A series of entries on the evolution of Oceanykan political thought beginning with the rise and fall of Anarcho-Capitalism.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an intellectual current arose in the United States of America as an evolution in classical liberalism; the individualist anarchists, different from their European counterparts in practically every imaginable way. This current of thought proved more popular in the nascent Oceanykan Federation, which held close the core ideas of the Whig traditions, and had not yet found a suitable model with which to rule over such a unique society. Over the years, these ideas were supplemented by Ludwig von Mises' Austrian School of Economics, which rejected any studies of economics but individual interactions, and whose adherence to laissez-faire politics was almost doctrinal. These ideas spread like wildfire throughout the Oceanykan Council as a means to develop the nation without necessarily creating a true State. At the ballot box of the 1930 Federal Elections, the infamous Constitutional Party gained 50.2% of the vote by absorbing the smaller, but influential Ego-Anarchist Party. From 1930 to 1938 Oceanyka is characterised by an enormous growth in GDP, but also inequality and criminality. Eight years after being elected, the Constitutional Party becomes entangled in the bloody conflict known as the Oceanykan Civil War, stemming partly from its own governance. However, its capability to organise large numbers of private arms manufacturers and a large volunteer army, both in line with the Party's laissez-faire principles (demonstrated as workable by the United States in World War II), were instrumental in its victory.
During this conflict, in 1943, American author Ayn Rand published a novel titled The Fountainhead in which she describes the merits of the individual against collectivism and the State. She was invited to the Oceanykan Council to deliver a speech, in which she described the merits of her new philosophy of Objectivism, for which she was invited at further speeches and press conferences, organised mainly by the Constitutional Party. Within this institution there was a subfaction known as the Australian Anarcho-Capitalists which were instrumental in guiding policy, especially post-war. With Oceanyka ready for reconstruction, its armies were quietly demobilised, and business returned as usual. The nation's industrial and agricultural sectors achieved previously unheard of scales and productivities, at the cost of continued abuses and horrendous labour conditions. Their apathy towards the Federation did not go unnoticed, and the growth of Anarcho-Capitalist influence is parallel to the rise of large-scale corruption and the dismantling of state institutions within the government, as well as to an increase in the power and influence of armed corporations and regional states. In 1957, Ayn Rand's second hit Atlas Shrugged in which her words from ten years prior are echoed became enormously influential within the Council. The next year, President Thomas Badfellow, a leading figure within the Anarcho-Capitalists, was elected as President of the Oceanykan Federation.
However, the limitations of private enterprise were exposed in two decisive international conflicts; the New Caledonian War and the German Raid on Farenday, in which federal levies were unable to respond to an attack by a well organised hostile state. Following defeat in both of these conflicts, foreign influence began to flood Oceanyka; scathing critiques at the United Nations, armed expeditions around the clock, free navigation operations across the Indian and Pacific oceans, and even some hostile takeovers from foreign corporations of Oceanykan enterprises. With unrest boiling, newspapers within Oceanyka began to publish what private security agencies had made them shush before, exposing the system's faults to a wide audience, while trade unions organised general strikes and outright armed rebellions. The Badfellow presidency's lacklustre response led to his execution and the events known as the Oceanykan Revolution.
The story of Australian Anarcho-Capitalism is parallel to that of Australian Federalist Socialism and Rise of the Oceanykan People's Party.