[Vision Statement] Kingdom of Barlonia

[Adam]

The Kingdom of Barlonia was founded in 977. It was declared after King Stephen I conquered the various regional lords, and declared himself Barlonian King of of the Vades dynasty. The Vades dynasty ruled Barlonia until 1515 when King James died without an heir. He was succeeded by Louis III from the House of Dupont, which is a cadet branch of House Vades. The House of Dupont would turn to isolationism towards the end of the 17th century, enacting a policy wherein foreigners are not allowed to enter. This would last until 1966 when the Barlonians were defeated militarily by the Franklanders*, at which point King William V decided to modernise the country and open it up to foreign investment & trade, as he viewed it as the only way to maintain Barlonia's status as an independent country. This was not without controversy. Regional nobles rebelled against the reforms, but these rebellions were swiftly crushed. After William V's death in 1998, modernisation and expansion of foreign trade continued under his son, Henry II. However, after the turn of the 21st century, pro-democracy protests started to emerge. King Henry II initially ignored the protests, but when they only grew, he decided to negotiate with them. In the end, he and protest leaders agreed on a mixed constitution wherein the King would maintain executive power but would give up law-crafting abilities to an elected parliament, which would also act as a check on his power. The proposed Constitution was approved by public referendum in 2021, and the first parliamentary election would be held early in 2022.

In the present, Barlonia aims to strike a balance between allowing the King to maintain his position as the leader of Barlonia and having a government that represents the people. Some Barlonians (the Royalists) believe that the current mixed constitution strikes this balance, whereas others (the Radicals) believe the goal should be sidelining and ultimately abolishing the monarchy. The Radicals aim to achieve this by pressuring the King into gradually transferring more and more power to the elected Parliament and eventually hold a referendum regarding the abolition of the monarchy. Another point of contention between the Royalists and Radicals is about the amount of interaction Barlonia should have with the outside wurld. The Royalists believe Barlonia should assert itself on the wurld stage and interact with other nations in order to develop, whereas the Radicals believe that Barlonia should solve its own problems before taking a larger role on the wurld stage, which it should ultimately do. Where they both agree, however, is that foreign investment is crucial to developing the country (even if a faction of the Royalists is opposed to it). They also agree that Barlonia should continue striving to become a more modern economy, mostly picking up where William V and Henry II left off. This would consist of building up local manufacturing in Barlonia, processing raw materials native to the country (such as lumber and tin, the latter of which was discovered in the 80s) into consumer goods for domestic consumption and export.

*Franklanders is a placeholder name