Bulkh: Difference between revisions

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==Geography==

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File:Iraqi_Kurdish_villagers_in_field_near_Turkish_border.jpg|Farming in Bulkhan interior

File:Wadi_Shawka_looking_North.jpg|Wadi in the Great Kavir desert

File:Basra-Shatt-Al-Arab.jpg|Coastal community

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===Climate and environment===

{{Further|Prevailing Winds}}

Bulkh, along with [[Burgundie|Burgoignesc]], [[Battganuur]], and [[Pursat]] is working on a largescale greening, rewilding, and de-desertification project to reclaim arable land from the [[Great Kavir]] called the [[Great Green Wall]].

== History ==

===Prehistory===

It's estimated that the first settlements in the modern area of Bulkh were settled around 10,000 BCE. These settlements were primarily in the interior where the [[Great Kavir]] desert is today. Some 5,000 years ago, the area was not so arid and the vegetation might have been closer to a {{wp|savanna}}. However, desertification set in around 3000 BCE, and the desert became much like it is today. This desertification pushed the people further south into what is now the known as the Bulkawan Peninsula by 4500 BCE. The interior had become mostly uninhabited by 500 BCE, and the coasts had become the primary areas of both settlement and cultivation of crops. There was still bands of nomads in the desert interior but not nearly to the same extent that there had been two or 3,000 years prior. These coastal settlements became more and more settled as the cultivation of grains and the raising of goats and sheep in the grasslands became more sustainable for the larger populations.

===Classical Antiquity===

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File:Thebes, Egypt, The Colossi of Memnon, Ancient Egypt.jpg|The Great Stones  

===Medieval period===

====Oduniyyad Caliphate and Arabization====

{{Further|Oduniyyad Caliphate}}

[[931]] - [[1483]]

The Bedouin peoples of the Bulkawan Peninsula were resistant to the spread of Islam and conquest by the [[Oduniyyad Caliphate]]. While the Caliphs claimed the land as their own, they were never able to formalize the government and taxation system to bring the Bedouin peoples to heel. During the 900s the Caliphate attempted to migrate some {{wp|Masriq|Najdi Arabs}} from the northern deserts of modern day Bulkh and to the area to punish the recalcitrant {{wp|Bedouins}}. The Umardi princes brought their culture to the area, but following the Shia schism they remained Sunni, one of the few ethnically Umardi ruled areas to do so. The Bulkawan Peninsula remained segregated between a Umardi ruling class and a Bedouin population until the fall of the Caliphate. At this point the Umardi princes were expelled back to Umalia and the various Bedouin tribes retired back into their nomadic lifestyles.

=====Salt and slave trades=====

====Decline of the Caliphate and the Warlords Period====

=== Early modern era ===

Following the collapse of the [[Oduniyyad Caliphate|Caliphate]] the various Bedouin tribes retired back into their nomadic lifestyles. The area remained untouched until the arrival of the Kiravian and NATION colonial efforts in the 15somethings.

==== Istroya Oriental colony ====

{{Further|Istroya Oriental colony|Burgoignesc colonial empire}}

The area being arid was of little use to colonists. They moved on and found other more temperate sites for settlements in the late 1570s. From [[1578]]-[[1614]] there was no recorded colonial activity in the area. However, in [[1615]] a [[Burgoignesc North Levantine Trading Company|Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC)]] surveyor mapped the salt flats of the Chott al-Rezid and the company made a mad dash to secure the area.

===== Company rule =====

Due to their nomadic lifestyle and their disinterest in engaging the [[occidental]]s, the [[Burgoignesc North Levantine Trading Company|Martillien North Levantine Trading Company (MNLC)]] largely left the Bedouins of the Bulkawan Peninsula alone and built their colonies around them. By the 1630s timber from Majanub was being brought to build a sprawling complex of fortified towns and salt mining operations. Businesses to support the efforts became very lucrative and wainwrights, shipwrights, and engineers flocked to the area. Beyond the Chott al-Rezid the [[Burgoignesc North Levantine Trading Company|Company]] build operations at the Chott al-Mouza and the Ben Ghilli Salt Flats. These operations brought millions into the [[Burgoignesc North Levantine Trading Company|Company]]’s coffers and is one of the primary financial activities that allowed for unfettered expansion in [[Audonia]]. The salt mines brought tens of thousands of colonists from [[Burgundie]], the Levantine Protestant communities on [[Torlen]] and [[Medimeria]], as well as from other parts of [[Audonia]]. The port cities of Avelie and Sant Marten both surpassed 20,000 residents in the 1690s making them bigger than [[Vilauristre]] and [[Port Diteaux]]. The back-breaking work and the blistering heat made for a seedy type coming to seek work in the colonial province of Bulkawa. This led to rapid development of the vice sectors like prostitution and drinking halls. It also required the establishment of a vast drinking liquid network. This drove the development of the tea plantations in Vitale, [[Pukhgundi]], and other parts of [[Audonia]].

===Late modern period===

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File:Omar Mukhtar with the Libyan Mujahideen.jpg|Bulkhawan fighters during the [[Second Great War]], [[1937]].

===Contemporary period===

The income disparity as well as the [[Occidental]]ization from the first half of the 20th century caused a rift in the nation that ultimately led to a communist insurgency in the western part of the country during the 1960s-80s. During this period the government further embraced [[Burgundie]] and became a rising star in the globalizing world. It has become a stable global trading partner for nations and has developed a strong manufacturing sector that rivals any in the [[Middle seas region]]. Today, Bulkh is a key second tier manufacturing hub for industrializing nations and nations with moderate and lower incomes. It is also serves as a point of power projection for [[Burgundie]] in the [[Audonia]]/[[Alshar]]i interface zone, through which it also conducts its own modest power projection.

====Bulkh People's Republic====

In [[1964]], communist insurgents from [[Umardwal]] spilled into the eastern provinces of Bulkh and established a People's Republic. Federal forces attempted to route the insurgents but the vast desert and lack of development in the region led to a long and tedious campaign of attrition. A formal People's Republic of Bulkh was accepted by a referendum of the people of the western provinces in [[1968]]. At this time the [[Burgundie]] extended Operation Kipling to include the [[Bulkh#Bulkh_People's_Republic|Bulkh People's Republic]].

==Government and Politics==

Bulkh is a secular {{wpl|Consociationalism|Consociational}} democratically elected oligarchic state with power being shared by the elites of the majority Muslim Arab community (68% of the population) and the minority Christian (20% of the population) and Bedouin (12% of the population) communities. Representatives to the ''Constituent Council'' are directly elected by their constituency and serve for a term of 3 years. There is a 4-term limit to service on the Constituent Council.

===Federal subdivisions===

Buhlk is divided into 5 provinces and a Federal District.

===Military===

File%3AMarine_Aircraft_Group_11_at_Shaikh_Isa_airfield_1991.JPEG|Joint Burgo-Bulkh Iylia Airforce Base

File%3A2022_A188_010_P_001_001.jpg|[[Royal Air Service of Burgundie]] Fighter/interceptor Escadrille 3 of the Wind Scorpion Escadron

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The military of Bulkh is small but highly professional. It is comprised of three branches the Army (land), the Maritime Defense Force (navy and coast guard), and the Republican Escadrille (air force and ostensibly space force).

Much of the ancient surviving architecture in Bulkh is comprised of the {{wp|Islamic architecture|Islamic architectural style}} brought by the [[Oduniyyad Caliphate]]. Much of these are religious buildings like mosques and masjid and other are government buildings primarily in the large urban settlements that would become the cities along the coasts. In the [[[[Timeline_of_major_world_events#Early_modern_history|early modern period]], architectural influences came primarily from the [[Occidental world]], especially the styles in [[Burgundie]]. These [[Levantia|Levantine]] styles persisted and even after the collapse of the [[Burgoignesc colonial empire]] and a resurgence of [[Occidental]] architectural motifs became the norm, especially in the late 20th century, after [[Operation Kipling]]. However, in the 1990s until now there has been a revival of more classical building methods, local building materials, architectural motifs reminiscent of Islamic styles of the past. While most urban cores reflect the more [[Occidental]] styles of the late 20th century and early 21st century, other less densely populated areas are much more visually reminiscent of the previous architectural styles. In the most remote areas, in the northern part of the country, the nomadic lifestyle of {{wp|Bedouins}} has led to an almost complete absence of permanent architecture and as those populations were settled in the 20th century with the influences of {{wp|modernist architectural styles}} and thinking some of the buildings came to reflect the tent like structures used by the nomadic Bedouins.

Bulkh is an industrialized nation with a strong manufacturing sector. It's close ties with [[Burgundie]] have led to a number of agreements with has allowed Burgoignesc companies to establish manufactories in Bulkh while paying local salaries, however all manufactories must comply to [[Burgundie|Burgoignesc]] health and safety standards.

[[File:Briqueterie au Sénégal 01.jpg|250px|right]]

Bulkh has a massive {{wp|sand mining}} and {{wp|elutriation}} industry in support of its {{wp|construction aggregate}} industry. It cultivates and exports 4.8 megatonnes of sand and silica. Bulkh also has {{wp|Gypsum#Mining|gypsum mining}} the excavates 12 million tonnes of the substance. These aggregates are exported or combined in {{wp|concrete}} dry-mix, and {{wp|cinderblocks}} and sold premixed and packaged around the world.

===Agriculture===

===Infrastructure===

====Air====

Bulkh has two international airports the Malik International Airport in metro al Qadria, serving the southern half of the country. The other is Bi-smi llah Intermodal Transit Centre which is a commercial air, rail, and passenger ferry hub that serves the northern part of the country and the southeastern coast of the [[Sea of Kandahar]].

Bulkh uses [[Track gauges around the world|Standard gauge]], 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) as most of its rail infrastructure has been under the auspices of [[Burgundie]] and its sphere of influence in the [[Middle seas region]], who all use that rail gauge.

====Roads====

====Energy and electricity====

In [[2024]], Bulkh and [[Burgundie|Burgoignesc]] [[List_of_companies_by_industry_in_Burgundie#Utilities|Gaia Energy Corporation]], completed a 4,660-acre solar park and battery project. It consists of 875 megawatts (MW) of solar and 3,320 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy storage.