San Remo

Republic of San Remo República de San Remo (Spanish) República da Sanremo (Portuguese)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Deus lo vult" (Latin) God wants it
Location of San Remo
Capital and largest city	Rhea
Official languages	Spanish, Portuguese, Latin
Demonym	San Remano/a
Government
• President	Juan García Aragón
Establishment
• Independence from Spain	1889
Area
• Total	111,296 km2 (42,972 sq mi)
Population
• 2013 estimate	10,267,340
• Density	92.3/km2 (239.1/sq mi)
Currency	Peso (COP)
Date format	DD/MM/YYYY
Drives on the	right
Internet TLD	.sr

San Remo, officially the Republic of San Remo, is a sovereign state, located on the northern continent of Internatia. The capital is Rhea, the largest city of the country by both land area and population. San Remo is bordered by Sockistan to the northwest, Anselmsuusonia to the east, Kosma to the southeast and by the sea to the north and the southwest.

History

Flag of San Remo as a part of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves (1499-1668).

Vasco da Gama

The history of modern San Remo started when Vasco da Gama reached the northcoast of the current state in 1498. San Remo existed of different countries back then. Those countries were formed into one territory and joined the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves (Reino de Portugal e dos Algarves) in 1499. The territory was named after the city of San Remo (which was named after St. Remigius). San Remo became the capital of the territory.

Spain

Flag of San Remo as a Spanish overseas territory (1668-1785).

Flag of San Remo in the 19th century.

San Remo was a part of the Kingdom of Portugal for 169 years. In 1668, when Spain recognized the end of the Iberian Union, Portugal ceded San Remo, together with Ceuta, to the Spanish crown in exchange. Rhea became the new capital of Spanish San Remo and the official language became Spanish, but also Portuguese (a big part of the nation was of Portuguese origin) and Latin (teached at schools) remained official languages.

San Remo became an important territory for Spain because of its strategic position. The country has access to two seas and therefore was an important military base of the Spanish empire. San Remo was (and is) well-endowed with minerals and energy resources. It was a source of income when the Spanish crown had financial problems at the end of the 17th century.

Because the Spanish crown recognized not only Spanish, but also Portuguese, Latin and different local languages as official languages of the territory, the political situation was relatively calm during the 18th century. Especially when San Remo received autonomy and self-government in 1785. The political leader, called "El Vogt", still served the Spanish crown, but he had the authority to legislate.

Struggle for independence

The beginning of the 19th century was rough for Spain. The country was occupied by Napoleon from 1808 to 1814 and it lost many colonies in the New World. In 1821 Ferdinand VII of Spain decided to end the autonomy and self-government of San Remo. The political leader was replaced by a viceroy, a regal official who runned the country in the name of Ferdinand VII of Spain. The Spanish crown was afraid that San Remo wanted independence after several South American countries became independent in the decade before. This action resulted in the increase of rebel movements. After years of struggle, incidents and civil wars, San Remo finally became independent in August 1889. Spain recognized San Remo's independence in October 1889.

Geography

Administrative divisions

San Remo is divided into 13 departments (Spanish: departamentos, sing. departamento).

National flag

The national flag of San Remo is a tricolor flag. The horizontal fesses are bands of equal size in the colours, from top to bottom, yellow, orange and green. The flag proportions (width:length) are 2:3.

The flag was created during the struggle for independence from Spain. The colours were intended to symbolise the following: the yellow colour is the national colour and stands for the sun, but also for optimism and pleasure, the orange stands for the land and its fertility and the green stands for hope (which played an important role in the struggle for independence).

Scheme	Yellow	Orange	Green
RGB	(255,255,0)	(237,126,0)	(0,153,0)
HTML	FFFF00	ED7E00	009900

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of San Remo is based on Christianity, the religion of the country. The coat of arms features a picture of the defeat of Satan by the Archangel Michael. At the top there are two Angels looking down at the event. Between the Angels is the cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a Roman Catholic order of knighthood. The national motto "Deus lo vult" (God wants it) on the coat of arms became an important sentence during the struggle for independence, but moreover it represents the will of a person to worship the will of God and to accept his own destiny.