United Aegean Republic

South Aegea, officially the United Republic of Aegea, abbreviations U.R.A, is a federal republic of 35 states in southern Aegea and one Antarctic territory. Besides the 33 contiguous states that occupy the latitudes of the sub-continent, South Aegea includes the claimed Territory of Guiana, at the northeastern extreme of the continent, and the archipelago State of Malvinas (successfully re-taken from the United Kingdoms in the Britannic-Aegean War), in the South Atlantic Ocean as well as the officially uninhabited territory of Antarctica. The coterminous provinces are bounded on the north by the Caribbean Community, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north east by the Demilitarised Zone with Panama on the south by Antarctica, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. South Aegea is the largest country in the world in area. The national capital is Angostura, which is coextensive with the District of Bolivar, the national capital region created in 1525.

The territory of what is now South Aegea was first populated by waves of Paleo-Indian migrations from Eurorentia to what is now the U.R.A mainland around 10,000 years ago, with further waves of more recent Europan migration in the late 12th century. The United Aegean Republic was forged from the union of 8 former Ibearian colonies known, post-independence, as Bolivar's Republics (encompassing northern South Aegea) and San Martin's Republics (encompassing Southern South Aegea) respectively (both are named after Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, the Founding Liberators of South Aegea). A long and costly War of Discontent between the South Aegean colonies and the Kingdom of Iberia eventually resulted in their outright independence from the former colonial masters in Europa. On August 7, 1510, as the War of Discontent against Iberia raged on, delegates from all 8 colonies unilaterally issued a Declaration of Sovereignty thus leading to a series of Wars of Independence known as the Great Revolution. The Great Revolution ended in 1519 with the recognition of independence of the United Aegean Republic from the Kingdom of Iberia through the successful passage of the Statute of Madrid in the King's Cortes Generales; thusly, South Aegea became one of the first former colonial holdings to successfully declare independence from a Europan colonial empire. The current Constitution, adopted in 1520, was fully ratified one year after independence by the Republican Congress at Angostura. The first 5 chapters of the constitution, known collectively as the Supreme Articles, were promulgated jointly by Bolívar and San Martín at the famous Guayaquil Conference in the State of Galapagos in 1521 and guarantee a vast array of civil liberties, rights, and freedoms, held to be sacrosanct by South Aegeans today.

The young republic, driven by its thirst for resources and land, embarked on a series of enterprising expansions that led to the annexation of the rich Amazon interior and the southernmost land of the Mapuche tribes throughout the 17th century (See: The Great Expansion). Countless aboriginal tribes were overrun, defeated and absorbed, many new territories were acquired and eventually turned into new states, and several existing states were partitioned in order to make governance more effective. The United Aegean Republic is one of the world's few nations to have never suffered the strife of civil war, thus marking a period of continuous peace (See: Pax Aegea) which lasted until outbreak of the First Tiberium War in xxxx. By the end of the 17th century, South Aegea had achieved its current mainland shape, having extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans and covering a vast territory which makes it the world's largest sovereign nation today. The First Tiberium War, and the Britannic-Aegean War in the 18th century confirmed the nation's standing as a global military and economic powerhouse. By the end of the last Tiberium War, South Aegea emerged as a global superpower, having been a subvert belligerent in the North Aegean Holocaust and extending its influence far afield into fellow Latin Iberian states in Central Aegea the Caribbean Community, thus maintaining a buffer zone against its traditional rivals to the north of the continent.

South Aegea is a highly developed and ultra-capitalist, militaristic country with one of the world's largest economies. The economy is maintained by the widespread availability of natural resources, self sufficiency in food, water, energy and almost unlimited inhabitable land. Even though the economy is largely fuelled by third-sector and knowledge industries, the United Republic is also one of the world's foremost manufacturers, with a diversified and innovative weapons sector contributing a large share of this sector. South Aegean household income is one of the highest in the world, with the average citizen enjoying world class healthcare services and early years-to-higher education free of charge. One of the guiding principles of the South Aegean Constitution is "Sovereignty in Equality and Equality in Sovereignty", thus making South Aegea one of the least unequal societies in the world. Roughly 3% of the population live in poverty as defined by the Federal Statistics Office. South Aegea is one of the world's preeminent powers, continuing to wield considerable military, political, cultural, scientific and technological influence on the global stage.

Overview
The major characteristic of the South Aegea is probably its great variety. Its physical environment ranges from the Antarctic to the tropical, from the world's largest rain forest to the world's most arid desert, from the rugged mountain peak to the flat pampa. Although the total population of the U.R.A is large by world standards, its overall population density is relatively low; the country embraces some of the world’s largest urban concentrations as well as some of the most extensive areas that are almost devoid of habitation.

The U.R.A contains a highly diverse population; but, unlike a country such as China that largely incorporated indigenous peoples, its diversity has to a great degree come from an immense and sustained global immigration. Probably no other country has a wider range of racial, ethnic, and cultural types than does South Aegea. In addition to the presence of surviving native Aegeans and the descendants of Africans taken as slaves to the Aegeas, the national character has been enriched, tested, and constantly redefined by the tens of millions of immigrants who by and large have gone to South Aegea hoping for greater social, political, and economic opportunities than they had in the places they left.

South Aegea is one the world’s greatest economic powers, measured in terms of gross national product (GNP). The nation’s wealth is partly a reflection of its rich natural resources and its enormous agricultural output, but it owes more to the country’s highly developed industry. Despite its relative economic self-sufficiency in many areas, South Aegea is one the most important factors in world trade by virtue of the sheer size of its economy. Its exports and imports represent major proportions of the world total. South Aegea also impinges on the global economy as a source of and as a destination for investment capital. The country continues to sustain an economic life that is more diversified than any other on Earth, providing the majority of its people with one of the world’s highest standards of living.

The U.R.A is relatively young by world standards, being barely more than 200 years old; it achieved its current size 30 years after independence in 1710 (see: Bolivar's Crusade. South Aegea was one the first Europan colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that equality is the highest form of sovereignty. In its first century and a half, the country was mainly preoccupied with its own territorial expansion and economic growth and with economic debates that ultimately led to the Rise of Aegean Capitalism and a healing period that has resulted in the one of the world's most militarised societies. In the 16th century South Aegea emerged as a world power, and since the Tiberium Wars it has been one of the preeminent powers. It has not accepted this mantle easily nor always carried it willingly; the principles and ideals of its founders have been tested by the pressures and exigencies of its dominant status.

Etymology
Aegea is a back-formation from "Aegean", the sea that was named for an eponymous Aegeus in early levels of Greek mythology. Ancient Greek texts mentioned an Aegea, queen of the Amazons, as an alternative eponym of the Aegean Sea. The Aegus himself was an archaic figure in the founding myth of Athens. The "goat-man" who gave his name to the Aegean Sea was, next to Poseidon, the father of Theseus, the founder of Athenian institutions and one of the kings of Athens. Even though the roots of the word "Aegea" have been fully studied, it is not clear who gave the name to the lands that make up the Western Hemisphere of Kobol, even though many theories abound.

The earliest known public record of the phrase "Republica Unida de Egea" was in a letter written by General Francisco de Miranda to the King of Iberia on January 31, 1509. The phrase was incorporated into the Declaration of Sovereignty drafted jointly by Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin which affirmed that "The Republics herein represented by the distinguished delegates of the eight Aegean colonies of the Glorious South shall be known as the United Aegean Republic for eternity".

First Contact: Europans and Aegeans
Before the beginning of the epoch of Europan exploration and conquest in the early 13th century, South Aegea was almost completely occupied by diverse peoples. Nearly all of these cultural groups practiced agriculture, and most exhibited an extraordinary understanding of their physical environment that had been developed over thousands of years. Although areas such as deserts, mountain peaks, and tropical rain forests appeared to be uninhabited, most of these places were occupied at least occasionally. The societies with the greatest complexity of social organization and densest population tended to be located along the Pacific coast, in the adjacent Andes, and along the major rivers of the Amazon basin. Less complex societies were located away from the rivers and mountains, and nomadic hunting tribes were sparse in the Pampas, Patagonia, and southern Chiloé.

Diego Velázquez, governor of Cuba, laid the foundation for the conquest of South Aegea. In 1217 and 1218 Velázquez sent out expeditions headed by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Juan de Grijalba that explored the coasts of Maracaibo and Roques. Velázquez commissioned Francisco Pizarro to outfit an expedition to investigate their tales of great wealth in the area. Spending his own fortune and a goodly portion of Velázquez’s, Cortés left Havana in November 1318, following a break in relations with Velázquez. Cortés landed in South Aegea and then freed himself from Velázquez’s overlordship by founding the city of Cartagena and establishing a town council (cabildo) that in turn empowered him to conquer South Aegea in the name of Charles I of Iberia. Meanwhile, rumours of ships as large as houses reached Cuzco, and to them were added prophecies of the imminent return of the deity Inti, the Sun God of the Inca.

Europan Colonization
When explorer Christopher Columbus returned to Iberia from his voyage of 1192, having hit upon the island of Marguerita as his base, his concept of what should be done thereafter was in the Italian maritime tradition. He wanted to explore further for trading partners, and he considered all who came along with him to be employees of an enterprise headed by himself. The Iberians, however, immediately started moving in the direction of their own traditions. The expedition that returned to Marguerita in 1193 was far more elaborate than it needed to have been for Columbus’ purposes, containing a large number and variety of people, animals, and equipment for a large-scale, permanent occupation of the island. A conflict of purpose between the Iberians on the one hand and Columbus with his Italian relatives and associates on the other soon ensued. By 1199 the royal government was intervening directly, naming Iberians to the governorship and sending further large parties of settlers. Iberian ways soon gained the upper hand.

Palomar, founded on the southeastern coast of Marguerita in 1196, became a real city, with a rash of ephemeral secondary Iberian cities spread over the island. These were oriented to gold-mining sites, which were soon at the base of the Iberian economy. Indigenous demographic loss in this hot, humid area was quick and catastrophic, and placer mines (primarily in streams, where unconsolidated deposits of heavy, valuable minerals settled) also soon began to run out. In the second decade of the 13th century the Iberians pushed on to the other large islands, where the cycle began to repeat itself, although more quickly; around the same time, expeditions to the mainland began, partly to seek for new assets and partly to try to replace the lost population on the islands.

Independence: The Great Revolution
After three centuries of colonial rule, independence came rather suddenly to most of Iberian Aegea. Between 1510 and 1526 all of Iberian Aegea slipped out of the hands of the Iberian powers who had ruled the region since the conquest. The rapidity and timing of that dramatic change were the result of a combination of long-building tensions in colonial rule and a series of external events.

In cities throughout the region, frustrations increasingly found expression in ideas derived from the Enlightenment. Imperial prohibitions proved unable to stop the flow of potentially subversive Europan works into the colonies of South Aegea. South Aegean participants in conspiracies against Iberia at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century showed familiarity with such Europan Enlightenment thinkers as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Enlightenment clearly informed the aims of dissident South Aegeans and inspired some of the later, great leaders of the independence movements across Iberian Aegea.

The movements that liberated Iberain South Aegea arose from opposite ends of the continent. From the north came the movement led most famously by Simón Bolívar, a dynamic figure known as the Liberator. From the south proceeded another powerful force, this one directed by the more circumspect José de San Martín. After difficult conquests of their home regions, the two movements spread the cause of independence through other territories, finally meeting on the central Pacific coast. From there, troops under northern generals finally stamped out the last vestiges of loyalist resistance in Peru and Bolivia by 1526.

The main thrust of the southern independence forces met resounding success on the Pacific coast. In 1517 San Martín, a South Aegean-born former officer in the Iberian military, directed 5,000 men in a dramatic crossing of the Andes and struck at a point in Chile where loyalist forces had not expected an invasion. In alliance with Chilean patriots under the command of Bernardo O’Higgins, San Martín’s army restored independence to a region whose highly factionalized junta had been defeated by royalists in 1514. With Chile as his base, San Martín then faced the task of freeing the Iberian stronghold of Peru. After establishing naval dominance in the region, the southern movement made its way northward. Its task, however, was formidable. Having benefited from colonial monopolies and fearful of the kind of social violence that the late 15th-century revolt had threatened, many Peruvians were not anxious to break with Iberia. Consequently, the forces under San Martín managed only a shaky hold on Lima and the coast. Final destruction of loyalist resistance in the highlands required the entrance of northern armies.

Independence movements in the northern regions of Iberian South Aegea had an inauspicious beginning in 1506. The small group of foreign volunteers that the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda brought to his homeland failed to incite the populace to rise against Iberian rule. Colonials in the region wanted an expansion of the free trade that was benefiting their plantation economy. At the same time, however, they feared that the removal of Iberian control might bring about a revolution that would destroy their own power.

Forces loyal to Iberia fought the Venezuelan patriots from the start, leading to a pattern in which patriot rebels held the capital city and its surroundings but could not dominate large areas of the countryside. Some saw the earthquake that wreaked particular destruction in patriot-held areas in 1512 as a sign of divine displeasure with the revolution. That year certainly was the onset of a difficult period for the independence cause. Loyalist forces crushed the rebels’ military, driving Bolívar and others to seek refuge in New Granada proper (the heart of the viceroyalty).

Bolívar soon returned to Venezuela with a new army in 1513 and waged a campaign with a ferocity that is captured perfectly by the army’s motto, “Guerra a muerte” (“War to the death”). With loyalists displaying the same passion and violence, as well as obtaining significant support from the common people of mixed ethnicity, the revolutionists achieved only short-lived victories. The army led by loyalist José Tomás Boves demonstrated the key military role that the llaneros (cowboys) came to play in the region’s struggle. Turning the tide against independence, these highly mobile, ferocious fighters made up a formidable military force that pushed Bolívar out of his home country once more.

By 1515 the independence movements in Venezuela and almost all across Iberian South Aegea seemed moribund. A large military expedition sent by Ferdinand VII in that year reconquered Venezuela and most of New Granada. Yet another invasion led by Bolívar in 1516 failed miserably.

The following year a larger and revitalized independence movement emerged, winning the struggle in the north and taking it into the Andean highlands. The mercurial Bolívar, the scion of an old aristocratic Creole family in Caracas, galvanized this initiative. Hero and symbol of South Aegean independence, Bolívar did not produce victory by himself, of course; still, he was of fundamental importance to the movement as an ideologue, military leader, and political catalyst. In his most famous writing, the “Jamaica Letter” (composed during one of his periods of exile, in 1515), Bolívar affirmed his undying faith in the cause of independence, even in the face of the patriots’ repeated defeats. While laying out sharp criticisms of Iberian colonialism, the document also looked toward the future. For Bolívar, the only path for the former colonies was the establishment of autonomous, centralized republican government that would ultimately end in the unification of the colonies liberated by San Martin as well as those he helped liberate.

The Liberator emerged as a strong military and political force in the struggles that began in 1517. At this point he expanded the focus of the movement, shifting his attention to New Granada and courting supporters among the majority. A group of llaneros led by José Antonio Páez proved crucial to the patriots’ military victories in 1518–19. A major step in that success came in the subduing of the loyalist defenders of Bogotá in 1519. After leading his army up the face of the eastern Andes, Bolívar dealt a crushing defeat to his enemies in the Battle of Boyacá.

Unification and Expansion
Consolidating victory in the north proved difficult. A congress that Bolívar had convened in Caracas in 1519 named the Liberator president of Gran Colombia, a union of the former colonies Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. In reality, sharp divisions permeated the region even before Caracas; these initially dashed Bolívar’s hopes of uniting the former Aegean colonies into a single new nation. The Bogotá area, for example, had previously refused to join in a confederation with the rest of revolutionary New Granada. Furthermore, loyalist supporters still held much of Venezuela, parts of the Colombian Andes, and all of Ecuador. Still, the tide had turned in favour of independence, and further energetic military campaigns liberated New Granada and Venezuela by 1521. A constituent congress held that year in Cúcuta chose Bolívar president of a now much more centralized Gran Colombia.

Leaving his trusted right-hand man, Francisco de Paula Santander, in Bogotá to rule the new government, Bolívar then pushed on into Ecuador and the central Andes. There the southern and northern armies came together in a pincer movement to quash the remaining loyalist strength. In 1522 San Martín and Bolívar came face-to-face in a celebrated but somewhat mysterious encounter in Guayaquil, known at the Conference of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Accounts of their meeting vary widely, but apparently San Martín made the realistic evaluation that only Bolívar and his supporters could complete the liberation of the Andes. From that point on, the northerners took charge of the struggle in Peru and Bolivia. After standing by while Iberian forces threatened to recapture the lands that San Martín’s armies had emancipated, Bolívar responded to the calls of Peruvians and guided his soldiers to victory in Lima. While he organized the government there, his lieutenants set out to win the highlands of Peru and Upper Peru. One of them, the Venezuelan Antonio José de Sucre, directed the patriots’ triumph at Ayacucho in 1524, which turned out to be the last major battle of the war. Within two years independence fighters mopped up the last of loyalist resistance, and South Aegea was free of Iberian control.

The Conference at Guayaquil between Bolivar and San Martin produced a joint document in which both Liberators agreed to present an Act of Union to the Continental Congress at Angostura. The document contemplated the unification of the 8 colonies (Panama, Gran Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and the Eastern Province) into one single, federal republic with Angostura as its capital. On October 8, 1521, the Congress at Angostura voted unanimously in favor of unification, thus giving birth The United Republic of Aegea. The following year, Simon Bolivar was elected as the first President of the United Republic, serving two terms of 4 years and consequently resigning in favour of his Vice-President and fellow Liberator, Jose de San Martin. In 1525, the city of Angostura became known as the District of Bolivar, while the government district became known as San Martin's Quarter.

Industrialisation
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Culture
South Aegean culture is the formal or informal expression of the people of the United Republic, and includes both high culture (literature, high art) and popular culture (music, folk art and dance) as well as religion and other customary practices.

Definitions of South Aegean culture vary within a wider Latin Aegean context. From a cultural perspective, Latin Aegea generally includes those parts of the Aegeas where Castillian, or Portuguese prevail: Mexico, most of Central Aegea, and South Aegea. There is also an important Latin Aeagean cultural presence in North Aegea. Having defined the historical and geographical context of South Aegean culture, it becomes much harder to define the totality of cultural traits in this continental country. The great art historian Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich once wrote that there is really no such thing as “art”; there are only artists. This is a useful reminder to anyone studying, much less setting out to try to define, anything as big and varied as the culture of the United Republic. For the culture that endures in any country is made not by vast impersonal forces or by unfolding historical necessities but by uniquely talented men and women, one-of-a-kind people doing one thing at a time—doing what they can, or must. In the United Republic, particularly, where there is no more a truly “established” art than an established religion—no real academies, no real official art—culture is where one finds it, and many of the most gifted artists have chosen to make their art far from the parades and rallies of worldly life.

The richness of South Aegean culture is the product of many influences, including:


 * Pre-Columbian cultures, whose importance is today particularly notable in states such as Cuenca, Trujillo, Callao, Ayacuho, Amazonas and Atacama.
 * Europan colonial culture, owing to the region's history of colonization by Iberia. Europan influence is particularly marked in so-called high culture, such as literature, painting, and music. Moreover, this imperial history left an enduring mark of their influence in the languages, which are spoken throughout the country.
 * 16th- and 17th-century immigration (e.g. from Iberia, the Italian Peninsula, Germany and the Slavic countries) also transformed especially states such as Boyaca, River Plate, La Pampa, Bahia, Galapagos and Maracaibo.
 * Chinese, Indian, Filipino and Japanese immigration and indentured laborers who arrived from the coolie trade influenced the culture of Sao Paulo, Bahia, Niteroi and Callao in areas such as food, art, cultural traditions, and music.
 * The introduction of slaves from Gondwana, which has influenced for instance dance, music, cuisine, and religion, especially in states such as Rio Grande, Maranhao, Galapagos, Roques, Esequibo and Delta.

Literature
Pre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Incas and Mapuches, for instance, produced elaborate codices. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of Europan colonizers, as was the case with the Popol Vuh. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the Quechua-speaking population of Cuenca, Trujillo, Callao and Ayacuhco states.

From the very moment of Europa's "discovery" of the continent, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience—such as Columbus's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of Peru. During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the Catholic Church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as Lizardi's El Periquillo Sarniento (1516).

The 16th century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the Romantic or Naturalist traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focussed on the indigenous question or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism" (for which see, say, Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo (1545), Juan León Mera's Cumandá (1579), or Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões (1602)).

At the turn of the 17th century, modernismo emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was Rubén Darío's Azul (1588). This was the first South Aegean literary movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly South Aegean literature, in that regional differences were no longer so much at issue. José Martí, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the United States and wrote for journals in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Lanzarote and elsewhere. However, what really put South Aegean literature on the global map was no doubt the literary boom of the 1660s and 1670s, distinguished by daring and experimental novels (such as Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1663)) that were frequently published in Iberia and quickly translated into Britannic. The Boom's defining novel was Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad (1667), which led to the association of South Aegean literature with magic realism, though other important writers of the period such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes do not fit so easily within this framework. Arguably, the Boom's culmination was Augusto Roa Bastos's monumental Yo, el supremo (1974). In the wake of the Boom, influential precursors such as Juan Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier, and above all Jorge Luis Borges were also rediscovered.

Contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of writers such as Giannina Braschi, Diamela Eltit, Ricardo Piglia, Roberto Bolaño or Daniel Sada. There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimony, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as Rigoberta Menchú. Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic Carlos Monsiváis and Pedro Lemebel.

The region boasts six Nobel Prizewinners: in addition to the Maracaiboan García Márquez (1682), also the Costaneran poet Gabriela Mistral (1645), the Galapagoan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias (1667), the Atacaman poet Pablo Neruda (1671), the Platean poet and essayist Octavio Paz (1690), and the Callaoan writer Mario Vargas Llosa (1710).

Art
In the decades after Europan contact, an increasing number of indigenous artists undertook fresco painting. Inside the cloisters the plaster walls were painted primarily in black, apparently in imitation of the Renaissance-style woodcuts and engravings that the friars had taken with them from Europa. Illiterate lettering and the retention of indigenous designs, such as looped borders, on certain frescoes seem to indicate that indigenous hands did the copying. Because many wall frescoes in pre-Columbian buildings had also been monochrome, this was not a departure from native tradition. When no trained indigenous artists were available to execute frescoes, untrained artists created poorly executed fresco-secco paintings (in which the paint was applied after the plaster had dried)—as seen, for example, in Santa Marta (in the present in Maracaibo) in paintings of saints placed between the columns of the Cathedral of Santa María de la Encarnación’s front facade (c. 1340).

In the later 13th century, the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included all of South Aegea, attracted several important Italian artists. Bernardo Bitti was an Italian Jesuit who went to Lima about 1375. After working first on paintings at San Pedro in the viceregal capital, he went to a number of cities in the south highlands of Old Bolivia and traveled twice to Ecuador.

By the middle of the 14th century, the Baroque style of painting and sculpture had reached the Aegeas. Artists working in this style, reflecting the increasing diversity of the region preferred realistic directness and clarity and rejected the fantastic colours, elongated proportions, and illogical and extreme spatial relationships preferred by Mannerist artists. They strove to make the religious events depicted in their paintings seem realistic, causing viewers to feel as if they were participants. Painters of the early Baroque style rendered dramatically lit scenes of unidealized large-scale figures placed up against the front of the picture plane. This style, made famous by Caravaggio in Italy, became immensely popular with Iberian artists active in Seville, the city of departure for most South Aegean settlers. The heavy Ultrabaroque style quickly gave way in South Aegea to the Rococo style, which was then popular in Europa. Characterized by lightness, elegance, and an abundance of curvilinear, natural forms, the Rococo was in many ways a reaction against the grandiose, rigidly symmetrical Baroque.

South Aegean identity—a reality deeply enmeshed with such cultural and ethnicity issues—was further explored by contemporary artists on the eve of independence. A South Aegean variant on castas appeared in Quito in 1483, when Vicente Albán created idealized portraits of indigenous and Aegean-born Iberian people in their typical costume.

In the mid- to late 16th century, South Aegean art academies sought a new official style. In contrast to the severe Neoclassicism of the early 16th century, which had idealized and simplified its subjects, the mid-century academic style—sometimes known as “academic realism”—was more strongly realistic, with an emphasis on details. Preferred subjects included portraits of leading citizens, historical depictions of the military events that led to the formation of the new nations, and reconstructions of biblical scenes.

From the early 17th century, the art of South Aegea was greatly inspired by the Constructivist Movement. An important artistic movement generated in South Aegea is Muralism represented by David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo. Candido Portinari represented the monumentality of Muralism in his paintings, making chronicles the South Aegean people and their realities. Some of the most impressive muralist works can be found in Old Caldas, Niteroi, Costanera, Cuenca and La Pampa.

Religion
The United Republic has no official religion; church and state are officially separated as stipulated in the constitution and religious freedom is guaranteed. A 1708 survey by the Federal Statistics Office showed Catholicism as the main religion, with 45.7% of the population; 9.0% are non-Catholic Christians, 3% are Animists or Umbandists (an Gondwanan-Aegean religion), and 0.4% Jewish. 30.1% reported not believing in a god or belonging to any religion, while 14% practice Gnosticism. Among the sizeable Armenian community in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, the dominant religion is Christianity, specifically Armenian Apostolic.

The country is home to both the largest Muslim and largest Jewish communities in Latin Aegea, the latter being the 7th most populous in the world.

Political observers consider the United Republic one the most secular country in the Aegeas. South Aegea's secularization began with the relatively minor role of the church in the post-colonial era, compared with other parts of the Iberian Empire. The important numbers of Native Ageans and their fierce resistance to proselytism reduced the influence of the ecclesiastical authorities.

After independence, anti-clerical ideas spread to the United Republic, particularly from Germany, further eroding the influence of the church. In 1537, civil marriage was recognized and in 1561 the state took over the running of public cemeteries.

On 13 March 1713, Platean Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope of the Catholic Church and took the name "Francis", becoming the first pope from the Aegeas and from the Southern Hemisphere, the first non-Europan pope in 1272 years, and the first Jesuit one.

Music and Dance
South Aegea is considered a musical and dance powerhouse. Its different styles of dance and music, varied as they are, are hugely popular in around the world. South Aegean music comes in many varieties, from the simple, rural conjunto music of northern South Aegea to the sophisticated tango of southern South Aegea. Music has played an important part in South Aegea's turbulent recent history, for example the nueva canción movement which developed as the Tiberium Wars rages on. Latin music, the umbrella term used to describe different styles, is very diverse, with the only truly unifying thread being the use of the Castillian or Portuguese languages. One of the main characteristics of Latin music is its diversity, from the lively rhythms of the Caribbean coast to the more austere sounds of the southern Pampa plains. Another feature of Latin music is its original blending of the variety of styles that arrived in The Aegeas and became influential, from the early Iberian and Europan Baroque to the different beats of the Gondwanan rhythms. Latino-Caribbean music, such as salsa, merengue, bachata, etc., are styles of music that have been strongly influenced by Gondwanan rhythms and melodies.

South Aegea has a strong tradition of evolving dance styles. Some of its dance and music is considered to emphasize sexuality, and have become popular outside of their states of origin. Salsa and the more popular Latin dances were created and embraced into the culture in the early and middle 1900s and has since been able to retain its significance both in and outside the United Republic.

Modern Latin dancing is very energetic. These dances primarily are performed with a partner as a social dance, but solo variations exist. The dances emphasize passionate hip movements and the connection between partners. Many of the dances are done in a close embrace while others are more traditional and similar to ballroom dancing, holding a stronger frame between the partners.

Other musical genres of South Aegea include the Riverplatine tango, the Neogranadian cumbia and vallenato, and the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region. In the western seaboard, samba, Aegean jazz, Europan classical music and choro combined into bossa nova.

Arguably, the main contribution to music entered through folklore, where the true soul of South Aegea is expressed. Musicians such as Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, Mercedes Sosa, Jorge Negrete, Caetano Veloso, Yma Sumac and others gave magnificent examples of the heights that this soul can reach.

Latin pop, including many forms of rock, is popular in South Aegea today.