Islas Verdes

Republic of the Islas Verdes (Spanish: República de las Islas Verdes), is an island group in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Existing out of 4 large islands and approximately some 200 smaller coast islands. The capital city is Moncada, or Moncada. On the island of Isla Moncada.

The islands were first populated by the Taxecano civilization. Who got conquered by the Spanish during the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.

The current largest party in the parliament is the Verdesian Socialist Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Verdesiano) or PSV. With Maria Jesús González as president. In 2010 she won the elections and became the first female president of Islas Verdes since the declaration of Verdesian Indepedence in 1898 from Spain.

Pre-Columbian Era
In the Pre-Columbian era a large part of the islands were inhabited by the Taxecano peoples. A Mesoamerican civilization that is highly related to other Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztecs, Olmecs and Mayas. Just like other Mesoamerican civilizations, they build their temples ontop of pyramids, because they believed the higher you were from the ground, the closer you were to the gods. Human sacrifice might be their biggest ritual. Where they rippoed out someone's heart and represented it to the gods. They believed that a human's heart was the most sacred thing in the world, and by giving it to the gods they kept the gods alive. Something remarkable about these rituals is that the victims were mostly volunteers. According to the Taxecan Mythology, man kind was made by three gods, including Cuk'ul Katz (Taxecano designation for the Mayan god Kukulkán, and the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl), out of maize. Maize also was their biggest resource, and is used in almost every dish in the Taxecano cuisine. Just like most other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Taxecanos faced the end of their culture during the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.

First European Settlers
After the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, it didn't take long or lots of people from Europe migrated to this "New World". The same happened in Islas Verdes. After the islands were discovered in 1513, people from Europe, even from the already Spanish-comtrolled areas, decided to make it to these islands, to start a new life. The first immigrants were captured by the Taxecanos, to be sacrificed or to work as a slave. This is why most of these immigrants settled on smaller coastal islands. Later the Taxecanos fled to these islands for the Spanish.

Spanish Conquest
The Spanish Conquest of Islas Verdes began in 1518, starting with encounters and expeditions. At the first Spanish expedition to the islands, they were very surprized to see cities build of stone along the coastline. Short after the first expeditions, the Spanish encountered the Taxecanos. The Spanish were shocked about the society of the Taxecanos, and considered it as "barbarian". Especially the human sacrifice and their religion. However, the Spanish saw that the Taxecanos had goods which they didn't knew, which is how the Spanish started to get intrested in the Islands. The first attempted conquest happened in 1531, with the victory for the Taxecanos. Unfortunately for the Taxecanos, the Spanish brought diseases wich killed almost one-third of the Taxecano population. The Spanish, who highly underastimated the Taxecanos in the first battles, reinforced their troops to attack the Taxecanos again. It was not because of this that the Taxecanos lost most of the later battles. But the native population was dying by large numbers because of the diseases the Spanish brought from Europe, such as smallpox and cholera. Once the conquest was over. The Spanish controlled all of the islands. The Taxecanos were converted to Christianity, and the Spanish made them demolish their temples, stone by stone. They weren't allowed to have anything related to their old religion. Their books were burned and none remained. Because of this, many people decided to learn their entire mythology about the creation of the Earth, life, and civilization, word by word. Lots of people decided to hide in the jungle, or fled to smaller coastal islands. On some islands it is still visible that lots of European cultures have settled there, and mostly emerged with the Taxecano culture. Later these cultures got influenced by the Spanish culture after getting annexed to New Spain.