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The Lundy-Cornwall Federation of Maplestan
Motto: Omnis Vita Simile, Sed Quisque Singularis
Region		Pax Britannia
Capital		Maple Hill (48,713)
Largest city		Plymouth (2,026,400), Bristol (1,314,000), Newquay (613,700)
Government		Federal Democracy
-	Prime minister	Harrison Ferndale
Legislature		Parliament of 101 members
Establishment
-	Founding	1743 (Cornwall), 1811 (Lundy)
-	Unification	5th of March 1814
-	Federation formed	1843
Area
-	Total	10,271 km2 3,966 sq mi
Population
-	2028 estimate	6,162,000,000
-	Density	574338/km2 1,487,528.6/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		estimate
-	Total	$142,361,000,000,000
-	Per capita	$23,273
Currency		the Maplestan Tate (t)
Time zone		GMT (UTC±0) (UTC+2 to +8)
Drives on the		right
Calling code		+42

The Lundy-Cornwall Federation of Maplestan is a federal republic in the South-West of Great Britain. It consists of Cornwall peninsula, Lundy island and the Scilly islands, covering a total area of 10,271 km². The only neighbouring country of Maplestan is The Englisc NatSoc Cyningrice of Britain and Brittany.

History

The present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples. According to John T. Koch and others, Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age, in modern-day Ireland, England, France, Spain and Portugal. During the British Iron Age Cornwall, like all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth, was inhabited by a Celtic people known as the Britons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Wales and Brittany. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including Cornish.

The first account of Cornwall comes from the Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 BCE – c. 30 BCE), supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain: "The inhabitants of that part of Britain called Belerion are civilised in their manner of life. They prepare the tin, working very carefully the earth in which it is produced. Here then the merchants buy the tin from the natives and carry it over to Gaul, and after travelling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône."

There is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter in Devon and few Roman remains have been found. However, after 410, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the Cornovii tribe as part of Dumnonia including one Marcus Cunomorus with at least one significant power base at Tintagel. 'King' Mark of Cornwall is a semi-historical figure known from Welsh literature, the Matter of Britain, and in particular, the later Norman-Breton medieval romance of Tristan and Yseult where he is regarded as a close kinsman of King Arthur; himself usually considered to be born of the Cornish people in folklore traditions derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Archaeology supports ecclesiastical, literary and legendary evidence for some relative economic stability and close cultural ties between the sub-Roman Westcountry, South Wales, Brittany and Ireland through the fifth and sixth centuries.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle stated in 815 "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." and thenceforth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that in 825 a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at Gafulforda. In the same year Ecgbert, as a later document expresses it, "disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a tenth part of it to God." In other words, he incorporated Cornwall ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed Ealhstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton, both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow.

In 875, the last ancient king of Cornwall, Dumgarth, is said to have drowned. Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the eastern part of Cornwall; notably Alfred the Great who had acquired a few estates. William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the River Tamar. Partly this border is still legitimate, but in the Plymouth area it now locates further to the east.

Soon after the Norman conquest most of the land was transferred to the new Breton-Norman aristocracy, with the lion's share going to Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of King William and the largest landholder in England after the king with his stronghold at Trematon Castle near the mouth of the Tamar. Cornwall and Devon west of Dartmoor showed a very different type of settlement pattern from that of Saxon Wessex and places continued, even after 1066, to be named in the Celtic Cornish tradition with Saxon architecture being uncommon.

During the later middle ages, several monasteries were built in the area, most importantly Fannaghan monastery near Truro. Also, the Lundy South and North light were built in the 14th century, which marked the first permanent settlements on the barren island. In 1548 the college at Glasney, a centre of learning and study established by the Bishop of Exeter, had been closed and looted (many manuscripts and documents were destroyed) which aroused resentment among the Cornish. They, among other things, objected to the English language Book of Common Prayer, protesting that the English language was still unknown to many at the time. The Prayer Book Rebellion was a cultural and social disaster for Cornwall; the reprisals taken by the forces of the Crown have been estimated to account for 10–11% of the civilian population of Cornwall. Culturally speaking, it saw the beginning of the slow decline of the Cornish language. It has been seen as one of the reasons the Cornish were so eager to become independent at that time.

Independency

On the 18th of January 1743 a well-known Cornish demagogue, Harry Clar, escaped the cells of Tintagel and declared war on England. He had very strong support, and an estimated 18,000 men recruited in his army. Just two weeks later, on the 3rd of February, he crowned hmself as King Harold of Cornwall. At that time, king John and his army were fighting Admiral Cumberland in Newcastle, so battles in Cornwall did not start until May. By then Clar's troops had managed to fortify the border adjacent Devon and had taken control of castles on the peninsula. English navy attempted two landing operations, one against Tintagel and one against St Austell. Both flotillas were destroyed, thanks to the rocky waters and improvised gunboats of Clar's fleet, and king John had to submit to negotiations. 5th of June, 1743 he signed a parlour, thus recognizing Cornwall peninsula as a sovereign state.

The republic of Cornwall developed its own simple parliamentary system. From 1743 to 1748 the parliament had one representative from every town in the country. Of course, this was very impractical, and in 1748 election Plymouth had 10 MP:s, Truro, St Austell, and Newquay had five and other towns had one. The parliamentary system worked quite well, and the economy of the country was exceptionally strong. In 1776 Cornwall sent ten naval vessels to assist the colonies in the American Revolution. Seven of them were lost, which was a major loss for the minuscule navy. The drydock in Plymouth was expanded, and it became the third largest drydock in Britain, the two others being in Southampton and Liverpool. Shipbuilding soon became an important source of income for the government, and more and more money was diverted to the development of better hulls and later steam engines. However, the defence of the Northern parts of the country was soon neglected, and in 1794 the legendary brigantine Saturn just happened to be washed ashore on the Rellen beach, Lundy.

The island was scarsely populated, and the few people living on it talked Cornish, which to the passengers of Saturn sounded like an indigenous language. Anders Blick (1736-1810) decided to claim the island as his own, and the creation of his Platonic state began. The society and the parliamentary system were first planned very carefully, and on the 1st of January 1797 the first election took place. As the vote eligible population was very small, only a thousand people, the votes were counted on the same day. The winner, Anders Blick, was named prime minister, and he declared that the Platonic State of Maplestan had born. Later that year, Cornish soldiers noticed the maple leaf flag in the tower of the medieval South Light. After finding out that Lundy had claimed independency, king Peter of Cornwall (1712-1801) declared the claim illegal, but never did anything to it. His successor, king Frederik (1753-1833) recognised the independency of Lundy in 1801.

19th century

Anders Blick was re-elected in 1801 and again in 1805, after which he declared he would step aside. During his reign, Maplestan became one of the wealthiest countries in the world, thanks to the original maple after which the country was named. The sap of the maple was found to have a healing effect on mumps, diphtheria, pneumonia, and rabies. When made into maple syrup, it practically removed the symptoms entirely and, after a few weeks, cured the disease entirely. Of course, as this was the only maple able to produce the sap of this type, the syrup was incredibly expensive, but the demand was huge, and so Maplestan gained a lot of wealth.

On the first of January 1809, Stefan Jakob Braten (1752-1818) was elected as the successor of Anders Blick. The first year of his reign was very successful, as Blick remained in the board of advisors, but when he resigned in December due to health problems and died in February 1810, the economy of Maplestan started getting worse. Braten realized that the Platonic system was not working anymore, and took commoners to the board of advisers. The agriculture soon improved, but the government had trouble implementing industry to the country. Cornwall had quickly become industrialised in the past decades, and Maplestan wanted desperately to do the same. Braten declared that the Platonic state had been a nice idea, but in the changing world ideologies had to change as well. On the 21st of April 1811 Maplestan ceased to exist, and Republic of Lundy took its place. Industrialization started very soon, as commoners were given more rights and enterpreneurism rose. Braten felt that he had saved the country, but soon realized that the population of Lundy was far too small to support an entire industrialized economy. First he opened the borders to all immigrants. Then, in March 1814, prime minister Stefan Braten and the current king of Cornwall, Frederik I, agreed on forming the Maple alliance which later became known as the Federation of Maplestan. The name was ratified in 1843, and the country we know today was born.

During the Maple Alliance period, the industry developed considerably, and the military was improved. When the civil war of the United States began in 1861, the parliament voted 56-45 for aiding the Union, and so 30 ships and 1,200 soldiers were sent to fight against the Confederate troops. Since then, Maplestan has been trading with the U.S. and assisting it in e.g. transportations during the world wars. Officially Maplestan has always been a neutral state.

20th century

The 20th century was a time of very strong growth for Maplestan. In the late 1800s, the mining industry was thriving, but a major collapse in a shaft under Bodmin Moor 1899 caused strikes and discontent, causing the industry to suffer greatly. It took years to recover, and in 1922 the government decided that shareholder-based companies could not be trusted with such vital industries, such as mining and food production, making them worker-owned. That is partly why Maplestan didn't suffer in the 1929 Wall Street crash. As a socialist state Maplestan had good relations with the Soviet Union, which annoyed the U.S., but no sanctions were imposed at any point.

In 1955 the governor of British Kurdistan, Samuel Wellington, declared the country independent, which led to a bloody civil war. In the end, the governor's troops won the war, but Wellington himself was killed in the battle of Asadiyah. A general from Maplestan, Sir Liam Bushell, was elected as the new leader. He created a supervision system run by the Lundy-Cornwall Federation of Maplestan, so that technically British Kurdistan is a colony, but it has its own parlamentary system. Kurdistan has had a notable effect in the development of Maplestan, as it has since served as the country's only oil supply. Being located in the Middle East, Kurdistan has a much stronger military than the motherland. That's why Maplestan has used the Kurdistan army to serve its own purposes, recieving much criticism from the international community.

After the Yom Kippur War, 1973, the governments of both Maplestan and Kurdistan decided to prepare for a similar blitz-attack and began large construction schemes, including missile silos, heavy artillery and anti-aircraft equipment. At the same time, the already vast underground residence areas in the strong granite areas, Bodmin and Cardinham, were expanded and hundreds of millions of homes built underground. This was a huge change in the history of Maplestan, as mining became more about building than digging, and suddenly there was room for everyone. Unemployment at that time was nonexistent, as the growing society needed countless of miners, builders, teachers, and geologists. In October 2015 census the total population of Maplestan was 6.123 billion, but on the surface only 8.281 million, meaning that 99,9% of the population lived inside the bedrock. This came in handy during the British Isles Civil War 2019-2026, as the orbital fleets destroyed a fair share of overground infrastructure. Nearly 92% of Maplestan's population survived the war, despite of total devastation in most parts of the world.

Geography

Cornwall forms the tip of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and is therefore exposed to the full force of the prevailing winds that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is composed mainly of resistant rocks that give rise in many places to impressive cliffs. Cornwall has only one border, which is formed almost entirely by the River Tamar and (to the north) by the Marsland Valley, seperating Maplestan from B&B Devon.

Coastal areas

The north and south coasts have different characteristics. The north coast on the Celtic Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, is more exposed and therefore has a wilder nature. The prosaically named High Cliff, between Boscastle and St Gennys, is the highest sheer-drop cliff in Cornwall at 223 metres (732 ft). However, there are also many extensive stretches of fine golden sand which form the beaches that are so important to the tourist industry, such as those at Bude, Polzeath, Watergate Bay, Perranporth, Porthtowan, Fistral Beach, Newquay, St Agnes, St Ives, and on the south coast Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth and the large beach at Praa Sands further to the south west. There are two river estuaries on the north coast: Hayle Estuary and the estuary of the River Camel, which provides Padstow and Rock with a safe harbour. The seaside town of Newlyn is a popular holiday destination, as it is one of the last remaining traditional Cornish fishing ports, with views reaching over Mount's Bay.

The south coast, dubbed the "Cornish Riviera", is more sheltered and there are several broad estuaries offering safe anchorages, such as at Falmouth and Fowey. Beaches on the south coast usually consist of coarser sand and shingle, interspersed with rocky sections of wave-cut platform. Also on the south coast, the picturesque fishing village of Polperro, at the mouth of the Pol River, and the fishing port of Looe on the River Looe are both popular with tourists.

Inland areas

The interior of the county consists of a roughly east-west spine of infertile and exposed upland, with a series of granite intrusions, such as Bodmin Moor, which contains the highest land within Cornwall. From east to west, and with approximately descending altitude, these are Bodmin Moor, the area north of St Austell, the area south of Camborne, and the Penwith or Land's End peninsula. These intrusions are the central part of the granite outcrops that form the exposed parts of the Cornubian batholith of south-west Britain, which also includes Dartmoor to the east in Devon and the Isles of Scilly to the west, the latter now being partially submerged.

The intrusion of the granite into the surrounding sedimentary rocks gave rise to extensive metamorphism and mineralisation, and this led to Cornwall being one of the most important mining areas in Europe until the early 20th century. It is thought tin was mined here as early as the Bronze Age, and copper, lead, zinc and silver have all been mined in Cornwall. Alteration of the granite also gave rise to extensive deposits of China Clay, especially in the area to the north of St Austell, and the extraction of this remains an important industry. The old mines were later turned into underground residential areas, and they have been exponentially expanded in the past decades, as more and more immigrants need to be found a place to stay. Nowadays, out of the six billion citizens of Maplestan, over 99% live underground.

The uplands are surrounded by more fertile, mainly pastoral farmland. Near the south coast, deep wooded valleys provide sheltered conditions for flora that like shade and a moist, mild climate. These areas lie mainly on Devonian sandstone and slate. The north east of Cornwall lies on Carboniferous rocks known as the Culm Measures. In places these have been subjected to severe folding, as can be seen on the north coast near Crackington Haven and in several other locations.

The Lizard Peninsula

The geology of the Lizard peninsula is unusual, in that it is mainland Britain's only example of an ophiolite, a section of oceanic crust now found on land. Much of the peninsula consists of the dark green and red Precambrian serpentinite, which forms spectacular cliffs, notably at Kynance Cove, and carved and polished serpentine ornaments are sold in local gift shops. This ultramafic rock also forms a very infertile soil which covers the flat and marshy heaths of the interior of the peninsula. This is home to rare plants, such as the Cornish Heath, which has been adopted as the Maplestan national flower.

LinkImage The endangered reindeer lichen.

Ecology

Cornwall has varied habitats including terrestrial and marine ecosystems. One noted species in decline locally is the Reindeer lichen, which species has been made a priority for protection under the national UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Botanists divide Cornwall and Scilly into two vice-counties: West (1) and East (2). The standard flora is by F. H. Davey Flora of Cornwall (1909). Davey was assisted by A. O. Hume and he thanks Hume, his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of that Flora, publication of which was financed by him.

Climate

Cornwall has a temperate Oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb) and has the mildest and sunniest climate in the United Kingdom, as a result of its southerly latitude and the influence of the Gulf Stream. The average annual temperature in Cornwall ranges from 11.6 °C (53 °F) on the Isles of Scilly to 9.8 °C (50 °F) in the central uplands. Winters are amongst the warmest in the country due to the southerly latitude and moderating effects of the warm ocean currents, and frost and snow are very rare at the coast and are also rare in the central upland areas. Summers are however not as warm as in other parts of southern England. The surrounding sea and its southwesterly position mean that Cornwall's weather can be relatively changeable.

Cornwall is one of the sunniest areas in Britain, with over 1541 hours of sunshine per year, with the highest average of 7.6 hours of sunshine per day in July. The moist, mild air coming from the south west brings higher amounts of rainfall than in eastern Britain, at 1051 to 1290 mm (41.4 to 50.8 in) per year, however not as much as in more northern areas of the west coast. The Isles of Scilly, for example, where there are on average less than 2 days of air frost per year, is the only area in the UK to be in the USDA Hardiness zone 10. In Scilly there is on average less than 1 day of air temperature exceeding 30 °C per year and it is in the AHS Heat Zone 1. Extreme temperatures in Cornwall are particularly rare; however, extreme weather in the form of storms and floods is common.

LinkImage A Dolomo cable car in central Maple Hill.

Infrastructure

The government of Maplestan is devoted to maintaining and improving the infrastructure of the country. In the 21st century it has invested especially in cleantech and greener methods of energy production, and after the war in rebuilding the cities and agriculture. Nonetheless, environment is still the top priority, and the forests destroyed in the war have been replanted and protected.

Transport Maplestan has a sizeable public transport system, which has made private cars redundant. In Cornwall, private cars are so heavily taxed that only a few thousand of them are in register, despite the population being over eight million. Instead, rail and bus services are very popular and inexpensive: the basic fare for one train journey is one tate. Within Plymouth, St Austell, Newquay and Truro urban areas, the basic bus fare is one tate. Provincial bus fare is 5 tates. Today, purchasing a ticket is no longer required, and most people use the direct charge: when boarding a train or a bus, they hand their passport or ID card to the driver or the ticket inspector, which scans it and the fare is taken directly from the person's bank account. Foreign passengers still have to purchase a ticket, RailPass, BusPass, or TouristPass. After the war, also GullWay personal transport devices have become substantially more popular, as in some areas the railway network was badly inflicted by bombings.

On Lundy, Dolomo cable cars are the only motorized form of transport, excluding the fire and rescue services, which have their own vans and a helicopter. People use mainly bicycles, some of which are electrically-assisted. Most tourists hire a bicycle or buy the DolomoPass from a Dolomo office.

Energy

Maplestan produces and uses solely renewable energy. This is the stance that our government agreed on in 1984, and in the 21st century it has almost realized. Wind power totals about 76%, solar power about 18%, and tidal power 6% of our over-ground electricity production. However, marine rescue boats still use bensin-fuelled engines and coast guard stations still have a bensin-fuelled emergency power supply. Most of the electricity os transferred to the public via overground powerlines, but an ever-increasing amount of underground wiring is being installed and experiments with wireless power transfer are in progress. In 2012 the government decided that new energy production facilities will not be needed. In underground areas, in which most of our citizens live, the electricity is produced by geothermal heat, which enables keeping the huge areas lit and the underground trains running.

Plumbing

In addition to the traditional water & sewer system, Plymouth has a garbage transport system, enabling the collection of plastic, paper, and other such materials. The more conventional water and sewer network of Maplestan only covers major towns, leaving rural areas dependent on more traditional methods. However, plans are underway to expand the national network to smaller settlements to ensure that the groundwater stays clean and no recyclable materials are wasted by the local systems. Old copper and iron waterpipes are also being replaced with plastic and composite pipes, although their carrying capacity is smaller.

Information

Telephone boxes are quickly disappearing from view, as mobile telephones are making them redundant, but the ministry of information has decided to maintain at least 800 boxes in case of a nationwide disturbance in mobile communications. The internet connections of Maplestan are some of the best in the world, although in rural areas there are still some disruptions. The connections are supervised and maintained by the ministry of information, which filters harmful material to some extent.

Waterways

Being located on a peninsula, Maplestan has plenty of ports. The main harbours are located in Plymouth, Newquay, Padstow, and Falmouth, through which a total of 330 thousand tons of cargo are transported every year. Plymouth, Newquay, and Padstow are also the home ports of the frigates AF Ross, AF Clar, and AF Bushell. Smaller ports cover the entire coast. In some places, waterways reach quite a long way inland, for example the River Camel has a scheduled passenger route.

Education

Maplestan has always spent a lot of time thinking about the future. It is often said that children are the future, and that is why the education system of Maplestan is colossal and highly costly to the government. The education of Maplestan childern begins at the age of seven with elementary school. It is presumed that by then children can read, write, and count simple addings. At the age of twelve they are divided to two systems: backing and forwarding schools, known as the Laurel school and Hardy school. The Laurel school concentrates on the basics, while Hardy school goes into more sophisticated mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Switching between systems at this stage is allowed, but often demanding for the student. After this the groups are brought back together in a four-week military training course, normally starting on the 17th birthday. The education splits into even more lines, when Laurel school students go into preliminary schools known as Gymnasiums, such as linguistic, scientific or humanist schools. Meanwhile, Hardy school students start to train for a job in a vocational school.

From preliminary school, students may continue to university. Studying there is free, and universities provide either a campus apartment or a housing benefit. Currently there are seven universities in Maplestan:

University of Plymouth (arts, biology, business, computing, engineering, geography, humanities, linguistics, law, mathematics, medicine and dentistry, pedagogics, physics) Founded in 1862, it is the second largest university in Maplestan. It recieves the most funds, has the most students and graduates, and employs the most professors. University of Plymouth is also responsible for the national space program. 65,318 students, 11,014 graduates this year.

Tintagel Technical College (agriculture, applied sciences, computing, engineering, geology) Founded in 1876 to train skilled factory managers and engineers for the growing needs of the industrialization of Maplestan. 45,310 students, 10,688 graduating this year.

Truro Medical school (linguistics, medicine and dentistry, patology) Founded with the Truro University Hospital in 1951. 1,327 students, 371 graduates this year.

Penzance Academy of Architecture and Design (architecture, arts, design, engineering) Founded in 1971. 959 students, 327 graduates this year.

University of St Austell (business, humanities, linguistics, medicine and dentistry, pedagogics) The oldest university in maplestan, founded by King Harold in 1801. Admission rate is the lowest in the country, as one applicant in 500 passes the entrance exams. 722 students, 203 graduates this year.

Lundy Academy (law, politics, social studies) Founded by Stefan Braten in 1812 as a way even commoners could use to get to the top of the society. 455 students, 108 graduates this year.

Newquay Maritime Academy (engineering, linguistics, navigation) Founded in 1823 to train captains and officers. 213 students, 61 graduates this year.