Colonial Histories, Part 2New Kandor
History of New Kandor, Part One
The first Harberian contact with what is now New Kandor came in 1806, when the newly united Kingdom, still fresh on the heels of the break-up of the Prudentian Empire, sent out a pair of survey and exploration vessels. These two ships, the GHS Cota and the GHS Rynart were owned by the Grays Harbor Overseas Trading Company (= the East India Company), but so they could legally travel abroad and into strange waters they were given royal warrants as auxiliary naval vessels, hence the RN prefix of GHS added to them. Their crews were company men, but the officers were drawn from the RN. Heading the expedition was Sir Thomas Vancouver, a junior member of the GHOTC Board of Directors. The two ships, after departing from Port Hope on Satsop Island, proceeded to what was known as Wysteria in order to make contacts with the peoples living there and to map out trade routes.
The voyage was relatively routine, taking only 6 months to complete, time which included several stops for the flora and fauna experts to catalog previously unknown species, and to make port calls in various port cities. In July of 1807 the ships made landfall on what is now Shaw Island, named for the captain of the Cota, Commander William Shaw. The scientific and exploration teams all noted that the island was unihabitated, but held a wide variety of seabirds and plants. Sir Thomas then decided to divide the ships, sending the Rynart under Senior Leftenant Gerrick Anacortis to the south, while he continued with the Cota northwards, with rendezvous schedule for 3 months later back at Shaw Island.
The Cota went on to what is now Lowell Bay and Friday Harbour, mapping the shoreline and making copious notes of the land, while the Rynart went southwards to what is now Rynart and Anacortis Island.
By 1809 they were back in the kingdom with their reports and samples. Sir Thomas made his report to the Company and they decided, after much deliberation, that it would be an ideal area to set up some colonies. They sent out an initial colonization group in 1812 to set up settlements on Guemes Island (named for the Head of the Board, Sir Edward Guemes), Lowell Bay and Cota. The initial settlements were indeed set up, and they awaited the arrival of the expected colony ships to arrive.
Unfortunately, 1813 was not a good year for the company financially. Several small-scale revolts took place in their Grayson Islands and Devons Island colonies, and stockholder trust went down rapidly on the Westport Stock Market, nearly bankrupting the company. In 1815, they sold the rights to the colonies to 4 groups, each intent on establishing colonies. Guemes Colony, Ltd purchased the rights to the Guemes Island settlement, and was the first to get underway, establishing their colony at the company settlement in 1817. The New Mason Colony was established in Lowell Bay and the surrounding area in 1819, the New Kandor Colony in Cota in 1820, and the Roemalle Colony in Rynart in 1822.
It was the Roemallans who first discovered they were not quite alone on what had become known as the Kandoran Peninsula on Harberian naval and merchant charts. In 1825, the governor of Roemalle Colony organized an inland expedition to explore and gauge the suitability for settlement of the interior. The expedition, heading in a northeasterly direction, made contact with a completely unknown people whose language they naturally could not understand. It was some of the Kamadhati who had settled the eastern shores in the mid 1700's, establishing replenishment stations for their trade vessels as well as agricultural colonies. By the early 1800's, they were legally semi-independent, but in fact operated as completely independent entities. Ev Granger, who was in charge of the exploration party, determined that the best way to make good contact with these people was to divide his group. Himself and 8 of the men would return to Sukhavati, in Arupyaloka, the southernmost of the Kamadhati nations, with the Kamadhati, while the remaining 12 men would return to Rynart with 6 of the Kamadhati. Granger had briefly served in the foreign office in the early 1800's before getting the colonization bug and moving to the Roemalle Colony, so he firmly believed in establishing good diplomatic ties with their new neighbors early on.
The colonies continued to expand inland, and two more were established, the Squaxin Island Colony, headed up by a former naval Leftenant named Gerrick Anacortis. The island bearing his name had already been claimed by the Roemalle colony, so he and a group of investors purchased the rights to Squaxin, establishing their colony in 1829. The final colony, Aramaelle Colony, was established at the trading post of Vancouver and the surrounding area in 1831. In 1847 the Squaxin Island Company went bankrupt after devastating storms wiped out their entire crop and destroying many of the islands buildings. They sold the rights to the Roemalle Colony in 1848, and Squaxin was added to the Anacortis district.
The populations of the 5 colonies continued to grow at a slow but steady pace, but vast majority of the immigrants being farmers and ranchers. Some small scale industry was set up in Cota and Rynart, but nothing on the scale of back home in the kingdom. All that changed in 1852.
In march of 1852 another exploration team set out; this time from New Kandor Colony, to explore the inland mountain ranges and to look for passes. They did indeed find a good pass through the mountains, and by that fall they were on the far side of the mountains. Knowing they would not get back over them until the following spring, they set up a winter camp on the banks of a small river. One morning after they had been there a few weeks, one of the men was washing his socks in the river when he saw something glinting in the sun. Digging it out, he took it back to camp to show the other guys the pretty rock he found, and how he wanted to take it back and give it to his little girl, one of the other men took a closer look at it. It was gold. All the men spent the rest of the winter and early spring panning out the river, working together and sharing what they found. Come spring, and time to go back to Cota, they decided to leave 4 of the most trusted men behind to keep their claim alive, and to continue working the river, while the remainder went back to tell what they had found. They got back in the fall of 1853, and it didn't take long for word to get around the New Kandoran Colonies, as well as back to Grays Harbor and the other colonies. 1855 saw the beginning of the Great New Kandor Gold rush. In July, the governors of the 5 colonies met to determine how best they could control the situation, and it was determined that the best way would be to act as a single colony instead of the 5, and they petitioned the Royal government back in Grays Harbor to formally unite them. On the 7th of September of 1855, the 5 colonies became the Crown Colony of New Kandor; No longer a group of 5 small semi-privately owned colonies, but instead a much larger Crown Colony. Sir George Dowlling, former Governor of small Guemes Colony, was named the first Governor of the New Kandor Colony, and Sir James Broward was sent out from Aberdeen as the first Governor General.
With the drastic increase in population, as well as the increased Imperial governmental influence, the Grays Harbor influence in the area became much greater. Making formal diplomatic ties with the Kamadhati nations of Arupyaloka, Mahamucilinda and Akanishta on the eastern portion of the peninsula, they also sought closer diplomatic ties with the Kamadhati kingdoms as well. The Imperial government sent several diplomats to the Kingdoms of Upeska, Sunyatta and Akusala-Kusala with an eye towards setting up diplomatic ties, and even the possibility of establishing an Imperial Protectorate over them. Ties with the Kusalans ended up being the closest, with many Kusalans even joining the Royal Army (a tradition which continues to this day with the 28th Infantry (Ranger) Regiment, the Royal Kusalans {the GH version of the Gurkhas}), but no protectorates were formed. The Harberian influence, nonetheless, was quite pronounced in the areas of trade, government and architecture though, with the Harberians building many buildings for the local governments, providing troops from Grays Harbor and the many colonies in times of unrest, and acting as mediators in the areas of trade and diplomacy. The Royal government, while not getting official protectorate status for them, acted very close to actually having it in typical overbearing Harberian style.
This state of affairs continued until 1889 when an unfortunate incident led to the breaking of relations and a near state of war. The incident, called the Bulldog River War, took place in southern New Kandor at the mouth of the Bulldog River. Storms in the spring of 1889 has caused the delta at the mouth of the river to shift several miles to the east, and the agreement entered into back in 1826 established the river as the border between Roemalle Colony and Arupyaloka. Since the river had shifted, New Kandor officials naturally claimed that land, citing the treaty of 1826. The Kamadhati, of course, took a slightly different view.
Neither side was about to give ground on this issue, literally, and both side called up their troops to take possession. The New Kandoran colonial regiments, being armed and trained by the Royal Army, were very well equipped, much more so than their neighbors. The Kandoran troops quickly took possession of the disputed lands. But, they didn't stop there. Incensed by what the politicians and newspapers were calling a "Betrayal of the 1826 Treaty", they continued marching northeast, rapidly pushing back the Kamadhati troops. The Kamadhati, realizing they couldn't stand up to the Kandorans in a traditional fight, instead adopted hit and run "guerilla" tactics. By the fall of 1890, the Kandorans controlled all the major cities and towns of the Kamadhati nations on the peninsula, but they didn't dare venture much past the city limits, as the Kamadhati irregulars controlled the countryside. A stalemate set in.
Meanwhile, in the 3 Kamadhati kingdoms, the governments there were rather incensed by the Harberian actions of invading the Kandoran-Kamadhati nations, and quickly expelled all Harberians from their countries. It came very close to open warfare between the Empire and the 3 Kingdoms, but in this case, the diplomats were the ones who ruled the day, and war was averted. The Harberians were permitted back in, but never again enjoyed the status and power they had previously.
Back on the peninsula, the diplomats also began to gain ascendance, and the two sides entered negotiations to end the stalemate between them. As the diplomats exchanged views and notes, both sides began to notice they had something in common. While they were fighting, their "parent" countries had pretty much left them to their own devices. After 4 months of talks, they reached a compromise. The 3 nations would join with New Kandor Colony, but would maintain their own governors and culture. The mountain inland was set aside as a preserve, to be used by all. The treaty was signed on 14 August 1892. The Imperial government had no choice but to recognize this, as it had been negotiators from the foreign office, acting with plenipotentiary powers, who had drawn up the treaty of union. The 3 Kamadhati Kingdoms issued pro-forma protests, but weak ones, as they had had little to do with the 3 Kandoran-Kamadhati nations, instead they had always focused more on domestic matters.
While the date of the official founding of the Crown Colony was in 1855, most New Kandorans consider 1892 as the "True" birth of their colony and nation. The Harberian and Kamadhati populations of New Kandor quickly realized they had much more in common than they had differences, and by the 1920's they considered themselves 'New Kandori' first, and either Harberian or Kamadhati second.
Flags of the New Kandor Colonies and Dominion