Etrurianisation of Tarpeia

Etrurianisation of Tarpeia
File:DaggerSaluteCenturipe.jpg Etrurian soldiers conducting the Dagger Salute during the inauguration of Centuripe on August 1 1937.
Date 10 September 1937 - 10 August 1946 Location Tarpeia, Etruria Result Successful integration of Tarpeia into Etruria
Belligerents
First Etrurian Republic (1937-1938) Etrurian Revolutionary Republic (1938-1946)	Artiot Resistance
Commanders and leaders
Marco Antonio Ercolani (1937-1938) Ettore Caviglia (1938-1946) Aldo Tassanari (1938-1946) Giorgio Stivanello (1939-1946) Mirko Vidaković (1940-1946) Giannis Chondrogiannis (1940-1946)
Casualties and losses
30,000-45,000 dead 597,305 displaced both internally and externally

The Etrurianisation of Tarpeia, also officially known as the Integration Process for the Tarpeian Corridor (Vespasian: Processo di Integrazione per il Corridoio di Tarpeian), is the name for the integration of Tarpeia into Etruria following its annexation in wake of the Great War. Between 1936 and 1937, the process was merely administrative and political in nature, however, political developments in Etruria led to the emergence of a military regime from 1936 until 1938, which then transitioned into a National Functionalist regime, which from 1938 until 1946 utilised violence, forced displacement and colonisation to replace the Artiot majority. By 1946, between 30,000 and 45,000 ethnic Artiots had been killed in violence, massacres and forced displacement.

The process had a profound effect on the region, including the reduction of the Artiot population by over 380,000, who were deported to Artis during the Solarian War, in which the country was occupied by the Etrurian Revolutionary Republic. In their place, over 400,000 ethnic Vespasians and Novalians were transported and planted in the region, by 1946 this left the entire coastline, and its port cities, populated near exclusively by ethnic Vespasians. All towns and cities were renamed, either back to their former Poveglian names, while majority-Novalian towns and villages also faced being renamed. Major Artiot institutions and bodies within the region were closed down or banned, while significant effort was made between 1940 and 1945 to forcibly convert the Espismalist population to Solarian Catholicism, Espismalist churches and cathedrals were demolished and hundreds of priests were rounded up and imprisoned. In 1939, the Artiot language was proscribed as an official form of communication and all remaining Artiots were mandated to learn Carinthian, Novalian and Vespasian.

Throughout much of the process, the Artiot population was subject to immense violence including, torture, extrajudicial executions, massacres, and deliberate starvation. On 11 September 1938 for example, over 600 prominent Artiots, including writers, poets, singers, actors, teachers, clerics and local politicians were rounded up and massacred by the Etrurian Army outside the village of Samonida (now called Santa Cecilia sopra Ercole), this would be repeated on the Floren-island of Bokela during the Solarian War. The level of demographic change was so profound that by 1946 and the collapse of the ERR, initial calls for Tarpeia to be returned to Artis were dismissed owing to the high concentration of Etrurian citizens, the post-war Etrurian establishment also successfully persuaded the Community of Nations, that should Tarpeia be returned, the local population would face either ethnic cleansing or genocide by a vengeful Artis. However, Artiot instability following its independence from Etruria in 1946 essentially guaranteed continued control of the region by Etruria.

Background

Tarpeia, known as XX in Artis, had been a region of contention between Artis and Etruria since the latter's formation following the Risurrezione in 1736. The region was seized by Artis in the immediate days after the death of Nèstor Pereramon and collapse of the Floren Empire. The unification of Etruria by Vespasia in 1739 brought Etruria directly to Tarpeia's borders, however, popular opposition to continued warfare and weak finances dissuaded the new Kingdom of Etruria from pursuing the conquest of Tarpeia. Vespasian and later Etrurian claims to Tarpeia were rooted solely in the region's domination under the Exalted Republic of Poveglia, the most powerful of the pre-Pereramon Vespasian states. Poveglia had seized the then small fishing village of Kyparissia, renamed it to Centuripe and swiftly transformed it into one of the largest trading ports of the middle ages.

The Esteemed Governor's Palace in Centuripe was built by the Poveglians in 1556 to house the governor of its territories within Tarpeia.

Between 1739 and 1860, little to no effort was made by Etruria to retake Tarpeia, instead, the national focus was centered around colonisaliation of Coius and Hydana, which to many proved to be significantly more beneficial and profitable for Etruria. From 1860 onward, Etrurian nationalism tied in with growing republicanism drew attention back to Tarpeia, which by 1880 had become an "integral piece of Etruria abused by foreign occupation." Following the Etrurian Revolution of 1917, the new First Etrurian Republic, renewed efforts to raise awareness of Tarpeia's "plight at the hands of the Artiot." Many ultra-nationalists of the emerging proto-national functionalist far-right saw the Novalian and Vespasian minorities within Tarpeia as victims of Artiot racialist oppression. With the onset of the Great War and the mass wave of Etrurian patriotism, the annexation of Tarpeia became a major objective of the government. With Artis' siding with the Entente alliance, the Etrurian war-effort began with a full-scale invasion of Artis and the capture of the entire country.

Prominent Etrurian ultra-nationalist, Aldo Tassanari was a prominent figure during the Revolution in calling for the annexation of Tarpeia.

In the first two decades of the 20th century, many ethnic Vespasians and Novalians worked to campaign for Tarpeia's unification with Etruria. In 1912, the Tarpeian Association for Unification with the Fatherland (Associazione Tarpeiana per l'Unificazione con la Patria; ATUP) was founded by Armando Pagliero. The ATUP between 1912 and 1917 campaigned for the Kingdom of Etruria to seek a peaceful settlement to the Tarpeian question, though following the Etrurian Revolution and establishment of the Republic, pressured the new government for them to secure a referendum within the region. In 1919, the Artiot government arrested Pagliero and banned the ATUP, which was then succeeded by the All-Etrurian Movement for Unification. The AEMU, like the ATUP were making demands dismissive of the fact that the 'Etrurian' minorities in Tarpeia only numbered 98,000 compared to the 670,000 Artiots.

The Artiot government regularly ignored the efforts of the ATUP and AEMU, owing to their limited size and capabilities. However, Artis would regularly reject Etrurian pressure when it emerged sporadically between 1917 and 1926. And since this pressure was often diplomatic in nature, very little preparation was made for any Etrurian military effort, at least until the outbreak of the Great War. Despite the efforts of Etrurians within the region, it would ultimately be the inherent nationalism of the Great War, that would see the region annexed by Etruria in wake of the war's end.

Annexation

File:EtrurianSoldiersAllagra.jpg

Etrurian soldiers on parade through Allagra (then known as Kalo Nero) following the formal annexation of Tarpeia in 1936.

Following the Great War's end in 1936, the Etrurian delegation to the formal peace negotiations succeeded in securing formal recognition of Tarpeia's annexation into Etruria. This was one of the few successes scored by the Etrurian government during the peace negotiations, which overall saw Etruria lose much of its colonial empire, and rejection of its territorial demands despite being on the victorious side. Within days of the formal end to the war, the Etrurian government began to dissolve numerous Artiot institutions and bodies within Tarpeia, as well as the formal introduction of the Scutado currency, replacement of local government papers, forms and documents and the integration of the region into the democratic-structure of Etruria.

On December 1 1936, Tarpeia was declared a Federal Autonomous Region of Novalia within the federal system.

See also

• Etrurianisation of the Tinian March
• Etrurianisation of Bokela