Carlos Cristóvão de Croan

General Carlos Cristóvão de Croan
A espada da liberdade de Croan nos une sob Deus, an 1886 portrait of Croan
First Citizen of Maracao President of the State Consistory
In office November 22, 1884 – July 10, 1891
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Domingos Machado (as Head of the National Salvation Council)
Personal details
Born	(1847-05-28)May 28, 1847 Porto Leste
Died	July 13, 1891(1891-07-13) (aged 44) Porto Leste
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Nationality	Maracan
Height	164 cm (5 ft 3 in)
Spouse	Gisela Medeiros
Alma mater	University of Nassea
Military service
Allegiance	Maracao
Years of service	1883–1891
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Maracan Revolution

Carlos Cristóvão de Croan ([kɾo'ɐ̃]; May 28, 1847 – July 13, 1891; aged 44), also known affectionately as Dom Carlitos due to his height, was a Maracan revolutionary, general and scholar who led Maracao to independence during the Maracan Revolution in 1884, founding the Maracan Revolutionary Republic, a state whose ideals were largely based off of the Etrurian First Republic. Establishing himself as the inaugural First Citizen and the President of the State Consistory, Croan's religious fundamentalism and ideology were based heavily on ideals established by Etrurian republicans in the 18th century, including universal suffrage, support for the estranged poor, active anti-colonialism and the seizure and redistribution of aristocratic lands and colonial estates. In Maracao, and in some other places in the Asterias, his views are grouped into Carlism, but in most other places they are seen as a direct extension of republican ideals espoused during the Etrurian Revolution. Some political analysts also consider him a founding figure of early liberation theology in the colonial world, and his republican and religious ideals served as the basis for many notable developers of liberation theology in the mid-20th century.

Born in Porto Leste in 1847 to a family of free Bahio-Maracans, Croan was named after the birthplace of Saint Chloé. At a young age, his family moved to Gapolania. As a highly intelligent student of the University of Nassea, Croan was introduced to the fundamental ideas of Etrurian republicanism in Gapolania, which had retained many republican teachings and ideals from the revolutionary period. In his mid-20s, Croan moved back to Porto Leste, where he lived as a free man. He began agitating independence in underground circles in the early 1870s, but was caught by colonial police and imprisoned for two years in 1876. During this period, Temere-Dio Maggiacomo fled to Maracao after his plans of planning an insurrection in Etruria saw him exiled. In 1882, the two met and discussed plans of creating an independent republic for Bahians and their descendants in the New World, and Maggiacomo's experience in republican circles in Etruria is thought to have shaped Croan's beliefs massively. During the War of the Arucian, Maggiacomo and Croan marched a battalion of some 3,000 armed men on the stationed colonial army of some 8,000 soldiers. With his extensive military expertise and experience, Maggiacomo emerged victorious at the decisive Battle of San Metello, massacring the colonial forces and bringing the island effectively under their control.

Croan sought to solidify his ideals in Maracao quickly, naming himself First Citizen, creating a State Consistory and creating the Senate of the Republic as its elected, unicameral legislative body. Similarly to Etruria, Croan's principles of religious and republican fundamentalism stemmed from radical biblical hermeneutics, and placed excessive emphasis on the liberation of the poor and the dismantling of the colonial hierarchy. Together with Maggiacomo, he led an extensive and bloody purge of the remaining colonial administration, including a series of laws that blanket-banned whites and mestizos from running for political office, causing the near complete exodus of both groups from Maracao. In addition to this, Croan promoted an agricultural lifestyle, encouraging rurality and self-sustenance, a policy which stunted the growth of the Maracan economy. When Maggiacomo died in late 1890, Croan quickly lost the support of the military, who conspired against him to overthrow his regime. He was captured in 1891, and executed three days later in Porto Leste. His leadership was succeeded by the National Salvation Council, a military junta that largely abandoned Croan's religious and republican fundamentalism.

Opinions of Croan differ massively among various ethnic and religious groups, but his political influence in the colonial world is unchallenged. As the leader of the Asterias' first Bahian-majority state, his ideals and values were a source of inspiration for black liberation movements across the world, and formed an important basis for the emergence of liberation theology in the 20th-century. The most important ideal of Croan's was the idea of medias res publica – the republic serving as a pathway to the Kingdom of God. Croan has been cited as a major inspiration for the teachings of hundreds of religious scholars throughout the Asterias, and his republican legacy was revered both during his time and in the modern era.

Revolution

Temere-Dio Maggiacomo (left) and Croan (right) were both instrumental figures of the revolution.

Ideology

Republicanism

Croan's views of republicanism were solidified from an early age. In Gapolania, he learned extensively about republican systems and had witnessed the formation of various republics across the Asterias in the Asterian War of Secession, which saw many colonial states break away and form their own republics. Espousing "Sotirian republicanism" in a similar fashion to Etrurian republicans in the 18th century, Croan fused the idea of republicanism as a means to fully allow religion and God to permeate through the state and its people. As well as this, Croan took significant inspiration from the Society of the Pantheon, who preached that liberty, freedom and equality were all divine rights akin to total concept of free will, and that these rights could not be fully realised among a population with the presence of a king or any other figure of higher power.

Similarly to universal suffrage, influential in these developments were the Book of Judges and the Epistle to the Galatians:

In those days there was no king in Atudea. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

— Judges 21:25

There is neither Atudite nor Solarian, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Sotiras Jesus.

— Galatians 3:28

He also worked extensively on his home-grown idea of medias res publica, and founded republic on ideals which fashioned that as an intermediary step in humanity's journey to the Kingdom of God. On the purpose of the republic, Croan wrote:

We must rid ourselves that the state itself is the justifiable end to the means that have blessed us with it. The republic is merely a tool; an arm; a path, to our grandiose and holy destination: to be one with Him, to ascend to the Kingdom of God. It is our choice–no, our responsibility–to ensure we represent His values on Earth, embody them in our daily lives and exude them at the highest levels. It is our loyalty to God that defines our guiding principles. And it is our duty to apply them full and proper.

— de Croan, March 1886 speech to the Senate of the Republic

See also

• Etrurian First Republic, also known as the Republic of Heaven, a revolutionary state that heavily influenced Croan's republic