Ådalen
| Region | |
|---|---|
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| Country: | Vittmark |
| Capital: | Äs |
| Area: | tba km2 |
| Population: Density: |
3,356,916 tba km2 |
| Demonym | Ådalish or Odalish |
| Time zone | UTC-3 |
| GDP: | |
| GDP per capita: | |
Ådalen is a member state of Vittmark in the form of a principality. Before it became a member state, it was an autonomous kingdom. The state is the most centrally located, right between Mellersta Haga, Sörmark and Liden, although it's Kopparland and Östervallen bordering to its east. Capital of the state is Äs, not the largest city and Vittmark's largest port Talpå.
Etymology
The name Ådalen literally means "the river valley". It was not in use as a toponym as such before the Treaty of Ådalen, which name refered to a broader region including the rivers Österdalens Å and Västerdalens Å meeting just before Äs and continuing towards Talpå as Dalens Å. The treaty name got the rather generic name, since all of the places where negotiations had taken place had names that were disputed. So the treaty name became the Kingdom's name, as in the Kingdom of the Treaty of Ådalen.
Since the letter 'å' is not in use in Hallish, the kingdom has long been called Odalen, but since the formation of Vittmark the more correct spelling of Ådalen is preferred. However, spelling as Aadalen or Odalen still appear. For the denonym, the words Ådalish and Odalish are both still in use.
Kingdom of Ådalen
Ådalen was founded in 7219 as the kingdom of Iunsala-Äsborg-Näsåker, when the lord of Iunsala married into the noble family Av Näsåker. Both small former counties of the Greater Stoldavic Empire were patched together and a period of expansion started. It took until the port town of Åmynningsås was added in 7289 by Treaty of Ådalen that the name Ådalen was being used for the kingdom.
Ådalen never managed to add the much larger port towns of Talpå or Östervallen to its territory. In the 7300's it came into conflict with Hagen establishing a stronghold west of Ådalen, while in the east an expanding Liden started to form direct borders with Ådalen in the Högg provinces. In the late 7400's, when the Pan-Anarian War broke out, Ådalen had reached it largest area. But it took until the 7520's before Ådalen became a belligerent part in the war, before that it had only supplied the XX with weapons and naval vessels after the initial war efforts had drained their internal resources.
Even though Ådalen made an attempt to occupy Talpå in the 7530's, after Hagen had added it to its territory, and even Östervallen in the 7540's, in the hinterland Ådalen started to loose territory. After the Pan-Anarian War ended in 7554, the conflicts with Hagen and Ådalen didn't end. Ådalen's attempts to conquer Östervallen led to a response from Liden, occupying large swathes of land in the south of the kingdom, establishing a corridor to the mountainous south. even in the west Ådalen started losing terrain to Hagen. By 7560 nearly half of its territory had been occupied.
Treaty of Nisipari
During the talks that led to the Treaty of Nisipari Ådalen had no other choice than to become a part of Vittmark, just as their rivals Hagen and Liden. However, it managed to negotiate that Hagen and Liden would get split up in separate states, so that none of the major predecessor nations could become dominant. So while Ådalen let go of the smaller Laxholmen region, Hagen was split into an eastern and western part and Liden had to let go of Mivö and the city state of Skara. Buffer territories were created between Leden and Ådalen in the form of Kletudde, Kopparbruk and Kram, while the border issues with Hagen were result by the Tumla Accords.
So in 7564 Ådalen reluctantly joined the Confederation of Vittmark. It clearly tried to carve out a separate position for itself, like keeping the left hand side drive as well as maintaining its own time zone 13 minutes apart from Östervallen. However, the ruling lord Göran Ådahl wanted more autonomy and started arming and gathering dalish forces. In 7569 Ådalen declared secession from Vittmark, but the threat of a large military conflict with the rest of Vittmark led to a palace revolution where his sister Ulla Ådahl took power and banished her parents and brother to a Hallish colony.
However, Ulla Ådahl did not have enough support from the regional leaders, often appointed by her father or brother to withdraw the declaration of secession. Instead, Ådalen refrained from involvement in Vittmark for 3 years until the attempted coup d'état against Queen Anna of Vittmark in 7572, staged with the support of Liden. A process of formulating a constitution for Vittmark was started. Upon ratification in 7574, Ådalen signed a new association act where the seceded state would re-join the federation as a principality.
Principality of Ådalen
After this troubled start, Ådalen managed to reform from a mainly agricultural society to a trading and manufacturing region. This partially thanks to the federal government choosing the Ådalish broad gauge of 1829 mm as the standard for the federal railway network connecting all the capitals of the federation. This meant that Ådalen got a central position in the infrastructure network with most cities and towns gaining direct cargo access to all major cities and ports of the country, except for the Blue Mountains Railways connecting to the south through the buffer states. It took until the opening of Friställebanan in 7673 before Ådalen also was connected by rail with Kronsta and Lovis Bruk in the south without gauge shift.
Paradoxally enough, the war with Aedeland gave a huge boost to the modernisation of Ådalen, since it was relatively a long way away from the front and apart from shelling of coastal cities Ådalan managed relatively undamaged from the conflict. Manufacturing of military equipment became a central part in the transition, as well as food conservation. After the war, packaged food became an aftersought export product.
During the state reforms of 7610 Ådalen lost quite a few of its quirky privileges. It had to convert to driving on the right hand side and the time zone based on noon in Äs was abolished. But until 7610, Ådalen had been only one of the three member states allowed to use its own flag, the kingdom flag in red with a yellow diagonal band.
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