Welcome journalers to Talaxca!  I've been inspired on building out a tropical region for a while now.  I'm not too serious or creative of a player, but I have a general sense of the plans for this continent.  I am always open to suggestions and feedback!  Each entry in the journal will be timestamped with a current year and will go over the updates/developments in that year.  This generally will be city development updates, but may also include other information relating to the region such as resource maps or government updates.  I hope you enjoy this journal! 

Also, many thanks to ohdude for creating this map of Valdivia which inspired the basis for this journal.

--- THE CURRENT YEAR IS 1930 ---

The discovery of Pospertia and consequently Talaxca was made by Gregori Howell in his voyage in the years 1914 to 1916.  It was said he named this land Talaxca because, in his words, it "reminded me of the peaceful cradle of some ancient civilization".  Although this discovery was groundbreaking the economic recession in the Republic of Organia, the country claiming discovery and ownership of this new land, prevented much more than simple mapping to be done of this region.  Below is the undisturbed land of Talaxca as Gregori would have seen it.

After an economic recovery the Organian Expansion Department, or OED,  was formed in 1920 with the express purpose of mapping, exploring and colonizing this new landmass.  After about a year a rough map was drawn of the waterways.  The main and largest river snaking from north to the outlet in the southwest was named the Howell river in honor of the first discoverer.  The secondary river branching to the east was named the Ballitan and the lake to the southeast was named Dalton.   The first explorers set foot in 1921 and took rough surveys of forests, hills, and mountains of the region.  They made extensive reports on what natural resources they found and divided the land into rough plots to help organize colonization and city management efforts in the future.  The completed map was finished in 1925 and looked like the following:

Icons on this map represent an abundance of a certain kind of resource.

 Represents spots where fishing or whaling were expected to be very lucrative.

 Represents areas teeming with dense and lush vegetation that was a sign of very fertile farmland.

 Signifies large and dense hardwood forests that could be harvested for a variety of purposes.

 Denotes areas that contain floodplains that would be a natural place to grow wetland crops such as sugarcane or rice.

 Describes areas full of dense metal deposits such as tin, copper, and iron that could be extracted for use in manufacturing.

 Signifies areas full of other minable minerals such as coal or sulfur that could be used for power production or other means.

Given the seeming abundance of natural materials the OED set about recruiting volunteers to join in colonization efforts of Talaxca.  Many people, excited by the tropical location and land incentives, flocked to join the colonization teams.   By 1930 the OED felt confident they could man 5 colonies to spread out and start tapping into the resources of Talaxca.  The government published the following map with their projected colony locations: 

These colonies would be established in order and were given the following description:

1. Halesport - To be founded in early 1932.  This colony will be established on the safe and fertile banks of the Howell river and will be primarily interested in farming the fertile lands and gathering the native hardwoods for export.
2. Dremmen - To be founded in late 1932.  Settlers here will be tapping into the wildlife of the Organian sea where there have been reports of large numbers of exotic fish and even whales!
3. Yasmer - To be founded in 1933.  Farmers wanted!  The OED wants to establish sugarcane plantations here and experiment with other cash crops.
4. Pashan  - To be founded in early 1934.  Early discoveries of easy to access coal veins make this an attractive location to set up a mining colony and the southern banks of the Lake Dalton should provide plenty of food.
5. Corben - To be founded in late 1934.  Copper veins here provide an incentive for mining.  Also, the shallow bay should provide good fishing opportunities.  Corben will also serve as a trading hub for the inland colonies.

What will happen the the fledgling colonies and people full of hope and promise?  Find out in the next chapter of Talaxca - Land of Promise!