Ohio Bloc
Ohio Bloc | |
|---|---|
| 2022–2022 | |
 Flag | |
| Location | Ohio |
| Type | Regional organization |
| Member states | Foura
|
| History | |
• Established | 4 December 2022 |
• Disestablished | 8 December 2022 |
| |
The Ohio Bloc was a union founded by Joseph I of Meritia with the goal of uniting all micronations in Ohio under a single alliance. It was founded on 4 December 2022 and disestablished on 8 December. At it's peak the Ohio Bloc had four members divided into two types of membership, full membership for micronations primarily in Ohio and observership for micronations partially in Ohio. The two full members were the Empire of Meritia and the Shahawk Nation (Now known as the Empire of Shahawkia) while the two observer members were the Kingdom of Fontasia and the Kingdom of Scynja.
The Ohio Bloc sought to unite all micronations in Ohio under it to allow for mutual cooperation and trade. The Ohio Bloc also planned to divide Ohio into spheres of influence to establish where each member could claim land without coming into dispute with each other.
The Ohio Bloc would ultimately fail at its goals and dissolve on 8 December 2022. Despite its self purported goals of unity and avoiding territorial disputes, the Ohio Bloc was founded the same day as when Meritia claimed ownership over Turtle Island which had been claimed by the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon since 11 October 2020. Unbenounced to them, the Co-Sovereign of Northwood-Oregon Carson I had already been working closely with numerous micronations in Ohio to establish the Congress of Ohio Micronations. Due to this, the Ohio Bloc was unable to recruit any new members into its union due to their attacks on Northwood-Oregonian claims. Being faced with rejection from every micronation in Ohio they reached out to, Ohio Bloc representatives responded with perjoritives, racial slurs, and accusations that Carson I had manipulated them all and seeked to turn them into "puppets". This eventually culminated in the Ohio Bloc dissolving due to failure to garner popular support.
History
Foundation
The Ohio Bloc was founded on 4 December 2022 by Joseph I of Meritia with the Empire of Meritia and the Shahawk Nation as full members and the Kingdom of Fontasia and the Kingdom of Scynja as observer members. Despite its claimed goals of unity and avoiding territorial disputes (which were used when attempting to recruit new members), it can be reasonably assumed that the Ohio Bloc was founded in order to prepare for Meritia claiming Turtle Island as its foundation was announced approximately an hour before said claims were made at 6:00 p.m. EST.
Still on 4 December 2022, members of the Ohio Bloc attempted to coerce Northwood-Oregon through Carson I, the claimant of Turtle Island since 11 October 2020, to negotiate with Meritia regarding their claims. Despite Meritia making the antagonistic claim, members of the Ohio Bloc accused Northwood-Oregon of not being open to negotiation due to refusing to work with Joseph I after he made comments threatening physical violence towards Northwood-Oregon. Meritia would go on to claim that Northwood-Oregon was seeking the most aggressive options to settle the dispute since it refused to cede land it had claimed since the first month of its existence. The Ohio Bloc, despite its claims to the contrary, would continue escalating the situation by engaging in doxing by finding Instagram posts of Carson I through the accounts of Carson I's friends.
Attempted outreach
A day later, on 5 December 2022, the Ohio Bloc began attempts to reach out to other micronations in Ohio to join the union. Unknown to the Ohio Bloc, Co-Sovereign of Northwood-Oregon Carson I had already been working with multiple other micronations in Ohio to establish the Congress of Ohio Micronations.[a] Using this medium, Carson I had already alerted the other members of the Congress to the actions of Meritia and the rest of the Ohio Bloc.
Joseph I, acting on behalf of the Ohio Bloc, first attempted to reach out to the Kingdom of Cristoria through then King Christopher I with an invitation to join the union on 5 December 2022. This was promptly refused by Christopher I who would then go on to place Cristoria under lockdown and temporarily close any new diplomatic relations. Later on the same day a representative from each member of the Ohio Bloc joined the Discord server of Sawdustistan, a long term ally of Northwood-Oregon, in an attempt to recruit them to the Ohio Bloc. After being briefly entertained to share their goals, their offer was turned down by then Prime Minister Armen Nazarian with the explanation that their agressive claims and conduct made against an ally of Sawdustistan them unwilling to join. While Conor I of Fontasia stayed silent and Stephen I of Shahawkia condemned the doxing conducted by the Ohio Bloc but still aired his support for the union, the conduct of the rest of the delegation can only be described as an outburst. Supported by Džözyp I of Scynja, Joseph I would go on to type an explaination of how Northwood-Oregon, specifically Carson I, was manipulating all the micronations in Ohio and seeking to puppet them.
Hear us out holy f---, he’s[b] f---ing brainwashed everyone. This is literally Ohio’s almendria[c]. He’s going to great lengths to make sure our side of the situation doesn’t get heard of course. Because that would be a threat to his control over the Ohio region and all the nations within it. We aren’t violent but all he wants to promote is that we are because we warned him that we have a functional military when he refused to negotiate and asserted his claims. Apparently that’s violent. Yes THEIR side refusing to negotiate is aggression on our part. We don’t believe, we KNOW. I can see what’s going on here clear as day and Ohio is absolutely f---ing screwed if everyone starts blindly submitting to loyalty of his nation after he promotes misinterpreted claims about us. stop believing him, it’s what he wants. He wants nothing but power and division. And only submits to peace if the peace is on his own terms. Hear us out for once omfg. He’s literally giving us a bad rep everywhere now. Like leave us alone, we’re just trying to unite the area. And you see that as a personal problem. We want peace, the fact of the matter is he doesn’t And he’s made that clear with his refusal to negotiate on any terms on the justification that we were “violent to him” (we really weren’t) Hear us out is all we say, or continue to buy into his misinterpretations of our organization like he wants you and everyone in Ohio to to prevent us from ever unifying anyone. That’s all.
— Excerpt of Joseph I on the conduct of Carson I, 5 December 2022[d]
The entire delegation would later be banned from the Discord server of Sawdustistan.
Departure of the Shahawk Nation
On the same day, following the events of the attempted recruitment of Sawdustistan, the Shahawk Nation would withdraw itself from the Ohio Bloc seeking to distance itself from the doxing and other actions conducted by other members of the Ohio Bloc on 5 December 2022.
It is with great sorrow that I announce the secession of The Shahawk Nation from the Ohio Bloc. The idea was great, perfect nearly, but due to a mishap and an unjustifiable doxxing, society will paint us all with the same brush, hence why this is happening. I would like to thank chad3 , animejat , and sauce5[e] for being wonderful diplomats during the short lived time we had among the Bloc. This is mainly happening due to Carson being nearly 3 steps ahead of us at every turn, what Carson has said, we cannot undo. The Bloc was a good idea, but we do not belong here, the people simply do not understand our side of the story and are bluntly unwilling to listen. We wish you guys the best of luck. God save The Ohio Bloc.🫡
— Stephen I announcing the withdrawl of the Shahawk Nation from the Ohio Bloc, 5 December 2022
Stephen I would also reach out to Carson I seeking to foster amicable relations with Northwood-Oregon though these were not presently pursued due to the Shahawk Nation continuing to have relations with the other members of the Ohio Bloc.
Final days
After the departure of the Shahawk Nation the fervor of the Ohio Bloc's actions began to dwindle. It is unknown if any other micronations in Ohio were reached out to with an offer to join as no knew members joined before its dissolution. On 6 December 2022, the Republic of Slavtria passed Parliamentary Bill 22-H2-18 which solidified its stance of support for Northwood-Oregon's claim over Turtle Island and placed embargos on the members of the Ohio Bloc including the Shahawk Nation despite its departure.
On 8 December, Džözyp I reached out to Slavtria through it's President, Catiko, in an attempt to get Slavtria to drop its involvement in the dispute. Despite attempts to convince Catiko, they directed Džözyp I to talk to Carson I instead to try to come to a solution, something that had not been attempted since the first day. Acting on behalf of Meritia and Joseph I, Džözyp I and Carson I were able to come to an agreement where Meritia would focus on claiming island's closer to their mainland claims and renounce their claim on Turtle Island through the Turtle Island Détente Agreement, ending the dispute. On the same day, the Ohio Bloc would disestablish itself.
Post-dissolution
Dwindling Shahawkian involvement
Despite withdrawing from the Ohio Bloc, the Shahawk Nation[f] maintained relations with the other members of the Ohio Bloc. Stephen I would continue to support the efforts of the Ohio Bloc and its former members, even suggesting that the former members of the union partition the islands of Lake Erie on 5 March 2023. These sustained relations would not last long though and on the 19 May Stephen I would announce the ending of the Shahawk Nation's alliance with Scynja and Fontasia and would reiterate that it was never allied with Meritia outside of the Ohio Bloc. While not directly pushing for the move, Carson I would support Stephen I in his decision and offered assistance in getting in touch with the other micronations in Ohio if the Shahawk Nation was interested.
Attempts at détente
After the ratification of the Turtle Island Détente Agreement most interaction with the members of the Congress of Ohio Micronations and the former members of the Ohio Bloc ceased. Joseph I would join the Discord server of the Congress of Ohio Micronations on 1 January 2023 seeking to be friendly, but he would be removed from the server over concerns of a transphobic status[g]. Joseph I would continue seeking out ways to attack Carson I personally and through their family as recently as 21 March 2023, although these attempts would never manifest due to lack of interest from his present associates of Džözyp I, Terry McKeen, and Saleh A.H.
Footnotes
- ↑ The Congress had actually been legally founded on 18 October 2022 once all initial members ratified the Foundation Law, although from that time until 6 January 2023 it was still widely in a formative stage.
- ↑ At the time, Carson I had only been using singular they pronouns for themself as used throughout the rest of this article. The text has not been altered for sake of this excerpt.
- ↑ Almendria was a controversial micronation who frequently turned other micronations into puppet states in the form of "Autonomous Republics" (ARs).
- ↑ Punctuation has been added at line breaks of this excerpt for readability and profanities have been censured, interloping comments from other individuals have also been removed.
- ↑ The discord usernames of Joseph I, Džözyp I, and Conor I respectively are listed instead of their names
- ↑ During the events narrated in this section, the Shahawk Nation officially changed its name to the Empire of Shahawkia. It will be continued to be refered to the Shahawk Nation for the sake of consistency though and due to the fact that the government did not widely change.
- ↑ On Discord, a status is a line of text that can be added to appear below a person's own username on the list of server members.
See also
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