Sajal War

Sajal War
A common Mutulese soldier during the Sajal War
Date 1828 - 1839 Location Mutul Result Royalist Victory Capitulation of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale Reunification of the Mutul Beginning of the Itzamnaaj Reformation
Belligerents
Mutul	Template:Country data Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale
Commanders and leaders
Itzamnaaj B’alam	Bolon Chan Witz

The Sajal War, also known as the War of the Frightfuls or Terrifying War, was a civil war that opposed the Ilok'tab Dynasty of the Mutul and their loyalists against the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale. It lasted from 1828 with the murder of the Divine Queen Ik'skull and the proclamation by the Sajal Holpop of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale.

Origins

Since the rule of Balijaj Chan K'awiil I in the early 18th century, the powers and authority of the K'uhul Ajaw kept being limited by the ever more powerful merchant-aristocracy of the Mutul. Local and national assemblies became permanent legal institutions whom obtained a de-facto say on the Divine King's politics after much political troubles. The weakening of the Mutul's position in the West after the Tsurushimese revolution of 1750 only exacerbated a conflict between a weakened monarchy and its nobility whom, inspired by both local and foreign thinkers, especially from Sante Reze developed a more liberal approach to both the economy and politics.

In 1819, the Second War for Kahei started, threatening some of the merchant-aristocracy's positions in Ochran. In 1820, Wahlam B'alam V died in K'umarkaj after a decade long semi-exile ordered by the Sajal Holpop, the Nobility's Assembly, who had taken over K'alak Muul. His young son, Wahlam B'alam VI, was brought back to the capital to be crowned and ruled as a puppet king for the Sajal Holpop. The same year, he died of illness and was succeeded by his elder sister, Lady Ik'skull. Ik'skull tried to restructure the Divine Throne bureaucracy and to limit the powers of the assemblies like the Sajal Holpop. In 1828, a conspiracy of Mutuleses aristocrats managed to murder the Divine Queen and her body was pushed from the balcony of her palace. This trigger a series of events that led to her husband fleeing the capital with their son, the future B'ailjaj Chan K'awiil II, and the Sajal Holpop proclaiming the end of the Mutul and the creation of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale.

Combattants

Ilok'tab Loyalists

The current Flag of the Mutul was created by Monarchists militias during the civil war

After his escape from K'alak Muul, Itzamnaaj B'alam, king-consort of Ik'skull gained K'umarkaj, the traditional base of power of the Ilok'tab Dynasty and enthroned his son as B'ailjaj Chan K'awiil II while he himself took the position of Regent. He amassed around him an inner circle of friends, family members, and clients, and built from there his resistance to the Noble Republic. After a few months he moved his base of operation further east, as he gathered there the Divine Army, which had globally remained loyal to the Ilok'tab, alongside various loyalists militias he trained and organized into what would become the core of the Royalist army.

The leadership of the Loyalists was thus made of the Ilok'tab Dynasty and all associated lineages. K'iche and Mam people had remained heavily tied to the Ilok'tab, tjeir countries too distant from the main hub of international trades with either Ochran or Sante Reze to lose their dependence toward the central authorities. They would form the bulk of the troops and officers of the Royalists armies.

The Chibchans also became prominent in the Royalists armies. The countryside of the eastern regions was thorn appart by the heavy social changes that led to the creation of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale and had been especially plagued by riots or protests in support of traditional social organization and against the transition from the old Market System, directed by the State, to the more liberal system of self-governance of the Merchant-aristocracy promoted by the forces that formed the Republic. Itzamnaaj spend the early years of the war exploiting this divide between the new middle class that had appeared since the 1700s and the countryside. It's this work of "recuperation" of the Chibchans and Lencas regions, and the promises made at the time, that layed the basis for the future Itzamnaaj Reformation, post-war.

In the Xuman Peninsula and the central regions, support toward the Royalists or the Republicans changed from town to town, from family to family. Old rivalries and dynastic conflicts came to feed the civil war, from local ancestral vendettas, to mistrust toward the Tatinak and Yokot'an aristocracies who were the main backers of the Noble Republic. Ultimately, these regions would become part of the Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale, but would remain plagued by insurrections and protests the Royalists were able to turn into pro-Ilok'tab movements. The current flag of the Mutul, the Yax-Sak-Kan, was notably created as a pro-Ilok'tab flag by K'ol militias.

Noble Republic of Northern Oxidentale

The blason used by the Noble Republic's military. The white and black, representing the north and the west respectively, were often replaced by green, which represented unity

The Republic's power-base was made of the middle class and the merchant-aristocracy everywhere in the country. It was especially well established in the Yajawil of Kanol and the East in general, where trans-Makrian trade had led to the emergence of a wealthy "modern" society that had the time to stabilize itself as it had existed for more than 200 years by the time of the Sajal War. A similar but much younger analogue society had emerged in the East after the Sante Reze revolution of 1701 that opened the trans-Thalassian trade routes to the Mutuleses merchant-nobility. While even more radical in its support of the Noble Republic than the "West", the "East" also proved to be the weak link of the Republicans, as it's relatively recent emergence meant that it was still full of contradictions, paradoxes, and social divides on which the Royalists managed to play to gain the upper-hand.

The leadership of the Noble Republic was made entirely by the old merchant-nobility of the Mutul that had complete control over local leaderships and national financial markets. They were backed by all the smaller-scale merchants and urban middle classes that had come to depend on the Trans-Makrian and Trans-Thalassian trades for their livelihood. However, except in the west, their power quickly dwindled outside of urban centers and they had barely, if any, control over the countrysides of the north, center, and east of the countries, where local priest-bureaucrats, often nobles of their own but removed from the financial circles reserved to the high aristocracy, became a constant source of defiance and opposition to the Republic, if not outright turned to insurrections, quickly re-appropriated by the royalists.

Course of the war

Exile and constitution of the Regency

Following the Day of Balconies, as baptized by the Republicans, Itzamnaaj B'alam was able to flee K'alak Muul with his son, the future Balijaj Chan K'awiil II and a handful of supporters. On their way they stopped at Sakal Witz where they were able to gain the support of the priests of the White Mountain which allowed them to continue their journey southward to Kumakah. Itzamnaaj established his son in the Palace of Chilok'tab, a suburb of Kumakah and a site with 800 years old ties to the Ilok'tab Dynasty. It's there that he proclaimed his son the new Divine Lord and placed himself as his regent before granting himself the status of Regent.

Kumakah, and the rest of the eponymous viceroyalty, proved more than receptive and dedicated to the Royalist cause. Chief among these supporters were the House of Achi, Itzamnaaj' own clan, the religious institutions, temples and sanctuaries, of the region, as well as other leading lineages chief among them the House of Koyol one of the four great K'iche houses and strong actors of the Mutul industry. The four "House of Iximte", the Zotzil, Xahil, Tukuche, and Akajal, were less immediately agreeable to the Regent' project for a civil war but ultimately sided with him. This convinced the "House of Pokom" (Xin, Palak, Puj, Batz, and Tik) and thus the two viceroyalties immediately to the east of Kumakah tied to them, to also follow the Regent' cause although popular and aristocratic support was weaker at first. To the west, the Yajawil of Mamk'ab would proclaim itself almost immediately in support of the Divine Monarchy: the Mam people had long been ruled directly by the Ilok'tab and they've been an important pool of recruitment for soldiers and clerks.

But beyond a strong base of support, by seizing Kumakah Itzamanaaj and his partisans also seized control of its Chocolate Mills and its royal prints, granting them the ability to continue to emit their own currency, collect taxes in the Viceroyalties controlled, and emit loans and war bonds. The Regent was thus able to secure the loyalty and the discipline of the Southern Army tasked with controlling the Mountain Passes between the Mutul and Sante Reze, but also the border with Zacapican. Leaving behind only a token force, the royalists thus acquired a core professional force of around 30,000 men. This they completed by calling to arms the "Faithfuls" and forming "People Blessed Armies": militias partially supervised by officers drawn for the southern military, old veterans (recruited in priority), and other charismatic local leaders. At this stage of the war, the Royalists were able to create the Achi People' Army, the Mam People Army, three K'iche people armies, and two Pokom people armies, which represented an auxiliary force estimated between 70,000 and 300,000 men depending on historians as records and claims often contradict each others and not all commissioned officers, tasked with recruiting their own men, were willing or able to keep track of their own numbers. Nowadays, a number between 90,000 and 110,000 militias is more often used and cited.

Consolidation and first campaigns of the Noble Republic

Following the Day of Balconies, the Assembly of Aristocrats began negotiations with its two counterparts (the Assembly of Clerics and the Assembly of Elders) to set the basis of a new state. They propose that the three Assemblies declare Lady Ik' Jol to have been an illegitimate ruler who took power through the murder of the rightful Divine Lord her brother Wahlam B'alam VI and that the ritual to divinize her own blood has never worked as the gods had disapproved her acts. The gathered assemblies were not necessarily opposed to the proposal, but a divide appeared between those who wished to look for a new successor and the radical few who wished to create a new state with no Divine Lord.

In these days of confusion, control over the putschists faction was assumed by the Viceroy of Chaknal, Waxak B'alam Koj, the Viceroy of Oxmal, Siol Chan Xiu, and the two Admirals (Ajaw Ha: Waterlords) of the Mutul: Sijal Ek and An Xook B'al. They gathered urgently in the aftermath of the coup and decided that Waxak B'alam Koj would stay in K'alak Muul to control the situation there while Sijal Ek and An Xook B'al would go to the Yu and Puylum respectively to gain the support of the west and east of the Mutul and gather armies there. The task of pursuing Itzamnaaj and the crown prince thus fell on Siol Chan Xiu who led 3,000 men out of the capital to stop the royal escort. However, he failed to do so before Itzamnaaj reached Sakal Witz which refused to give up the Divine Lord to his pursuers. Siol Chan Xiu did not challenge the city directly, instead returning to Apikal, modern Yajawil of K'ekchi, to gather a larger army while leaving behind roughly a 1,000 men to control the ways out of Sakal Witz. This troop harassed and followed Itzamnaaj and his strengthened escort after they left the city to continue their way south, but was ultimately unable to stop them and had to retreat and regroup with the rest of Siol Chan Xiu' new army.

White Mountain Campaign

Siol Chan Xiu returned to the Central Mountains at the head of a new army. The professional core was made of soldiers who participated in the coup and Marine Riflemen, the naval forces of the Mutul having sided almost entirely with the Republicans. To these estimated 10,000 veterans new recruits were added forming an army of 45,000 or so men separated into five regiments of nine columns each. Each column represented roughly a thousand men and were divided into uneven numbers of companies, each led by a Captain chartered to recruit and lead his own men as per the Mutul' practices at the time and an habit shared with the royalists.

Itzamnaaj was still organizing his Regency and gathering his supports and troops to directly influence the battle. The defense of Sakal Witz was thus organized mainly by the White Mountain Society, the inhabitants, as well as volunteers from the rest of the Central Mountains, and mainly from the Blood Hills to the northwest of the city, whose religious dedication to the protection of the holy city could not compensate their lack of weaponry and training. After three weeks of battle and siege, the city fell and was sacked by the Republicans. The Central Mountains now secured, Siol Chan Xiu was free to continue his campaign southward.

Nojkab'al Campaign

The battle of Sakal Witz was a setback for the Royalists. Itzamnaaj had led a relief force but arrived to the Central Mountains too late: the city had already fallen. Gathering up some of the militias and volunteers that had fled south, he entrenched his men in the main passes between the Central Mountains and the Viceroyalty of Nojkab'al, the last stretch of land before Kumakah and the K'iche lands.