Ethnic Iustitians
Combonaires | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| 11,300,000 (2024, est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Libertas Omnium Maximus | 11,076,800 |
| Elsewhere | c. 200,000 |
| Languages | |
| Célas (formerly), English | |
| Religion | |
| Christian (overwhelmingly) | |
Ethnic Iustitians, formerly known as Combonaires (from Célas: Kobinearje, "to combine") are a group of people primarily from Iustitia Island and southern Khersonsia who are of mixed Valahandian and native heritage. Many ethnic Iustitians can trace their heritage to the union of a male Valahandian settler with a female member of the Hylotikos civilization in the late 16th century, though this connection is not necessary to be considered an ethnic Iustitian. Such marriages were encouraged by the Neros Declaration of 1536, a veiled effort to assimilate Hylotic peoples into colonial Valahandian society. Today, ethnic Iustitians make up around 18% of the Maximusian population (roughly 11 million people) and have their own unique customs and culture.
History[edit | edit source]
In the 1530s, the Royal Colony of Iustitia was faced with two existential problems, a lack of Valahandian female settlers and an increasingly irate native population, primarily, the Hylotikos people. Royal Liaison to Iustitia, Edmund Neros, devised a novel solution to both concerns, producing the Neros Declaration (Officially, the Royal Ordinance on the Legal Status of the Offspring of Native and Colonial Unions) in 1536. The declaration extended Valahandian citizenship to the male offspring of any and all mixed native and Valahandian unions (which were all illegitimate, at the time, as Valahandians could not legally marry natives) so long as the individuals were baptized and renounced their native heritage. The declaration also legalized interracial marriage between natives and Valahandians. As the Hylotikos civilization was in decline, largely due to Valahandian encroachment, many native women were eager to marry into Valahandian culture and provide their children with greater opportunities for education and financial enrichment. Tragically, the Neros Declaration essentially spelled doom for the native civilizations of modern Libertas Omnium Maximus, but many native traditions survived because they were passed down from native women and maintained by their mixed ethnicity children.
The historical record is divided on whether or not the offspring of natives and colonials were quickly accepted into broader colonial society or faced some levels of persecution based on their heritage, but, by the early 17th century, numerous accounts seem to suggest that ethnic Iustitians were viewed as just another people within the reasonably cosmopolitan Iustitian colonial environment. Clinical-sounding nicknames for second generation ethnic Iustitians such as Dubeljan ("doubles," the child of two first generation ethnic Iustitians) and Trifjirde ("three-fourths," the child of an ethnic Iustitian and a Valahandian colonial), which date to as late as the early 18th century, would suggest that some stigma did surround having native blood.
Combonaires Debate[edit | edit source]
Ethnic Iustitians have long been casually referred to as "Combonaires" (IPA:ˈkɑmbɑnɛriz). The name historically had a negative connotation, but became excepted as the official nomenclature for describing Ethnic Iustitians by the 20th century. In 1995, a petition with over 10,000 signatures was submitted to the Maximusian Census Office to remove "Combonaire" from the "race" section of the upcoming 1996 Maximusian federal census in favor of the more neutral "ethnic Iustitian" terminology. The Census Office acceded to the proposal. Since the turn of the 21st century, the term "Combonaire" has fallen out of official use.