Port Hamptonshire

Port Hamptonshire is a city in the United Kingdom, considered by some to be the most important city in the northern islands of the Azazian Archipelago. Port Hamptonshire is situated on the Hampton Strait, the deepest and widest shipping route leading out of the Azazian Sea, and consequently is a major port and transit point for international commerce.

The current city came into existence in 1962, when the city of Port Hampton merged with the town of Hampton and became coterminus with Hamptonshire Country, thus the renaming of the new urban centre as Port Hamptonshire. Within the city limits reside 22,395,072 as of the last census in 2005.

Geography

Port Hamptonshire includes Hampton Harbour, a large and deep natural harbour, as well as the foothills for the central mountain range of New Ireland. The artificial creation of the large metropolis has created a city that contains a wide range of natural features within its limits. Across the Hampton Strait lays the ‘twin’ city of Westport, which hosts a smaller and shallower harbour, but a port facility that has been increasing in importance for smaller freighters and cargo vessels, while Port Hamptonshire continues to expand and deepen its harbour for use by larger freight vessels.

Climate

Climograph of Port Hamptonshire

Owing to its location in the northern latitudes of the Home Islands, Port Hamptonshire experiences temperatures colder than the average for the Home Islands, and facing the northern Pacific Ocean along the strait, the city can on occasion face strong storm systems moving southwards during the typically stormy winter months, months that also bring the city and its outlying areas much of its annual precipitation.

Demographics

Since its inception as a trade city, Port Hampton attracted large numbers of Arab immigrants due to the location of a small Arab minority in the city, having been forced out of the Spanish-dominated islands during the earliest days of European colonisation. The presence of an Arab-friendly city within the Home Islands induced other Arabs and Muslims to move to Port Hamptonshire until by the 21st century the city housed the largest number of Arab and Muslim individuals, placed at approximately six million in the 2005 census.

Economy

Skyline of Port Hamptonshire from Hampton Strait

The economy of Port Hamptonshire is dominated by international trade and commerce, with the city handling the fifth largest amount of trade in the United Kingdom, and the second greatest amount of international trade after Philadelphia. In previous decades heavy industry also played a significant role, however this has been on the decrease since the cost of labour in the UK rose above that of competing foreign nations.

Supplanting international trade is a growing petroleum and petrochemical industry, which stems from the slowly development of the offshore oil and gas reserves in the Azazian Sea. Although they have been slow to come online owing to concerns from environmental groups, the oil and gas rigs have been shipping their crude to Port Hamptonshire due to its already well-developed trade and transit infrastructure.

Port Hamptonshire remains regionally important as the centre of finance and culture for the northern Home Islands, although in this role it faces stiff competition from the city of Regal located in New Russia. However the location of Regal as a primarily English exclave in the Russian area of the archipelago, in combination with Port Hamptonshire’s more central location have seen the conflict between the two cities slowly yielding in Port Hamptonshire’s favour.

Famous People From Port Hamptonshire

• Iain Bashir – Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs