Palombia
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Palombia is a fictitious South American country from the Spirou and Marsupilami stories.
Palombia (officially, Estados Unidos de Palombia) is a small country in South America. It is bordered by the Orinoco river in the north, by the Andes in the west and by Amazon rain forest in the south. Its area covers only 42.042 square kilometers, which makes it the smallest country in the continent. Catholic Christianity is officially the dominant religion. Its Official language is Spanish.
The official name (in English, United States of Palombia) is a misnomer at best. The Population of the capital Chiquito is 123.765. According to the latest census (from the year 1959), the whole population is 227.895 Palombians. However, the survey mainly disregarded the indigenous tribes in the jungle, including the dominant Atzhiuh tribe.
The first known human inhabitants were of an Amerindian tribe that is currently called sigomaztecs (mainly because remains of their architecture bear certain resemblance to that of Aztecs). According to local native traditions, the sigomaztecs worshipped a god called Marzupitcoatl whose statues have a distinct resemblance to the most prominent member of Palombian fauna, Marsupilami.
Both Portuguese and Spanish colonial efforts in Palombia failed mainly due to a lack of any readily exploitable resources. Chiquito was founded by Spanish-speaking settlers at the end of the 19th century.
Palombia declared independence in 1923. After that, the history has followed an all too familiar South American path with numerous revolutions, coups and border conflicts. Modernization attempts to create parliamentarian democracy in the 1960s mainly served to increase Palombian foreign debt. Attempts ended with the military coup of Papa Prinz in 1964, and his son later followed him as a military ruler. In the 1970s, Belgian-born Zantafio briefly took over as a military dictator until he was forced to abdicate. Afterwards mad scientist Zorglub built his secret base in the jungle until he also was forced to abandon his plans. Papa Prinz's son took over after Zantafio until he was deposed in 1990 by Achilio Zavatas.
Most of the geography of Palombia is composed of rain forest that will slowly become savanna in the south of the country. It has numerous deep lakes. The Palombian part of the Andes is composed of mountains and (usually) dormant volcanoes.
Palombian World Airways has a regular weekly flight to Chiquito from Caracas, Venezuela. Attempts to create a road network (including the Transpalombia Project) have regularly come to grief because the jungle tends to take back the area very quickly. Rapids and falls in the waterways make it impossible to use anything more sophisticated than a small steamship or a canoe.
Palombia has an equatorial climate with added influence of the rain forest. Heavy afternoon rains are regular. The main seasonal difference is less rain from July to September.
Despite numerous attempts to the contrary - including Henry Ford's attempt to industrialize the jungle in the 1930s - Palombian economy is next to nonexistent. Deep and stubborn jungle has made mineral surveys and other resource exploitation too costly. Even the large Palombian range of exotic fruit is too perishable for export.
The main scientific interest in Palombia is the rain forest and its peculiar fauna, especially the long-tailed creature Marsupilami.