San Andreas
San Andreas is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States of America. With a population of roughly 40 million individuals spread out across its coasts and mountainous borders, San Andreas is most populous state in the United States. San Andreas has its state capital in Sacramento, which is the seat of the San Andreas Legislature and the Governor of San Andreas. Los Santos is San Andreas’s most populous city, and the country’s second most populous city, after New York. The City of San Fierro is both the country's second most densely populated major city after New York. The beaver is the official state animal of San Andreas. The beaver can be seen on the state flag, the logo of the Los Santos County Sheriff, and on the seal of the city of Los Santos.
(( Continuity ))
San Andreas replaces California in its entirety.
California does not exist in our world. Los Santos is considered to to be the capital city of the state. In addition, Los Santos replaces Los Angeles and it's surrounding areas. San Fierro does the same for San Francisco. No other cities are replaced. As Nevada is not replaced in our game world, Las Vegas exists but Las Venturas does not. As a consequence, no other states or cities from Rockstar lore exist in our game world.
Los Santos, as the state capital, has a large amount of influence on politics and laws in the state. Los Santos County and the city within it have the largest population in the state. The population difference means it has more representatives in the government and a lot more voters. You can compare it to how New York City has a huge amount of influence on New York State.
History
Mexican Rule
Throughout the 17th century, San Andreas was a Spanish Colony. In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including San Andreas) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta San Andreas(Upper San Andreas, the name of the state during Mexican rule) remained as a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico. The missions of San Andreas, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government.
The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican San Andreas. The ranchos developed under ownership by Hispanics native of San Andreas who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and the future Canada arrived in Northern San Andreas.
The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, San Andreas also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period, a governor of San Andreas, J. Alvarado, was able to rise to power during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared San Andreas to be an independent state, and had been aided by American and British residents of San Andreas.
During a legal dispute where ranchers in San Andreas failed to obtain justice against squatters on his lands from the Mexican courts, it was determined that San Andreas should become part of the United States. American immigrants were invited to stay on the ranches until they could get settled as they were assisted in obtaining passports.
This period of organized emigration to San Andreas started a military battle between the new Mexican-San Andreas general and governor, and the owners of the vast cattle ranches that occupied much of San Andreas’s land. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Santos(now Vinewood Hills). One of the San Andreas ranchers convinced soldiers on both sides of the battle that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result, many soldiers abandoned the fight, and the Mexican general was defeated. This paved the way to San Andreas’s ultimate acquisition by the United States.
The Spanish gave San Andreas its name after the significant numbers of fish in the coastal regions were attributed to a "divine blessing" by Saint Andrew by Jesuit priests exploring the interior parts of the territories claimed by the Spanish Empire.
American Conquest
In 1846, the Mexican-American War broke out(1846-1848). When Commodore Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Fierro bay and began the military occupation of San Andreas by the United States, Northern San Andreas capitulated in less than a month to the United States forces. After a series of defensive battles on and around the coasts of South San Andreas, a treaty was signed on January 13, 1847, securing American control in San Andreas.
The first gubernatorial elections took place on November 13, 1849, with the renown abolitionist William Tobias Rutford winning office for the then progressive Republican Party. His cabinet would constitute the first cabinet of the Executive Branch for the state.
The San Andreas State Legislature was also formed, which comprised a unicameral 20-member Senate, whose composition has changed over time. Simultaneously, the Judicial Branch was also established, bringing the Rule of Law to an otherwise uncivilized and often harsh environment.
American Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, and Further
During the American Civil War, San Andreas officially supported the Union, making significant financial contributions. Due to the significant presence of pro-Confederate sympathizers, the state did not actively take an official role in hostilities. At the conclusion of the war, San Andreas benefited immensely from this position of effective neutrality, being relatively undamaged by the conflict.
The political landscape would gradually change in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Reconstruction period, with progressive Republicans and status quo Democrats generally contesting each other for the remainder of the century, right through the Prohibition era. Throughout both World Wars, San Andreas emerged as a prominent center of industry and commerce on the west coast, eventually rivaling the north east of the country in economic capacity.
The political climate of San Andreas, like that of the U.S. in general, would see a realignment in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The progressive wing of the Republican Party would gradually defect to the Democratic Party, now absent the more conservative Dixiecrats, who found a new home in the Republican Party. San Andreas remained a progressive state, and the once dominant Republican Party would eventually give ground to the Democrats as the new face of progressive politics.
This trend has held, with a few deviations over the past half century, with moderate Republicans occasionally winning power, despite the clear progressive demographic. Rural conservatives however, formed a strong base for the Republican Party through the 20th Century, and the trajectory held into the 21st Century.
Current State
San Andreas is a predominantly ‘blue’ state, trending toward Democratic governments and frequently voting Democrat during presidential elections. Within the state itself, the Democratic Party has held supermajorities in the Senate throughout the 1990s into the mid-2000s. While the state can be characterized as politically progressive, the conservative opposition has grown considerably in reaction to the polarization of Democratic state politics. In the 2010s, the Republican Party began to regain ground with moderate senators turning once safe districts into swing seats through balanced agendas encompassing moderated social policies and conservative economics.
The administration of Governor Robert Brandt began in January 2017. Brandt, a prominent urban Democrat born and raised in the city of Los Santos, ran on a platform to balance the budget and strengthen private sector growth. Brandt’s policy proposals were more moderate than his progressive predecessor, Governor Enrique Cortez. Despite Brandt’s moderate policies, the Republican Party began to reassert itself through successful campaigns in the State Senate, corresponding with a rise in conservatism in San Andreas politics. State political pundits continue to speculate the causes of Republican resurgence, with some hypothesizing that decades of Democratic control are bringing about voter fatigue. Others point to a growing desire for balance among undecided voters. Whatever the actual reason, the Republican Party has continued to grow in spite of a once inhospitable political environment for conservationism.
The 2019-2020 session of the State Senate was rocked by the unexpected announcement by Secretary of State Helen Marshal, that Los Santos County would effectively be redistricted to grant the city greater representation within the legislature, in line with census data which indicated that population growth had outpaced its present allocation of a single senator. The proposal would see Los Santos represented by five state senators.
The political fallout of the redistricting plan was significant. Republicans vehemently denounced the move, with Republican leadership labeling the decision as “radical” and “another step toward tyranny.” The San Andreas GOP, appealing to their rural base and undecided voters, secured sweeping victories in the Senate elections for the 2020-2021 session. These electoral wins represented the largest Republican Senate gains in decades, even earning the GOP senators in the historically Democratic stronghold of Los Santos. As of the current 2020-21 session, the Democratic Party holds a slim majority, with the Republican Party in clear ascendance - aiming to turn the State Senate firmly ‘red’ for the first time in nearly twenty years.
Geography
San Andreas is the 3rd largest state in the United States in area, after Alaska and Texas. San Andreas is often geographically bisected into three regions: South San Andreas, comprising Blaine County, established in 1823, and Los Santos County, established in 1889. Northern San Andreas, comprising the 48 northernmost counties. South-East San Andreas, comprising the 8 remaining counties.
The most populated cities in San Andreas are Los Santos, San Fierro and San Diego.
Economy
The state of San Andreas is in an extremely high conjuncture economy. In economic theory, this can be explained with theory and historical justifications. Most of the western world is in a high conjuncture economy, which means that there are not enough jobs for lower educated people, but not enough highly educated people for higher end jobs.
San Andreas has this same problem, to an extreme extent. Whereas there are many unemployed people or people working in lower educated jobs, such as bartenders, waiters, truckers, positions that require higher education struggle to be filled. Many governments make the same mistake in handling high conjuncture economies, namely that instead of educating people more so that high end jobs are filled, they create more low end jobs and let them pay more so that all the unemployed people can get a job, albeit essentially a meaningless one. That causes the lower classes to make more money and reduces the wage gap and makes everyone richer, but down the line it does nothing to solve the high end jobs problem.
And that's where San Andreas is at, though at an extreme level. Low end jobs have wages as high as four thousand dollars an hour, backed by the government as unemployment prevention programs. High end jobs can't get their positions filled because people aren't motivated to work hard because they make a lot of money with low end jobs. Everyone has a lot of money so inflation occurs, and prices in stores increase. Thanks to government intervention, the prices on vehicles are held down. The same was attempted with the prices of homes and properties. With the City Charter entitling the City Government ownership to all unoccupied properties, they managed to keep the prices of properties down. This had the unfortunate consequence of houses being bought very quickly to be sold at very high prices, which had led to a housing shortage across the county of Los Santos.
Culture
The culture of San Andreas is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic and Mexican influences. As a border and coastal state, San Andreas culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America and Asia.
The San Andreas Gold Rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of the state’s economic style, which tends to generate and hype up technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms, which are often short-lived and end in their related busts. The majority of businesses throughout San Andreas have a short life-span of only a few months.
Government and State Politics
TBA
