Melasian Crisis

Melasian Crisis
Part of the Great Game
Clockwise from top left: Mascyllary soldiers in Melasia during the Battle of X Mascyllary infantry retreat from Kingsworth, January 1943 Cuthish artillery in action against Mascyllary forces near Wathfield Melasian guerilla fighters enter Jürgenshafen, August 1943 Mascyllary battleship MSS Orkan burns following the Battle of the White Sea Cuthish troops guard Mascyllary prisoners of war following the Battle of Alderport
Date 10 May 1941 (1941-05-10) – 5 September 1943 (1943-09-05) (2 years, 3 months and 26 days) Location Cuthland, Mascylla, Temaria, White Sea, Melasia, Sea of Banat Result Cutho-Melasian victory Melasia gains complete independence Gradual begin of decolonization Cuthish–Mascyllary enmity reemerges as the primary geopolitical issue in Berea Establishment of the Berean Defence Treaty Association and Mageiros League Beginning of the Great Game
Belligerents
Cuthland Melasia Supported by: Dulebia Erytheria Rovina	Mascylla Supported by: Albeinland Lavaria
Commanders and leaders
Wilfred Newbury Elfric Mendenhall Wybert Melling Boaty McBoatface	Maximilian I Ernest Rähner Albrecht von Marburg Georg Hernach Karl von Clasewitz
Strength
1,882,000 1,882,000 X	1,135,400 1,135,400 X X

The Melasian Crisis (Hesurian: Melasien-Krise, Cuthish: X), also known as the Great Crisis, Mid-Century Crisis or Melasian War (Hesurian: Melasienkrieg) in Mascylla, was a confrontation between the Cuthish State and Mascylla in Berea following a Mascyllary intervention in the politics of the state of Melasia, which resulted in armed confrontations both in Melasia and, briefly, in Berea. The Crisis is often considered the closest the Great Game would come to a full scale war, comparable in scale only to the Great War of the first half of the century.

After several years of internal instability, Melasia would formally receive independence from Mascylla in 1921, however, the terms of the conducted treaty left the country bound to its former metropoly. Following a shift of the international politics of Melasia in the 1930s and 1940s under its President Wilhelm Keller, the country began to break its relations with its former metropoly, Mascylla, and a totalitarian regime began to gain power within the country. Melasian international activity, especially its close relations with Cuthland, started to threaten the Mascyllary colonial presence in the region. Following a complete violation of the Independence Treaty of 1921 by Keller, Mascylla declared war on the country and attempted an attack on its capital. The Mascyllary fleet conducted a naval blockade of the country with the intention to starve its economy and enforce negotiations on its own terms.

Mascyllary actions were recognised as intervention in the Melasian internal affairs by a number of countries, namely Cuthland. As a result, a full-scale mobilization was conducted in the country. On 16 May, 1941, Mascylla was given an ultimatum to stop all hostilities against Melasia by the Cuthish delegacy in the Assembly of Nations, which was ignored by Mascyllary officials. Four days later Cuthland declared war on Mascylla with limited action across the northern border of the countries. In the same time, Mascyllary troops in Melasia saw direct confrontation with the local militias and the small regular army of the country. With the escalation of the conflict becoming imminent, a meeting in the Council of Nations was convened by XX in an attempt to regulate the crisis and stop the hostilities in Berea. Following almost two years of negotiations, with several restarts of the armed hostilities in Melasia and on the Cutho-Mascyllary border, Mascylla was forced to leave Melasian territorial waters, while the Cuthish territorial gains in Mascylla were rejected. Agreements on several points, however, were not reached: the proposed demilitarized zone on the Cutho-Mascyllary border was vetoed by several communist countries, namely Dulebia, leaving the border dispute in Berea open. Formally, the crisis ended on 5 September 1943, with the establishment of the first diplomatic mission between Cuthland and Mascylla since the end of the Great War.

The Melasian Crisis had wide reaching effects that led to a major realignment of the international system for the first time since the Great War. With Cuthland reemerging as a great power, Berea would see an end to the unipolarity established after the Great War, with the Mageiros League emerging as the new equivalent of the Central Alliance from the first decades of the century, leading to a new round in the Great Game. As a result of the poor communication between the former Armala Coalition members during the crisis, and in a responce to the rising tensions on the continent, the Berean Defence Treaty Association was formed by several countries and was tasked with the protection of peace one year after the end of the crisis. The crisis also showed a deterioration of the relations between Cuthland and several communist countries and the shift of communist diplomacy towards the former Armala League Berean nations. The swift actions of the international community is often credited as the main reason why the crisis did not escalate into a major armed conflict, as was the case only three decades earlier. The actions of the Assembly of Nations is seen by historians as the peak of international diplomacy in the 20th century and an ethalon of diplomacy in times of crisis.