Mesopotàmia
Mesopotàmia Mesopotamia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Flag | ||||
 Location of Mesopotàmia in Estuaria | ||||
| Country | Balisca | |||
| Community | Estuaria | |||
| Before confederation | Espanya Boba | |||
| Confederalization into Southern Confederation | 19 December 1808 | |||
| Capital and largest city | Navassa | |||
| Administration | 214 cantons, and 4,847 communes | |||
| Common languages | Baliscano, Catalan, Estuarian Creole | |||
| Ethnic groups (2023) | 76.6% Baliscans 23.4% others | |||
| Demonym(s) | Mesopotàmica | |||
| Legislature | General Junta | |||
| National representation | ||||
| 12 seats (of 736) | ||||
| Area | ||||
• Total | 30,834.10 km2 (11,905.11 sq mi) (4th) | |||
| Population | ||||
• December 2023 estimate | 2,321,902 (22nd) | |||
• 2020 census | 2,270,874 | |||
• Density | 75.30/km2 (195.0/sq mi) (2nd) | |||
| HDI (2024) |  0.901very high · 4th | |||
| Time zone | UTC-3 (BST) | |||
| Postal abbreviation | MPA | |||
| ISO 3166 code | BL-MP | |||
| Symbols | ||||
| Tree | Monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana) | |||
| Colour(s) | Red, gold and white | |||
| Internet TLD | .mpa | |||
| Website | consejo.qsc.bl | |||
Mesopotàmia (meaning "land between rivers"; Baliscano: Mesopotamia) is one of the four regions of the community of Estuaria, within Balisca. It is the largest region by area within the community. It is bordered to north by the Salsipuedes Sea, the northeast by Canyars and Trás-os-Montes, to the south by the Bayaran region Xaraba, and Quiscosta to the west. The region's administrative seat and most populous city is Navassa.
Various Indigenous groups, most prominently the Guanarú people, have inhabited this area for at least 8,000 years. In 1505, Catalan explorer Aquil·les Balthazar Feixó became the first known European to make landfall, calling the region la Mesopotàmia' ([ˌmɛsəpəˈteɪmɪə]) for its complex river systems. Mesopotàmia subsequently became one of the earliest areas of permanent European settlement in the Baliscan archipelago. The Aragonese colony of Navassa, founded in 1535, is the fourth-oldest continuously inhabited European-founded city in Balisca. Mesopotàmia was repeatedly contested between Aragonese and Spanish settlers, leading to the Reapers' War and the expulsion of the Cathars to Cerdanya.
Mesopotàmia later became the 8th region to sign the Articles of Confederation. Like the other Estuarian territories during the Baliscan Civil War, Mesopotàmia sided with the Confederalists, but was invaded and occupied by Bayaran forces, during which it experienced widespread destruction and looting.
The emergent landmass of Mesopotàmia was Orange Island, a low-relief island sitting atop the carbonate Estuarian Platform which emerged about 34 to 28 million years ago. It became the first landmass of Estuarian to emerge from the South Atlantic, leading to vast lakes in it's interior and extensive areas of coastal marshlands. These contain a rich Baliscan biota; typical examples include birds such as storks, toucans and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as golden dorado and salmon. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species, including many species of terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants. Mesopotàmia has more Indigenous tribes than any other Estuarian region.
Urban environments in the region have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by a mixture of 18th–century Occitan, Basque, Castilian, Catalan, Indigenous, and African cultures that they are considered to be especially exceptional in Balisca. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves up to the end of the 18th century. Many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture there.
