Difference between revisions of "Gyre"

Revision as of 09:10, 24 June 2007

Gyre

Flag of Gyre
Motto: Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam
No Map Available
Region	Western Atlantic
Capital	New Albany
Official Language(s)	English
Leader	Premier Astrid Beck
Population	3.67 billion
Currency	USR Pound
NS Sunset XML

The United Socialist Republic of Gyre is a bicameral democratic socialist republic in the South Atlantic, east of Ambara. Economically tied to the Western Atlantic, it is not among the great economic or political powers of the region but there is a general consensus among the population that it is among the most socially advanced, boasting comprehensive policies in welfare, healthcare, and education.

(The nation's in-game statistics don't yet reflect this, but they will!)

History

The Colony: 1503 to 1806

Gyre was first sighted by Europeans in 1503 by the Portugese navigator Tristan da Cunha, who dismissed it as a minor island due to poor visibility and did not land. The discovery of Gyre was left to a German explorer in Portugese employ, Ernst von Gyr, who discovered the island by accident in 1576. Von Gyr, unlike da Cunha, readily recognized the island as a large landmass, believing it to be a northward extension of the mythical Terra Australis. He explored much of the north and west coasts, and then - apparently believing his reward would be greater - he defected to the English with his charts.

England was preoccupied with Vasconia, but readily stationed a Royal Navy squadron in "Von Gyre's Lande" to ward off other colonial interests, and soon discovered that Gyre's Land was not connected to a great southern continent at all. Colonization waited until 1610, when Lord Elliot Tremaine - notorious freethinker, libertine, natural philosopher and minor nobility - petitioned the Crown to establish a colony in the distant territory, to replace lands lost to Nabarro Abarca in Vasconia. The island was divided between Tremaine and fellow nobles Ashton, Ellory, Fletcher, Hargreave, Haughton, Hollinworth, Leigh, Morne, Seele, and Sykes, who pooled their finances to establish a colony at New Albany on the north coast.

For the next hundred years the colony prospered, although at a slower pace than the Vasconian colonies due to its distance from Europe. Increasing colonial interest, however, led to de facto control of the colony being ceded to the British Gyre's Land Company, and the decline of the thirteen Lords to figurehead rulers.

The Republic: 1806 to 1920

Increasing dissatisfaction with British taxation, particularly among the wealthy landholding class, turned to revolution in 1806, when the colonists took the opportunity offered by Britain's war with France to declare independence and ally themselves with the Emperor of the French. The Constitution of the First Gyric Republic, based on classical models, was similar to that of Laneria (which had seceded from Nabarro Abarca in 1775) except that the vote was limited to landholders. This cemented the authority of the colonial magnates, particularly in the frontier which was technically owned by them and to whom the frontiersmen had to pay taxes.

Although wavering between support of France and England during the 19th century, Gyre began to industrialize a few decades after the European nations during the Industrial Revolution, making the Republic's magnates very wealthy in the short term. The Industrial Revolution, however, further concentrated wealth in the hands of the economic elite, at the same time that workers were entering the cities. This led to a large pool of disenfranchised, disempowered workers during the late 19th and early 20th century, which only increased following the First World War when Gyric soldiers returned from the Front to find no work available; and the Russian Revolution of 1917 provided the final impetus for proletarian uprisings in late 1919.

The United Socialist Republic: 1920 to 1969

The United Socialist Republic of Gyre was pronounced in New Albany in 1920. Republican forces retreated to Southport, and held that city until 1926. Lack of civil war following the revolution, as well as the traditionally relatively high level of education of the Gyric population, prevented the establishment of "War Communism" and dictatorship as had happened in Russia; added to this was the fact that the revolution in Gyre, for many of its participants, was about enfranchisement as well as or instead of socialist ideology. The USR, while officially a single-party system under the aegis of the Communist Party, remained far more liberal than the USSR. The rise of reactionary elements within the Party Secretariat, lead by would-be dictator Aaron Valdensson, ended abruptly in 1926 with Valdensson's defenestration by a mob entering the United Peoples' Congress chambers; Gyre remained vociferously democratic within it's single-party system.

Rapidly reaching a level of modernization to rival the great powers of Europe, Gyre entered World War II on the side of the Allied Powers. After the war unfavorable comparisons between Stalin and Valdensson resulted in a cooling of relations between the USR and USSR, although the rise of the Cold War meant that the two nations remained allied against the West. Russian scientists helped their Gyric equivalents to develop nuclear weapons in the late 50s. By the early 60s the Hippie movement was also sweeping Gyre, undermining the Party with its pacifist, internationalist message.

The Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968 caused political turmoil in Gyre; the Communist Party announced that the alliance with the Soviets would be reviewed, but the Secretariat faced a vote of no confidence. More desperate measures to distance the Party from the Russians were to no avail, as in 1969 a faction within the Party, the so-called "New Socialists", usurped the Secretariat, announcing the immediate amendment of the Constitution of 1920 and the reestablishment of multi-party democracy.

The United Socialist Republic: 1969 to present

The elections of 1970 saw the newly formed Social-Democratic Party, established by many of the "New Socialists", establish an uncontested majority government in the Secretariat under Premier Richard Ulwin. Under the Social-Democratic Government the thirteen Lords of Gyre were deemed innocent of complicity in the excesses of the Republican government, and were established in perpetuity as nobility; this establishment did not, however, carry with it any particular powers. During the early 70s many economic reforms took place, reducing direct government control of industry to a few key industries such as power, water, communications and aviation; the resulting economic growth spelled the end of Communist government in the public eye, and during the 80s the state-owned enterprises began to see competition from private investors.

Despite Gyre's political and economic liberalization, however, the Cold War dragged on, and rising tensions in the early 80s led to the construction of a pair of nuclear supercarriers, CVNs USRS Excoriator and USRS Excruciator, and a similar increase in funding to the Army and Air Force. This was reduced post-Glasnost.

During the 90s Gyre came to resemble the liberal democratic socialist states of Europe and Scandinavia more than a Communist remnant; since the bulk of the population are now younger than the Constitution of 1969, this seems unlikely to change.

Politics

Geography

At 1,094,061 square kilometers in area, Gyre is a large nation (a little under twice the area of metropolitan France), most of which is composed of the large subcontinental island of Gyre in the South Atlantic, east of Ambara between 25 and 40 degrees south. It is warmed by the southern extension of the Southern Equatorial Current and possesses a cold but temperate climate, save in the far south where approximately one sixth of the nation is covered in taiga. The landscape ranges from littoral plains and deeply indented bays and river valleys in the west to mountains in the east and south. The south country is intersected by extensive fjords. Snow cover ranges from several months in the north to nearly half the year in the south and the mountainous regions.

Crops grown include wheat, barley, oats, rye, and potatoes, as well as commercial timber plantations, and sheep, llamas, cattle, and dairy cows are farmed.

Natural hazards include avalanches, blizzards, and occasional flooding. Environmental issues include air pollution from vehicles and industry and agricultural runoff.

Natural resources include iron, coal, copper, gold, uranium, fish, timber, and zinc.

Economy

Demographics