Lanfang Republic

Lanfang Republic (蘭芳共和國) is a nation located on the island of Borneo. Unlike it's neighbours which are predominantly Malay, Lanfang is mainly Hakka Chinese. The official language of the country is also Hakka as well although Malay is also commonly used. Similar to other Chinese states on the island, it was a tributary of Qing China but a Presidential Republic. It is also one of the earliest modern republic. The country borders British Borneo to the north and Majapahit to the south.

Arrival of Chinese
In the 18th century, the kingdoms of Western Borneo imported cheap chinese labour to mine tin and other resources. The chinese miners soon formed kongsi, literally meaning companies which have some political autonomy in the country. The kongsi originally was a commercial organisation but soon created huis or unions to form larger kongsis.

Lanfang is one of the kongsi in Western Borneo. Competition between the Kongsi increased as old mining sites were exhausted and new ones were created. The first one was the Fosjoen Federation in 1776 before the Lanfang Republic was founded in 1777.

The Company
The founding father of the Lanfang Republic was Low Lan Pak, who hailed from Mei-chou in Kwangtung Province in 1772. Chinese settlers have long lived in Borneo island, with most engaging in trading and mining. They formed their own companies, among which was the Southern Company headed by Low.

Prior to the arrival of the Chinese, there were rival kingdoms in the area which often went to war over natural resources and land as well as Chinese labour. Due to the competition of the cheap labour, many Chinese arrived in Borneo in tens of thousands by offering attractive land lease. Low arrived in Kuntai and allied with the local king and formed a business cooperation between the two but also promised to help them against rival kingdoms in the area. By 1777, after a war between the three kingdoms, Lanfang became a prominent force in the region helping the Kuntai king to win in the war.

The Republic
The founding members of the republic gathered together to talk about what to do next. Although a monarchy was proposed, Low shut it down but instead proposed a democratic republic which was trending in Europe at the time. So in 1777, Lanfang was born as a republic with Low Lan Pak as their democratically elected leader. He stayed closely with the ancient greek style of democracy with different council and 12 elected members to it. He also introduced the legislature, executive and judicuary branch of the government which the Europeans and Americans did years after Lanfang. Together with that, Low also implemeneted democratic policies into the government including the idea that all matters of state must involve the consultation of the republic's citizenry. The country does not have a standing army but a well trained militia force which could be mobilised quickly at wartime. He also introduced three tiers of the administration, province, prefectures and country with the citizens taking part in electing the leader of every one of these administrative divisions.

Although Lanfang have discarded monarchism and dynastic succession, Lanfang still have maintained chinese traditions in the country such as the start of the republic as the first year in the calander. However, Lanfang remaines as a tributary state of Qing China and Low presented a report of the republic to the Qing Emperor to notify the founding.

Low served until his death 18 years later in 1795 and had many democratically elected presidents since then until now. The style of government proved to be extremely successful. The country soon grew into a propersous nation and a wealthy and powerful one in the region mainly due to trade and mining. With the accumilation of wealth and power, non-chinese inhabitant in Lanfang also pledged allegance to the country.

British Influence
Since Borneo had been taken over largely by the British, Lanfang had been under heavy British Influence. In 1886, Britain and Lanfang sent a treaty which gave Britain the right to station troops in the country to "protect british merchants and vessels" Lanfang agreed. In exchange, Britain would help patrol the sea to get rid of pirates in the waters.

Modern Lanfang
Remaining as a Qing tributary state, Lanfang continues to prosper despite surrounded by Europeans mainly the British and the Portugese. Lanfang suprisingly benefited by this and the Europeans effectively had made Lanfang a neutral ground to negotiate treaties and peace deals between Europeans in the region. The prosperity of Lanfang not only drew the attention of foreigners but also Chinese hoping to make a fortune in Lanfang skyrocketing the population from a meer 1 million or so people to over 15 million within 1 century's time.