Crowned Republic of Avalon

Crowned Republic of Avalon
Well I feel that I've developed this to a point where it can get its own topic. So here goes. I present to you my latest nation from the AU world I use. Avalon.

Map: to come, distances between possessions make it a bit difficult to make a single map...

Possessions and territories:

OTL areas:

Kerguelen Islands
Crozet Islands
Île Amsterdam
Île Saint-Paul
Marion Island
Heard Island and the McDonald Islands
French Scattered Islands (Indian Ocean)
Rodrigues Island

Nation
Crowned Republic of Avalon

Flag

Anthem
Imperial March Op.32

Motto
Hic Sunt Dracones

Capital
Glastonbury

Official Language
English

Recognised languages
English, Welsh, Breton, French Spanish

Demographics
Avalonian 71.3%
British 9.7%
Australian 3.5%
New Zealander 5.5%
Irish 0.75%
Dutch 0.11%
Indonesian 0.9%
South African 2.1%
Other 6.14%

Government
Meritocratic Parliamentary Democracy

President Douglas McAlpine
Prime Minister Saorise Byrne

Parliament
House of Representatives - 100 Seats

Independence
29th of October 1919

Area
Total: 9,164km²

Population
2011 census
13,814,874
Density
1507.517 / km²

GDP (nominal) (2011 estimate)

Total: € 398,779,250,000.00
Per Capita: € 28,865.93

HDI (2012)
Increasing >0.912

Currency
Euro € (For reasons to do with Antarctic exploration and people coming to and from the islands the Euro was instigated as the official currency of Avalon, this was permitted by the EU in 1992)

Time zone
GMT+5 (UTC+7)

Date formats
dd/mm/yyyy (AD)

Drives On The
Left

Military Manpower
Active: 179,750
Reserve: 160,000
Paramilitary: 750

Military Expenditures
Defence Budget: € 42,391,343,270.00
As a percentage of Budget 19%
As a Percentage of GDP: 10.63

Gallery

Abstract

Avalon, officially the Crowned Republic of Avalon is an Indian Ocean group mid way between Africa and Australasia. Made up of some 310 islands of various sizes the largest of which is (or was for the purposes of the AU) Grande Terre measuring some 6,675 km².
A part of the empire of Great Britain until independence in the wake of the great war. Although independent the Great British monarch is recognized as a ceremonial figurehead still.
Avalon was a trading post for the East India Company until its dissolution 1874. Due to the position of Avalon, attempts to annex or combat it have been few and far between. The first of which was in the great war with German raiders attacking the islands only to be repelled by torpedo gunboats and coastal artillery. The next real trial for Avalon came in the second world war with the proliferation of submarine warfare. During the "dark days" a good third of all merchant shipping registered in Avalon were either sunk or seized. It took until late 1942 for a coalition of commonwealth nations in the form of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Avalon to come up with a solution to the submarine problem.
Post war Avalon would again become somewhat of an isolationist state striving to maintain strict neutrality. With the rise of communism however pressure arose to side with NATO and the western powers, the rewards for doing this were military and financial aid from the USA, France and the United Kingdom allowing Avalon to fortify its position in the Southern Seas to be almost unassailable. However a point of concern has always been Madagascar, first under French rule and now a more belligerent and newly independent Madagascar. Disputing claims on Islands in the Indian ocean originally of British or French origin and ceded to or annexed by Avalon. The main concern was Avalon able to project air and sea power in all four cardinal directions towards Madagascar. From 1958 tensions between the two nations and hostility to each other started to increase resulting in two separate armed conflicts between the nations. Firstly in 1970 and secondly in 1984. More recently relations have slightly mellowed until another armed confrontation in 2013.

Etymology

The name of Avalon is derived from that in Arthurian legend where Excalibur was forged. Residents of Avalon are known as Avalonians.

History

The earliest recorded settlement of Avalon was in 1785 by members of the EIC by 1790 the Islands had been claimed by the British much to the annoyance of the French who actually discovered the islands some years previously. In the years after the end of the East India Company the economy of Avalon and as a result of that also the population fell dramatically until the latter part of the 19th century when the need for foodstuffs from Atlantia and Britain started to allow the economy to recover through the mass export of sheep based products (lamb, mutton and wool), salted and frozen fish and whale oil. By the outbreak of the great war Avalon had regained a stable population and economy. Though an co-belligerent of Britain, Avalon suffered relatively minor casualties during the conflict due to the manner in which her forces were deployed, freeing up other empire forces to fight in Europe.

After treaty of Versailles in 1919 the independence movement started to take hold under the assumption that Avalonians had been lucky compared to other empire forces and did not want to test their luck again by being drawn into another "European" war. It was deemed acceptable for Avalon to be given independence given its location and relative perceived lack of valuable resources and so on the 29th of October 1919 Avalon became independent of the British Empire.
Between the wars the economy stayed quite stable, not being greatly affected by the great depression Avalon capitalized upon the economic weakness of certain nations buying up areas of land and surrounding sea for what were to them rock bottom prices.
By the outbreak of the second world war Avalon had a thriving economy by now quite a modern country they were exporting machinery and precision tooling to Atlantia and Australia.
After the discovery of gas oil and rare earth metals in the fifties and sixties the economy and population of Avalon really started to grow. By 1975 the population had reached 8.7 million and a GDP comparable to that of contemporary Greece.
In 1982 during the Falklands conflict Avalonian forces were employed in the effort to regain British sovereignty. This marked the furthest operational deployment of Avalonian forces in history, some 7750km away from home. This was exceeded some years later by deployment first to free Kuwait in the first gulf war and then to the Balkans under the UN.
Most recently Avalonian forces have been deployed to combat piracy and illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean.

Naval History

Setting up of the Avalonian navy would mirror that of the Canadian Navy in as much as until the early 20th century there would be no Avalonian Navy as such but rather Avalon would financially back th British Navy which would look after Avalonian maritime interests. By around 1910 however this was thought to be unjustifiable given that the arms race going on between Britain and Germany was a waste of funding compared to what could be spent on home security given a free hand.

So in May of 1910 the Royal Avalonian Navy was born. In the following years until the Great War saw the construction of 8 cruisers to protect merchant shipping. Four of these would be deplloyed to the South Atlantic during the war where three of them would be sunk.
During hostilities two battlecruisers were constructed to patrol the Indian Ocean and Avalonian interests therein.

Government and Politics

Avalon is a crowned parliamentary republic using the Westminster system of an unicameral parliamentary government representing various constituencies.

Whilst democratic in principle the government of Avalon operate in a meritocratic way under the following principles.

Every child should have an equal chance to succeed in life, as such there are no private schools for the children of the elite and rich
No party politics, all members of parliament are independent from one another
Only those with relevant understanding or qualifications are able to vote on issues rather than everyone over the age of 18
However everyone can obtain the right to vote on any issue, generally by completing a specific set of questions or by government decree.
50-75% inheritance tax. Above a certain threshold inheritance tax is charged relative to the amount of inheritance to prevent the overly rich from creating dynasties.
An education system based on the MBTI personality types to be able to best teach specific groups of people.
A two-tier socio-capitalist based economic system

Geography

Avalon consists of some 310 islands including the main island which the capital is on. Through progressive land reclamation since the mid 1920s the land area of Avalon now totals some 253km² more than it did previously on just the East coast in the

Glastonbury area. Further North and West there has been further land reclamation with the filling in of some basins and lakes to provide more farmland and building space. With all the various land reclamation and modification undertaken over the years

the total land area of Avalon is some 9,965km² including the outlying islands.
Avalon major is an emerged part of the submerged Kerguelen Plateau which itself is nearly 2.2 million km² in size. The plateau was created by volcanic eruptions associated with the Kerguelen hotspot and now forms part of the Antarctic plate.
Glaciation has caused the depression and tipping phenomena that created the gulfs at the north and east of the archipelago. Erosion caused by the glacial and fluvial activity carved out the valleys and fjords.
Part of the volcanic nature of the islands is evident in the fact that a lot of energy production comes from geothermal sources.
Until the early 1900s deforestation was a major issue on the islands wherein a massive re-planting program was undertaken with innumerable coniferous trees similar to examples that grew upon the islands from many years previous.

Armed Forces

The Avalonian Defence Force (Abbreviated to AVDF) is the military arm of Avalon. It consists of three main branches, the Avalonian Army, Avalonian Air Force (AVAF) and Avalonian Navy (AVN). The AVDF is mainly made up of volunteers with compulsory conscription enacted in times of crisis. It has an active strength 179,750 personnel with 160,000 reservists to mobilize as well as 750 paramilitary personnel.

Deterrence and diplomacy have been the fundamental tenets of Avalon's military defence policy. Through the years, the military has developed extensive links with armed forces from other countries such as the United States and France. In recent years, there has also been an increased emphasis on international peace-keeping efforts and relief operations including the Balkan crisis and both recent Asian tsunamis.
Women serve in the AVDF with equal rights to men in both combat and non-combat orientated units.

Avalon is part of the Six Power Defence Agreement whose other members include Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. Designed to replace the former defence role of the British in Singapore and Malaysia, the arrangement obliges members to consult in the event of external threat against Malaysia and Singapore.

Avalon has since the end of the second world war consistently supported a strong U.S. military presence in the region. In 1984, the U.S. and Avalon signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which allowed the U.S. access to Avalonian facilities. Under the MOU, a U.S. Navy logistics unit was established in Avalon in 1987. U.S. fighter aircraft deploy periodically to Avalon for exercises such as Polar Flag.

Armed Forces Legislation

Under the enactment of the AVDF the president has the authority to stand up and disband units. The AVDF is run under the president by a council of active and former officers who consist of:

The Secretary of Defence - [SECDEF]
The Combined Arms Secretary - [COMSEC]
The Chief of the Army - [COA]
The Chief of the Air Force - [CAF]
The Chief of the Navy - [CON]

As well as the above positions there are five advisor positions filled by civilian sector analysts and experts.

Army

~~To be completed~~
Air Force

~~To be completed~~
Navy

~~To be completed~~

Shipbucket

Crowned Republic of Avalon

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