voting out Arumos. In light of the early general election, the vote of no confidence was rejected.

Nessie97 Ministry
As the election loomed, Nessie97 brought together Arumos and darkhorse18909 who had put their differences aside and formed a new party, the United Alliance. In the October 2017 election the United Alliance performed well taking 4 out of 9 seats, with the Conservatives also taking 4 and the Democratic Republicans taking 1 seat. In the Prime Minister election that followed Nessie97 was comfortably elected with Conservative MP FlyingHamster22 voting for Nessie97 rather than the Conservative candidate, Rakoch_. Nessie97 also secured the support of the Democratic Republican MP, CasualNuker. Nessie97 chose to work with the Conservatives and appointed several Conservative MPs to his cabinet.

The new government continued to be gripped by conflict, at the end of the previous term Nessie97 had attempted to ban iOminous from Bloom and this conflict continued. Bloom for the first time since it's founding was closed off to outsiders to prevent iOminous from easily returning after a vote in Parliament, initiated by Conservative MP FlyingHamster22.

Towards the end of the Nessie97 Ministry the conflict between Arumos and darkhorse18909 flared up again, this time involving their friend RedPandaJungle as well. All were removed from the government by Nessie97. Arumos remained in Bloom while darkhorse18909 and RedPandaJungle left because of their sacking. Infighting within the government continued after Nessie97's former Deputy Prime Minister, Meaghann, tried to get him banned from the server on fake accusations.

The situation continued to worsen when 2 of Bloom's 3 judges, Xcios and Truck_Man1234 left to form an independent town with Meaghann called Ezvark.

Rakoch_ Ministry
On the 28th of November Rakoch_ was elected to serve as Bloom's 5th Prime Minister with 5 votes to 4, bringing an end to a lot of the troubles that Bloom had faced over the previous 3 months.

Reform
In the early days of the Rakoch_ Ministry the electoral system in Bloom was completely reformed with overwhelming support from Parliament. Proportional Representation, where citizens vote for political parties rather than individual candidates, was adopted in an effort to make elections simpler for new citizens.

The daily percentage tax was also immediately cut in half then several weeks later it was abolished entirely by Rakoch_.

Growth
After nearly four months of stagnation and then decline Bloom began to grow again. At the end of November 2017 Bloom's population was at it's lowest levels since April that year. Aided by an influx of new players, an end to infighting and a host of new assistants, Bloom experienced the most rapid growth in it's history - going from just 68 citizens to 201 by the end of Rakoch_'s term.

The size of the capital was also greatly expanded.

Rakoch_ was responsible for many of the buildings around Bloom being completed, freeing up a lot of prebuilt housing for new citizens - despite complaints from Liberal Party members that there were too many houses being built.

Rise of the Liberals and the meme war
In December 2017, Bloom's original founder and first and first President, dBeatzx, returned to found the Liberal Party with independent MP, Slushhi. The Liberal Party grew quickly taking a lot of party members from the Conservatives. The Liberal Party continued it's rise when it absorbed the United Alliance, with Nessie97 replacing Slushhi as the Deputy Leader of the newly rebranded Liberal Alliance.

The Conservative minority government faced wipeout with the Liberal Alliance looking likely to win 7 out of 9 seats in the Bloom Parliament. Around this time, the meme war between the Conservatives and the Liberals began.

Throughout the meme war the two sides relentlessly attacked each other with propaganda.

With a month still to go before the next election the Liberals were reaching a high. In Parliament the Liberals held 4 out of 9 seats, with the Conservative government also clinging on with 4 out of 9 seats. Soon the Liberals would disintegrate after Nessie97 and the United Alliance left the Liberal Alliance and Slushhi was reinstated as party deputy leader. Weeks before the January General Election dBeatzx resigned as party leader causing chaos within the remaining party. Now worried about the prospects of not being elected to Parliament, all of the remaining Liberal candidates defected to the Conservatives.

Collapse of the Conservatives
Deciding not to contest the next election, Rakoch_ announced he was standing down as Conservative leader. Only two candidates came forward for the Conservative leadership, Boombox59 and FlyingHamster22. Boombox59 was elected party leader by the majority of party members several weeks before the election.

With the Liberals tearing themselves apart many of the candidates defected to the Conservatives and the ill-fated decision was taken by the new leader to accept them as Conservative candidates in the new 15 seat Parliament. The election was held at the end of January, the Conservatives won by a landslide with 78.57% of the vote to United Alliance's 21.43%. The decision to take in ex-Liberals as candidates proved fatal for Boombox59 when 4 other newly elected Conservative MPs put themselves forward for Prime Minister. In a surprise turn of events, FlyingHamster22 was elected Prime Minister with 9 out of 15 votes - including support from the United Alliance.

The new FlyingHamster22 led Conservative government got off to a controversial start when Nessie97, leader of the United Alliance, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister - angering ambitious Conservative MPs, with some threatening to vote of no confidence the Prime Minister.

Controversy continued to stalk the government with infighting between the Deputy Prime Minister, Nessie97, and the Housing Secretary, InvictusX. InvictusX was using new powers to evict Nessie97 from land close to the centre of the city. The conflict spilled over into the High Court where InvictusX was accused of abuse of power but the case quickly fell apart. Minor conflicts and arguments continued to arise.

With the Conservative Party too split and the government blocked by infighting an early election seemed inevitable. Two time former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Conservative MP, truejedi52, founded a new party, the Traditionalists and was supported by defections from 5 Conservative MPs: cazards, Rakoch_, dBeatzx, alzdadog and iOminous. Voting for an early election, the Traditionalists continued to support FlyingHamster22's government until the election.

The Conservative Party suffered another split as two more Conservative MPs, Slushhi and Xcios, left to form their own party, the Reform Party.

truejedi52 Ministry and Limbo
After just 23 days the 6th term Parliament had voted for an early election, with support from the Conservative leader Boombox59, the Traditionalists were able to come to power and truejedi52 was elected Prime Minister. Despite the recent turmoil Bloom had remained prosperous and was continuing to grow. However, this came to an end when 10 days into truejedi52's term rumours surfaced that the server, Rebirthcraft, was being sold. Eventually this was confirmed to be true and after massive uncertainty and instability the server was reset.

Determined to carry on and rebuild Bloom, truejedi52 began planning and building the infrastructure for the new Bloom with the continued support of most of Bloom's citizens. Unfortunately the same server instability continued and Parliament agreed to relocate Bloom to Arctic Worlds - a split from Rebirthcraft.

On Arctic, progress for the new Bloom was slow and activity was at rock bottom but the nation carried on. The government was down to 2/15 MPs towards the end of the term but managed to hang on due to inactivity from the other parties in Parliament.

Decline
Towards the end of the term, ex-Traditionalist MP and former Prime Minister Aleh56 (alzdadog) founded the Free Democratic Party taking members from the Traditionalists. At the same time, Slushhi transformed the Reform Party into the Libertarian Party. The next election was held on schedule saw the FDP come to power in an alliance with the Conservatives. Nessie97 became acting Prime Minister after truejedi52 lost his seat in Parliament, two days later alzdadog was narrowly elected Prime Minister by Parliament after a tie with Slushhi had lasted several days. Over the next month little progress was made, despite a rise in activity, Arctic Worlds continue to experience critical problems and eventually began collapsing.