FLAG CHALLENGE #154 POLL

Which of these flags is best?

  • Liberal Federation of Russia

    Votes: 3 13.0%
  • Republic of Margarite

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • Hanseatic Federation of Sovereign Cities

    Votes: 11 47.8%
  • Free Trade Zone

    Votes: 5 21.7%

  • Total voters
    23
  • Poll closed .
Liberal Federation of Russia. 1991-onwards.
Instead of breaking into several states, the Soviet Union, it reforms itself and becomes democratic, aided by the Americans. The new party declares the former USSR a Democratic Federation. The new nation also has to reform the economy. Since the industry and agriculture were controlled by the state, the industry was privatized quickly, creating a huge economical gap between those who became owners and those who remained workers. However this caused unrest among the people, as they saw no improvement from communism to democracy. Since the state had planned for an economy similar to the american one, few, large corporations that dominate the economy, people saw them as nothing more than rebranded communists. After mass riots in many cities the goverment changes it's economical plan to a free market. And re-privatizes the industry and agriculture,into smaller companies, creating more companies. Since this causes a market with many producers for many consumers, it forces everyone to make the best product or service, creating a huge economic boom in the coming decade, leading the russians to beat everyone in terms of both quality and quantity of products.
The flag is based on the anarcho-capitalist flag, but the field is divided per saltire, the colours are also based on the colours of the white black yellow flag of the Empire of Russia. The blue slatire represents democracy,( but russian) and the 15 stars represent the member countries of the federation. The eagle, stars and blue background, are made to look as american as possible, while still having russian symbolism.
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The Republic of Margarite
The Republic of Margarite, also known as the Daisy Republic, is based on the southeast coast of North America; it is one of the earliest republics to be formed out of the American Rebellions during the British Civil War.
Following the Daisy Revolution in the 20s the previous oligarchic republic was replaced with one based on individualistic capitalist ideals - inheritance was forbidden and any individual wealth was absorbed by the state upon their death. The Corporation Act of 1940 however allowed a person's wealth to be given to (state approved) corporations that provided services to the Republic.
Today the Daisy Republic has essentially returned to its oligarchic roots with Corporations replacing the Founding Families in all but name.
The flag features a daisy with a gold disc representing both individualism and monetarism.
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The Hanseatic Federation of Sovereign Cities
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Evolving from the trade organization known as the Hanseatic League, the Hanseatic Federation of Sovereign Cities, or simply "the Hansa", was first of many of Mercantilist Republics. Mercantilism, as a political ideology as opposed to the economic theory, was developed in the 16th Century. The 14th Century onset of the Black Plague in its second and more deadly form had led to the dissolution of several growing states, and economic and political instability was rife. As the disease slowed and eventually vanished, economic theorists proposed that the best way for a nation to succeed in the now very much barren and unstable world was to always export over import, thus maintaining enough wealth to support and defend itself. Nations rushed to gobble up collapsed empires, and the tripartite discovery of Thule*, Hybrasil**, and Al-adn*** only spurred this rush for land and resources further. It was during the plague that the notion of the divine right of kings was questioned; were king and peasant not struck down alike? And was it not the wealthy, both noble and common, who survived? While health and cleanliness was the true reasoning behind disease rates, it was cemented into the minds of Europeans that fortune and God favored the bold, the intuitive, those who made their own wealth. Further more, the loss of numerous noble houses and monopolies had opened up the market, allowing commoners the ability to gain massive wealth. With power being centered in fewer and fewer houses of aristocratic lineage, the notion of societal mobility became widespread. Thus came the next logical question: should those who have earned God's favor and political power through wealth not be those who rule? It was with this question that Mercantilism was formed. It would be the wealthiest families that would rule, creating a representative body in which a voice was given to each main family, similar to the Noble Republics of the past. Eventually, disputes over how many seats each family should be afforded was solved with the universal answer: money. In Mercantilist Republics, seats in legislature are literally purchased, usually with a certain maximum to prevent seats simply being bought up before others could.

The Hansa was the nation where this thought and eventually this form of government originated. It had quickly become one of the premier powers in Europe, and city after city joined in order to share in their wealth and growing resources, with Hansa colonies soon bringing in raw materials for sale. Eventually, they consolidated, becoming a proper state with a capital placed in Gotland. For a while, each city had its own representatives, and over time individual cities began to allow their seats to be purchased by wealthy families, until the procedure became formal in the early 1700s. However, despite the purchasing of seats, there is still a maximum number of seats per city but families may purchase seats in other cities. Today, the Hansa has been eclipsed in power by the United Oligarchies of Hybrasil, but remains a major power.

The flag bears the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, representing its place as a hegemon of Europe; clutched in its claws are scales, representing the weighing of gold that symbolizes mercantilism. The three stars represent the three regions of the HFSC; North Germany, the Baltics (Swedish coast included), and Holland. The red and white come from the old penant used by Hansa ships, with a black stripe added both to place the three most used colors in member-city flags, and to represent the commoners, who, along side the nobles (white) ascend into wealth and power, represented by red, being the color of passion and sacrifice.

*North/Anglo America
**Caribbean/Central America
***South America

Free Trade Zone (former Kaliningrad exclave)
Cвободная экономическая зона

In TTL, the collapse of the Soviet Union was an all-around catastrophe. The August Coup of 1991 dragged the Russian SFSR into a bloody and devastating civil war. Although the Yeltsin faction ultimately emerged as a winner, the prolonged conflict brought along an utter economic collapse. Food scarcity and disease outbreaks rivaled those of the worst natural disasters. This meant that not only did the republics of the Soviet Union break away as soon as they possibly could, but same happened to a number of other territories that were simply desperate for survival.

One of those territories was the exclave of Kaliningrad. After its military bases were ruined in the civil war and the flow of money from the central government stopped, the local civilian government collapsed utterly. What rose up to fill the power vacuum was something else entirely. Today, political science mostly calls the final form of this governance "the closest thing to a functioning anarcho-capitalist society", although this classification has several prominent critics.

It is speculated that the unique blend of the old Soviet criminal culture and the new entrepreneurial culture that had formed shortly before the collapse made this unique type of society possible. The smuggling networks that were so formed had already been socially accepted as a way to provide people with consumer goods that were lacking in the Soviet economy. The criminal culture and the nearly ubiquitous availability of small arms, light military weapons and even armored vehicles meant that there was a swift consolidation of different groups of smugglers and entrepreneurs into a small number of roughly equally sized companies, each with private armed forces (or armed gangs, as some would say).

And so, with the local government unexpectedly gone, the military gutted and the Russian central government locked into a life-or-death struggle with the coup leaders far from the territory of Kaliningrad, the gangs suddenly found that they had become the ultimate authority in the new society of that tiny exclave. At first, both Poland and Lithuania tried to restore some semblance of order in the new smugglers haven right at their doorstep, but they soon found out that police and border guard are hopelessly outmatched against mechanized infantry. Begin faced with their own problems, the neighboring countries were then content to secure the borders and leave the situation to develop on its own.

A decade later, the new order had stabilized into what it is today. The territory is ruled by eight corporation-gangs or Houses (Дом) as they prefer to call themselves, with a byzantine system of core territories, areas of influence and neutral zones. There are no laws and nothing is illegal, which makes the exclave a paradise for all kinds of black market activities, including prostitution, drugs and weapons trade as well as gambling. This means that although the territory is officially an international pariah, a powerful demand for the services that would be illegal elsewhere has allowed it to survive and even thrive.

The only thing that is universally respected in the territory is the Auction. Held in the presence of the permanent representatives of all eight Houses in the neutral Auction House (former Köningsberg Cathedral), the Auction is the one single way of negotiating all deals and settling all disputes. The rules are simple: whoever bids more, wins. This includes any liberties, rights or even life.

The territory has no official name nor any official symbols. Outside the territory, it is mostly referred to as the "former Kaliningrad exclave of Russia" (or in Russia's case, without the "former"). The Houses never use the name of Kaliningrad, preferring to use a functional name of "Free Trade Zone". And although all Houses have symbols and signs of their own, the flag of the Auction House, which all Houses respect, has become something like an unofficial symbol for the Free Trade Zone as a whole.

The flag of the Auction House, originally used in a miniature version for signaling during the bidding process, consists of a golden field, symbolizing money and a black fimbriation dividing the field in two. In the upper half, there are crossed gavels, symbolizing a victorious bid and the lower half is empty, as the loser is left with nothing.

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