Sungkow

(REWORK IN PROGRESS)

Etymology
The current name of Sungkow comes from a Goetic transliteration of the Bakanese pronunciation of Sungkow, though the initial colony went by Söngkow-Neuwellenburg; the former half was an older transliteration, and the latter was established as a planned capital, though the plan would go under by the turn of the century and would later be incorporated into Metropolitan Sungkow proper as a district.

The territory's name, first romanized as "Soeng-Go" in 1830, originally referred to a small but prominent bluff that overlooked the inlet. The inlet was an initial point of contact between Samot and later Bakanese sailors and local fishermen. Although the source of the Romanised name is unknown, it is generally believed to be an early phonetic rendering of the Bakanese phrase “seung gou”. The name literally translates to “high up”, and probably refers to the Samot fort originally positioned on the top of the bluff. The modern name of “Sungkow” did not come into wide acceptance until the 1910s following orthography reforms in Goetia; the more archaic “Söngkow” continued to be used until the 1940s. Some corporations and businesses founded prior to the 1910s retain the old spelling, like the Söngkower Elektrizitätswerke and the Bank of Söngkow.

In accordance with the CSNA’s language policies, there exists in official use several other names for the state in other languages.

History
The Osceola first moved into what is modern-day Sungkow 2,800 years ago, settling along the northern shores of Bessemersbucht. This remained unchanged until the arrival of Artemian and Keshian explorers and settlers, starting with Samot explorer Ioseb Balavadze’s February 1749 sighting of what is now Kap Mannheim.

Early colonial era
Initially settled in the 1700s by Samot pioneers looking for new trade routes into northern Avalonia, the Bakanese pushed in from their holdings in the north and claimed the land for themselves in the 1830s. The current territory of the capital was originally a small fort and trading hub for Samot trappers and hunters; the Bakanese, who had hoped for a better-positioned port in the Iapetus, established Seung Gou (Bakanese: ㄕㄤˋ ㄍㄠ) not long after their conquests. The name derives from the bluffs that overlook the natural harbour on which the Samot fort originally sat.

The Bakanese period between the 1830s and 1854 saw an influx of Bakanese migrants looking to support their families back home in mainland Bakfong; Seung Gou and the surrounding region proved capable of supporting agriculture and as such were seen as suitable land to colonize. Inroads from Liao in the north and radiating from Seung Gou became the region’s road infrastructure, linking sprawling farms and plantations inland to ports in Seung Gou and Liao. Despite growth in the region, it remained sparsely populated save for Seung Gou itself and several fishing and farming villages. The swamps of coastal Seung Gou began to be tamed through human intervention, though this process would come to a brief halt during the end of Bakanese rule.

The arrival of Goetia was unexpected, as the main conflict raged on in the faraway deserts of Alva, southern Bakfong, and the seas of the Eurybian. At the same time, a small landing force composed of Goetic marines surprised and overpowered the weak garrison at Seung Gou in 1853. Following a humiliating treaty, Bakfong gave up its Seung Gou colony and overlordship over the Drachyrine League and various Aravan polities in modern-day Alva. With the arrival of Goetic government officials in late 1853, Sungkow’s Goetic period began.

Goetic era
Goetic rule over Sungkow lasted from 1853 to 1925, though the colony would be essentially self-governing by the turn of the century. Sungkow, by virtue of being a natural rest stop for cross-Iapetus travel, prospered under Goetic rule. The incorporation of rural population centres east and north of Sungkow stretched local bureaucracy to its limits; the Legislative Act of 1858 created an advisory Legislative Council (Goetic: Legislativer Rat) to assist the Governor. The Council would eventually evolve into the modern Landrat after Sungkow’s incorporation into the CSNA in 1935.

Due to Sungkow’s outdated agricultural sector, the Goetic administration drafted land reforms to tackle the long-standing issues of absentee landlords and partial owner-tenants. While these land distribution reforms initially proved popular, they were exploited by wealthy individuals and companies who bought the land and forced tenants to work harder for less. As a result, public discontent grew against the plantation owners, culminating in the Rice Riots of 1873. The resulting crackdown on rice cartels bolstered pro-Liaotian sentiment within the colony and birthed the modern pro-Liao political movement within Sungkow.

Goetia’s 1875 war against Agrana and Griegro spread to Sungkow with little warning; bordering the Agranan colony of Santa Radox, the Goetic garrison in Sungkow was unprepared to fight. Despite their unreadiness, little action occurred on the front. Goetic victory over the United Kingdom in 1876 ceded the entirety of Santa Radox to the Goetic Administration in Sungkow, though the bureaucratic strain this applied on Sungkow proved too much to handle. New Austrasia was formed in 1877 from the majority of the land annexed by Sungkow; the land would later be sold to Bakanese Liao in 1900 for a hefty sum of 35,000,000 RM.

By 1880, Metropolitan Sungkow had evolved from a transient colonial outpost into a major entrepôt. Rapid economic improvement during the 1870s attracted foreign investment, as potential stakeholders became more confident in Sungkow's future. The University of Sungkow was established in 1895 as the territory’s first institution of higher education.

The hurricane of 1901 left a lasting impact on Metropolitan Sungkow and influenced Sungkow overall in regard to its culture. With most buildings built to Artemian standards, they were not meant to withstand hurricane-strength winds, leaving Metropolitan Sungkow in tatters. Refugees fled to the rural countryside and away from the coast, with some permanently settling inland. The reconstruction process that followed was swift and was carried out on a grand scale. The Sungkow Housing and Development Commission (Goetic: Söngkow Wohnungs- und Entwicklungskommission) was established in 1902 to establish new construction and quality standards for housing across Sungkow after the hurricane. The reconstruction process started in 1902 and finished in 1915, in time for the 80th anniversary of Metropolitan Sungkow’s founding and the start of the Grand Campaigns.

Grand Campaigns and independence
Sungkow, being a colonial possession of Goetia, joined the Grand Campaigns at the war’s beginning on the 15th of April, 1915. Due to Sungkow’s small size and distance from the conflict, the majority of support came in the form of materiel. The Sungkow administration was wary to retain its garrison in the chance that Tiperyn and her colonies (especially New Valentina) would join on the side of the Ovancians. This assumption proved to be right in 1919, when Tiperyn entered the Grand Campaigns on the side of the Ovannois Royalists, claiming Goetic forces had overstepped their claims.

Low-level ethnic conflict between the Agranan population in the newly incorporated western districts and the Goetic population had existed since Sungkow annexed the territory in 1876; it quickly escalated into violence at the outbreak of war. Faced with an internal crisis and an external threat from New Valentina, the Sungkow administration enlisted the help of Liao in order to quell the Agranan crisis. Results would be mixed; mainland Sungkow would eventually be pacified following brief fighting and moderate concessions to Sungkow Agranans, while the island of Guadallon was invaded by New Valentina. Guadallon remained in New Valentine hands until the 1925 Gullhavn Armistice returned the island to the new Provisional Government.

The fall of Goetia to communist revolutionaries in 1925 marked the end of proper Goetic rule in Sungkow. While martial law was already in effect since 1919, the former colonial government now fully took on the reins of power; Caspar von Halle, appointed Governor of Sungkow in 1910, installed a provisional government with himself remaining as Governor. The influx of refugees hailing from Goetia spurred not only a massive housing crisis but increased political tensions between Sungkow’s ethnic groups.

By 1926, Sungkow’s Legislative Council had fractured into three distinct factions. The largest bloc, the Centre, supported maintaining independence from Liao; given the circumstances at the time, the bloc was quickly losing ground within the Council. In contrast, the Imperials and Confederates were gaining seats. Imperial ambitions called for patience; the common view of Socialist Goetia at the time was one of an occupying force that would fracture quickly. The Confederate view saw Liao as necessary to keep Sungkow afloat; the issue of Goetia would come later, once the situation at home eased up.

With Goetia’s colonies eventually turning to entrench autocracy in the case of Lower Alva or being forced to share power with another overlord in the case of Singaradscha, Caspar and his government toed the line between the two cases. While still technically a military dictatorship, Caspar allowed limited freedoms that would usually be restricted under martial law. Under his rule, he would turn his focus inwards, implementing a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the end goal of establishing Sungkow as a self-sufficient nation. Primary education was made free and mandatory under his rule; hundreds of schools began to spread across Sungkow.

Coinciding with the fall of the Imperial faction of the Council in 1933 due to Goetia’s resurgence as a new socialist power, Caspar repealed the outdated three-class franchise electoral system and replaced it with universal suffrage to set the stage for Sungkow’s eventual democratization and possible incorporation into the CSNA. Following a successful 1935 referendum on Sungkow’s incorporation into the CSNA, Caspar von Halle announced his intention to step down as Governor; his successor would be elected to the new position of Minister-President of Sungkow.

Early modern era
On the 7th of December, 1935, the Free State of Sungkow officially joined the Confederate States of Northern Avalonia as a member state. Elections were held the month after; Sören von Pracht became the first elected Minister-President of Sungkow, leading a big tent coalition. The early modern period heralded a new era of Sungkower politics. Whilst political activists from Imperial Goetia had faced heavy censorship in the years during and after the Grand Campaigns, Sungkow found itself trying to establish a new political tradition. For this reason, many exiled activists, such as Augustin Heidemann (who would later become minister-president himself) flocked to Sungkow to help; a significant number of them then went on to take key positions in the newly formed political and governmental structures.

The years between Sungkow’s incorporation in 1935 and the period of unrest in 1949 saw the formation of three powerful political blocs, mimicking the state of Sungkow’s 1926 Legislative Council. The Centre and Confederates of old merged into the pro-CSNA Unionist bloc, espousing increased economic cooperation with the CSNA in favour of dropping its more nationalist commitments. Centre-right and right-wing figures, pro-independence movements, and monarchists banded around the Sovereignist label. Agranan and Bakanese interest groups leaned toward collaboration with Unionist figures but were divergent enough from the majority-Goetic Unionist group to be placed in their own bloc.

Sungkow’s image as a haven for political activists took a turn for the worse in the 1940s. A resurgence of right-wing Goetic nationalism, bolstered by news of a successful ultranationalist coup in Lower Alva, led to an abortive attempt to coup the Sungkow government in 1941 by Goetic reactionaries. Leftist countermovements, composed of working-class Bakanese and Agranans, shunned their Goetic counterparts; the resulting ethnic tensions would eventually push the state to its limit by 1948.

Tragedy struck in late 1948 when Louis Fähnrich, then the incumbent minister-president, was assassinated during a public address in Zweikirchen by Otto Welcker, a member of his security detachment and right-wing Goetic nationalist. The ensuing protests, counter-protests, and riots that engulfed the state forced another round of martial law that would last a decade.

===" (second economic boom somewhere)

(CSNAfication, pan-nationalism, pluralism boom)

(old Goetic reunion in 90s)

(closer relations with alva)

Demographics
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Politics
Sungkow has a multiparty system dominated by the Social Democratic Party (SPS). Other important parties are The Greens, which became the second-biggest political party in the 2015 local parliament elections and the center-right National Movement (NB), who have dominated the city of Neu-Urbach until 2020. The Greens and the center-right Union Party have been represented in the state parliament since 1985 and 2005 respectively.

Government
The Constitution of Sungkow of the Free State of Sungkow was enacted on the 15th of March, 1936. The Sungkower Constitution became the basis for Sungkow after its integration into the Confederation.

Sungkow has a Landtag (English: State Diet), elected by universal suffrage. Until December 1989, there was also a Senat, or Senate, whose members were chosen by social and economic groups in Sungkow, but following a referendum in 1985, this institution was abolished.

The Sungkower State Government consists of the Minister-President of Sungkow, eleven Ministers and six Secretaries of State. The Minister-President is elected for a period of five years by the Landtag and is head of state. With the approval of the Landtag, they appoint the members of the State Government. The State Government is composed of the:


 * State Chancellery
 * Ministry of the Interior, for Sport and Integration (Staatsministerium des Innern, für Sport und Integration)
 * Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport (Staatsministerium für Wohnen, Bau und Verkehr)
 * Ministry of Justice (Staatsministerium der Justiz)
 * Ministry for Education and Culture (Staatsministerium für Bildung und Kultus)
 * Ministry for Science and Art (Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst)
 * Ministry of Finance and for Home Affairs (Staatsministerium der Finanzen und für Heimat)
 * Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Landesentwicklung und Energie)
 * Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection (Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz)
 * Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Staatsministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten)
 * Ministry for Family, Labour and Social Affairs (Staatsministerium für Familie, Arbeit und Soziales)
 * Ministry for Health and Care (Staatsministerium für Gesundheit und Pflege)
 * Ministry for Digital Affairs (Staatsministerium für Digitales)