The Most Serene Republic
of
Nova Scotia
of
Nova Scotia
Other Names:
Most Serene Republic of Nova Scotia
Republic of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Haligonia
Halifax
Demonym:
Haligonian
Government:
Thalassocratic, Mercantile, Semi-parliamentary Republic (a la Venice).
The system of government in Nova Scotia exists as a compromise between monarchy, oligarchy and 'democracy'. The Head of State and of Government is the Doge of Halifax, who is appointed for life (as an elected monarch) by the High Council, an oligarchical body composed of members of the noble families of Halifax, as well as representatives of the influential merchant class. The High Council governs Nova Scotia directly, establishing and upholding the laws made. However, the initial implementation of new legislation is only made legitimate with the consent of the Doge of Halifax.
This creates a power balance between the Doge and the Council that promotes cooperation in the Council and restrains the Doge's power - he (there has yet to be a Duchess of Halifax, as there have been few female members of the Council) cannot push through a law on his own, but must propose the legislation to the Council, have it approved, and then consent to the law in writing.
The third, 'democratic' government body is the 'Senate of the Republic', a meeting of various officials from each of the 'Free Cities' - mercantile colonies populated predominantly by Haligonian colonists. Each are self-governing, according to each city's traditions, and Halifax interferes little with their internal affairs. The High Council does not hold authority over their domestic issues. However, the Republic operates on a semi-federal system, thus necessitating a federal body to decide common policies. These primarily consist of economic, military and diplomatic matters.
The Senate is not a gathering of equals, however. Each delegation consists of three voting representatives, with the exception of Halifax. The Capital has the right to send a delegation of nine voting representatives, justified (in theory) by the larger relative population of Nova Scotia (which the Halifax delegation supposedly represents).
In addition, the Doge has a permanent presence in the Senate by virtue of his position as 'Speaker' of the House. While scholars tell of the former impartiality expected of the position millennia ago, the Doge has no such convention expected of him. The Doge essentially has a veto over all federal laws proposed, and, as Speaker, can direct the debate in the direction that best suits his interests.
Territory and component subdivisions:
Don't forget about Bermuda!
Leader(s):
The current Doge of Halifax is Robert II. He is much respected in Nova Scotia itself, and wields great influence in his home Free City. However, his authority is increasingly being challenged in both the High Council and the Senate by politicians dissatisfied with the overrule of the Dogeship.
The Chancellor of Providence is Peter Oak.
The Doge of Newhaven is Keith Accord
The Doge of Elizabeth is Richard Johnson
The Duchess of Bar is Lilian Wright
The Chancellor of Moncton is Irwin Bishop
The Lord Minister of Novaebrunswick is Leonard Craven
The Lord Minister of Bermuda is Harold Baker
Culture:
The culture of Haligonia is centred around the sea, and the relationship of the people with water.
Ingrained within the cultural heritage of Nova Scotia is the memory of the 'Great Wave', a tsunami that reportedly occurred during or shortly after the 'Catastrophe'. It is remembered fearfully as the time when Halifax and the Sea made war on one another, and tore the world asunder. Chronicles tell of legends of the 'powers of gods in the hands of children' and the 'great fires' that burned the old world.
The cultural association with the Sea grew due to Haligonians' complete dependence on it, in the early days. After the Wave, the people took to the Sea once again, comforts of the 'Luxurious Epoch' gone forever. They learned to fish again, studied the arts of shipcrafting and navigation. This knowledge has become part of the Republic's strength and heritage.
The people worship 'the Deity', an entity that resembles the 'God' of pre-catastrophe Christianity. However, in Oceanism, as the sect came to be known, passages from the Bible (still retained) are held in higher regard if they are associated with the sea. The Flood of Noah, in particular, is a keystone of Oceanism's doctrine. The clerics say that the Deity only spared the world last time due to his promise to Noah, signified by the rainbow. In the six hundred years that have passed since the Catastrophe, rainbows have thus come to be regarded as a symbol of protection and guardianship. The rainbow emblem is usually worn in the form of an iridescent pearl, rather than a 'bow' shape with multiple colours.
The dress of the Haligonians is mostly practical, though the upper classes and wealthier merchants often sport decorative features as well. Standard dress for the average income male citizen is a hooded mantle of sealskin or wool, edged with wool to trap heat, under which sealskin trousers and tunics are worn. Mantles reach the ankles when standing upright. Overmantles, which are shorter (they reach the waist) are similar in design, and provide extra insulation. Undermantles are often worn while inside buildings - mantles and overmantles are discarded, and undermantles (usually thinner and more colourful) replace them. They usually reach the waist at least, but are not usually hooded. They perform the same task as fleeces and jumpers do in our world.
Womens' dress is similar, except that dresses are more commonplace as clothes that trousers and tunics, and most female mantles reach the knees. Sometimes, instead of a hood attached to the mantle, a shawl will be worn over the hair (think Mary in the Nativity story). Covering of the hair is mere convention - often, and almost always while indoors, dress code conventions are more liberal.
(Imagine the man has a hood, not a hat)
Demographics:
77% Haligonian
10% Acadian
9% Inuit
4% Other
Nation History:
Haligonian scholars have records of a time when a mysterious former empire, known as 'Canada', ruled over the vast tundra north and north-east of Nova Scotia. It is said that is stretched from Halifax and Newfoundland in the east, far to the distant western land of 'Briticolumbia', where good souls reside after death in Oceanic mythology.
The legend has it that, as part of Canada, the Haligonians were drawn further and further from their maritime roots. When the 'Great Fires' of the old world ignited, the Sea rose up in anger to reclaim Halifax for itself. Nova Scotia was deluged, and inland, the Fires and the 'Pestilences' destroyed the old Canadian empire.
Halifax was spared from the Fires. But its people were scattered and divided, leaderless. Slowly, people began to clump together, forming new communities amongst the ruins of the old world.
The first Haligonian state was the Republic of Halifax, proclaimed some time during the 2180s. Little is known of this ancient civilisation, but it was able to consolidate its hold on the city of Halifax under an oligarchical structure, perhaps an idealogical ancestor of the contemporary High Council.
This state lasted only until 2257, when the politically powerful Fishermen's Guild engineered a coup and set up a weak 'Lord Protector' as a puppet ruler, to increase their influence. The Guild controlled the city's food supplies, and thus dominated society. The de facto monarchy was popular, as the general populace saw the position as a strong defender of the people, little realising that the coup had been set up by the deeply unpopular Fishermen, by whom they felt exploited.
It was in these days that Halifax began to become a maritime power, as a wealth of knowledge concerning navigation and shipbuilding was uncovered deep within an abandoned library in Halifax. Most of the information was a remnant of technology now forgotten, but, together with some historical texts, the Haligonian Shipbuilding industry expanded dramatically.
The present state of affairs began in 2302, when a popular uprising broke out against the Fishermen. Seeing the opportunity to increase their influence, the Merchants' Guild and the Shipwrights' Guild sided with the rebels - it was the increasing amount of food imported by their ships that reduced the populace's dependence on the Fishermen. So, surprisingly, did the Lord Protector, seizing the opportunity to act independently for the first time.
The Shipwrights were able to destroy almost the entire Fishermen fleet, while the Merchants funded the Revolution of 2302 (as it came to be known) and imported food to feed the Haligonians. The Lord Protector's forces took control of the Hall of the Protector (the lodgings of the Lord Protectors, and today's Doges), scoring a massive morale boost for the Revolution.
Faced with the loss or capture of their fishing fleet, and the opposition of the populace, the Fishermen ceded power over to the Provisional Committee, a gathering of influential figures in the Revolution, including the wealthiest merchants, the best shipwrights, and the Lord Protector. Together with representatives of the Lesser Fishermen (fishermen from the smaller fishing companies that sided with the Revolutionaries, in the hopes of supplanting the larger fishing fleets), and with historical texts preserved from the latter days of Canada, they devised a new governmental system (see 'Government').
The title of Lord Protector became that of 'Doge', inspired by the records of an unspeakably ancient civilisation known as 'Venice', mentioned infrequently in old Canadian manuscripts as a mythical canal-based people that were 'married to the sea'. Some Haligonian scholars asserted that references to 'Venice' were in fact prophecies concerning the future of Halifax, and some sects of Oceanism (still developing at this time) adopted this same view, regarding the Biblical 'Tarshish', 'Venice' and Halifax itself as one and the same.
The First Period of Expansion came in 2347, and lasted until 2382. Doge Roderick I, a great general of the army, led the Haligonians in the conquest of Nova Scotia. Many, seeing the order and stability of Halifax, gladly accepted citizenship. Some resisted, particularly in the north of the island, but ultimately the destruction of the fisheries of other tribes and states saw the whole peninsular united with Halifax. Mass migration from rural areas to Halifax swelled the population, which later went on to encourage...
The Second Period of Expansion. Ten years after the end of the first Period (2392), Roderick I died. The High Council elected Robert I as the new Doge. He was a far more naval-minded gentlemen, having been one of the more influential merchants of the Merchant's Guild, and supported primarily by the Shipwrights' Guild. Poverty and overcrowding had become rife within Halifax, and civil strife between Haligonians and other Nova Scotians had broken out in some areas.
Robert I, with the consent of the High Council, issued the Proclamation of Migration. Within the Proclamation was stated that: 'Any man or woman who so wishes shall have the express permission, blessing and assistance of the Doge of Halifax and the High Council of the City, should they elect to settle in lands outside our City, and without the Walls by ship.'.
The proclamation began this 'Second Expansion', but it did so in a mercantile, not military, manner. Haligonian emigrants had been departing Halifax and settling in foreign cities as merchants for a few decades before, but now the numbers exploded to unprecedented heights. The Second Expansion has lasts into the modern day, from 2392 to 2666, a total of two hundred and seventy four years.
This period has seen the foundation and the rise of new Haligonian colonist populations in coastal settlements along the eastern seaboard. These populations formed a new class of 'Sedentary' merchants - Haligonian 'middle men' that specialised in the exchange of certain inland good for amenities obtained from maritime imports. They acted (and continue to act) as translators between Haligonian merchants and locals.
These settlers formed centralised communities within the existing population, practising Haligonian customs and traditions, and associating relatively little with the locals outside of their work. They spoke their own dialects, derived from Haligonian English, and educated their children as apprentices of the merchant class.
Over time, these communities attracted 'lighter' settlers - Haligonians tired of life in bustling Halifax, and eager to experience a different culture; 'maritime' itinerant merchants seeking harbours away from Halifax in which to base their fleets. Haligonian colonist populations swelled. Many communities, now known as 'Quarters', requested and received extraterritoriality, becoming extremely autonomous. Entire harbours and streets began to be 'annexed' to the Quarters as the settlers continued to increase in number.
In some cities, locals saw the appeal of the Haligonian way of life, themselves joining the merchant classes and adopting Haligonian customs. These people began to assimilate with Haligonians, and mixed communities arose that blurred the lines between settler and local.
In some cities, local authorities saw what was happening, and tried to prevent it. In some, immigration was severely restricted or banned. In a few extreme cases, such as in contemporary Providence (the original population having migrated eastward from the site of the former city of that name), locals attempted to expel the entire Haligonian community. In cases such as this, the Fleets soon put an end to the argument.
Both methods ultimately brought today's Free Cities into the orbit of Halifax, culturally and economically. These cities signed agreements with the Mother City, to defer to the Doge and to contribute delegations to the Senate, but retaining almost total self government and local customs. The cultural differences between Halifax and the other Free Cities is usually due to the significant cultural input from the original, New English population, now largely assimilated into the 'Haligonian' category in censuses.
At the same time, a small number of military excursions did occur. These included the subjugation of Novaebrunswick and parts of Moncton, populated by 'primitive' Inuit tribesmen (having migrated south after the Catastrophe) and French Acadians, loosely united in the weak 'League of Acadia-Inuktitut'. These conquests cemented Haligonian monopoly on the seal and fur trade with more 'friendly' Inuit further north.
The largest military confrontation during the century beginning 2400 was the New English-Haligonian War. The process of cultural unity and interdependence had been increasing in pace in New England for many years, and the loose Kingdoms of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont-Hampshire, and Connecticut had established themselves as regional powers in the New English region.
In some of the more resistant coastal cities with Haligonian colonists, local New Englanders wished to join with their ethnic kindred inland and secure their rights and privileges in the face of increasing influence from Halifax, which they interpreted as a form of interference relatively unknown to New Englanders. The very nature of the New English Kingdoms only reinforced the point. Haligonian influence in the governance of these cities was rarely directly from Halifax itself, but rather from the local community governments of the Haligonian Quarters. Some New Englanders failed to realise this.
With the best of intentions, and sharing the attitudes of the New Englanders along the coast (reported by native New English merchants and travellers inland), the New English Kingdoms entered into negotiations with Haligonia.
While the New Englanders acted in the interests of the cultural and political unity of New England, Haligonia maintained that no rights had been taken from local New Englanders by the Haligonian central government, and that any perceived slights were the responsibility of the Community Governments of the Haligonian Quarters. When asked, however, the Haligonian diplomats point blank refused to issue a general law enforcing the conditions requested by the New Englanders, nor did they accept New English demands for allowing the cities to hold a vote on union with the Kingdoms. In fact, later historians have suggested that the Haligonian representatives at the negotiations acted conceitedly and disrespectfully, perhaps engendering the conflict in the process.
In response, the High Kingdom of New England was formed as an alliance of New English states to evict the Haligonian presence along the coast. Many Haligonians present in the Kingdoms themselves were imprisoned as hostages or expelled from their settlements and workplaces.
The war went badly for Haligonia at first. The Republic was unused to war on land, and could do little more than blockade the very short sections of the New English coastline not occupied by pro-Haligonian forces. Internal rebellions in the cities by New English nationalists damaged the defence of some of the cities - examples such as Augusta and St. Stephens, which were home to a rather smaller population of Haligonians that other cities, fell to New English forces rather easily, when local New Englanders turned on the Haligonians and abandoned the defence of the city.
Other cities, however, while losing most of their hinterlands and falling under siege (much of the rural population remains ethnically New English even to this day) were spared capture by reinforcements from Halifax. The High Council issued a decree, supported by the Doge, demanding the turning over of all mercenary contracts to government control. While this increased war-weariness and incurred greater shipping losses for the merchant fleet (mainly to pirates), it also gave the beleaguered coastal cities the respite and help they needed.
Ultimately, economics won the day. The New English were suffering from a lack of imported goods, and supplies of luxuries from the north and south increased dissatisfaction in the population. Some saw the war as an attempt to centralise political power, and unpopular concept in New English thinking. Haligonia, meanwhile, had lost markets for their luxury goods, and, with demand only from Sylvania for their exports, found themselves with excess stock, causing prices to decrease locally. Coupling this loss of income with an artificial trade deficit in which valuable northern goods were exchanged for now less profitable southern goods with the southern nations; as well as the greater expense of timber (having to import via the River St. Lawrence from the Great Lakes region without New English suppliers), there was increasing discontent in the Haligonian merchant class.
Thus both nations shared an interest in peacemaking. Before long, an agreement was reached, whereby the cities that New English forces had captured were ceded in perpetuity to the New English Kingdoms, in return for the reopening of New English markets to Haligonian merchants and the understanding that the cities with large Haligonian populations would remain independent of the Kingdoms, under the protection of the Republic. The New English-Halgonian War ended.
During this period, in the year 2427, a Haligonian merchant fleet was blown by a freak storm far to the east, where they discovered a strange island called 'Bermuda'. It's inhabitants were surprisingly similar to the Haligonians in terms of culture, even retaining several spelling conventions (such as actually applying the letter 'u' in written language) that Haligonia alone held on the continent of Amerocanadia.
The sailors plotted the island's position and returned to Halifax. It took little time for official diplomatic representatives of the Republic to arrive on Bermudian shores. Before long, Bermuda held a symbiotic relationship with Haligonia, ultimately integrating itself into the Republic as a constituent Free City.
In the intervening years, Haligonian merchants have continued to settle along the eastern seaboard.
WIP
Description of Economy:
Nova Scotia has a small consumer base, due to its relatively small population size. However, as one of the only major naval powers along the Easter Seaboard of the Amerocanadian continent (as it is known in Haligonia), the city of Halifax has developed excellent methods of naval trade, company types and financial techniques. It has a complete monopoly on the fur and seal trade from northern Amerocanadia by virtue of its strategic position at the southern entrance to the Saintlawrence Gulf, and therefore enjoys a positive trading relationship with other states by virtue of being the almost exclusive source of these amenities.
Nova Scotia's economy is almost entirely deregulated. Just two industries; State Naval and State Armaments, are regulated by Haligonian law. However, private corporations are free to invest and trade in armaments, though the military is permitted to commandeer private armament producers during times of emergency. Other than this, a highly capitalistic society based on the exchange of goods and services is prevalent throughout the Republic. This rarely disadvantages the 'lower classes' of Haligonian society as Nova Scotia primarily acts as a 'middle-man' for coastal nations unwilling to invest in large merchant fleets. Halifax itself has little industry, other than Shipbuilding. The knowledge held by the Shipwrights' Guild is closely guarded state secret, aimed at preventing the rise of competition.
The Haligonian merchant fleet is entirely in the hands of the large merchant class of Nova Scotia. Even members of the High Council and the Doge himself possess their own cargo fleets - indeed, they are usually elected to their positions due in part to the fact that they are able to finance their own departments themselves, as there is no state-owned merchant navy. There is a great deal of social mobility with regards to commerce - ordinary fishermen have been known to build commercial empires with the right mindset and a bit of luck (or sponsorship!).
There are several different types of merchant organisation - some sail with empty ships to foreign ports and purchase wares to transport elsewhere; some are involved with the lucrative seal fur trade; some carry enormous catches of fish hither and thither across the ocean to sell.
Some merchants are given diplomat status by the various governments of the Free Cities of the Republic - i.e. they are given sanction to seek trade concessions and beneficial arrangements with foreign states in the name of the Republic (or the constituent units therein).
Description of Military:
The Haligonian Army is relatively small. Each Free City boasts only a small local force, primarily consisting of pikemen, swordsmen and crossbowmen. Longbows are more prevalent in Nova Scotia itself and further north, in Novaebrunswick. Morale is rarely high, but, due to its distance from other major powers, it is perfectly effective as an anti-raid defensive force.
The true strength of the Republic lies with its Navy. The Haligonian Fleet is massive, financed both by the central government (as a national force) and private corporations (to protect merchant shipping). In times of war, all private military vessels are expected to turn themselves in for commandeering if requested by the government. The most powerful and important ship class is the Galleas, of which the design is almost unique to Haligonia. Also included in the Fleet are galleys, and even a few primitive galleons, amongst other types.
The Haligonian Fleet boasts its own elite, if small, land force, knows as the Shipmarines. These troops are usually professional mercenary soldiers from within the Republic that are hired primarily by private companies. However, in times of tension or open warfare, the central government may demand that the contracts of these mercenary Shipmarines be turned over to the State. Shipmarines are equally effective at sea or on land - they are employed mostly as anti-pirate forces, but have been utilised to defend merchant outposts and land supply routes in the past. The Shipmarine Guild is often subsidised by the Republic, and the profession is deeply respected in Haligonian society.
Their primary weakness is lack of numbers, and relative inexperience on land compared to primarily land-based empires. They are 'elite' to Haligonians in that they are better than the standard Haligonian sailor at fighting ashore.
