Alva

The Imperial State of Alva, (Goetic: Reichsstaat Alva) (Thalassian: Αυτοκρατορική πολιτεία της Άλβα, Aftokratorikí politeía tis Álva) (Arab:إمبراطورية دولة ألفا, 'iimbraturiat dawlatan 'alfaan) is a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The current monarch is Kaiserin Irene, who has reigned since 2012, making her the world's youngest-serving current monarch. located in Kesh, bordering Asharistan to the west, Kodeshia to the south, and Beifang to the northeast. It comprises of eight Reichsgaue in a desert-like climate spanning (insert size here).

(insert pre-goetic shenanigans here, tovik colony spiel)

Islam spread quickly in the nth century, followed by Messianism, which arrived in the nth century following colonization by Thalassian Toviks.

Early settlement (to xxxx)
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Thalassian colonization (xxxx-xxxx)
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Goetic rule (18xx-1925)
On xx xxxx 18x, the Goetic East Kesh Company landed a large force of mercenaries at what is now Alvastadt. Their aims were to establish a supply port and stop attacks by Arab and Thalassian pirates against Goetic shipping headed eastwards. The Goetic Government thereafter considered Alva to be an important settlement due to its location, as the Eurybian fleet of the Imperial Navy could easily access the port for resupply and repairs. Later, Goetic influence extended progressively into the hinterland, both west and south, leading to the establishment of the Protectorates of Upper Alva and New Thalassia through a formal treaty of protection in 18xx, and the Alvastadt Colony.

Rulers within the Upper Alva and New Thalassia protectorates kept their sovereignty: banners of local kingdoms and city-states would remain flying over their government buildings, governing of the land continued to be carried out by them or in their name, and their states still kept a distinct international presence, unlike the Alvastadt Colony, where the Goetic sovereign was the head of state.

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Interwar era (1925-1949)
The communist takeover in the homeland proved to be the determining factor in Alvak foreign and internal policy. As expected, thousands of members of the Goetic nobility, businesspeople, right-wing politicians, as well as ordinary but wealthy people, frightened by the prospect of radical purges and violence, went into exile in Alva, the closest part of the Goetic Empire that was not as touched by the revolutionary waves unlike her allies in Mero-Curgovina and the rapidly disintegrating Samot-Seratofian Empire.

Along with the exiles, the elements of the Goetic Army and Navy that had not mutinied crossed the Eurybian as well. This resulted in Alva quickly taking the role of leader of the remnants of the Empire such as the Provisional State of Schangau and the State of Neuleithanien-Shimakawa. This role would be short-lived from the start due to Alva's position; it was too far away, too underdeveloped, and too small to influence anything. Schangau would eventually join the Confederate States of Northern Avalonia after a plebiscite in 1935, and the short-lived state of Neuleithanien-Shimakawa was quickly taken down by the Akitei occupation force, which set up the current Protectorate regime.

Although most exiles had hoped that the situation would soon be resolved as the newly created Socialist Republic of Teutonia would undoubtedly either quickly collapse on itself, or be put down by the Crown Alliance. Neither happened and instead, a peace treaty was concluded between the Crown Alliance and Teutonia, with little to no regard towards the exiled government. The Socialist Republic was recognized as the successor of the Goetic Empire by most of the world, while the exiles remained seen as the legitimate government by those who had fought beside them in the Grand Campaigns. The lack of a peace treaty between the now-exiled Goetic Empire in Alva and the Crown Alliance would be resolved in the 19xx Treaty of xxxx.

The arrival of the exiles caused a great upheaval in Alvak political life. After Governor (name)'s refusal to let what remained of the Goetic government in exile replace the Alvak government (most of the government had fled to Schangau instead), the office of Governor was abolished, replaced by Kaiser Adalbert himself. The Alvak and Goetic armies and fleets were merged under mixed Goeto-Alvak leadership.

Alvak politics shifted to the right, and the still powerful Conservatives were accused of Crown sympathies while the Labour was blamed for having lost most of the Empire to Communist takeover. Moreover, the Kaiser and the Goetic exiles were quickly accused of interference in Alvak politics, directing them into a rearmament and offensive program conceived for preparing the reconquest of the homeland, which most had seen as an impossible feat given the circumstances. The liberal nationalists, who were only beginning to push for independence in the aftermath of the Grand Campaigns, viewed with great discontent the Exiles' influence on their politics, stressing the recently rushed coronation of Kaiser Adalbert II, and would rather see their country as the peacekeeper of troubled East Kesh, a role that had been abandoned by the substantially weakened Kodeshia.

The socialist agitations that followed the devastation of the Grand Campaigns, inspired by the Teutonic Revolution, led to counter-revolution and repression throughout Alva. The now right-leaning establishment, fearing a communist revolution, started to endorse the small National Party, led by one Josef Schweinitz. In October 1932 the Whiteshirts of the National Party attempted a coup which failed at the last minute when Kaiser Adalbert II proclaimed a state of emergency and called in the Reichswehr to rid the capital of coup supporters. Over the next few years, the Reichswehr, taking advantage of the political chaos that followed the failed National Party coup, forced all political parties to merge into the Imperial Assistance Government and curtailed personal liberties, thus forming a military dictatorship with Generalfeldmarschall Christoph Leitgeb as its de facto leader, with Adalbert and the interim chancellor Nestoras Stavriades being forced into their roles acting as figureheads.

The period of military rule that followed, now named the "Emergency" period by historiographers, was rife with discontent. In 1938, vast reserves of oil were discovered in the Westufer region, and full-scale development of the oil fields began in 1941 under the Tiperyn-controlled Noard-Keske Oaljemaatskippij (North Kesh Oil Company). Oil provided Alva with economic prosperity and substantial political leverage internationally. Cultural life rapidly developed, primarily in the Capital, Westufer, and Ostufer regions, which were the center for newspapers and radio as well as on the lifeline of the country. However, the large influx of foreign workers in the south in the oil industry increased the pre-existing propensity for xenophobia in Aravan communities. At the same time, the regime became increasingly wasteful and extravagant.

A silent coup orchestrated by the militarist bloc of the junta overthrew Leitgeb on 11 September 1945. As the armed forces loyal to the militarists stormed the Reichstag, Leitgeb apparently committed suicide. The new military junta, led by Brigadegeneral Oskar Arendt, took control of the country. The first years of the regime were marked by human rights violations. In October 1946, at least 91 people were murdered in the infamous Reeder Massacre. According to the 46-Kommission, at least 2,115 were killed, and at least 27,265 were tortured during Arendt's reign. In 2011, Alva recognized an additional 9,800 victims.

Arendt's regime pushed for cooperation with Tiperyn and its allies, distancing itself from its traditional Keshian allies in Beifang, Akiteiwa, and Kodeshia. The aggressive expansion of Alva's natural resource extraction projects was an issue and a major worry for Kodeshia, whose own oil fields (still under Selengerian control at the time) would soon be dwarfed by Alva's own. With the additional issue that was Alva's re-alignment with Tiperyn, tensions boiled over frequently along the Alvak-Kodeshian border, resulting in dozens of border conflicts.

Contemporary era (1949-)
While dozens of incursions had occurred on the Alvak-Kodeshi border prior to 1949, the Kodeshi incursion into Alvak territory in the Beiguan Ridge Incident on the 9th of November, 1949, ultimately brought Alva into the Great Kesh War on the side of the Crown Alliance, resulting in a declaration of war by Alva on the 10th. Beifang, a loose ally of Guo Guotai's regime in Kodeshia, declared war on Alva the same day a few hours later.

Alva's efforts during its time in the war were mostly defensive, lacking the manpower and materiel to launch any offensives against the much larger armies of Kodeshia and Beifang. The defensive lines along the Matar river briefly held back Bakanese forces for nine months until the 1950 September Offensive by Beifang broke the lines, forcing Alvak forces to retreat further towards Alvastadt. The xth largest encirclement of forces during the war occurred between 1952 to 1953, when Neu-Amden, Alva's 3rd largest city at the time, was cut off by Bakanese forces. While the encirclement ultimately failed due to poor logistics and low morale on the Bakanese side and the stubborn defence of the city and its surroundings led by xxx, it signalled the end of the Bakanese advance into Alvak territory. Little to no change on the frontlines occurred in the last year of fighting, as the harsh desert climate and heavily damaged infrastructure took their toll on both armies.

The Kodeshian front proved to be as deadly as the Bakanese front, albeit for different reasons. Feldmarschall Nicola von Bodenheimer gained the moniker of "the Blind Butcher" due to his management of the battles of the heavily contested Pelzer Pass. Von Bodenheimer's repeated offensives across the mountains and through the valley were in an attempt to secure control of the Kodeshian end of the Pelzer and the capture of the ancient fortress of Wulongcheng, which would give Alva a defensive advantage against the Kodeshians. Despite his overall success in holding the line, the failures of most of his offensives cost the lives of tens of thousands of men, which led to an investigation into his actions (especially during the last of his offensives, when he fled the front, leaving his soldiers to fend for themselves) and his eventual sacking in 1955.

Alva sued for peace in early 1954, ending its participation in the Great Kesh War. The resulting Wujin Armistice leased Alexander Island to Beifang for five decades, ceded border strips to both Kodeshia and Beifang, placed a limit on the size of Alva's armed forces, as well as a hefty Hz 125,000,000 in Alvak war reparations. However, these terms would be repealed in 1959 with Kodeshia and her allies' defeat in the Great Kesh War and the following Treaty of Isfahan. While Alva's territorial losses and financial drains had been reversed, Arendt's regime proved increasingly unpopular with each passing year, leading to the successful 1958 countercoup by the Moderate faction of the army. Arendt was placed on a show trial and found guilty of high treason, leading to his execution by firing squad.

The leaders of the new regime, Maximilian Höss, Chirstoforos Nicolatsis, and Niklaus Dimellis-Funke, loosened the Army's overall grip on matters of the state. While the state of emergency remained in place and no new parties were allowed to be formed, the overfunded armed forces relinquished some of their budget for reconstruction while forcing the economy to become export-oriented, hastening Alva's recovery from the Great Kesh War. Alva joined the North-South Concordant in 1964, a sign of increased dependence on Tiperyn and her allies.

With the sudden death of Höss in 1969 in a car accident, pressure from democracy advocates grew on Nicolatsis and Dimellis-Funke, who were more liberal than Höss and were left with the task of running the country. They relinquished more and more power towards the Reichstag and Reichsrat and diverted more of the budget towards industry and infrastructure but kept up the state of emergency. The Yindong Economic Crisis that occurred in the backdrop of the 1960s and 70s pushed for further reliance on Tiperyn and the North-South Concordant as Alva and her neighbours' economies collapsed.

Nicolatsis' assassination in 1975 by a communist sympathizer left Dimellis-Funke to rule alone. His cabinet eventually convinced him to end the state of emergency in 1977, disbanding the 45-year old Imperial Assistance Government, allowing parties to form, and restarting elections. Otto Auerbach, a member of Dimellis-Funke's cabinet, stayed as the interim chancellor until the 1980 elections. The transition from autocracy to modern democracy ended in 1980, when Alva's first democratically elected chancellor since 1928, Kurt Koehne, came into power.

With Koehne's rise to power, Alva began reorienting itself once more, further weaning off Tiperyn and North-South Concordant support and rebuilding relations with Kodeshia, Beifang, and Akiteiwa.

(something about KTEC)

(2000s and onwards)

(Alva leaves NSC)

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Government
- constitutional monarchy

- reichsrat is upper house, reichstag is lower house

- coup shit

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Foreign relations
Alva maintains diplomatic relations with most countries in the world. Its relative power has increased somewhat from when it was a colony prior to the turn of the 20th century, and it maintains status in world affairs. Formal diplomatic relations are primarily maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Politcal and legal status


The political and legal statuses of Alva are contentious issues. The Socialist Republic of Teutonia claimed that the Alvak government was illegitimate, referring to it as the "Authority in Alva". Alva has its own currency, widely accepted passport, postage stamps, internet TLD, and armed forces with an independently elected chancellor and president. While Alva has no claims to the mainland, Alva hosts the Imperial Goetic Government in Exile (IGGE), which does hold claims on Goetia. However, the ITGE renounced its claims on Boagan Goetia, Austrasia, and the Agranan-held Wilhelmsthal Strip when Alva joined the North-South Concordant in 1964. The remaining Imperial Goetic claims on the East Elsezzian Socialist Republic as well as the long-standing claim over the former regions of Roussy-le-Bourg and Husseren-Wesserling in what is now the territory of both the West Elsezzian SR and the Ovancian SR remain to this day.

Following the collapse of the Socialist Republic of Teutonia in 2021, the ITGE has become the sole internationally recognized claimant of Goetic lands.

The IGGE did not renounce its claims on her colonies until the 80s and 90s, but let go of its formerly leased territory of Singaradscha in 1966 after East Ramayan pressure. Shimakawa was officially handed over to Akiteiwa in a grand ceremony following the 1988 Kikyo Agreement. The question of the Schangau claim went back and forth for a decade between the IGGE and the Confederate States of Northern Avalonia before being resolved in the 1997 Christmas Agreement, where the IGGE would relinquish its claims on Schangau. The agreement was signed by the governments of the Confederate States and of the IGGE.

Included in the Agreement were provisions that became part of the Schangau Act 1999 in the form of a future referendum on a united Goetia.

The first poll, held in 2000, resulted in 77% of the vote going towards staying in the Confederacy. The second, held in 2010, resulted in 79% of the vote going towards staying in the Confederacy.

Military
Alva's military, the Reichswehr, is organized into the Heer (Army and special forces ), Marine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air Force), Sanitätsdienst (Medical Service) and Streitkräftebasis (Joint Support Service) branches. In 2020, Alvak military expenditures took up Mxx.x billion, around x.x% of the national GDP.

As of January 2020, the Reichswehr has a strength of xxx,xxx active soldiers and xx,xxx civilians. Reservists are available to the armed forces and participate in defence exercises and deployments abroad. Military service is compulsory for men at age 18. However, calls have been made in recent years to suspend conscription and replace it with voluntary service. Since 2002 women may serve in all functions of service without restriction.

In peacetime, the Reichswehr is commanded by the Minister of Defence. In a state of defence, the Chancellor would become commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr. The role of the Reichswehr is described in the 1980 revision of the Constitution of Alva as defensive only. But after a ruling of the Imperial Constitutional Court in 1995, the term "defence" has been defined to not only include protection of the borders of Alva, but also crisis reaction and conflict prevention, or more broadly as guarding the security of Alva anywhere in the world.

Economy
Alva's economy depends mainly on tourism, trade, petroleum and other oil-based exports, the export of refined ores, and tourism; there are also more than one million Alvaks working abroad, mainly in Tiperyn and Jungastia.

The oil industry in Alva is staggeringly large, due to the massive oil fields near the mountains. The heavy and rapid industrialization that followed after the discovery of these oil fields has helped boost the economy. However, oil production has shifted from extraction to refinement. The largest buyer for Alvak oil is Jungastia's Petrostado. The trade deal, signed in 1986, has made both Jungastia and Alva a significant amount of profits, especially from the four Gas-to-Liquid plants Petrostado owns and operates located near Al Duluma.

The completion of the Moritz Dam in 1932 and the resultant Lake Moritz have altered the place of the Alva River in the agriculture and ecology of Alva. Agriculture makes up a tiny and almost insignificant amount of Alvak exports, as most of the country relies on these crops to sustain itself. However, imports of foods from other countries like Agrana y Griegro have helped the situation. Agriculture is found along the Alva River and its major tributaries.

Economic history
The economic boom after the discovery of oil in the Askari Plains and rich ore deposits on the North Kesh Mountain Range provided enough of a boost to Alva that it could sustain its trade, oil, and metal needs for decades or centuries if need be. However, in later years, the economic priorities shifted from oil and ore production to refinement, trade, and tourism. Today, Alva is one of Anterra's top sellers in refined metals, petroleum, other oil-based products, and to add to it, opens its borders to 950,000 tourists per year and growing.

Administrative Districts
Alva comprises eight federal districts which are collectively referred to as Reichsgaue. Each district has its own state constitution and is largely autonomous in regard to its internal organisation.

Culture
Much of Alvak culture is formed from parts of mostly Goetic, Thalassian, and some Chaldean and Arab lifestyles. Alva has placed emphasis on equality and inclusiveness for all its people. Multiculturalism is often cited as one of Alva's significant accomplishments, and a key distinguishing element of Alvak identity. In the Arab regions, cultural identity is strong, and many commentators speak of an Arab culture that is distinct from the more abundant Thalasso-Goetic culture. However, as a whole, Alva is, in theory, a cultural mosaic - a collection of regional ethnic cultures.

Music
From the late '30s to the '50s, jazz was widely popular in Alva. One notable person is Albert Mödel, who was instrumental in spreading the influence of jazz, blues, and many other genres. In 1949, he released his bestselling album, "My Favourite Things". The album went worldwide, with not one million but thirty million copies sold. More recently, an album was released, posthumously in his name, in 2006, named "Workings", selling 46,000,000 copies as of 2019. His grandson, Emil Mödel, still produces jazz music to this day, playing not only his own works but his grandfather's as well. Today, jazz music still makes up a considerable amount of music Alva exports, and it still has an influence on the music modern Alvak musicians, producers, and composers procure today.

Military marches are prominently used in the Alvak military. Notable tunes include the Regimentsgruß, Goetischer Grenadiermarsch, and Goetens Gloria, all of which are played regularly in ceremonies and parades. Another is Jungastiani-Alvak composer Ronaldo Brechtolt-Almeida (1900-2000), who composed several marches, including the world-famous Marcha do exército #9, also known as the Marsch von Jungastia in Alva. He also co-composed several other tunes, like the Maart van Ambrosia with Tiperyn composer Tobias De Jong.

Pop music in Alva arrived in the early 1980s and became well-known quickly throughout the country. Alvak pop started out as what could be described as a transnational youth subculture. The commercial success started in 1978 with the hit "Die Da" from Die Käfer from Lubach. From there, synth-pop emerged out as one of the many split-off genres. Artists like Johannes Huynh, Andrea Alexandris, and Alec Hahn became stars, pushing synth-pop forward as Alva's #1 produced genre of music. In some ways, the rise of synth-pop helped Alva reach out to their neighbours, creating a sort of "pop peace". In the late 2000s and early '10s, a new subgenre emerged out of synth-pop, forming retro-funk or alternatively, new disko. Artists like Kontinuïteit and Neue Ordnung produced music that was reminiscent of the late '70s and '80s and pulled samples from 80's pop culture with Bakanese movies, Alvak cartoons, Kodeshi imperial-age statues, and even more, being used in music videos. Neue Ordnung's "Englischer Garten" was the first retro-funk song to reach the top 5 played songs on Alvak music streaming app "Ohrwurm" in 2009. Today, the retro-funk movement holds on strong, with the number of songs in the genre being beaten only by jazz and pop music.

Irithaky and similar genres of music have been around Alva for centuries and has its origins in colonial-age Thalassia, but it has only been popular and widespread in Alva from the mid-1900s with the invention of the radio. irithaky or irithaky (Thalassian: ηρηθακυ) is a popular dance of Thalassian-Alvak origin, choreographed by Thely Choromoly for the 1949 film Piro the Thalassian. It is a recent Thalassian folkdance, and a mixture of the slow and fast rhythms of the hasapiko dance. The dance and the accompanying music by Yiroko Nikatho are also called Piro's dance, Piro, or "the dance of Piro".

The name irithaky comes from the Thalassian word yryto – from υρω (θομ χορο), which means "drag (or lead the dance)" -, a common name for a group of traditional Thalassian dances of so-called "dragging" style, as opposed to pidikhitho (πηδηκηηθο), a hopping or leaping style. Despite that, irithaky incorporates both yryto (in its slower part) and pidikhitho (in its faster part) elements.

Goetic traditional music lives on in Alva by making its way across the Eurybian through Goetic refugees in the 1925 evacuation.

Visual Arts
Alvak visual art has been dominated by figures such as Helene Wittman – the country's most famous painter – and by the Five Artists. Wittman's career painting Alvak landscapes spanned a decade up to her death in 1958 at age 38. The Five Artists were painters with a nationalistic and idealistic focus, who first exhibited their distinctive works in May 1950. Though referred to as having five members, four artists—Aris Lagellis, Theodosis Marinoulis, Muthanna el-Nasr, and Petrus Wieters—were responsible for articulating the Artists' ideas. They were joined briefly by Arthur Eicher, and by commercial artist Irmelin Homann. Kristina Herzog became part of the Artists in 1956. Associated with the Artists was another prominent Alvak artist, Adele Scharf, known for her landscapes and portrayals of the vast desert and its Bedouin inhabitants. Since the 1950s, works of art have been given as gifts to foreign dignitaries by the Alvak government.

Media
The largest internationally operating media companies in Alva are the Brechtsmann enterprise, BKT SE and ProFunfSat.1 Media. The Alvak Press Agency APA is also significant. Alva's television market is the third-largest in Kesh, with some 40 million TV households. Around 90% of Alvak households have cable or satellite TV, with users spanning from the desert to the coast, with a variety of free-to-view public and commercial channels. There are more than 500 public and private radio stations in Alvakalia, with the public Alvakische Welle being the main Alvak radio and television broadcaster in foreign languages, operating the Hellenic-language ARA2 and Arab-language ARA3. Also, the Goetic-language ARA1 is also run by Alvakische Welle. Alva's national radio network is the AVRadio. The number of national daily newspapers in Alva was 598 in 1950, whereas it was 375 in 1965. Today, there are 549 newspapers in circulation around Alva, most being daily. Notable newspapers include Die Welt, the most-bought Goetic-language newspaper and Chronos, the most-bought Thalassian-language newspaper.

Film
Alvak cinema dates back to the very early years of the medium with the work of Maxim Marcomir. It was particularly influential during the period of stabilization in the '30s with Alvak expressionists such as Kim Wiene and Wilhelm Berchtold. During the Kesh War, filmmakers produced mostly propaganda films, although the work of Alawi al-Riaz still introduced new aesthetics in film. From the mid-1970s, New Alvak Cinema directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder placed Alvak cinema back onto the international stage with their often provocative films.

More recently, films such as U-23 (1986), In Reis Nei Beifang (A Trip to Beifang) (1990), Flug Nehmen (Taking Flight) (1992), Speichern Kommander Lütz (Saving Commander Lütz) (1995) Ein langer Spaziergang (A Long Walk) (1999), and Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004) have enjoyed international success. The Alvastadt International Film Festival, held yearly since 1951, is one of the world's foremost film and cinema festivals. Although Der Untergang was only somewhat well-received with its portrayal of an alternate Kesh War with Alva joining sides with Kodeshia and Beifang, it was praised for its ingenious use of new technologies in film.

Health
Healthcare in Alva is delivered through the state system of publicly funded health care. It is guided by the provisions of the Alva Health Acts of 1927 and 1978 and is universal. Universal access to publicly funded health services is often considered by Alvaks as a fundamental value that ensures national health care insurance for everyone wherever they live in the country. However, 30% of Alvaks' healthcare is paid for through the private sector. This mostly goes towards services not covered or partially covered by the health care system, such as prescription drugs, dentistry and optometry. Approximately 65% to 75% of Alvaks have some form of supplementary health insurance related to the aforementioned reasons; many receive it through their employers or utilizes secondary social service programs related to extended coverage for families receiving social assistance or vulnerable demographics, such as seniors, minors, and those with disabilities.

Education
Alva is one of the more educated countries in the world; the country ranks nth worldwide in the number of adults having tertiary education, with 62% of Alvak adults having attained at least an undergraduate college or university degree. Alva spends about 5.3% of its GDP on education. The country invests heavily in tertiary education (more than RM 20,000 per student). As of 2014, 79% of adults aged 25 to 64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, compared to the worldwide average of 75%.

Since the adoption of section 14 of the 1979 Education Act, education in both Goetic and Thalassian has been available in most places across Alva. Alvak provinces are responsible for the provision of education. The mandatory school age ranges between 5–7 to 16–18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate of 97%. In 2002, 43% of Alvaks aged 25 to 64 possessed a post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34, the rate of post-secondary education reached 56%.