Atlantic Federation

The Atlantic Federation, officially the Union of the Veratlantean States is an independent federation formed by 7 autonomous republics, each one with its own internal divisions and capitals and a total of 54 states and 3 Federal Districts, being one of them the capital and two of them overseas territories administrated by the Federal Government. The Federation is located in the center of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is well-known for its cultural diversity. Its narrow format provides little trouble with time-zones, but an extensive climatic variety.

The Atlantic Federation is also known for its military, economics and political influence on AIN, often contested by the Eastern powers of the Alliance. It is currently one of the Permanent Members of AINs Security Council. The Atlantic Federation is the Alliance's third most populous nation, has the 3rd largest territorial extension and is ranked 4th in the Alliance's HDI Rankings. It is remarkably the only nation in the Alliance with over 100 million inhabitants to have reached the 0.900's milestone. According to 2010 figures, the Atlantic Federation also detains the Alliance's second largest economy, but is ranked only 15th in per capita GDP if compared to less dense and more developed nations such as Queensland and Lower Columbia.

Formation & Geography
The Atlantic Federation consists of the following nation-state members:

The Free Republic of Veratlantia

The Crowned Republic of the Northern Veratlantia (also referred to as the Atlantean Republic)

The Parliamentary Republic of the New Aquitaine (also known as Lasseaux Country)

The Democratic Republic of Lusitania (also known as the Iberian Republic)

The Social Republic of New Oren

The Unified Republic of New Flevoland

The Republican Commonwealth of Libraëra & New Hagliër

Federal Districts:

Northern Ultramarine Territory of Svärda

Southern Ultramarine Territory of São Jorge

Liberators City Capital Territory

History
Main Article: History of the Atlantic Federation

The Atlantic Federation is the fruit of a massive unification effort that resounded through the Veratlantic Archipelago in the dawn of the the 20th century. Aiming to fulfil the ambitions of the the Pan-Veratlantean Manifest, the Unification united at least 6 of the 10 countries in the region into the Union of the Veratlantean States, later to be labeled the Atlantic Federation. In late 2010, New Oren was taken by a rebel, radical, separatist government and broke away from the Socialist Republic of Galbadia. Both nations had to intervene, and the Federal Republic of Corraile played a significant role in the liberation of New Oren. After the situation was under control, the Orenian people took to the streets and demanded the newly established government to apply to the U.V.S. The Atlantic Federation then incorporated the Social Republic of New Oren, making it the 7th Republic. The Royal Kingdom of Ascadylea, the Socialist Republic of Galbadia and the Federated Islands of Antarida did not show interest in becoming part of A.F., but maintain very good relations with the Federation.

Paul Galiston, son of Alexander Galiston was the hero of the Pan-Veratlantic Federalism, and negotiated, campaigned, and sometimes led troops into achieving his dream of having the whole of the island of Veratlantea united under one flag. The Island of Veratlantea makes up the demonym of those born in the Atlantic Federation, the Veratlanteans, and the sense was extended to those born in New Oren as well in 2010 when they joined the Federation.

Economy & Infrastructure
Main Article: Economy of the Atlantic Federation

The Veratlantean Economy highly benefits from a very healthy, active, dynamic and reliable internal market, thanks to the great autonomy given to each of its republics. All of them use the same currency, the Atlantic Pound, and follow a basic monetary policy set up by the Central Veratlantean Bank. Other than that, they have their own regulations and standards, and often attract different kinds of industries, making themselves stronger and thus, the Federation. The Atlantic Federation is essentially an industrial nation, very rich in mineral resources of all kinds, thanks to its geological particularities and the high pressure in the depths of the ridge that formed this sub-continent. Its main economic activities and exports are mineration, naval construction, civil engineering, automobilistics, heavy industry (metalworks), nuclear technology, belic industry, high and average technology hardware (chips, computer and computer screens, motherboard and silicon-related wares), aviation components, oil and natural gas refining ( crude oil is mostly imported from the Western African nations, but refined in the federation.), aerospace services and industries (like putting other nations' satellites in orbit), large scale farming turned to the internal market with limited-by-law limitations on exports, besides having several global-operating companies such as Vox, Veramo, UVE, Veratlantian Mining Co., Bank of Veratlantea, with holding in several countries.

The Atlantic Federation is world-known for the excellency of its infrastructure and engineering. In general, the east coast gathers most of the industrial and urban activities of the country, which is dotted by metropolises and large cities through all of its territory. Looking at a satellite image, we can notice in the northwest the less heavily populated areas of New Flevoland and the eastern part of New Aquitaine. The the Northeast and Central regions, we can clearly notice the boundaries of the Veratlantian Republic and Northern Veratlantia in opposition to New Aquitaine, Libraëra and New Flevoland. In the south it is also very noticeable the less-industrialized and farming/tourism oriented Iberian Republic with a clear, bold "wall of lights" marking the border between the Iberian and the Veratlantian republics. The Veratlantian Republic distinguishes itself from the rest of the country when it comes to its planning. It is clear the national-wide planning and property grid that makes up the country and organizes the growth of its cities. Amerion and Dalston are examples of the square-like cities of the region. In the less populated west, industrial scale farming takes up the vast plains of the west coast, with cities usually growing in the corners or along the already existing highways, reserving large portions of land for agricultural use.

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Transports
The Ministry of Infrastructure's Department of Transportation is responsible for creating entities to manage the transports networks of the country. Several Authorities are in charge of each sector, the Veratlantean Airports and Air Traffic Authority, the Veratlantean Road Transports Authority, the Veratlantean Rail Authority and finally the Veratlantean Ports and Waterways Authority. The Atlantic Federation makes wide use of all forms of transportation, having spent billions of pounds along its history to overcome the distances of the island of Veratlantea. The 1973 Air Transport Reform Act saw that every city over 1 million inhabitants should have a functioning airport. Later that law was changed to see instead that every administrative department had its own airport serving the region, with working cargo and passenger transport. This was crucial for the mail system, which was becoming slow as the demand rose sharply in the 60's. Having an organised and modern transports system was and is a crucial necessity for the development of the Atlantic Federation. The nation's geographic format makes it easy to go from East to West, helping international cross-trade. But when it comes to covering North-South distances, it becomes a real challenge to keep the entire federation connected. Roads The Atlantic Federation approved the 1930 Roads & Pavement acts, ruling the construction of safe routes between all major cities and ports, and accessing the need for shorter links between the urban areas of the time. The 1963 Motorways Modernisation Act saw that all major roads were at least duplicated, and established a standard model for roads and road quality valid in all of the Federation. The Federal Government started massive funding of road building and Federal entities such as the Veratlantean Board for Civil Engineering Standards were revamped and started overseeing the building of major infrastructure projects that catapulted the country into modernity during the 70's and 80's. The Atlantic Federation saw the Car Boom in mid-50's, with several car manufacturers like the American Ford, the French Renault and the Corrailite Fontane either increasing their sales and exports or building plants in Veratlantean soil. That also put a resounding pressure in urban road infrastructure, which led to the 1978 Urban Traffic Standard, which looked to reform and re-do several of the major roads and avenues in the major cities of the country, dramatically changing the urban scenario on the AF. In the 80's, the Atlantic Federation saw that resorting to roads in urban traffic was an unsustainable method, and started the GoMetro programme, that massively funded the building of urban rail and metro systems, and by the year 2000 most (65% average for the 4 cities) of the urban population in the top 4 largest cities of AF declared to commute to and from their jobs using public, rail, transportation. Modern day Atlantic Federation is famous for the scale of its roads, specially in the Veratlantian Republic, accused by many of building pharaonic projects where not always the need for them can be verified. This sparked several corruption and embezzlement investigations during the 90's, resulting in the most extreme example in the life-imprisonment of a group of 3 Veratlantian house representatives and 4 business man from Infra, for starting the construction of AF-590 and never finishing it. The case came to public light after Miriam Smith, aged 67, died of heart complications. The doctors said on public television that "we couldn't move her to an specialised unit fast enough, due to traffic congestion in the local backroads that gives access to the AF-609, from which we'd rush her to Alianta Central Hospital". That case shocked the nation and street protests erupted during the court process, pressing the judge to use the 1880 Veratlantean Code of True Morals and the 1889 Galistonian Law Code, which resulted in a severe punishment for the involved. Rail Air Waterways

Energy Sector
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Culture
Main Article: Veratlantean Culture

The Veratlantean Culture is made up by a mixture of various cultures from other parts of the world, specially from Europe and Africa. It is relatively new, and some social analysts will argue that there is an ongoing identity crisis haunting the Veratlantean people. The Atlantic Federation as we know it is the product of the union of other previously independent countries, each one with very particular characteristics. Only over the last century the people living in the main island was able to discover what their counterparts behave and act like. The island of Veratlantea is described by many professeurs as a "cultural mess", because at the same time Veratlanteans of distinct parts of the federation will feel very comfortable with certain aspects of life anywhere, such as the most popular dishes and the school system, some compatriots reportedly feel alien to each other in more regional, specific traits of life. It is very hard to determine the boundaries of such complex cultural borders. While football, the "tri-dish" food (rice, beans and some kind of meat and vegetables) will be very familiar to pretty much anyone, the catholic, Portuguese-speaking festivals such as St. Johns celebrations in the South, differ tremendously from the St. Patricks day in the northern republics. The Northern regions and republics of the Atlantic Federation tend to be more heavily influenced by anglo-germanic cultures, the central regions have sucumbed the strong thought revolutions of the 1800's and are more influenced by the product of their own cultural turmoil. The Southern regions are noticeably Latin, with a predominance of the Portuguese and Spanish language, and rhythms such as the Portuguese fado, or even cultural influences adopted from other fellow Latin nations such as the tango from Argentina and the Capoeira from Brazil. Aside from post-formation influences, the Veratlantean culture features a direct colonial influence from France and Sainte-Croix in New Aquitaine, Dutch and Flemish-Belgian influence in New Flevoland, British and Irish in Northern Veratlantia and Libraëra, as well as a thin scandinavian stream of immigrants during the early 1800's. In the central regions, the French and the American culture exerted a heavy influence in the politics and culture of the people, and the Galistonian Revolution established its own traits creating a distune from the original colonial influence from Britain. The stereotype Veratlantean is regarded as welcoming, patriotic and society-oriented, meaning that in general, Veratlanteans like to get involved with the public life. Others will argue that the people are warm and friendly in the tropical south, and seclusive, individualists in the temperate north. The different degrees of urbanization also seem to affect the way people describe the federation. The Alianta coast is heavily urban, industrial and people can sometimes be regarded as rude and impatient. Other tourists will describe the same region as pulsating and vibrating, full of urban and nightlife. On the other side, literally, the people in the West coast tend to be regarded as more traditional, country and calm. At least 5 major languages are spoken in the Atlantic Federation, being the top five most spoken ones respectively; English, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Spanish and Libraëritan. Minorities in the southern states will also speak Arabic, while in the island of Oren some communities stick to Romanian. Norwegian is spoken in the overseas Federal District of Svärda while Swahili and Portuguese are spoken in the Southern Overseas District of São Jorge. The diversity is immense.

Government
The Atlantic Federation is unified into a Federal Government System, which breaks up into lesser-government levels to help organize and attend the various regional particularities of the nation. The Federal Government is the highest level of government, followed by the National level - run by each Nation-State of the federation, followed by the State Governments, the Departments - which do not operate in the °legislative and executive branches; then by municipalities - the Veratlantean equivalent to counties and finally by prefectures, which are virtually the extension of one city or township. It's structure is fundamentally republican, with the division of power between a legislative branch, an executive branch and a judiciary branch in all levels of government, except the Departmental level, which only has judicial purposes and very limited executive finalities. All executive representatives are elected democratically and directly, from mayors to the Federal President. The entire legislative body is also elected by the people. The Atlantic Federation's, based on 1897 Declaration of Standards for Public Service has some strict policies regarding the functioning of its governing body. The most famous of them is perhaps the Minimum Wage Standard, which sees that all members of the legislative branch, from senators to desk secretaries can earn no more than 2 times the minimum wage. All republics follow the same models for the organisation of the Executive and Judiciary Branches, having some freedom to determine how their legislative system will be organised. Though the Constitution of the Union of the Veratlantean States outlaws monarchic forms of government, the 1912 Treaty of Mirvan ruled that Northern Veratlantia would be a partial exception and would be allowed to maintain some political power of its crowned sovereign and monarchic body, as long as such power could be contested by a republican, directly elected executive chief. Thus, the King and members of the Monarchic Order of Northern Veratlantia, the Lords, have special rights to participate in the legislative, executive and judiciary process of that nation. Northern Veratlantia has a semi tri-cameral parliament; The Chamber of Lords, the Chamber of Councillors, and the Chamber of Deputies. However, Lords and Councilors are present in the same chamber, lords occupying 1/3 of the Upper House. They are chosen by the Representative King and do not need to be affiliated to a party. The other 2/3s are chosen by the people through elections.

Health
The Atlantic Federation maintains the Federal Healthcare Service, which provides public access to healthcare, sustained by ordinary taxation. The Ministry of Public Health oversees the pharmaceuticals, foods and water quality through its fiscal organs and administrations. The same ministry also puts to practice federal policies towards disease prevention and awareness and is responsible for laying the sanitation standards to be followed by the businesses, industries, hospitals and every other sector of labour and domestic services. The Federal Healthcare Service was founded in 1954, initially based on the British NHS. It currently attends about 87% of the demand for hospitalisation and medical treatment, with the rest of the demand being covered by private hospitals and plans. The Federal Healthcare Service (FHS) is state-owned in-law, but in some cases it will prefer the concessionary model, in which the government hires a private group to run the still public-owned hospital. The government will pay accordingly to the amount of patients and complexity of operations executed in the leased facility. If the private group's management does not meet the requirements and standards set by the state, the government can sack that group and hire another, or assign a federal management board to run the facility again.

This public-private partnership model has simplified the functioning of the system, and has made it less of a burden for the Government at the same time as it allows for private venture to have more market opportunities and allows ordinary doctors and investors to apply to run local FHS owned clinics and hospitals, letting the population itself be part of the process. The idea of having a public healthcare system dates back to the foundation of the U.V.S. in 1913, but back then, the system was chaotic. The Ministry of Public Health struggled to deliberately distribute vaccination and medicine in local offices, and hospital services were not free unless the citizen was a member of the armed forces. It was only in 1932 that the Chart of Healthcare Rights established that doctors could be hired by the state to attend in clinics and hospitals for free, and that the state was to build such facilities utilizing public funds, directly from taxation. It was not a very detailed nor organized system, but it worked for the small demand at the time. World War II brought a crisis to that system, starting the Late Fourties Health Crisis, that was only solved by the criation of the FHS in 1954.

Education
Education in the Atlantic Federation is free and mandatory until the age of 18. All levels of education are free, except Post-Superior Education, which has to be funded by the student. This is based on the Galistonian principle that a government should only fund one's education until the citizen is able to find a properly professional-level job. After a citizen is given the opportunity to use his education to find a decent job, he should exert his profession in order to fund his way into the elite of that specific society of professionals. The Ministry of Education is responsible for administrating the Federal Education System. Though other levels of government can handle and build some schools, they are always subordinate to the Federal Education System and lesser governments have to register their schooling systems and facilities in the FES. The guidelines and key requirements, as well as the subject encoding and teaching standards are set by the FES. Students follow a basic mandatory grid of subjects up to terciary education, where they can choose different subjects and electives under 5 mandatory spectrums; Natural Sciences, Humane Sciences, Math, Language, Physical Education, plus the elective spectrum, which can range from drama to technical education. By the end of their Terciary Education, students are graded for each spectrum differently, with no official absolute average, ranging from 0 to 10, with decimals.

Educandarium, also referred to as Creche (Portuguese for kindergarten) Aimed to prepare infants ages 2-4 for school, serves census purposes and gives support to first-time parents. Divided into 3 years. This level of education is optional but highly recommended.

Primary Education, also referred to as Primary School Children ages 5 to 10. divided into 4 yers; 1st Year (Infant), 2nd Year (Pupil), 3rd Year (Aspirant), 4th Year (Debutant). Secondary Education, also referred to as Middle School Children and teens ages 10 to 15. Divided into 4 years; 5th Year (Initiate), 6th Year (Apprentice), 7th Year (Pretendant), 8th Year, (Freshman). Terciary Education, also referred to as High School Teens and young students ages 15 to 18; Divided in 3 years: the 9th Year (Sophomore), 10th Year (Junior) and the 11th Year Seniors. Superior Education, also referred to as Superior School Opened for people who have concluded the previous levels of education and seek professional education. Post-Superior, also referred to as Post-Graduate School For those seeking to join high-level research, and join the Academic Society.