"It is not necessarily a claim based solely on location, but one based on ethnicity, the same claim and determinant used in carving up eastern Europe at the end of the Great War. The inhabitants may have been governed by Iberians for centuries, but that does not necessarily make them Iberians. Just as the Czechs or the Slovaks were governed for centuries by the Hapsburgs of Austria, they were of a separate ethnicity than the Austrians and were, after the Great War, given their own state."
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OOC: if we wanted to know what the people thought, we (the players) could always have a vote amongst ourselves. For instance, we decided to do this, and everyone sent a PM to Wes with our vote. The votes after a certain period of time are tallied and that becomes the will of the populace.