The Republic of Animals
Original flag before it was abolished
Motto: Four legs good, two legs bad
Anthem:  Beasts of England
Capital	Animal Farm
Official languages	Animalish
Religion	Sugarcandy Mountain
Government	Unitary One-Party Animalist
• Our leader, Comrade	Napoleon
Legislature	Council of Pigs

The Republic of Animals is a fictional country established in George Orwell's 1945 novel, Animal Farm. The republic was founded after a revolution on Manor Farm leading to the banishment of Mr. Jones from the farm. The first Republic of Animals was founded as a Two-Party Republic centered on assemblies. The first republic only lasted for a short amount of time before Comrade Napoleon seized power and exiled the leader of the opposition, Snowball, and established a one-party dictatorship.

Background

The republic is initially dreamed of by Old Major, a character based off of Karl Marx, in which he dreams of an overthrow of Manor Farm and self rule for the animals. ^[1] These ideas were fueled by discontent with the current system at the farm and resentment of humans. ^[2] After explaining his dream Old Major taught them a song called Beasts of England which increased support and fervor for his ideas. ^[3] This ideology was named Animalism and was finalized by Comrades Snowball and Napoleon. ^[4]

Revolution

After Old Major died, Mr. Jones forgot feed the animals, causing an uprising. ^[5] Jones and his men hurried to suppress the revolt but the ill-equipped men were incapable of fending off the angry animals and after their defeat the humans fled the farm. ^[6]

Early Stages of The Republic

The morning after the revolution, Snowball and Napoleon laid out the Seven Commandments which were laws to be followed by all the animals. ^[7] The animals adapted quickly to the use of tools for farming they farmed efficiently and each worked as much as they could as best as they could. ^[8] The animals lived relaxed lives and had no work on Sundays, where they would raise the flag Snowball had recently designed and would sing the national anthem. Also on Sundays there would be assemblies where animals could debate and contribute to future decisions, although most of it was done by the pigs. ^[9] The surrounding farms were unhappy with the sudden change at Manor farm and launched an attack on the farm. ^[10] The battle was a decisive win as Snowball proved to be an adept tactician as he led the charge and outmaneuvered the attackers. ^[11] The battle was a decisive victory for the animals andwas dubbed the Battle of the Cowshed. Military decorations were given to those who acted courageously, Boxer and Snowball were awarded Animal Hero 1st Class and 2nd Class was awarded to the sheep who died in the fighting. ^[12] After the battle it soon became apparent that there was a divide in belief of the animals with support split between Napoleon and Snowball. ^[13] While Snowball was making a speech about his upcoming Windmill project Napoleon attempted an assassination by sending dogs after him, but Snowball was able to escape the farm. ^[14]

Napoleon's Republic

After Napoleon's assassination attempt on Snowball he seized power. Napoleon had absolute power and banned assemblies making the farm only a republic in name. ^[15] Napoleon soon after declared that Snowball's windmill project would go through, a project that he had past condemned, and he claimed the idea as his own. ^[16] Under Napoleon the animals were given harder labor and longer hours, but they still had high morale believing their work was for the benefit of the republic. ^[17] Napoleon also established trade relations with other farms with a human named Mr. Whymper as the middleman. ^[18] The ruling party altered the seven commandments to make it legal for them to live in the house, which was a luxury that only the pigs would receive. ^[19] The windmill project was destroyed in a bad storm, which was blamed on Snowball, this led to a lack of grain on the farm. ^{[20] [21]} Napoleon decided to start trading the hens eggs, the hens broke their eggs in protest so that he couldn't take them, Napoleon retaliated by starving nine hens to death. ^[22] Napoleon manipulated the animals with propaganda, spreading rumors about Snowball stealing from the farm at night and it was declared that he had been working with Jones since the beginning. ^[23]

Reign of Terror

Napoleon started a reign of terror with mass executions of animals that were accused or had forced confession to be traitors. ^[24] This would have been a violation under the original seven commandments but the pigs had secretly altered them before making this legal. ^[25] Soon after the national anthem "Beasts of England" was banished and replaced by "Animal Farm!" as it was deemed a song of the rebellion. ^[26] This anthem was also soon discarded and a new anthem which praised Napoleon was adopted called " Comrade Napoleon." ^[27]

Mr. Frederick, a neighboring farmer, attacked the farm, and used blasting powder to blow up the restored windmill. Although the animals won the battle, they do so at great cost, as many were wounded and the windmill was destroyed. One of the animals injured in the battle, Boxer, eventually collapsed while working on the windmill (being almost 12 years old at that point). He was taken away in a knacker's van, and a donkey called Benjamin alerted the animals of this, but one of the pigs named Squealer quickly waved off their alarm by persuading the animals that the van had been purchased from the knacker by an animal hospital and that the previous owner's signboard had not been repainted. Squealer subsequently reported Boxer's death and honored him with a festival the following day. However, Napoleon had in fact engineered the sale of Boxer to the knacker, allowing him and his inner circle to acquire money to buy whisky for themselves.

Rebirth of Manor Farm

Many years passed. Most of the animals that took part in overthrowing Mr. Jones had died, and few remembered the days before the revolution. Mr. Jones himself died in rehabilitation. The windmill was finally completed, but rather than provide electricity for the farm, it was only used to grind corn. The pigs and dogs lived in comfort while the rest of the farm continued to live in dismal conditions, in spite of the farm's prosperity. In time, the pigs fully embraced the lifestyle of man; wearing clothes, walking on two legs, drinking alcohol and carrying whips. The consolidation of their power was completed with the Seven Commandments of the farm condensed to only one commandment:

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

At the same time, the maxim "Four legs good, two legs bad!" is changed to "Four legs good, two legs better!"

The pigs eventually entered into talks with the local farmers about an alliance, during which the farmers praised Napoleon for getting the animals he reigned over to work more for less food as Napoleon declared that his animals would no longer speak of Old Major, no longer engage in the ceremonial customs they had in the days following the revolution, and would revert the name of Animal Farm back to "Manor Farm". During a game of cards, however, a brawl broke out between the pigs and the farmers as the animals watching them come to the sobering conclusion that they could no longer tell the difference between man or pig.

References