Thought it would be fun to try and come up with a history for a fictional country, so this is a guess of what Bialyan and Quraci history might be.
I do not own DC Comics or YJ. The image is by Jerome-K-Moore on Deviant Art.
Located between Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea in Eastern Africa, the Kingdom of Bialya's and Republic of Qurac's histories have been intertwined since decolonization. Having been responsible for each others coup's, great power realignments, and economic miracles and catastrophes; these could possible be the most intertwined countries on Earth.
Before World War II, the British governed Bialya and Qurac as part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan alongside modern Sudan and South Sudan. However, the African front in World War II forced the British to give greater autonomous control to the old monarchies and tribal groups in Eastern Africa to send greater resources to secure North Africa. This new autonomy led to the creation of large para-militias whose loyalty to the British Empire was as large as the Italian presence in Africa.
After the war, and the end of Italian presence in Africa, the Quraci militias demanded the end of British occupation. These militias formed the Republic of Quarc in 1950, only to be blockaded by the British Empire and no nation recognized the new country out of respect to British Empire or fear that recognizing partial countries would inspire the European powers to cut up their former colonies to their liking (ie. create intentionally weak states that they could dominate). The British Empire would have invaded, but lack of communist elements and a difficult terrain made British strategic planners value other conflicts, reducing their effort to a mere blockade.
The Bialyan monarchy sided with the British during the early part of the Blockade, fearful that the Republic would attempt to dethrone them and annex their territory if the British left on chaotic terms. This would change with the Egyptian revolution of 1952. Having watched their fellow monarchy be dethroned by communist sympathizers in Egypt, with what was perceived as minimal push back by the Western nations, the Monarchy began to experience existential worries.
In 1953, before the official plans for the decolonization of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was announced the Bialyan Monarchy announced independence, backed by Ethopia (bordering the new Bialya via Eritrea) who wanted a reliable ally to border their new territory.
This receives minimal push back by the British, who would recognize the new countries in 1955 after announcing their plans to leave Sudan, when Bialya offered to set up military facilities for the British and Americans on the Red Sea. By the end of the year normal relations were established between Bialya, Qurac, and Sudan. This would not last long though.
Attempts by Quarc to develop irrigation and dams alongside tributaries of the Nile river to improve agricultural output and electricity generation opened claims that it was trying to block Bialya's share of the Nile. This coincided with a unrelated famine in 1959, which Bialyans blamed on the construction of the Dhabar dam named after the capital. While this dam alone could not alone explain the famine, the construction of other projects would reduce the per capita water of Bialya to 50% of what it had at independence.
In response the Biayans blockaded the country in 1961, a major move against landlocked Qurac. Ethiopia was the only country to explicitly back the move. Though this damaged both sides as the oil revenue sharing agreement the countries reached five years earlier made up 50% of each countries budget. This brought an economic crisis to both countries that would entangle them in the Cold War. Bialya received aid from Western nations while Quarc received aid from the Soviet Union and PRC via Sudan, which chose not to blockade the country. Neutral Sudan initially refused to allow arms to pass through the country, until 1962 after France sold weapons to Bialya (which would later establish a French naval base) the Soviets supplied 100 tanks to Qurac.
The ensuing unrest would result in a coup by the Quraci military during the winter of 1962. They would establish the Quraci National Front as the only legal political party in Qurac and see opposition groups flee the country as a wave of repression killed thousands as the Junta solidified its control over the country.
Despite attempts to reach create a route for oil through Sudan, nobody would fund the project. The World Bank vetoed attempts on behalf of the US (whose military base in Bialya would operate through out the Cold War) and the Soviet Union wanted a military base at any port they created, something that Sudan feared would drag them into the Cold War. Qurac and Bialya reached an agreement in 1964 when it became clear there was no other option. This led to an shaky truce where future water development could not occur without both sides proving.
The truce ultimately broke when the Cold War in East Africa went into full swing. Egypt fully sides with the Soviets after the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict while Sudan and Somalia would have Marxist coups in 1969, setting up a pro-American Ethiopia, Bialya, and Djibouti (part of France until 1977) against pro-Soviet Sudan, Somalia, and Qurac in Eastern Africa.
Starting in 1970, the main republican opposition to the Bialyan monarchy started being based in Qurac and Sudan while anti-communist groups from Qurac were based in Bialya and Ethiopia. This led to the Quraci-Bialyan border becoming the most militarized in Africa, with thousands of Quraci and Bialyan people being killed through these border wars.
The Bialyan royal family experienced an existential crisis when the Derg abolished the monarchy in Ethiopia and established a Marxist government. The Derg continued the alliances of the Empire of Ethiopia, but the Marxist rhetoric would unease the Bialyan's who would seek closer alliances with the other Arab monarchies.
The uneven status quo would break in 1977 when Somalia invaded Ethiopia's Ogaden Plateau. While denouncing the ongoing Somali invasion of Ethiopia, Bialya took the opportunity to reaffirm its relationship with Ethiopia by invading Qurac to eliminate anti-Ethiopian forces.
When Ethiopia reclaimed it's territory with Soviet and Cuban help Bialya had occupied two-thirds of Qurac's border with Ethiopia, isolating Ethiopia from the threat of militias on its western front but resulting in Western sanctions. A ceasefire agreement was reached by the UN in shortly after the end of the Ogaden War.
This invasion undermined the Quraci's Junta's legitimacy. Having lost control of territory and 10% of its population which the Bialyan's were considering to annex, alongside a new blockade that resulted in hyper-inflation, a wave of protests calling for democracy hit the country from 1978-1982. Despite violent attempts by the Junta to crack down on call's for political liberalization, the protests successfully created a new parliament.
Newly elected Prime Minister Abdul Harjavti would over see the Truth and Justice Commission which prosecuted members of the military for crimes committed during the Junta-era. The prosecution of key Generals almost resulted in a coup in 1984, narrowly avoided because of popular protesters protected the Prime Minister. This would result in calls for a new Constitution which was adopted in 1986 changing the military, political, and economic structure of the country.
These successes in political and economic liberalization would endear it to democratic nations, allowing for an international case to pressure Bialya to end it's occupation of Qurac on the condition that Qurac will not rearm in 1988.
This new reconciliation agreement would allow both sides to focus on internal development between 1989 and 1994 when the external pressures would have the two former adversaries team-up alongside Ethiopia and newly independent Eritrea to intervene in Sudan after that country's recognized government started to fund groups that undermined their governments.
This intervention into the Second Sudanese civil war initially helped establish a buffer zone between the countries and Sudan to keep out militias and refugees, the effort was heavily reliant on Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Thus when war broke out between those two countries in 1998, the Quarci and Bialyan armies remilitarized beyond the 1988 agreement to deal with violence in Sudan. Unfortunately their mutual enemy was not viewed as their most powerful one. Sudan's other adversaries (the US, Uganada, Ethiopia, ect.) could deal with them, as well as the lack of centrality in Sudan led to it being viewed less as an organized threat than a lawless zone to mitigate. The real threat was from the other nation.
The monarchy in Bialya did not trust the links Qurac had formed with Republican groups and considered the free speech in Qurac to be an "insufficient" for allowing civil society group to operate there.
Meanwhile Quarc disliked having to rely on Bialya for international shipping, but the alternatives were crossing Eritrea through Ethiopia which was now the most militarized border in Africa, a more expensive route to Dijbouti, or an unstable Sudan to get to the Red Sea.
This culminated in the 2001-2006 border standoff after the bombing of Bialyan barracks by a still unknown group. Bialya blamed Qurac and moved 20,000 troops which was followed by Qurac moving 10,000 troops and realigning itself closer with the Americans and Ethiopians. In the midst of this standoff allowed for the 2003 abdication and crowning of Queen Bee.
While the detail remain muddy, in 2003 to shock of observers the King of Bialya abdicated after decreeing equal rights in succession. While the government received great criticism for its handling of the crisis's economic effects, there was not widespread calls for the fall of the King. The new succession system also created a matrilineal line of succession that brought the previously obscure daughter of a regional governor into the limelight. Nobody expected the power brokers in the capital to take this quietly, but the new Queen stung hard.
In a short but vast purge of businessmen, government officials, journalists, religious leaders, and activists, opposition to her rule appeared to disappear. While some of them reappeared as pro-government supporters or into exile (the dual nationals mainly), most are assumed to be dead.
This most shocking aspects of Queen Bee's new rule was not domestic but international. Queen Bee claimed Qurac as part of Bialya via pre-colonial maps. This escalated the border standoff which saw Qurac reintroduce conscription, a quite unpopular move in the country, to counter the growing threat. In response to UN sanctions placed on the country Queen Bee pulled Bialya from the United Nations.
This defiant Bialya defines the country now, despite the border deescalation talks of 2005 sponsored by the African Union resulting in demobilization in 2006. Bialya has achieved state of the art weaponry in advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, plasma weaponry, and super-human warfare despite UN sanctions.
The Quraci state has responded by forming the "Spiked Desert" Strategy. It's turned lower levels of administrations into well-functioning para-militia forces similar to those that drove the Italians out of their country during World War II. The idea being to defeat Bialya by bleeding them to death after invasion rather than trying to stop one because of the weapons gap between the two states.
There is not much hope for deescalation as Queen Bee seems determined to turn 'Greater Bialya' into a new power on the world stage. Her speeches on Bialyan history makes her reluctant to deescalate threats, viewing agreements and alliances as unreliable and not serving the interests of her country and by extension her.
For now thou the only thing holding her back appears to be her isolation. With no major power or the United Nations seeking to reintegrate her into the world after the border debacle, she seems to have determined that its best to stay on the periphery of the international community's agenda.
However, should a great power or international institution normalize her, it will not bode well for the Quraci people. Then powers such as Britian, the US, Russia, and Ethiopia that once abandoned the country will be faced with a new dilemma in Eastern Africa.
Some notes on how I came up with this fictional history:
This was inspired by the channel CaspianReport on Youtube. If you found some of the concepts in here like Arab, East African, or water politics I would recommend checking out their channel. Especially the Renaissance Damn and Somali war videos that inspired this piece. Also you might have just been tricked into learning some stuff about East African modern-history.
I'll admit some of the history I gave here might be questionable, like the British just ignoring a colony's rebellion or how far the Italians got into Sudan in World War II, but hey I'm trying to invent a new country. I tried to keep it as realistic to what happened as possible but I might have to stretch it in some places.
Some of you are probably wondering why Quarc and Bialya are in East Africa rather than the Middle East or North Africa. Greg Wiesman has said that Qurac and Bialya are in Africa and Quarc is shown to have animals found bellow the Sahara and Bialya is in a large Sahara-like desert. Given that the people of these countries are Arab that only leaves the Sudan and its eastern border because the other countries that straddle this line between the Green and Sahara of Africa are predominately sub-Saharan African (black). It also has to be in east rather than west Africa because of widespread English seen in the show. West Africa is predominately Francophone so I eliminated that region.
I'm not sure if it's just that the show doesn't show a more multi-ethic country but neither Qurac or Bialya appear to have large black populations. It could be that the cities we saw were predominately Arab and southern cities are black but I don't have evidence for that. Maybe the border between Qurac and Bialya and Ethiopia and Eritrea falls along ethnic lines? I personally think there is a third country that has the ethnic mix, but thats speculation.
Generally speaking I tried to give these countries a history of rivalry as well as cementing them as small powers reliant on larger players like Ethiopia, the United States, and the Soviet Union because they drive Queen Bee's Geo-political ambitions which is a mixture of pride and self-sufficiency.
It was really fun writing the history of a fiction country, please tell me what you think!