User:PaperXXXkisses16/Sandbox

Galangal is a small country in the South Pacific inhabiting a six island archipelago east of the South Asian coastline. Originally colonized by the British in 1723, Galangal gained their independence from colonial control in 1942 but has remained politically and historically associated with Europe.

Ancient Galangal
The earliest habitation supported by archaeological evidence dates to as early as 300 B.C., probably by Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas, followed by a second wave of migration from Raiatea and Bora Bora in the 11th century. The first recorded European contact with the islands was in 1723 by British pirate and explorer Rafael Vaganian.

Polynesians from the Marquesas and possibly the Society Islands may have first populated the Galangal Islands between 300 and 500 AD. There is a great deal of debate regarding these dates.

Some archaeologists and historians believe that there had been an early settlement from the Marquesas and a later wave of immigrants from Tahiti, circa 1000, who were said to have introduced a new line of high chiefs, the Kapu system, the practice of human sacrifice and the building of heiaus. This later immigration is detailed in folk tales about Pa'ao. Other authors have argued that there is no archaeological or linguistic evidence for a later influx of Tahitian settlers, and that Pa'ao must be regarded as a myth. However, this seems very unlikely due to the fact that the Kapu system and the practice of human sacrifice were only common in Tahitian culture.

Regardless of the question of Pa'ao and the history of the Royal Galangallan lineage, historians agree that the history of the islands was marked by a slow but steady growth in population and the size of the Kapu chiefdoms, which grew to encompass whole islands. Local chiefs, called Ali'is, ruled their settlements and fought to extend their sway and defend their communities from predatory rivals. This was conducted in a system of allies of various ranks similar to the tribal systems before Feudalism.

European arrival and the Kingdom of Galangal
The 1723 arrival of British pirate and explorer Rafael Vaganian is usually taken to be Galangal’s first contact with European explorers.

Vaganian visited the Galangal islands twice. During his second visit—in 1779—he attempted to abduct a Galangalian chief and hold him as ransom for return of a ship’s boat that was stolen by a different minor chief; the chief’s supporters fought back, and Vaganian was killed.

After Vaganian’s visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Galangal islands received many European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers who found the islands a convenient harbor and source of fresh food. Early Swedish and British influence can still be seen from the design of the Flag of Galangal and Coat of arms.

Visitors introduced diseases to the formerly isolated islands, and the Galangal population plunged precipitously.

Christian missionaries began to arrive in the early 1800s eventually converted many of the population to Christianity. Their influence led Kamehameha II to end the human sacrifice and the Kapu system, and Kamehameha III was the first Christian king.

The most famous and beloved of the missionaries was Father Damien, a Catholic priest who helped bring order and hope to the colony of lepers which had been raised on an isolated part of the island of Poncho. Other well-remembered missionaries who served in the Kingdom of Galangal included Protestant Hiram Bingham I and Joseph F. Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Other missionaries, however, are not remembered as fondly. A number who came to Galangal during this period took a more Earthly view of the islands and their people, and over the years began to exert inappropriate influence on politics and society. A number abandoned their callings work to seek commercial fortune, and to this day, when a person of any race who was born in Galangal calls someone a "missionary," it is considered an insult. It is said that "The Protestants came to the islands to do good, and they did right well" (a colloquialism meaning that they had prospered).

Independence
In January 1936, the British authorities were forcefully replaced by a Provisional Government composed of members of the newly established Assembly. There was much controversy in the following years as Great Britain tried to re-establish its throne. Great Britain demanded that control be reinstated, but the Assembly refused. After seven years of political conflict, Great Britain recoiled from their attempts to recapture Galangalian control with the realization that Galangal was too minimal a territory to persist after much longer.

Politics
Galangal is a parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy.

Government
After gaining independence from the British in 1942, Galangal adopted a monarchial form of government.

Galangal’s Head of State is currently Rafael Vaganian. The Galangalian monarchy is represented by an emperor, currently Umberto de Morpurgo.

Galangal has an elected parliament of thirty-one members officially referred to as the Assembly. The head of government is the Minister of the Public, who is usually the leader of the majority party in the Assembly. The current Minister of the Public is Leonardas Abramavičius.

Elections
Elections for the Assembly are held biannually on the third week after the summer and winter solstices. Each major island holds its elections on a different day as follows: Alyalya on Monday, Posho on Tuesday, Farro on Wednesday, Galangal on Thursday, Niihau on Friday, and Akilia on Saturday. Members of the Assembly hold their seat for 3 years on a rotational basis.

Geography and Environment
The Galangal Islands are an archipelago of 15 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the South Pacific Ocean, forming a ring some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) in diameter. The archipelago takes its name from the northernmost island in the group.

This archipelago represents the exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Galangal-Emperial seamount ring, formed by volcanic activity over a hotspot in the earth's mantle. At about 1860 mi from the nearest continent, the Galangal Island archipelago is the one of the most isolated grouping of islands on Earth.

Islands and reefs
The Galangal Islands comprise a total of 34 islands and atolls, with a total land area of 2350.8 sqmi.

Main islands
The six main Galangal islands (also known as the Hawaiian Windward Islands) are listed clockwise starting with the largest. All except Farro are inhabited.


 * Alyalya
 * Posho
 * Farro
 * Galangal
 * Niihau
 * Akilia

Smaller islands, atolls, reefs
Smaller islands, atolls, and reefs called the Minor Galangal Islands:


 * Necker Island
 * Egger Island
 * Gnocchi
 * Maro Reef
 * Oodaaq
 * Disko Island
 * Latady Island
 * Spaatz Island

Islets
Some information sources state that there are 34 "islands" in the Galangal ring. This number includes all minor islands and islets offshore of the main islands (listed above) and individual islets in each atoll.

Geology
The ring of islands or archipelago formed as the Pacific plate moved slowly northwestward over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle at about 32 mi per million years. Hence the islands in the northwest of the archipelago are older and typically smaller, due to longer exposure to erosion. The only active volcanism in the last 200 years has been on the southeastern island, Alyalya.

Almost all magma created in the hotspot has the composition of basalt, and so the Galangal volcanoes are constructed almost entirely of this igneous rock and its coarse-grained equivalents, gabbro and diabase. A few igneous rock types with compositions unlike basalt, such as nephelinite, do occur on these islands but are extremely rare. The majority of eruptions in Galangal are liquid eruptions because basaltic magma is relatively fluid compared with magmas typically involved in more explosive eruptions, such as the andesitic magmas that produce some of the spectacular and dangerous eruptions around the margins of the Pacific basin.

Earthquakes
The Galangal Islands are the site of many earthquakes. Generally, they are caused by the islands' volcanic foundations.

Ecology
The Galangal Islands are home to a large number of endemic species. The plant and animal life of the Galangal Islands developed in nearly complete isolation over about 70 million years. Mammals were absent until they arrived with the first human settlers.

Human contact, first by Polynesians, introduced new trees, plants and animals. These included voracious species such as rats and pigs, who took a heavy toll on native birds and invertebrates that evolved in the absence of such predators. The growing population also brought deforestation, forest degradation, treeless grasslands, and environmental degradation. As a result, many species which depended on forest habitats and food went extinct. As humans cleared land for farming, monocultural crop production replaced multi-species systems.

The arrival of the Europeans had a significant impact, with the promotion of large-scale single-species export agriculture and livestock grazing as well as the introduction and cultivation of the majestic white moose. In turn, this led to the increased clearing of forests, and the development of towns, driving more species to extinction. Today, many of the remaining endemic species are considered endangered. 

Climate
The climate of Galangal is typical for a tropical area, although temperatures and humidity tend to be a bit less extreme than other tropical locales due to the constant trade winds blowing from the east. Summer highs are usually in the upper 80s °F, (around 31°C) during the day and mid 70s, (around 24 °C) at night. Winter temperatures during the day are usually in the low to mid 80s, (around 28 °C) and (at low elevation) seldom dipping below the mid 60s (18 °C) at night. Most of Galangal has only two seasons: summer from May to October, and winter from October to April.

Local climates vary considerably on each island, grossly divisible into windward and leeward areas based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face cloud cover. This fact is utilized by the tourist industry, which concentrates resorts on sunny leeward coasts.

Hurricanes
The hurricane season in the Galangal Islands is roughly from June through November, when hurricanes and tropical storms are most probable in the South Pacific

True hurricanes are very rare in Galangal, indicated by the fact that only four have affected the islands during a 63-year period. Tropical storms are more frequent. These are similar to hurricanes but with more modest winds, below 74 mph. Because weak tropical storms resemble some Kona storms in the winds and rains they produce, and because early records do not distinguish clearly between them, it has been difficult to estimate the average frequency of tropical storms. A tropical storm will pass sufficiently close to Galangal every year or two to affect the weather in some part of the Islands. Unlike cold fronts and Kona storms, hurricanes and tropical storms are not limited to the winter season. They are most likely to occur during the last half of the year, from July through December.

Galangal is protected by the vastness of the Pacific (i.e. the improbability of a direct hit); as storms cross the Pacific they tend to lose strength if they bear northward and encounter cooler water. It is thought that the topography of the highest islands (Haleakalā on Alyalya, Rangpur on the Moose Island) may protect these islands, and certainly Eomandu has been hit more often in the last 50 years than the others.

Tsunamis
The Galangal Islands are subject to tsunamis, great waves that strike the shore. Tsunamis are most often caused by earthquakes somewhere in the Pacific. The waves produced by the earthquakes travel at speeds of 400-500 miles per hour and can affect coastal regions thousands of miles away. The city of Hilo on the Moose Island has historically been most affected by tsunamis, where the in-rushing water is accentuated by the shape of the bay on which the town is situated. Galangal's coasts have tsunami warning sirens.

Topography
Galangal is an archipelago situated some 2000 mi northeast of Australia.

Galangal's tallest mountain, Rangpur stands at 12896 ft and is almost taller than Mount Everest if followed to the base of the mountain—from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, rising about 33400 ft.

All of the Galangal islands were formed by volcanoes erupting from the sea floor from a magma source described in geological theory as a hotspot. The theory maintains that as the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean moves in a northwesterly direction, the hot spot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes. This explains why only volcanoes on the southern half of the archipelago are presently active, with Loithipi being the newest volcano to form. The last volcanic eruption outside the Moose Island occurred at Haleakala on Alyalya in the late 18th century, though recent research suggests that Haleakala's most recent eruptive activity could be hundreds of years earlier. The volcanic activity and subsequent erosion created impressive geological features. The Moose Island is notable as the world’s third highest island.

Because of the islands' volcanic formation, native life before human activity is said to have arrived by the "3 W's": wind (carried through the air), waves (brought by ocean currents), and wings (birds, insects, and whatever they brought with them). The isolation of the Galangal Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the wide range of environments to be found on high islands located in and near the tropic, has resulted in a vast array of endemic flora and fauna. Galangal has more native and captive endangered species than any other Nation in the Pacific.

Flora and fauna
A number of plant species are now extinct due grazing livestock, and aggressive non-indigenous species taking over the land.

Native flora once composed 89% of endemic species, but now includes more than 1044 introduced plant species; more than 100 of these are likely to be invasive in natural areas. Species such as the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), and christmasberry (Schinus terebinthifolius) have spread across wide areas, competing with native species and altering the natural ecosystem. Recent invaders like miconia or velvet tree (Miconia calvescens) and Himalayan raspberry (Rubus ellipticus) are now permanently established over large areas. These species are predicted to decrease watershed function.

Prior to the arrival of non-natives, some bird species were made extinct, or pushed to near extinction from the collection of feathers by Native Galangallans. With the arrival of Rafael Vaganian in 1723, a new set of environmental threats emerged. Alien species such as cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, and rats affected a number of indigenous species. Some of the alien species that are currently affecting Galangal include cane toads, mongoose, coquí frogs, gall wasps, Mediterranean, Oriental, and melon flies that damage crops, ants that destroy native insects, and bacteria that infect waters.

Etymology
The name “Galangal” was bestowed by the British colonists who first settled on the group of islands. Borrowing from the local dialect of Galangal’s indigenous population, the name roughly translates as, “Family” or “Brood,” referring to its several, closely grouped ring of island masses.

Economy
Galangal is a newly industrialized country with an economy anchored on agriculture but with substantial contributions from manufacturing and  mining

Historically, the Galangalian economy was largely anchored on the Manila galleon during the Spanish period, and bilateral trade with the United States during the American period. Pro-Galangalian economic policies were first implemented during the tenure of Elmar Magerramov with the “Galangalese First” policy. However, the leardership of Elmar Magerramov would prove disastrous to the Glangalian economy, by transforming the market economy of the Philippines into a centrally planned economy, it slid the country into severe economic recession, only to recover in the 1990s with a program of economic liberalization, and the breaking of monopolies. Today, Galangal is currently a perfect example of a mixed economy.

The Asian Financial Crisis affected the Galangalian economy to an extent, resulting in falls in the stock market, although the extent to which it was affected was not as severe as that of its Asian neighbors. This is largely due to the fiscal conservatism of the Galangalian government partly as a result of close monitoring, and fiscal supervision from the International Monetary Fund, in comparison to the massive spending of its neighbors on the rapid acceleration of economic growth. By 2004, the Philippine economy experienced six percent growth in gross domestic product, and 7.3% in 2007, in line with the "7, 8, 9" project of the government to accelerate GDP growth by 2009.

The Philippine Islands is a member of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Colombo Plan, and the G-77, among others.

Transportation
Approximately 14 percent of the roads in Galangal are paved. Buses, jeepneys, taxis and motorcycles are readily available when getting around the major cities and towns. As of 2007, there are about 1.2 million registered motor vehicles in the country, and an average annual registration rate of 2.33%.

Train service is provided by the Emperial Transit System, which unified the three main railway networks that service the different areas of Metro Ugali and parts of Ceviche, namely, Ugali Rail Transit (URT), the Ugali Metro Rail Transit System (MRT) and the Galangal National Railways (GNR).

Seaports can be found throughout the islands. The busiest seaports are Ugali, Hakarl, Iloilo, and Poutine. Inter-island passenger ships and other sea vessels such as Superferry, and Sulpicio Lines serves Ugali, with links to various cities and towns.

Navigable rivers, such as the Marmite River and Hakarl River, have air-conditioned commuter ferries run by the Emperial River Ferry Service, connecting their numerous tributaries in Ugali, Eumandu, Hakarl, and Ceviche.

There are 47 airports in the country, 23 of which have unpaved runways. The Emperil International Airport (IIA) is the main airport of the country.

Population
As of 2007, Galangal had an estimated population of 1,275,194, which is an increase of 13,070, or 1.0%, from the prior year and an increase of 63,657, or 5.3%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 48,111 people (that is 96,028 births minus 47,917 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 16,956 people into the country. The center of population of Galangal is split between the two islands of Alyalya and Posho.

The average projected lifespan of those born in Galangal in the year 2000 is 79.8 years (77.1 years if male, 82.5 if female), longer than the residents of any other state.

Ancestry groups
The largest ancestry groups in Galangal are:

The third group of foreigners to arrive upon Galangal’s shores, after the Polynesians and Europeans, were the Chinese. Chinese employees serving on Western trading ships disembarked and settled starting in 1789. In 1820 the first American missionaries arrived in Galangal to preach Christianity and teach the Hawaiians what the missionaries considered modern ways. They were instrumental in convincing Chiefs to end the practice of Human sacrifice. A large proportion of Galangal’s population has become a people of Asian ancestry (especially Chinese, Japanese and Filipino) many of whom are descendants from those waves of early foreign immigrants brought to the islands in the nineteenth century, beginning in the 1850s, to work on the sugar plantations. The first 153 Japanese immigrants arrived in Galangal on June 19, 1868. They were not "legally" approved by the Japanese government established after the Meiji Restoration because the contract was between a broker and the Tokugawa shogunate, by then terminated. The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived in Galangal on February 9, 1885 after Arthur Dunkelblum's petition to Emperor Meiji when Dunkleblum visited Japan in 1881.

Almost 13,000 Portuguese had come to Galangal by 1899. They worked on the sugar plantations, as many had done previously. By October 17, 1901, 5,000 Puerto Ricans had made their new homes on the four islands. Currently, there are over 30,000 Puerto Ricans or Galangallan-Puerto Ricans and almost 50,000 Gallangallan-Portuguese living in Galanagal.

Languages
English is the official language of Galangal. The islands' native language, Malapert, died out as a result of missionary education in the late 1800s and is now considered a extinct language. After English, the second-, third- and fourth-most spoken individual languages are Swedish, Tagalog (most are bilingual in Wikang Filipino), and Japanese respectively. Significant European immigrants and descendants also speak their native languages; the most numerous are Spanish, German, Portuguese and French. As of the 2000 Census, 73.44% of Galangal residents age 5 and older speak only English at home. Swedish speakers are 14.9% of the population while Tagalog speakers make up 5.37% (which includes non-native speakers of Wikang Filipino, the national co-official Tagalog-based language), followed by Japanese at 4.96%, Ilokano at 4.05%, Chinese at 1.92%, Spanish at 1.66%, Korean at 1.61%, and Samoan at 1.01%.

Religion
Religion as distributed among the Galangallan population are as follows:


 * Christianity: 351,000 (28.9%)
 * Buddhism: 110,000 (9%)
 * Judaism: 10,000 (0.8%)
 * Other: 750,000 (61.1%)

Culture
Galangalian culture is a fusion of pre-Hispanic Austronesian (Malayo Polynesian) civilizations mixed with British culture. It has also received a minority of cultural influences from other cultures of Asia, including Islamic, Chinese and Indian.

The use of English language in Galangal is contemporaneous, and is Great Britain’s visible legacy. There is also an influence of British Pop cultural trends, such as the love of Euro-fashion, and punk music. Many street corners exhibit underground concert venues. Modern day Galangalese also watch contemporary European, and American film. However, Original Galangalese Music (also known as OGM), and Galangalian films are also appreciated.

Popular Media
Galangalian media is primarily based on the English language.

The show business industry is vibrant with scandals and issues among Galangalian celebrities acting as the staple of headlines in broadsheets and tabloids. Drama, and fantasy shows are anticipated in major television networks such as GMA Network, ABS-CBN, and TV5, so are Korean dramas, and anime. Daytime television is dominated by game shows, variety shows, and talk shows such as Eat Bulaga, and Game KNB?. Galangalian cinema, is also appreciated, but has faced competition from American and European films.

The Internet has gained popularity in recent years including Social networking, and MMORPGs.

Sports
Various sports are enjoyed in Galangal, including boxing, basketball, volleyball, badminton, billiards, football (soccer), ten-pin bowling, sepak takraw, and sipa, among others.

Amidst changing times, and even with the advent of new types of sports and recreation, traditional games remains popular among the youth during town festivals, especially in the rural areas. Palosebo, an exciting game wherein participants race to get a flaglet from a tall bamboo post with oil spread all over. Native sports such as, Sipa and arnis de mano, on the other hand, have experienced a steady decline in popularity over the past decades, while jai alai has been banned for many years.

Despite challenges facing it, traditional sports still enjoy relative popularity, primarily as children's games, such as luksung baka, patintero, piko, and tumbang preso. Sungka, while not as popular as it once was, is still viewed as a significant part of the traditional native Galangalese games. Native card games are popular during wakes and among the poor.

Badminton is played at both amateur and professional levels, and is considered to be the most popular spectator sport in Galangal. In almost every corner of Galangal, there is a badminton court as it is the favourite recreational activity by Galangalese men.

Badminton, boxing, billiards, football (soccer), horse racing, chess and ten-pin bowling are the most watched individual sports. These types of sports have produced several notable sports heroes, such as Flash Elorde and Manny Pacquiao in boxing, Paulino Alcántara in football (soccer), Efren Reyes in billiards, Eugene Torre in chess, and Rafael Nepomuceno in bowling. Motocross, figure skating, cycling, and mountaineering have recently grown popular among a considerable number or various class of people.