Oakshire County
Oakshire County is the northernmost of the Maanenic provinces. It is an agricultural small-town with only major city it's capital Oakham.
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| The Northern County | |||||||
| Map of Maanenland with Oakshire County highlighted | |||||||
| Maanenland Region | |||||||
| Capital | Oakham | ||||||
| Largest City | City of Oakham | ||||||
| Governor | Lieutenant Commander Yuri Vanderwerken | ||||||
| Languages | Dutch,English,Russian | ||||||
| Population | |||||||
| - Population | 10,814,568 (13th) | ||||||
| - Density]] | 120 / km2 | ||||||
| Became Part of the Grand Duchy | |||||||
| - Date | 1456 (Annexation) , 1810 (provinceship) , 1982 (demotion to countyship) | ||||||
| Time | MNT | ||||||
| Elevation | |||||||
| - Highest Point | 1450m (Mt. Haaerlem | ||||||
| - Mean Elevation | 210m | ||||||
| - Lowest Point | -76 m (Undeerland) | ||||||
| Abbreviations | |||||||
| - RMM | OAK | ||||||
| - Landranger | OAKCY | ||||||
Contents
History
Oakham County was one of the last areas to be settled in Maanenland due to it's poor soils and remoteness from the centre of the Duchy.
It was initially incepted in the Kingdom of the Maanenland's as one of the territories directly controlled by 'Westminster' and was widely regarded as 'a wasteland of marsh and fog between the sea and the mountains' according to Mark Wheerland , the prominent explorer of the time.
Every war conducted with Caberland to the north took place in the county which destroyed what little civilisation existed throughout the medieval and renaissance eras. The Battle of Kerhaam in 1384 saw the capture of much of the north of the county , a claim which is still held by the government today.
During the civil war the territory put up little resistance and soon fell to the southern forces , the forces of the Kingdom had declared their intention to let it go.
The capital city was built relativly late in 1698 when drainage techniques had been perfected and much of the marshland reclaimed as building land.
In 1810 the territory was granted the rights of provinceship from a central government that openly cared little for the affairs of the area.
The population began to climb during the industrial revolution as people came from the mountains and plains counties to find work in the new chemical factories and the accompanying ports that were set up in the area. For much of the 19th century the county was a centre for investment in chemical production.
By the 1950s the area had been taken over in terms of chemical production by the industrial areas of Newport , closer to their markets and the county saw widespread decline as the traditional chemical and petrochemical industries closed and moved away.
By the 1970s much of the traditional industries had moved out or gone bankrupt and unemployment shot up. Immigrants and exiles from the Communist north of Caberland were seen to make the problem worse by the local population and civil unrest grew. Many in Oakshire felt closer culturally to the Dutch influenced north and began demanding indepenedance altogether.
The discovery of oil and natural gas in Harper Bay provided a temporary boost to the economy , the local population however were disgruntled that most of the profits from the oil industry were being taken away from the area and the oil companies were brining in people from around the country rather than employing the local workforce.
In 1974 , in Oakham , industries and people alike fled the capital as the Caberish population declared a communist republic in a ghetto of the city and attacked police and duchy property. The angry workforce joined in with the rioting that followed which quickly spread to surrounding areas. This forced many of the oil companies to move their production facilities onto the other side of the bay making the trouble worse.
A small division of the Royal Maanenland Army were sent on May 24th 1974 to help the police restore law and order to the city and surrounding countryside which had joined in calls for independance. The army were quickly over-run and many troops were killed fighting in the Runtbridge of Oakham city. Reinforcements rushed in to protect the soldiers and Duchy officials as best they could.
After three months of terror the rioting in surrounding market towns and villages died down , mainly because heavy fighting had reduced many of these towns to ruin. The scars of this first conflict are still the most potent and can be seen across the county.
The troubled province was demoted to a county in the 1982 shake-up of local government , it's territory however was almost doubled as it encomapssed most of the former Harper County. The headquaters of the new organisation however was moved out of conflict ridden Oakham to the surrounding countryside where it remains.
For the rest of the 1980s Oakham and Northern Oakshire was continuanly rocked by bomb attacks , militia attacks , murders and assinations. The Maanenland government attempted to remedy the situation by issuing a referendum on the future of Northern Oakshire in 1987 . The results of the free vote was that 79% of the local population wanted to retain the status quo.
The referendum however did not satisfy the sepratists and simple served to anger them more. As the situation declined in the north of the county more and more people turned to violent actions on both sides. The high mortality rate of soldiers and police officers caused the government to withdraw from many of the more dangerous areas leading to accusations that the native population was being abandonded.
The early 1990s were relativly peaceful as areas of the city were left more or less to run themselves and the economic conditions improved in the city. Northern Oakshire also remained uneffected by the general strike that paralysed the rest of the nation.
Friday Feburary 13th 1998 however saw the greatest civil disorder since the civil war following the murder of Caberish immigrant Danielle Heerstad in the troubled Forrest Hill district of the city , with minimal police protection offered to the district the locals took matters into their own hands and atttacked the predominantly Maanenic middle-class suburb of Waterford setting fire to houses and driving thousands from their homes. The army was again sent in despite the heavy armament of the militia , the controversial decision from the Maanenland Supreme Defence Council was to reintroduction of troops into the city and authorising the use of heavy artillery and air support as well as lethal force on the ground to retake the city back at all costs.
The conflict that ensued had repercussions far beyond the city , international observers and many of the people of Maanenland were horrified at the sight of air strikes on their own people sparking demonstrations nationwide. Forcing the government to withdraw the troops from the hotspots of trouble to defending as much as they can.
Today the city is still in a state of martial law with essential installations and supply routes guarded only. The conflict has also seen up to 70% of the population of Oakham flee and up to 30% of the Oakshire County population
Economy
The primary economic activity in Oakshire County is agricltural processing from the plains county , chemical production still maintains a strong prescence particularly in the north.
North of the county has suffered from years of civil disobediacne with a collapse of the local economy. Unemployment in northern areas is as high as 40%. There is still some economic activity particularly in the construction material manufacturing business.
Per capita incomes are the second lowest in Maanenland.
