Inyurstan Uprising of 1836

Inyurstan Uprising of 1836
File:Villalomez01.jpg Battle of Villalomez between Inyurstan Loyalist and Republican forces.
Date 21 February 1836 (1836-02-21) – 15 November 1838 (1838-11-15) Location Inyursta, specifically Marindino and Borasoles. Result Pyrrhic Inyurstan Victory, Britain withdraws
Belligerents
Inyurstan Republicans Supported by Pirates [PLACEHOLDER]	British Empire Supported by Loyalists
Commanders and leaders
Commandante Bernardo Lafayette Captain Enriqué D'Andalucia Jacques Duvalier† Pablo Corassaint	PLACE HOLDER Vice Admiral Charles Worthington
Strength
6,800 Irregular Militias x2 Pirate Sloops	2,500 Regulars 400 Loyalist Militia x12 Man-of-Wars
Casualties and losses
Inyurstan Republicans ~1,300 KIA ~3,500 WIA 200 POW Total Casualties: ~5,000	British Empire 400 KIA 1,100 WIA 20 POW 2 Man-of-Wars destroyed Total Casualties: 1,520

The Inyurstan Uprising of 1836, also known as the Inyurstan War for Independence or the Sugarcane Rebellion, was a short military conflict between pro-independence republican forces, a.k.a. "Républicanos", and British colonial authorities lasting from February 1836 until November 1838. The war say the creation of Grande Inyursta as a sovereign state, and would ultimately lead to the following Polaches-Juarez War a short time later.

Background

See also: Inyurstan Colonial Era

Various portions of the territory which came to be known as "Inyursta" exchanged hands between European powers several different times before finally being solidified under both the direct control of the English crown as well as several subsidiary companies by 1824. Prior to this event there had been a brief period of strong republican and pro-independence sentiment - which did result in the short-lived "Guerrocan Republic" as well as the pirate settlement known as "The Free State of Hopewell" in what is now Cayo Grande - but British authorities were keen on stifling civil dissent as well as reclaiming both rogue territories.

In the fall of 1835, exiled Republican leader Jacques Duvalier was smuggled back into Inyursta and the major shipping hub of Fjorda De'Rivera (then having been temporarily named "Georgetown Landing") and began organizing resistance against the colonial authorities.

Fjorda Riots

Duvalier's early campaigns started with gathering huge crowds of over hundreds of people to protest the British control and perform deviant activities such as destroying shipments of valuables - particularly sugarcane, throwing rocks at offices of the crown and it's companies, and even disrupting a hanging of several pirates. These actions put Duvalier - who was already a wanted man - and his fellow ringleaders in the crosshairs of British authorities.

One night Duvalier was identified and persued by Royal Army soldiers, and those who attempted to stand in their way and shelter the professional rabble-rouser were shot or detained. Duvalier was eventually cornered and shot. In retaliation, his surviving lieutenants and followers formed a massive riot and set fire to several buildings in the port district and several merchant ships. The British Army then moved out to stop the vandalism and began firing on the riots, even employing a cannon loaded with grapeshot in one district; a response which left hundreds dead and forced much of the surviving conspirators to flee out into the hills.

Rio Griz Campaign

Following the uprising in Fjorda De'Rivera, the Inyurstan republicans appointed former plantation owner turned independence advocate Bernardo Lafayette to lead their gathering militias in a campaign against colonial forces. Meanwhile, the British commander Lord Howard Montgomery was given the order to move his forces into the heartland of Marindino to suppress the rebellion.

Lafayette understood that his force - numbering around just seven-hundred at this time - could not be expected to sucessfully engage the British Army on open ground. Instead, he spread his forces out and focused on burning sugarcane plantations and other valuable crops to force the occupiers to spread their own forces thin to protect the crown's cash crop. In September 1836, Lafayette regrouped his forces and lashed out, attacking the riverside town of Villalomez and a key crossing site on the Rio Griz, as well as bringing his few cannons and even hand-thrown incendiaries to bear upon wooden ships bringing supplies upriver.

File:Inyur revolution.jpg

Républicanos retreat through the Sierra Miraco following the Battle of Jaranão Creek.

Defending Villalomez were mostly local auxiliary militias comprised of Inyurstan-born recruits loyal to the British crown. Lafayette and his generals were unwilling to commit their entire force into taking Villalomez as it ran the risk of leaving them exposed in the low ground, and instead dispatched just over a hundred or so republicans to capture the town. The loyalist defenders held strong, and forced the republican forces to fall back, regroup and launch a second attack. Just before nightfall the rebels stormed the barricades at Mission Cardána and effectively took the town.

The small victory at Villalomez would become overshadowed and underscored by the Battle of Joranão Creek, a shallow tributary of the Rio Griz passing through llanos and farmland. Here, Inyurstan republican forces dug in along woodlands and farm houses, preparing to hold off a frontal assault from Montgomery's columns. Instead, British reinforcements from the coast attacked the rear of Lafayette's forces, and managed to flush out a large number of soldiers into the open where they were cut down by the cannons of Montgomery's main force. The British then seized the initiative and advanced to catch the Inyustans in a pincer movement, effectively destroying Lafayette's Army of Marindino and forcing the rebel leaders and their most loyal supporters to flee west into the Sierra Miraco. Villalomez was subsequently abandoned once the main columns had been dissolved by the British offensive.

With the main rebel army destroyed, Montgomery returned to what is now Fjorda De'Rivera content on victory and made policing the port facilities a main concern. In December of 1836, radical republicans retaliated and managed to sink a British Man-of-War in harbor by rowing a canoe loaded with gunpowder and whale oil up to the side of the ship before lighting a fuse and swimming to safety,

Invasion of Borasoles

Following his defeat in Marindino, General Lafayette and his commanders managed to secure safe passage to the smaller landmass of Borasoles, where a republican commander by the name of Pablo Corassaint had raised an army over three times the size of Lafayette's Army of Marindino. However, despite their numerical advantage, Corassaint's forces were much less armed than republican forces on Marindino had been (the result of Duvalier's planning and looting unawares or poorly-defended armories); and over half the force had only enough gunpowder for 2-3 shots, while another quarter was armed soley with hand-to-hand weapons. The pirate captain Enriqué D'Andalucia who had brought Lafayette and his followers over to Borasoles was commissioned as a privateer for the "Army of Free Borasoles". D'Andalucia's assistance would prove invaluable when in February of 1837 two of his sloops ambushed another British man-of-war and forced the ship onto a reef in the upper San Meresque Strip. They were able to strip the vessel of most of its cannons and valuable supplies of gunpowder which would be used by the republican forces in the later campaign.

File:Inyur uprising01.jpg

Inyurstan forces fire upon British skiffs landing at Bayo Ropevé.

Lafayette and Corassaint had a disagreement over the course of the war. Corassaint believed the republicans could simply outlast the British, however Lafayette understood that the sooner the British were defeaten, the easier it would be to win Inyursta intact. Whether by Lafayette's doing or not, Montgomery received word that the Inyurstan republicans had regrouped and were now occupying the town of Porté Sant-Domingo, and moved to put down the rebel force once again. This action forced Corassaint to go along with Lafayette's plan of defeating the British in a quick, forceful strike or else risk allowing the British to capture the main route of supply for their own forces on Borasoles.

In August of 1837, British forces attempted to land at Bayo Ropevé. Republican forces allowed a large number of skiffs to sail past the bluffs on either side of the bay before opening fire, catching the British landing force in a three-pronged field of fire. Royal Navy ships under the command of Vice Admiral Charles Worthington retaliated by bombarding the Inyurstan positions around the bay, inflicting a fair amount of casualties and managing to suppress the forces firing on the landing skiffs.

British forces now managed to get a foothold on the beach, and under some fire from cannons in the hills surrounding Bayo Ropevé, marched north-east to seize Porté Sant-Domingo. During the short treck along the road, Inyurstan forces armed primarily with hand-to-hand weapons charged from surrounding woodland to attack enemy columns stretched out along the road. Casualties were high on both sides, but the attacks managed to break the column and disrupt the attempt to take Porté Sant-Domingo by land. As the British retreated, republican guerrillas continued hit-and-run attacks with muskets until the British reached the coast. Despite heavy casualites, the Inyurstan forces managed to do enough damage to Montgomery's forces to critically delay a second invasion of Borasoles.

Conclusion

Inyurstan republican leadership, including Lafayatte himself, managed to persuade the French and Spanish empires to put political pressure on the British to withdrawl from Inyursta. Meanwhile, supporters in other parts of Inyursta also began attacks against sugarcane plantations and crop warehouses, burning more crop and stock to cost British companies and cause the territory to loose its value.

Facing political pressure paired with the depreciating value of the Inyurstan territory, the British relinquished control and pulled their assets from Inyursta. Grande Inyursta was left in an economic depression due to the fact most it's most valuable cash crop had been burned during the war to acheive independence. Lafayette and his allies subsequently signed the Treaty of Madrija with ambassadors of France and Spain, promising them undisturbed use of the Sea of Juarez. This treaty was the main cause of the Polaches-Juarez War with Cuscatlan, who's regime saw the cooperation with Spain a direct threat to their own independence.