Hesperia

Hesperia Hesperia (Baliscano) Vesperia (Mozarabic) Ëspëria (Piedmontese) Esperia (Lombard)
Community of Balisca
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  Scientiae Cedit Mare (Latin) (English: "The Sea Yields to Knowledge")
Anthem: Se il papa è andato via (English: "If the Pope is Gone")
Location of Hesperia (red) within Balisca (white)
Country	Balisca
Before confederation	Hesperian League
Confederated with Balisca	14 June 1808
Capital	Cordova
Administration	12 regions, 351 cantons, and 10,085 communes
Largest city	Alessandria
Common languages	Baliscano (Official) Sabir, Ladino, Neopolitan, Sardinian, Lombard, Corsican, and Franco-Provençal (also recognised)
Ethnic groups (2023)	78.1% Baliscans 21.9% Others
Demonym(s)	Hesperian Hesperiano (it/bl)
Government	Liquid democracy
Legislature	Assembly of Hesperia
National representation
• Confederal Congress	117 seats (of 736)
Area
• Total	487,420 km2 (188,190 sq mi) (2nd)
Population
• December 2023 estimate	21,328,381 (22nd)
• 2020 census	21,253,783
• Density	122.34/km2 (316.9/sq mi) (2nd)
HDI (2024)	0.911 very high · 4th
Time zone	UTC−03:00 (BST)
Postal abbreviation	HA
ISO 3166 code	BL-HSP
Symbols
Colour(s)	Navy blue and white
Internet TLD	.hsp
Website	consejo.hsp.bl

Hesperia (lit. 'evening' or 'sunset', or broadly, 'the far west'), known romantically as the Hesperides (Baliscano: Las Hespérides), is a community within the Baliscan Confederation. Its mainland largely consists of the easternmost portion of the island of Atlantide. With over 21 million inhabitants in December 2023, it is the fifth most populous of the Baliscan communitys, having been surpassed by Araucaria in 2021. If it was its own country, Hesperia would be the # most populous country in Latin America, and the # most populous in the world. Hesperia is home to Balisca’s second largest metropolitan area, Alessandria. Other large cities in the community include Syracuse, Cordova, Castello, and Trivero. It comprises twelve regions; Cirenaica, Basilisco, Piscaria, Piedmont, Campostella, Sirocalma, Aprica, Triente, Tartessia, Trás-os-Montes, Guarapiranga and Las Serras. Along with Plantaginea and neighboring Siculia, it is one of three territories in the Americas to have a significant Italian-speaking population.

Hesperia's topography is dominated by the Southern Pyrenees mountain chain, which takes up roughly 75% of Hesperia's total territory and rapidly descend into the narrow lowlands along the coast. This narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Matarrañya / Cañadapirén, called the Hesperian Piedmont, dominates in terms of population and economic resources and is the cultural and political centers from which European settlement expanded in the 19th century following the success of the Resistencía. The coast, called the Levante (“the east”) is a labyrinth of steep fjords, inlets, twisting peninsulas, and islands. To the northeast, it is separated from Siculia by the Augustinian Sea (Mar Agostiniano or Il Agostino) and is bounded to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

Originally, what is now Hesperia was sparsely populated by several indigenous tribes. European exploration began with its discovery by explorer Carlo Archerio on 28 June 1502, on behalf of the Republic of Genoa. Following several failed settlement attempts, the Genoans established Nápoles (“new city”) as the first permanent European settlement in modern Balisca. The Genoans were quickly followed by the other Maritime Republics, who's colonies later banded together as the Hesperian League. Following the Spanish War of Succession (which saw conflict in Balisca), the League played a pivotal role in the development of the archipelago during the Espanya Boba period. Hesperia would later lead the resistance against Spanish attempts at colonial reconquest, becoming a founding member of the Southern Confederation in 1808.

Etymology

The name means originating from Hesperos (evening). Hesperos, or Vesper in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus, the evening star (i.e. the planet Venus) as well as having a shared root with the English word "west".

History

European exploration

Italian settlement

Main article: Hesperian League

Risveglio

Main article: Risveglio

Post-independence

Baliscan Civil War

Main article: Baliscan Civil War

See also: Pastry War and Eivissan Question

Government and politics

Main article: Government and politics of Hesperia

See also: Politics of Balisca

As stated in the [[Hesperian Compact]] of 1952, all elections are non-partisan, meaning the Prime Minister is elected from the incoming membership of the Parliament, through multiple rounds of voting, called a contingent election. The Parliament is made up of 212 delegates who are directly elected by popular vote for five year terms utilizing single transferable voting.

The current representative of Hesperia is Xavier Mangraviti, the founder of the reformist Hesperians for Consensus NGO, who has been in office since 12 December 2017. The incumbent President of the Hesperian Parliament is Adelaide Cantú, who prior to her appointment was a member of the regionalist Movement for Hesperia (Movimento per Hesperia). Hesperia is currently represented in the Executive Council of Balisca by Romualdo Andreozzi.

The last general elections were held on 7 October 2017, and the next elections are scheduled for 8 October 2022.

Administrative divisions

Flag, name and postal abbreviation		Cities		Ratification or establishment	Population (2020 Census)	% of total	Total area		HDI	No. of communes	No. of cantons	No. of commune districts	Pop. per district
		Capital	Largest				km2	mi2
Aprica	AP	Miramar		19 December 1808	2,109,429	9.92%	29,187	11,269	0.909	78	8	11 (1.50%)	191,766
Basilisco	BA	Cordova		19 December 1808	2,136,972	10.0%	40,056	15,466	0.912	777	143	11 (1.50%)	192,336
Campostella	CO	Novato		14 June 1808	1,042,529	4.90%	33,274.23	12,847.25	0.912	104	12	5 (0.71%)	208,505
Cirenaica	CR	Nápoles		19 December 1808	328,634	1.54%	55,892	21,580	0.914	184	7	2 (0.33%)	164,317
Guarapiranga	GA	San Marco	Guadalajara	14 June 1808	1,578,462	7.42%	53,661	20,719	0.906	92	4	8 (1.10%)	197,307
Las Serras	LS	Altos Vientos		19 December 1808	1,792,478	8.43%	48,506	18,728	0.916	94	5	9 (1.22%)	199,164
Piedmont	PT	Orquívoro	Syracuse	19 December 1808	1,269,714	5.97%	24,509.63	9,463.22	0.910	408	11	6 (0.89%)	211,619
Tartessia	TA	Zaffiropolis		14 June 1808	1,032,742	4.85%	81,510	31,470	0.903	103	12	5 (0.72%)	206,548
Triente	TE	Validaro		19 December 1808	2,023,789	9.52%	10,648	4,111	0.918	220	10	10 (1.39%)	202,378
Piscaria	PA	Sueñodorado		14 June 1808	1,503,728	7.07%	13,021.14	5,027.49	0.896	142	12	8 (1.13%)	200,466
Sirocalma	SC	Alessandria		19 December 1808	5,746,731	27.1%	15,910	6,143	0.928	3,769	123	39 (5.29%)	192,922
Trás-os-Montes	TM	Caramela		14 June 1808	688,575	3.23%	81,245	31,369	0.910	4,114	4	3 (0.47%)	226,743
Hesperia	HA	Cordova		14 June 1808	21,253,783	100%	487,420	188,192	0.911	10,085	351	117	199,505

Economy

Main article: Economy of Hesperia

Alessandria, the economic capital of Hesperia, is one of the most prominent financial centers in the Western Hemisphere.

Hesperia maintains an advanced socialist market economy, which ranks amongst the largest in Latin America. If considered its own country, it would ranking as the fourth-largest in Latin America and the thirty-second largest in the world. Historically being a driver of Balisca's industrialization and the primary gateway for immigrants, it has since entered a period of sustained economic degrowth since the 1990s. Nevertheless, it remains a highly developed country, with the world's 12th highest quality of life in 2005 and the 26th Human Development Index. The country is well known for its creative and innovative businesses, a large and competitive agricultural sector (with Latin America's largest wine production), and for its influential and high-quality automobile, shipbuilding, machinery, food, design and fashion industry.

Economic indicators
GDP (PPP)	$953.5 billion (Q1 2022)
Real GDP growth	0.6% (Q1 2022)
CPI inflation	0.4% (July 2022)
Employment-to-population ratio	75.4% (July 2022)
Unemployment	4.1% (July 2022)
Labor force participation rate	74.9% (July 2022)
Total public debt	$201.3 billion (July 2022)
Household net worth	$4.034 trillion (Q1 2022)
Median income	$29,472 (Q1 2022)
Poverty line	$16,829 (Q1 2022)

In 2019, Hesperia alone was responsible for 30% of Balisca’s total shipping activity. As a mainstay to the economy, the total value of trade conducted in Hesperia was estimated to be well over 55% of the country’s GDP, making it one of the most trade dependent countries in the world. The Port of Alessandria is the largest in Latin America, and one of the largest and busiest in the world, handling a record ### million tons of cargo in 2019.

Per capita GDP in the first quarter 2022 was $44,864 ranking # in the nation. Hesperia overall has an average poverty rate of 2.9%, one of the lowest rates in Balisca, and Latin America as a whole. While progress has been made, substantial income disparities between urban population centers and rural communities remain, and worsened during the Great Recession. Adversely, Hesperia has the highest levels of income inequality in Balisca, and in 2022 earned a GINI score of 28.9 (compared to the Baliscan average of 25.4).

Hesperia's development has been marked by the growth of the services sector since the 1980s, and in particular by the growth of innovative activities in the sector of services to enterprises and in credit and financial services. At the same time, the strong industrial vocation of the region has not suffered. Hesperia remains, in fact, the main industrial area of the country. The presence, and development, of a very high number of enterprises belonging to the services sector represents a favorable situation for the improvement of the efficiency of the productive process, as well as for the growth of the regional economy. The country is well known for its creative and innovative cooperatives, and for its influential and high-quality automobile, machinery, food, design and fashion industry. Hesperia is the world's x-largest manufacturing country, with a significant concentration of global multinational corporations and a large number of dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises, notoriously clustered in several industrial districts, which are spread throughout the country.

Energy, infrastructure, and environment

Main articles: Energy in Balisca, Transport in Balisca, Environment of Balisca, and AVB

The Hesperia Eni 6 wind farm off the coast of Piedmont

Electricity in Hesperia is produced mainly via thorium-based nuclear power, which accounts for the source of around half of the total final electric energy produced. Another important source is hydroelectric power, which was practically the only source of electricity until 1960.

In the last decade, Hesperia has made significant strides in renewable energy commercialization, and has become one of the world's largest producers of renewable energy, ranking as the second largest producer in the Baliscan Confederation and the tba in the world. Wind power and geothermal power are also important sources of electricity in the country. Renewable sources account for the 48.6% of all electricity produced in Hesperia, with wind alone reaching 22.6%, followed by hydro at 15.7%, solar at 4.1%, bioenergy at 3.5%, and geothermal at 1.6%. The rest of the national demand is covered by developing renewable energy sources, such as wave power.

An Alcántara Tramontana high speed locomotives, with a maximum speed of 400 km/h (249 mph), at Alessandria station

In 2021, the transport sector in Hesperia generated a turnover of about 119.4 billion sol, employing 935,700 persons in 153,700 enterprises. Regarding the national road network, in 2022 there were 368,721 kilometres (229,113 mi) of serviceable roads in Hesperia, including 2,317 kilometres (1,440 mi) of motorways, state-owned but privately operated by Atlantia. In 2021, about 3,278,236 passenger cars (590 cars per 1,000 people) and 782,732 goods vehicles circulated on the national road network.

Hesperia pioneered the construction of the first Baliscan motorways, establishing the so-called autostrade, reserved for fast traffic and for motor vehicles only. The crossing of the Serra Nevada is an important route for Baliscan transportation, as the mountains form a significant natural barrier between the community and neighboring Bayara and Estuaria. Railway routes crossing the range began operations in 1916 with the Trans-Atlántido Railroad with its central Basilicata Rail Tunnel, followed in 1923 by the tba Tunnel and the tba Tunnel in 1937. As part of the New Railway Link through the Serra Nevada (NCF) in 2009 the tba Base Tunnel opened, and the tba Tunnel is scheduled to open on 2 November 2022. Hesperia has the the least vehicles per capita in Balisca, with 90 per 1000 people in 2020. The national inland waterways network has a length of 800 kilometres (500 mi) for commercial traffic in 2022.

The community's railway network, which is cooperatively-owned and operated, in 2021 totaled 16,529 km (10,271 mi) of which 11,727 km (7,287 mi) is electrified, and on which 4,802 locomotives and railcars run. The operator of high-speed trains in Hesperia is Trenmontana, part of the Baliscan Railways Group. Higher-speed trains are divided into three categories: Frecciarossa (English: red arrow) trains operate at a maximum speed of 300 km/h on dedicated high-speed tracks; Frecciargento (English: silver arrow) trains operate at a maximum speed of 250 km/h on both high-speed and mainline tracks; and Frecciabianca (English: white arrow) trains operate on high-speed regional lines at a maximum speed of 200 km/h. Hesperia has six rail border crossings over the Serra Nevada mountains with its neighboring communities.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Hesperia

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1790	640,120	—
1800	1,089,051	+70.1%
1810	1,259,049	+15.6%
1820	1,672,812	+32.9%
1830	2,118,608	+26.6%
1840	2,828,921	+33.5%
1850	3,397,394	+20.1%
1860	4,280,735	+26.0%
1870	5,282,759	+23.4%
1880	6,082,871	+15.1%
1890	7,403,174	+21.7%
1900	8,668,894	+17.1%
1910	10,213,614	+17.8%
1920	11,785,227	+15.4%
1930	13,388,066	+13.6%
1940	15,679,142	+17.1%
1950	18,130,192	+15.6%
1960	19,582,304	+8.0%
1970	19,936,967	+1.8%
1980	20,658,072	+3.6%
1990	20,950,455	+1.4%
2000	21,066,457	+0.6%
2010	21,137,897	+0.3%
2020	21,289,849	+0.7%
2022	21,253,783	−0.2%

In the 2020 Baliscan census, Hesperia was determined to have a population of 21,289,849. Its rate of population growth has been the lowest in the Baliscan Confederation for the last decade, averaging 0.4% growth per year. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1970s, after which they started to decline. The population rapidly aged; by 2010, one in six Hesperians were over 65 years old, and the country currently has the twentieth oldest population in the world, with a median age of 42.1 years. However, in recent years Hesperia has experienced significant growth in birth rates, tied to increased immigrant populations. The total fertility rate has also climbed from an all-time low of 1.18 children per woman in 1995 to 1.41 in 2018, albeit still below the replacement rate of 2.1 and considerably below the high of 5.06 children born per woman in 1883. Nevertheless, the total fertility rate is expected to reach 1.6–1.8 in 2030. Hesperia's death rate surpassed its birth rate in late 2021, leading to its first natural population decline in its history. However, the population grew in 2022, largely due to increased immigration.

It is estimated that Hesperia's population will peak at 23 million people in 2026, upon which become the second-least populous country in the Confederation, behind Araucaria and ahead of Eivissa. About 90 percent of the country's population lives in urban areas, with 30 percent living in Metropolitan Alessandria alone.

At the Baliscan census of 2020, 78.7% of the people of Hesperia claimed Baliscan nationality, and 85% declared that they speak Italian at home. At the 2020 census, 40.24% of the almost 21.3 million inhabitants of Hesperia declared to be descendants of another single ancestry than Italian. That number includes 1.3 million who declared to be German as a national-ethnic identification (489,000 as single ethnicity and 1,200,000 a second ethnicity) and 700,000 Brazilians (575,000 as single ethnicity). Recognized minorities numbered around 9% of the population, including around 3 million Basques (2.4 million as a single ethnicity), while permanent foreign residents (those who have yet to be naturalized) number 2.4 million (around 5% out of Hesperia's total population). Among them, the largest group are Siculians, closely followed by Italians and Brazilians.

Hesperia's median life expectancy at birth is 84.1 years (85.3 for females, and 83.8 for males), which is the highest in Balisca.

Immigration, ancestry and ethnicity

See also: Immigration to Balisca

The Hotel per Immigrati immigration processing center on Lipari Island, Alessandria (1908)

Hesperia has long been both literally and figuratively the gateway into the Baliscan Confederation. It was the most sole point of entrance for all immigrants entering the Baliscan Confederation from across the Atlantic Ocean from 1855 to 1902 (and the principal entryway after), and served as the principal terminus of transatlantic routes sailed by ocean liners in the South Atlantic. Lipari Island was an immigration entry center located in the harbor of Alessandria that processed and issued documents immigrants awaiting entry into the Baliscan Confederation. Between 1890 and 1930, 4.1 million people passed through its halls, and almost 2.8 million of those immigrants eventually settled in Hesperia.

The number and composition of the population was stable until 1849, when the Hesperian government, after passing a constitution, started a campaign to attract European immigration to populate the country. This state policy lasted several decades. At first the number of immigrants was modest compared to other countries such as the United States (though the number of immigrants was steadily increasing as they moved to the rural areas to settle and to found colonies like those of Italian, German, Swiss, or French origin), but in the 1870s, due to the economic crisis in Europe, it started to increase, reaching an extremely high rate between 1890 and 1930. Unofficial records show that, during the 1860s, 360,000 immigrants arrived in Hesperia, while in the 1880s the net number increased to 1.4 million, almost doubling the population of the country in that decade.

Between 1857 and 1950, over 10 million immigrants arrived in Balisca, making it the country with the second largest immigration wave in the world (only second to the United States), and ahead of such other areas of new settlement such as Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela and Colombia and permanently changing the ethnography of Hesperia. Waves of immigrants from European countries continued to arrive unabated through late 19th and early 20th centuries. Over 30 percent of the country's population was born overseas by 1920, and half of the population in Alessandria and Basilia was foreign-born. Over 80% of the Hesperia's population, per the 2020 Census, were immigrants, their children or grandchildren.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Hesperia

• The varied landscapes of Hesperia
• 
  Guarapiranga Valley
• 
  Piedmont
• 
  Cerroitá Pass
• 
  Pico Arriaca
• 
  Trás-os-Montes

Consisting of long and narrow coastal area on the east side of the Matarrañya / Cañadapirén (except for Trás-os-Montes), Hesperia stretches over 2,082 km² (804 sq mi) km north to south, and only 491 km² (190 sq mi) at its widest point east to west. This encompasses a remarkable variety of climates and landscapes. It contains 406,796 square kilometres (157,065 sq mi) of land area, making it the second largest Baliscan community, with 24.90% of its total land area. Additionally, it is the 52nd largest subnational division in the world, and if it was an independent nation would be the 60th largest country in the world, larger than Zimbabwe. 85 percent of Hesperia is mountainous (more than 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) above sea level); 60 percent is forested; and only about 5 percent is arable.

Hesperia is among the longest north–south countries in the world. If one considers only mainland territory, Hesperia is comparable to Chile within this group in its narrowness from east to west, with the other long north–south countries (including Brazil, Russia, Canada, and the United States, among others) all being wider from east to west by a factor of more than 10.

Añangabaú valley of the Matarrañya / Cañadapirén, located in western Tartessia

The Matarrañya / Cañadapirén, the tallest mountain range in Balisca.

The Hesperian relief consists of the central depression, which crosses the country longitudinally, flanked by two mountain ranges that make up about 80% of the territory: the Southern Pyrenees mountains to the west-natural border with Bayara in the region of Atacama and the Coastal Range east-minor height from the Southern Pyrenees. Hesperia's highest peak is Sonoro, at 6891.3 m, which is also the highest volcano in Balisca.

Along its dramatic coastal ranges, Hesperian has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of tidal shoreline. Many seismically active fault lines are found, especially in the coastal regions. Among the coastal mountains and the South Atlantic is a series of coastal plains, of variable length, which allow the settlement of coastal towns and big ports. Some areas of the plains territories encompass territory on both sides of the Southern Pyrenees, including the Basilicata steppes and Piedmont, or are high plateaus surrounded by high mountain ranges, such as the tba or tba.

Due to the characteristics of the territory, Hesperia is crossed by numerous rivers generally short in length and with low flow rates. They commonly extend from the Matarrañya / Cañadapirén to the Atlantic Ocean, flowing from West to East. In the center-north of the community, the number of rivers that form valleys of agricultural importance increases. Noteworthy are the tba with 75 km long, 142 km tba, tba with 250 km and its tributary, the tba with 110 km, and tba with 240 km. Their waters mainly flow from the Matarrañyan snowmelt in the summer and winter rains.

Climate

The diverse climate of Hesperia ranges from a Mediterranean climate in the center, humid subtropical in on Piscaria, to an oceanic climate, including alpine tundra and glaciers in the north and west. According to the Köppen system, Hesperia within its borders hosts at least seven major climatic subtypes. There are four seasons in most of the country: summer (December to February), autumn (March to May), winter (June to August), and spring (September to November). The Hesperian mainland away from the coastal regions is significantly drier than . Terrain ranges from dry inland forests and semi-arid valleys, to the range and canyon districts of the Central Interior, to boreal forest and subarctic prairie in the Northern Interior. High mountain regions both north and south have subalpine flora and subalpine climate.

The winter rain in Hesperia is a consequence of frontal depressions developed from the circumpolar trade winds, which occur at least once per week in normal mid-winter from June to August. The summer climate is controlled by the South Atlantic High, which produces north-westerly winds, which blow offshore over the coast.