Macaronesia
Macaronesia refers to the Azores, Madeira, Canary and Cape Verde islands. The name is from the Greek for 'blessed islands'. In the League of Lost Languages, Macaronesia is home of an Albic language, Macaronesian.
This article is very much work in progress and may be subject of major changes in the future.
In the UKW World, these islands are the territory of the Republic of Macaronesia, whose national language is Macaronesian. Besides Macaronesian, Portuguese and Crioulo Macaro, a Portuguese-based creole with many loanwords from Macaronesian, are spoken in the Republic of Macaronesia. All three languages have official status. A part of the Jewish community speaks Ladino, though most Macaronesian Jews now speak either Portuguese or Macaronesian.
Macaronesia is predominantly Roman Catholic, but Sunni Muslim, Jewish and Protestant minorities exist.
The Republic of Macaronesia is a parliamentary democracy and member of the European Union. Its level of human and economic development is similar to that of other southern European countries. This means that it is slightly below the average of the European Union, but it is a well-off country by global standards. Macaronesia never was a heavily industrialized country; an important pillar of the Macaronesian economy is tourism.
Until the 15th century, Macaronesia was an independent country. In the year 1451, Macaronesia accepted Portuguese sovereignty after Castile attempted to conquer several of the islands. In exchange, the Portuguese crown pledged to respect self-government of the islands. Another privilege was that slavery was non-existent in Macaronesia, which made the country a sanctuary for escaped and manumitted slaves. Likewise, Macaronesia was a sanctuary for Sephardic Jews.
Macaronesia was granted autonomy by the Portuguese government in the year 1912, which was repealed by the right-wing dictatorship in 1926. At that point, Macaronesia declared its independence. A brief war of independence followed, in which Macaronesia was supported by the United Kingdom of the Westlands. In 1927, Portugal had to accept Macaronesian independence.
