Sophiahafen (Differently)

Dominion of Sophiahafen Herrschaft Sophiahafen Timeline: Differently OTL equivalent: Port Hedland
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  "Stärke in der Einheit und im Gebet" (EN: "Strength in unity and prayer")
Location of Sophiahafen (Differently)
Capital (and largest city)		Sophiahafen (city)
Official languages		German
Ethnic groups (2021)		90.5% German 5.1% Aboriginal 3.5% Bahian 0.9% other
Religion		87.2% Christianity -75.2% Protestant -10.2% Roman Catholicism -1.8% other Christian 12.8% other/none
Government		Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
-	King	Wilhelm VI
-	Governor-General	Victor Braun
-	Chancellor	Peter Carter
Legislature		Herrschaftag
Establishment
-	End of Swanian Occupation	March 3, 1994
Area
-	Total	82,900 km2  32,008 sq mi
Population
-	Estimate	2023 3,502,561 (131st)
-	census	2020 3,430,782
-	Density	42.2/km2  109.3/sq mi
Drives on the		right

Sophiahafen, officially the Dominion of Sophiahafen (German: Herrschaft Sophiahafen), is a German-speaking state in the northwestern coast of the Australian continent. It is bathed by the Indian Ocean on the west, and is surrounded by Swania (and it's provinces of Pilbara on thesouth, and Kimberley to east and north). With a surface area of 82,900 square kilometers, it is Oceania's tenth-largest country and the smallest country in Australia, ranking 108th globally. Its population of 3.4 milion inhabitants makes it the 8th most populous country in Oceania and the 131st-most populous country worldwide.

The area that became Sophiahafen was settled by Germans in the 18th and 19th century and later integrated and unified in the German Empire as part of an effort of the Empire to expand into the South Pacific. However, Sophiahafen would be occupied by the British at the conclusion of the Great War and would be integrated into Swania until eventually regaining independence in 1994 with the backing of the Germanic League.

History

Indigenous/Pre-Colonial History

Sophiahafen is known by the Indigenous as Kariyarra and Nyamal people as Marapikurrinya, which means "place of good water" (as told by a Nyamal language speaker). The Kariyarra and Nyamal peoples would live uncontacted by the outside world until the arrival of Byzantine explorer Eutropius Lascaris in 1601. The entire continent would be claimed as part of the Byzantine Empire and would be named the continent of "New Anatolia".

Spain and Byzantium would fight for control over the Sophiahafen area for much of the early 1600s until the arrival of the English in western Australia in 1651. Throughout the late 1600s and most of the 1700s, the Swan River Colony, including Sophiahafen, would be drastically underpopulated compared to its Byzantine and Spanish counterparts.

British Port Hedland

Port Hedland would be settled in 1708 as British Swanians began migrating north out of the greater Swan River City area. The colony was named after Peter Hedland who had explored the area a few years prior in 1833. In its early years, Port Hedland's economy was largely supported by the mining and rail industries which had been rapidly expanding as development in northern Swania expanded. By 1835, Port Hedland was the third largest city in Northern Swania.

German Colonization

German expansion into Oceania started in 1767 with the waves of Germans settling into modern day Jamesland, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, Sophiahafen and modern day Swanian provinces of Pilbara and Kimberly.

Later these settlers would declare countries of their own, same thing happened in the surroundings of Port Hedland. Instead of being unified in one republic however, Sophiahafen was divided into a bunch of smaller republics, which were able to keep their existence thanks to the isolation from the Swanian-Bahian conflicts and a good economic relation with Port Hedland. The most notable of these were New Baden, Fischlandernest, Dampher and Rotkuste.

There were attempts at unification of these states, which came to success in 1875, with the arrival of German Empire in Australia and the power German pirates in Oceania reaching their height.

The conquests of Port Hedland and Karratha started in 1877. Port Hedland fell in 1881, while the fighting in Karratha continued until 1907. The Karratha war, also known as Gunther's war was one of the longest and most destructive wars in the Second Wave of Australian wars.

Swanian Occupation

After the war German Empire wanted Sophiahafen to send a part of it's army to help with the increasing tensions in Europe, since Germany also sent it's army to fight for the control of Karratha, which failed. With the army tired, weakend and William Gunther dead, many Sophiahafener politicians were against this idea, fearing that Swania would take advantage of this. On the other side many thought they owed to the German Empire and wanted to help them for the German brotherhood. This fiasco created tension and instability within the government. In the end Sophiahafen sent somewhere around 15 to 25 thousand soldiers to Europe.

Demographics

Age pyramid of Sophiahafen in 2022

About 19.5% of the population is under 15 years old, 69.3% is between 15 and 65 years old and 11.2% is over 65 years old. The fertility rate in 2022 was 1.8. The median age was 34.4.

Sophiahafen is also the most urban country in Australia with 88.7% of the population living in urban areas. Around 41.3% of the population live in the capital's metropolitan area.

Age structure over the years:

Year	%<14	%15-65	%>65	TFR
1950	26.7	64.9	8.4	2.2
1960	27.5	65.2	7.3	2.4
1970	28.3	64.9	6.8	2.5
1980	29.4	65.1	6.5	2.6
1990	28.2	64.6	7.2	2.4
2000	24.0	66.4	9.6	2.1
2010	21.8	67.8	10.4	1.9
2020	19.6	69.3	11.1	1.8

States

Map of Sophiahafener states

Name	Capital	Population
Baden-Festland	Gustav	510,791
Dämpfer	Rehbock	410,325
Emu	Yulebank	205,390
Fischadlernest	Pirat	615,490
Goldstraße	Sophiahafen	1,371,082
Nykina	Meda	317,451