Difference between revisions of "Hogs Head"

Revision as of 23:39, 7 April 2005

Hogs Head

Flag of Hogs Head
Motto: "Oink! Oink, snort... Oink!"
No Map Available Yet
Region	Almost Off Topic Tropics
Capital	Pig City
Official Language(s)	English, Boarish.
Leader	PM Hoggy
Population	2.5 billion (as of 2005 census)
Currency	Tusk
NS Sunset XML

Factbook

Government

• Government Type: Democracy
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Hogg Alberto HOGGY
• Head of State: Symbolically vacant since impeachment of President Phil Bass in 1822 A.D.
• Conventional Long Form: Parliamentary Republic of Hogs Head
• Conventional Short Form: Hogs Head

People

• Population: 2,575,000,000 (2005 Census)
• Population Growth Rate: 0.25%
• Nation Age: 310 Years
• Literacy: 89.75%
• Age of Consent: 17
• Suffrage: Universal at 18, Convicted felons are not permitted to vote while incarcerated.

Telephone system

• Telephones:
  • 40,552,357 miles of underground cable
  • 318 million cellular phones (based on official sales)
• General assessment: a large, technologically advanced, multipurpose communications system
• Domestic: a large system of fiber-optic cable, microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, and domestic *satellites carries every form of telephone traffic; a rapidly growing cellular system carries *mobile telephone traffic throughout the country
• International: country code - 45; 64 terabit ocean cable systems in use; 128 terabit land cable *systems in use; satellite earth stations - 61 Intelsat (47 over Pig City and 16 over other areas), 5 *Netsats (Wilbur region), and 4 Telesat

Radio broadcast stations:

• AM: 16,322
• FM: 12,842,
• Shortwave: 189

Television broadcast stations:

• Five state-owned (HHC1, HHC2, HHC3, Channel Six, and Parliament TV)
• Three commercial (HTV, XYZ, and PIG) – each station has ten main affiliates
• Three main 24-hour news (ZNN, HogNews, and MSPIG)

Note: Budgets of state-owned television stations are paid through a 25% government subsidy plus television license fees. Privately-owned stations are funded through advertising fees. The three news channels are funded partly by the Hogs Head News Information Act (33%), the Parliamentary Media Liason Committee (22%), and commercial advertising fees (45%)

Internet

• Internet country code: .hh
• Internet hosts: 315,000
• Internet users: 90.2 million

History

Hogs Head Colony

Hogs Head was founded by a band of 500 hardy families fleeing political and religious persecution from a across the Great Inland Sea. The Founding Families were led by Silas Hogger; great-great-great grandfather of the current Prime Minister. Upon arrival on the shores of the previously unexplored lands, the first settlers gathered in the shadow of Boar's Peak and gave thanks to the Divine Snout. Thus, Pigtown, the first settlement on the mainland was founded.

The first ten years for the early settlers were harsh ones. Starvation, disease, short-lived (yet bloody) family feuds, fear of the unknown, all of this claimed many lives. The first decade of the Pigtown settlement focused on survival, not independence. After 15 years, the Empire of Antioch sent their own "official settlers" to claim the peninsula for the Crown of Antioch. Thus, Hogs Colony was able to grow and flourish. On the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Hogs Head colony, four province-cities had been founded: Pigtown, Boar's Head, Wilburville, and Snowball. Despite the fact that Hogs Colony was under the authority of Antioch, it was self-sustaining. Ships laden with timber, precious metals, and grain left Snout Harbour on a weekly basis, returning with farming tools for the colony's wealthy landowners to cultivate their property.

The establishment of Hogs Head Colony's first colony-wide legislative body, the College of Colonial Affairs hoped to quell the growing call for independence by the middle- and working-classes by giving the colony some semblance of independence on its centennial. In theory, the College gave the colonists autonomy over the day-to-day decisions in ruling the colony; led by a Crown-appointed Lord Governor. Unfortunately, given the strict requirements for candidacy (and suffrage), this was viewed as a means to grant the colonial aristocracy with even more power. The calls for independence grew louder, and even reached the debate chamber of the College itself! As Hogs Colony was the most profitable of all of Antioch's protectorates, Emperor Józef V did not want to give up any of his centuries-old kingdom. In response to the three-hour speech by Delegate M'Shell of Wilburville, Józef V ordered the dissolution of the College of Colonial Affairs and declared martial law. Predictably, this had precisely the opposite reaction as the Empire intended.

Revolution

Immediately after the Emperor officially dissolved the College of Colonial Affairs, the leadership hierarchy met in secret at the now-infamous Truffle Pub and declared themselves the first members of the First Independent Parliament. After the expulsion of the Pigtown-based garrison of Royal Army troops, the provincial congress was declared the headquarters of the new Second Independent Parliament. Delegates from the seven provinces were immediately dispatched to Pigtown. Envoys from the igneous peoples were also granted access, although they were not permitted to vote. With a vote of 6-0, the motion to declare independence was passed (the delegations from Wilburville and Snowball provinces abstained). In direct response, the Royal Army attempted to destroy this fledgeling independent movement by using naval forces to attack harbors lining the Great Inland Sea and rivers. However, the newly named Independent Republic of Hogs Head foiled this attempt by sabotaging battleships that sailed into the harbor, or near the mouth of any of the major trade-rivers.

Józef intended to quell this "little rebellion" by overwhelming the comparatively outgunned volunteer forces with brute strength and enormous amounts of conscripted platoons and capture the military and civilian leaders for execution in Antioch. However, he (and his advisors) underestimated just how hated the Empire of Antioch was in the Colony. In the early years of the revolution, at least one family was represented in battle. Indeed, the Royal Army had never had to contend with putting down a popular revolution before, and to deal with defections to the other side at the same time was unheard of. Add to that the problem of military tactics. The Royal Antioch Army had become used to commonly-used military tactics (for the time), and anticipated the Hogs Head military leaders would continue to use those methods. Instead, guerilla tactics were used -- random hit and run attacks on military installations, Imperial-held property, supply depots, and so on.

Despite the Antioch Army's unfamiliarity with such tactics, and despite the fact that Hogs Head was quite alone in this fight; the revolution lasted 8 years. Antioch's only solid victory was the firebombing of Pigtown, in the hopes that destroying such an important symbol of the colonists' newfound nationalism would demoralize the Hogs Head Independent Army and resistance would crumble. Józef V and his advisors were stunned when the siege and destruction had precisely the opposite result. Six months after Pigtown was razed, spies from Hogs Head infiltrated Antioch Castle and kidnapped Józef V. The ransom? Immediate recognition of an independent Hogs Head and an unconditional cease-fire. Unfortunately, Józef V was killed while attempting escape; and as his daughter Alexandra was only three years old at the time, the Queen's Regent took it upon himself to declare a cease-fire anyway. Thus, Hogs Head was granted independence, and the Royal Army returned home after transferring control of the Royalist-held lands and cities to the fledgeling country.

A New Nation

After a week of celebrations, the Revolutionary Parliament took it upon itself to formally dissolve, and re-form as a permanent governing body. In honor of the first settlement in the new nation, Pig City was painstakingly designed as the capital city and built on the remains of Pigtown. City-provinces were dissolved, and new provinces were established, dividing the country into seven main provinces:

• Boar Province
  

Boar province is the largest in area, spanning from the northern shores of the Inland Sea to the craggy peaks of Boar Mountain. Since the founding of Hogs Head, it has been a primarily agricultural province, with an emphasis on wheat, soya beans, corn, and cattle. Boar Mountain is home to many wintertime recreational resorts, where the citizenry enjoy skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding. The provincial capital is Boar's Head. Given the large number of Ministry buildings, Boar's Head has been considered "Hogs Head's Second Capital."

• Wilbur

Wilbur is Hogs Head's smallest province, made up of a single peninsula jutting out of Snowball Province into the Great Inland Sea. Predictably, it is also home to Hogs Head's major naval ports, serving the Hogs Head Navy, Merchant Marines, and commercial traders. Wilbur province boasts twice the population of Boar. Its provincial capital is Wilburville.

• Snowball