The history of the RoW is largely influenced by its geology and geography. The entire country consists of land that neighboring inhabitants considered unfit for human habitation. Actively volcanic until a mere 8,000 years ago, 86% of the entire country is covered with relatively recent lava flows. The barren landscape is only occasionally broken by patches of "old land" not covered with lava, by stream and river beds where silt deposits support sporadic dense vegetation, and patches of "new land" built by man throughout the period of "the Great Fertility." The "old land" is mostly forested. Downhill areas immediately adjoining "old land" is usually covered with a thin layer of eroded soil and support the mainstay of the country -- vineyards that feed the many wineries.

On the night of December 11th, 1849 the ill-named Grounding was blown by gale winds into Wretched Rocks on the southwestern coast of RoW. Battenkill promptly followed it into the rocks and both ships foundered and settled into the shallow but rough water. Several people were injured but none fatally. The entire cargo of both ships was salvaged and later the ships themselves were dismantled for their planks, beams, ropes, and canvas.

The land inland of Wretched Rocks is desolate lava, but a scouting party found the mouth of the River Flow, with some surrounding forest and some fertile "old lands" nearby, only 19 leagues south. The entire party and all their worldly goods were moved there over several weeks and the first settlement, named Landing, was established. Various explorations revealed a vast, uninhabited, but mostly inhospitable land. It was dotted here and there by tracts of "old land," two of which were very large but most of which were under 8,000 acres, that could be and soon were claimed and settled. As scouting and survey information was collected, their actual situation became clearly revealed.

During those first few months, while dwellings were being constructed, an even better settlement site was discovered 45 leagues farther south where the River Fall drained into a small but deep harbor. There, the following year, Newchester was quickly established as the main settlement due to the correct belief that it's harbor would be a greater magnet to ships than the navigable but harborless River Flow.

Although there were vast rain forests beyond the desolate country they found themselves in, both to the south and to the east, those areas were inhabited by armed and hostile natives. The neighboring populations would not bother them if they confined themselves to what the natives called "the Land of Rock and More Rock," but any forays into the rain forests were met with deadly opposition. In essence, they were trapped. Taking a hint from the neighboring natives, the trapped settlers called the land they found themselves in "Rockland."

They had not brought firearms, so the only weapons they had were those that accompanied the two ships -- four small cannon, 18 cap and ball rifles, and 6 pistols. With very limited ammunition and powder, they confined the use of the weapons to hunting game in the forests. The cannon were divided between two stone ramparts built to offer some protection for the small harbor and two of the six rowboats salvaged from the Battenkill and Grounding.

The goats were the first to be eaten, then the bulls or the sheep. Several people intervened to buy the sheep before they were all eaten and took them on a horrible "trail drive" to the Green Ridge Mountains. There the sheep found more than enough to eat and soon the herds were large and prosperous. The Green Ridge Mountains is also home to the only free range cattle in RoW.

When the land had been surveyed and mapped (August 1852), those who wanted to farm and were originally outfitted for this purpose were granted holdings on the fringe of and adjacent to the "old land" forests, but the forests themselves were held in trust for all. The ships' crews and about half of the immigrants took other professions based on their skills and the needs of the settlement(s).

Food was the immediate challenge. Large communal gardens were grown initially for vegetables. Protein came from three sources. Every day hunting parties set out for the forests to hunt deer, elk and bear. While they provided a steady supply of red meat, when divided among the total population it was insufficient. The second source was the chickens and the eggs they produced. Until there were enough chickens to give everyone a breeding pair, half the eggs were incubated to increase the numbers. Later, when chickens were plentiful, both eggs and the chickens themselves became a steady diet to the Wynerians. The third source was fishing. The sailors had the skills to make nets, catch fish, and even make boats, although they did not actually do the latter until after contact and trade with the outside world was resumed and essential tools obtained.

Since everyone needed a dwelling and stone was the building material readily at hand, stone masons were in high demand -- although everyone was a stone mason during one period or another. Woodcutters were granted a quota and each family allowed to cut 20 trees for a dwelling (just enough for the framework and roof, stone being the preferred building material). The penalty for cutting down a tree without authorization was two years in jail, despite the small problem that there was not yet a jail in which to house anyone. In September 1850, Samuel Zwick became the first person to be convicted of this transgression and spent the next two years living in a tent while building the stone jail.

Those who received land grants began occupying them during the summer of 1853-54. At the same time, the remaining citizenry of Newchester was divided by lot. A third of them were sent on a difficult trek north to a huge harbor; they built the settlement of Newhaven at the mouth of the River North. The remaining third made an equally arduous journey to the mouth of the River Deep where they established Delaney, which has a long, narrow, deep, and challenging harbor because of the swift river current that feeds it. Of these two norther settlements, Newhaven was by far the more important by virtue of an almost perfect, sheltered harbor and its access to the North Valley, by far the most important agricultural land in the country. However, both communities were lifelines to those settling close by.

In time, of course, towns would be established up the two southern rivers -- the River Flow (so named because it "flowed" and was navigable) and the River Fall (so named because it "fell" from the highlands) -- in the headlands to the north, and elsewhere. But this was later. During the settling years there were just the four towns indicated and the settling of the land grants. But three other towns were unofficially begun during this period by those with neighboring grants who simply clustered their dwellings together -- Millford, Nottingham and Sherwood.

Land grants generally extended downhill from the "old lands." The forest edge was surveyed and the grant began 60 feet inside the forest. The grant usually encompassed 1,000 acres, although rarely more than 20 acres had enough soil to support growth of anything -- that "anything" was always grapes and a garden. The common practice, although prohibited by agreement, was to venture deep into the forest with a basket and fill it with topsoil which was spread over the areas with thinnest soil. The farmable acreage increased only to the extent that areas with soil too thin to support vines or garden slowly gained enough depth to be planted. This practice pretty much ended with "The Great Fertility," although it never really ended completely.

On the night of April 15, 1855 an English frigate noticed lights ashore and dropped anchor off Newchester Harbor to investigate at dawn. The discovery of survivors of the entire passage and crew of the Battenkill and Grounding was subsequently received in England with great rejoicing by all except the Crown. The news that the survivors felt they had emigrated from England and no longer considered themselves subjects of the Crown did not sit well, but at least Rockland and Newchester were now on the map. Ships did begin to arrive with some regularly, and with each arrival the settlement gained a few new residents, if only sailors who jumped ship. Although those who arrived under these circumstances were welcome, of necessity they had to move far inland to avoid apprehension by the British, who were always looking for them. However, dozens of actual settlers enroute to somewhere else chose to stay each year.

In 1856 the settlers sent a consignment of wine to England aboard the trader East Winds and regular shipments followed. Although pleased with the trading opportunity, the Crown lamented the loss of potential taxes and began a concerted campaign to reacquire the subjects and their taxes. By 1858 wine was being exported from both Newchester and Newhaven. The settlers were slowly leaning toward reestablishing subjection to the Crown when a sailor named Joseph Himmel slipped over the side of HMS Staleworthy as it left Newchester Harbor on December 2nd, 1858.

Ashore, seaman Himmel claimed he had been shanghaied at Bremerhaven and impressed into service. He produced documents that supported his contention he was a German citizen. Just as his story was being accepted, the HMS Staleworthy turned about and sent ashore a detail of Royal Marines to fetch seaman Himmel. When the settlers refused to hand him over, the Marines attempted to take him by force and two settlers were killed. Even though the Marines left without Himmel and the HMS Staleworthy sailed immediately, the damage had been done. There would be no return to British Rule.

By acclamation, on Christmas eve, 1858 they proclaimed their nation and accepted Ernie Gallo as provisional President and Walter "Shallowwater" Murphy, the captain who had run the Grounding onto Wretched Rocks, as Admiral of the Navy -- even though their navy still consisted of but six rowboats. The provisional government consisted of five people.

Murphy wasted no time in establishing Grapeshot Naval Academy on the northern point overlooking Newhaven Harbor, where the city of Pointe now stands. Classes were held in a tent for 39 students for two years while the first permanent building was being constructed. Murphy himself attended half the classes. He taught the other half. The Navy remained at 39 men for 4 years, then it doubled. Until it acquired a ship in 1864, everyone in the navy was trained as a "marine," meaning a land soldier who could row a boat and board a ship. Every man was also trained in navigation, surveying, laying mines, and certain duties aboard a ship, although the latter were strictly theoretical since they had no ship with which to practice.

Elections were held on January 30, 1859 and both President Gallo and the new constitution were affirmed. Gallo nominated his brother, Jules, as the nation's first Prime Minister. This was affirmed by the three elected Senators -- the first constitution called for one senator to be elected each from Newchester, Newhaven and from the wineries. Each senator then represented 181 citizens (counting women and children).

In May 1859 a British trader sailed into Newchester Harbor and dropped anchor. It was promptly boarded by 37 marines who held the crew captive while they searched it. They confiscated two small cannon, 11 rifles, nine pistols, and all powder and ammunition, then spent eight days copying all the ship's maps and charts while trade was conducted and the crew was entertained on shore. Thereafter, every British trader that entered the harbor was similarly treated until 1864, when a British man-o-war entered the harbor under a flag of truce and negotiated a treaty with the RoW. As reparations for the two men killed during the 1858 "Newchester Massacre." the RoW demanded (and received) the HMS Staleworthy, with which they began their deep-water navy.

Lukus then experimented to improve and speed up the process. He ran newly gathered seaweed through his grape crusher and then through a rotary chopper of his own design. The crushing and chopping allowed it to decompose much quicker and into a finer compost. He had his men mine guano from a bat cave and mix this into the roughage. But the real advances were made when the roughage was piled high and microbial heat "cooked" the material, which was then turned with pitchforks and mixed with some of the previous year's compost. The whole process could be completed in only six months. Further, if washed sand were added to the compost, it added substance and granularity to it and helped it become "soil." Soon, he had vast piles of compost started all over his mostly barren estate.

When 6-8 inches of compost are spread over weathered lava flow and planted with rye, legumes or clover, it will regenerate indefinitely if allowed to seed and then turned under. The new soil is continually enriched while the underlying lava decomposes and integrates with the largely organic topping. Adding earthworms to the soil just makes everything better.

When he showed his neighbors his results, they were overjoyed. Soon, seaweed harvesting, guano mining and compost turning were thriving endeavors. Slowly, an acre at a time, the land was transformed. Composting has been greatly mechanized and modernized. Today the harbors and channels of RoW and neighboring countries are dredged to obtain new soil that is barged up river to be mixed in with compost on a vast scale. As before, productive land is increasing, only now it is many acres at a time.

The Great War played havoc with European wine production. Anyone can suck it up and go without wine for a year or two, but four? I don't think so. The British were doing a good job of accepting the sacrifice, but when RoW waved a credible claret under their noses their resolve folded. Ships were diverted to Newchester and out came the Royal Checkbook. Vast quantities of RoW claret wet the whistles on both the home front and front lines. This resulted in an incredible boost to morale which ultimately led to victory on the battlefield. Britain's King George V himself praised the tiny nation: "We owe so much of our victory to our allies of the South Pacific -- Australia, New Zealand, and Wyneries...."

The key objective was for the Japanese Southern Expeditionary Army Group to seize economic resources under the control of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, most notably those in Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. This was known in Japan as the "southern plan". It was also decided that Japan would also require an "eastern plan" that required initial attacks on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, seizure of the Philippines, and seizure of Guam and Wake Islands.

The "southern plan" called for attacks on Malaya, Hong Kong, the Bismarck Archipelago, Java, Sumatra, and the Republic of Wyneries. The result would be the total isolation of Australia and New Zealand.

The Japanese kicked off the whole she-bang with the December 7th attacks on Pearl Harbor and Manila, followed three days later with attacks on Malaya and Thailand. In January 1942, Japan invaded Burma, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and captured Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Rabaul. Some 130,000 Indian, British, Australian and Dutch personnel became prisoners of war. The RoW was quickly overrun by the Japanese Southern Expeditionary Army Group.

By and large Wyneries offered no resistance and was spared retaliatory destruction by the Japanese Army. While the Japanese helped themselves to the vast stores of aging wines in RoW, the best vintages had long before been moved to hiding places in the nation's many underground lava tubes. As a result, when Japan left the RoW, they left more liquid wealth than they drank although they drank everything they could find.

Since RoW has no aggressive land neighbors, it chose to invest its national defense budget in naval forces. It did this with solid resolve, acquiring a minor fleet in 20 years and maintaining and updating it with equal ease. I the 1980s it chose to add long range aviation to its forces. Although called Fleet Aviation, these are in fact land based long range bombers and interceptors with a small contingent of submarine hunters.

RoW is unique in that all of its forces fall under the umbrella of its navy -- sailors, marines and aviators.

Should it chose to do so, the RoW could become the smallest nation on earth to field an aircraft carrier battle group. Instead, it is now investing in long range missile technology.