One Continent, One Suzerain



The One Continent, One Suzerain (Zhenian: 일주일제/一洲一帝), alternately translated as the One Continent, One Empire scheme, was a scheme for international geopolitics in the late 15th and early 16th centuries proposed by Huang Chanyeol and adopted by the Imperial Zhenian Government and later the Zhenian First Republic in the same period. It was first suggested on Huang's thesis in 1440, a paper that discussed the assessment of international geopolitics in the 14th and 15th centuries to justify the rise of regional orders centered around a single suzerain within a region. It primarily stated that a peaceful world would be accomplished through the existence and cooperation of multiple suzerains and international organizations led by them in each continent or region. It became the fundamental of Zhenia's foreign policy well through the 15th and 16th centuries AC, and became the philosophical base behind the creation of the Daedo Treaty Organization.

Huang Chanyeol, a professor of and  at the Imperial University of Daedo, was asked directly by Emperor Seongjo in 1438 AC to submit a thesis regarding the future of Zhenia's status in the international stage. The paper containing the scheme, titled "Reviewing and Prospecting the International Status of the Empire - an analysis on the Wars of Zhenian Unification and the One Continent, One Suzerain scheme", was released within the Imperial Journal of Geopolitics in 1440 AC. In the paper including the scheme, Huang had clarified that the scheme itself has taken significant inspiration from the existence of the ancient Zhenian feudal system consisting of a chief suzerain state and surrounding vassal states, although the ancient feudal system has been "modified to cater to the needs of modern geopolitics". While it is internationally recognized as 'a suzerain or emperor on one continent', the term 'continent' is interpreted not in the geographical sense in the word, but more in cultural and ethnic contexts, while 'suzerain' or 'emperor' can be translated to a meaning closer to 'regional power' rather than an actual monarch. It is, however, speculated that Huang intentionally phrased the scheme as 'One Continent, One Emperor' to reflect his beliefs against a parliamentary system.

The scheme, upon being published in Huang's papers, was received positively by the upper echelons of the Empire of Zhenia, to the point Emperor Seongjo mentioned the scheme in the speech entailing the Shinzhen Doctrine, mentioning the scheme as "the Zhenian answer as the legitimate suzerain of the Tarsis-Hanmaric region". It was used by imperial Zhenia as a means to justify its presence in the region, while also disproving the Southern Zhu dynasty as the legitimate suzerain of the region but instead promoting Zhenia at the place. Alongside the Shinzhen Doctrine and the Amasar Ren Doctrine, it became one of the three pillars of Zhenia's foreign policy until the end of the Second Great War. Following the end of the Second Great War, however, the scheme was reinterpreted in terms of multilateralism and peaceful coexistence among international powers by Zhenian intellectuals, lawyers and politicians.