Histalpol

The République Démocratique du Histalpol or Isles Of Histalpol, better known as Histalpol is a Democratic Republic located to the north east of Europe sharing a border with the UK and just above Llithustania and France.

History
See Also: History of Histalpol

English Civil War and French Intervention
Royalists took the eastern mainland section of Histalpol (then a part of England) at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, especially the coastal areas the continued to gain ground to the north past where modern day Histalpol would border the UK but possession tipped there being the time when the Parliamentarians took back land to the north of the UK and before 1644 was over, the commanders based in Southern England where Histalpol would be, but smaller now from the taking over, instead of surrendering they declared independence in the fear of being killed and averting a massacre in that area of the UK.

At first it was un-accepted by all countries as an official country, but as England advanced on their position, showing recklessness in wanting to take the land, they quickly forged a deal with the French to become a foreign territory of the French colonial empire feeling that they would insure safety from the English. The name was picked originally as Mendilibér, a collapsed name of mendiants libérer, meaning "beggars release" being that their joining to France was the action taken to insure safety of the people. This did work as the Parliamentarians ceased their advances and Mendilibér continued to be a French territory until 1765 when it was taken back by the British.

The French only requested of Mendilibér to use their army if needed since most of the Royalist armies were in the country and now were unemployed, also requested was agricultural products, in return the French will protect Mendilibér from any invading armies.

Regions of Medilibér
See Also: Mendilibér

Mendilibér was involved in the Seven Years War which, because of the fact of being a French Territory previously being from Britain caused it to become a vulnerable asset of France which was evident when Mendilibér was blocked from France during a blockade of trade and troops from France by the British in the Channel. Soldiers couldn't fight the front line as it was French soldiers who had morale crushed and ammunition in short supply as well as food and Mendilibér's troops were off fighting elsewhere in Europe. An attempt to assist Medilibér ended with it being a bad tactic and was finally ended with the Treaty of Paris.

After that came a civil war against the British rule of the country who treated Medilibér as inferior. The public started riots and as the army retaliated with force, it created more riots and fighting and caused the French, to assist with the rioters, both agreeing that this was an act that wasn't needed. This war lasted for 6 years in which much of Mendilibér was destroyed but independence was finally gained in 1783 in which they immediately changed name to the First Republic of Histalpol.

First Republic of Histalpol
See Also: First Republic of Histalpol

Harrow's War
Harrow's War is a war that spanned from 1792-1798 and consisted of the then Prime Minister Edward Harrow who was brought into office in 1792. This was in a time when Histalpol planned to become a major power in Europe which included only a few campaigns before Harrow was stopped by the French First Republic and Second British Empire in 1798. This though gained the main island that is in current Histalpol as well as advanced further into the British Empire, taking up most of the "leg" of Britain.

The first attack was aimed at the main island of Histalpol, at the time belonging to the French First Republic, at which they managed to control at least half before the French intervened and stopped Harrow's advance across the island while stopping any more naval ships from approaching the island causing some of the largest battles in the War's history. But half the island was taken and kept until the full island was gained at the end of WW2. All the while Harrow was moving east up the British Empire, taking land as he went, when he was opposed with the British army close to the Somerset border, which Harrow won and continued with taking over a section of neighbouring county Dorset before finally being stopped by the British and the French working together to halt the advance. The land was not given back despite attempts from both armies to invade in later years.

Floods of 1820
The Floods of 1820 was a continuous year of flooding from 1820 to 1821 killed over 50% percent of the population at the time, as it was a nation wide natural disaster. The year started with masses of snow from December to January which then melted and flooded the banks causing floods to many Histalian rivers, often flooding settlements and ruining crops to be picked in the spring season that had grown over winter. The weather then turned worse with the harshest rainfall recorded currently in Histalpol where a storm train with multiple massive thunderstorms producing between slightly over 2,600 kg and just under 1,400 kg of rain across 5 storms in quick succession. The average mean of the amount of rain produced in the storm train is around 10,000 kgs over what was then Histalpol. The groundwater reached it's maximum absorbency and the remaining water added onto the flooded rivers that still failed to subside from the heavy snowfall the previous winter.

In the summer when the floods had finally subsided, crops had failed to grow and multiple settlements had been wiped off the map by the floods. The abundance of food and cattle, which had also died in the floods also caused a mass starvation for the remaining year until crops grew back next year. In this year, the starvation and the floods caused the deaths of 10,122 of the 20,157 over the year. The country never fully recovered until the Steam Era in the 1850s, it being around 30 years of slowly recovering from the large scale floods.

Steam Era
See Also: Histalpol Empire

The Steam Era spanned from 1857 to 1900 following the reign of Queen Victoria in the British Victorian Era in which Histalpol adopted much of the technology and architecture of the era from the United Kingdom. This including Steam Technology, adopted at a later stage than the UK. This boosted the economy of Histalpol as well as make the islands more attractive as a stop-off between North Western Europe and the rest of the world, giving a viable stop opposed to the UK.

The Era also brought on much ability to trade as travel was quicker and more efficient to carry loads thus leading to multiple Trade Routes with multiple eastern countries. This being a major contributor to the economic boom experience in major cities in Histalpol.

Yet in rural villages and farms, the Irish Potato Famine of 1847 also had a great effect on them because of a dependency on irish Potatoes at that time in most households. This severely reduced the population of Histalpol while the citizens living in major cities were getting constantly richer from steam-powered and foreign trade. This also lead to many protests against the government and a rush to start planting carbohydrates, during which the government at that time was kicked out of office and the only Vote of No Confidence for all other governments were issued in the emergency vote. The repercussions of the famine lasted until 1910 with the Steam Era ending and the dawn of WW1 Appearing.

WW1
Histalpol entered the war in 1912 alongside France and the UK on the allies side of the war, the war never reached land on Histalpol and was mainly fought in trenches as with most allied countries. The invention of revolving turrets were a game changer as manufacturing of the turrets, in part with France, meant that holding off enemy forces were easier than other countries. This also helped Histalpol get out of the Irish Potato Famine as money could be gained with the production of ammo, weapons, turrets and armour.

WW2
Histalpol was introduced into WW2 as Nazi forces captured a few small and minor islands off of Histalpol, yet frighteningly close to mainland Histalpol before the Blitz in Britain, this encourages the Histalian Army on the mainland and the remaining uncaptured islands to get up naval and land blockades, also adopting the Blackout methods London took during the Blitz period meaning bombing decreased yet major crimes increased such as robbery, assault, and at maximum murder leading to insecurity of the method. The blockades were known as the "Mobile Border"

The deadliest battle occurred in 1941 in the sea between Llithustania and Histalpol as an invading group of Axis navy and air force soldiers approached main land Histalpol on the largest island. Histalpol lost the battle and the island was taken yet mainland Histalpol on the UK landmass remained. With the Axis loss, the land that previously belonged to Histalpol was given back yet with that came the rise in organised crime from soldiers who joined the war going to crime to continue the extreme life style, to regain respect from the public and to also keep a steady flow of money to the family as no money was able to be supplied to the families of the soldiers during the war.

Decades of Suspension
As The Troubles in Ireland got increasingly worse, multiple organised crime groups spotted a chance to stablish more money for their doings. This was done in 2 forms, one being the illegal shipping of weapons and bomb materials to the many branches of the IRA, but also a more dangerous form of gaining money through blackmail and the results of multiple attacks, taking inspiration from the Troubles and how minimum causalities were dealt while multiple attacks occurred on the same week, if not then the same day. They planned to piggy-back off of the terrorist attacks in Ireland and United Kingdom by setting up their own terrorist attacks in Histalpol to blackmail companies to stop attacks on them, and to create fear in the public so they'd buy guns and weapons from the organised crime units as well as making local governments pay them not to attack upcoming events, but usually no lives were lost as the local police were always warned of the attack before the bomb detonated, so they evacuated the area, but this wasn't always the case.

On multiple occasions mass loss of life was given including the attack in 1977 as the worst attack in the decade with public transport being targeted including stations, bridges, tracks, tunnels and buses. This was thought to have been performed by a spin-off group with no fear to cause deaths to get across the point better. Multiple trains were derailed from the bombs leading to a death toll of above 200, especially with 2 mainline trains being 2 of the many targets. After these attacks the amounts of attacks decreased but the amounts of deadly attacks with fatalities rose as the spin-off groups gained a foothold on other groups who couldn't be taken seriously with no deaths to their bombings.

In 1990, the government at the time started a crack-down on organised crime and it has decreased dramatically but has not gone from current life. This concluded with a ceasefire from the remaining cells in August 21st 1992 in the Forstole Agreement. There are still groups around in terrorism but they have kept quiet since, and organised crime in other factions such as prostitution, smuggling and the occasional murder.

The Black Depression
The Black Depression started as foreign companies gained more notoriety and gained a larger foothold. This with cheaper labour, quicker production and cheaper to buy forced many Histalian companies to go into administration or pulled out of Histalpol and set up elsewhere. This also lead to protests over larger foreign companies setting up factories in Histalpol which in turn lead to less productivity of the workers. Histalian made products dipped lower than it has ever been.

Few Histalian companies remain after the depression ended in 2002 including car manufacturer PLA and furniture supplier Marlstone Home Servicing. The companies that remained lost many workers from the protests and the political party Histalpol Parti Isolationist gained seats in the 1992 election and won the election with their selected candidate becoming Prime Minister Hayden Bolton who was renound for being really harsh on foreign policies, relations, and basically making Histalpol an isolated country from any other imports. This had benefits and limitation including the fact that companies had to be reborn and made in general to fill in gaps in the market, but also meant that exports to other countries would be more costly. This policy ended in 2008 when Borgia Malstrone took over the roll.

The isolation technique worked as the new companies meant that produce increased, unemployment decreased and larger companies did set up in Histalpol. But this also scarred the reputation of Histalpol slightly before Malstrone helped to regain relations with most countries.

Modern Day
As Al-Qaeda attacked the London transport system. Histalpol felt a need to improve secturity all over Histalpol, because of the border to the UK and potential risk of terrorist attacks now in the public's eye. This resulted in the prevention of a possible deadly attack on Histalpol by a Lone Wolf planning a bombing against the current governments involvement in British affairs. This was planned to be during a football match in Renné and would have killed mass amounts of spectators with more than 32,000 people in the stadium.

Despite these increases, in 2010 a bomb detonated in the car-park of Bastilia International Airport with the car being placed by a revealed taxi-way in an attempt to cause as many deaths on planes as possible, This was not what happened, but the detonation still collapsed part of the airport building as the car parked right by the terminal building and killed 168 people. The group responsible wasn't found but it is thought that it was a spin-off of the Royal Kingdom of Histalpol and the Lone Wolf from the 2005 stadium plot who wanted in a combined aim to reinstall a royal family to control the country. The attack is under investigation to this day.

In 2012/13 Histalpol gained attention politically from the elections which ended with a surprise win for the Liberal Democrats who was led by Timothy Small who is the current Prime Minister. He promised to join a union before 2013 ended as well as make Histalpol the country of culture with emphasis on the arts, architecture history etc. to attract tourism to the country.

Government
The Republic of Histalpol has a parliamentary government based on a modified Western European parliamentary model which the basic form is used in countries such as Spain, Germany and Switzerland. The parliament of Histalpol that meets in the Parliament Building has two houses called the Major Exposition Hall and the Minor Exposition Hall, these being similar to the House of Commons (Minor Exposition Hall) and the United Kingdom's Cabinet (Major Exposition Hall). The Minor Exposition Hall can only be reached by being elected in, and the Major Exposition Hall can only be reached if they are selected to be a minister in the current government, in which they also have to resign their place in the Minor Exposition Hall.

The The Right Honourable Timothy Small, leader of the Lib Dems is the current Prime Minister since 23 November 2012. For elections to the Minor Exposition Hall, Histalpol is currently divided into 565 constituencies, each electing a single member of parliament by "Two-ballot" plurality system where each election has 2 rounds of voting to ensure the winner gains a majority of votes. General elections are by law to be held every 4 years after the previous general election, unless the current Prime Mister steps down from his position.

Parties
Histalpol has 5 major political parties which are Commart which is a centre-left political party, the Emerald Party which is a centre-right political party, the Lib Dems which are radical centre political party, the Histalpol Parti Isolationist or HPI which are a political party that are centre left but maintain a Non-interventionism Isolationism policy on foreign relations, and the Royal Kingdom of Histalpol which are a strict right-wing political party that have a policy of creating or restoring a monarchy to Histalpol. During the 2012 general election, the 5 parties combined won 537 out of the 565 seats available in the Minor Exposition Hall. Most of the remaining seats were won by minor political parties of Histalpol.

Religion
Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now Histalpol for over 1,250 years. Although most Histalians refer to themselves as Christians in surveys, regular church attendance and practising Christians have fallen dramatically over the 20th and 21st century. This decrease in Christianity has also indicated a rise in eastern religions, most noticeable the Islamic faith, as brought in by immigrating middle east citizens, soon to overtake Christianity as the most practised religion in Histalpol.

In a census carried out by the Ministry of Statistics, 42.5% of all respondents indicated they were Christians, practising or not, with the next largest faith, Islam, reaching 40.7%. The rest of the census indicated the following results; Hinduism (5.8%), Judaism (3.2%), Sikhism (2.2%), Buddhism (0.8%) and other religions at (0.2%). The remaining 4.6% of respondents stated that they belonged to no religion.

The official established church of Histalpol is the Histalic-Christianity Church. This retains a representation in the Histalian Parliament. There has been movements to create an established mosques of Histalpol for the largely growing populous of Muslims and to have the same power seat in the Histalian Parliament as the Histalic-Christianity Church holds.

Sea Travel
Histalpol is situated in the east end of the English Channel and also the small seas between Llithstania and Histalpol as well as the Celtic Sea. Because of this, before the invention of aviation, the only way to enter and leave the country as well as moving through the islands of Histalpol could only be by sea travel apart from Histalpol's border with the United Kingdom. Since Histalpol is surrounded on 3 sides by large masses of water, a common way to travel across those apart from aviation is Sea Travel.

Approximately 85% of all freight enters Histalpol by the sea, being unloaded at ports across Histalpol's Islands. 3 ports handle the majority of all the freight input and output in Histalpol, these being;


 * Port of Grewnwood on the east side of the main island, in close proximity of Port Loove.
 * Port of Marlyborn on mainland Histalpol on the Southwestern coast, near the border with the United Kingdom.
 * Port of Sir Martin on the northern shore of Leon Island, opposite shore of Malona.

Ferries, both passenger and vehicle oriented, operate in Histalpol in the English Channel, Celtic Sea and the Sea between Llithustania and Histalpol as well as further international ferry crossings with Republic of Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain. Services are run also between the islands of Histalpol to a lesser scale in size, but larger scale in the size of operations, this includes Renné to Port Loove, St. Fledling Island and Main Island Histalpol as well as a diamond shaped route between the Main Island of Histalpol and the 3 smaller islands making up Leon Island, the island with Nouveau Baso and the island closest to Llithstania of the trio, all 4 routes linked by the same company.

Many cruise liners also make stops at Histalpol as a stop in European tours. Cruise ships depart from Histalpol for destinations worldwide, many heading for ports around the Mediterranean and Caribbean.