Northford

Introduction

Early History

Modern History

Civil War

Legalities

Foreign Relations

Military

The Militray of Northford is split into four main branches; The Northfordian Army, The Northfordian Navy, The Northfordian Airforce and the Northfordian Coast Guard. Oweing to Northford's Strategic Objective, they are all, more or less, serving roles as auxillaries to the Northfordian Navy.

There are a number of strategic goals that are outlined in the Northfordian Defence White Paper Keeping Blue. The top priorities were ensuring Northfordian Soverigntity is maintained, ensuring that we could fufuil our obligations to our Brothers in Questers, and also ensuring we had adequate force projection abilities to ensure that we could protect our citizens abroad, as well as protecting Northfordian and Questarian assets abroad.

It was realised early on in the assesment that due to our constitutional status, The Crown Imperium of Questers would be able to fufil the more important aspects of the White paper, assuming we fufiled our responsibilites as part of the Questarian Commonwealth. Thus, the Northfordian Defence focused from ensuring sovereignty of Northford to fufiling the greater aims of the Questarian Commonwealth. These are, generally, geared towards certain strategic niches. The two that are publicly known are the Northfordian Navies desired to 'Close down' the Strobovian Strait, as well as fielding two 'Battlefleets' in war, one for the East and Western Seaboard of Northford.

The Commonwealth of Northford presently fields a number of fleets:

First Fleet, Commanded by [Questarian Admiral], Hon, Rear Admiral.

Based at Ripon, on the Far-west cost of Northford, the First Fleet has a rather large role. Owing to the City of Ripons proximity to the Kahanistani Border, the city has extensive fortifications in the event of war, and at present, these fall under the control of the First Fleet. Hardware include a 2000 Missile ICCM Battery, several dozen 24 inch Naval Defence Guns as well as the the First Fleet Marine HQ; A large Barracks and training facility for the 300 000 strong Northfordian Marine Force. As well as this, the south of the city boarder runs parrallel with the rear line of the 'Closed Rim' Line, and as such the First Fleet also has control over a large amount of fixed artillery pieces, which are constantly readied in case of Kahanistani aggression.

The First Fleet mission is, like the Second Fleet (see below) about force projection: Providing the Northfordian and Questarian Governments with a battleready fleet to be used in a bluewater situation to neutralise enemy naval assets. This role requires a large core of BB's to provide the nessasary surface firepower, as well as a large ASW and AA net, backed up by a large carrier force, to provide the nessasary air support. Since this fleet is the most 'exposed', geographically, it is generally far more logistic-intensive in composition as well as generally being on a higher state of readiness than the other two fleets. For this reason, this is the fleet that will play the role in providing a Northfordian Taskforce in Hotspots around the world that are not within the region of Haven.

Economy

The fleeing from Northford had many drastic effects upon the country, and none was more pronounced than it's effects upon the economy. Before the Civil disobedience, and the short, bloody civil war that followed it, Northford had a modern Economy with Services at it's core, followed by a large high technology manufacturing sector, specialising in Military Hardware. In the fleeing, many died in Northford (estimates put it somewhere around 200 million) and in the consequent refounding in Haven, large swaths of the Workforce changed their role.

At present, around 25% of the workforce is connected to the construtction industry. There have been many effects upon the Market due to this shift, however most pronounced were the manpower shortage in the traditionally labour-intensive industries, as well as in the Land Based aspect of the Northfordian Military.

While Construction plays a dominating role in the Northfordian Economy at the present there are also a number of other large industries, mostly dominated by Northfordian and International Plc's. Tradtionally capitalist, Northford continues to benifit from it's liberal agreeing to free-trade treaties with other nations, notably Praetonia, Questers and The Silver Sky. While Northford is no longer an active member of the Global Alliance of Soverign Nations (GASN), it continues healthy trade relations with a number of countries from the alliance, notably Cravan and Rosdivan.

After Construction the other main industries in Northford are:

[Insert list]

Northfordians like to spend their money in a number of ways. Since the constitutional agreement with Questers, many Northfordians have made small-scale investing in the Questarian Stock Market (known as 'Hobby-vesting' colloquially) for both profit and as a sign of national solidarity with the newly-realised Motherland. Favourite companies for Northfordians to invest in include Northern Steel and Coal as well as the famous John Brown and Co .

A favourite recreational activity of many Northfordians is going on Holiday., with many visiting Northford's Gramponia Beaches on the west coast, however many more adventurous citizrns are increasingly travelling abroad, to Questers, and other Commonwealth countries. In recent years, however, a favourite is TheSilverSkies artic ski resorts have been very popular with Northfordians, willing to bear long flight for such high quality piste's.

tbc

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