Columbia (Civcraft 1.0)

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Columbia
The Repubic of Columbia
Capital of the Republic of Columbia
General
Location6800, -4000
DemonymColumbian
AbbreviationCol
Government
GovernmentConstitutional Republic
Formation
Foundation dateStart of 1.0
Culture
LanguageEnglish

The Republic of Columbia, commonly known as Columbia or Columbia the First, had the largest city on the Civcraft 1.0 server which itself was also known as Columbia and served as its capital. The city was founded by Dossier5 during the opening days of the server. The Republic of Columbia extended 800 blocks in all directions from its centerpoint (approximately 6800, -4000) and included both the city of Columbia and the city of Rapture. The border was marked with pillars that contained information about the land claim of the city in the form of bookcases.[1]

Columbia was a Constitutional Republic and is one of Civcraft's most notable cities with a rich history, massive metropolitan area, and many famous former residents.

History of Columbia

The Early Days

Without the proper tools to stop griefers many cities existed in secret and did not advertise their coordinates. Dossier5 however sought to promote Columbia as a land of opportunity open to all; opening the city to the public and welcoming new waves of immigrants and refugees from Cresemopolis and the Rift into the city. This brought with it great waves of griefing, which brought the community together out of necessity and greatly evolved the Columbians' style of building.

One of the first landmarks of the city was the Eiffel Tower (built by Dossier5) around which the city is centered. The purpose behind the creation of the tower was its role as an attraction to the city for visitors and residents, as well as a symbol of industry to those who would visit. From the Tower the city expanded outward in all directions and remains there today. An interesting fact of Columbia, is that bobpndrgn originally built his house on the Eiffel Tower plot, soon thereafter Dossier yelled at bob in game and told him to move his house. He moved it over one plot to the left. He built it proudly with all the colors of wood.

The Founding Fathers

In the early days of the city, the law was enforced through the will of Dossier5, who assumed the position of a temporary dictator.

As the city's population grew to around a dozen the rules which had only been passed down by oral tradition needed to be codified. Dossier5's gave his power over to a Transitional Council which was made up of what we know today as the Founding Fathers.

These founders included Foofed, rdhayes06, mrgagetron, Denieru, Timmy, and bobpndrgn. The founders organized the city's rules that existed at the time and began preparation for a constitutional convention and democratic elections.

The First Conflict

At the time Columbia was not yet a republic and was by some seen as a griefer haven, because it did not enter into entangling alliances with other cities.

During this period a resident named Antrolf, who came with Denieru to the city, founded a small settlement inside of Columbia called New Pyongyang. At one point soon after Foofed refused to leave New Pyongyang and was hit by Antrolf. Foofed thought that it was Denieru who did this and proceeded to repeatedly kill Denieru and Antrolf, while rdhayes06 removed Denieru's bed (in an attempt to get them out of the city). Later, Denieru and Antrolf didn't want Foofed's and rdhayes06's actions to go unpunished. So they broke into rdhayes06's shop where Denieru and Antrolf and took their revenge. After this incident Denieru and Antrolf proceeded to build a mosque out of dirt on a new plot. Foofed, Stevo_1066, and mrgagetron destroyed the mosque because it was viewed as a troll. Denieru and Antrolf fled the city and were later declared griefers. Denieru later had his label as "griefer" withdrawn by rdhayes06 (then president of Columbia) after agreeing upon removing the remains of his house (which stood where the courthouse stands today). Denieru was, and is still, not allowed to visit Columbia.

Griefers, bounty hunters and haters

The city was regularly the target of griefers, the most notable being Gatzy, Greatwolf, and neonxp. They tested the will of the young city through their use of placing diamond reinforced obsidian and lava bombing the Eiffel Tower and many buildings surrounding the city centre.

The Republic of Columbia took a Switzerland like approach to all outside conflict and the with appearance of bounty hunters in the city to collect the fortitude of the settlers was tested.

Columbians opposed outside interference in their peaceful way of life. This was evident through the initiation of force by egokick in his pursuit of MineCraftIsFTW and Joshua97367. In this action, egokick slew Dossier5 and Marcus_Flaminius before fleeing the city with his bounty in order to escape justice. To add insult to injury, egokick requested that the city pay the reparations of griefers who had passed through Columbia; a request that was flatly rejected.

The refusal of visitors to follow the law drew disgust from the settlers. This disregard for the laws became quite clear during the capture and trial of Kraken, who refused to respect the law of the Republic within its territory and midway through the trial attempted to flee and escape through the nether portal.

Disappointed at the failure of their ancap cities such as Cresemopolis and The Rift, numerous ancaps schemed to test the residents of Columbia.

Rapture

As the population of Columbia grew, the increased crowding was managed by creating a secondary city of Columbia, Rapture. It was settled across the sea to the East of Columbia within her territorial claims. While waiting for more pioneers to join the group in the settling of the city on April the 7th, Dossier5 grew impatient and declared "Fuck this, we're doing it live".[2] With that, the party of pioneers gathered their materials, fashioning boats before setting out directly across the open sea to the opposite shore. With that, the settlers cleared the land and began to construct basic roads.

The Golden Age

After the Transitional Counsel passed on its duties through the first democratic elections. Many of the founding fathers continued as prominent members of government, while others such as Dossier5 traded the sword for the plough and retired permanently.

What happened next was the greatest period of for any city in the history of Civcraft.

We the people of ­­­­Columbia in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the voluntary and common defense, and secure throughout the ages the natural right of liberty, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Columbian Republic.

— Columbian Constitution

Those are the opening lines of the Columbian Constitution written by the drafters and signers. The Columbian constitution was conceived during the constitutional convention; involving the opinions and contributions of all classes of citizens. In joint consent, they established the framework for congress and president, immigration, citizenship, court system, police force, the flag and the national anthem.

The first election led to the landslide victory of rdhayes06 as the first president of the republic. Under the leadership of rdhayes06 the city expanded rapidly and the population grew to the largest of any city the server had seen. At its height Columbia was home to over 200 civcraftians spread over 340 individual plots within the city limits.

Markets began to emerge such as the Redstone Market, the Secret Shop, the wool market, banks, smoothstone industry and so on.


Companies such as the Redstone institute were created and worked to further the technological progress of Columbia by constructing automated street lighting. A theatre was built on the waterfront in order to establish a centre for the arts in the city.

Ancaps first attempt to seize power; The Panama Incident

Jealous over the success of Columbia and the failure of their cities, the ancaps schemed. Under the leadership of manintime, the ancaps sought to initiate violence upon the citizens of Columbia. To do this, they established a small city called panama within the territory of the Republic. However, the settlers of Columbia recognized the ancap attempts to initiate violence upon them and restrained using violence as a means of solving this conflict; seeking to peacefully accommodate the ancaps through treaty.[3]

In contrast, the LSIF interest in Columbia grew; establishing relations through a treaty which granted them the right to peacefully establish a commune called Goldmayne.

  • Propaganda during the incident

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ohcr0wOkw8

Downfall

Columbian poster

Following the second elections, Foofed was elected as president. During his tenure of president, Foofed further expanded powers granted to himself to enforce law. Foofed began to pearl all those who opposed his will, and detaining them for an indefinite amount of time without trial.[4] Under his leadership cronyism was rampant, as ancaps were granted citizenship and appointed to high ranking government positions.

Foofed was disturbed at the large amount of dissent over his forceful pearling of people, and refused any request to grant trial.

Land sales occurred during this period, with all profits from these sales placed under the control of Foofed in order to fund the clearing of land an construction of infrastructure.

In what he perceived as faults within the system of government and the constitution and realizing that his time as president was nearly over, Foofed decided to band together with the ancaps and dissolve the government through force against the will of the people.

In doing so Foofed seized control of all funds within the treasury, declared all land within Columbia as open to homesteading, and claimed ownership of pearls of those imprisoned under the Republic.

Violence ensued as people, under the guise of homesteading, stole the property of their neighbours and pearled them if they attempted to defend their property.

  • Artistic representation of the violence

    Artistic representation of the violence

Lawlessness led to the rise of vigilante groups, each with its own perverted interpretation of the law. The dissolution of the government by the ancaps had thrown the city into anarchy.

Many citizens evacuated the city in protest against the forceful dissolution of the government, some of those that left went on to found Populi.[4] With the exodus and collapse of Columbia ended a golden era in the history of Civcraft.

The Democratic Workers' Republic of Columbia

Long after the Downfall, a movement was formed to create a new socialist state from the ruins of the once mighty Columbia City. An organisation of leftists, including members of LSIF, RSSR, CPMA and Leningrad formed a socialist republic within days.

The republic got off to a turbulent start with the killing of synthion, the phantom anarchist, by the former president of the city, rdhayes06, for replacing the traditional Columbian C flag with socialist ones. This sparked off a very tense situation between the founding fathers of Columbia and the socialist settlers. Some of the settlers began a squatting, renovation and dereliction campaign, which was quickly beaten back by the ancaps and wider international community. Leningradovites built an entire new district on Columbia's outskirts, the LSIF reinvigorated Goldmayne commune, and the President of the DWRC, facecuddle, brought in many reforms for voluntary citizens of the DWRC.

Soon, due to controversy over ownership of the former Columbian government buildings, the DWRC and the resident Ancaps were at each others throats. The DWRC eventually dissolved as its settlers spread to more hospitable lands. This "second exodus," as it is known among many leftists today, is largely considered to be the origin of the city of Chiapas.

Today

Columbia, for long the largest city in game, became a mostly-abandoned anarcho-capitalist society. Once a Republic, the government under the control of Foofed dissolved itself. This lead to a “Cold War” of Reddit and Mumble arguments between the LSIF, Statists, and Ancaps trying to grasp for control of lawless Columbia. Eventually the Ancaps came out as victors, but during the tussle for control most of the city's residents had left, leaving only a handful of people remaining in the gargantuan city. Columbia is also home to the now abandoned LSIF Commune, Goldmayne.

Layout of Columbia

City planning was carried out according to the vision of Dossier5; with the city laid out in a grid fashion with 6x6 smoothstone slab roads lit with glowstone lanterns. It is centred around the White House, Eiffel Tower and the Immigration Building, which houses the portal.

New residents received a free parcel of land (up to 25x25) and additional plots and larger plots could be purchased. This policy attracted many residents.

The proceeds from land sales were used to hire manual labor. With cleared land and ever expanding roads the city sustained itself, and continued to grow.

Old Documents

Post Republic Documents

Screenshots

The Columbian Netherside portal, April 17th, 2012

References

  1. ↑ Screenshot of border pillars https://imgur.com/5wFumSY
  2. ↑ https://imgur.com/a/RjP8Q
  3. ↑ https://imgur.com/a/rezNt
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Columbia's Fall by Vdrummer95 transcribed by spacew00t and Tambian_Sinclair https://civbooks.github.io/books/Civcraft_1/spacew00t/Columbia_s_Fall.html
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