| |||||||
| Capital | Hamilton | ||||||
| Largest city | Hamilton | ||||||
| Other cities | Saint George, Somerset Village | ||||||
| Language official |
English | ||||||
| others | Portuguese | ||||||
| Monarch | Queen Catherine I | ||||||
| Prime Minister | William Scott | ||||||
| Area | 53.2 km² km² | ||||||
| Population | 60,000 | ||||||
| Independence | 1984 | ||||||
| Currency | Bermudian Pound | ||||||
The Kingdom of Bermuda is a remnant of the British Empire, located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was mostly spared from the effects of Doomsday, other than the breakdown of trade and minor fallout from the east coast of the US.
History
Doomsday
During Doomsday, Bermuda lost contact with almost all countries of the Northern Hemisphere, including Britain and the nearby United States. Within two to three days, the last shreds of international trade coming through stopped, and Bermuda stopped getting any supplies from other countries. The governor at the time, John William Morrison, 2nd Viscount Dunrossil, reacted quickly to this and put in emergency measures. These included things such as using any spare land that did not need to be protected due to wildlife to be used as agricultural land.
Contact with some of the Caribbean Islands, South America, and even Africa, however, had not immediately stopped, though they were all facing problems of their own and could not send any help or aid to Bermuda for years to come.
1983 - 1985
Bermuda learned immediately through radios and boats that a Nuclear War had occurred. As a result of this, over three-quarters of the economy collapsed, mostly in the tourism and banking sector. Governor John Morrison and staff proposed a "Priority Reallocation Plan" to put the unemployed back into work into the more vital sectors such as fishing and medicine, which was the forerunner to the NHS of Bermuda, as nuclear fallout swept over Bermuda from the east coast of America.
In the summer of 1985, a Bermudan fishing vessel neared the coast of the Delmarva peninsula. After they reported life on the mainland United States in the form of a county confederation via radio, the boat sank during a storm. This would be the last time the Bermudans would attempt to go to the mainland for years to come.
NHS
After the radioactive deaths in the hospitals in Bermuda, it was realized that the NHS should be introduced into Bermuda. The governor John William Morrison enacted the 'NHS Act' which was practically based on the British NHS system. This led to his popularity rising. The NHS had many volunteer nurses and doctors, as many doctors were overwhelmed and constantly busy. Though people got by with general kindness and decency, along with many acts that were passed by the Governor along the way which got people by and ensured that enough food was given to the islands population, though it had to be heavily rationed.
Caribbean Contact
After two years of forced isolationism, Bermuda had returned to contacting Caribbean and South America survived. This was a great relief to Bermuda, as many people feared they were the last people alive. Governor John Morrison arranged trade routes with the Caribbean and parts of South America for the most necessary goods such as food, which was extremely scarce at the time. The resumed trade had also created thousands of job opportunities. To the people's sadness, most of Africa was in a state of anarchy, although some countries in Western Africa had managed to pull together.
The New King
When John William Morrison retired in 1986 after successfully keeping Bermuda in order, with sufficient medical services and enough clean water and food for the people, he was admired and adored by most of the populace. A large majority of the people, in fact, called for him to become King. This was not that unusual, for Bermuda had been a member of the Commonwealth in good standing. As far as they knew, argued Premier John Swan, the monarchy of the motherland had been snuffed out.
Morrison was not one to take the adulation of the people as a sign, but Swan's support weighed heavily upon his heart. He saw after a month of soul-searching that this was best for the state and accepted in 1987, becoming King John I of Bermuda.
The Sail West
In 1990, King John I called for a small band of men to be put together to go and explore the East Coast of North America, in case there were any survivors. On the 1st of April, they set out towards the east coast of the USA, and they returned with knowledge of an American successor state; Delmarva. This was confirmed to be the same rump confederation encountered years before. Contact with Delmarva was occasional, but the two slowly developed a strong trade relationship, and helped Bermuda pull out of the last vestiges of isolationism.
Current Times
In 1993 King John I, due to the nationalism in Bermuda, changed the national anthem to 'Hail to Bermuda'.
On March 22, 2000, King John I died peacefully at 'Bermuda Hall', the new residence for the Monarch of Bermuda. Due to his immense popularity, this date was declared a national holiday by Parliament that same year. His daughter Joanna Catherine, having been crowned Queen Catherine I, proudly signed the law on May 22, her father's birthday.
Queen Catherine I called for further contact with the rest of the world, and on June 20th, 2002 a Bermudian scouting party made contact with the Celtic Alliance.
In the General Election held in 2009, the Bermuda National Progressive Party prevailed, making its leader, William Scott, come to power after the elections.
Government
After King John I had been crowned, there was a call for a new governmental system due to this change and separation from Britain. Firstly the role of a 'governor' was abolished, and also the 'Premier' was renamed as a 'Prime Minister'. The government change included influences mainly from Britain, as a Parliamentary Democracy was set up.
The Parliament
- See Also: Bermudian Political Parties, Bermudian Government
Within the Bermudian Parliament, there are 11 separate Constituencies, of which 9 are the current Parishes, and the other two are Municipalities. The municipalities each give three Members of Parliament (MPs), while each of the Parishes gives two MPs. This makes up 24 MPs overall, which run the small nation of Bermuda. The voting format is through the 'First Past the Post' method. At the moment the current Party in power is the 'Bermudian National Party' with around 14 MPs, while the opposition party is the 'Liberal Bermuda Party' with just 8 MPs. Another MP is an independent in the 'St George's' Constituency. And the last MP is from the 'Bermuda Forward League' in the constituency of Hamilton.
Economy and Travel
Following Doomsday, more than 70 percent of Bermuda's economy collapsed, which was mostly centered around banking and tourism. Bermuda would have to refit its crippled economy to more practical uses if it were to survive, so the government began a Reallocation of Priorities. Beginning with the recently unemployed, Bermuda organized a mass fishing fleet out of many of the boats stationed in Bermuda. The government than began a long campaign towards ending inflation, which never fully succeeded as even today Bermuda has a relatively high inflation rate.
Today, however, Bermuda's economy has been successfully refitted to a prioritized economy, which centers around heavy industry and fishing. However, international banking has also returned as an industry with the Bermuda Stock Exchange becoming the largest securities market in the North Atlantic. To the shock of many locals, people from the Caribbean and South America had already begun returning to the island as a tourist site in the early 2000's, and as a result the tourism sector has healed proportionately. Still, Bermuda's business economy is only a shadow of its former self and they have put their number-one priorities into a goods economy.
Locally, though, travel has been hindered by scarcity of fuel. Most Bermudians, therefore, have settled in as island-bound residents content on their station as an isolated player on the world scene. Nevertheless Bermuda International Airport has remained open and Bermudians have begun researching alternatives to kerosene jet fuel.
Bermuda Triangle
Just because Doomsday occurred, not all abnormalities in the world had gone away. The Bermuda Triangle, infamous for causing the disappearance of dozens of ships, had mysteriously consumed aid ships from South America.
Electrical Supply
The Kingdom of Bermuda previously relied on imports of fossil fuels and wind turbines for its electrical supply, but after Doomsday fossil fuel imports had stopped. After the initial 5 months the power stations that were on the island were finally shut down, the men who'd previously worked there were put with the challenge of knocking the stations down or re-fitting the buildings to make room for more practical uses. The very limited power proved a risk to national survival, so all means were explored to increase the power supply - no matter what the cost.
Eventually, the constant ocean winds became the obvious choice to run 'wind turbines' that were built all over the islands, beginning with 25 on Berry Hill to provide for the city of Hamilton. Ten more turbines were installed on Scott's Hill and as many as five have been erected elsewhere in the nation. In 2005, the Bermudian government had even begun to promote solar panels to heat water and provide emergency power for those rare doldrums in the islands. After this, the Bermudian emergency government had the task of relocating the remaining power grid to emergency services, such as the radio, TV and hospitals. Also in 2005, the Bermudian Government started to advertise Solar Panels that could heat water and even produce small amounts of electricity.
New Flag Proposals
In June 2009 a referendum was held and a new flag was chosen. This marks another occasion in which Bermudian nationalism has risen, and 20 June is now Flag Day in Bermuda. The new flag is a design in which there are nine stripes to represent the nine parishes of Bermuda. Also in the canton is an image of a red background with the Bermudian Seal in the middle.
Military
The Bermudian Regiment's size increased drastically in recent years through the new found nationalism from King John I and Queen Catherine I. Around a tenth of the population (6,000 people) are in the military of Bermuda, though most of these are reservists and only went through three months worth of military training. Only around 2000 people are active personnel. The air force of Bermuda is very minor, while the navy is slightly larger and consists of some patrol boats and a larger vessel for expeditions purchased from Delmarva as well as British naval boats absorbed by Bermuda.
Foreign Relations
Although Bermuda is not an isolationist country, it tends to keep out of international affairs for the most part. After it had heard of the often increasingly tense relations between Australia-New Zealand and Brazil and other South American Nations, it has refused to diplomatically align with those countries to keep itself out of the inevitable "World War Four".
Bermuda remains friendly with other Anglo-Celtsphere nations, such as Celtic Alliance, Canada, Delmarva, and New Britain, along with the East Caribbean Federation and the United States Atlantic Remnant.
See also
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
