Kings

Kings is one of the states of Lovia and is located in the western part of the archipelago. It is named after the only island in the state. Because the political and geographical boundaries of Kings are one and the same, it is a rather isolated region with its own evolution. This state has known its greatest expansion approximately between 1950 and 1960 when Lovian industry was booming. Nonetheless the state is most known for its natural beauty and the economic centers are kept away from the inland. Kings neighbors the states of Sylvania and Seven and is currently governed by Yuri Medvedev. The capital if Kings is Newhaven, the second greatest city in Lovia.

The official hexacode abbrevation of Kings is  and the total hexacode is:. The seal and flag of Kings both feature blue tones to refer to the water and a typical Kings pine. The seal also has the state's motto on it, 'surrounded by nature'.

Discovery and early years (1877-1900)
Kings was one of the first states of Lovia to be explored. In 1877, the first year of Lovia as a nation, already two expeditions were made from the Noble City settlement. The first expedition, lead by founding father Andrew Johnson mapped the shores of the isle and possible locations to start a settlement. A second expedition soon followed, this time under the lead of Lawrence Sagan who would become the first governor of Kings later on. Sagan and his crew of settlers started a small farming town along a river they named The Abby. They would use it as a base camp to discover the inland of the isle. The authorities however wanted to focus on expanding the capital instead of engaging resources for the scouting of King's highland regions.

The original farming settlement steadily grow to a village of about 600 people and was dubbed Newhaven. It is the proceeder of the neighborhood of the same name and was the second largest settlement until 1880. By then, the Hurbanovan mining industry had gained the favor of the authorities in Noble City which meant that less investments were accessible for the other regions. The economic potential of Oceana and the dissatisfaction with the people of Newhaven lead to the construction of a confederal model with different states. Through this autonomy, the local leaders hoped to gain some economic momentum.

The economic state (1900-2000)
It was Sagan who got elected as the first governor of Kings in 1905 but it would take over a year before there actually was a policy. Kings was the poorest of all populous states on the archipelago and the political autonomy didn't change much to this situation. Many governors passed without any success; most changes in favor of the common man were made in Noble City when social regulations and voting rights were added to the law in the 30's and 40's. The progressive and social(ist) parties that were elected in Congress kept focussing on the expansion of the capital but with the changes in the world economy after WWII change was on its way.

The demand for mining products declined and the Oceana economy suffered by this. In the mean time, environmental activists protested against the seemingly endless urbanization around Noble City. The authorities had trouble pushing through economic reforms in these areas because the people were afraid of loosing there jobs. This created an opportunity for Kings, were the people had been workless for years. The socialist governors that headed Kings in the 50's and 60's invested in the expansion of modern industries and ordered the construction of an harbor. Old Port and Abby Springs were build and both economy and population rates finally took of.

In the decades that followed Kings, and especially Newhaven, had become the stronghold of the Lovian economy. Growth rates slightly fell during the economic crises of the 70's and the 90's but never went below four percent. The politicians kept exploring new industries and near the end of the century technology and research companies were drawn to Lovia. A huge project was started to build a new neighborhood especially for business centers and administrative buildings. In 2002 Malipa was entirely finished and Newhaven was known as the economic hotspot of Lovia.

Present day Kings (2000-2010)
Kings had regained its position as second most populous region of Lovia, with over 3000 inhabitants of Nehwaven alone. It also got over its complex of low-rang or secondary state by beating Sylvania's economic growth rates. Newhaven kept expanding by adding a Pines as a new neighborhood. Also, a hamlet was constructed north of Newhaven. This was called Beaverwick and has little more than 100 inhabitants, mostly fishermen and their families. Because of the economic activity and years of progressive governors, the old poverty has made room for the wealth of today. The rise of Kings culminated in the election of mayor/governor Yuri Medvedev as Prime Minister of Lovia in 2008 and a second time early in 2010.

Kings has quite well been able to withstand the financial crisis of 2007-2010 because Medvedev betted on an underestimated trump of the isle: it's natural beauty. The governor realized what potential Kings had to become a tourist destination. Because Lovia was relatively unknown with European and even U.S. travelers, a holiday would be cheap compared with popular destinations. Since 2005, King's politicians thus invested in expanding tourist facilities in the central and southern regions of the isle, away from the economic centre at the northern shores.

Geography and nature
Kings is formed by only one island, Kings Island. The state has an area of about 68,2 square kilometres. It is a green and hilly state that is fomous for it's huge pine forests. The biggest part of the state is uninhabited, except for the valley of the Abby, where Newhaven lies. Next to this town, there are a lot off small communities next to the Abby. This river forms the main transportation for industries, together with the railwais.

The state of Kings has extensive marine resources, with the fourteenth-largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world, covering over 220 square kilometres, more than 3 times its land area.

Cities and towns

 * Newhaven (city - state capital)


 * Newhaven is the state capital town in Kings. It lies at the mouth of the Abby river, on the coast of Kings, and is a car ferry port for services across Lovia. There are five neighborhoods: Newhaven, Abby Springs, Malipa, Pines and the Old Port. The huge Newhaven port is located in the new city of Newhaven. The new city was developed in 1960 together with Abby Springs because the older neighborhoods had become densely populated.

Islands

 * Kings Island
 * Kings Island (also: Kings or the Island of the Kings) is the second largest island of the Lovia-archipelago, and lies in the Peace Archipelago. Just like Peace Island the inland is covered with hills and forest. The population is rather low. The island is connected to Peace Island by the Connection Bridge.

Nature
Because of its long uninhabitation compared to the rest of Lovia and its island biogeography, Kings has extraordinary flora and fauna, descended from archipelago wildlife or since arriving by flight, swimming or being carried across the sea. About 80% of the flora in Kings occurs only in Lovia, and than again mainly on Kings. The two main types of forest are those dominated by pines, and in cooler climates the southern beech. The remaining vegetation types on Kings are grasslands of tussock and other grasses, usually in sub-alpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests. When the first Lovians immigrated to the island, about 80 percent of the island was covered with forest. Now still 60 percent is left.

Economy
Kings has long been one of the poorest states of Lovia, its main economic activity being agriculture. Money was always drawn away from Kings by the economic more interesting areas like Noble City or the Oceana mining areas. It wasn't until Kings became a state with its own governor that an actual economy was shaped. It remained hard to find any investors so the authorities expanded those fields of the economy that didn't require lots of money, like fishing. Unfortunately fishing didn't generate much income since there was a competition going on between Kings and the other 'poor states', Clymene and Seven.

Economic momentum was finally gained when the other states got bugged by rapid modernization of the economy and the rise of environmentalist and leftist movements. Those pressure groups were asked to help with the new plans for King's economy. The main goal was to give Kings a modern and developed economy to work away the income gap with other regions but without hurting the natural environment. The socialist governors that headed Kings in the 50's and 60's invested in the expansion of modern industries and ordered the construction of an harbor. The harbor and the river Abby were key elements in the development of Kings. The industrial centre was - and today still is - located on the northern shores and along the Abby.

In the decades that followed Kings, and especially Newhaven, had become the stronghold of the Lovian economy. Growth rates slightly fell during the economic crises of the 70's and the 90's but never went below four percent. The politicians kept exploring new industries and near the end of the century technology and research companies were drawn to Lovia. By 2002 Newhaven, and thus Kings, had become the economic hotspot of Lovia. Kings deliveres by estimation 34 percent of the Lovian GDP and its inhabitants have a high standard of living as well. Kings largely escaped the early 2000s recession that impacted upon most other States due to its investments in ecotourism. As of 2006, Kings median household income was only 4% less than in the United states.

Demographics
Kings has a population of about 3.000, of which approximately 78% identify with European ethnic groups. Most European inhabitants are of Dutch and Belgian ancestry, although there has been significant Libertan immigration too. Other groups are American (9.2 percent) and Asian (6.6 percent) people. About 2.9 percent of people are of Pacific Island origin. Kings is also a predominantly urban state, with 92.2 percent of the population living in the main urban areas and more than half living in the largest city of the island, Newhaven. Only about 8% of the people lives outside Newhaven, with concentrations in Beaverwick and the tourist centers in the south. Kings has relatively open immigration policies; its government is committed to increasing its population by about 2 percent annually for economic reasons. This causes that about twenty three percent of King's population was born overseas, one of the highest rates anywhere in the world. At present immigrants from Libertas and Adlibita constitute the largest single group, accounting for 29 percent of those born overseas. According to the 2006 census, most Kings inhabitants are atheïst. A small but important part is Christian. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism and other forms of Protestantism. Religion does however not play a major role in Kings public life, having no religious points of interest or important churches.

Political
Kings is a very progressive state with socially engaged politicians. This is due to the harsh economic and social situation of the past for which the liberal and conservative politicians of the first decades in Lovian history are still blamed. Nowadays, socialist and green parties score notably higher in Kings than in other states, the scores lying about ten percent higher than the national mean. There is no real difference between the urbanized and rural regions because the people of the later one go often to the city to go shopping, bring the children to school, etc. Kings has always been governed by socially inspired governors but it is only recently that a communist occupies both the post of mayor of Newhaven and governor of Kings. Though Medvedev's position is somewhat controversial, most inhabitants support him for the good work he has done in the years he has been in power.

State elections
For the list of all governors of Kings, see this page.

State institutions
Kings is a very progressive and advanced state. These are the current institutions in Kings on state level:
 * Kings State Court
 * Kings State Police