Row 2 Column 1
| Union of Row 2 Column 1 |
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| Micronation
Head of State: Tsar XIII Romanov Head of Government: President Fr4ctal |
| Founded: August 8, 2018
Constitution in Effect: April 9, 2019 |
The Union of Row 2 Column 1 was founded on August 8, 2018, officially as a discord micronation. However, Row 2 Column 1 had existed unofficially since September 2014. The country is a Constitutional Monarchy with an elected unicameral legislature, a monarch, and an executive President. The Union has a unique form of government in that the monarch and the President act as dual executives, with the President having only a little more power than the Tsar. This dual Executive role has led to political conflicts in the past whereby the Executive roles challenged each other's power. Several months of these conflicts eventually yielded a Constitution that recognized the supremacy of the elected president, but still gave substantial power to the Tsar. Historically, the Tsar has been the most important role in the country. The country has gone through 4 Constitutional iterations, with the current (4th) Constitution of the Union of Row 2 Column 1 being the longest, most stable, and most recent. The country has had 14 Tsars to date, and the current monarchical house is the House of Romanov-Steinerianov. Elections for the Presidency and the Senate are held once per month, with a First-Past-the-Post electoral system. The country also has a Federal Court system, with one Constitutionally established court (the Supreme Court) and 3 other Federal courts.
Pre-Independence
Row 2 came into existence in September 2014. While there is no single date that can be selected as the date where it came into existence, it was during the month of September that Row 2 consolidated as a lunch table at a middle school. Going from 6 members, the table grew to include 8 members, and in 2015 was shifted to be facing perpendicular to its previous position. It was at this point that the group acquired the name "Row 2, Column 1" as one of the members noted that with the new organization of the tables in the cafeteria, the table at which the group sat at was the table in the 2nd row and the 1st column. From 2015 to 2017, the table existed as a decentralized collection of 8 people.
In 2016, great tragedies struck the yet unformed nation. One of its member's cat died, Donald Trump was elected president, and a lot of people in the region got depression because existence is annoying and everything sucks. Also around this time, a tall Chinese man was graduating high school. This detail will become important never.
In 2017, the table invaded and annexed Row 2, Column 2, the neighboring table, which had committed war crimes against 2 of its citizens living there. The annexation was the first recorded instance of Row 2 Column 1 taking actions mimicking those of a State. Later that year, Row 2 annexed 2 classrooms, but then tragedy struck.
Independence
In 2017, 2 of Row 2's most prestigious members were drafted by the evil organization known as the B.C.A. Without these 2 members, Row 2 entered a period of flux, during which it prepared for the imminent departure of its two members. In June 2017, Row 2 met for the last time, and its two members went off to serve B.C.A. As this was happening, several members of Row 2 Column 1 developed a new friendship with another person, and eventually formed a separate entity known as the People's Republic of Cat. The PRC included between 6 and 9 people depending on the time, and over the summer, evolved to become essentially a microstate. After almost a year, the Row 2 members of the PRC suggested a merger, and the first "Row 2 Column 1" group chat was created over iMessage, and included members of Row 2 (including those kidnapped by BCA) and members of the PRC.
In August 2018, something finally happened. The Row 2 discord was created by its founder and Tsar, the most influential member in the formation of the Union of Row 2 Column 1. The Tsar invited members of Row 2 Column 1 to the new discord server, and initiated a referendum to merge with the People's Republic of Cat. After passing the referendum, the Tsar put down a revolt against the merger in the PRC and invited its members to join with Row 2. All obliged, and the People's Republic of Cat dm group, which had been a hub of activity since June 2017 ended its career. Since its annexation, the PRC is occasionally still used by its members, who feel nostalgic for the glory days, although it is mostly used for cat pictures, music memes, pictures of Daniel Michael DeVito Junior, and looking at other memes.
Following the annexation of the PR Cat, Row 2 celebrated its independence. The celebration was truly global, with people celebrating and enjoying from California to New York. There is a downside to this, however, as the Tsar was in Los Angeles on a business trip when he founded Row 2 on August 8, which means that technically, Row 2 was founded in California—a terrible place that started a great nation.
Nationhood
Row 2 was slow to establish those functions of state that nations must have, not having a stable Constitution until April, 2019. The first attempt to create a Constitution for the country largely failed, and went unfinished. This Constitutional question led to multiple crises, the first of which occurred on August 22, 2018. However, prior to that, a Presidency was established, along with a vice-presidency, the Congress (made up of 7 members), and a few cabinet positions including the infamous position of the Secretary of Internal Security.