Three States Period

The Three States Period was a period in Menghean history between 1865 and 1901, when the country was divided into three political units. These were the State of Sinyi in the northeast, the Namyang Government in the center-south, and the Uzeri Sultanate in the southwest, though the latter had seceded earlier, in 1824. It was marked by on-and-off fighting between the three states, particularly Namyang and Sinyi, which both claimed to be Menghe's sole legitimate government. Namyang and Sinyi agreed to a truce in 1899, and in 1901 they signed a formal peace treaty merging both states into the Federative Republic of Menghe. The newly founded Republic invaded the Uzeri Sultanate in 1903, bringing Menghe close to its present-day borders.

Background

Decline of the Myŏn dynasty

Because they came to power in the wake of the Menghean Black Plague, the Myŏn dynasty's leaders enforced a strict ban on Casaterran foreigners entering the country.

This prohibition helped maintain internal stability in Myŏn Menghe, and it prevented the country from falling prey to colonial encroachment in the 17th and 18th centuries. By the early 19th century, however, external pressure was again on the rise. With most available land in Meridia and West Hemithea already colonized, Casaterran leaders were again turning their attention to Menghe, with its prized tea and porcelain and its large domestic market. Restricted by centuries of isolation, Menghe had fallen behind the rest of the world technologically. Its soldiers still relied on matchlock muskets and wall guns at a time when most leading powers had already adopted flintlock rifles, and even then, only about one-quarter of Menghe's infantry were armed with gunpowder weapons. The Menghean navy, once the largest in the eastern hemisphere, had also atrophied under the ban on foreign travel, consisting mainly of small two- and three-mast war junks.

The late Myŏn dynasty was also a time of severe internal weakening. Despite falling by as much as two-thirds during the plague, Menghe's population had rebounded between 1650 and 1800, and the country was once again facing a Malthusian trap. As the population rose, individual land plots were divided between more male heirs, and by the early 19th century many family plots were barely large enough to support their workers. Deforestation, whether to secure building materials, firewood, or new farmland, led to severe erosion of newly-cleared land, and rising lumber prices. Rampant corruption also drained the imperial treasury, and funds allocated for infrastructure work were often siphoned away for other purposes, leading to further harvest shortfalls as irrigation and transportation canals fell into a state of disrepair.

Uzeri Rebellion

Main article: Uzeri Rebellion

Internal weakness soon gave way to political fragmentation. In 1822, Bakirsoy Uzer, a prominent religious figure in Southwest Menghe's ethnic Taleyan minority, launched an uprising against Myŏn control, declaring the foundation of an Uzeri Sultanate. As with past rebellions, the Myŏn government responded by sending troops to quell the unrest, but Bakirsoy requested help from the United Kingdom of Anglia and Lechernt, offering open trade in return.

Anglia and Lechernt responded by shipping modern flintlock rifles and artillery to Uzeri ports, followed by a detachment of Royal Marines. Not content to secure Uzeri independence, Anglian forces then attacked the Menghean ports of Giju, Sunju, and Dongchŏn, overpowering the numerically superior but technologically inferior defenders. After facing a series of humiliating defeats on land and at sea, the Myŏn emperor called an end to the rebel-suppression campaign in 1824, and signed an unequal treaty opening the three southern ports to trade. A string of similar unequal treaties followed in 1826 through 1830, granting trade access and judicial extraterritoriality to other Casaterran countries. These treaties provoked deep resentment in Menghe, which had long been the paramount power in Hemithea, and fed a perception at the fringes of the empire that the Myŏn throne was weak.

Brothel War

Another war with the Western powers broke out in 1851, after a heavily intoxicated Sylvan sailor in the city of Sunju killed a prostitute who refused to accept him as a client. City authorities charged him with murder, theft, and leaving the Casaterran merchant district of the city without a permit, and sentenced him to skinning by a thousand cuts.

Seeing an opportunity to extract more concessions from Menghe, the Sylvan government demanded that the prisoner be turned over to Sylvan control, accusing Menghe of breaching the extraterritoriality agreement. At the same time, Sylvan newspapers rallied domestic public opinion around the incident, leaving out the more unflattering details and focusing on the cruel method of execution. When the Myŏn emperor refused to turn over the captive, Sylvan forces stationed in Sunju left the merchant district to take him back by force. Their initial expedition into the city failed, and Menghean troops responded by besieging the merchant district. This provided Sylva with the necessary justification to dispatch a larger naval force from Innominada to reinforce the garrison and raid other Menghean ports. The attack on the garrison also provoked a number of other Casaterran powers into intervening on Sylva's side, though domestic criticism of this opportunistic campaign earned it the international label of "Brothel War."

At the war's end in 1853, Menghe was forced to sign another humiliating round of concessions, in the Treaty of Soon Chu (today Sunju). The Go-ŭn peninsula was transferred to Sylva on a 99-year lease, becoming the city of Altagracia. This was a dramatically larger territory than the merchant districts leased to Casaterran powers in the 1820s. Menghe also opened up a string of other ports along the east coast, and granted additional extraterritoriality rights to foreigners, including a prohibition on Menghean soldiers or police entering the merchant districts.

Kim Ryung-sŏng's rebellion

The humiliating end of the Brothel War brought another wave of anti-Western resentment. This sentiment ran particularly high along the mountainous east coast, known as the Donghae region after the East Menghe Sea. Though it had several important trading centers during the Yi dynasty, the Donghae region had declined into a marginal hinterland during the Myŏn dynasty, as it was cut off from trade with Polvokian and Dayashinese ports and far from the country's core agricultural heartland. Deforestation and overfarming were particularly acute there, but insulation from Casaterran traders had also appeased radical voices there. With Gyŏngsan, Anchŏn, and Kimsŏng (today Donggyŏng) now opened to Casaterran merchant ships, that isolation was lifted.

Anti-Western tensions reached the breaking point in 1865. Kim Ryung-sŏng, the leading military commander of the Donghae region, declared that the Myŏn dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven due to its inability to keep out the Western barbarians. Backed up by a loyal network of subordinate lower commanders, he quickly seized the cities of Hyangchun, Ranju, and Yŏngjŏng, and consolidated control over the territories between them. Peasants rallied to his support, eager for any opportunity to topple Myŏn-aligned landlords and officials. As General Kim's forces fanned up and down the coastline, Casaterran merchants were forced to evacuate Anchŏn and Kimsŏng, which fell in 1866.

Several Casaterran countries offered to intervene, but the Myŏn emperor refused their help, fearful that inviting Casaterran troops onto Menghean soil would only inflame local tensions further while deepening perceptions of the throne's weakness. By this point, however, it was already too late. Buoyed by mass peasant support, General Kim's forces broke into the Meng River Basin in 1867, and quickly swept inland across the plains, capturing the Myŏn capital at Junggyŏng before the end of the year. The last Myŏn emperor refused to flee, instead taking poison as the palace grounds were overrun. With the traditional imperial capital at Junggyŏng under his control, General Kim proclaimed the formation of a new dynasty, named Sinyi (New Yi) in reference to the pre-Myŏn Yi dynasty. He installed himself as Emperor, taking on the reign name Gwangmu.

The northern territories soon fell into line between the new dynasty, but the south did not. Fearing that the Sinyi radicals' rejection of Western technology would lead Menghe to ruin, a group of intellectuals from southern cities founded the National Protection Organization, with the goal of saving Menghe by adopting modern reforms. They secured the support of provincial leaders from Chŏllo, Ryangnam, and Hwangjŏn, who feared execution or exile if overthrown by the northern rebels. Delegates of the new government convened at the Namyang Palace in Sunju on April 9th, 1868 to announce their loyalty to the reformist leadership, earning this faction the title of "Namyang Government."

The Three States

State of Sinyi

The State of Sinyi, formally known as the Empire of Sinyi (신의 제국 / 新義帝國, Sinyi Jeguk) was the government formed by General Kim Ryung-sŏng's rebels. In 1868, it controlled a broad swath of territory in the northeast of the country, including the entire upper half of the Meng River Basin and the eastern coastline north of Gyŏngsan. Its capital city was initially located at Junggyŏng, reflecting General Kim's aspiration to revive the old imperial order.

At the beginning of the Three States Period, Sinyi's leaders were fiercely conservative, and aimed to expel all Western influences from the country. After the war turned against them, however, they pivoted to a more pragmatic approach, promoting industrial growth, military modernization, and an overhaul of the government structure in order to better mobilize for war. General Kim's son Hyŏn-sik, who ascended to the throne in 1882 as the Sunchi Emperor, exemplified this change in tone, to the point of having his official photograph taken in a Western military uniform. As part of an effort to open the government's attitude, he moved the capital to the coastal city of Kimsŏng, which was renamed Donggyŏng (or "Eastern Capital").

Sinyi modernization was highly militarized and highly state-centric, with the goal of marshalling a large standing army to conquer Namyang territory and repel Western invasions. The Sunchi Emperor sent high-ranking envoys to Dayashina and Ostland, hoping to use their late-developing authoritarian systems as a model for his own. The Sinyi state went particularly far in cultivating mass nationalism among the public, and in using police surveillance and censorship to quell opposition. Its economic reforms also gave high importance to state control, with the military running its own network of steel mills and railroads. The civilian economy, however, suffered from neglect, as the government in Donggyŏng charged burdensome taxes and forbade private entrepreneurs from competing with state-owned industries. Neglect of the civilian sector eventually proved to be Sinyi's downfall, as peasant uprisings forced Sinyi leaders to divert troops and resources away from the front lines.

List of important figures

Sinyi imperial line

Gwangmu Emperor (Kim Ryung-sŏng)

Kim Ryungsŏng (킴륭성 / 金隆成) (born 1811, reigned 1867-1882) was a military commander in the late years of the Myŏn dynasty, tasked with maintaining control over the Donghae region. He led the insurrection that toppled the Myŏn dynasty, and installed himself as the first Emperor of the State of Sinyi, under the reign name Gwangmu (광무 / 光武). A staunch traditionalist, he opposed any reforms which could westernize the country, but loosened this stance later in life.

Sunchi Emperor (Kim Hyŏn-sik)

Kim Hyŏn-sik (킴형식 / 金賢植) (born 1841, reigned 1882-1897) was the second son of Kim Ryung-sŏng, chosen as Crown Prince in 1869. He adopted the reign name Sunchi (순치 / 順治) after becoming Emperor in 1882. Even as Crown Prince, he had pushed for industrialization and modernization, and after coming to power he promoted modernization as a national policy. From the late 1880s onward, he conducted most regular court business in a Western-style military uniform, though he still wore traditional robes for important ceremonies.

Yŏngtong Emperor (Kim Dae-wŏn)

Kim Dae-wŏn (킴대원 / 金大源) (born 1863, reigned 1897-1933) was the last emperor to rule over Sinyi. Upon coming to power, he adopted the reign name Hongchang (홍창 / 洪昌), but changed this to Yŏngtong (영통 / 永統) in 1901, to commemorate Menghe's unification. Unlike his father or grandfather, he was a relatively reluctant leader, content to delegate power to his advisors. With the founding of the Federative Republic of Menghe, he readily accepted his greatly weakened figurehead status.

Donghyi Emperor (Kim Myŏng-hwan)

Kim Myŏng-hwan (킴명환 / 金明桓) (born 1889, reigned 1933-1945) was the last emperor in the Kim lineage. He took on the reign name Donghyi (동희 / 東熙). Compared with his father, he was less willing to behave as a puppet, and in 1937 he wrested control from the late Kwon Chong Hoon's generals and centralized the throne's authority. He led Menghe during the height of the Pan-Septentrion War, and committed suicide after approving Menghe's surrender at the war's end.

See also

• Five States and Seven Fiefdoms