Tea War

Tea War
Part of the Tyrno-Rythenean Wars
Clockwise from top: The Siege of Sundalore is lifted Civilians flee the ongoing Battle of Battimadal Tyrnican frigate Entschlossen fires on Rythenean corvette Ashstone Rythenean infantry advance on a Tyrnican encampment
Date 14 April 1852 – 23 August 1856 (1852-04-14 – 1856-08-23) (4 years, 4 months, 1 week and 2 days) Location Tyrnican and Rythenean Southern Surucia Result Tyrnican victory Treaty of Sundalore Recognition of Tyrnican supremacy in Southern Surucia Intensification of Tyrno-Rythenean enmity Increased Rythenean focus on Kaona Territorial changes Tyrnican annexation of Rythenean territories
Belligerents
Tyrnica	Rythene
Commanders and leaders
Frederick III Oscar Lindauer Eric Krasch	John Montgomery Balduin Hackert
Strength
410,000	340,000
Casualties and losses
27,500	37,700

The Tyrno-Rythenean Tea War, commonly known as the Tea War, was a military conflict fought between the Second Republic of Rythene and the Grand Kingdom of Tyrnica, lasting from 14 April 1852 to 23 August 1856. It was part of the wider series of Tyrno-Rythenean Wars, although it was the first to occur since the abolition of the Rythenean monarchy. The conflict is attributable to the expansion of Tyrnican power in the 19th century, which threatened to overshadow Rythenean interests. Particularly, the Tyrnican monopoly on the distribution of tea to Auressia and Marceaunia stymied Rythenean efforts to enter the market, and prompted Rythene’s aggressive expansion in Southern Surucia.

The immediate cause of war was the Rythenean annexation of the Battimadal Principality, although tensions between the two had been apparent for almost a decade beforehand. Rythenean forces seized Battimadal in March 1852, provoking outrage in Tyrnica; previously, the area had been beholden to none of the powers in Surucia, and the invasion was perceived as an intentional act of hostility towards Tyrnican holdings in the west. Minor skirmishes throughout the remainder of March soon escalated to pitched battles, and a costly Tyrnican defeat — with the death of Lieutenant Mathias von Klostertetten — saw an official declaration of war in April. By unspoken agreement, the war did not extend to the metropoles of Tyrnica or Rythene; neither government wanted a repeat of the Eleven Years’ War, and intended to keep the conflict solely in its colonial theatre. However, Tyrnica still used its control of the Strait of Khovaar to exclude Rythenean vessels from the Galene Sea, forcing them to sail west around Occidental Auressia. Rythene had a much higher concentration of forces already active in Surucia at the outbreak of the war; conversely, the Tyrnican monarchy could rely on its much larger colonial empire to draw in a greater quantity of troops, but would take time to do so.

Rythenean authorities, fearing reprisal, swiftly moved to invade Tyrnican territory. Their aim was and force Vedayen to sue for peace before the Tyrnican auxiliary forces could be marshalled from places like Wallena and Selajung. Under the command of General Balduin Hackert, a sizable Rythenean army marched west along the coastal plain, intending to take Sundalore — the centre of Tyrnican authority in Surucia — and sever their command structure. While Tyrnican and Tyrnican-affiliated forces harried the army along its route, they could not break its supply line, and eventually Sundalore came under siege in February 1853. By the middle of the year, Tyrnican reinforcements began to arrive in large quantities, and had marshalled a force near to or as large as the Rythenean army; although they could not yet assault the Rythenean positions, the Lindauer government coerced its allies into denying further access to Rythenean ships, making its supply of its Surucian forces even more difficult. Eventually, the combined Tyrnican forces broke through the Rythenean lines, and forced them into retreat back up the coast. The period from 1854 to 1856 was marked by a long, protracted series of bloody engagements between both sides. Rythene and Tyrnica saw the worst defeats that either would experience until 1883 and 1913, respectively. By 1856, the Rythenean armies had been exhausted, and were low on supplies after the Tyrnicans completely blockaded their ports in the area in 1855; on 23 August, Hackert surrendered to Tyrnican General Eric Krasch. The terms of the ensuing Treaty of Sundalore saw Rythene surrender its Surucian holdings to Tyrnican hands, and pay a considerable sum in damages caused to Sundalore.

The Tea War had long-lasting effects on Auressian and Surucian diplomacy, and on the wider global order for most of the next century. Locally, Rythenean influence in Southern Surucia was severely limited until the Ratchakao Kingdom fell under its control, having been stripped of its most developed territory in the east. The Treaty of Sundalore cemented Tyrnica's position as the dominant world power, compounding upon the notion of the Tyrnicae Saeculum; however, Tyrnica and Rythene would remain hostile to each other for the remainder of the 19th century, engaging in proxy wars on several occasions and coming into direct conflict again with the Ninety Days' War in 1883. As the name suggests, the Tea War also solidified Tyrnican control over the production and trade of tea, in addition to other products from the region; Tyrnica would use this stranglehold to its advantage on several occasions, restricting exportation to Rythene 1883, 1888, and 1895. Perhaps most significantly, the resulting Rythenean resentment that developed the aftermath of the conflict is considered to be one of the leading causes of the Great War, after which Rythene imposed onto Tyrnica similar terms to the Treaties of Sundalore and Bashaven.

Background

Historical factors

Tyrnica and Rythene had come into conflict on more than one occasion in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Eleven Years’ War (1748–59) had resulted in Tyrnican losses in Marceaunia, stripping them of St. Suibert’s Land and important trading posts north of King Erich's Land. Subsequently, the War of the Tyrnican Succession (1783–85) pitted the nations against each other again, but resulting in a Tyrnican victory. While Rythene’s earlier gains in Marceaunia had not been returned to Tyrnican authority, several small — but economically desirable — concessions in the Rum Gulf and Idica were ceded to Tyrnican and Blaykish hands. Accordingly, there was a sense of enmity between Tyrnica and Rythene in the latter half of the 18th century, but it was inherently linked to the imperialist vyings and familial interests of each nation's monarchy.

Thus, when the Rythenean Revolution erupted in 1790, as a direct result of the Tyrno-Rythenean conflict, Vedayen became one of the first Auressian powers to recognise the legitimacy of the republican government. Although Tyrnica would wage war against the radical Orpanists in Blayk, it never came to serious blows with the Rythenean Republic. In fact, when John VII invaded Insular Rythene in 1813, it was Tyrnican forces under the Graf von Maustadt-Halle that fought for independence in Rythenean Arabelline and St. Suibert’s Land (modern-day Audonia); indeed, there existed such a notion of solidarity between Tyrnica and Rythene that, in the post-Upheaval Congress of Sabaria, the Tyrnican delegation demanded that Rythenean revolutionaries be granted amnesty under the restored monarchy. Therefore, when the Republic was restored in 1824, the Tyrnican government once again welcomed them onto the world stage. In the immediate aftermath of the Upheaval, relations between the two countries were friendly — Rythene offered condolences when Nicholas II died, and William VII hosted presidents Morgan Hill and Thomas Wright in Vedayen-Königspfalz.

Leopold I of Blayk

However, despite this newfound cordiality between the erstwhile enemies — and the sense that Tyrnica had been supportive of the republican cause — there was growing sentiment, especially in Rythene, that Tyrnican “friendship” was simply an overture to establish a hegemonic grip over the world, compounded by the idea of the Tyrnicae Saeculum. After all, Tyrnica had fiercely campaigned for the independence of Audonia and Albrennia in 1816: prosperous territories, which may well have fallen back under the control of a parliamentarian Rythene in 1824. Tensions became apparent during the 1845 Alscott Affair, in which an unmarked Tyrnican fishing vessel out of Kilkis strayed too far west, and was boarded by Rythenean authorities. The situation was quickly smoothed over by President Henry Spencer, who had enjoyed a close working relationship with Tyrnican officials since the day of the Williams administration. When tensions next came to a head, though, in 1849, the outcome would not be nearly as defusable: Henry Spencer had been succeeded by the reactionary John Montgomery, and Frederick III had taken the Tyrnican throne, resulting in both sides having no experience in dealing with the new agendas of the other. As such, when Tyrnican patrols in the Strait of Khovaar fired on a Rythenean merchant convoy, allegedly believing them to be smugglers, the situation rapidly escalated. War was only avoided when Leopold I of Blayk — the only surviving Upheavalist-era leader — interceded, compelling both governments to let wiser heads prevail. Tyrnican officials agreed to pay recompense for the damage caused to the Rythenean ships, and the dispute seemed to have come to a close. However, Leopold famously remarked to his Prime Minister:

"We may have been successful at avoiding bloodshed today, Pierre, but the Blaykish Parliament must exercise the utmost caution in charting our way forward. It is only a matter of time before those fools truly come to arms, and when they do, God help us, we do not have a chance of stopping it."

Contemporary issues

A Tyrnican tea plantation in Isuan, circa 1810.