NationStates

Ministry of Education

Fact time!

''(Another SC's AU, but this focuses on the collapse of SC instead. As SC's collapse is the most likely scenario, it is canon in all but name. ''Current'' year would be 2192) After the SC's collapse, smaller regions like Iceland were largely severed from supplies of bigger regions due of their turmoil, and they needed to find a new path on their own. New Icelandic Commonwealth had small population, from which most lived in its capital - Reykjavík. While rich with resources, it meant little if its access to technology and tools for producing new are lacking. For a while, Nationalist Iceland was on isolationist mode, and the former President-Governor of Iceland under SC even considered to set it as its primary policy, along with general suspicion of foreigners. However, in the end Iceland would go to war path instead, as Greater North (Greenland, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories) had even less of a population - 150 000 combined, if compared to Iceland's about 350 000. A victory would indeed boost the Iceland's President-Governor's popularity and morale, along with giving access to various valuable natural resources in Greenland, which were hard to access previously due of the harsh nature and rugged terrain. SC's Canadian and American companies had opened extraction mines and plants in the 30s, but it was estimated, that there were still a lot of resources untapped, and Greater North got pretty wealthy from it. And, in Greenland the Greater North's military situation was even worse - a couple hundred men on active service, along with militarized coast patrol. Even the Thule's base had got less advanced technology, as it had been ceded to Greater North's administration from Megastates time ago, although Americans still maintained presence there. While Iceland's army was stronger if compared to IRL, it was still minuscule on SC's Europe's background, with weak airforce and navy, and even the generic militarism didn't help (IRL, Iceland is one of the few NATO countries which doesn't have an army). Greater North had some more advanced planes, navy, and rifles in former Nunavut and Northwest Territories, but Iceland's commanders hoped, that numbers would do the job.''

''In order to use surprise element to its maximum, Iceland had split its attacking force in two squads - one was to land in the east, but other would later land in the south, and attack would begin only mere minutes after declaration of war. Also, mid-late spring was picked by Icelandic commanders as a perfect time for attack, as it would make it more difficult for Greater North's armies to transport soldiers and equipment to Greenland over the sea ice in Canadian Arctic from the far-away Iqaluit and Yellowknife, making them rely more on their navy and airforce. When landing at Tasiilaq, Icelandic troops met surprisingly little resistance,and after consolidating the area, they started to march further south, occupying the small fishermen communities and villages with 10 or a bit more inhabitants. The first attempts to put up an organized resistance to Icelandic troops were met in the island of Tingmiarmit, where a couple hundred of Inuit troops from south had arrived to face the Icelanders. The battle lasted for about 30 minutes, but at the end more than 50% of Inuit troops had fallen, or taken as Prisoners of War. About 50 managed to escape, but with the low morale they couldn't put up a considerable resistance anymore. Meanwhile, the southern army landed in Qaqortoq, and took it after a brief fight with the city's garrison, despite them having a few bunkers there. Then, they marched north, and met up with the eastern army group in early May. Now all of the southeast Greenland's coast was under Icelandic control. Their troops had also taken some of the more fertile land in the south, and had cut access to potatoes for Greenland's defenders - one of the few vegetables, which grew in more green parts of Greenland. Now, Greenland had to rely on its ancient hunting traditions, but most importantly - it had to tighten its belt.''

''Meanwhile, an another battle took place in the waters of Davis Strait, near the town of Arsuk. Most of the Greenland's local navy was in south, which meant, that it could be assembled to defend the southern waters from Icelandic fleet pretty quickly. However, there was one issue - most of Greenland's navy consisted from armed patrol vessels/boats, and it lacked helicopters, and other aircraft. Some of the patrol boats had small artillery cannons, but most were armed simply with machine guns. There were even recorded cases of couple of soldiers with sniper rifles or assault rifles, using kayaks to get closer to enemy ships. Iceland had 2 submarines in its navy as well, but they didn't saw much combat, as they were too few in numbers to affect the war. Greenland's southern fleet had a single frigate, but Iceland - 2. All of Greenland's patrol vessels and boats sank during the battle due of Icelandic artillery shells, and while Greenland's frigate managed to get away for a while, it had still been damaged, and Iceland's fleet kept following it insistently, eventually resulting in frigate's destruction in one of the southern Greenland's fjords (In the following months, Greenland's fleet in the north would be destroyed as well, due of Icelandic jet and bomber raids from eastern Greenland). Now Iceland's navy had free hands in the sea, and it could set sail towards Nuuk - the capital of Greenland. Icelandic army in south also started marching westwards as well, further occupying ground. However, Iceland's fleet had suffered casualties too - some of its own patrol vessels and boats had been sunken as well, and one of its frigates had received damage from Greenlandic artillery as well.''

''Further north, supplies were still incoming south from Qaanaaq (Thule), with convoys or planes resupplying in places like Ilulissat or Sisimiut, and those supply depots were viewed as threat by Icelandic military commanders. At first they tried to stop the supplies with helicopter and other plane attacks, but it proved to not be enough due of small amount of aircraft Iceland possessed in general, not even talking about the amount it had in Greenland. Then, the war reached its culmination, as one of the field marshals had a crazy plan - send one of the Iceland's regiments over the Greenland's ice cap to Ilulissat. It was deemed as ''completely insane'' by a lot of militarists, because a regiment consists from about 1,000 troops, and if the operation would fail, a large portion of Iceland's army would be gone. Nonetheless, after very hard debates the green light was given for the field marshal's operation. Army couldn't set up campfires during the travel not only for environmental, but also secrecy reasons - smoke could be noticed by the few low-height satellites weather or balloons. Despite summer being the warmest period, a lot of soldiers still got frostbite (Including the field marshal himself). Anyways, the regiment made it to Ilullisat in a surprisingly short amount of time, stopping only once at Summit camp in order to regroup, and attempt to find leftover supplies - it was a research station abandoned after SC's collapse (Its location was a bit difficult to find at first, as coordinates are variable due of movements of the ice). The Icelandic regiment took out the city's garrison by surprise, as they had anticipated merely air raids, and had their eyes at sky. After capturing the city, they spread out in local countryside, thus consolidating gains. Greater North's supply ships were forced to move further away from coast, and travel longer distances, as Ilullisat's port and aircraft landing sites were closed off by Icelandic troops. Sometimes, the Icelandic garrisons even hunted down lone supply ships by using the captured aircraft/navy and kayaks at Ilullisat. The Icelandic military's leadership would later congratulate the field marshal for the victory of ''his bald move''.''

''However, by June the speed of Icelandic army's advances slowed down, as Greenland's Inuit army had started to recover, and had recruited more than 1% of its population, the total amount of fielded manpower reaching 6000. Although most of these units were green, and Inuits still suffered more casualties, Icelanders also started to feel losses, and their army never reached Nuuk. However, the Icelandic fleet managed to set sail at the entrance of fjord, and tried to make it fall with shelling from 1 frigate (The damaged one was sent to Qaqortoq for repairs) and blockade attempts. Some patrol boats were armed with something similar to heavy EM249, which proved to be effective at plowing down those defenders of city, which had been careless enough. However, it was also louder than regular machine guns, so it gained the nickname ''rattler'' between the Nuuk's inhabitants. It was less effective against buildings, however, but Icelandic army's artillery shells on both boats and frigate were limited. Nuuk's defenders also had a few PMT American disappearing guns, which managed to sink down a few of the Nationalist Iceland's armored boats. (One of the most comical cases in the war took place in Northeast Greenland National Park. Although it was a protected area in Greenland both during and after SC's rule, and had no permanent population, a group of Icelander soldiers still landed on the shores of Franz Joseph Fjord with an electricity-powered boat, and planted their flag there. Icelandic soldiers had also captured the director of the park - Kingudlerk Bolsen, and forced him to sign the paper, where all of the park would be occupied by Nationalist Iceland. While it was colored as a part of Iceland during the war frontlines, no battles ever took place there during the conflict, most likely due of large parts of it being part of the Greenlandic ice cap, and the Icelander soldiers soon left. Kingudlerk later would become more of a collaborationist, and eventually was assassinated by Greater North's Intelligence agency. After that, it appointed a new director for the park, and it was colored back under Greater North's control on the map).''

''At July, the force parity in Greenland had started to even out - while Icelandic airforce initially had the upper hand in skies, eventually more jets and bombers arrived from northern Canada. It was still merely a small force, but it was enough to tip the balance. Generally air battles were dogfights between two planes, as the industrial capacity of both nations wasn't even enough for large air battles with hundreds of planes, but at Thule Military Base, about 7 Icelander fighters and an escort bomber faced 5 Canadian Inuit jets and a couple of air defenses down on the ground. The night was foggy, and visibility was low. Although both Iceland, and Greater North had inherited good planes, navy, and rifles from the period, when they received help from Canadian and British (Later Scandinavian for Iceland) armies, this time the Inuits triumphed - all of Iceland's jets and bomber were struck down in Thule, but Inuits lost merely two planes. This defeat was humiliating for Icelandic military, as they were no longer the unstoppable or ''superior'' force for Greater North. Around August, Icelandic fleet called off the siege of Nuuk - without military, the blockade wouldn't be complete, and Nuuk's residents constantly found ways around this - while most of the foreign products and vegetables had run out, there was still plenty of meat to adapt, and their millennias-old hunting traditions became vital in supplying the capital. Although airforce sent a few bombers to aid the navy, it clearly wasn't enough, and at the end, Icelandic navy had lost 6 of its armored patrol vessels. Next major blow would come further north - the combined Canadian, and Greenlandic Inuit armies retook Ilulissat, thus reuniting the cut-off western Greenland. Although Icelandic units were more experienced, they were still outnumbered, and supplies had started to run out, because they hadn't received new ones ever since they took Ilulissat and consolidated the neighboring area. Greater North's military as a whole had reached 13 500 men, more than 10% of its overall population. Iceland hadn't recruited more than 1% of its population yet, but now conscription centers were created, so Iceland's troops wouldn't get outnumbered.''

''By September, the front had largely stabilized, and last hopes of fast victory faded away for Iceland. The dynamic warfare with small unit regiments of a couple hundred at most had transformed in position warfare in southwest Greenland's mountains and valleys, and front line became static. Now there were thousands of soldiers concentrated in a single region on both sides, and some later described it as ''trench warfare without trenches''. Even the few tanks, which both sides had, weren't enough to break the stalemate, as they were less effective in Greenland's terrain. This situation soon prompted both sides to sat at peace talk table in Kangerlussuaq airport. War had became costly and a burden for both sides - for Iceland, it was the discontent in society about lack of progress in fronts, and increasing conscription rates. Its industry was also not able to replenish the lost patrol vessels, tanks, or jets fast enough, and with winter coming closer and closer, the sea ice would become thicker, which meant, that Greater North could possibly transport reinforcements through the thick sea ice, and prompt new victorious offensives for native Inuits. For Greater North, however, it was the risk of famine, if war would prolong in winter - without hunters who would stack food, or few farmers who grew some vegetables in greenhouses, the increased conscription would be pointless, as army would starve. Also, Greater North still had less population than Iceland, which meant, that Iceland could still afford to conscript a bigger army or expand its reserves. While Iceland's leader had wanted to initially take all of Greenland (Including the National Park, where he had plans to settle a small, permanent miner population for resource gathering, thus effectively taking away the status of ''protected area'' for the National Park, and transforming it merely in an another subdivision.), he was in no position to enforce these demands - while both sides had some position of strength, none had the power to force the other for unconditional talks. So, the diplomats of both nations went for a compromise - a solution, which wouldn't appease either of the sides.''

''While Greater North kept large portions of Greenland, some of its eastern parts were ceded to Iceland in form of ''Icelandic Occupation Government'', with Tasiilaq being as its capital and Headquarters for various Icelandic companies which extracted out the various natural resources - oil, gold, lead, and uranium, for an example. Of course, the labor was often performed by local Inuits, and conditions in resource extraction sites often were pretty terrible. While formally a part of Iceland, in practice it functioned in kind of an autonomous way, as long as its Commissar shipped the resources to Iceland. However, New Icelandic Commonwealth's territorial gain celebrations weren't for long - years later, when the National Republic of England had completed the unification of British Isles during the Great Patriotic War, and had stabilized a bit, it renewed its claims on Iceland, and sent a massive fleet of battleships and aircraft to prepare for invasion. Then, Iceland recalled almost all of its military from Icelandic Occupation Zone, and only a few garrisons were left alongside with police officers, coast guard, and armed Icelanders from mainland. Greater North started to prepare workers in Tasiilaq for a massive strike, and positioning troops on the parts of ice cap, which served as borders of the Occupation Government. When the strike erupted, at the beginning it was expected, that the local police and units would handle it, but the workers against all odds managed to take the city, and kill the first and only Commissar of the Occupation Government - Esja Deníelsdóttir. After hearing the news about this, various miners in resource extraction sites across the region started to strike too, paralyzing the Government's system. Greater North's troops used it, and came down from the ice cap, encircling and destroying many of the garrison and resource company guard units. (They had anticipated, that Greenlandic Inuit troops would attack from north or south, where land was free from ice cap) Greater North had pulled the same trick Iceland did years before - crossed the ice cap, and took the enemy out by surprise. Greater North dissolved the Icelandic Occupation Government afterwards, and integrated it back in Greenland, sending back all of the Icelandic factory guards, police officers, remaining soldiers, or the few settlers back to Iceland. Later, the National Republic of England would accuse Greater North of helping out Iceland in a covert way, as a lot of the repatriated Icelanders would later participate in battles of Reykjavik and Akureyri against British navy, airforce, and ground forces (Overall, the war was still short, and resulted in annexation, as conventional Iceland's army couldn't put up a big fight against English army. If anything, the Iceland's partisan warfare inflicted more attrition and losses to the British).''

Ministry of Education

Fact time!

''(SC's space expansion AU, a.k.a. the most unlikely scenario. Non-canon, of course! ''Current'' year would be 6030) Europa is one of the first moons, which was colonized by Silver Commonwealth (Now Pax Solaris, which means ''Solar Peace''). When deciding the contestants of colonization in space trials, Czech colonists were one of the most ardent candidates, and were ready to ''plant their region's flag on the moon's surface''. In the end, Czech team was picked by the jury of CSA (Commonwealth's Space Agency), and the Czech Autonomy of Central European Region gained the permission to settle, extract resources, and build cities on Europa. There are dozens of research stations scattered across Europa's surface, but the capital is called New Prague, and is the largest, and only city on Europa right now (Although by Earth's standards, it is more of a small village, and even then the definition of ''village'' gets stretched). Although initially only Czechs settled on Europa, now some other nationalities like Austrians have set up their research stations too in exchange of paying the local administration, as it has become hard for Czech administration to build new stations and maintain order on its own, especially when it comes to defending from space pirates. Nonetheless, there is a distinct Czech culture on Europa already.''

''Although it is one of the first candidates in terraforming schedule, the progress of actual terraforming is way lower, and most of its surface is still cold, brittle ice, as most of the resources have gone towards Mars, which is a more desired terraforming goal. (And even then, the process isn't nearly finished, due of the absurd amount of resources and time required). Still, the settlements and permissions to settle are strictly based on estimates of ground and water after terraforming would be complete, which makes it hard to choose a settling spot, because most of Europa's surface would be covered with water in a hypothetical terraforming scenario, and additional artificial isles would be needed. That is the reason, why a lot of the structures on Europa are mobile, and not permanent. Right now, colonists get a lot of their power from either sun, or the water vapor geysers, which spew out water from the deep subsurface ocean under Europa's cold, brittle surface. However, radiation deflectors are also a must, due of the immense radiation from Jupiter's radiation belts, which are even more intense than the Earth's Van Allen radiation belt.''