Difference between revisions of "New Manth"

Revision as of 22:45, 24 April 2007

According to the UN, the Dominion of New Manth is a safe, large, devoutly religious and economically powerful "Corporate Police State" notable for its compulsory military service, barren landscape, and lack of government welfare programs. The people are described as "hard-nosed, cynical and hard-working."

UN observers also noted that the economy was a "powerhouse" and noted that crime is "totally unknown" in New Manth, shortly before being expelled from the country because of disparaging remarks about the country's "rare" civil rights and "unheard-of" political freedoms.

Geography (Under construction)

New Manth stretches from just west of Tripoli to the Suez Canal, and extends as far south as Kampala.

Government (Under construction)

Three main groups make up the New Manthian government:

The Association of Cities and Provinces, a large organization composed of governors from across Manth, is responsible for implementing national policies on the local level. Although nominally subordinate to the Corporate Council, the Association has successfully resisted Council policies in the past by refusing to implement them or implementing them in limited or ineffective manners. It's also worth noting that although the Corporate Council must rubber-stamp all legislation, most of it originates from one or another of the powerful governors of the Association, and that the governor of any particular provincde or city often plays a large role in selecting the Councilmember for his region.

The head of the Association is the governor of Alexandria.

The Corporate Council is the government's official legislative body, and, despite the name, is not actually composed of corporations. Rather, the Corporate Council is made up of appointed representatives from each city and province of New Manth. Originally intended to be the highest governmental body, the Council has gradually been relegated to figurehead status due to increased power consolidation in the Central Command Council and the Association. The Council has practically no remaining role beyond rubber-stamping in domestic politics, and even its remaining influence in setting foreign policy is being eroded by the Central Command Council.

A Councilmember is appointed by mutual agreement between his region's governor, area defense Commander, and Council of Bishops. In the case of disagreement, an emergency appointee is made by the Governor while a compromise is sought out.

The Central Command Executive, the third main group of the Manthian government, controls the military and judiciary systems and effectively fills the role of an Executive Branch. The two main divisions within the Central Command Executive, the Denominations of Strategy and of Law and Order, oversee the nation's military and internal security respectively, and generally work closely together. The two main Denominations are supplemented by a number of secondary Denominations, such as the Denomination of Morale or the Denominations of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

History (Under construction)

The First Settlement (1802-1809)

New Manth was founded in 1802 by the Imperial Order of Manth, a military order of French royalists exiled following the French Revolution. Arriving in Egypt in the midst of the turmoil following Napoleon's rapid conquest of and then retreat from the country, the Manthians were able to establish themselves as the dominant power in Egypt after several years of intermittent war against the native Egyptians and the Ottoman Empire.

Consolidation and Expansion (1809-1831)

Finally securing their hold on Egypt after defeating an invading Ottoman army at the Battle of Alexandria, New Manth entered a phase of reconstruction and consolidation of their hold on Egypt. Manthian attention during this time period was mostly focused inward, with the exception of skirmishes with the Ottomans which pushed the Manthian border to Suez. It was during this time that the New Manthians renamed Cairo as New Manth and officially proclaimed independence from all foreign powers.

The Golden Years (1831-1914)

The Golden Years are commmonly said to have started with the ascension of New Manth's first Emperor, Charles Armaud I. Charles entered into a program of combined economic reforms and military modernization which helped make New Manth one of the region's premier military powers. Charles is also credited with fostering the widespread resurgence of Christianity in New Manth, partially as a means to unite the populace against the Islamic Ottomans. Later kings carried on Armaud I's legacy with mixed success, however, as the state's successes were overshadowed by the growing specter of native Egyptian nationalism and anti-French sentiment. Still the Golden Ages are generally held to have lasted until the dawn of the First World War, and Charles Jean Armaud II was successful in expanding the borders of New Manth to reach Khartoum in 1880.

The First World War (1914-1918)

Despite protests at home, New Manth entered the First World War as allies of the French. However New Manthian forces saw little fighting on the European continent, as most military action was directed against the Ottoman Empire or at the Central Powers' African colonies. During the war, the first of the great New Manthian corporations, Alexandria Oil & Steel Corp, was chartered by the government in order to assist the war effort.

Anticolonialism and African Conquests (1918-1939)

Though New Manth had fought with the French in the First World War, public sentiment towards the war was never friendly and only became more bitter after New Manth was denied hoped-for Ottoman territories. The French aristocracy became ever more unpopular as they continued to stand by their European allies. In the early thirties the Islamic faith began to experience a resurgence, and unrest rose as the Christian monarchs cracked down on the Muslims, largely native Egyptians.

Foreign affairs were looking bright despite unrest at home, however. New Manth annexed Ethiopia in 1932 and Eritrea in 1937 after brief struggles, and acquired control over the tiny French Somaliland in 1938 as part of a treaty with France, in return for promises of mutual defense against Nazi Germany. Further expansion south was driven by New Manthian corporations, spearheaded by Alexandria Oil and Steel, despite the government's increasing wariness towards the largely Egyptian-controlled companies, which claimed large tracts of land as their own and chartered private security forces to oversee their shares of the captured territories.

The Second World War (1939-1945)

On the outbreak of World War II, King John Armaud II declared his intention to stand by New Manth's treaty obligations to the French and enter World War II on the side of the Allies. Violent protests in the capital and other major cities were put down with military force, and New Manthian forces embarked for Europe to fight against the Germans. They had barely arrived when they were caught up in the massive German blitzkrieg washing over France. Many were captured without a fight when the French surrendered.

The Great Rebellion (1940-1943)

New Manthian losses in France brought anti-government sentiment to an all-time high. When John II instituted a draft in an effort to renew troop numbers, rioting broke out and this time there were not enough troops to suppress the protesters. A bloody civil war soon broke out, with government loyalists and the French aristocracy on one side ranged against native Egyptian protesters on the other. Armed with covert aid from a number of unknown backers, the riots grew into a full-scale, organized rebellion which soon came to rival the weakened Royal Army.

The First Corporate Council and the Seizure of the [i]Queen Marie[/i]

At this moment of stalemate, one of the most famous series of events in New Manthian history played out in Suez. On June 19th, 1942, 'mercenaries' (now believed to have actually been Wehrmacht soldiers) working for Alexandria Steel and Oil Corp, Integrated Auto, North Egypt Electric, Mattan Textiles and Manufacturing and Reisschart Shipping Company, five of New Manth's biggest corporations, seized control of the Suez Canal and detained the supply ship [i]Queen Marie[/i], which was passing through the Canal carrying munitions, fuel and over six hundred tanks being shipped from Ethopia to aid embattled Royal army forces in Egypt. Later that day the Group of Five, as they came to be called, issued a statement proclaiming the King's government illegitimate and denouncing the King's government as illegitimate and proclaiming a new Dominion of New Manth, administered by a picked group of representatives chosen by the Group of Five and its associates.

~pick up here~

The Corporatists (1953-1998)

Recent History (1998-present)