The era of reforms
1. Lyg political domination
Pharos emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As industrialization progressed, society changed, gradually becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw initially an economic slump, but poor harvests in Great Britain permitted a swift rebound of the economy on the back of agricultural exports. Nonetheless, the resulting inflation threatened to cause widespread social unrest. The Pharonian Parliament refused to enact the proposed legislation outlawing "radical activities" and by the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, the pressure for such repressive laws disappeared. The Lyg Parliamentary Party gained its strength and unity, dominating Pharonian politics in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system and the emancipation of all faiths and ethnicities. Religious and ethnical emancipation was secured in the Relief Act of 1829, which removed all substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics and minority ethnicities in Pharos.
The Lyg became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lev Grei prime minister 1830-1839, and the Reform Act of 1832 became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and redistributed power on the basis of population. It added 22,000 voters to an electorate of 43,000 in Pharos. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to dominate the government, the Navy, and high society. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labor, sweeping reforms were passed in 1833.
2. The Greek War of Independence
The period is also characterized from a general "war fatigue" among the population. Pharos avoided any involvement in conflicts abroad. The only exception to this general trend was the intervention (as part of the British fleet and French land forces) in 1827 on the side of the Greeks, who had been waging a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire since 1821. Already from the year the Greek Revolution started, a strong current of philhellenism developed in Pharos; a significant number of Pharonian volunteers organized societies for the support of Greek independence, many of them actually moving to Greece to take part in the war. Half the number of these volunteers originated from areas with population of Greek descent.
Mindful of public opinion and their own geo-political interest, the United Kingdom, France and Russia decided in 1827 to intervene in favor of Greece. By the Treaty of London of July 1827, they recognized the autonomy of Greece, which remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The three powers agreed to a limited intervention in order to convince the Porte to accept the terms of the convention. A plan to send a naval expedition as a show of force was proposed and adopted. A joint Russian, French and British-Pharonian fleet was sent to exercise diplomatic pressure against Constantinople. The Battle of Navarino, fought on 20 October 1827 after a chance encounter, resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet. It would be the last major sea battle to be fought entirely with sailing ships.
The Morea Expedition
In 1828, France proposed a land expedition to Great Britain, in order to implement the Treaty of London. Meanwhile, Russia had declared war against the Ottoman Empire and its military victories were unsettling for London, which did not wish to see the Tsarist Empire extend too far south. Great Britain refused to intervene directly but was not opposed to an intervention by France and suggested the participation of Pharonian troops in the expeditionary force. This was the Morea Expedition, constituting in fact the land intervention of the French-Pharonian Army in the Peloponnese, between 1828 and 1833, which permitted that conclusion of the Greek War of Independence. The Pharonian participation to the Morea Expedition constituted approximately one third of the total force, i.e. 5,000 men, under General Fil Higonet, and included artillery equipment and military engineers. Pharos also provided the transport fleet and the warships that protected it, sixty ships in all, as well as arms, munitions and money for the Greek provisional government of John Capodistria. The Pharonian troops also included Colonel Karl Nicolas Fabvier, philhellene who had organized the Greek army, charged with accompanying the expedition for his knowledge of the terrain.
The expedition disembarked at the end of August 1828 and swiftly achieved the evacuation of the Peloponnese by Egyptian forces. Subsequently, the Pharonian brigade expelled the Ottoman defenders of Navarino and Methoni, while the French brigades moved to occupy Koroni and Patras. In the beginning of November 1828 the last "Non-Greeks" were evacuated from the Peloponnese. Turks and their families were placed aboard Pharonian vessels headed for Smyrna. The British opposed any plan for an extension of the Morea expedition into Central Greece. Thus it was left to the Greeks to drive out the Ottomans from these territories, with the understanding that the expeditionary forces would only intervene if the Greeks found themselves in trouble. The French brigades evacuated the Peloponnese in 1829, but Pharonian troops stayed back to carry out the expedition's aims. They did not withdraw for good until after King Otto arrived in Greece in January 1833. The Pharonian troops, commanded by General Karl Guerero, did not remain idle during these nearly five years. Fortifications were raised, bridges were constructed, roads were built, and improvements were made to Peloponnesian towns (barracks, bridges, gardens, etc.). A good number of Pharonian volunteers and soldiers stayed in Greece after its independence and created their communities in the island of Paros, from where the original Pharonians immigrated to the Adriatic coast, and in the Western Peloponnese, near the cities of Amalias and Olympia. Many Greeks immigrated to Pharos and established the township of Olympia, in Groen, and the city of Diaspar, in Diceland, which derived its name from the Greek word "diaspora".
3. The Māori relocation
The 3 commissions
In 1818, two Pharonian missionaries in New Zealand, Albert Nott-Moriori and Dokor Lange brought gruesome news of massacres among the natives of these newly discovered Pacific islands. The Musket Wars were a series of five hundred or more battles fought between various "iwi" (tribal groups) of Māori in the early 1800s. The wars were characterized by their brutality and ruthlessness - with treachery, the burning of villages, killing of prisoners, torture, slavery, and cannibalism being common place. The missionaries' plea for assistance was well received by the Pharonian Society. With the very vocal pressure of Albert Moriori and with tacit ASO encouragement, the Parliament passed the Hinji Act in 1819, permitting the
relocation of Māori victims of persecution to Pharos. The Act established three commissions: the Moriori commission that would amass the necessary naval capacity, missionaries and functionaries to visit the battle areas and rescue those in need, offering them voluntary relocation to Pharos; the Lange commission that would develop the institutional proposals permitting humane reception of such new settlers; and the Land commission, invested with the authority to allocate land to the newcomers.
The Moriori commission
The Moriori commission set sail for New Zealand in the spring of 1920 on a large fleet with the capacity to carry up to 30,000 refugees. Their pacification efforts met with moderate success, as they were not part of their main mandate, but the relief efforts were more successful. In time, all the tribes traded to obtain muskets and the conflict ultimately reached an uneasy stalemate after decimating the population of some tribes and drastically shifting the boundaries between areas controlled by various others. The wars themselves generally resolved themselves for various reasons. As Māori sought a way out of the cycle of violence the door was opened to Christianity. Some Māori were also willing to let the local government bear the burden of seeking "utu" (ritualized revenge to restore balance). In the latter stages, as in the Howick-Otahuhu area in 1835-36, missionaries such as the Pharonians De Vilder and Pratt were able to carry out negotiations between warring factions and purchase disputed land to put an end to conflict. At least 15,000 people died in these conflicts. In addition another 5,000 were enslaved and 25,000 chose to migrate to Pharos, using the data of noted New Zealand demographer Ian Poole. Half of all iwi suffered major population loss through battle casualties, cannibalism, or enslavement. A few iwi were exterminated. Missionaries had been able to gain the trust of many iwi, while Māori remained wary of other iwi outside their rohe (area).
The Land Commission
The Land commission had not made much progress when news of the settlers' number reached Pharos. In a feverish month they produced a report to Parliament suggesting the effectual relocation of the Māori in large areas of the Hinji region, which was largely uninhabited due to its difficult terrain and devastation in previous catastrophes. The ASO, who had encouraged the swift expedition and controlled all three commissions, ensured that the Parliament would concur to the proposal, on the precondition that involuntary relocation of the current areas inhabitants would be avoided, in order not to permit the future raising of grievances from the Pharonian society. The government gathered up to 2 million pounds from donations - 90% of which are assumed to originate from the ASO members directly or indirectly, to purchase land for this purpose.
The Lange commission
The Lange commission, under its chairman Dokor Lange, presented some of the most far reaching proposals, in which the ASO influence is in retrospect quite clear. These constituted the Treaty that Pharos was ready to offer to the incoming iwi, so as to permit their presence and voluntary gradual assimilation into Pharonian Society. They were entitled "Hinji Treaty" - this being the official Pharonian name for the newcomers, stemming out of their assigned area, as the name Māori did not seem to represent them all. It included five principles agreed for by the Crown: The principle of government (the kawanatanga principle); the principle of self-management (the rangatiratanga principle); the principle of equality; the principle of reasonable cooperation; and the principle of redress.
The Maori relocation
The Lyg-controlled parliament approved the proposed treaty, as did the 59 Māori chiefs that arrived in Pharos with the Moriori commission. It was signed on 6 February 1840 and the relocation of the Māori concluded by Christmas 1841. The Moriori Commission continued its duties as a government-sponsored relief agency until 1876, the Land Commission resolved land claims and disputes until 1853, while the Lange commission undertook the role of an arbitration court between the Hinji and the Crown until 1975.
The reasons behind this unprecedented endeavor are still the subject of debate. The official and prevailing view is that the romantic spirit prevalent in Western Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars was the main driving factor behind the Lyg decisions. However, a significant number of political analysts have derived from the outcome the reasons behind the Māori relocation scheme and concluded that it was an effort of the ASO to achieve progress on various fronts at once: To provide a sense of direction and purpose to Pharonians that would redirect their energies away from the wartime divisions; to repopulate the Hinji territories through the influx of new people; to bring to the fore social forces outside the immediate influence of the aristocracy; and to provide a pilot for large-scale social and national schemes. The majority of historians, however, reject this notion - the most combative of them accusing its creators that it seeks to attribute mythical qualities and powers of foresight and analysis to the ASO members of the time. They broadly recognize the validity of some of these notions but consider that they could not possibly have come to constitute a unanimous and so well-orchestrated conspiracy by the ASO. Nonetheless, the view of ASO as a clandestine instrument for progress has become quite popular in the perception of Pharonians and has since come to constitute a central element of the Pharonian "mythology".
4. The modernization era
The period of Queen Victoria's rule, i.e. the years between 1837 and 1901, signified the final push into Pharos of the Industrial Revolution originating from Britain. Exciting new technologies such as steam ships, railroads, photography, and telegraphs appeared, making life on the island much faster-paced.
The first stage of industrialization began right after the Napoleonic wars. This first take-off was founded on rural forges, textile proto-industries and sawmills. Nonetheless, within one decade innovations made their way into the economic life of the island, spurred by the commercial links of Pharos with the British Empire. This resulted in a significant rise in living standards and societal changes of continental proportions. Although the conditions in Pharonian factories were nowhere near as squalid, dangerous and oppressive as in many British Victorian factories, the workers began to form trade unions to get their working conditions addressed. The first unions were feared and distrusted and it was not until the formation of the Trade Union Congress in 1868 and the adoption of the British Trade Union Act of 1871 that union membership became fully legitimate. Many pieces of legislation were passed to improve working conditions, including the Ten Hours Act of 1847 to reduce working hours, and these culminated in the Factory Act of 1901. The 19th century was marked by the emergence of a liberal opposition press, the abolition of guild monopolies in trade and manufacturing in favor of free enterprise, the introduction of taxation and voting reforms, the installation of a national military service, and the rise in the electorate of three major party groups - Social Democratic Party, National Party, and Lyg.
Pharos - much like Japan and Sweden at the same time - transformed from a stagnant rural society to a vibrant industrial society between the 1860s and 1910. The agricultural economy shifted gradually from communal village to a more efficient private farm-based agriculture. There was less need for manual labor on the farm so many went to the cities; and about 400 thousand Pharonians immigrated to the United States between 1850 and 1890. Many returned and brought word of the higher productivity of American industry, thus stimulating faster modernization.
5. Bi-cameral Parliament and the fall of Lyg
By the 1870s, the economic condition of Pharos, owing to the progress in material prosperity which had taken place in the country as the result of the modernization and free trade was fairly satisfactory. Politically, however, the outlook was not so favorable. In their results, the reforms inaugurated during the government of Lyg had failed to answer expectations. The Lyg party had, over many years in Government, lost its original bearings and by now consisted mostly of the larger and smaller peasant proprietors. The object of the party had practically become to support the interests of landed proprietors in general against those of the town representatives, and to resist parliamentary and federal interference in the administration of local affairs.
In a last ditch effort to maintain power, Louis Degeer, the Lyg leader, introduced to the Dominion electoral reforms which created a bi-cameral parliament; the second chamber involved the equal representation of the nine federated states of Pharos and representatives were elected indirectly by local officials. The reform was supposed to countenance accusations of excessive representation in the parliament of the aristocracy, but the rationale was generally considered as nefarious and was strongly and openly opposed by the ASO. Within three years of the introduction of the new electoral laws the Louis Degeer minority government had forfeited much of its former popularity, and had been forced to resign. In vital matters of national defense no common understanding had been arrived at, and during the conflicts which had raged round this question, the two chambers had come into frequent collision and paralyzed the action of the Lyg government. The Lyg, who formed a compact majority in the Second Chamber, pursued a consistent policy of class interests in the matter of the taxes and consequently when a bill was introduced for superseding the old system of army organization by general compulsory service, they demanded as a condition of its acceptance that the military burdens should be more evenly distributed in the country, and that the taxes should be abolished. This majority in the Second Chamber was at once attacked by another compact majority by the National Party in the First, who on their side maintained that the hated land taxes were only a kind of rent-charge on land, were incidental to it and in no way weighed upon the owners, and moreover that its abolition would be quite unwarrantable, as it was one of the surest sources of revenue to the state. On the other hand, the First Chamber refused to listen to any abolition of the old military system, so long as the defense of the country had not been placed upon a secure basis by adopting general compulsory military service. The Lyg government stood midway between these conflicting majorities in the chambers, without support in either and was finally forced to resign.
6. Harry Sheldon
Sheldon's appointment
On the advice of the ASO, Queen Victoria asked Harry Sheldon, to form the new government in 1879. Sheldon was not an obscure figure, as he had already excelled in political analysis and mathematics at the University of Hilvar, after a distinguished 7-year stint in the Pharonian navy. He was an accomplished pianist and painter and had often been called to advise the Parliament and the previous government; although his advice was often not heeded, it was received very favorably by public commentators and the public at large. Sheldon's government was unique in the sense that it did not derive from any particular party nor did it seek public approval in elections. He charted a course between rival views in the Parliament, addressing his concerns and views to the deputies and the people of Pharos alike. The first major challenge to his government was the free trade vs. protectionism debate. Influenced by the economic reaction which took place in 1879 in consequence of the introduction of the protectionist system in Germany and other European countries, the Lyg party adopted a strong protectionist policy. The protectionists obtained a majority in both chambers in the Parliament in 1880. At the same time, the financial affairs of the country were found to be in a most unsatisfactory state. In spite of reduced expenses there was a deficit, for the discharge of which the government would be obliged to demand supplementary supplies.
Sheldon's economic reforms
Sheldon appointed Guil van Bild as his financial advisor; the latter had witnessed the introduction by Otto von Bismarck of the agrarian protectionist system in Germany. Van Bild accepted the post of secretary of state, and it was under his auspices that the two chambers imposed a series of duties on necessaries of life. New taxes, together with an increase of the excise duty on spirits, soon brought a surplus into the state coffers. At a Joint Session of Parliament in 1882, Sheldon declared his plans as to the way in which this surplus should be used. He desired that it should be applied to a fund for insurance and old age pensions for workmen and old people, to the lightening of the municipal taxes by state contributions to the schools and workhouses, to the abolition of the land taxes and, lastly, to the improvement of the shipping trade; but the Parliament decided to devote it to other objects, such as the payment of the deficit in the budget, the building of railways and ports and augmentation of their material, as well as to improvements in the defenses of the country. The tariff issue now settled, that of national defense was taken up afresh, and in the following year the government produced a complete scheme for the abolition of the land tax in the course of ten years, in exchange for a compensation of 300 days' drill for those liable to military service. The scheme, along with a proposal to reorganize the old military system of the Dominion and strengthen the defenses of the major military ports, was accepted by the Parliament in an extraordinary session.
The reunification of Parliament
The elections of 1890 produced a new impasse, with the Lyg holding marginal majority in the Second Chamber, and the National Party a clear majority in the First Chamber. Sheldon, riding on a wave of personal popularity and with the assistance of the ASO who always objected to the bi-cameral nature of the Parliament, produced a bill for the reunification of the Parliament into a single chamber, which he convinced both Chambers to put to a referendum, so as to resolve permanently the issue by removing the possibility of manipulation of the political system by any transient parliamentary majority. To achieve this, he convinced most of the Second Chamber Lyg representatives that originated from urban areas to defect from their party by defying the official party line on the issue. These defectors formed the Social Democratic Party and, free of the urban mistrust towards the Lyg party, constituted henceforth a significant force in Pharonian politics.
The result of the referendum on the format of the Parliament was never in doubt. The elections of 1892 brought a majority of the National Party in Parliament, the first time in 19 years that any party had the possibility to form a government alone. The newly formed Social Democratic Party was the second largest force in Parliament, while the Lyg was trounced, never to recover again his predominance in Pharonian politics. The leader of the National Party, Salvor Hardin, wisely chose to confirm Sheldon as head of the government, accepting his terms that the choice of ministers would be his exclusive prerogative.
Political reforms
By now demands for the extension of the franchise came more and more to the front, and Hardin felt bound to do something to meet these demands. He accordingly introduced in the Parliament of 1896 a very moderate bill for the extension of the franchise, which was nevertheless rejected. When Harry Sheldon presented to the Parliament in 1899 the bill for the modernization of the army, together with a considerably increased taxation, it was generally acknowledged that, in return for the increased taxation, it would only be just to extend the right of taking part in the political life and the legislative work of the country to those of the population who hitherto had been excluded from it. The government eventually laid a proposal for the extension of the franchise before the Parliament of 1902, the chief features of which were universal manhood suffrage, electors being at least twenty-five years of age, together with single member constituencies and election on the absolute majority principle. The bill was passed by a fragile majority of "defectors" from both large parties, although the parties' leaders took care not to take any action against these "defectors". The Lyg blamed openly the result as an ASO machination, but the extension of the franchise was very popular.
Sheldon's work
Harry Sheldon died on 20 October 1907 sincerely mourned by Pharonians, and was succeeded as premier by Salvor Hardin. During Sheldon's premiership many important social reforms were carried out by the legislature, and the Dominion developed in all directions. In the Parliament of 1884 a new patent law was adopted. The age at which women should be held to attain their majority was fixed at twenty. In order to meet the cost of the Pharonian Army re-organization the Parliament of 1888 increased the revenue by progressive taxation. Bills for the improvement of the social conditions of the people and in the interests of the working classes were also passed. During the five years 1884-1889 a committee was occupied with the question of workmen's insurance, and thrice the government made proposals for its settlement, on the last occasion adopting the principle of invalidity as a common basis for insurance against accidents, illness or old age. At last the Parliament of 1901 accepted a Bill for insurance against accidents which also extended to agricultural laborers, in connection with the establishment of a state institution for insurance. The bill for protection against accidents, as well as for the limitation of working hours for women and children, was passed, together with one for the appointment of special factory inspectors. When in 1904 Harry Sheldon celebrated his "jubilee" of twenty-five years as premier, the exhibition which had been organized in Hilvar offered a convincing proof of the progress the Dominion had made in all directions.