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| - With his reign spanning for nearly 35 years, he was a widely controversial figure during his reign. Admired for his strong leadership and national vision, Smith had a large, loyal base of supporters known as the Jacobites, who supported his status as king, and was fiercely opposed by Sierran republicans. Smith's reign oversaw his kingdom overcome initial setbacks in the economy and political development, and the creation of a firm, centralized bureaucracy and a well-trained military. Despite choosing to honor his role as monarch to be non-partisan, throughout his reign, he remained intensively involved in Sierran politics, and was a strong influence over his prime ministers and Parliament, and at times, came into disagreement and dispute over policy and the direction of the country. He als
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| abstract
| - With his reign spanning for nearly 35 years, he was a widely controversial figure during his reign. Admired for his strong leadership and national vision, Smith had a large, loyal base of supporters known as the Jacobites, who supported his status as king, and was fiercely opposed by Sierran republicans. Smith's reign oversaw his kingdom overcome initial setbacks in the economy and political development, and the creation of a firm, centralized bureaucracy and a well-trained military. Despite choosing to honor his role as monarch to be non-partisan, throughout his reign, he remained intensively involved in Sierran politics, and was a strong influence over his prime ministers and Parliament, and at times, came into disagreement and dispute over policy and the direction of the country. He also led Sierra through its greatest political and constitutional crisis, the Sierran Civil War, and preserved it. In preserving the Union, he solidified the status and place of the monarchy in Sierran society, and strengthened the nation as it pursued a larger role in the international community during the War of Contingency. Witnessing the nation transform rapidly economically and socially during the Second Industrial Revolution, Smith was viewed as a stabilizing force, who worked closely with his prime ministers. The king's reign established various customs and precedents that continued to be use today, including the relationship between the monarch and the prime minister and the use of royal edicts. Smith was also largely responsible for establishing Sierran colonial rule in overseas territories, including Hawaii and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, both of which have remained under Sierran control. Smith was the son of wealthy American-born entrepreneur Gregory Miller, who owned the Miller & Stuart Co.. Through his paternal grandmother, Charlotte Stuart (Belle Miller), he had direct blood lineage with James II, who ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1685 to 1688, before he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution. After his father's company filed for bankruptcy, Smith left for California to restore his family's wealth, in hopes of finding gold. In California, he quickly gained notoriety as a journalist, and then as a politician. Through the political and financial backing by his allies, and Jacobites who supported him and his family, Smith became the forefront of the Californian constitutional reform movement. Overseeing the 1857 Constitutional Convention as its president, he persuaded delegates to create a constitutional monarchy with an adapted American system. He was elected as King by the Convention, and reigned from the first day of the newly created Kingdom of Sierra on November 27, 1858 until his death on August 15, 1893 ruling a total of nearly 35 years at the age of 71. Smith was succeeded by his eldest son, Lewis I, who continued on his father's policies and legacy in his reign. During Smith's reign, he was served by five different prime ministers and witnessed the growth of his country through policies favoring domestic expansion, imperialism, urban development, and later in life, noninterventionism. In the year 1894, Smith suffered from a flu that developed into a pneumonia that crippled his health. Recovering, Smith suffered another bout of trouble after sustaining significant injuries from a fall on the stairs of Parliament Building entrance. Bedridden, Smith acquired a fever that ultimately killed him in August 15 that year. Since then, Smith has been revered as one of the greatest and prominent figures in Sierran history. Smith's royal house, Columbia, has been regarded by Jacobites as the legitimate continuation of the House of Stuart, and under the Jacobite view, all Columbian heirs have legitimate claims to the Throne of the United Kingdom, or rather specifically, to the English, Scottish, and the Irish thrones–a distinction Smith himself recognized at the start of his reign. Today, countless of monuments, parks, buildings, stamps, currency, and other dedications have been named in honor of Smith, and he has consistently ranked favorably as Sierra's greatest monarch.
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