Coural

[snowy happy]

I'm currently in the process of creating a detailed, fictional island nation (with the help of an IRL friend) akin to the style of the Koana Islands, a country made by an Australian train driver in his free time. In case anybody's interested, I'll be using this thread to post details on how the development of the map of Coural is going. For now, here's some info on Coural. Keep in mind that this is a draft, and that pretty much everything is almost guaranteed to be a little bit different once development has finished.

Coural is an island nation located off the coast of Canada. It is composed of two large primary islands and 10 smaller islands, 6 of which are uninhabited. Coural includes a socialist democracy, valuing healthcare, welfare, and eco-friendliness. 

History
Coural's islands were inhabited by indigenous peoples for approximately 1,570 before European contact in 1872. Within a decade after contact, the islands were colonized by Britain as the British Coral Islands, named after the lush swathes of underwater coral forests nearby. This is where the present-day name is taken from. 

On December 4th, 1947, around the beginning of the decolonization era, the British Coral Islands officially became independent, being immediately recognized by Canada and the U.S.A.

(I'm also thinking about Coural having joined the Korean War, by the way.)

I'll show off the map as it currently is soon.

[Patriot]

I don't think it would've been smart for Coural joining the Korean war. During the time, the climate and size of the islands must have sustained a smaller population. With a small population, the first priority of it is DEFENSE! it simply wouldnt have the manpower.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 20:02:02 GMT -4 Patriot said:

I don't think it would've been smart for Coural joining the Korean war. During the time, the climate and size of the islands must have sustained a smaller population. With a small population, the first priority of it is DEFENSE! it simply wouldnt have the manpower.

No, Canada and the U.S.A are strong allies of Coural and they had a pretty big population/military left over from the decolonization era.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 20:16:39 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 20:02:02 GMT -4 Patriot said:

I don't think it would've been smart for Coural joining the Korean war. During the time, the climate and size of the islands must have sustained a smaller population. With a small population, the first priority of it is DEFENSE! it simply wouldnt have the manpower.

No, Canada and the U.S.A are strong allies of Coural and they had a pretty big population/military left over from the decolonization era.

Yeah, so just leave the foreign warfare to them. Maybe they'd have an agreement set up so that the Coral Islanders could enlist in the British or Canadian army to help out the war effort, but they're a tiny island nation, so it would be stupid for them to get militarily involved. Hell, lots of small island nations don't even have standing armies.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 20:46:43 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 20:16:39 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

No, Canada and the U.S.A are strong allies of Coural and they had a pretty big population/military left over from the decolonization era.

Yeah, so just leave the foreign warfare to them. Maybe they'd have an agreement set up so that the Coral Islanders could enlist in the British or Canadian army to help out the war effort, but they're a tiny island nation, so it would be stupid for them to get militarily involved. Hell, lots of small island nations don't even have standing armies.

1. They weren't called the British Coral Islands during the Korean War. They had become independent.
2. I'm not planning for Coural to be small at all. That's a total assumption.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 20:54:58 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 20:46:43 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Yeah, so just leave the foreign warfare to them. Maybe they'd have an agreement set up so that the Coral Islanders could enlist in the British or Canadian army to help out the war effort, but they're a tiny island nation, so it would be stupid for them to get militarily involved. Hell, lots of small island nations don't even have standing armies.

1. They weren't called the British Coral Islands during the Korean War. They had become independent.
2. I'm not planning for Coural to be small at all. That's a total assumption.

You don't have to be a puppet country of another country to allow your citizens to join their army. In Singapore all permanent residents, even if they're not citizens, are drafted at 18. Luxembourg, because they're landlocked, has an agreement with Belgium and the Netherlands to allow their soldiers to join the navy of one of those countries.

Second, when you said "island nation", I was assuming something that's roughly the size and population of one of those pacific island nations that very few people can remember the names of all of. If I'm wrong in my assumption, please give me approximate surface areas and populations so that I can reassess my comment.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, off which coast are the Coral Islands? In my head I'm imagining the Atlantic Ocean, but if they're to join the Korean War it would make more sense for it to be the Pacific Ocean.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 21:13:36 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 20:54:58 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

1. They weren't called the British Coral Islands during the Korean War. They had become independent.
2. I'm not planning for Coural to be small at all. That's a total assumption.

You don't have to be a puppet country of another country to allow your citizens to join their army. In Singapore all permanent residents, even if they're not citizens, are drafted at 18. Luxembourg, because they're landlocked, has an agreement with Belgium and the Netherlands to allow their soldiers to join the navy of one of those countries.

Second, when you said "island nation", I was assuming something that's roughly the size and population of one of those pacific island nations that very few people can remember the names of all of. If I'm wrong in my assumption, please give me approximate surface areas and populations so that I can reassess my comment.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, off which coast are the Coral Islands? In my head I'm imagining the Atlantic Ocean, but if they're to join the Korean War it would make more sense for it to be the Pacific Ocean.

I didn't say that you have to be a puppet country. I was pointing out that during the Korean War, they weren't colonized.

They're in the Pacific, although they're close to Alaska, as well. They're kinda nestled in between the bay where Alaska and mainland Canada is. 

I don't have a specific land area statistic, and if I did, it'd still probably be extremely inaccurate, as it's, like, impossible to estimate that, but it's definitely large. The population will probably be around 500,000,000.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 21:17:33 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 21:13:36 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

You don't have to be a puppet country of another country to allow your citizens to join their army. In Singapore all permanent residents, even if they're not citizens, are drafted at 18. Luxembourg, because they're landlocked, has an agreement with Belgium and the Netherlands to allow their soldiers to join the navy of one of those countries.

Second, when you said "island nation", I was assuming something that's roughly the size and population of one of those pacific island nations that very few people can remember the names of all of. If I'm wrong in my assumption, please give me approximate surface areas and populations so that I can reassess my comment.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, off which coast are the Coral Islands? In my head I'm imagining the Atlantic Ocean, but if they're to join the Korean War it would make more sense for it to be the Pacific Ocean.

I didn't say that you have to be a puppet country. I was pointing out that during the Korean War, they weren't colonized.

They're in the Pacific, although they're close to Alaska, as well. They're kinda nestled in between the bay where Alaska and mainland Canada is. 

I don't have a specific land area statistic, and if I did, it'd still probably be extremely inaccurate, as it's, like, impossible to estimate that, but it's definitely large. The population will probably be around 500,000,000.

You said it in response to my then seemingly much more sensible proposal of Coral Islanders joining the British or Canadian army.

Also, jesus christ, that must be absolutely huge. That is larger than the US population. I can not think of the geopolitical ramifications of such a large developed country right there. The one thing that is certain is that there would be no Korean War, at least not as we know it, and World War II would be very different as well. Hell, given the size of that country and the population it's able to support, I imagine that not even the Opium Wars would have gone as they did in our timeline, meaning that I don't even know if the World Wars would happen. You need to make this country more insignificant or put more effort into thinking through the geopolitics of such an island cluster existing.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 22:01:42 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 21:17:33 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

I didn't say that you have to be a puppet country. I was pointing out that during the Korean War, they weren't colonized.

They're in the Pacific, although they're close to Alaska, as well. They're kinda nestled in between the bay where Alaska and mainland Canada is. 

I don't have a specific land area statistic, and if I did, it'd still probably be extremely inaccurate, as it's, like, impossible to estimate that, but it's definitely large. The population will probably be around 500,000,000.

You said it in response to my then seemingly much more sensible proposal of Coral Islanders joining the British or Canadian army.

Also, jesus christ, that must be absolutely huge. That is larger than the US population. I can not think of the geopolitical ramifications of such a large developed country right there. The one thing that is certain is that there would be no Korean War, at least not as we know it, and World War II would be very different as well. Hell, given the size of that country and the population it's able to support, I imagine that not even the Opium Wars would have gone as they did in our timeline, meaning that I don't even know if the World Wars would happen. You need to make this country more insignificant or put more effort into thinking through the geopolitics of such an island cluster existing.

You keep saying Coral Islanders. It's Couraliot.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 22:10:22 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 22:01:42 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

You said it in response to my then seemingly much more sensible proposal of Coral Islanders joining the British or Canadian army.

Also, jesus christ, that must be absolutely huge. That is larger than the US population. I can not think of the geopolitical ramifications of such a large developed country right there. The one thing that is certain is that there would be no Korean War, at least not as we know it, and World War II would be very different as well. Hell, given the size of that country and the population it's able to support, I imagine that not even the Opium Wars would have gone as they did in our timeline, meaning that I don't even know if the World Wars would happen. You need to make this country more insignificant or put more effort into thinking through the geopolitics of such an island cluster existing.

You keep saying Coral Islanders. It's Couraliot.

Well, that is both the first I have heard of that demonym and extremely stupid.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 22:28:51 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 22:10:22 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

You keep saying Coral Islanders. It's Couraliot.

Well, that is both the first I have heard of that demonym and extremely stupid.

It's not stupid. There's lots of demonyms that end in "-iot", like Cypriot.

And you wonder why I make fun of you sometimes.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 22:51:50 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 22:28:51 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Well, that is both the first I have heard of that demonym and extremely stupid.

It's not stupid. There's lots of demonyms that end in "-iot", like Cypriot.

And you wonder why I make fun of you sometimes.

Yeah, but Cyprus isn't primarily English speaking. Either the Coral Islands were conquered and the natives genocided like in the Americas and Australia, and then resettled by English-speaking whites, in which case I guarantee that the demonym would be Coral Islanders, or the half a billion people are the native inhabitants of the island and as such wouldn't have been colonized by the British for the same reason that China never was.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 22:59:17 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 22:51:50 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

It's not stupid. There's lots of demonyms that end in "-iot", like Cypriot.

And you wonder why I make fun of you sometimes.

Yeah, but Cyprus isn't primarily English speaking. Either the Coral Islands were conquered and the natives genocided like in the Americas and Australia, and then resettled by English-speaking whites, in which case I guarantee that the demonym would be Coral Islanders, or the half a billion people are the native inhabitants of the island and as such wouldn't have been colonized by the British for the same reason that China never was.

A country does not have to be FOREIGN to have a demonym that ends in "-iot"! You're making it ridiculously complex over a simple freaking demonym for a fictional country!

jesus...

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 23:06:56 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 22:59:17 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Yeah, but Cyprus isn't primarily English speaking. Either the Coral Islands were conquered and the natives genocided like in the Americas and Australia, and then resettled by English-speaking whites, in which case I guarantee that the demonym would be Coral Islanders, or the half a billion people are the native inhabitants of the island and as such wouldn't have been colonized by the British for the same reason that China never was.

A country does not have to be FOREIGN to have a demonym that ends in "-iot"! You're making it ridiculously complex over a simple freaking demonym for a fictional country!

jesus...

Name one English-language majority country whose demonym ends in "iot".

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 23:13:17 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:06:56 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

A country does not have to be FOREIGN to have a demonym that ends in "-iot"! You're making it ridiculously complex over a simple freaking demonym for a fictional country!

jesus...

Name one English-language majority country whose demonym ends in "iot".

No, there aren't any.

I definitely don't want something terribly generic, like "ian".

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 23:16:26 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:13:17 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Name one English-language majority country whose demonym ends in "iot".

No, there aren't any.

I definitely don't want something terribly generic, like "ian".

Hence, Coral Islanders. It is the demonym that comes to me most naturally, given the name of the place, and so I believe that it is the demonym that would come to the most people the most naturally, and so it will without a doubt be chosen as the official demonym.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 23:18:01 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:16:26 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

No, there aren't any.

I definitely don't want something terribly generic, like "ian".

Hence, Coral Islanders. It is the demonym that comes to me most naturally, given the name of the place, and so I believe that it is the demonym that would come to the most people the most naturally, and so it will without a doubt be chosen as the official demonym.

No, it won't.

You aren't developing the country.

Coral Islands was the name during the colonization, which would come as offensive to any remaining indigenous people living in modern Coural. The demonym is Couraliot, and that is that.

[snowy happy]

ANYways.

Here's the flag.

[Bannanachair]

Also, can I just point out that these "islands" are either really densely packed or large enough to be considered continents of their own? Because you've split the landmass in two, assuming the same population density of the continental United States, each of the two main islands would be about two thirds the size of the United States, or what I like to call "bigger than Greenland, smaller than Australia" (though on a map with the Mercator projection they would be bigger than Australia as well). So these aren't just insignificant islands, you've introduced a nation that effectively controls two small continents, right in the middle of the pacific. The more I think about this, the more insane it sounds. It might be large enough to make trade between ancient China and the Americas possible, which would have drastic implications on all of global history from antiquity.

Jesus Christ Happy, make your islands smaller! Please! You need to consider the geopolitical ramifications of what you're doing!

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 23:24:04 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

ANYways.

Here's the flag.

That flag is an eyesore, but honestly lots of flags are, so that's fine. What does everything on the flag represent?

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 23:25:51 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Also, can I just point out that these "islands" are either really densely packed or large enough to be considered continents of their own? Because you've split the landmass in two, assuming the same population density of the continental United States, each of the two main islands would be about two thirds the size of the United States, or what I like to call "bigger than Greenland, smaller than Australia" (though on a map with the Mercator projection they would be bigger than Australia as well). So these aren't just insignificant islands, you've introduced a nation that effectively controls two small continents, right in the middle of the pacific. The more I think about this, the more insane it sounds. It might be large enough to make trade between ancient China and the Americas possible, which would have drastic implications on all of global history from antiquity.

Jesus Christ Happy, make your islands smaller! Please! You need to consider the geopolitical ramifications of what you're doing!

...

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 23:21:11 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:18:01 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Hence, Coral Islanders. It is the demonym that comes to me most naturally, given the name of the place, and so I believe that it is the demonym that would come to the most people the most naturally, and so it will without a doubt be chosen as the official demonym.

No, it won't.

You aren't developing the country.

Coral Islands was the name during the colonization, which would come as offensive to any remaining indigenous people living in modern Coural. The demonym is Couraliot, and that is that.

So the indigenous people are the majority? In that case, it wouldn't have been colonized like India; rather, it would have gotten the same treatment as China. It looks like someone needs to study 18th century British colonial history!

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 23:26:49 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:24:04 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

ANYways.

Here's the flag.

That flag is an eyesore, but honestly lots of flags are, so that's fine. What does everything on the flag represent?

I'm not gonna bother telling you if you're just gonna insult it.

And yes, every colour/shape there is representing something that has to do with Coural.

[snowy happy]

Dec 10, 2017 23:28:08 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:21:11 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

No, it won't.

You aren't developing the country.

Coral Islands was the name during the colonization, which would come as offensive to any remaining indigenous people living in modern Coural. The demonym is Couraliot, and that is that.

So the indigenous people are the majority? In that case, it wouldn't have been colonized like India; rather, it would have gotten the same treatment as China. It looks like someone needs to study 18th century British colonial history!

No, YOU should study How To Stop Making Terrible Assumptions. It's a great piece of literature.

[Bannanachair]

Dec 10, 2017 23:28:19 GMT -4 snowy happy said:

Dec 10, 2017 23:26:49 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

That flag is an eyesore, but honestly lots of flags are, so that's fine. What does everything on the flag represent?

I'm not gonna bother telling you if you're just gonna insult it.

And yes, every colour/shape there is representing something that has to do with Coural.

Frankly it's not the worst flag I've seen; most of the New Zealand flag replacements from a couple months ago were worse, but yours is still pretty terrible.

But I'm really curious as to what it stands for. I'm assuming that the red on the right side of it represents the blood of all the country's competent vexillologists who must have been killed in some historic disaster around the time of the making of the flag, but I can't figure out the rest of it.