Meridian Confederation

Meridiana, officially, the Meridian Confederation(Portuguese: Confederação Meridiana) is a confederation in the southeastern region of South America. It borders Argentina to its west, Brazil to its north, the La Plata River to its south and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. Meridiana is home to an estimated xxx million people with a total area of about 754,440.31 km², being the 8th major country in the continental South America plus about 1,250,257 km² of the Meridian Antarctic Territory. The Confederation Capital, Desterro, is the home of important decisions for the politics of the Southern Hemisphere.

Various indigenous people have lived in the Meridian Territory before the formation of the National State. In the colonial era, Santa Catarina was a strategic territory for the Portuguese Dominion in South America, Desterro, São Francisco do Sul and Laguna were one of the first cities in the South of the Portuguese Colony. In 1822, with the Brazilian independence, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande became provinces of Brazil, the Brazilian dominion over Rio Grande ended in 1835 and over Santa Catarina in 1839 through the War of Independence knowns as Farroupilha Revolution. These events created national holidays in the days 24 and 29 of July in Santa Catarina and in September 20 in Rio Grande. Uruguay was the first to get their independence, the "Trinta e Três Orientais" movement fought for their independence in 1825 against the Brazilian Empire, getting it on 1828 with the support of the United Kingdom and Argentina.

In 1864, the declaration of war of Brazil against Uruguay reforced the ties of the Southern former provinces of Brazil, the Conference of 1864 created a Defensive Pact between Santa Catarina, Rio Grande and Uruguay, the continuous Brazilians aggressions lead to the Conference of 1865, creating the Meridian Confederation. After the Southern answer to the agressions, Brazil recognized the independence of Uruguay again. The Confedarion stayed united after the War and started annexing parts of the Paraná territory in Brazil as answer to the previously aggressions.

In the 21st century, Meridiana is a regional power and has the AIN's xxxx largest economy by nominal GDP by 2017 estimate. Meridiana has a growing industrial pole and specializes in several areas of high technology, from the naval area to the electronics, the leader in the Latin America. Santa Catarina is member of United Nations, Alliance of the Independent Nations, G20, Organization of American States, Union of South American Nations, Organization of Ibero-American States, Community of Portuguese Language Countries, International Organization for Italophonia, Latin Union and associate member of Mercosul. Meridiana still hold one of the highest GDP(PPP) Per Capita in South America, with an average value of US$ xxxx.

Etymology
The name Meridiana is associated with the Latin language as a result of the country being located geographically in the south of the planet. The name was chosen due to avoid the name "Southern Brazil" and "Cisplatina", the War of Uruguay led to the formation of the confederation with the chosen name, "Meridiana". The country has already be called by other nations as the United States of the South or the Southern Confederation, both names were abandoned in the 20 Century, after the World War 1 in agreements with the League of Nations.

First Contacts
The coastal region of Santa Catarina was always inhabited, before the colonial era, by indigenous tribes, and after that, was initially visited by French, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1504, the first colonial expedition took place, where in nowdays is the city of São Francisco do Sul, the first settlement in the Catarinian coast. In 1514, the Island of Santa Catarina, nowdays Desterro, was named as Island of the Ducks, where 17 people were settled in the same year. The coast of Santa Catarina was the stopping point for several navigators who traveled to the Plate River. With the advance of the Portuguese towards the south, the city of São Francisco do Sul was founded, the first city of the south part of the Portuguese colony.

At the time of the discoveries, the region that today forms Rio Grande was inhabited by the Minuti Indians, plows and caaguaras, who lived 12,000 years BC. They were good potters and, in hunting, they used the boleadeiras, even today it still as instruments of the Gaucho culture. These tribes lived long without contact with the white settlers. The disputes between Portugal and Spain over the limits of their possessions in America meant that the region was only occupied in the seventeenth century. The Spanish Jesuit priests were the first to establish themselves in Rio Grande, at the time, part of the Capitany of Santana, based in Laguna.

The documented inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization of the area were the Charrúa, a small tribe driven south by the Guarani of Paraguay. It is estimated that there were about 9,000 Charrúa and 6,000 Chaná and Guaraní at the time of contact with Europeans in the 1500s. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter the region of present-day Uruguay in 1512. The Spanish arrived in present-day Uruguay in 1516. The indigenous peoples' fierce resistance to conquest, Uruguay then became a zone of contention between the Spanish and Portuguese empires. The first permanent Spanish settlement was founded in 1624 at Soriano on the Río Negro.