Maple Island was discovered on June 14, 1652 by John Edwards. He and many others left the United Kingdom. They were looking for a new adventure and a new way of life. When they discovered the island, they decided to start there own civilization. They named the island after a baby girl that had been born on the ship. John Edwards became a dictator because he felt that he had to lead the group. He made everyone believe and trust in him. The people called them selves the Maplerians. Edwards ruled for fifty hears before he died. When his son, John Edwards Jr., took over in 1702 things got even worse. First, the Maplerians were forced to put there lives on hold and mourn the loss of the great leader. After two weeks John Edwards Jr. declared it was OK to go back to normal life. After this, it really started to get bad, people were punished for things they didn't do and they could not speak out against the government. The people were starting to wish they had just stayed in the U.K. The people held a secret meeting, on May 16, 1702, and decided to start a revolt. The Maplerians began to protest and resist the government. Even though mostly everyone was unhappy, not everyone joined the Maplerians. Another group, called the Edwins, was formed. They were too afraid of the government to revolt, so they stayed loyal to Edwards Jr. After a year of protests and resistance a civil war broke out. The first, and biggest battle, was the Battle of Maple Hill. The Battle of Maple Hill lasted 3 days, starting on July 21, 1703. This battle set the tone for the rest of the war. In this battle alone there were 543 casualties. The war lasted five years, with more casualties than they could count. The last recorded number was 2,320 casualties. In the last battle, the Maplerians defeated the Edwins on September 5, 1708. After a successful sneak attack the Edwins surrendered to the Maplerians. The Maplerians would not have won had it not been for their great general, General Albert Greenburg. After winning the war the Maplerians now had to decide what they wanted the country to be like. They wanted a government that would honor Greenburg without giving him all the power. This is how they decided on a constitutional monarchy. They made Greenburg the king and then elected another great leader General Harry Smith as the prime minister. After about 2 years Maple Island was back on track to becoming a powerful country. In 1710 there population was on the rise and they had a boosting economy. The toll of the civil war made the people declare to never take part in war again. They will not take part in another countries war or battle, under two conditions: 1. it does not directly include their country and 2. it is not affecting the countries economy or their people's well being. For many years Maple Island was neutral and focusing on bettering their country. However, this did not last forever. As Maple Island began to become a powerful country the UK became angry that they had left. They wanted control of the land. The UK's army began to attack Maple Island declaring that they owned it because the people were originally from the UK. The Maplerians tried to negotiate with them because they did not want to go through another war, but the UK was not having anything to do with that so they continued to attack the Maplerians. On April 17,1850 the first battle of the war broke out. It was the longest battle of the war lasting nearly two months. The UK army was so much stronger than the Maplerians. It was a hard fought battle but the UK army crushed the Maple Island army. Thinking this was enough to scare the Maplerians the UK gave them some time to rethink their decision and obey the UK's orders to give up there land to the army. The Maplerians were tired and defeated, but they had the bigger hearts and were not ready to give up. They regrouped and trained and fought hard through the next seven years of the war. In the last battle the UK army surrendered to the Maplerians on October 3, 1857. The UK decided that they could not suffer anymore losses, so they decided to finally leave them alone. Even though they had won this war, it was still a long battle to get the country back on track. They had so much destruction and poverty after the war that people started to leave in search of better lives. The country went through a very bad ten years before their economy and population started to grow again. By the 1870's Maple Island was again back on track. In the 1950's Maple Island faced another setback. During these years chickens and turkeys started dying. People could not figure what was happening, but what they did know was that without the poultry they could not survive. This famine killed more than 20,300 lives and lasted about ten years. After this the chickens and turkeys seemed to get immune to the disease that was killing them and people stopped dying. Life was good on Maple Island and then on August 10, 2004 the Maplerians got hit by Hurricane Charley. The category 4 hurricane destroyed homes and killed many people. It took almost five years to recover and some families are still working to rebuild there lives. The island had to rebuild many structures and they lost millions of dollars in crops. Today Maple Island is doing great and know that whatever comes their way they can get through it.