Bastilia

The City of Bastilia (French: Bastillas-Ville), commonly shortened to just Bastilia is the largest Metropolitan Borough of the Greater Bastilia Conurbation and the official capital of Histalpol. Bastilia sits surrounded by Histalian National parklands to the North and East and a metropolitan area to the South and West including Marlsling Cross. Bastilia only became a capital city in 1918 after World War I, gaining the title from Renné.

History
Bastilia was founded in the 14th century as an important port due to it's inland location away from invaders and being on Beracha Glas itself giving it inaccessibility from invaders from on the British Isles. Trade was prosperous under the Black Death hit and plunged the city into a recession and the city ended up almost abandoned. Trade soon resumed however and continued to grow in prosperity as an increasing rate. This was due to the awarding of self-governance in 1604 which gave Bastilia an elected mayor and control of the River Harrod. Soon after the settlements of Bastilia and Marsling Cross merged to increase trade flow in the River Harrod and assist each other in becoming more prosperous.

The English Civil War didn't affect Beracha Glas at first, but Royalists were quick to take the island at which the Parliamentarians had a hard time reclaiming it. When the Royalists claimed independence from England due to fearing repercussions from the Parliamentarians, Bastilia was included in the land that would become independent. Soon after the formation of Méndiliber the settlements of Bastilia and Marsling Cross disagreed into who would become the main port city outside of Madison, and this caused a rift in the city in which both cities became independent of each other and control of the River Harrod was split between them.

Bastilia was nearly destroyed two times over 100 years, the first being during the civil war against the British Empire after the Treaty of Paris from the 7 Year War where Beracha Glas was handed back to the British Empire. The second occasion was during the Floods of 1820 which killed half of the entire population of Histalpol during a storm train. The banks of the River Harrod flooded and the saturation of the ground was not enough so surface water appeared, flooding much of the infrastructure and nearly wiping out the entire population.

The city was soon rebuilt bigger and better during the Steam Era and instantly improved on the slow recovery. Industry flourished in the newly rebuilt city as many people saw chance to take a monopoly on their trade in Bastilia. It soon became a playground for the rich and influential such as mine owners from the mainland, tycoons of all trades and politicians. It became the centre for high society in the country. It was because of this notoriety, it was one of the largest targets for the rural poor suffering from the Irish Potato Famine to protest and riot against the uncaring government and opposition at the time. After the riots and the Vote of No Confidence for all governments, the city became more diverse economically with poorer districts being erected on the borders of the city.

Bastilia was granted the status of capital city from Renné in 1918 as Renné's influence on Histalpol fell and Bastilia's rose and Bastilia had become the new home to the monarchy since Farrow's War meaning Renné no longer had a reason to stay the capital. The Parliament Square complex with the parliament and official residence of the Chancellor was built soon after in 1921 and has become one of the featured landmarks of Bastilia.

During World War 2, Beracha Glas was captured by Axis forces after the disastrous Battle for Beracha Glas. Inside of Axis controlled Histalpol, Like much of Europe, people from Jewish to homosexuals and generally anybody not Ayrian were put into concentration camps on continental Europe. When WW2 ended, many of the surviving Histalian soldiers in occupied Bastilia and Beracha Glas turned to organised crime when they didn't receive any assistance from the government to recover.

Since then, the only major events to occur in Bastilia have been two large scale terrorist attacks against transport. The first large scale terrorist attack in Bastilia, and currently the deadliest terrorist attack in Histalpol occurred in 1977 during the Decades of Suspension, with over 100 killed when public transport between Histalpol and Marsling Cross including buses, trains, stations, bridges and tracks. 2 mainline trains were derailed as a result which gave the attack it's highest causalities. The second large scale attack in Bastilia since then was the 2010 attack on Bastilia International Airport in which a car bomb by the Righteous Independence Legion detonated and collapsed part of the terminal building. 16 people were killed in the attack.

Geography
Bastilia is located in the western section of Beracha Glas and is on the River Harrod where it splits into multiple smaller rivers to form islands before returning back to it's original size. A northern bowl is created by Marxden Moors which flatten out into the plains Bastilia is built on. Further downstream to the west the River Harrod passes Marlsling Cross before becoming the mouth of Le Maítresse. There is no thread of a surge from Le Maítresse, but multiple flood defences have been constructed around the city as to when the River Harrod will break it's banks through to excessive rainfall usually. This is to stop the Floods of 1820 and many other comparatively tame 20th century floods from occurring again.

Past the River Harrod to the north and further away to the east between more developed-on plains are Marxden Moors, a preserved national park for it's outstanding beauty, rare flaura and fauna. It also separates the cities of Bastilia and Markenford as the only connecting motorway going to the south of the Moors. Another well known section of preserved national parkland is the island on which the current palace sits on, Wintering-on-Harrod. It is otherwise protected by the Histalian Action Rapide Paramilitaire with access only though personal water-craft or helicopter.

In the larger image of Histalian geography, Bastilia is a part of the Greater Bastilia Conurbation which spans across 2 counties of Histalpol, the Metropolitan County of Greater Bastilia and Hasfordshire, which contains Marlsling Cross.

Government
Bastilia is Histalpol's political capital, being the location of the Histalian Parliament and the official residence of the Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor of Histalpol, all in one complex (the Parliament Square complex). The complex is heavily guarded and secured with a perimeter fence. The complex contains both the upper and lower houses of Histalpol, the Minor and Major Exposition Halls (respectively). The city is also the location of a majority of the ministries for Histalpol and is the site of the embassy district of Histalpol, being St. Francees Plaza which contains some of the highest costing real-estate in Histalpol.

The Greater Bastilia Conurbation which is the urban area that Bastilia is a part of is the Largest Local Authority to Bastilia, while Bastilia's boroughs see Bastilia as their own Largest Local Authority and so 9 constituencies are decided upon inside of Histalpol. In the previous election, of those 9 constituencies, the LibDem's gained the overall control of Bastilia and it's boroughs with 6 electing LibDem representatives, 2 electing an Emerald Party representative and one electing a Histalian Parti Isolationist representative.

Constituencies of Bastilia:
 * Parliament & Summerhelm (Emerald)
 * Grantham & Hammersted (LibDem)
 * Islington & Bayer Hope (LibDem)
 * Charleval & Virson (LibDem)
 * Beccales & Chorlington (LibDem)
 * Hough (LibDem)
 * North Harrod (HPI)
 * Strabane (LibDem)
 * Fulmont Hill (Emerald)

Demographics
In the 2013 census, the Bastilia metropolitan area which contains all the boroughs of Bastilia had a population of 1,842,150 which makes up for over half of the urban population in the Greater Bastilia Conurbation which was at 2,740,260 by time of the census. The population of the metropolitan county of Greater Bastilia is around 3,152,310 which means the population of the Bastilia metropolitan area makes up more than half there as well. The 1.8 million in the Bastilia metropolitan area world out at 13.61% of Histalpol's total population while the urban area of the Greater Bastilia Conurbation makes up 20.25% of Histalpol's population.

Bastilia is statistically the largest city in Histalpol by population and area, though many citizens live in the outskirts of Bastilia city centre in the many boroughs away from the city centre boroughs of Parliament, Summerhelm and Charleval.

The city is also the most economically diverse city due to the boom of residents from the end of the Steam Era. This is true as well for ethnic diversity though not on the highest level for Histalpol, which Darsingborough claims. The ethnic make-up for Bastilia's population at the time of the 2013 census was: 80.5% White, 12.2% Asian, 2.6% Black, 2.3% Arab, 1.3% mixed White and Asian, 0.6% mixed White and Black African/Caribbean and 0.6% other ethnic groups. This gives the city a non-white ethnic population of 359,219.

English is the most-spoken language in Bastilia, being spoken as a first language by 49.7% of all Bastilians. A further 20.3% speak French as a first language as the second official language for Histalpol. 15.4% speak Indian or Pakistani, 7.4% speak an African language, 7.2% speak some other language as their primary language. 81% of Bastilians are multilingual with 42% speaking a combination that is not English-French. Around 26% speak at least 3 languages.

Transport
TransitBastilia holds the monopoly on public transport inside of Bastilia and runs a unique section of public transport in Histalpol which is an elevated BRT system, called the ERBus which connects the suburbs of Bastilia to the city centre, as well as connecting together all the ministries and government buildings in a circle route. There are also connections to all 3 Bastilia airports via the ERBus system.

In terms of rail transport, the entire Greater Bastilia Conurbation and Metropolitan County is serviced by Capital Railways, a commuter rail service under the Histalpol National Networks group. Also serving Bastilia to the rest of Beracha Glas is the high-speed Celtic Cross which traverses the entire island including Port Loove, the only entrance onto Histalpol on the British Isles as there is no rail bridge or tunnel existing them to connect. Histalpol has 3 main terminus stations, 2 going to the east and 1 going to the west, and one through station used for the Celtic Cross and other regional lines like Capital Railways.

The city is serviced by 3 airports which are in the top 5 busiest airports in Histalpol, and an additional airport outside of the top 5 which is further out from the city on the border with Forkdenshire. The 3 large airports are titled Bastilia Hough Airport, Bastilia International Airport and Bastilia Legion Airport while the remaining airport is titled Furrowfaire Airport, since it is officially not inside of the Greater Bastilia Conurbation.