Ismael Todochev
| Ismael Todochev | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister of the Free State of Haifa | |
| In office 1602 AN – 1609 AN | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Fayiz Sarraj |
| Prince of Walstadt | |
| In office 1602 AN – 1616 AN | |
| Preceded by | Heinrich Blutwasser |
| Succeeded by | Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion |
| Nationality | Haifan |
| Political party | Federation of the Natives |
Ismael Todochev, sometimes recorded as Ishmael, was the founder and first Prime Minister of the Free State of Haifa, holding the office from 1602 AN to 1609 AN, and Prince of Walstadt from 1602 AN to 1616 AN. He proclaimed the republic at Abeis on Lake Morovia in 1602 AN and governed it for its first seven years, holding at their height the premiership and the principality of Walstadt alongside the direction of the republic's largest companies and its army.
Todochev founded Haifa after the Commonwealth of Hamland failed to carry a wider territorial claim onto the map, and he maintained throughout that a union with the Commonwealth was only a matter of timing, not of principle. He committed the new state to neutrality and to the recognition of every Micran nation, purchased the whaling principality of Walstadt to secure Haifa a place on the map, and brought the republic into the SCUE and onto the Ham50. He lost the premiership at a parliamentary election in 1609 AN, served briefly as defense minister under the government that followed, and then withdrew from Haifan politics, keeping the principality of Walstadt until it was traded to Natopia in 1616 AN. Nothing of his later life is recorded, and the republic he had founded dissolved in 1620 AN.
Founding of the Free State
Haifa sought association with the Commonwealth of Hamland before it sought independence, and largely for a commercial reason: access to the Hammish stock market, on which its firms expected to be listed. When the Commonwealth's wider territorial claim failed to win recognition and Haifa could not be carried onto the map inside it, Todochev proclaimed the republic at Abeis in consequence and dated its founding from that proclamation. He held that independence was a matter of timing and that Haifa would rejoin the Commonwealth in due course.
The directives Todochev's Foreign Office issued committed the new state to formal neutrality and to the unconditional recognition of every Micran nation. Within weeks of the proclamation Haifa concluded its first two agreements: the Treaty of Abeis with the Empire of the Alexandrians, which bound each party to treat an attack on the other as an attack on itself, and a treaty of friendship with the Republic of North Antarctica, which guaranteed that republic's neutrality. A treaty with the Republic of Mercury followed, concluded by Todochev as acting Foreign Minister while Benjamin Meir was on leave. The recognition doctrine was tested early by the schism between the Free State of Batavia and the Kingdom of Batavia, over which Todochev argued for recognizing both parties while Meir urged reserve.
The republic's first territorial claim was withdrawn when the quality of its map was rejected; a second, resubmitted with the principality of Walstadt attached as a territory, was accepted, and Haifa entered the map. Accession to the SCUE followed, and Haifan firms were listed on the Ham50, the stock market of Hamland; the republic issued the SCUE credit under its own name as the Lliev.
Prince of Walstadt
Todochev purchased the whaling principality of Walstadt in 1602 AN and assumed the princely title attached to it. Walstadt was an established state at the time of the purchase. It had been founded by whalers from Rossheim-Slavonia-Volksburg eleven years earlier and raised to a principality the year after, and it had already lost a prince to violence: Elijah Ayreon was put to death at Mandible Hill and succeeded by Sisera, from whose successor Heinrich Blutwasser Todochev bought the throne.
Attached to Haifa, Walstadt became one of the republic's six regions and returned 47,927 inhabitants on the Haifan regional returns, the second most populous of Haifa's holdings before the annexation of North Antarctica. It was a whaling nation, and the Walstadt Whalers, one of the republic's principal companies, brought that industry into the Haifan economy. Todochev held the principality through his premiership and beyond it, and remained its prince after he had left Haifan office. He surrendered it fourteen years after the purchase: the Treaty of St. Andre of 1616 AN, the principal act of the ministry of Benjamin Meir, passed Walstadt to the Natopian crown in exchange for the port city of Port St. Andre. The principality went to Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion, the adopted son of the prince who had died at Mandible Hill.
Premiership
Todochev led the republic through its first seven years at the head of the Federation of the Natives, a party that later merged into the Haifan Democratic Party. In 1605 AN the republic held its first contested prime-ministerial election, a poll of only five votes cast in a state Todochev had himself described as having few citizens: he took three, against one each for Erlo Sinders and Tamer Paladino, and was returned for a second term.
By that time Todochev held five offices at once: the premiership, the principality of Walstadt, the chief executive's office at the Fenkel Shipping Co., the post of chief advisor to the Haifa Diamond Company, the republic's largest firm, and command of the army as its commanding general. Under his government Parliament annexed the Republic of the North Antarctic Peninsular Islands under the Unification Act in 1608 AN, carrying with it the autonomous region of Afrikaana and some nine million inhabitants against about a hundred thousand in Haifa proper, so that after 1608 AN more than ninety-eight percent of the republic's recorded population lay in the annexed territory while the seat of government remained at Abeis.
Loss of office and withdrawal
A parliamentary election early in 1609 AN returned a Social Democratic majority and cost Todochev the premiership. Fayiz Sarraj of the Social Democratic Party formed the next government and resigned within weeks, and Erlo Sinders took the office after him on an interim basis. Todochev accepted the defense ministry under the new government and then withdrew from Haifan politics altogether. He remained Prince of Walstadt until the principality was transferred to Natopia in 1616 AN.
Nothing of Todochev's life after the defense ministry is recorded. A house at Abeis was built bearing his name after his disappearance, and a great-nephew of his was among the founders of the Maritime Markets of the Strait of Haifa. The republic he had founded lost its holdings one by one over the years that followed and concluded the Agreement of Dissolution in 1620 AN, partitioning what remained between the Commonwealth of Hamland, Passio-Corum, and the Most Serene Republic of St. Andre.
See also
| Preceded by: Office established |
Prime Minister of the Free State of Haifa 1602 AN-1609 AN |
Succeeded by Fayiz Sarraj |
| Preceded by: Heinrich Blutwasser |
Prince of Walstadt 1602 AN-1616 AN |
Succeeded by Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion |
