Welsh Patagonia

New North Wales
Also known as ... Gogledd Cymru Newydd ... also known as ... Welsh Patagonia

Flag of Welsh Patagonia
[ img ]

Basic Info:
Pop: 22.677.486
Denomyn: Welsh
Official language: Welsh
GDP (PP): $ 724,296 bn
GDPPC (PP): $ 31,939
Capital: Aberystwyth Newydd
Independence: 2 April 1982
Form of government: Parliamentary democracy
Ideology: Christian Socialism
Head of Government: Leigh Halfpenny, MP (Labour Party)
Head of State: Diana, Queen of New North Wales, Empress of Antarctica
Religion: Protestant Nonconformist Church of the Welsh Community
Allies: German Democratic Republic (and rest of EU), Burkina Faso, Republic of Texas, DPRK, Mesopotamian Republic of the Uruguay
Enemies: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, State of New Zion, Empire of the Algarve, Qing Empire
Major economic activities: Mining, petroleum drilling and refinement, plastics production, software industry, livestock, fisheries, tourism
Driving side: Right

World Map (Americas only so far, WIP)
[ img ]

History:

Foundation and Consolidation:

During the Napoleonic Wars, and following the Congress of Vienna, the position of historic British antagonists - the French and Spanish nations - was considerably worsened. In the early 19th century, the Concert of Europe balanced peace on the continent while the Royal Navy assured safety on the seas. The Union Jack was planted ever afar in alien lands.

On 28 June 1838 Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey to popular appeal. Victoria under the “Kensington System” devised by her mother, who had sought to control her. The new Queen had been a lonely and isolated individual prior to her ascension to power. Although she had lived her previous 18 years in seclusion, she had become aware of the Welsh. Like any upstanding Englishwoman, Queen Victoria, who was German, did not much like the idea of the Welsh. As such she resolved to be rid of them.

A census was carried out, and it was discovered that there were Welsh (Cymry, as they are known in their own language). Parliament, at the Queen’s behest, rapidly passed a bill ensuring their expulsion from the British Isles. Queen Victoria, however, was not completely unkind to the Welsh. Although she wanted them displaced, she refrained from banishing them to Australia, “a land to be reserved for murderers and rapists”.* Jamaica was initially considered as a destination, but was abandoned when it was noted that they might mate with the plantation slaves into an even more undesirable subspecies. The Welsh, therefore, were to be settled on the Atlantic coast of the area known as Patagonia.

Patagonia had several benefits. Firstly, it was essentially uncontested, the warring caudillos of the nascent Latin American states could not project power that far south. Secondly, it was prime land for sheep, and thus for Welsh people. Thirdly, it had strategic relevance in controlling the approaches to the Straits of Magellan.

Colonization began on 1 August 1840, and by late 1851 all Welsh had been resettled. The administrative capital of Aberystwyth Newydd turned into a bustling frontier port, profiting from the export of the goods of the colony, mainly wool. Taking into account the condition in which the Welsh were placed, the colony, dubbed “Gogledd Cymru Newydd” - New North Wales, was granted a large degree of autonomy and reduced tax obligations. The comparatively high population of the territory (by New World standards) and the liberty of action afforded to the local administration allowed New North Wales to quickly expand itself throughout the entirety of Patagonia, both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The rest of the century developed peacefully for New North Wales, as its membership in the British Empire protected it from the tumultuous political situation in the rest of South America. However, although the colony itself was not threatened, Welsh manpower was often used as auxiliaries by the British Army. During the Boer War (1880) Welsh troops were crucial in the decisive victory at Laing’s Nek, being cunningly used by British command in spread-order wave attacks to exhaust Boer ammunition. The “Patagonian Sepoy” regiments present at the battle sustained 74% casualties, enabling the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot to finally carry the field with only 3 wounded. The Boer force was routed, and the unruly Boer were promptly herded into internment camps and never proved to be a problem again. Similar crucial Welsh contributions were noted in the Sudan, the Moroccan war, and the Great War.

The Partition:

New North Wales was deeply affected by the Great Depression, although it fared better than others due to the discovery of oil and minerals in the southern Andes and the Patagonian steppe. Representation at the 1926 and 1932 Imperial Conferences confirmed the status of New North Wales and its full participation in the system of Imperial Preference. The Welsh, although conscious of their differential treatment, were buoyed by their seemingly increasing inclusion in the Imperial system. This proved to be an erroneous belief.

In September of 1939 the German armed forces rapidly overwhelmed Poland. In the spring of 1940, they bested the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The British Expeditionary Force was encircled and reduced in the outskirts of Calais while Italian paratroopers seized Gibraltar. Noting the quick collapse of the Western European powers, the Russian Patriarch refused to become involved on the losing side. As the Luftwaffe suppressed Fighter Command airfields and joint Axis surface and subsurface forces blocked the Atlantic, Prime Minister Churchill was forced for peace.

A number of concessions were made to the Fascist powers as part of the peace negotiations. The vast majority of these did not directly affect New North Wales, who initially seemed to emerge practically unscathed from the Second Treaty of Versailles. Unfortunately for the Welsh, they still amounted to little standing within the Imperial system. One of the points to be resolved at the conference was the fate of the descendants of Jacob, son of Isaac. As a first plan involving Hebrew settlement of Palestine had fallen through at the intransigence of the neutral Bulgarian Tsarina to relinquish any territory, Patagonia was offered. In exchange, Germany would relinquish its designs upon sub-Saharan Africa. The offer was much too attractive to London, and the northern third of the territory was to be placed in trust to the League of Nations for Hebrew settlement.

British and German forces were to jointly enforce the partition, under neutral League of Nations oversight. Two million Welsh fled before the creation of the State of New Zion, and a further two million Welsh were forcibly displaced by militant Zionist settlers. The British government became massively unpopular in New North Wales, and independentist unrest broke out in parallel with the establishment of the State of New Zion in 1941.

The British government refused to grant the territory independence, and deployed counter-insurgency forces in the colony to attempt to quell unrest. This period, known as “The Troubles”, was characterised by low-level irregular warfare both in Patagonia.

Independence:

The campaign proved both unsustainable on the ground and increasingly unpopular in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1977, the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Harare, establishing a truce and promising to grant independence to the territory within a period of five years. On 2 April 1982 New North Wales was declared an independent nation, and the new government subsequently withdrew from the Commonwealth in protest of its previous treatment and refused to recognise Queen Wallis II. The cousin-in-law of the Queen, Diana Duchess of York, was crowned Queen of New North Wales following her decision to relinquish all other titles and divorce Charles, Duke of York. This compromise was agreed upon by the British and Welsh governments due to Diana’s popularity in both countries and the fact that she was not a direct blood relation of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The conflict with New Zion was not mitigated by the move for Welsh independence, and an uneasy peace was shattered on 3 November 1996 when Israel responded violently after a sequence of repeated violations of both countries' exclusive economic zones. Zionist aircraft struck the frigate LEM Ffyddlon, heavily damaging it and placing it out of action. On 4 November, Welsh forces struck across the partition line, shelling and bombing Zionist positions around Port Lahav, which rested on the frontier. Both countries began to commit forces piecemeal to the combat area, and by 6 November both governments had declared general mobilizations, disregarding international appeals for peace. Zionist forces were driven back from Port Lahav, although fighting in general remained sporadic given the low density of the combat theater. On 9 November, the ZNS Tekumah sunk the Texan TRS The Robertsons, mistaking it for a Welsh vessel. Following this event, Texas openly declared support for New North Wales, sparking a chain of alliances throughout the Americas. Uruguay placed its forces on high alert on 10 November and began shifting units to its border with New Zion, while The Algarve threatened to mobilise its Brasilian garrison on 11 November.

International arbitration resulted in a truce being declared on 13 November, with diplomats from New North Wales, New Zion, the Algarve, Germany, Corea, and the United Kingdom agreeing on the establishment of a demilitarized zone between New North Wales and New Zion based on the pre-war border, and New Zion agreed to pay Texas for the lost warship. Although the war had been brief, it had displayed notable failures in Welsh military capability, as their forces had taken disproportionate losses against Zionist units.

Present situation:
New North Wales has since sought to continue its development and insert itself in the international community. It maintains its objection to Israelite settlement at the League of Nations, and demands the return of the original extent of its territory. A tense standoff has been in place ever since independence, with troops from New North Wales and Israel being arrayed against one another. New North Wales has sought to acquire nuclear weapons, and although so far it has denied it, international observers suspect that within the last ten years the country has developed operational capability. One thing is for certain, any future conflict would be much more brutal than the skirmishes of November 1996.

* N.B. In this case, the reference is to rapists whose victims were of age. Deportation policies did not concern rapists of children, who were in no way disturbed and thus allowed to retain their positions in parliament, the clergy, finance, the newspapers, et al..

Shipbucket

Who is online