It’s impossible to know with certainty what happened long in the past, so please take what you see on this particular page with a grain of salt or more.

The country of Acalonia

Acalonia is the name of an ancient island country, which may have been the first parliamentary democracy in the world. Creating the Acalonia school is a first step towards bringing the remarkable Republic of Acalonia back to life, although not in its original territory, whose precise location remains unknown. It may have been somewhere in the Carlsberg Ridge at a significant distance from continental Africa. The Latin-sounding word “Acalonia” comes from Latin mentions of the country in Alexandria’s papyri. The native name may have sounded differently.

As for the discovery of the Acalonian archipelago, the story starts in the New Kingdom of Egypt.

King Hatshepsut and the Punt expedition

Hatshepsut was a powerful king. She ruled Egypt with incredible wit and nimbleness. She brought decades of relative peace to what used to be a country constantly fighting with its neighbors.

Hatshepsut’s statue at her Mortuary Temple in the Deir el Bahri complex.

While Hatshepsut was far from an ambitious warrior, she certainly was an ambitious trader. She organized a remarkable expedition to the distant Land of Punt in Northeastern Africa, to obtain goods that were considered a luxury in Egypt.

Loading of Hatshepsut’s ships in the Land of Punt.

The expedition used five ships, specially built for this purpose. Since Egyptians had sailing experience mostly from the Nile River, the ships were not very well suited for sea travel. But they did serve their purpose.

A modern reconstruction of one of Hatshepsut’s ships.

The expedition members were tasked to bring to Egypt not only goods but also whole incense trees and myrrh trees so that they could be grown in Egypt.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The fifth ship

Hatshepsut was also very interested in treatment of skin diseases, and she tasked the expedition leader, Senenmut, to obtain such treatments from the Land of Punt. Especially, she was interested in bringing a large number of any healing plants or trees back to Egypt so that they could be grown there, just like the incense trees and myrrh trees. As the Egyptians learned from Puntian Queen Ati, succulent plants used for such treatments were grown on a large island east of the Land of Punt, presumably what we know as Socotra.

Senenmut decided to send one of the five ships there, with most expedition members remaining in Punt to prepare the shipments and to negotiate the terms of trade. The crew of this fifth ship of Hatshepsut consisted of both Egyptians and Puntians, who were knowledgeable of the local conditions, had seafaring and navigation skills, and were not exhausted by a month-long journey.

It was supposed to be a smooth journey to the island. But an unexpected storm that lasted for many days changed everything. It carried the ship, which was hard to control, far from its planned destination and far from continental Africa. When the storm was over, the sailors were in a desperate situation, and they hoped to reach land by sailing west. But then, on the horizon, in almost the opposite direction, they saw what looked like smoke but possibly could have been just a cloud. They decided to take the risk and row there, with the hope that they would find land.

It was smoke. A massive amount of smoke. Smoke coming from a volcano of the Acalonian archipelago, which the sailors just discovered.

To their surprise, not only did this discovery save their lives, but it also brought them something they certainly would not expect: A few days after reaching the land, they experienced a massive earthquake, which shifted the ground and revealed that the island where they landed had gold deposits.

But at that time, gold was not on the crew’s mind. They were glad the earthquake did not cause any further damages to the ship. And they focused on preparation for what they suspected to be an extremely long journey back to continental Africa.

After careful and tedious preparation, the crew set sail, and with the help of favorable winds and a lot of luck, they managed to get all the way to the African coast. After that, they still needed to row north along the coast to get back to the Land of Punt. They did not navigate there directly from the Acalonian archipelago because they were not sure about their longitude and did not want to take additional risks.

Although the fifth ship of Hatshepsut failed to deliver any plants for skin condition treatments, it did manage to reach the Puntian port before the other four vessels were supposed to leave for Egypt. After necessary repairs, it joined them on the journey.

Acalonia as a country

Of course, people did not forget about the gold discovery and they returned to the Acalonian archipelago to establish a permanent settlement. This included Puntians, some Egyptians, as well as other groups.

Eventually, after a long time, the gold deposits got depleted. This wrecked the local economy and the social system. But something remarkable came out of that: As the economy had to rely more and more on fishing and crafts to sustain itself, power shifted to less wealthy people. Acalonia became a democracy, with what was likely the first parliament in the world. The citizens developed an intricate voting system that ensured that no important societal issues were neglected.

In this new era, all adults had their full rights. All people in need were properly taken care of. Discrimination based on the color of skin was non-existent, as were other types of harmful discrimination. Everyone had the right to be educated in the art of sea navigation, shipbuilding, construction of earthquake-resistant houses, crafts, healing, and other skills highly useful for the country. Thanks to that, Acalonia was able to establish trade routes not just to continental Africa but also to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

But later, mentions of Acalonia in historical sources disappear. What exactly happened, and why the archipelago was, apparently, not found in modern times is anyone's guess.

The ancient Acalonians used rudimentary technology, but socially, they were ahead of us in some respects. We have a lot to learn from them. And if we do, then maybe, the country of Acalonia can come back to life.