The Right Honourable The Lord High Chancellor of the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace

and

The Right Honourable The Leader of the Executive Council of the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace

are pleased to announce to the world:

The state of war in Gabon has officially ended. There shall now exist an everlasting peace between the peoples of Gabon.

Treaties

With the negotiation and ratification of The Treaty of Peace for the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace, the civil war has been ended and a new government instituted for the Gabonaise peoples.

Pictured (left to right): GetSkinny (member of the Executive Council), BritishWanderer (the Lord High Chancellor) and Gobblin (the Leader of the Executive Council) discussing the outcome of peace negotiations prior to presenting the final proposed treaties to the Executive Council of the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace.

A treaty effecting the necessary changes to the government structure, The Treaty for a Transition of Government to bring to a conclusion to the Civil War in Gabon, has likewise been negotiated and ratified between the new Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace and the Grand Duchy of Varkonia.

Pictured: Inside Balmoral Castle in the new Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace, traditional Gabonaise guards are awaiting the reception of the Honourable Red Duke from the Grand Duchy of Varkonia to ratify the Treaty for a Transition of Government to bring to a conclusion to the Civil War in Gabon.

History of Gabon

Gabon first existed as a colony of subjects of Her Majesty The Queen, GetSkinny. Queen GetSkinny acceded to the throne after the death of her father, King George III, on 8 April 2008.

Pictured: Gabon in its early days as a colony secured to the Crown.

The creation of Gabon resulted from the discovery of the uninhabited land mass by Captain Television and the subsequent claim of the land by The Queen under the doctrine of terra nullius. Through the issuance of letters patent by The Queen, the then Principality of Gabon was formed with the initial sole city of Salisbury.

Pictured: The territory of Gabon.

After that time, the Principality of Gabon flourished and increased its mainland territory. It then encompassed the village of Bakerswood on the southeast and the town of Cottingham in the south.

Throughout this time as a Principality, The Queen served as the head of state and acted with the advice of Her privy councillors. The government was an absolute monarchy without a constitution.

By letters patent The Queen created the position of Lord High Chancellor and through a Commission appointed BritishWanderer to that office. The Lord High Chancellor had effective control of the Privy Council and was entitled to require them to present information about the activities of Gabon to himself.

Pictured: BritishWanderer, the Lord High Chancellor of Gabon after being re-elected to his office by the Executive Council in its first election after Peace

Remarking upon the Colony's inital Success, the First Lord of the Admiralty, tvman999, decided that the time had come to expand the number of mainlaind colonists. Thus, with the steamboat The Ben Campbell, the First Lord sailed 6,748 miles to the Port of Cobh to engage with the Mayor of Cobh, Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, on the topic of finding suitable propective free settlers from the Irish Free State to journey back with the First Lord to Gabon.

Arriving in Elizabeth Bay 254 days after initially setting off, The Ben Campbell brought another six months’ worth of supplies, consisting of copious amounts of wheat and potatoes along with iron tools and seven horses, back to Gabon. Arriving with the Captain was another 86 colonists to join the ranks of the fellow Gabonese. Initially, there were 89 colonists, however a rat infestion manifested during transportation and killed multiple people on the ship. Unfortunately, all seven horses succumbed to scurvy during transportation and arrived without a pulse.

Pictured: The steamboat captained by tvman999, the First Lord of the Admiralty, arriving at Gabon with new citizens, including some Irish.

Some time later, the Privy Council and Her Majesty decided that it was in the best interests of the Gabonaise people to negotiate and ratify The Treaty Effecting a Transition of Government for the Principality of Gabon through Cession of Lands to the Grand Duchy of Varkonia which saw Gabon lose its title as “Principality” and become a “Province” of Varkonia.

This also saw the dissolution of the royal throne of Gabon, including Her Majesty's Privy Council. In its place, the monarchy was replaced with the Assembly of the Province of Gabon which was headed by the Grand Prince of the Province of Gabon. Her Majesty The Queen became the Grand Prince and appointed her privy councillors to the Assembly.

This also saw the appointment of two members of the Assembly of Gabon to the Senate of Varkonia. Whilst serving on the Senate, these senators brought the virtue of codified law to Varkonia. This was something that had never before been known to Varkonia. However, Gabon's rich history of lawmaking and the prowess of its Assembly were a welcome addition to Varkonia.

Pictured (left to right): Gobblin (then member of the Assembly), GetSkinny (then Grand Prince) and Mickale (the Red Duke of the Grand Duchy of Varkonia) in Varkonia when the new Assembly of Gabon deposited the ratified treaties in the Varkonian Archives to complete the Varkonian Treaty Series.

Civil War

Disillusionment in the Assembly of the Province of Gabon with the government of the Grand Duchy of Varkonia was at an all time high. After members of the senate of Varkonia were charged with numerous criminal offences in the courts of Mount Augusta, Gabon was awash with shame to be linked to such heinous actions.

In addition, Varkonia's complete disregard to give Gabon any provincial aid, Gabon was receving just 2.6% of the total foreign aid budget from the Grand Duchy of Varkonia which did not even cover half of the money made from taxes collected from Gabonese citizens at the time.

Pictured: The army of the Grand Duchy of Varkonia travelling to join the side of the revolutionary sect of the Province of Gabon in the civil war.

Disagreements broke out within the Aseembly of the Province of Gabon on how to respond to the dissatisfaction with the actions of Varkonia, multiple votes were called in the Assembly of Gabon seeking to either declare independence from Varkonia or to negotiate a Varkexit treaty.

Sects were formed within the Assembly between the Grand Prince and the Lord High Chancellor, with most members of the assembly backing the Chancellor due to dissatisfaction with the monarchy back home. This led to the Chancellor's sect declaring themselves revolutionaries and starting a civil war with the intention of staying unified with Varkonia.

Pictured: The Queen inspecting Her troops from the loyalist Independent Principality of Gabon that were to fight in the civil war.

From this, the Independent Principality of Gabon was again formed with Her Majesty The Queen as its head, the previous Grand Prince of the Province of Gabon. Loyalists to The Queen were in great numbers and ultimately outnumbered the revolutionaries.

The Queen dissolved the Assembly and instated a declaration of war against Varkonia and Hjaltland who had decided to rally behind the revolutionaries in their revolt against the Independent Principality of Gabon.

Pictured: The army of the revolutionary sect of the Province of Gabon, including reinforcements from the army of the Grand Duchy of Varkonia, stationed in Bakerswood in attempt to launch an offensive into Salisbury.

Upon hearing about the incidents occuring in Gabon, The Red Duke of Varkonia ordered a bombing raid of the Gabonese capital, the City of Salisbury. This sole horrorific act devastated the loyalist stronghold in the centre of the city. It would even have turned the revolutionaries against Varkonia if they were not unaware of this devasation due to the revolutionary army, including reinforcements from the army of Varkonia, being stationed in wait in Bakerswood.

Pictured: The devastation of Salisbury, with the remnants of the station tower standing in the background.

Her Majesty The Queen and the Grand Prince of the Province of Gabon, BritishWanderer, who was instated by the Senate of Varkonia decided that a continued or prolonged war was not in the interests of the Gabonaise peoples.

To bring a stop to the fighting, they negotiated a peace deal between the two warring factions and created the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace.

After the declaration of peace, the city experienced rapid growth internally and externally with immense funding being put into the Gabonaise diamond mining industry by the Executive Council of the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace. This saw the Executive Council fund long-awaited construction projects that had been waiting for Varkonaian tax, allowing citizens to visit cafes, bars, and the theatre like never before. The train station was uplifted from it's original colonial dug out to a arched design allowing for 8 direct lines from other countries.

Unfortunately this quick amassing of wealth and residents within Gabon left the Executive Council with a housing crisis, a response by the Leader of the Executive Council was to create an Architects’ Guild, overseeing the construction of 7 new large homes and 74 apartments to house those living among the streets.

Long live Gabon!

Pictured: People gathered in the City of Salisbury after the Executive Council of the Grand Mercantile Republic of the Autonomous Free Sovereign State of Gabon, the Abode of Peace restored and improved the buildings after the Varkonian bomb.