Shipbucket

Commonwealth of Recherche

Commonwealth of Recherche in FD





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National Background
History
First discovered by the Dutch in the 17th Century and explored by both the French and British in the early 18th Century, Recherche was settled by the British in 1755 as a free colony and to act as an outpost against possible French aggression in the area.
The colony of Recherche grew gradually over time, but it was not until the beginning of the industrial age that the population really started to grow and flourish. By the late 19th Century, the population was calling to become independent of the United Kingdom, thus in 1886 after a nationwide referendum Recherche became federated and began to establish itself within the international community as a nation. By the middle of the 20th Century, Recherche was becoming an eminent trade port within the British Empire and increasingly within the wider region.
Recherche has participated in all wars involving the United Kingdom to some extent since becoming federated, usually fighting alongside Australia and New Zealand.

Governance
Recherche is a constitutional monarchy that uses a parliamentary system of government with Queen Elizabeth II as the Queen of Recherche, represented by the Governor-General at Federal level and by the Governors of each state.
Recherche has a bicameral parliament, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, with the two major political parties – the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party – holding the majority of the seats.

Foreign Relations
Recherche enjoys excellent relations with all nations within the Anglosphere - especially Australia and the United Kingdom. It was a founding member of the United Nations, an active member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of ARNZUS, ASEAN and the Six Power Defence Arrangement. Recherche is striving to achieve better relations with the nations within Southeast Asia, and much of its foreign aid goes to the countries to its immediate north. Recherche has also established free trade agreements with Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and China.

Geography and Climate
The nation of Recherche sits within the Recherche Archipelago that contains over 150 individual islands which are part of the Ninety East Ridge in the Indian Ocean. The archipelago was a major shipping hazard until relatively recently, with many merchant vessels lost after running aground on the many uncharted reefs and shoals, but these losses declined as updated charts were released before and after World War 2.
Recherche straddles the Tropic of Capricorn, and as a result the climate varies between Tropical Savannah/Humid Subtropical (Aw/Cwa) in the north and east of the country, and Hot Mediterranean (Csa) climate in the south and west of the country. Recherche experiences prevailing winds from the southeast, and the sea breezes that develop can be predicted almost like clockwork.

Economy
Recherche has a market economy with high GDP per capita and low rate of poverty, and the Recherche Dollar is the currency of the nation. It is currently the 8th largest economy in the world. The main industries are mining, petroleum and natural gas, agriculture, electronics, transport equipment, shipbuilding, steel, food processing, automotive and tourism. Due to its export of large quantities of commodities, the economy has been less affected by the global recession and continues to show growth (although slowed in recent years).

Transport
Recherche possesses an extensive and effective highway/freeway system which connects all major cities and towns on each island, and is backed up by a high speed rail network. Aircraft provide the majority of inter-island travel and most towns have access to an airport of some kind, however passenger and car ferries also operate continuously between the various islands and communities. The Port of Esperance is a major trade hub in the region and is the 10th busiest port in the world by cargo tonnage.

Real world imagery from Western Australia, Queensland and Hawaii to indicate the landscape of Recherche.


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Nation
Commonwealth of Recherche

Flag
The Blue Ensign

Anthem
“Forever Free”

Motto
“Fortis Ad Extremum” – Resolute to the Last

Capital
Esperance

Official Language
English

Recognised languages
French, Malalog, Italian

Demographics
Recherchean 61.8%
Austronesian 14.9%
British 6.2%
Maddelenian 3.9%
French 3.8%
Irish 3.5%
Italian 2.8%
Australian 2.2%
South African 1.6%
Indian 1.3%
New Zealander 0.8%

Government
Federal Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy
- Prime Minister Ian Mickel

Parliament
- Upper House - Senate
- Lower House - House of Representatives

Independence
- 2nd January 1886

Area
- Total: 206 685 km²
- Water 1.2%
- 12 397 km² of Coastline

Population
- 2021 census
48 036 175
- Density
232.4 /km2
GDP (nominal)
2021 estimate
- Total $3.01 trillion ($3 013 357 293 925)
- Per capita $62 731

HDI (2010):
Increasing 0.924

Currency:
Recherche Dollar

Time zone:
GMT+7 (UTC+7)

Date formats:
dd/mm/yyyy (AD)

Drives on the:
Left

Internet TLD:
.rc

Calling code:
+610

Major Cities, Towns and Villages

1. Esperance (4 795 367) (Capital)
2. Norseman (4 221 518)
3. Ravensthorpe (3 125 083)
4. Condingup (2 384 109)
5. Munglinup (1 813 558)
6. Hopetoun (1 596 065)
7. Israelite Bay (1 351 647)
8. Castletown (1 157 920)
9. Gibson (1 043 440)
10. Cascade (927 156)

11. West Beach (906 210)
12. Howick (730 020)
13. Merivale (645 127)
14. Neridup (584 981)
15. Lort River (410 282)

Military Manpower:
Active:
168 126 (3.5/1000)
Reserve:
72 054 (1.5/1000)
Police (All forms of police jobs not just beat officers)
134 501 (2.8/1000)
Total:
374 681

Military age:
17-49
Available for military service:
7 040 918 males, age 16-49,
6 845 336 females, age 16-49
Fit for military service:
6 113 774 males, age 16-49
5 878 197 females, age 16-49
Reaching military age anually:
203 935 males
193 210 females

Expenditures
Defence Budget:
$60.3 billion
Percent of GDP:
2.0%

Thread Index:

Capital ships:
Audacious Class 1938 (Battleship) - B Side - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945
Recherche Class (Battlecruiser) - B Side
Eyre Class (Aircraft Carrier) - B Side
Bay Class (Light Aircraft Carrier) - B Side
Carronade Class (Coastal Defence Ship) - B Side

Cruisers:
Balladonia Class 1942 (Large) - B Side - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1957
Ypres Class (Heavy) - B Side
Alexander Class 1930 (Heavy) - B Side - 1936 - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1945
Esperance Class 1936 (Light) - B Side - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942(1) - 1942(2) - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946
Kimberley Class 1943 (Light) - B Side - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1949 - 1951
Remark Class 1932 (Seaplane) - B Side - 1939
Anvil Class 1932 (Light) - B Side - 1940 - 1941 - 1942(1) - 1942(2) - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946
Eclipse Class (AA) - B Side

Destroyers:
Kepwari Class - B Side
Myrup Class - B Side
Oldfield Class - B Side
Leda Class 1939 - B Side - 1940(1) - 1940(2) - 1941(1) - 1941(2) - 1941(3) - 1942(1) - 1942(2) - 1943 - 1944(1) - 1944(2) - 1945 - 1946 - 1949 - 1953
Castletown Class - B Side
Napier Class - B Side
Condingup Class DDG - B Side
Condingup Class Cruise Missile
Condingup Class TS
Esperance Class DDG - B Side
Norseman Class DDG - B Side

Escort Vessels:
Twilight Class Sloop - B Side
Taylor Class FFL (ASW)
Taylor Class FFL (Gunboat)
Taylor Class FFL (MLU) - B Side
Cascade Class FFH - B Side
Ranger Class FS - B Side
Mondrain Class FFG - B Side
Mondrain Class Anti-ship

Patrol Vessels:
Flinders Class Gunboat - B Side
Dempster Class PB - B Side
Dempster Class Corvette - B Side
Acacia Class CGS

Submarines:
Seadragon Class SSG - B Side

Civilian Vessels:
Kepwari Class Large Ferry - B Side
Remark Class Cruise Ship - B Side

Exported Variants:
RAN FFH - RNZN FFH - RCN FFH

Export Blanks:
Taylor Class FFL
Mondrain Class FFG
Cascade Class FFH
Norseman Class DDG
Munglinup Class FFG
Ranger Class FS

HMRS Anvil as she appeared during the 1932 Fleet Review in Esperance Bay shortly after commissioning.

Looks good and is an interesting place for a country. It’s probably likely but that the Austronesian people would have found these islands sometime in 2000 years ago. They colonised Madagascar and the Pacific. This could also explain how you got to 30 million in population. That’s about half of the total population of British settler states to date (Canada, Australia, NZ and English portion of SA) including their extensive non British immigration. Total emigration from Great Britain and Ireland was about 500,000 in the 17th and 18th centuries, another 1.5 million from 1800 to 1850 and then 15 million from 1851 to 1900. Most of these people ended up quite close by in North America and only about 1.5 million to South Africa, Australia and NZ.

I admit the population figures could be a tad optimistic, but in its favour is a slight head start in European settlement compared to Australia, closer to trade routes, and a larger percentage of arable land than Australia...but after a quick search I agree that it is highly probable that a good sized population of Austronesian people would have lived there prior to European settlement, so thanks for that

A very classy looking cruiser there Rowdy.The only concern is the lack of armour belt forward of the half way line.

Rowdy36 wrote:I admit the population figures could be a tad optimistic, but in its favour is a slight head start in European settlement compared to Australia, closer to trade routes, and a larger percentage of arable land than Australia...but after a quick search I agree that it is highly probable that a good sized population of Austronesian people would have lived there prior to European settlement, so thanks for that

The headstart isn’t likely to make too much of a difference because of the low numbers of immigration before the 19th century. Of course its an AU and you can do whatever you want. You could have the Highland Clearances happening far more aggressively and combined with a settlement of Recherche package. Planting 500,000 screaming Scottish highlanders in the 18th century. If you had 500,000 people in 1800 and no further immigration that would get you to 30 million by 2000.

But based on the actual figures of emigration from the UK and compound interest I’ve crunched the following numbers:

From 1730 to 1800 immigration to Recherche of 10% of UK outbounds (same proportion as 19th century immigration past the South Atlantic) resulting in a settler population of 50,000 by 1800 (with 2% natural population growth as in the USA at this time). From 1800 to 1900 50% of all immigration past the South Atlantic for 500,000 new arrivals and total settler population of 2 million. With the same population growth from 1900 to 2011 as Australia with similar sources of immigration this results in a total population of 11 million by 2011. The early 18th century immigration only results in a net gain of a million compared to Australia (population of 11 million by 2011). Of course you have a population of Austronesians established in Recherche 2000 years ago and you can easily have 30 million people by 2011. Which would result in a similar ethnographic make up to New Zealand just ten times bigger.

Anyway just some ideas for you.

Better i creat Panau AU before anyone does't ^^

And nice AU

Hmmm, thanks for the info TurretHead - definitely something I'll think about, I didn't realise it would be so low. I hadn't really factored in a native population due to being too lazy to work something out to be honest, but figuring out what the demographics are would certainly help me decide on a direction for this AU! The population has actually increased as I've worked on this AU from just over 7 million back when I was kit-bashing ships to the current 32 million to give me some more opportunities for drawing different types of ships.

@Bombhead - Thanks! I am very much playing catch-up when it comes to knowledge of WWII warships so I based the belt on the Arethusa and Dido classes, which stop either at the rear of the bridge or slightly further aft. However I am willing to change it if anyone has further information

As far as the armour-belt on the ships mentioned you are correct, but older small cruiseres, such as the 'C' class of WW1 had the armour all the way to the stem. Larger light cruisers like HMS Belfast and the Fiji class and later had the armour belt covering A turret magazine in front, all the aft to Y turret.
That aside, I like the cruiser very much, an inspired piece of work IMHO.

Very nice AU, and welcome to the Indian Ocean; Pallamara could use some neighbors, even if it's currently inactive pending a reassement prior to relaunch. (Assuming of course, Recherche exists in the same AU) Otherwise, very fine cruisers!

On a side note, don't forget the usefulness of European imported disease for thinning out the population of those annoying indigs, if you don't want them cluttering up your nice demographic layout.