The Havenite day was 24.56 standard hours long. The year was divided into 412.25 local days, with thirteen months, nine of thirty-two days and four of thirty-one days. The short months were the third, fifth, tenth and twelfth. Every four years the third month had thirty-two days. (UHH)
The first shuttle landed on the planet Haven in the year 1309 PD. The original colonial expedition was extremely well financed as a joint venture by eleven corporations based on member worlds of the Solarian League. Terrestrial life forms adapted very well to Haven's environment, and its climate was nearly ideal for human life. The capital city of Nouveau Paris was founded during that time as well.
By 1430 PD, the planet already had a population of just under a billion, and was beginning to send colonial expeditions of its own into what quickly became known as the Haven Quadrant. By 1475, the Havenite economy and government had proven themselves efficient and effective: Haven was a stable representative democracy with a strong middle class, with its economic policy enshrined the principles of liberal capitalism with minimal government interference. Coupled with the colony's favorable initial circumstances, this combination of market efficiency and flexible government created a planetary standard of living at least as high as that of most Solarian planets; it became the envy for every other world in the Haven Quadrant.
However, in the 17th Century PD, the economy of Haven, now a planet with several billion inhabitants, began to falter; the rich became richer and the poor became poorer, and the government began to experiment with transfer payments and welfare programs. By 1680 PD, Haven had issued its famous "Economic Bill of Rights", which declared that all citizens had an unalienable right to a relative standard of living defined by the government. Thus, an unending spiral of inflation, higher transfer payments, and increasing deficit spending was set into motion. The middle class was pressured from all sides, and the lower class was organized in the "Dolist" blocs, which brought power to a new kind of machine politicians, the Dolist Managers.
In the middle of the 18th Century PD, Haven, now known officially as the People's Republic of Haven, was steadily going down: In 1771 PD, a highly classified economic report to the Legislature's leadership predicted that by 1870 PD, the entire economy of the planet would collapse.
Soon after, the DuQuesne Plan was adopted and began the transformation of Haven into an expansionist, imperialist, star nation. It began to invade and conquer other systems in the Haven Quadrant to ensure the government's ability to pay the so-called Basic Living Stipend to its lower classes. (UHH)
In 1905 PD, not long after the war began, the Pierre coup removed the hereditary Legislaturalist government and substituted the Committee of Public Safety. Some economic improvements were begun, though the continued War mad them less successful than they might have been otherwise. The war resulted in actions as far away as the Silesian Confederation, as well as the region of space more less between Haven space and the Star Kingdom of Manticore. It was long and costly to all participants. (HH3, HH4)
- ↑ Even though six other systems in the near area were colonized with or before Haven.