User:Vjaarland/Sandbox

Revolution and instability

The second partition had left the Cuthish Empire a state of economic and social disarray. Cenhelm I died in 1780, leaving the throne to his son, Edmund IX. Edmund IX attempted to pay off the debts that had been incurred over decades of war and economic malaise by levying a highly regressive tax regime from which the nobility and clergy, who collectively represented the first estate in feudal Cuthland, were exempt. This enraged the second estate of burghers, who bore the brunt of Edmund IX's new taxes, and led to an increasing acceptance of liberal and republican ideals associated with the Enlightenment among the lower and middle classes. These ideals were most notably promoted by the Council of Reason, a society led by enlightenment thinkers such as Alfred Harwood and Dunstan Millard that published various articles and pamphlets between 1790 and 1795. The publication of Just Governance and the Rights of Man in 1795 proved particularly controversial for its denouncement of the Cuthish monarchy, and led Edmund IX to order the arrests and executions of both Harwood and Millard for treason. The executions led to a rapid deterioration in relations between the estates, culminating on 10 October when a group of demonstrators protesting the executions were fired upon by soldiers of the Royal Guard in front of Gledworth Palace in Kingsham. The soldiers killed 14 demonstrators in what became known as the Gledworth Massacre, leading to waves of riots and unrest across the nation and signaling the start of the Cuthish Revolution.

The Gledworth Massacre caused outrage in the House of Burghers, an advisory body to the Cuthish monarch which represented the second estate in the Wittenmoot. In March 1796, members of the House of Burghers established the Popular Committee with the intent of organizing revolutionary activities in Cuthland. The Popular Committee issued the Declaration of Rights and Liberties on 19 May, which condemned feudalism and absolute monarchism in Cuthland as infringements on the natural rights of man. The Declaration was accompanied by the Petition of the Burghers, which asked Edmund IX to abolish feudalism and the privileges of the first estate and to provide for representative government based around the Enlightenment concept of popular sovereignty. The King attempted to quash the nascent revolution by sending soldiers to arrest the members of the Committee on 3 June, leading to a violent confrontation known as Bloody Monday when the soldiers clashed with peasant militias that had been raised to defend the Committee against royal interference. News of Bloody Monday led Cuthish soldiers assigned to the garrison at Leihstead-on-Fen to mutiny, occupying the city for 10 days until a contingent from Edgton was dispatched to restore order.

Fearing that the mutiny in Leihstead would spread, Edmund IX's advisors recommended that he accept the Popular Committee's demands in order to avoid a military coup d'état. After months of negotiations, Edmund IX signed the Cuthish Constitution on 17 September 1796, officially abolishing feudalism in Cuthland and reorganizing the Wittenmoot as a legislative body. However, the monarch retained substantial powers, including the ability to veto legislation and dismiss government ministers appointed by the Wittenmoot. These powers enraged the more radical members of the revolutionary movement, who had advocated for the monarchy to be abolished completely in favor of a republic. The schism between the republicans and constitutional monarchists became increasingly evident at the first meeting of the Wittenmoot, when radical leader Harold Blace famously denounced the body before storming out of the House of Burghers with 162 other republican members.

Tensions came to a head on 26 August 1797, when Edmund IX dismissed five republican ministers appointed by the Wittenmoot. Outraged by what they viewed as an undemocratic exercise of royal power, republican revolutionaries led by Blace staged an uprising in September that ended with Edmund IX's arrest. Edmund IX was subsequently tried for treason and famously executed along with his family on the steps of Gledworth Palace, which was subsequently declared to be the "Fortress of the People". The republicans subsequently abolished the Wittenmoot and replaced it with the newly established Popular Council, which declared the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the First Cuthish Republic on 6 October, with Blace as the new government's first President. The republicans subsequently rounded up and executed suspected counterrevolutionaries in the Republican Terror, killing over 30,000 royalists, constitutional monarchists, moderate liberals, and remaining members of the nobility over the next three years.

Edmund IX's brother, Algar III, met with X of Dulebia and X of Mascylla during the winter of 1797-8 in order to organize a coalition to intervene in the revolution and restore the Cuthish monarchy. Algar III offered significant territorial concessions as compensation for their assistance, granting the two nations many border territories and colonial possessions that would effectively end the Cuthish Empire. The negotiations produced the Ulich Agreement in February 1798, which Cuthish Revolutionary War in the spring of 1798, when the Dulebian and Mascyllary armies launched a two-pronged invasion of the Cuthish Republic. Fighting spread to the Cuthish colonies during the summer, beginning with the Mascyllary invasion of X in June and spreading to Alvinia and eastern Pamira during the fall. Initial gains made by coalition forces in continental Cuthland stalled following a decisive Cuthish victory at the Battle of Crestwick in December, giving way to a Cuthish counter-offensive in the spring of 1799 that pushed coalition forces past the antebellum borders and resulted in the sack of several major Mascyllary and Dulebian cities in August and September. However, the tide turned with X's entrance to the war the next spring at the request of Algar III and the coalition powers, securing a decisive victory at the Battle of Edgton in May 1800 that allowed coalition forces to advance on Kingsham. The increasingly dire situation for the Cuthish revolutionary forces, coupled with rising public disenchantment with the authoritarianism of the Republican Terror, contributed to a strengthening reactionary movement in Cuthland that opposed the republic and advocated for the return of the monarchy. Internal instability led to a military coup d'état by royalist sympathizers on 30 June that overthrew the republic and invited Algar III to return to Kingsham, ending the war and restoring the Cuthish monarchy.

As a consequence of the war, Algar III became the first Cuthish monarch since 1444 not to hold the title of Emperor. The new Kingdom of Cuthland was reduced to a rump state in the nation's third partition since 1715, which ceded significant territories to the victorious coalition powers in keeping with Ulich Agreement. The Treaty of Swithtun allowed Mascylla to annex X and most of Waldrich, while Dulebia took control of X and X. X, which was not a part of the original Ulich Agreement, was nevertheless ceded the territory of X separately in the Treaty of Bloomford. In addition, the remnants of the Cuthish colonial empire were divided among Dulebia and Mascylla, with Dulebia taking control of Cuthish colonies in eastern Pamira while Mascylla was granted the remaining Cuthish possessions in Alvinia and northern Pamira.

History of Cuthland-Waldrich

• Pre-6th century: Tribes and stuff from prehistory until circa 6th century
• 6th century: Various petty kingdoms, duchies, etc. emerge and dominate throughout early medieval period
• 6th-11th centuries: But oh no, they keep getting fucked by Mascylla from the east and the Nordics from the west
• 11th century: Probably better if we unite into two kingdoms instead, Cuthland and Waldrich
• 15th century: Yeah this is pretty cool but Masc keeps fucking us so let's form a political union and totally not rip off Poland-Lithuania in the process
• 15th-17th centuries: Wow I like this whole empire thing let's go invade not!Scandinavia and maybe parts of Mascylla as well
  • We should also be artsy and shit while we're at it
• 17th century: Oh never mind this is actually completely unsustainable, ethnic tensions are sucky and our economy is in the shitter
  • Guess we better partition the G L O R I O U S E M P I R E and return to getting railed by Mascylla
• 1818: Lol jk we're getting the band back together
• 19th century: Oh look, industry and colonies
  • Oh awesome now Dulebia wants in, maybe we can challenge Lavarian/Mascyllary dominance and in no way collapse spectacularly in the process
• Great War: Oh wow that was shockingly predictable guess we suck again
• 1920s: Yep we definitely suck, Masc took our monarchy and now the commies want in
• 1930s: But what better cure for communism than a return of the monarchy, this time with double the oppression
• 1930s: Guess we should invade/annex Waldrich again, as is customary
• 1930s-1970s: Oh wow this is much better than before, we're actually kind of feared
• 1970s: Whoops maybe economics aren't our thing, the people are restless again
  • Okay we'll give you more capitalism but the monarchy stays
• 1980s-2000s: Mmm yes the sweet taste of cold hard cash
• 2000s-present: Wow we're actually developed as fuck for once