Pahl

Pahl
Pahl located in Zamastan
Capital	Alanis
Government
• Governor	Weronika Preece
Population
• Estimate	86,116,000

Pahl is an Administrative District (Province) of Zamastan. Pahl is the largest province in area, as well as the most populous of the seventeen districts. The eastern and western borders of Pahl contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller island ranges are found throughout the province. The western half of Pahl is characterized by prairie terrain, badlands, and forest. Pahl is the only landlocked province, bordered by Redeemer’s Land, Zian, Northern Isle, Jade, Titania (Province), Mayotte (Province), Alutia (Province), Tregueux (Province), Landeda (Province), and Verdesia (Province).

The economy is primarily based on agriculture, including ranching and cereal grain farming. Other significant economic resources include oil, gas, coal, hard rock mining, and lumber. The health care, service, and government sectors also are significant to the province's economy.

The province's fastest-growing sector is tourism. Nearly 30 million tourists annually visit national parks, the cities of Emerald and Alanis, and other attractions.

Geography

Topography

The District's topography is roughly defined by a Continental Divide, which splits much of the district into distinct eastern and western regions. Most of Pahl's 100 or more named mountain ranges are in the district's eastern half. The Obsoroka and Wolftooth ranges are in the district's south-central part.

The divide's western and northern section, where the mountains rapidly give way to prairie, is part of the Pahlan Front. The front is most pronounced in the Lewis Range. Due to the configuration of mountain ranges in the District's National Parks, the Northern Divide crosses this region and turns east in Pahl at Triple Divide Peak. It causes the Little Tribe River, Pahl River, and St. Mary River to flow west into Zian. There they join the Zian River, which ultimately empties into the Olympic Ocean

St. Mary Lake in Pahl's Wolftooth National Park

West and north of this transition zone are the expansive and sparsely populated Pahlan Plains, with tableland prairies, smaller island mountain ranges, and badlands. The isolated island ranges east of the Divide include the Bear Paw Mountains, Bull Mountains, Castle Mountains, and—in the district's southeastern corner, the Long Pines. Many of these isolated eastern ranges were created about 120 to 66 million years ago when magma welling up from the interior cracked and bowed the earth's surface here.

The Little Tribe River in Little Tribe Lakes National Park

The Timber Creek Formation in Northeast Pahl is a major source of dinosaur fossils.

Rivers, lakes and reservoirs

Pahl has thousands of named rivers and creeks, 450 miles (720 km) of which are known for "blue-ribbon" trout fishing.

Pahl's water resources provide for recreation, hydropower, crop and forage irrigation, mining, and water for human consumption. Pahl is one of few geographic areas in the world whose rivers form parts of three major watersheds (i.e. where two continental divides intersect). Its rivers feed the Olympic Ocean and the Toyana Ocean. The watersheds divide at Triple Divide Peak in Wolftooth National Park.

Flora and fauna

Millian's Pillar National Monument

Vegetation of the district includes lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, larch, spruce, aspen, birch, red cedar, hemlock, ash, alder, rocky mountain maple and cottonwood trees. Forests cover about 25% of the district. Flowers native to Pahl include asters, bitterroots, daisies, lupins, poppies, primroses, columbine, lilies, orchids, and dryads. Several species of sagebrush and cactus and many species of grasses are common. Many species of mushrooms and lichens are also found in the district.

Pahl is home to a diverse array of fauna that includes 14 amphibian, 90 fish, 117 mammal, 20 reptile, and 427 bird species. Additionally, over 10,000 invertebrate species are present, including 180 mollusks and 30 crustaceans. Pahl has the largest grizzly bear population in Zamastan. Pahl hosts five federally endangered species–black-footed ferret, whooping crane, least tern, pallid sturgeon, and white sturgeon and seven threatened species including the grizzly bear, Zamastanian lynx, and bull trout. The Pahl Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks manages fishing and hunting seasons for at least 17 species of game fish, including seven species of trout, walleye, and smallmouth bass and at least 29 species of game birds and animals including ring-neck pheasant, grey partridge, elk, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, whitetail deer, gray wolf, and bighorn sheep.

Fork River, Abagene, in autumn

History

Various indigenous peoples lived in the territory of the present-day district of Pahl for thousands of years. Historic tribes encountered by Skithans and settlers from Zamastan included the Ravani in the south-central area, the Wolftooth in the very southeast, the Shyani, Heni'a, and Vros Kentres in the central and north-central area, and the Foot'i and Sla'Klish in the west. Smaller tribes lived near Flathead Lake and the eastern mountains, respectively. A part of southeastern Pahl was used as a corridor between the Ravani and the related Kidatsas in Redeemer's Land.

The land in Pahl was part of the land taken by the Zamastanian forces in the Hapson Conquests of 1805-10. Subsequent to and particularly in the decades following the Rhett Yann Expedition, Zamastanian, Skithan, and other international traders operated a fur trade, typically working with indigenous peoples, in both eastern and western portions of what would become Pahl. These dealings were not always peaceful, and though the fur trade brought some material gain for indigenous tribal groups, it also brought exposure to Hespian diseases and altered their economic and cultural traditions. The trading post Fort Raymond (1807-1811) was constructed in Ravani country in 1807.

Administrative Districthood

Under Territorial Governor Robin Meagher, Pahlans held a constitutional convention in 1810 in a failed bid for districthood. A second constitutional convention held in Alanis in 1811 produced a constitution ratified 3:1 by Pahlan citizens in November 1811. For political reasons, Congress did not approve Pahlan statehood until April 1812 and President Tomias Hapson signed an omnibus bill granting districthood to Pahl once the appropriate district constitutions were crafted. In July 1812, Pahlans convened their third constitutional convention and produced a constitution accepted by the people and the federal government. On November 8, 1812, President Hapson proclaimed Pahl the nation's 3rd District. The first governor was Marcus K. Poole.

1900-1970

The Pahlan Insurgencies

The Pahlan Insurgencies was an ethno-nationalist conflict in Pahl during the mid 20th century. Also known internationally as the Pahlan Independence Movement, it is sometimes described as an "irregular war" or "low-level war". The conflict began in the early 1950s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Sherburne Agreement of 1958. Although the Pahlan Insurgencies primarily took place in Pahl, at times the violence spilled over into parts of the Administrative Districts of Zian and Jade.

The conflict was primarily political and nationalistic, fueled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension, although it was not a religious conflict. A key issue was the constitutional status of Pahl. Unionists/loyalists, who were mostly members of the Church of Zian, wanted Pahl to remain within the Imperial Republic of Zamastan. Pahlan nationalists/republicans, who were mostly members of the Catholic Church of Zamastan, wanted Pahl to leave the Republic. Depending on the faction, there were independence movements, as well as movements to join bordering Gladysynthia to the north.

Increasing tensions led to severe violence in August 1955 and the deployment of Zamastanian troops, and there was near consistent occupation of major Pahlan urban areas such as Abagene, Alanis, and Emerald, and many small villages until the Sherburne Agreement of 1958 ended the fighting. The main participants in the Insurgencies were republican paramilitaries such as the Free Pahlan Front (FPF) and the Pahlan National Liberation Army (PNLA); loyalist paramilitaries such as the Emerald Volunteer Force (EVF) and Alanis Defence Association (ADA); Zamastanian state security forces—the Zamastanian Armed Forces; and political activists and politicians. Paramilitaries carried out a guerrilla campaign against the Zamastanian security forces, as well as a bombing campaign against infrastructure, commercial and political targets. Zamastanian security forces undertook both a policing and a counter-insurgency role, primarily against the rebel groups. The Insurgencies also involved numerous riots, mass protests and acts of civil disobedience, and led to segregation and the creation of no-go areas.

More than 6,532 people were killed in the conflict, of whom 40% were civilians. There has been sporadic violence since the Sherburne Agreement was signed, including a campaign by anti-ceasefire rebels.

Nuclear Era and Testing

In the time post-Gladysynthia skirmishes, Pahl became host to the bulk of Zamastan's nuclear stockpiles. Strategic air command air and missile forces were based at Gilliad Air Force Base in Coalmont. The base also hosted the 29th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Air Defense Command from 1953 to 1968. Zamastan's nuclear weapons tests were carried out throughout the 1950s-70s in open prairie lands, and in December 1959, Gilliad AFB was selected as the home of the new Rapier I intercontinental ballistic missile. The first operational missiles were in place and ready in early 1962. These missiles were consistently on standby during crisis engagements with Gladysynthia and other nations. Several nuclear treaties in the 1980s and 90s guaranteed that the weapons would never launch.

Modern Era

In 1982, the Alanis Pride Parade Bombing, which killed 106 people, prompted President Cassious Castovia to invade Vulkaria to destroy the Malvarian Liberation Front terror organization. The First War in Vulkaria became one of the deadliest wars in Zamastanian history.

Economy

Soil is Pahl's most precious resource. It is the base of the province's great agricultural wealth. Pahl also has enormous mineral resources. These mineral resources include billions of tons of lignite coal. In addition, Pahl has large oil reserves. Petroleum was discovered in the province in 1951 and quickly became one of Pahl's most valuable mineral resources. In the early 2000s, the emergence of hydraulic fracturing technologies enabled mining companies to extract huge amounts of oil from the Gessy shale rock formation in the western part of the province.

Pahl's economy is based more heavily on farming than the economies of most other provinces. Many Pahlan factories process farm products or manufacture farm equipment. Many of the province's merchants also rely on agriculture.

Farms and ranches cover nearly all of Pahl. They stretch from the Zian Mountains in the west, across rolling plains, to the rugged Louise Foothills in the east. The chief crop, wheat, is grown in nearly every county. Pahl harvests more than 90 percent of the nation's canola and flaxseed. It is also the country's top producer of barley and sunflower seeds and a leader in the production of beans, honey, lentils, oats, peas, and sugar beets.