Akawhk

Akawhk
Mascyllary overseas territory
Commonwealth of Akawhk Gemeinstaat Akohk (Hesurian) X Akcohkv (Pintachee)
From top, left to right: Downtown Marthasbucht CBD, a cable car on Steigstraße with Loremey Island in the background, Aspengarten residences, Alwinienchausee with a visible pylon of the Bay Bridge, Alexandra Gate Bridge, Rotunda of Peace
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: "Geeint in Blut und Schwur" "United in Blood and Oath"
File:Location of Kolepak.map
Sovereign state	Mascylla
Mascyllary annexation	31 August 1799
Devolution	4 June 1939
Current constitution	12 April 1996
Capital	Marthasbucht
Government
• Type	Devolved parliamentary dependancy under a constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Dorothea I
• Governor	Ruprecht Kvuyk
Area
• Total	992 km2 (383 sq mi)
Population  (2016)
• Total	2,086,221
• Density	2,103.0/km2 (5,447/sq mi)
Demonym	Akawhkian
GDP (PPP)
• Total	$113.5 billion
• Per capita	$54,414
GDP (nominal)
• Total	$102.9 billion
• Per capita	$49,316
HDI	0.904
Currency	Akawhkian Karning (APK)

Akawhk (Pintachee for 'Crane Bight'; abbreviated AK), officially the Commonwealth of Akawhk (Pintachee: X Akcohkv; Hesurian: Gemeinstaat Akokh), is an overseas territory of the Crowned Republic of Mascylla located in the southeast Alvinian islands in the western Agric Ocean and approximately 70.1 km (43.5 mi) south of Socapatoy, the capital city of Ochoccola. With a population of 2,086,221 inhabitants in 2016 and a land area of 992 km², it is both the largest Mascyllary overseas territory by size and population. Akawhk is simultaneously the name of the urgan agglomeration and the archipelago on which it lies, encompassing 37 islands and situated in the X Sea between Ochoccola, Chelagey and X; the de facto capital and "largest city" on Akawhk is Marthasbucht with 839,710 inhabitants in 2018.

The archipelago was originally inhabited by indigenous Pintachee tribes, who were displaced and gradually assimilated by colonialists of the Købmandslaug and subsequently Dalland, having landed at Akawhk in 1524, before it was acquired by the First Cuthish Empire in 1601. The colonial holding that grew out of it was frequently contested by Berean powers, ultimately captured by Mascylla during the Cuthish Revolutionary War in 1799 and having ruled it since then, with brief periods of Cuthish military and civil administration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The abolition of slavery, shared insular regionalism and acceptance and merging of Akawhk's diverse demographics culminated in a distinctive identity preserved today and shared by Cuthish, Hesurian, indigenous and Caphtoran alike. Following the almost complete destruction of the city by the 1909 earthquake and subsequent fire, it was newly rebuilt and became the focal point of significant Alvinian immigration. Since the end of the Mascyllary colonial empire in the 1990s, Akawhk's political status in the future has consistently been an issue of intense debate.

Akawhk as a political body is a self-governing devolved dependancy under the constitutional monarchy of Mascylla with its own constitution, locally elected democratic government and complete autonomy of interior policy, while Mascylla is responsible for its enacting of state law, integration to a common market, foreign relations and defense. Due to its geographical proximity and history, Akawhk features a culture uniquly merging Ochoccola's and Mascylla's, and its two official languages are Hesurian and Pintachee, and while the former is predominant, 91% of the population are able to speak Pintachee fluently. Its strategic location and abundant supply of trade goods are main drivers of the economy of Akawhk, with the largest sectors being maufacturing, offshore insurance, tourism and shipping trade; its economic development made Akawhk historically Alvinia's most highly developed area and featured its highest life expectancy and GDP per capita despite severe income inequality, which makes it an attractive destination for, often illegal, migration and human trafficking mainly originating from Ochoccola.

History

Historical affiliations

Kingdom of Dalland 1524–1601
First Cuthish Empire 1601–1733
Kingdom of Norden 1733–1740
First Cuthish Empire 1740–1799
Mascyllary Kingdom 1799–1910
Second Cuthish Empire 1910–1913
Mascylla 1913–present

Prehistory and Pintachee

Current archeological evidence suggests human habitation in and around Akawhk and its surrounding islands since at least 1,200 B.C., though the discovery of traces of earlier settlement such as middens at Point Leyffen near Philippsburg potentially shifts the date of human arrival on the shores of the island back to 1,500 B.C. The ancestors of the indigenous Pintachee people, who were living on Akawhk and the south-western portion of X at the time of Berean arrival and contact, were in all likelihood Mavronesian tribes who migrated to Alvinia by sailing over the Iremic Ocean some 8,000 years ago. The Pintachee were organized into multiple tribes throughout their history as Akawhk was inhabited by the Cinoean and Sanoian people, the latter of which were spread as far north as modern-day Digalua in Chelagey along the X coast.

Dalish and Cuthish colony

The first Berean to assert a territorial claim on Akawhk and its adjacent areas was Wesley Middelton who landed at Middelton Grove near Marthasbucht Bay in August of 1522 as part of his third expedition in the Alvinian archipelago, and claimed the island of Akawhk as well as the surrounding archipelago for then-Emperor X as the Isles of the Saint Godwhin. Despite this, and because of the larger significance of imperial Cuthish colonization efforts in Ochoccola, the Cuthish made no further attempt at consolidating their claim. In April 1524, the crew of the Schwalbe von Pereuth captained by guilded merchant Heinrich Rohnemann lowered their anchor in the Marthasbucht Bay, the first Berean naval presence on the island, and subsequently claimed it for the Købmandslaug under the name Ny Rødby (New Rødby); a Dalish fur trading station and small settlement of some 140 individuals was founded at Rotfell Square.

Cuthish Akawhk, previously Ny Rødby, as seen from the Alexandra Gate facing west in c. 1700

The colony of New Rødby was centered on a small strip of flat land between the coarse and hilly terrain of the Marthasbucht Peninsula that would later be known as Annental. In 1543, a temporary wooden stockade was erected around the settlement for protection against occasional native Pintachee raids and skirmishes, and construction on a citadel on Loremey Island was started. However, Købmandslaug and subsequent royal Dalish control would prove to be short-lived as the fledging albeit small settlement under Johann Kristiaan was unable to muster any resistance against Cuthish troops under the command of Colonel Clyde Quainshead, and surrendered to a seizure of the colony in June 1601. The Cuthish promptly assured the Dalish settlers to remain in the colony and allow religious freedoms, while the construction of the citadel was resumed and finished in 1660, and the colony renamed to Akawhk, in recognition of the Pintachee term for the Marthasbucht Bay. Contracted epidemics such as the yellow fever and repeated, oftentimes violent, encounters with the Berean population caused a gradual decline of the Cinoe and Sanoia population sizes by the 18th century, dropping to below 10,000 by 1710; nevertheless, the non-Berean population of Akawhk still outnumbered the new settlers.

Even though coastal fog was a common issue when navigating Akawhk's waters, Cuthland recognized the strategic and economic importance of the archipelago due to its deep and sheltered natural harbour and expanded the colony as a vital and advantageous port for trade as part of the Cuthish colony of Ochoccola throughout the 18th century. It was a major center of slavery because of the economic methods utilized by the former Købmandslaug colonizers, and the demand for slave labour for port work. The topography of Akawhk did not allow for the large-scale cultivation of plantations or the sufficient supply of the growing island population with food. During the War of the Cuthish Succession, attempts by the Nordic were made to take control over Akawhk through the Battles of Loremey Citadel in November 1730 and July 1733, the former of which seeing the repulsed bombardment of the citadel installation by multiple Nordic ships of the line led by the Jutehataren. In 1733, Nordic captain Herluf Bragge seized the colony with success and rechristened it to Kristiansborg on the behest of then-King Kristian IV; pursuant of the 1740 Treaty of Nyhavn, Norden returned Akawhk back to the Cuthish Empire. With the onset of the Cuthish Revolution in 1795, the colony became a destination of refuge for enlightened and liberal thinkers after the events of Bloody Monday, and for monarchists and other political dissidents during the Republican Terror in Cuthland from 1797 to 1801. On 31 August 1799, during the Cuthish Revolutionary War, the Mascyllary first-rate warship Lauenburg captained by Eduard Lukas von Heidelhoff captured Marthasbucht, which was then known as Akawhk. The largest city on the island as well as the bay were named after Sophia Martha of Marlburg-Gränich-Freida, royal consort to then-Crown Prince Lukas Augustus, and the assumption of control was affirmed through the Treaty of Swithtun in 1801 which concluded the Revolutionary War in Berea.

Mascyllary colony

Panorama of Marthasbucht in 1866 facing south, with the busy trade port of Akawhk in the distance

Mascyllary rule was officially initiated with the raising of the Mascyllary flag and a 21-gun salute from the anchored ships in the harbor on 4 January 1800, and after the ratification process by King Lukas I was completed, established as a crown colony under Governor Karl von Leblichsrode. The wealth accumulated from the rapidly developing port led to the establishment of multiple enterprises and corporations, including Bunde Bank Group and Saskow & Hain, and precipitated a dramatic increase in immigrant labourers from Alvinia and rapid urbanisation; the population of Akawhk grew from 18,000 in 1800 to some 350,000 by 1880. The sociodemographic transformation of the colony coincided with the abolition enactment throughout the Mascyllary colonial empire in 1840, granting the children of born enslaved mothers their freedom as freedmen, even though they were oblieged to indentured servitude until age 24.

The latter half of the 19th century witnessed the rapid commercial and residential development of the city of Marthasbucht in particular, ascending to a status as a colonial and international center of trade, going to and from Alvinia at large. In 1866, the first operable undersea cable for commercial telegraph communications was laid from Rosgar, Falland to Marthasbucht on Akawhk, connecting Berea with Alvinia, and in June of 1889, the first purpose-built ocean liner and cruise ship Prinzessin Charlotte made her maiden voyage from Flussmund to Marthasbucht over the Agric Ocean. Additionally, Agrica Park, the first landscape park in a Mascyllary city, was established through financial efforts and lobbying by the island's fledging aristocracy of entrepreneurs.

The Mascyllary Alwiniengeschwader fleet anchoring in Marthasbucht Bay after the Great War Cuthish occupation of the island, January 1914

Ruins of the Marthasbucht Governor's Hall in the wake of the 1909 Akawhk earthquake and fire

Governor's Hall rebuilt in Beaux-Arts style and opened in 1920

On October 28, 1909, an extraordinarly large earthquake devastated Akawhk with its epicenter near the city of Luisenstadt. The initial quake, paired with the ignition of burst natural gas pipes and the ensuing conflegration in central Marthasbucht, destroyed more than 21,000 houses and caused some 906 deaths. Relief efforts by the Mascyllary Navy and an Army contingent of 9,000 troops, as well as reconstruction efforts were immediately launched. By 1910, the crown colony adopted the Neuer Kommissarratsplan (New Commissioners Board Plan), rebuilding Marthasbucht with a city street grid plan from the ground up, and expanding it to the confines of the Marthasbucht Peninsula in its entirety. Then, on December 20, 1910, with the beginning of the Great War, Cuthish warships effectively destroyed Mascyllary air and naval power on Alvinia in one attack during the Battle of Akawhk, and conducted a successful naval landing operation a day later. By January 30, organised defense under Mascyllary commander Major General Ernst Michaelis had retreated and was reduced to pockets of resistance in the island's far western and southern hillsides. Governor Lukas Georg von Speyn formally surrendered on the recommendation of Michaelis on February 6. The island was militarily occupied by the Cuthish Empire until 1913 when Mascylla formed a naval task force spearheaded by the dreadnought MSS Kronprinz to regain control over Akawhk and the Cuthish voluntarily abandoned it in response.

Speyn returned to his position as governor in September of 1914 and ill-fatedly pursued the resuming of the New Commissioners Board Plan despite the strenuous war effort in Berea. Following the Great War, and in response to the deflating economic recession experienced shortly before the 1923 Mascyllary Revolution, the city attempted to stimulate employment growth by sufficiently rebuilding Marthasbucht and supplementing the enterprise with two large infrastructure projects, namely the Alexandra Gate Bridge and Marthasbucht-Kolepak Bridge (or colloquially the Bay Bridge), throughout the 1920s and 1930s; this led to a second wave of increasing immigration from Alvinia and Berea. The archipelago also became a vital military hub due to its forward position in Alvinia and continuous presence since the Great War, manifesting into the construction of the Tsultya shipyards, the Naval Base Akawhk and Fort Michaelis, and the establishment of the Mascyllary Agric Command in 1931.

Overseas territory and modernity

Felix Soannqaha (1944–2017) was the first elected Governor of Akawhk, first part-Pintachee senior official, and the most prominent political figure for the island throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

Internal self-governance was repeatedly brought up as particularly in the wake of the Mascyllary Revolution and the signation of the Fleicher Accord in 1929. Ultimately, on June 4, 1939, Akawhk received its own constitutional instrument which was ratified by Governor Theodor von Weiszacker, personally believing that widening the political franchise to include the local populace would be necessary to sustainably bind Akawhk to Mascylla. Even though the political nature of the quasi-colony remained ambiguous, operating in the gray area of a proper crown colony and dominion, increasing calls for independence were overwhelmingly rejected by a 1946 referendum.

Akawhk experienced a newfound economic boom for its advantageous position in Alvinia, political security and more autonomous and therefore lenient economic policy in the 1950s and 1960s. It soon developed into a major global offshore financial center, though the tourism and shipping industries retained their position as integral components of Akawhk's increasingly service-based economy. Suburban neighbourhoods such as Davidshöh or Paradiesgarten grew rapidly with a 1967 public housing estate plan, while downtown Marthasbucht became the center of the new Financial District and expansive high-rise Lonasbekanization. Nevertheless, political dissatisfaction pertaining Akawhk's independence continued to accumulate, and turned violent with the 1974 Candle Riots following the death of 17-year old Maik Aqehanna in Akawhk royal police custody, leaving 14 dead and 297 wounded, and the assassination of Governor Dietrich von Harlinghausen in 1980. By 1996 and with the formal dissolution of the Mascyllary colonial empire, Akawhk's constitution was amended on April 12 to re-organize the colony into an overseas territory of Mascylla, internally autonomous and with then-King Lukas III as head of state. The first publically elected head of government and first Pintachee senior official, Felix Soannqaha, was sworn in as Governor-in-Council of Akawhk in the presence of the newly created Legislative Council in May of 1996. Since, political and economic efforts have been undertaken throughout the late 1990s and early 21st century to battle the prevailent homelessness and income inequality of the island, including the improvement of job opportunities, the gentrification of poorer neighbourhoods and make-shift encampments, and the attraction of innovative start-up and high-tech companies in the early 2010s.

Geography and environment

Overview map of Akawhk, with neighbourhood boundaries and selected points of interest