r/TeenGovernment was founded in late November 2025 as a Reddit-based political simulation subreddit where teenagers could roleplay running a democratic government, and it hit the ground running in a chaotic, wonderfully earnest way. The sub launched with almost no rules or structure — just a mod post explaining how to run for council — and within hours dozens of users were posting candidacy announcements, many of which were hilariously informal ("Runnin 4 Cumcil an dat," "I am running for office as Freddy Fazbear," and one memorable post simply titled "im representing Africa" which became the highest-scored candidacy post of the entire founding election with 51 upvotes). The first council election closed on November 29, 2025, with a massive 48-comment mod announcement listing candidates, and early political parties began forming almost immediately — most notably the Social Liberal Party, which became one of the most organized and enduring factions, along with a short-lived Anti-France party. Exit polls were posted daily during voting, users published the very first edition of "Teenews" (a community newspaper), and the sub elected its founding council on December 1, 2025, with romancecanpartner leading the vote count at 16, followed by Bialy, Gold, SomWan, Due_Job, GAAABE, and Equinox. The custom user flairs bill was among the first and most popular pieces of legislation to pass (scoring 30 upvotes), and a Human Rights Bill and early anti-AI law also passed in the sub's first weeks. Almost immediately after the first council seated itself, calls emerged for a proper constitution — a "Bill of Rights and Constitution" proposition was submitted within days of the sub's founding — kicking off months of ongoing constitutional drama. Through December 2025, the subreddit's political life exploded: a United Socialist Front (USF) formed, the Degenerate Party emerged as a chaotic satirical faction, and the Red Dot Party appeared and was almost immediately accused of being far-right and fascist, triggering the sub's first declared war in mid-December 2025 when multiple parties (VEES, the Anarchists, the Social Liberals) united against them — a conflict generating dozens of posts with titles like "RISE AGAINST THE RED DOT PARTY! DONT LET THEM CONTROL YOU! RESIST" and "ALL V.E.E.S party members listen up: WE ARE GOING TO WAR." The war fizzled relatively quickly as a satirical/political gesture, but it established "party wars" as a recurring feature of sub culture. December 2025 also saw the rise of u/RbeornArc — a self-described Mussolini fan and neo-fascist who became the sub's most notorious villain, accused of doxxing and espionage, eventually banned but continuing to antagonize the sub from the outside for months. Meanwhile, the council member u/Due_Job became the first major internal scandal: on December 20, 2025 — later commemorated as the "December 20th Mass Bans" — Due_Job, who was both a council member and a mod, added RbeornArc to the council group chat and then went on a banning spree targeting users who criticized him, prompting his impeachment from council and a "War on Will" (named after the banned users), with the sister subreddit r/TeenNews briefly serving as a refuge for the banned. Due_Job was permabanned on December 22, then somehow permabanned again on December 24 ("DUEJOB HAS BEEN PERMABANNED FROM THE SERVER! (Again)"), becoming a recurring cautionary tale cited throughout the sub's history. A first draft constitution had been circulating since late November, a second was debated throughout December, and on January 2, 2026, the third and final draft was ratified by council — establishing a Teen Bill of Rights, a council system, a presidential role, judicial branch, and party regulations. The first properly structured presidential election then got underway in late December 2025/early January 2026, with u/SomWanOnTheInternet (abbreviated "SomWan") winning and becoming the sub's first official elected president, though the presidency under them was marked by multiple states of emergency, the sub's first announced "funeral" for a banned user (Jazz/Gfalls_j4zz, eulogized in a genuinely touching post on January 2, 2026), and ongoing party chaos including the formation of the anonymous political grievance outlet "The Anon. Papers" in mid-January 2026 — a recurring publication that ran for months and became one of the sub's most beloved and speculated-about institutions, with users endlessly debating who the anonymous author was (the mystery was finally revealed in March 2026, with many guessing Bob-The15th). January 2026 also saw council member u/BialyFromHell impeached for inactivity, the Federalist Party briefly declaring war on the Social Liberals (which was quickly resolved), and a second war involving VEES and VICE. SomWan resigned the presidency in early February 2026, citing upcoming exams, and the title passed to runner-up u/Bob-The15th, who had also co-authored both the second and revised constitutions. Bob's presidency was active and legislative-reform-focused, but was itself soon plagued by a constitutional crisis in February 2026 (a disputed clause about spying/alts), a series of RbeornArc-related incidents (Arc kept getting banned from the Discord, editing the wiki to spread misinformation, and making posts on 4chan about the sub), and the ban and subsequent partial reinstatement of u/Und_More. By mid-February 2026, a moderator shortage hit — multiple mods stepped back or were removed, and u/Dry_Editor_785 was eventually elevated to the mod team. A revised-revised constitution was being written collaboratively by Bob, Due_Camel, Dizzy, and others throughout late January and February, officially ratified January 25, 2026. The sub also developed elaborate game-like features during this period: a world map (with users voting on which real-world territory to "claim"), an economy system, foreign relations with other subreddits (notably the DoR — "Declaration of Republic" — which caused a minor diplomatic incident by banning any mention of TeenGovernment), a wiki, a Ministry of Mental Health, chess games, and even a "game night." In March 2026, Bob declared multiple states of emergency over the sub's declining activity and member retention, launching aggressive outreach campaigns that brought waves of new members, and the sub held another election cycle — results posted March 1, 2026, with Dizzy, Kooky, British, Frein, and Magma winning council seats and Bob and MinecraftGuy7401 winning president and vice president respectively. RbeornArc's trial(s) dominated March and early April 2026, going through multiple re-trials, procedural invalidations, and dramatic courtroom no-shows, with Arc eventually found guilty of framing another user. The Vice President u/MinecraftGuy7401 was permabanned from Reddit itself in late March 2026 for comments in another subreddit. A fourth election cycle launched in late March 2026, amidst yet another presidential state of emergency over election minister inactivity. By April 1, 2026 — the very last day of the dataset — a revised-revised-revised constitution was being finalized, the sub was actively debating party formation rules, several longtime members posted emotional goodbyes (including one rage-quit and one genuinely sweet farewell), and the community remained as chaotic, earnest, dramatic, and alive as ever — a genuinely remarkable experiment in teenage self-governance that managed, over the course of roughly four months, to invent wars, impeachments, spy scandals, constitutions, court trials, diplomatic crises, newspapers, economies, and a surprising number of heartfelt moments, all while the participants were doing homework.