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| Capital (and largest city) |
Conlon | ||||
| Emperor | Duy Thuan | ||||
| Governor | Jesper Laudrup | ||||
| Population | 9,540 | ||||
| Currency | DKK | ||||
The island state of Pulo Condur, Nymark, Con Dao, officially belongs to the Vietnamese emperor. However, it is a Kalmar protectorate in all but name. It is the only territory nominally run from the offices of the Kalmar Union rather than by one its member states. It lies some 100 miles of Viet Nam's southern coast and north of Luxembourg's Singapore territory. The capital is Conlon and the population is 9,540.
Only around one-half the population is ethnically Asian (Vietnamese, Cham, Khmer), the rest being made up of various Kalmar nations, Portuguese and French. A rough Pidgin Danish-Vietnamese has developed for everyday use but Danish is used in official documentation.
The de facto currency is the Danish Krona (DKK).
History
It was first developed, or at least attempted to be developed, by Luxembourg in the 1830s who used the dispute between the Vietnamese and Khmer kingdoms to muscle into the area. However the Malay labourers they used to build the fort and dock rebelled under the awful conditions they were subjected to and massacred the Dutch traders. In 1840 the Luxembourgoise signed the Treaty of Singapore with Kalmar and concentrated on that possession instead. The islands defaulted to Viet Nam although they barely bothered to do anything with them.
In 1843 in return for military aid Viet Nam agreed to lease out the islands to a Kalmar trading delegation. The lease has been repeatedly extended as the Vietnamese either request further assistance or occasionally default on their loans. From its base Kalmar has been able to successfully support its trading network throughout south-east Asia, and it controls rice exports out of the Mekong Delta.
It was from the islands that the Kalmar ship Nymark was launched in 1857 to explore the coast of Australia, preventing Luxembourg from claiming the entire land mass. Attempts to preserve the archipelago's wildlife has largely failed as the population has boomed.
Government
Officially part of Viet Nam, a mandarin in charge of regulating trade within the islands is sent by the Imperial government, though in reality they have virtually no power, only providing a conduit to speak to the Imperial government in Hue. The Vietnamese Emperor, currently Duy Thuan, is still recognised as the head of state, however. The local board of the Kalmar East India Trading Company is seen as the real government with their activities supervised and approved by the Kalmar offices in Copenhagen. The chairman of the board, Jesper Laudrup, is usually recognised as the islands' chief minister.
The small governing council is elected by a free vote by all citizens over 18 (votes for women was approved in 2006) with the Company allowed to veto any ministerial appointments.
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