Oceanian Atrea
| ||
| Oceanian Atrea | ||
| Capital Largest City |
Heissenen Alehessen | |
| Spoken languages - Official - Unofficial |
English Atrean | |
| Demonym | Oceanian Atrean | |
| Government - Monarch - Premier - Governing political party |
· Constitutional monarchy · Parliamentary democracy King William III Frederick von Rybak MA Progressive Party | |
| Legislature - Upper House - Lower House |
Parlement uit Atrea Provinsiaalraad Vergadering uit Mense | |
| Establishment - Accession Treaty |
1982 | |
| Population (2008) | 1,200,000,000 | |
| GDP (FY2008) - Total (USD) - GDP/capita (USD) |
$50,400,000,000,000 $42,000 | |
| Currency | 1 Oceania Pound (£) = 100 pence (p) | |
Oceanian Atrea is one of six constituent home countries of the United Kingdom of Oceania. Located on the eastern side of the continent of Atrea, the polity shares a border with the Atrean Empire to its northwest, west, and southwest and then Holy Marsh to its southeast. The east and northeast and northern portions of the territory border the Straits of Shesharlie and the Great North Sea.
The historic capital of the region is Heissenen, once a regional locus of power in the Atrean Empire. However, with the disintegration of that state in the mid- to late-20th century, several provinces with strong economic ties to the Commonwealth of Celaria ceded from the crumbling Atrean grip and placed themselves within the economic (and increasingly political) orbit of Georgetown.
Contents |
Geography and Climate
Oceanian Atrea is situated south of the Equator and on the western side of the Straits of Shesharlie. The coastal region is largely flat with only rolling hills disturbing the even landscape. Further inland, however, the plains give way to foothills and eventually high mountains. It is in these mountains where the bulk of Oceanian Atrea's mineral resources can be found, along with the headwaters for the various rivers and streams that irrigate the fertile coastal plains.
Despite Oceanian Atrea's prominent position on the Atrean continent, there exist few natural deep water harbours for shipping. The two most prominent sites are that of Hansa in the south and Regenshavn in the north central coastal regions. Rivers provide not just water, energy, and transport, but they also demarcate the borders with both the Atrean Empire and Holy Marsh to the north and south of Oceanian Atrea, respectively.
Owing in large part to the territory's location and prevailing winds off the Straits of Shesharlie, much of Oceanian Atrea's climate is moderate and temperate throughout the year with coastal regions such as Iserlohn and Aldebaran exhibiting few extreme temperature variations. The interior regions receive nearly year-round moisture from the flow of moisture-laden winds originating over the Straits.
Government and Politics
Oceanian Atrea's current head of state is the monarch of the United Kingdom, King William III. Within the territory, geographically distant from Georgetown, the monarch is represented by the royal governor, currently Sir Howard Kessel.
As a home country, Oceanian Atrea enjoys limited self-government through powers devolved by Parliament. Specifically, these powers are devolved to the Parlement uit Atrea (Parliament of Atrea) and the government formed from its ranks. Matters specifically reserved to Georgetown include, but are not limited to, UK-level tax policy, defence, and international relations.
The Atrean Parliament is a bicameral legislature comprised of the Provinsiaalraad, or Provincial Council, and the Vergadering uit Mense, or Assembly of the People. The Provinsiaalraad forms the upper house and seats 12 Councillors from each Province. Each Province chooses its Councillors from party lists in proportion to the seats held in the provincial legislature. The Vergadering forms the lower house and seats a total of 526 Members of the Assembly (MAs).
Long established as a bastion of progressivism, currently the Progressive Party unsurprisingly controls both chambers of the Atrean Parliament. The Liberal Party forms the bulwark of the opposition as the the second largest party for the third largest party in Parliament, the Socialist Party finds much common ground with the Progressives and cooperates with them on much of the territory's legislative agenda. Other parties include the Green Party, the Crown Royalist Party, and the Communist Party.
At the national level, Oceanian Atrea will be represented for the first time in the House of Commons in the 3rd Parliament of the United Kingdom, to be chosen in a general election originally scheduled for November but now postponed until January. Oceanian Atrea will be electing 74 MPs to sit in the 1000-seat Parliament. As a former colony, having only become a home country this year, Oceanian Atrean affairs are handled by the Colonial Office, currently led by cabinet secretary Viscount Thomas Cahill. After the election, it is expected that the government in Georgetown will create a government office to deal specifically with Oceanian Atrean issues.
Administrative Subdivisions
Fused from historic provinces and more recent Georgetown creations, eight provinces comprise Oceanian Atrea at the sub-home country level. Beneath that exist counties, cities, and boroughs. There are a total of 526 electoral constituencies for the Atrean Parliament and 74 constituencies for the Oceanian Parliament.
Letters patent determine the status of an urban area being classified as a city. Currently there are seventeen cities in Oceanian Atrea, the five largest of which are Heissenen, Alehessen, Hansa, Regenshavn, and Kevelaer.
Economy
Oceanian Atrea owes its existence as an Oceanian territory almost solely to the historic strength of its economy. In the early decades of the 20th century, Celarian businesses invested heavily in what was a major mining and manufacturing region of the Atrean Empire. When the civil war erupted across the Empire, the territory that was to become Oceanian Atrea had become an enormous investment for the Commonwealth of Celaria and fearing the loss of that investment, sought protection from Georgetown. This protection allowed much of the economic infrastructure to survive the long civil war intact. The human infrastructure and human capital, however, were damaged.
Much of the current economy depends upon the primary and secondary sectors of industry. In limited areas, such as Alehessen, Regenshavn, and Kevelaer, a transition is widely seen as underway to economic activities driven by services and knowledge. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was those very same areas that have seen the most continued stream of direct investment from the United Kingdom during and after the Atrean civil war.
| Home countries of the United Kingdom of Oceania |
|---|
| Celaria · Indian Islands · Juristan · Kingsland · Novikov · Oceanian Atrea |