Victoria

Victoria, officially the Victorian Republic, is a unitary constitutional republic located in western Aesurdah. Bordered to the north by NATION, to the east by NATION, to the south by NATION, and to the west by the Aegian Ocean. Victoria is the third most populous nation in Aesurdah, after Tanguan and Gelenia with a population of 17.1 million, though with a land area of LAND AREA, it is one of the least densely populated regions on the continent, with the majority of the population living in the forested southern regions. Though a unitary republic, the nation does divide itself into seventeen constituent regions, which further divide themselves into municipalities to handle local governmental matters. The largest urban area is Victoria, a port city, as well as the federal capital, in the south, while the areas of the north are thinly populated, largely participating in the timber, agricultural, and fishing industries.

Victoria was originally inhabited by a wide range of ethnic peoples who spoke a related group of languages called he Kwawatia people, though other groups in the area included the Sailians, Tsigili, and I'qquuituoans, who all began inhabiting the area we know as Victoria nearly 10'000 years ago. Their settlements relied on hunting and fishing, and their houses were often woven thatch ones. The earliest Davintharian settlers moved westward across Aesurdah in the "westward expansion" throughout the 1750's and early 1800's, with the first settlement becoming New Wellington. This colony was led by heiress to the Cabot family fortune, Victoria Cabot, and when she moved to New Wellington in 1781, the city, and subsequently the colony, were named after her. The colony saw rapid expansion as the Cabot Company, the Federal Mercantile Corps, and the Western Aesurdah Company all began to pour stock into the region for its fur trade and timber, though it was the discovery of gold in Kwuiisuit Pass in 1803 that caused the colony to take off, becoming an official organized colony by 1815, and Victoria became the capital. Many people who attempted to strike it rich in the rugged forested terrain failed, and rather settled down in small fishing and timber villages along the coastal inlets of the region. Victoria became an organized Autonomous Dominion by 1835, with James Addington becoming the first Prime Minister after independence, the son of a rich timber conglomerate. The nation saw several socialist strikes as the nation industrialized throughout the 1840s - 1860s, which the government responded to by expanding peasant and workers rights slowly over the next decade. The nation was part of the Davintharian Overseas Corps, and invaded the Xin colony of Tanguan to the south in the Great War, after which the nation was granted full independence in 1883. The nation slowly liberalized and with the introduction of women's voting rights in 1885, and the introduction of proportional representation in 1891 the nation's democracy flourished, and the economy slowly began to transition away from one based solely on timber and fishery, to one based on financial services as policies enacted boosted the education rate, infrastructure was drastically invested in, and the population became relatively urbanized. The nation also established the Public Health Insurance scheme in 1895, and expanded the social safety net. By 1905 the nation was a booming metropolitan area, and several generations of people who had fled war-torn Myeon, Xinhao, and Tanguan had made their way to Victoria, establishing businesses and boosting the economy. The nation became a green power hub, as hydroelectricity became a huge power source and green energy could be exported to nearby nations.