Vinyan War

Vinyan War
Clockwise from top: Tairngiric infantry during the opening offensives; Glasic troops depart from an APC; Kolodorian mechanized infantry; Anglian soldier on a captured Kolodorian tank; Kolodorian heavy artillery in Tír an Crainn
Date 11 April 1975 - 4 June 1980 Location Central Vinya Result Peace Treaty Kolodoria annexes Zavijava
Belligerents
Kolodoria Vyzhva Supported by: Sebrenskiya Letnia Polvokia Menghe	Vinyan Coalition Selnoa Crainn Banbha Federated Fire Territories Anglia Livonia Dayashina Hallia Themiclesia
Commanders and leaders
Aleksis Kraulis Jazeps Buļs Oktavians Zvinelis Branislav Župan Antonija Grbić Isidora Kovačević Barda Ulušun	Andrew Forster Robert Hurst King Henry II William Berrington Thomas Kilbride Marcus Heffernan
Strength
Peak Strength: 3,500,000 1,000,000	Peak Strength: 627,591 500,000 488,127 290,552 75,000 100,000 7,773 3,731 2,226 200,000 45,000
Casualties and losses
650,000 killed 1,700,000 wounded	500,000 killed 1,400,000 wounded

The Vinyan War (Kolodorian: Vinija Karš, Fyrish: Wīnyawig, Ivernic: Cogadh Vinyan, Hallian: Vinyan Sota) was a conflict fought between the multinational Vinyan Coalition against Kolodoria and Vyzhva. The war began on 11 April 1975 when Kolodoria invaded Selonia with the intent of capturing the disputed territory of Zavijava, but expanded following Koldoria's continued incursion into the rest of Selonia, triggering intervention from a multitude of foreign powers including Banbha, Fyrland, Dayashina, Anglia, and the Hallian Commonwealth, which in turn led to the intervention of Vyzhva on the side of Kolodoria. Kolodoria was supported by various states including Sebrenskiya, Letnia, Polvokia, and Menghe. The fighting ended following the signing of a peace treaty following negotiations in neutral Ostland.

Zavijava was a historical region of Kolodoria that had been conquered by the Anglian Empire during its colonization of central Vinya. The Confederation of Kolodoria attempted to unsuccessfully recapture Zavijava during the War of Sylvan Succession. Following the Northern War (1940-1944) Kolodoria underwent a communist revolution in 1954, becoming the Socialist Republic under the leadership of Premier Aleksis Kraulis. Although Kraulis publicly supported the decolonization and independence of the Ivernic states in the post-Pan-Septentrion War he also lobbied heavily for the return of Zavijava to Kolodorian control from newly independent Selonia while promoting communist activities across Vinya. This drew Kolodoria into a cold War with the Federated Fire Territories throughout the 1960s and 70s over Eagla and Isperia as both sides backed up communist and anti-communist forces in a bid for ideological influence in central Vinya. The years leading up to the conflict was a steady escalation of violence as Fyrland engaged in hostilities against separatist and communist-aligned forces across central Vinya, while Kolodoria engaged in covert support of socialist groups both through arms and financial backing, with the latter especially common in the democratic states of Ivernic Vinya.

By 1974 the Selonian government had largely shut down negotiations with Kolodoria over the return of Zavijava, prompting Kolodoria to begin preparing to take the region by force. On 11 April 1975 the Kolodorian military (officially the Kolodorian People's Defense Forces) invaded Zavijava, formally starting the war. Kolodoria seized Zavijava in two weeks against outnumbered Selonian defenders, but the rapid success led Kraulis to order the KPDF to seize as much of Selonia as possible. Following the Kolodorian invasion, communist revolutionary forces in Isperia launched their own uprising, seizing control of northern Isperia and establishing the People's Republic of Isperia. The expanded invasion prompted intervention by Banbha and the Ivernic states, followed by Fyrland who joined over concerns of communist expansion following the Isperian revolution. The anti-Kolodorian coalition, later officially titled as the Vinyan Coalition, was later joined by Anglia, Dayashina, the Hallian Commonwealth, and Themiclesia. Kolodoria received material and political support from Letnia and Sebrenskiya, and from its ideological kin in Menghe and Polvokia

Within three months of the start of the war Coalition forces began massing in Selonia and halted the Kolodorian invasion. By the winter of 1975 the Kolodorian offensive had collapsed and was followed by a Coalition buildup and counter-offensive into Isperia. By Fall 1976 the Coalition had driven communist forces in Isperia back while halting Kolodorian offensive operations into Selonia. Facing failure on both fronts, Kolodoria began mass mobilization of its populace, raising over two million men in uniform amid large scale delivery of supplies and military hardware from Letnia. Over the winter of 1976-1977 Vyzhva mobilized its armed forces and made preparations to join the war to prevent a potential Kolodorian collapse. An especially harsh winter largely halted combat operations over the front, amid growing logistical demands on behalf of the Coalition forces. In the spring of 1977 Kolodoria and Vyzhva launched a series of offensives, invading Juverna, Arasindey, and Fáill. Vyzhvan forces conquered Juverna and crossed into Fáill while reinforcing Isperian communist forces by Autumn 1977 communist forces had driven the Coalition back across the Isperian and Selonian fronts. Following these developments the Banbhan government invoked support from Dayashina, the Hallian Commonwealth, and Themiclesia.

By the winter of 1977-1978 the war had effectively divided into three fronts; the mechanized Selonian front, the littoral central front, and the mountainous Crainnic front. Following the Sieuxerr-Tyrannian Conflict of 1978, which brought about the withdrawal from Anglia from the conflict, Kolodoria attempted a major offensive on the Selonian front which was met with heavy losses. Despite the departure of Anglian forces, the Coalition launched its own counter-offensive which pushed back exhausted Kolodorian forces into Kolodoria itself by winter 1978. By spring 1979 however extended supply lines and renewed Kolodorian forces pushed back the Coalition invasion, resulting in the capture of Zavijava again by Kolodoria in the summer of 1979. Compared to the Selonian front, the Crainnic front had largely seen steady Coalition gains between 1978-1979. In the winter of 1979-1980 Coalition forces in the central front launched a major offensive across the Sodor Firth into Juverna, entrapping Vyzvhan forces in the Targan exclave.

Negotiations to end the conflict had begun after the nuclear crisis of 1978 but did not gain traction until the winter of 1979-1980 as the strategic considerations for both sides emerged. The growing threat of a Vyzhvan collapse on the communist side, and the daunting task of retaking Zavijava once more from Kolodoria for the Coalition, provided an impetus for negotiations that were carried out in neutral Ostland. The ensuing treaty was signed on 1 June 1980 and went into affect on 4 June; Kolodoria retained control of Zavijava and Vyzhva retained the exclave of Targan in exchange for the dissolution of the People's Republic of Isperia. The Vinyan War was the deadliest conflict in Septentrion since the Pan-Septentrion War; military casualties amounted to more than one million killed and more than three million wounded, while an estimated 3.5-4.5 million civilians were killed and wounded. Both sides claimed victory following the conflict, though active dispute remains among academic circles regarding the true winners of the war. Modern historians generally believe that the Vinyan War was the last major victory for international communism; relations between Vyzhva and Kolodoria declined less than a decade after the Vinyan War ended, leading to the Kolodorian-Vyzhvan War breaking out in 1985. Despite residual tensions between the member states of the Coalition, the conflict is generally considered to have been an inspiration for the development of a pan-Vinyan economic and political community. The effects of the war on its belligerents and their cultures is widespread, with more than a thousand published works in both fiction and non-fiction media pertaining to the conflict.