Atrassica
| Colony of Atrassica Axerka Atrassika | |
 Flag | |
| Country |  Kiravian Federacy
|
| Theme |  Overseas Regions
|
| Capital | Fort Kenmór |
| Population | 5.8 million |
| Governor | Vandur I.D.A. Ersuvian |
| Legislature | Legislative Conference |
| Stanora seats | 2 |
| Official languages | West Coast Marine Coscivian Kiravic Coscivian |
| Postal Abbreviation | ATA |
| Time Zone | West Crona Time |
Atrassica is an overseas province of the Kiravian Federacy occupying a continental island in the North Atrassic Ocean (as it is known in the Coscivian world, and from whence the colony's name is derived) at the boundary of the Albion Sea, off the western coast of the Alpachnia in northeastern Crona.
The native population of the island is made up of two tribal groups, the Massapíkva and Minnéola.
Geography
Atrassica is a large island and one of the largest Kiravian provinces, having a land area of approximately 120,375 square kilometres. The island is broadly rectangular in shape. Its topography is generally level, dominated by low plains and a somewhat more elevated interior plateau known locally as the álíhoma or "upcountry". The island's base vegetation is hemiboreal mixed forest, where coniferous trees predominate, but a significant number of deciduous species, such as aspen, oak, maple, ash, birch, beech, hazel, and hornbeam, are also found. Much of this native forest has been converted into a forest-farmland mosaic
History
Humans first migrated to Atrassica, presumably from mainland North Crona, during the last glacial maximum. At the time of the island's discovery by Coscivians, it was inhabited by two tribal groups, the Massapíkva and Minnéola, with close linguistic and genetic relationships to the peoples of what in modern times would become Alpachnia and the former Nanseetucket (now Mid-Atrassic Crona).
Before contact with Coscivians, the traditional culture of both the Massapíkva and Minnéola generally involved seasonal migration downriver in the spring to fish and plant crops, largely of maize, beans, and squash, and to hold annual gatherings. They then travelled to the saltwater shores for the summer, where they harvested seafoods and berries. In the early autumn, they would travel upstream to harvest their crops and prepare for the winter. After the harvest, they dispersed in small family groups to their hunting grounds at the headwaters of the various tributaries to hunt and trap during the winter.
Colonisation
Although it is unclear who from Hesperic Ixnay was the first to discover Atrassica, it began appearing on maps in the 1580s AD. Kiravian merchants, seasonal fishermen, and missionaries visited the island from 1594 onward, and the island was formally claimed for the newly-reorganised Kiravian Federacy in 1622 AD by the Atrassica Act. For the first half-century following the annexation, Kiravian settlement was largely confined to the coasts, and merchants, fishermen, and missionaries continued to account for the bulk of the colonists, as more Kiravians were drawn to the inland areas of Great Kirav opened for settlement by the Continental War and the Lesser Crona (that is, Cusinaut) colonies of Rovaīon, Porfíria, and Avenirskara. At this stage, relations between the settler society and the indigenous were generally peaceful on account of minimal competition for land and resources. From the 1640s AD through the 1710s AD, colonial officials negotiated a series of agreements with various indigenous chieftains to establish formal Kiravian suzerainty over the Massapíkva and Minnéola, although it is now believed that the two parties had vastly different interpretations of what they had agreed to. Coscivian Orthodox and Insular Apostolic missionaries achieved some success in evangelising parts of the native population, and some native communities near the coasts gradually assimilated into Coscivian civilisation, but for the most part the two societies remained independent of one another until the 1750s AD, when a larger generation of Atrassica-born Kiravians and a new wave of immigrants from Great Kirav pushed the Kiravian pale of settlement deeper into the hinterland. The virgin lands of the Atrassican interior were highly desirable to Kiravian colonists due to the very similar climatic and other agricultural conditions between Atrassica and the upper-middle latitudes of Great Kirav, which meant that familiar Kiravian crops and farming techniques were easily transferrable to the colony. Competition for land and resources between the settlers and indigenous escalated quickly on account of this land rush, resulting in the Massapíkva War (1755-1756 AD), which ended in the final subjection of the Massapíkva and their lands to direct Kiravian rule and precipitated the submission of the Minnéola to the same the following year. Members of both tribal groups were given the option to either withdraw to a series of fragmented and discontinuous reserves, located mainly on the least-arable land available, or to become taxpaying Subjects of the Land and take up Kiravian-style farming on allotments, which were often of insufficient size and quality to properly sustain a household.
The Kiravian Atrassic Trading Company, based out of Saar-Silverda, played a major role in the settlement and development of Atrassica. The company's base at Xorpamonta (Æng. "Thunder Bay") formed the nexus of a trading network connecting Saar-Silverda with Port Hyannis in Nanseetucket and a chain of other trading posts along the coast from Alpachnia to Telonaticolan to Titechaxha and Kelekona. Indeed, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Atrassican economy was heavily dependent on marine industries. Fishing, shipbuilding and ship repair, and intercontinental trade thrived along the state's extensive coastline. In addition to Xorpamonta, Luğesátkuv and Dun-Kenmór emerged as key port cities, connecting Atrassica to global trade networks. The demand for temperate lumber, particularly for ship construction in Æonara, fuelled the timber industry in the colony. The mid-19th century marked the era of railroad expansion, connecting the Atrassican interior to coastal ports and facilitating the transportation of timber, minerals, and other goods. Beyond connecting Atrassican commodities to new markets, railway expansion also raised living standards in the interior, making its homesteads and small towns more inviting to emigrants from Great Kirav.
Sunderance
During the Kiravian Sunderance, Atrassica remained securly under the control of the Kiravian Remnant, and was considered by Séan Kæśek as a possible location for the seat of the rump Federalist government, though this would ultimately be located in Æonara. Nonetheless, Atrassica was of immense importance to the Remnant as one of its major remaining landmasses, a strategic window onto the Kirosocialist-held Mainland, and a key reserve of manpower and natural resources.
Aboriginal policy also evolved during the Sunderance, mirroring the Sarolasta Reform Act and similar legislation enacted elsewhere in the Remnant. The 1949 Cronite Civil Status Act (Atrassica) promoted taxpaying Massapíkva and Minnéola from Subjects of the Land to metics (vôvodin) eligible to apply for full citizenship (and subject to conscription), and extended Kiravian nationality to non-taxpaying aboriginals domiciled on the reserves.
Post-Reunification
The Civil Habilitation Act of 1985 extended meticship and civil registration to the thitherto-unenrolled indigenous residents of all overseas provinces incorporated into the Kiravian Federacy, finally equalising civil status between on-reserve and off-reserve aboriginals in Atrassica and allowing the former to apply for full citizenship without abjuring reserve land rights or other special accommodations. An indigenist political party, Electoral Action of the Twin Tribes, was founded in time to stand for the special 1987 federal election, in which it won an historic 0 seats in the Federal Stanora, though it would go on to establish a permanent presence in the colonial legislature.
Governance
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Atrassica uses the Governor-council-conference form of government found in many other Kiravian territories. The head of the executive branch is the Governor, who is appointed by the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy on the "advice of the citizenry" expressed in an election by alternative vote every 72 months. Under normal circumstances, the same person may not hold the office of Governor for consecutive terms, though this restriction can be waived by the Prime Executive by proclamation in case of war, emergency, or exigent circumstances.[1] The Governor exercises most executive functions through a collegial body known as the Executive Council (Vektikirstuv), but also possesses a number of prerogative powers which he may exercise independently. The Executive Council includes two Councillors elected by the legislature, one Councillor elected by the citizenry (who holds the title of Colonial Auditor), and a variable number of others (usually 5-9) appointed by the Governor. The traditional leaders of the Massapíkva and Minnéola tribes also have a standing invitation to attend meetings of the Executive Council but do not vote.
The territorial legislature, known as the Legislative Conference (Áldakrastax Róatnūra), is a unicameral body elected by alternative vote every three years, returning one legislator from each of the colony's 45 countyships.
In terms of structure, local government in Atrassica resembles the situation in Devahoma and Intravia. Below the countyship level there are three classes of municipality - city (sar), borough (vestra), and village (kōsuv) - as well as civil townships and off-reservation indigenous villages with more limited powers and functions. However, countyship governments in Atrassica are significantly stronger than those in Devahoma, and are responsible for important services such as education, public health, road maintenance, and a great deal of policing, as well as overseeing local economic development. Like other Kiravian provinces in Crona, Atrassica has codified the special status of Settlement Movement communities, many of which are located in the island's interior. Although not municipalities or civil townships, settlement trusts are considered civic bodies, have special tax status, and have their affairs governed by a special Coöperatives Court.
Politics
Society & Culture
Atrassica has a population of over 5.8 million. It is a settler society whereïn the majority of the population are colonists, and it is often remarked that Atrassican society represents a social and cultural microcosm of the northern half of Great Kirav, reflecting the regional origins of most settler families. Most of the colonial population have family histories on the island dating at least three generations back, though many are more recent transplants from Great Kirav or elsewhere in the Federacy. The indigenous population is officially enumerated at 10.8% of the total, though the actual number of Atrassicans with substantial indigenous ancestry is much larger, as persons of mixed descent with Coscivian or other colonial ancestry in the male line are considered Coscivians, as are some indigenous families (and even a few whole communities) that adopted Coscivian lifestyles and cultural norms early in the colony's history. Most of the older Atrassican families have ancestral roots in Cascada, Ilfenóra, Devahoma, Kernea, the Upper Kirav, and the Hockey Belt. Accordingly, West Coast Marine Coscivian and Arnórian Coscivian are the most spoken Coscivian languages in the territory after Kiravic.
Many smaller Coscivian ethnic communities live in the island's interior, in ethnically homogeneous block settlements and coöperative/communal "movement settlements". These include Rísuvic Coscivians, known for their complex polysynthetic language, Qihuxian Coscivians, and an intentional community of the small Ârunav Coscivian ethnic group founded in a remote black spruce forest for the purpose of reviving their critically endangered language.
Around 9.5% of Atrassicans belong to ethnic groups speaking Elutic languages, including Koralem, Kopistonians, Rhuonic Elutes, Kormaks, and Malakkas. Several Elutic-speaking localities can be found on the east and northeast coasts, and there are Elute quarters in the larger cities.
Atrassica has a higher-than-average birthrate.
Ethnocultural Breakdown of Atrassica
Economy
The Atrassican economy has historically been based in the extractive and mercantile sectors, relying mainly on the island's rich natural resources and as a trade link between Great Kirav and the west coast of North Crona.
Atrassica's early economic and population growth was due in large part to agriculture. The island's climatic similarity to much of Central and Upper Kirav, combined with its level topography and fair soils allowed Kiravian farmers to easily put familiar crops and agricultural techniques to work on the island. Potato, cereals, hops, and sugar beets are the principal crops, and hogs account for most of the island's livestock. A substantial share of Atrassican farmers, both Kiravian and indigenous, continue to farm for household subsistence, though most are now integrated into the market system. Some of the most productive agricultural enterprises in Atrassica are coöperatives located in Movement Settlements.
Atrassican breweries, making use of local produce, have long exported beer to the countries of western North Crona, especially Nanseetucket.
Agriculture and Forestry
Due to climatic similarities, crops grown in northern Kiravian states like Kaviska and Fariva also grow well in Atrassica. These include such important Kiravian staples as potato, rye, elymus, buckwheat, oats, Arctic brome (for animal feed), barley (featured on the provincial flag), cabbage, and collard. Pumpkins, gourds, and squash are grown extensively, and the province is ranked among the leading Kiravian producers and is the top interprovincial exporter of this category of produce, selling mainly to Æonaran and Krasoa Islands wholesalers. Corn is also grown more widely in Atrassica than in mainland Kiravian states of comparable altitude and climate.
Although the level topography of Atrassica is favourable to intensive cultivation, the climate presents challenges to which only farmers in Kiroboreal and North Levantine countries have thoroughly adapted. Atrassican farmers rely on quick-ripening and frost-resistant varieties of crops, and they have cultivated south-facing slopes of hillocks as well as richer bottomlands to ensure production even in years with summer frosts, which are not terribly uncommon. Much farmland on the island was originally either forest or swamp, and the soil had usually required thorough and repeated treatment with lime and years of cultivation to neutralize excess acid and to develop fertility. Irrigation is not necessary anywhere on the island due to ample rainfall, but drainage systems are often needed to remove excess water. Due to the large amount of work required to make the more marginal lands arable, much of the island's poorer land was developed by (and still belongs to) collectivist Movement Settlements or close coöperatives with the capacity or organise these labour-intensive activities and sustain farmers through the early lean years.
Large manorial estates or plantations were never viable in Atrassica, and as such most Atrassican agriculture takes place on family farmsteads, or on communally-managed land belonging to block settlements or Movement settlements/settlement towns or native reserves. The family-smallholder basis of Atrassican agriculture intensified during the Sunderance when the rump Federalist government implemented a series of land reforms that redistributed land to tenant farmers and landless field labourers. In addition, the government resettled some 50,000 refugee farming families displaced from areas occupied by the Kiravian Union, many from Koskenkorva. The postwar resettlement and reorganisation programme also transferred some land to farms considered too small for efficient operations.
The relationship between agriculture and forestry is a close one in Atrassica, representing a transplantation of northern Kiravian agricultural techniques into a new but familiar landscape. In the 1980s AD, the average Atrassican farm comprised twelve hectares of arable land and twenty-five hectares of forest, and 8-15% of most farming households' incomes was derived from foresting activities. Many farmers in the colony engage in silviculture or silvopasture, and some Movement Settlements are centred on the preservation of traditional forest gardening and similar activities important to the ethnic heritage of their members. The cultivation of sugar maple and the production of maple syrup are of great importance and provide one of the colony's most valuable export goods.
Industry
Industrial development began later in Atrassica than in similarly-situated Kiravian colonies, such as those in Cusinaut, which had a mroe extensive history of commercial activity and mining. However, as a result of Sunderance-era state-driven development policies, manufacturing and processing had replaced agriculture and forestry as the leading sectors of the economy by the 1950s AD. By the late 1970s AD, the service sector had in turn surpassed industry in total production and share of employment, but industry remained the main export earner, allowing the Kiravian Remnant to pay for needed imports of energy and raw materials.
Blue Economy
As an island, much of Atrassica's wealth comes, in one form or another, from the sea.
Countyships and Localities
- Luğesátkuv - (Æng. "Petrel Landing") Port on the northern shore
- Xorpamonta - (Æng. "Thunder Bay") Port on the western shore
- Dun-Kenmór - (Æng. "Fort Kenmore") - Capital city and eastern shore port
Countyships
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Notable Atrassicans
- Sārden Ēvūrverd - Longest-serving Chancellor of reunified Kiravia. Born and raised in rural County Lattaren. Most recent Chancellor to have been literally born in a barn.
- Vurdhan Katravandin - Last Secretary-General of the Renaissance Party.
- Romo Niskanen - Former FFL quarterback.
Notes
- ↑ This was last done in 1936 by PE Séan Kæśek shortly after the Federalist defeat in the Kiravian Civil War.