Mellersta Haga

Mellersta Haga

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Country	Vittmark
Capital	Vinborg
Area	km2
Population	2,654,461
Density	/km2
Demonym	Hagenite
Time zone	UTC-3
GDP	₲
GDP per capita	₲

Mellersta Haga, also Central Hagen in Hallish, is a Vittmarker state. It is one of the three states carrying the Haga / Hagen name, all of them descending from the previously independent Kingdom of Hagen.

Etymology

Mellersta Haga litterally mean "middle Hagen" but in Hallish "central" is used instead. The word "haga" is a dialectical plural from eastern Hagen referring to the hedges surrounding the farmsteads, meadows and agricultural land in that area. "Hage", "haga", "hagar" and "hagen" all can be traced to the river Hagneå in eastern Hagen, also the name of the castle and focal settlement of the Kingdom of Hagen which was founded after the fall of the Greater Stoldavic Empire in 7206.

History

The area around Vinborg, the current capital of the state, became part of Hagen in 7345 after the marriage of the princess of Vinborg with the crown prince of Hagen. Before it became a Hagenite exclave, it had served as a small kingdom for 140 years. The exclave was extended several times, both by strategic alliances, marriages and conquest, but also by a rather expansionist settling of Hagenites in the region. Access to the harbor town of Talpå became pivotal in that sense and the Kingdom of Hagen entered a personal union with the Fisks stim in that city to bring it under joint control in 7366. It took only a couple of decades before this western part of the Kingdom of Hagen actually was larger and more populous than the original, eastern pat of the kingdom.

Hagen reached its largest extent in the late 7400's and early 7500's, but in the west the expansionist tendencies led to more and more conflict with Aldsay settlers. When the Pan-Anarian War reached the region, Aedeland managed to occupy the western part and renamed it Austland. This border was confirmed after the war in 7554 and still forms the northwestern border of Central Hagen today.

But Hagen became involved in a conflict with both Ådalen and Liden, the kingdoms between the eastern and western parts of the kingdom. While Hagen fought Ådalen to the east, Aedeland entered the kingdom from the west establishing conflict-free trading corridors. It was mainly the iron mines in this region that led to the Aedelish incursions. In 7564 the Treaty of Nisipari ended the hostilities between Hagen, Ådalen and Liden by forming a confederation. The Aedelish troops remained as peacekeeping forces but were seen as intruders by the Hagenites who still had not gotten over the loss of the western parts of their kingdom.

As a part of the treaty, Hagen was split into several parts, of which the part that today is Central Hagen entered Vittmark as the member state of Kötthagen. It also lost parts to Dunsvik and Laxholmen, but retained governance over the large port city of Talpå. After a plebiscite in 7566 the mixed Hagenite-Aldsay region of Genomhagen was included in the state as well, after it was disputed area with Aedeland since the early 7500's. With a rapidly expanding railway network, Kötthagen as a state of agricultural produce, steelworks and manufacturing became a leading part of the success of Vittmark as a nation state.

In 7579 when Aedeland for a second time tried to monopolize and monetize the sea straits on which Vittmarker traders were relying for their export, the state of Kötthagen changed its name to Mellersta Haga or Middle Hagen. This clearly indicated the existence of a West Hagen, the region currently known as Austland within Aedeland with a large Hagenite and Mellanhand Orkanan population. Two years later, when Aedeland became a Häverist Technate, many Austlanders fled the country and settled in temporary housing in Mellersta Haga, both Hagenites and Aldsay people. While supporters of the old regime were distributed across Vittmark, the state government of Mellersta Haga actively started training refugees for incursions, sabotage and attacks in eastern Aedeland. In 7584 those rebel forces managed to take over the old Austland capital of Katarinaborg and declared sovereignty from the Aedelish Technate.

This led to a sharp reaction from the Häverist regime, upon which the Vittmarker armed forces entered Austland as self acclaimed peacekeeping forces between the Austlanders and the Häverists. This started the Pan-Stoldavic War with the Häverist states of Mörenburg, Helreich and Aedeland on one side and Vittmark with the support of Auresia, Anisora, Livaria and Hallis on the other. Apart from the front war between Vittmark and Aedeland, it consisted mainly of conflicts at sea and some aerial battles between the aforementioned countries.

The state of Mellersta Haga helped the liberating forces to build up a regional government after their example, which led to an autonomous region after Vittmarker model. After a few years, the Austlander government wondered if a return to Aedeland after an end of the Häverist regime would be possible at all, after which Vittmark invited them to become a member state of that country instead. While the Hagenite population supported this, the Aldsay population was hesitant. Vittmark gave several guarantees for the continuation of the Aldsay way of life, including the status of the language and the Sunnist Orkanan religion. After a referendum among the Aldsay population, it became a state of Vittmark, which meant that Mellersta Haga truly became the central Hagen again.

The iron mines became more or less depleted in the 7630, which led to a change of the regional economy away from large scale production to more high tech development and workshops. As a result, most cities remained rather small apart from the harbor city of Talpå which is the next largest city of Vittmark because of its trading port covering the entire state, most of neighboring Laxholmen and Dunsvik as well as a considerate part of Ådalen.