First indications of human presence go back to the early mesolithicum. A great megalith monument is placed near Hörtschburg. Further a large family tomb have been found there, that included many valuable artefacts like nicely decorated bronze axes, shields and chalices, dated ca. 1450 BC. Later, structures of a (for that time and (north-)western Europe) larger settlement have been found in the same area, dated the same time period. This indicates that this place must have been very important at least for the island, if not also for parts of the near mainland coast. On all over the island there are also single or (more rarely) small-grouped menhirs distributed, some of them are really large (one large one is a famous mark in the middle of the capital Ürleburg and is kind of a regional or even "national" symbol) but most of them are rather of medium or small size. Also smaller megalithic stone circles can be found here and there on the island.
In 1977, archaeologists trenched a horrible mass burial site with heavily damaged and burnt skeletons, approximately in the middle between Königsberg in Joken and Neustadt an der Jegwis, dated ca. 550 BC. There must have been a brutal invasion or another act of violence like revenge. No slightly newer founds were made there, which maybe could have answered questions on this found. That area seems to have been abandoned for the next 300 years until humans had set their vestiges again.
In 1929 near the village of Jegwisborn between Jusidmühlen, Fürstenheim and Mochtjusiden, archaeologists trenched a large burial site with five richly decorated bodies and ample funerary goods included, dated ca. 200 BC. Historians think, it could be a tomb of a king with his family or other very important persons of the then population.
In 100 BC, the island was populated by Indoeuropeans, which cannot be considered as either Germanics or Celts. Scientists believe this population could have been part of the so called Northwest Block, a group of peoples at the southern coast of the North Sea, which's language(s) was neither Celtic nor Germanic, but an own (now extinct) branch of the Indoeuropean langugage family.
A part of the Germanic Ingvaeonic tribe of the Chauci (German: Chauken) began to settle on the island in 100 BC. Within the next 100 to 150 years, they completely conquered the island and intermixed with the local population, which's most important tribe was the Oeteni (German: Ötenen) in the northern half and in the west of the island. This local population left behind a huge influence in the formation of the Yokian language over the next few centuries (Read more about it further below). Until 1 AD, smaller groups of other Germanic tribes as Batavi, Frisii, Jutes and others came to the island and were admitted into the Chauci here.
The Chauci could completely resist larger Roman influence about the island. But larger founds of Roman coins and artefacts have been found in the northeastern part of the island. It is also mentioned by some Roman writers, that "some savage Chauci coming from the big island" participated in Germanic raids into the Roman empire in 314 and 379. They even should "robbed half of the Roman women", but historians deem that unlikely.
The centuries before the Anglo-Saxon-Jute invasion of Britain, Yokia has recieved several smaller waves of Angle, Jute and Frisian settlement. Especially the Jutes left behind some influences in the further developing Yokian language. At the time of the invasion of Britain, a smaller number of Yokians joined the Angles, Saxons and Jutes and settled on different places in Britain, the Yokians left almost no linguistic marks in the developement of the Old English language.
During the Frankish-Saxon Wars 772 to 804, Yokians supported the Saxons. After the battles of Jarehog and Heilöting in September 824, Yokia got christinized after a long, bloody war against the Franks and became part of the Frankish Empire.
Several times in the 10th century, the island had to struggle with Viking raids and invasions, but the whole island could never come under Viking control, but some Norsemen settled in parts of the most northern fifths and in the coast-near northeast of the island. The towns of Nöringen and Isuberge are Norse foundings. Danenkamp is a Danish founding.
In 1019, 1072 and 1200, the Danish tried to conquer the island or to otherwisely integrate Yokia into Denmark, but all such attempts have failed due to the strong resistive volition of the Yokian people. The biggest battle against the Danes on the island was in august 1072 between Bölemund and Oldenkirch.
During the middle ages, many cities and towns of Yokia like Ürleburg, Udejöm, Bölemund, Hörtschburg or Nöringen became part of the Hanseatic league and the Yokians received slight Lower German/Saxon influences in terms of culture and language.
In 1427, during the Dano-Hanseatic War, the Danes tried again to conquer Yokia. The Danes could be stopped 20 kilometers northeast of Ürleburg. Since that battle, the whole operation was a total desaster for Denmark. The Danes had to acquiesce heavy losses in that and the following battles. After the Danes got chased away out of Yokia, Denmark should never place any territorial ambitions on Yokia again.
In 1573, Yokia became officially protestantic. Unlike most German territories, the thirty years war had comparatively harmless effects on Yokia.
In 1686, Nikolaus Gregor Adrian von Bayern - twin brother of Luise Margarete Antonie, married the princess Adalheidt Christiane Luisa, first daughter of duke Ferdinant Uwe Johannes von Joken-Hägersen and his spouse Anna Maria Henrietta von Mecklenburg. Nikolaus devoted hisself with Martin Luther and protestantism and educed sympathies with it. He converted to Lutheranism in spring 1684. He got to know Adalheidt at a stay in Bremen a few months later. Both felt into deep love with each other very quickly. Nikolaus and Adalheidt got eleven children. Since Adalheidt had no male siblings, Nikolaus established a new line of the house of Wittelsbach with his first child and son Friedrich Martin Uwe (*1687) - the protestantic line of Bayern-Joken. That line should endure and rule over Yokia until the end of World War I.
Due to a trade dispute with Hamburg, there was a short war between Yokia and Hamburg in 1703, that Yokia won. Resulting that Yokia got a territorial connection to the mainland by getting Hamburg's exclave of Amt Ritzbüttel for the next 80 years as of the 1704-peace treaty of Cuxhaven.
During the Napoléonic era, Yokia had first a positive attitude on Napoléon under Karl Albrecht Theodor and Yokia became an ally of Napoléonic France. In 1807, Napoléon himself elevated Yokia from a duchy to a kingdom after the island's last state besides Bavaria-Yokia, the principality of Yokia-Jegwisau came to Bavaria-Yokia due to inheritance. The kingdom of Yokia was born. Yokia could maintain its status as an own country during the largest extent of the French Empire.
After the death of Karl Albrecht in 1810, his younger brother Martin Wilhelm Buddo became the king of Yokia, who was more critically on Napoléon but was smart enough not to show that too much, yet. In April 1813, he joined the sixth coalition against France. After the Congress of Vienna, Yokia became part of the German Confederation.
Yokia stayed officially neutral during the Austro-Prussian war, but secretly supported the Austrian-led side. Yokia could maintain its independent status again and became part of the North German Confederation in 1866/67 and of the German Empire in 1871.
The very popular king Kilian Antonius was the last German ruler to abdicate in the wake of the November Revolution of 1918. The dissolution of the kingdom of Yokia took place on December 7th 1918 and went ahead without bloodshed.
After the great war, it was thought over, if Yokia may should be an own country, independent from Germany. In an Entente-supported plebiscite, 93,5% of Yokians voted for a remaining to Germany.
From 1919 to 1923 and from 1925 to 1929, Yokia was governed by SPD-/DDP-led coalitions, from 1923 to 1925 by a DVP-/DNVP-coalition and from 1929 to 1933 by a SPD-accepted minority government led by the DVP. The Nazis never got that much popularity as in other regions of Germany: In the November 1932 German federal election, 26,1% voted for the SPD and in March 1933 barely most Yokians refused to elect the NSDAP - 23,8% voted for SPD. In 1933 president Helmuth-Joachim Stein (DVP) had to make way for Udo Schwartzschmidt, NSDAP imperial lieutenant (German: Reichsstatthalter) of Yokia. Hitler visited Yokia only once and gave a speech at the Festivitätenhalle in Ürleburg in 1940.
At the end of World War II, Yokia received comparatively very little bombardments. 30% of Ürleburg, some suburban municipalities near Ürleburg, 10% of Neustadt auf Joken, 3% of Hörtschburg and the Udejöm-military navy habour got destroyed by British bombing. The rest could keep intact. In late March 1945, British forces reached the Oberbölenhagen concentration camp and affranchised the forced workers.
After World War II, Yokia have been occupied by the British army. On January 13th 1946, the Yokian federal state was founded.
Due to his merits in the resistance struggle against the NS-dictatorship, Olgen Wülfing (SKJ, later CRU) was appointed Yokian Minister-President by the British military government.
The first elections took place in September 1946, which Olgen Wülfing's party Social Conservative Yokians (Sozialkonservative Joken, SKJ) barely didn't win, but they agreed a coalition with the SPD. In August 1948, the SKJ and most other Yokian conservative parties assembled and founded a new party - the CRU - Christian Republican Union (Christlich-Republikanische Union), a sister party of the CDU. (Similar to the CSU in Bavaria, the CRU is a party with a strong regionalist identity and operates only in Yokia, but at the federal level the CRU forms a common faction in the Bundestag with the CDU and CSU. Also like Bavaria's CSU, the CRU developed to a more conservative party than the CDU. The CDU does not operate in Yokia.)
In the years after World War II, there came up some new discussions about Yokia's belonging to Germany. In a new plebiscite, almost 83% of Yokians voted for a remaining to Germany. As a result of 17% voting for independence, the Yokian government enact laws, that the Yokian dialect/language becomes an official language of the federal state (besides German) and that Yokian traditions and culture will be patronised in many ways.
In 1953, oil has been found near Rimstorf southwest of Ürleburg, which soon pushed the population of both Ürleburg and the southern neighbouring municipalities. Another economic boom factor was the beginning car-building industry in Ürleburg and a new steel plant north of the city. But genereally Yokia as a whole saw a upturn during the 50s, 60s and the first half of the 70s. Tourism got more and more important for Yokia.
Since 1962, there is a car- and train ferries connection between Süderstrand in the county of Friesenhain and Norddeich-Mole in Lower Saxony. One ferry needs around 30 to 35 minutes for one way (29 kilometers long).
In 1976, a mammoth project in terms of traffic started: To connect Yokia with the mainland to the east, it was planned and agreed to built a highway- and railway tunnel from Yokia, not far away from its most eastern point, to the Schleswig-Holstein peninsular of Eiderstedt. This tunnel is 18 kilometers long and 17 meters below sea level and thus below the seabed. In January 1984, the tunnel was completed and got opened for traffic in September 1985.
It was planned to built a nuclear power plant near Hörtschburg in the late 70s, but due to fierce protests by the population, the plans were dropped.
The most significant natural event in the state's history was probably the snow desaster at the turn of the year 1978/79, during which many villages could not be supplied for several days after heavy snowfalls and large snow drifts. In mid-Febuary and mid-March 1979 a second and third wave of heavy snowfalls appeared. In late March and early April there were considerable floods of thaw.
In 1983, with Nerthus-Erika Goldbeck, Yokia got a female Minister-President for the first time, after the SPD could win the elections. This also resulted in the first great coalition (SPD and CRU) here.
1986 was the 300th Anniversary of the marriage of Nikolaus Gregor Adrian von Bayern and Adalheidt Christiane Luisa von Joken-Hägersen. The whole year was set as an official Year of Bavarian-Yokian friendship. Many mutual cultural events took place in both Yokia and Bavaria. Lots of movies about the Bavarian-Yokian relationship in history and present and other movies with other Yokian and Bavarian reference were made that year. Double- and triple-weddings of Yokian-Bavarian couples were very famous in both federal states. Also many Yokian and Bavarian towns and municipalities twinned that year.
In November 1993, the state's SPD-/FDP-/Greens-government got harshly criticized by the opposition led by the moderately seperative-/right wing of the CRU for a draft bill, that should allow refugees to get asylum more easily and with much less check. At the latest since it came out that two Greens were talking at party about gradually replacing Germans and Yokians with others and one left winged SPD-minister agreed with that, the scandal was perfect and there was a massive outcry. Not only over Yokia, that scandal busied the whole of Germany. The German press was full with that. Consequently, the FDP left the coalition and thus the government. A few days later, all three burdened politicans receded, the parliament dissolved and new elections were arranged for January 1994. After these elections, the CRU clearly won the elections and formed a coalition with the also strengthened strongly regionalistic to seperatistic JVP (Jokische Volkspartei - "Yokian People's Party") and the right-winged DVU. In May 1996, the DVU left the coalition and the government, but the CRU/JVP-coalition could keep the full legislative period.
In 1999, the CRU and JVP could continue the coalition but only with help and involvement of the FDP.
From 2004 to 2009, the island got ruled by a SPD-led great coalition under Erwin Zank. In 2009, the SPD could barely not continue their rule, since they didn't want to coalise with the Lefts. So they accepted a coalition of the CRU with the FDP and the JVP. In early May 2011 it came out, that some of the SPD-, Greens- and Lefts-members of the Landtag were paying some journalists to devise and publish scandalous stories about CRU- and JVP-members of the Landtag, similar to the Barschel-scandal in Schleswig-Holstein twenty years before. The same time, four Greens-members were suspected to own private pornographic video footage of underaged persons. Over time, more and more and more persisent suspicions arose, that more members of the Greens, but also some of the Lefts and one member of the right wing of the JVP are involved in owning such video footage. The CRU saw their chance and insisted on new elections. At last, new elections were arranged for July 2011, which the CRU clearly won. They formed a coalition with the FDP. Over the next weeks, the scandal were growing more and more and came up to one of the biggest scandals of that form in German history. More politicians from Yokia and from other German states got involved in that scandal. There were major police raids and arrests, after immunities of the burdened members of the Landtag were lifted. The scandal affected all parties in the parliament, but the left parties could never really recover from it, especially in Yokia.
In the legislative period from 2011 to 2016, the JVP counted as an opposition party, but in many ways they were agreeing with the CRU/FPD-opinions and vice versa, so that the JVP had a very successful "opposition" here.
Since 2015, the new party AfD first enjoyed great popularity. After the 2016 elections, which the CRU again won, the CRU decided to form a coalition with the AfD and the JVP, which was a quite scandal in Germany. The coalition could hold until a no-confidence vote in November 2018, that the CRU barely lost. At the new elections in January 2019, there was a standoff situation: Neither the CRU nor the SPD could form a majority and both parties didn't want to form a great coalition. New elections came up again, for March 2019. This time the CRU could take the voters a bit more fancy, while the JVP could get much more votes. The SPD lost a bit and also the AfD lost votes. The CRU could form a coalition with the JVP.
