The Human History of Novasola

How indigenous peoples first came to populate Novasola is unknown and highly debated, though it was most assuredly complex. One prevailing theory is that humans migrated to Novasola while the island was connected to Beringia over 20,000 years ago. Other theories suggest people used boats to arrive from Alaska or Canada much later. Most likely it was a combination of differing migrations throughout prehistory. Once people did settle Novasola, they spread across the island as their cultures evolved and diversified. Other peoples from Alaska and the northwest of the North American mainland frequently migrated onto the island, creating the modern diversity in native cultures on the island. Native tribes can be split into two major groups, a Na-Dene language group and an Aleut/Eskimo group. The vast majority of tribes on the island belong to this second group, their languages overall similar to those spoken by the native peoples of the Aleutian Islands. The second group is small, covering only a few tribes along the island’s east coast, and is most similar to the Tlingit peoples of the pacific northwest mainland.

In 1760 Francisco Primo Ricci, an Italian explorer, became the first white man to discover the island; he mapped the outline of the coast and named it Nuova Ricci Isola, or “New Ricci Island”. Eventually this was shortened to Nuova Isola, which in turn morphed into its current name, Novasola (now pronounced "no-VAHS-oh-lah"). Ricci was sailing the Pacific for the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, then part of the Spanish empire, as part of Naples' only major attempt at naval exploration during the Age of Enlightenment. Sent by Charles III of Spain, this voyage marked one of Spain's first expeditions to explore and strengthen claims to the Pacific Northwest. Originally meant to sail up the pacific coast of North America, Ricci's ship was blown off course during a fierce storm and eventually arrived at the southeastern end of Novasola. This would turn out to be quite fortuitous, for if Spain had decided not to sponsor Ricci's voyage, Novasola would likely have been discovered by Russians or by Captain James Cook during his infamous third voyage of the Pacific only a decade or so later. Soon after its discovery most major world powers began vying for authority over the island, with Spain sending many more pacific voyages which were later matched by England and Russia. Russia quickly began exploring the island’s north and west coasts, establishing small trading outposts at strategic points along the way. Many Spanish and English explorers visited or sailed past the island, notably including Captain Cook, who passed the island and made landfall on the west coast during his third voyage. In 1780, England sent an expedition of two ships to Novasola led by Captain Morgan Fairweather with the intent to further explore the island and establish a permanent English presence there. Fairweather’s expedition made landfall on Cape George, in Narrow Bay, renamed Charlotte Sound by Fairweather to honor the queen consort, and established the oldest permanent European colony on Novasola. Unfortunately, the expedition's naturalist, George York Baker, fell ill soon after arriving and thus made only a few notable discoveries and amassed a small collection of specimens. Fairweather mapped much of the surrounding area, which mainly comprised of tidal marshes, swampland, and temperate rainforest. The port at Cape George became the largest European settlement on the island, from which England retained control of much of the island’s south.

Russia’s colonization efforts were short-lived; they abandoned all their claims after only about 40 years. The costs associated with transportation and near-constant warring with native groups were too much to net any profit, so Russia instead focused on their Alaska colonies, which in time faced a similar fate. This left the growing English colony the only European presence on the island. English settlement was slow, in part due to Novasola’s un-strategic and remote location, the harsh conditions of the surrounding lands and sea, and the frequent conflicts with the indigenous peoples, who themselves were suffering the effects of European colonization.

Flag of Novasola

In 1846, under President James Polk, Novasola was ceded to the United States as part of the Oregon Treaty. From then on small numbers of Americans began settling the island, mostly along the eastern and southern coasts, while others moved further inland into the mountains hoping to mine gold. The island’s remote location and vast unexplored wilderness proved difficult to tame, and as a result most homesteads were later abandoned, while most settlers elected to remain near established towns like Cape George, Twin Rivers, and Artemis. Though much of the island had previously been explored and mapped by Primo Ricci, Fairweather, Baker, and others, mostly settlers, pioneers, and miners, no one had compiled all the maps and information into one dataset. In 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt announced the first comprehensive overland exploration of Novasola, which had been ordered under his direction by President McKinley in 1898, which Roosevelt felt was long overdue. The Novasola Research Corps, led by US Army Captain Virgil Dyer, consolidated most existing maps and accounts of the island along with the Corps’ own findings after three expeditions mapping and cataloging the island’s geography and natural resources.

With a much stronger understanding of the island, more and more Americans, mostly white settlers, migrated to Novasola, spreading farther and penetrating deeper into the wilderness. Naturally, this had a devastating effect on the already suffering indigenous peoples. After almost 50 years of Russian and English subjugation, most tribes were too weak to fight off the American-endorsed genocides. As a result, all native groups on Novasola were greatly reduced in size and power, many disappearing altogether, and were eventually forcibly moved onto reservations just like the native peoples across America.

The Novasola Territory was admitted as the fifty-first state, Novasola, in 1960, two hundred years after its discovery by Europeans. Its capital was moved to the small, but growing, city of Artemis where it remains today. Despite the island’s remote location, its population has surpassed other states’, growing to the present estimate of 5,320,175 people making Novasola the 24th most populous state.