The Hegemony of Whales

The Hegemony of Whales is the largest country in the world and per se the largest voting bloc in the Disputatious Assembly of Sovereigns. Recognized by the Assembly in AES 929 following the Cetacean Wars of the 920s, the hyperintelligent whales of the Hegemony lay claim to all of the planet's oceans as their sovereign territory, covering more than two-thirds of the surface. Through a quirk of wording in the Assembly's charter, voting power is described in terms of seats; the Hegemon, therefore, whose girth takes up an entire wing of seats, possesses nearly a third of the votes, depending on how massive the current occupant of the position is. (It is not a coincidence that this precipitated the breakup of the Union into the Very Definitely Independent States, nor that the Hegemony was the first to ratify the States each receiving a seat.) The admission of the Hegemony caused a fundamental change in the politics of the Assembly, which was allowed to happen when the first Hegemon, Bueoueou the Great, threatened to roll over the opposition. While the Assembly's sudden change of policy towards ocean preservation was the first and most obvious effect, more subtle consequences were to follow.

Though the Hegemony is an axis of international politics, it lacks a strong economic base, being entirely underwater. The hyperintelligent whales, while hyperintelligent, are whales, and thus lack the fine motor control required for most skilled professions. In order to make the Hegemony an economic power on par with its political power, Hegemon Aouwouou instituted the Whale Tariffs, a tax on all ships passing through Hegemony territory, i.e. the oceans. This had wide-reaching economic effects, the most notable of which was the ascension of Flandre as an economic powerhouse. Because Flandre's economy is mostly oil-based, the High Exarch was able to equip every ship in the Flandrean fleet with significant amounts of oil, effectively turning the Hegemony's threat to sink noncompliant ships into mutually assured destruction. This defiance to the Whale Tariffs has put them at the center of the Assembly bloc that forms the main opposition to the Hegemon's vote. It has not been a carte blanche resistance, however; after the weaponization of the Taurus Research Station, the Hegemony banned General Gorson from sea travel, which Flandre wisely heeded.

The Hegemony of Whales proposed the Disarrangement Act in AES 989 in advance of the Assembly's millenial. The Hegemony's reasons for the Act are not difficult to infer: rearranging all the countries in the world will undoubtedly require shipping some of them to different continents, an unimaginably profitable opportunity for the Hegemony. It also stands to neutralize the threat Flandre poses to it, as long as Flandre's new location has less oil in it.

I've got a sneaking suspicion that if the Disarrangement Act passes, the Hegemony might just strand every country alone in the water. All they have to do is offer Flandre's oil fields to Ulgrav. If they do that, then between the zeppelin fleet and the Whale Tariffs both nations could corner all global trade.

Citations: Flandre / The Ulgravian Diaspora