History of New Duveland

Early History
New Duveland was first settled by Melanesians coming in through New Caledonia into what is now Lapérouse at around 1400 BC, settling and spreading out to all of New Duveland’s main islands from the provinces of Norfolk (northern island) to Capricornia.

Polynesians arrived in ND from New Holland around 1450 CE, also spreading throughout the country, peacefully interacting with the already established and flourishing Melanesian population.

European Discovery
The Dutch Explorer Abel Tasman first discovered the islands in 1642, calling the islands New Duveland, after the northern area of Zeeland. The islands remained unexplored until Captain James Cook returned to the islands and mapped all of them after he had mapped New Zealand and New Holland. The North coast of Lapérouse was explored by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, where he then disappeared into the Lapérouse wilderness.

Settlement and Early History
Settlement was commenced in early 1832 along with NZ and NH. Even though New Holland was far more successful than New Duveland, the ND colony had a larger population, having a population of around 50,000 by the end of 1840 but was mostly poor farmers from Europe as the fertile land was ideal for farming conditions with most of the wealthier settlers moving to New Holland. This resulted in both colonies being economically locked to each other, with New Duveland supplying food for New Holland, while New Holland supplied machinery and banking services. This is still evident today, with both nations being heavily economically locked to each other to this day. By the time New Holland was classified as a different colony from New South Wales in 1851, New Duveland, along with Lapérouse became independent as well. Lapérouse was claimed as a French colony along with New Caledonia. The Colony was organized into 5 provinces, each keeping order over the province and of their settlements.

Gold Rush
Gold was discovered over vast areas in the Mirani and Abel provinces, causing enormous growth in Plymouth, Seatown, Aurora (Then capital of Cooksland) and many other cities across New Duveland. Much of the profits where put into Plymouth, which then accelerated population growth across the region. Large-scale shanty housing were popping up across the gold fields, which lasted for 15 years, promoting large scale movements of people to the colony, mainly from the UK, Ireland, France and the U.S. This sparked a building-boom in many cities.

Lord Howe Federation
The Lord Howe Federation aimed to restore a strong central government in the colony, This was achieved in 1897 when they signed the Treaty of Victoria (1897). The federation was short lived, only lasting until 1903 as the government was very unstable and could never come to any agreements.

Dominion of New Duveland
As the Lord Howe Federation split back into the original 3 colonies, all three become a Dominion under the British Commonwealth, resulting in the first Prime Minister of New Duveland being elected, Robert Stevens, in 1903. The capital was selected to be Macquarie and a new territory was formed around the peninsular.

Dissolvent of Diemen
Due to the devastating earthquakes of 1904, the Diemen government was forced to ask for assistance from New Holland. During the Conference of Cambridge (1904), It was decided that the Colony would be absorbed into NH, angering the New Duvian Government, deciding to wade in but New Holland refuses.

First World War
New Duveland joined in the war in Europe. New Duveland joined in alongside New Holland army troops, forming the Lord Howe Army Corps (LHACs) and were sent to Gallipoli, the first major engagement in the war by New Duveland. Remaining troops were sent into Neu Westfalen, a German colony, which took place on the 2nd of June 1916. The goal was to take the island quickly with little causalities, but was met with great German resistance. There were over 8,000 New Duveland, 8,500 New Holland and 10,000 Neu Westfalen casualties reported. Along with this, and the landing at Gallipoli, national pride swept the nation. Neu Westfalen was given to Lord Howe as a mandate colony.

Post WWI
With great influence from New Holland, new Duveland had gained a Liberal approach to affairs and security. A large amount of Europeans fled war-torn Europe and settled in many of the large cities, especially Plymouth and Macquarie. When the Great Depression hit New Duveland, the Government established many strategies to overcome the rising unemployed, creating the Tasman Freeway Network, connecting all the east coasts of Mirani, Abel and Cooksland with ferry services connecting the gaps between the islands as well as creating a vast train network for Plymouth, Macquarie and Seatown.

Second World War
As the second world war fell upon Europe, New Duvian forces were send to Europe to support the British, along side the New Holland troops in Crete and in the Western Desert Campaign. After Japan entered the war, New Duvian troops were brought back to their home soil to help defend New Duveland from Japan’s increasing presence in the Pacific. As the Japanese forces entered Papua New Guinea, they then launched a successful invasion of New Duveland on the 15th of August 1942, occupying the entire country, presumably to have closer forces to attack and occupy Australia. Much of Plymouth, Seatown and Macquarie was bombed, destroying much of the city centres. Less than a month later, the then invaded New Holland. The United States, along with New Zealand and Australia seny massive forces to help push Imperial Japan out of New Duveland and New Holland to a full success in just less than 3 months. Troops were sent to Neu Westfalen to secure order as the war ravaged around the neutral country.

Post WWII
After the war, New Duveland signed the ANDNZUS treaty and joined the United Nations in 1948. A great influx of European migrants fled to New Duveland from France, Germany, The United Kingdom and many other eastern European countries. During this time, many civil rights for native Maori and Melanesians were brought up, they were deemed to be New Duvian citizens and were put in the constitution that they were the first official citizens of New Duveland. And were given the right to vote shortly after.

Lapérouse Act
The French Oversea territory of Lapérouse joined the rest of New Duveland, becoming the 6th province on the 2nd of November 1949. The new province provoked some issued, such as what would happen to the French speaking community and the identity of the Lapérousians. The New Duvian Government settled this by making French, along with English to become New Duveland’s second national language. French was to be taught in all public schools and all public signs to be in both English and French in all provinces.

Late 20th century
The economy of New Duveland continued to explode, starting a huge building-boom across the country. Many large banks, mining and other companies established their provincial HQs in the capital cities.

21st Century
Many natural disasters occurred in this time period, such as in 2003, a devastating earthquake hit Portsmith. It destroyed much of the cities infrastructure, homes and businesses. It has gone through a large reconstruction phase, in which, the city was built in a modern style. The New Duvian government is now trying to lower the urban population, and move more people into the countryside to increase agriculture production and also the densification of the biggest cities, centralizing the population growth in the city centres and surrounding areas.