Royal Government of the Ryukyu Islands

[Valles]

Location: Islands in the East China Sea or seperating same from the Pacific Ocean
Area: Approximately 3,120 square kilometers
Climate: Tropical to subtropical
Population: 500 thousand
Largest City: Naha (100,000)
Languages: Amami, Miyako, Okinawan, Kunigami, Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Japanese
Government: Absolute Monarchy (Bureaucratic)

The Ryukyu islands have been inhabited by Japonic peoples from the earliest times, and were first unified in the late fourteenth century of the common era. In the seventeenth century, the Ryukyuan kingdom served as the primary staging point for the Tokugawa Clan's importation of Western firearms technology in return for a share of the proceeds, and, on their ally's accession to the Shogunate, were granted major legal and economic priviledges within Japan in return for continued allegiance. The high point of the kingdom was the conquest and rulership of Taiwan from 1687 to 1770. In the modern era, the kingdom mandates a legal seperation between Noble (7% of the population) and Common (93%) populations and enjoys a skilled an efficient bureacracy based on the Chinese model. Though technically tax-exempt, socially mandated 'gifts' and behaviors provide the government with a significant revenue stream from its nobility.