>look at ocean topography
>raise up land a few hundred meters
>new world created
They came from the Visigoth kingdoms, fleeing from the muslim invaders in the 8th century, to this large archipelago in the Atlantic, where they settled and largely remained isolated for 800 years or so, typically split in 4-7 clans. Only during the age of exploration did they become part of the world at large again, largely interacting with French colonials, and Ottoman slavers. Their practice of Arianist Christianity, which had become heathen and extinct in the rest of the world centuries ago, created a great deal of friction with European powers. Despite this, they managed to become relatively economically wealthy in acting as a trading post and rest stop for various travellers across the Atlantic. To protect themselves from being dominated by foreign interests, they eventually united under a single flag in the mid 18th century, and undertook a strong unified effort to modernize/industrialize after witnessing the weapons and machines which would be used in the Spanish-American war at the end of the 19th.