Aguda Empire

Aguda Empire
1476–1866
Common languages	Agudan Ziba
Religion	Badi
Demonym(s)	Agudan
Government	Elective monarchy
History
• Established	1476
• Disestablished	1866
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The Aguda Empire was an empire that spanned Southeast Coius in the early modern period.

History

Founding

Around the 15th century, the city-state of Zigangegobo had engaged in expansionistic campaigns in its environs, successfully taking cities including, at various times, Zubomhagebizo, x and y. Across Dezevau, in this period, such campaigns were common, as new technologies enabled and encouraged city-states to project power over the countryside and each other, and as a growing population put strain on natural resources such as arable land. Zigangegobo had been quite successful in conquering its neighbours, but soon thereafter faced internal strife over administering its territories; this was a longstanding problem for empires in the region of Dezevau, as cities held tightly onto their autonomy and identity, and were typically highly fortified and spaced apart.

Partially owing to this strife, the Zigangegobo was successfully couped by Gauvadizi, a landholder and merchant, who declared himself zeja (or king), in 1458. He led a successful campaign to retake Zubomhagebizo, which had broken away, and put down unrest and dissent across the city-state's territories, including within the city itself. He also promoted internal trade and promulgated law codes, for the purpose of updating old laws and making them consistent across the realm. He abdicated in 1469 in favour of his son, Tazadiu, during a period of relative peace when he was in his 50s.

Tazadiu faced renewed separatist unrest near the beginning of his reign, from conquered cities as well as from peasants in the countryside, chafing under centralisation. After a few years, he came to the conclusion that a radical solution was needed to preserve the empire, and he decided to relocate its capital to a new site in the Zedenghe Valley. This, he reasoned, would reduce the favouritism and chauvinism towards Zigangegobo proper that encouraged other areas to break away, move the administration to a more geographically centred area, and put a fresh face to the regime that might silence old detractors. He became intimately involved with the planning of the new city, being concerned that it should not only be defensible, but practical for the purposes of productivity and administration. The city was named Dabadonga later in his reign.

With the aid and influence of ministers including Dhaubadine, Tazadiu developed a new, broad ideological justification for the empire and its position; in 1476, he proclaimed the Aguda Empire, designating it no longer as a city-state or petty kingdom, but a legitimate union of lesser territories for the purpose of promoting regional peace and prosperity. By this time, the fiercest critics of the regime had become the elders and elites of Zigangegobo proper, who had previously been very willing to give him leeway because of the benefits of imperialism for the metropole. Centralised, consolidated and consistent justice and commerce proved to be a remarkable boon to outlying areas, such that their commercial prosperity largely took the edge off separatism and such discontent.

Tazadiu also launched new campaigns of conquest, on the basis of spreading the empire's peace and justice. These were largely successful due to numerical superiority, but also a new culture of militarism, and an edge in logistics. The Agudan Wars saw the first large-scale use of gunpowder in Dezevau, which had spread from Xiaodong, largely by the Agudan side. At the time of Tazadiu's death in a military accident in late 1483, the Aguda Empire held much of the lower reaches of the Buiganhingi basin, the Zedenghe Valley and some territories westwards, in addition to its core areas; it was the militarily strongest and largest power in the region.

Gauvadizi moved quickly on his son's death, demanding and receiving the loyalty of military commanders, and ending the ongoing eastern military campaigns on neutral terms. A council was convened across the empire to decide Tazadiu's successor, as no clear succession rules had been established, and this was the usual custom across the Dezevauni city-states. Gauvadizi ensured that those who opposed the empire's existence were excluded, with the council being widely representative of the empire geographically, but ideologically highly loyalist to the late Tazadiu. While he had probably originally intended not to run, he acceded to the general feeling of the council, putting aside his nominees and accepting the title of zeja once again. His reign saw continued judicial and commercial development, as well as some minor conquests, but was otherwise largely uneventful, being decades of consolidation, including the completion of Dabadonga's walls. At Gauvadizi's death by old age in 1501, the procedures for succession by convention of a council, heavily stacked in favour of loyalists to the empire, were followed, as laid down and clarified by him during his reign.

Expansion

Ziujebano was acknowledged as zeja in 1502, expected to be a conservative and civilly focused ruler, as someone from the bureaucracy. However, almost immediately on her election, a coalition of city-states in eastern Dezevau launched a war against the Aguda Empire, ostensibly on the basis of various border disputes, but with the understood goal of cutting down the empire to size. At the same time, unrest emerged in the northwestern territories. While less capable of mustering troops, and disunified, the coalition included some of the richest and most prestigious city-states, such as Bagangige and Noagiabegia; they hired mercenaries from Bahia and Sublustria to help. While some in the government wanted to acquiesce to their demands to preserve a smaller empire which would not be seen as such a paramount threat, Ziujebano immediately mobilised at a large scale, and marched against them. Dhijivodhi was heavily weakened by previous wars against the Aguda Empire, but retained its independence and reputation as a cultural centre and a city of great beauty. Coalition forces had begun to muster there, and had convinced or pressured Dhijivodhi to join the coalition, despite it not having initially declared war. Ziujebano arrived before forces from the further coalition city-states could do so, and smashed the armies that had arrived in the Battle of Dhijivodhi (1504). The city surrendered after the battle outside its walls, and it was taken peacefully, and annexed to the empire.

Further strings of victories, marked by relatively rapid manoeuvre and aggressive battlefield tactics, caused the coalition to fold in 1508. Ziujebano, who had led her troops on campaign, signed a treaty with the coalition city-states at the site Bazadavo would later be founded on, whereby most of the city-states were annexed, or became subordinates, some of them with paths that the Aguda Empire could take to annex them legally later; she was recorded to be as fierce a negotiator as a general.

On returning to Dabadonga, she took several years largely administering the new territories and keeping the bureaucracy in line, as things had changed during her absence and the state of war. While some had anticipated her to be easy to manipulate for their own ends before her election, these thoughts were dispelled after the end of the Agudan Wars. Through diplomatic manoeuvring, commercial agreements, military threats and only occasionally actual action, she extended the power of the Aguda Empire further southwest. In her later years, the threat of a peasant rebellion in the central-northern areas of the empire was dispelled without violence. She also commenced the construction of the Zedenghe Canal, and received Euclean explorers and traders. She died peacefully in 1541, with widespread acclaim for her reign.

Davadaojene became zeja in the same year, as a moderate, widely supported candidate. While his personal diplomatic manner was lacking, he focused on extending the influence of the empire onto the Great Steppe, where existing influence was turned into formal agreements of suzerainty or even annexation over time. He particularly focused on religion as a tool to do this, and while the Badist establishment had largely acquiesced and even become friendly to the regime in Ziujebano's time, he built especially strong links. He also continued with major engineering projects thought up or started earlier; the completion of the Zedenghe Canal saw it become a vital waterway for commerce and communication, and rapid economic growth in its vicinity. The Five Great Canals Restoration Project was conceived of and completed in his time, and several of the theological institutes that became enormously prestigious were established. Meanwhile, Euclean trade and technology became important to the empire, building on links established in Ziubejano's reign to become significant in terms of weaponry especially; Davadaojene granted several small concessionary areas to traders from around the world, including Euclea. Towards the end of his life, Davadaojene launched a series of small border campaigns; some suggest that he was concerned about leaving his mark, while others suggest that it was because he felt that on his death, a new election would limit the diplomatic impact thereof. These border campaigns dragged on past his death, and were ongoing during the council to select his successor in 1563.

Decline

The Aguda Empire came under the influence of Saint Bermude's Company more and more, eventually granting wholesale concessions to it to administer its territories. It dispatched commissioners for the welfare of gowsas as more and more of them emigrated, but the achievements of its emissaries were largely on a personal basis; it had little institutional power even in its own territories, let alone overseas.

Culture

The Aguda Empire had culture and art.

Language

The most widely used language, Agudan Ziba, became the basis for modern Standard Ziba, and its influence can be seen more strongly in modern southwestern Dezevau. It was mutually intelligible with most dialects of Ziba, and still is.

Economy

The Aguda Empire was renowned, especially during its peak, for its large-scale engineering projects, such as walls, monuments and canals. It was largely due to its mobilisation of dense peasant labour, combined with a tightly organised civil service that it was able to achieve these projects. Perhaps its most famous project, today restored as a tourist attraction, was the Zedenghe Canal, which linked the Buiganhingi basin with the z basin, via the a tributary on which the capital of Dabadonga was situated.

Its natural geography and high population density made it one of the largest agricultural economies in the world by consumption and production. At its peak in 17bb, it had around 100 million people, making it the second most populous state in the world (after the Toki dynasty of Xiaodong).

It also produced a wide variety of goods and engaged in large-scale regional and global trade. In the precolonial era, important exports included wood, feathers, textiles, artisanal goods (such as furniture, jewellery and art) and imports were often exotic feathers, bullion or weapons. Colonial control turned the economy towards cash crops such as coffee, cotton and tea, and extraction of mineral resources, while imports of manufactured goods increased in connection to the Industrial Revolution in Euclea.