Nelborne War

Nelborne War
Part of World War II
Alquiyan soliders advanding in Joghen, 1940
Location The Nelborne Result Seketese-Svealandic victory Territorial status quo Restoration of the Lormot monarchy Continued tension in Alquiya–Seketan relations
Belligerents
Seketan New Svealand	Alquiya Lormotia (1940–1942) Germany

The Nelborne War was a conflict fought from 1939 to 1942 that involved the countries of the Nelborne. The war pinned Seketan and New Svealand against Alquiya and Lormotia, the latter receiving co-belligerent support from Nazi Germany. Nominally considered a minor theatre of World War II, Seketan was the only country formally involved in the global conflict upon its 1942 declaration of war against Germany.

Prior to the conflict, the economic devastation of the Great Depression led to nationalist uprisings in Alquiya and Lormotia. Amidst the Trjebian dispute, the Alquiyan government held claims to the Rynedan peninsula which was administered by Seketan. In 1939, Alquiyan troops marched through the area and formally annexed the area, which led to an immediate retaliation from Seketan. After the Rynedan skirmish, Alquiya formally declared war on Seketan. New Svealand, in a military alliance with Seketan, declared war on Alquiya in support of Seketan.

The war initiated in stalemate, with Alquiya failing to make further gains past Seketese garrisons in southern Bynan. With Svealandic troops deployed primarily in Seketan, Alquiyan interests grew in opening a front on the Svealandic-Lormot border. In 1938, Lormotia's monarchy was replaced by a nationalist government that maintained friendly relations with Alquiya. Hoping to sue New Svealand for territorial concessions and legitimize the current government, Lormotia formally entered the war in support and Alquiya in 1940 and launched the Invasion of New Svealand. Although initially immensely successful, New Svealand grew into a state of total war and prevented further losses past Rosenburg.

In 1941, Nazi Germany began supporting Alquiya and Lormotia with intelligence and airforce support, but it was ineffective in making further gains. By 1942, both sides had suffered heavy casualties with morale tanking. With the front in Bynan still in stalemate, a Seketese-Svealandic push southeastward resulted in the utter defeat of Lormotia, which had already been experiencing mass political instability. The Treaty of Glasgow formally ended the war; its terms required that Alquiya would nominally cease territorial claims within Seketan, and that Lormotia's former constitutional monarchy be restored. In the aftermath of the war, the Alquiyan and Seketese governments retained tense relations and would only de jure remove Alquiya's claim of the Rynedan region in its constitution in the aftermath of the 1981 Alquiyan-Seketese crisis.

Background

Rynedan dispute

As the historical borderland between Alquiya, Seketan, Trjebia, and Wilskland, the Rynedan Pennisula has been contested for centuries. Traditionally it had been part of Trjebia's Joghen and Dharghī clan kingdoms and was predominantly Trjebian speaking, however, by the early 14th century the Nelbec Kingdom of Seketan had largely taken over the area. The partitions of Trjebia led to a contested interest in the region, as the Kingdom of Alquiya fought small conflicts with Seketan over control of Trjebian land and their strategic positions. Over the centuries, in an attempt to strengthen their hold over the region, the native Trjebian population was assimilated or ousted by incoming Seketese and Wilsk farmers or greatly assimilated int, and by the time of the creation of the Nelbec Empire, the region was majority Seketese/Wilsk.

In 1837 large coal deposits were found on the peninsula, further fueling an already booming manufacturing sector in the province of Bynan. The region as a whole became the Nelbec Empire's factory, with 53% of manufactured goods, 61% of coal, and 70% of steel coming from Bynan in 1900. The dissolution of the Nelbec Empire led to Alquiya losing out on these regions, severely hampering their industrial capacity and angering many nationalists and irredentists. In 1920 then nationalist leader and later Alquiyan Prime Minister Frereo Aijagi made a speech outlining what he saw as Alquiya's claims to the peninsula. In that speech, he claimed that Alquiya had an obligation to protect Trjebians still living there as they were "part of the Alquiyan people", and that Alquiya had to restore the power it had during the Nelbec Empire by seizing the industrial land in Bynan. Upon Aijagi's appointment to Prime Minister in 1922, he would use these points as Alquiya's casus beli to dispute the Rynedan peninsula with Seketan.

See also

• Nelborne