Escana (Country)

Escana, officially The Republic of Escana, is a is a sovereign country comprising most of the mainland of the Escanan Continent, the Doncaster Island, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country by area in the Escanan Continent and amongst the Rhoddic and Dunic nations, and the world's second-largest country. Escana's population of 34 million, in an area of square kilometres (sq mi), is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the southwestern seaboard. Dillon is the nation's capital, while the largest city is Gadey, and other major metropolitan areas include Briwell, Sidbury, Aldertone, and Mary.

Indigenous Escanans inhabited the continent beginning about 65,000 years ago, prior to the first arrival of Artopan explorers in the early 17th century, who named it, amongst others, Rhoddicia and New Cienuvia. The Republic of Escana emerged from the Elizabeth, New Avedora, Kingsland and Paceland colonies established along western Escana. Disputes with Avedora over taxation, mining rights and political representation led to the Escanan Rebellion (1853–1854), which established the nation's independence. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the time of an 1870s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers. Escana has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal presidential constitutional republic, comprising five states and eight territories.

The Republic of Escana is a federal republic and a representative democracy with three separate branches of government, including a bicameral legislature. Considered a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, its population has been profoundly shaped by over a century of immigration. Escana ranks high in international measures of economic freedom, quality of life, education, and human rights; it has low levels of perceived corruption. However, the country has been criticized for inequality related to race; and use of capital punishment.

Etymology
The name Escana is derived from the Purri-Arai Tewehina ("land of fear"), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. When Artopans first began visiting and mapping Escana in the 17th century, the name Rhoddicia was naturally applied to the new territories.

Until the early 19th century, Escana was best known as "New Cienuvia", a name first applied by the Lassaun explorer Janszoon Tjaers in 1647 (as Nieuw-Cienuvea) and subsequently anglicised. Rhoddicia still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts. The name Escana was popularised by the explorer Matthew Ward, who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the Earth". Several famous early cartographers also made use of the word Escana on maps. Gerard Cremer used the phrase climata escana on his double cordiform map of the world of 1539, as did Jemme Reinerszoon, who was Cremer's teacher and collaborator, on his own cordiform wall map in 1543. Escana appears in a book on astronomy by Jacob zum Berzelius published in Saarbeck in 1547.

The first time that Escana appears to have been officially used was in April 1815, when Governor Lechann MacGuaire acknowledged the receipt of Ward's charts of Escana from Lord Scawen. In December 1816, MacGuaire recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted. In 1825, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially by that name. The first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1831 of The Escana Directory by the Hydrographic Office.