History of Volta
The history of Volta included the geographic area that includes modern Volta, and also includes the history of the native peoples who make up Volta. It spans from ancient history to the Tlaloc Empire, the takeover of the Tlaloc's by the Crescent Empire, colonization by Dolchland, it's takeover by the Kingdom of Seylos, independence, the Voltan Civil War, to modern times.
Ancient Cultures
Evidence of the first human habitation of Volta dates back to between 47,000 BCE to 45,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence of various tools have been found, indicating that small groups of humans had lived in the area in a hunter-gatherer society. It is not known exactly how many people lived in the area at the time, but it is believed to be anywhere between a few hundred thousand to around 1 million.
Totec tribes
At around 300 CE, a massive migration of tribes from the north believed to be related to the modern Tlaloc's shows up in the archaeological record. These tribes are today known as the Totec tribes. Though the Totec's were also originally a hunter-gatherer society, they pushed away or assimilated much of the previous hunter gatherer tribes that lived in Volta. The Totec's began settling around the 8th century, and by the 11th century they had established many small city-states. The most dense of these settlements were found around Lake Tlatelolco, named after the largest and most prominent settlement built on it. The city-state of Tlatelolco would eventually become the most powerful, and in 1157 under the leadership of Tlacotzin they would start expanding their influence to surrounding city states. By 1162, they had unified the area immediately surrounding Lake Tlatelolco, either by outright conquering their neighbors or forcing the other-city states into tributary status.
Tlaloc Empire
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Tlatelolco would then start expanding beyond the borders of the lake. As they expanded, they began establishing tributary states, each led by a Tlatoani. The ruler of Tlatelolco, and thus that of the entire network of tributaries, had the title Huey Tlatoani. By 1252, they had unified much of the area of what would today be called Volta. This new state is called the Tlaloc Empire.
The Tlaloc Empire didn't expand much further than the modern borders of Volta. Though they didn't directly influence the internal affairs of many of their tributaries, and instead merely controlled their foreign affairs, they still had a massive impact on the area. After hundreds of years of rule under the Tlaloc Empire, many of those formerly independent kingdoms adopted the Tlaloc language as their lingua franca. Furthermore, archaeologists have discovered what is described as "axe-money", made of flattened versions of bronze weapons such as the axe. This "axe-money" was impractical to be used as an actual tool, but was highly regarded as a sign of wealth. It also served as a sort of proto-currency, largely being used starting around the 1330's to facilitate large-scale trade between tributary states. This proto-money was called "Tlaximaltepoztli", often shortened to "Tepoztli" by speakers, and is what the modern Voltan Tepos is named after.
Though the Tlaloc Empire was powerful, it began to decline in the 1400's as various tributaries began rebelling, combined with growing pressure from neighboring civilizations. In the 1500's the Tlaloc Empire came under increasing pressure by the neighboring Crescent Empire, which began exploiting the various divisions among the Tlaloc tributaries. Several disgruntled Tlaloc tributaries aligned themselves with the Crescent Empire, and 1573 started a large rebellion, which the Tlaloc's lost in 1578. After which the Tlaloc Empire became a tributary of the Crescent Empire.
Colonization
Neu-Schlammburg Colony
Dolchland claimed the area of land that would become Volta in 1632, although at the time there was no Dolch presence on the land. The first attempt at the colonization happened in 1641, when Nikolaus von Wesler, a wealthy Dolch banker at the time, was given the right to colonize the land. He arrived on 19 April 1641 with roughly 300 Dolch colonists, and established the Neu-Schlammburg Colony within several months. The native Tlaloc people, then still governed as a part of the Crescent Empire, were quite surprised at the sudden arrival of colonists. Dolchland had a pre-existing trade relationship with the Crescent Empire, and thus the Tlaloc people, so both sides initially made attempts to establish a mutually-beneficial trading relationship. However, these attempts were ended when Nikolaus left for Dolchland on 22 May 1642 with the intention of returning with more colonists. In lieu of his absence Nikolaus granted Georg von Hutten control over the colony. Shortly after Nikolaus left, there was an outbreak of a tropical disease (now believed to be malaria) from which they had no natural immunity, killing roughly 1/3 of the colonists. The colonists blamed the Tlaloc people for the outbreak, claiming the diseases had spread to the colonists by contact with those who followed the "uncivilized" Tlaloc lifestyle. At the same time Dolch diseases had become an epidemic among the Tlaloc people, causing more tension. Relations further soured when a hunting party exploring deeper inland shot and killed what they thought to be a wild animal, only to unexpectedly find that they had actually killed a child belonging to a nearby small Tlaloc settlement previously unknown to the Dolch. The Tlaloc interpreted this accident as a scouting party for an invasion killing a witness and attacked the Dolch hunting party.
After this the Tlaloc people began planning for what they believed would be an inevitable war. Though the elders weren't keen to start a war, a young man named Itzcoatl took things into his own hands. He began raising a small band of like-minded people to attack the colony. By July 1642 he had enough people and began planning his attack, not so secretly. Tlaloc elders repeatedly told Itzcoatl not to go through with his plans, fearing retaliation, but he ignored the elders and proceeded anyway. Nikolaus returned on 13 August 1642 with another 230 colonists. Upon arrival he was informed by Georg about everything that had transpired. Knowing that the situation had drastically changed since he had left, he began discussing what to do with Georg immediately. However, 2 days after Nikolaus arrived, Itzcoatl launched a surprise attack on the colony, killing most of its inhabitants in what would be known as the Neu-Schlammburg Massacre. Nikolaus was killed during the fighting, and Georg escaped along with roughly 40 other colonists by ship. They abandoned the colony and, after resupplying at a nearby friendly port, returned to Dolchland.
Köstritz Colony
The second Dolch attempt at colonizing Volta occurred in 1677. In 1676 the Dolch government gave Wolter von Ehinger, a wealthy and influencial Dolch noble, the right to attempt a second colonization of Volta. On 30 August 1677 Wolter arrived not only with about 800 colonists, but also a private army of roughly 250 men to defend the colony in anticipation of conflict with the Tlaloc's. They established a coastal settlement where the Volta River enters the Ailenor Bay. By April 1678 the initial colony was mostly set up.
Itzcoatl was still alive, and it was around this time that he heard of the second Dolch colony. When word of a second Dolch colony spread to him he immediatly started to raising another army. However, the epidemic had severely reduced the number of Tlaloc people, and Itzcoatl was only able to muster half the number of warriors compared to his previous army. On top of that the colonists arrived fully expecting an attack, so the colonists had set up basic defenses as well as what they needed to survive. When Itzcoatl attacked this colony, the defenses were ready and Itzcoatl was defeated. Much of Itzcoatl's army was captured, including Itzcoatl himself. Itzcoatl was beheaded, after which his head was impaled on a spike and displayed at the edge of the settlement facing inland. This was meant to serve as a warning to deter further Tlaloc attacks. The remaining warriors of Itzcoatl's army were disarmed and enslaved. This marked the start of the colonial governments particularly brutal treatment of the native Tlaloc people.
After the attack Wolter returned to Dolchland and came back to Volta with another 900 colonists and 300 fighting men. They established a second settlement right across the Volta River from the first one. Eventually these two settlements would be merged into a single administrative unit called Köstritz.
Further Colonization
Köstritz would become a sort of base-of-operations from which Dolchland would expand further inland. After the establishment of Köstritz various colonial expeditions would be launched from the settlement. It would also become Volta's main port from which it was linked to Dolchland. Dolch settlers used Köstritz as a stopping point before seeking out more land. It was also used by the Dolch military as a point from which they could strike at the Tlaloc's and take the land away from the Crescent Empire. This aggressive settlement of Volta continued for a while, and by 1690 the Crescent Empire had lost control of Volta. Actual settlement by Dolch colonists continued for another few decades, finally slowing down in 1732.
Dolch colonists quickly set up a new order, with the economy largely being based on agriculture. Tobacco and sugarcane became a cash-crop, with other agricultural crops such as cacao and sweet potatoes also being prominent in the economy. Much of the farms and plantations in Volta were at the time run with Tlaloc slave labor, though as the Tlaloc population declined there was an increase in hiring of Dolch colonists and even indentured servants from Dolchland. This mixing on the plantations by Dolch servants and Tlaloc slaves eventually gave rise to a new ethnicity, which the plantation and farm owners called "Mischling", that was a mix of the native Tlaloc's and the Dolch colonists. These "Mischlings" would eventually become the modern Voltan people, as well as seriously contribute to the development of the Voltan language.
Seylosian rule
The Seylos began eyeing the capture of Volta in 1803, and in late-1806 the first Seylosian troops reached the shores of Volta and established a foothold. In 1807, the Seylosian troops began pressing deeper inland. The Dolch colonial governor at the time, Erich Homann, petitioned Dolchland for military assistance after the first Seylosian troops landed. Though some military assistance was provided by Dolchland, much of the defense was left up to the colonial militia, and ultimately the defense wasn't enough and Volta fell in 1809. After conquest Volta was incorporated into Seylos as the Allenby colony, and the Dolch upper-class had no choice but to reluctantly accept Seylosian rule.
Throughout their time ruling Volta, Seylos had a single primary objective, that being to prevent the return of the Dolch to the region. As a result, in the beginning the Seylosians preferred to rule with a light hand rather than imposing all of their rules by force. They largely allowed the Dolch upper classes to continue their previous colonial practices unfettered, though immigration from Dolchland became much rarer than in previous years during this time. During this time the class division between the pure-blooded Dolch upper class and the mixed-race and Tlaloc middle and lower classes became more pronounced, with the class structure becoming much more rigid. A good portion of the Dolch upper class also converted to Seylosian Protestanism. Though they weren't particularly devoted to that religion (or any other religion), they converted in order to better facilitate trade with other parts of Seylos. They didn't bother even attempting to convert the general populace, but did tolerate the presence of Seylosian missionaries, and in rare cases even assisted them by providing them food and lodging. As a result of this, Seylosian Protestanism began taking hold in Volta, becoming a significant minority in Volta during this time.
Even though the majority of the population was Mischling by this time, the Dolch ruling class refused to give them equal treatment to the pure-blooded Dolch and instead treated them more like the Tlaloc's. By this time use of an early form of the Voltan language was commonplace among the Mischling and Tlaloc population. However, in an attempt to stamp out Voltan, the Dolch ruling class declared Voltan to be an "incorrect" version of Dolch and banned its use in public places and in education. In practice this ban was impossible to enforce, as by this time many within the lower ranks of the police were themselves Mischlings, but it did prevent Voltan from gaining any official use for the time.
Pflanzer Wars
After some time had passed since they took control, Seylosian authorities began gradually implementing Seylosian laws. These laws were often more egalitarian than the Dolch-era colonial laws in place at the time, and gave certain protections to Mischlings and Tlaloc's that those groups had previously been denied. This caused tension between the pure-blooded Dolch upper-class and Seylosian colonial authorities. The pure-blooded Dolch began to organize themselves to try and convince Seylosian authorities to preserve the previous order, and over time began calling themselves "Pflanzers" (derived from the Dolch word "pflanzer" for "planter"). However, while these efforts may have slowed down Seylosian authorities in implementing their laws, it did not completely stop them, and tensions continued to rise.
First Pflanzer War
Tensions first reached a boiling point in 1821, when Seylosian authorities abolished slavery in the colony. Pflanzers had relied partly on Tlaloc slave labor for part of their workforce, and as a result many Pflanzers felt that this was a direct attack on their economic livelihood. Many letters of protest were sent to Seylosian authorities, all of which were ignored. Finally, the Pflanzers met in Köstritz and began discussing what to do. The idea of declaring independence was floated. Pflanzers immediately began reorganizing the militias that had been formed during the Seylosian invasion. Though no agreement had been reached on armed rebellion, many Pflanzers wanted to have their own militias both as a bargaining chip and in case things actually came to that. The reorganization of the militias was noticed by Seylosian colonial authorities, who interpreted it as the prelude to an armed rebellion. Authorities then sent a garrison to Köstritz in an attempt to maintain order.
On 25 August 1821, while the garrison was on the way to Köstritz it was met by a Pflanzer militia. The Seylosian forces warned the Pflanzer militia against rebellion, to which the Pflanzer militia responded by demanding the Seylosians leave the area and go back to their base. When the Seylosians refused, the Pflanzer militia opened fire. The surprise volley sent the Seylosians retreating, who then reported to their superiors what had happened. Meanwhile, the militia responsible reported their perceived "victory" to other Pflanzers, who immediately recognized that this meant they were now in open rebellion. This was the start of the First Pflanzer War.
The Pflanzer militias took quick action, seizing control of many cities in Volta. The Seylosians responded with some counterattacks, and managed to secure solid control of the north of the country. While the Pflanzers had early successes, after a few months their forces began to lose momentum. The militias also found it difficult to replenish their lost numbers, with them being unable to find volunteers from many other Pflanzers and finding the Mischlings and Tlalocs unwilling to join their ranks. Meanwhile, the Seylosians began recruiting Mischlings and Tlalocs and forming militias with them, bolstering their numbers. On 13 February 1822, Seylosian forces launched a massive counterattack. They quickly retook Köstritz, and began moving towards the west of the country. With their forces dwindling and being unable to reinforce them, the Pflanzers surrendered on 29 May 1822.
Second Pflanzer War
Tensions continued as Seylos began implementing more and more reforms. The next boiling point came in 1829, when Seylosian authorities opened the doors for Mischlings and Tlalocs to own property. A rumor began spreading that Seylosian authorities would confiscate "excess" property in order to sell them to Mischlings and Tlalocs. Seylosian authorities had no such plans, and the origin of the rumor is disputed amongst historians. Some historians speculate that it may have been a disinformation campaign by Dolchland, though there is only anecdotal evidence for this claim. In any case, this misinformation spread amongst the Pflanzers, who again began organizing into committees to discuss what to do.
The committees began organizing and discussing what to do. The idea of independence was floated, but not initially supported by all but the most extremists, as many remembered the failure of the previous war. However, those extremists again convinced the committees to organize into militia's as a bargaining chip. The idea of instituting conscription amongst the entire Pflanzer population rather than relying solely on a volunteer force. This idea was rejected by the more moderates in the Pflanzer population and never formally adopted. Extremists within the militias very quickly began securing more and more positions for themselves in what clearly was a prelude to an armed insurrection. However, the committees had not yet formally made any decisions to try and assert their independence.
The first shots were fired when on March the militia's demanded that Seylosian colonial forces at Fort Schwarzwald surrender. When the Seylosians refused, the militia's gathered their forces. It is unclear which side fired the first shots, but the situation quickly escalated into a full blown siege. The Pflanzer militia's won the battle after a week, at which point the Pflanzer committees recognized that open rebellion had already begun and declared formal independence.
The Pflanzers again secured the southern portion of the country for themselves, while the north remained in Seylosian control. The initial successes of the Pflanzers were quickly reversed by the Seylosians, largely due to the Pflanzer militias being unable to recoup lost forces. After 7 months of fighting, the final militias surrendered, securing a victory for Seylos.
Independence
Though the Voltan upper classes reluctantly accepted Seylosian rule after the wars, minor tensions constantly remained. During the next few decades of Seylosiann rule over Volta these tensions gradually grew. These new tensions also incorporated the desire of plantation and farm owners to do business outside of Seylosian realm, and by the 1840's this discontent had reached a boiling point. As discontent grew the upper classes also developed the idea of a Voltan national identity, separate both from that of Dolchland and Seylos. This idea quickly gained traction among the upper class, who aggressively promoted it to the lower classes as well. After 1849, this discontent evolved into the first calls for Voltan independence. The Voltan independence movement quickly spread, and within a decade was supported by a substantial portion of the population. In 1857 some members of the upper-class secretly formed the Voltan National League, an organization dedicated to using any means necessary, including violence, to achieve independence. This organization quickly grew, and they eventually started stockpiling supplies in preparation for open rebellion. However, in 1859, their secret preparations for open rebellion were leaked to Seylosian authorities. Th perpetrator of the leak was quickly found, and the person responsible imprisoned. That said, with the plans no longer secret, the Voltan National League started an uprising and captured the city of Kerseruk. This sparked the Voltan War for Independence.
The Voltan armies were led by Eugen Rathenau, who was tasked with managing the entire army of mostly untrained soldiers. He quickly got to work training his army, while at the same time engaging in offensive campaigns where he could. He furthermore set up a vast intelligence network of Voltans sympathetic to the cause, and thus was able to remain aware of the Seylosian troop movements to a certain extent. He also allowed Mischlings and Tlalocs to serve in his army in an equal capacity to Pflanzers, in spite of the opposition of some of his Pflanzer colleagues. He also implemented a much more meritocratic system of promotion. Several Mischlings and at least one Tlaloc eventually rose to some of the highest ranks in his army. This, combined with the new joint sense of Voltan national identity, attracted volunteers from some Mischlings and Tlalocs and helped alleviate the manpower problems that had plagued the Pflanzer rebellions.
Eugen engaged in two campaigns, one in the north of the country and one in the south. The northern campaign was largely successful, but the southern campaign quickly became a stalemate, with neither Seylos nor Volta able to gain the upper hand. This stalemate was only broken in the Battle of Vien, in which the Voltan forces not only captured the city of Vien but also destroyed much of the Seylosian garrison stationed in Volta. Roughly one year, Seylos agreed to a peace treaty in which Volta was granted independence. Though many in Volta credited Eugen with defeating Seylos, records from the time show that a large portion of this defeat was also due to Seylos' unwillingness to send additional troops to reinforce what they viewed as a problem colony.
Mid-to-Late 19th Century
At the end of the war Eugen called the first Voltan National Congress, where representatives of all of the former administrative divisions of colonial Volta could come together to discuss the future of the nation. The talks continued for 3 months due to various disgreements between the different parts of Volta, but an agreement was eventually reached, and on 17 May 1864 the Voltan National Congress declared the establishment of the Voltan Democratic Republic. The first elections were held on 12 November (the second Saturday of November) of that year, in which Eugen Rathenau won in a landslide, after which Eugen became the first President of Volta. Eugen implemented a number of policies during this time, including a rudimentary form of what would eventually become Volta's contract labor system.
Eugen served three consecutive 4-year terms. Though his first term saw moderate success, his later two terms were mired by obstruction from the opposition parties and political infighting. When he reached his third term he was ineligible to serve any additional terms. However, Eugen wanted to continue to be in power believing that he had been unjustly robbed of his ability to govern. To deal with this Eugen began pushing for a constitutional amendment so he could serve a fourth term. The opposition resisted, and the proposals even caused a split within his own party. In response to this, Eugen organized with the military and his party and conducted the 1876 Voltan coup d'état. This gave him absolute power over the country and ended democratic rule. The move had the support of the majority of Voltans, who viewed Eugen as the hero who had liberated them from Seylosian rule. However, the result was effectively a coup de'tat, and the legialture became a rubber stamp. Though Eugen promised to eventually transition the country to democracy, said promises were never carried out.
After gaining absolute power, Eugen implemented policies that were much harsher towards the Tlaloc's and Mischlings than many of his predecessors. Much of these policies were intended to deal with the labor shortage caused by the decline in the Tlaloc population. First, Tlaloc slaves were no longer permitted to be set free, only transferred to other owners. Secondly, much more Tlaloc's were forced away from their land and into slavery. This included allowing Tlaloc slaves that had already been freed to be captured and forced back into slavery. Finally, a system of contract labor was introduced for the mischlings. This contract-labor system allowed mischlings to work and live on the plantations or farms for a set amount of years, that could be extended if the worker was in debt to the plantation or farm owner. Many mischlings went into agriculture as a result of this system, only to realize that there was no way out. The many found that the wages provided were not enough to cover basic necessities, and the necessities sold at the plantation and farm shops were priced just too high to be purchased without going into debt to the plantation or farm owner. This resulted in many of these workers becoming indefinitely trapped within this contract labor system, much of whom were treated as if they were slaves even if they legally weren't slaves.
This was also the time that the Voltan language began to develop fully into something close to what it is in the modern day.
Early 20th century
As the situation for the lower class got worse Eugen's popularity began to wane among the general populace, and the government as a whole was highly unpopular by the time of Eugen's death in 1901. Though the pure-blooded Dolch upper classes continued to support the government, many in the lower classes were pushing for change. Various reform and revolutionary movements rapidly spread through the lower classes. To counter this, the Dolch upper classes greatly expanded political repression and even introduced public executions to try and deter such activity. However, this only had the opposite effect, and created more opposition to their rule.
One of these reformist cells had the brother of Rudolf Thälmann, Leon Thälmann, as a member. This cell was arguably moderate, and was merely pushing for reforms within the current system such as social welfare and expanded workers rights. Nevertheless its members were still arrested on 11 March 1904 for possession of banned writings and publicly executed for treason on 17 August that year. They were among the first to be executed publicly as a result of the new policies introduced after Eugen's death. Rudolf was witness to the execution, after which Rudolf himself became involved in reformist and revolutionary activities.
Rudolf joined a revolutionary cell and began reading banned works. Eventually this cell began reading various communist work such as The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. Over the next few years the entire cell would be influenced by communist writings. At the same time the cell stepped up their activities, holding rallies and spreading communist ideology amongst the Voltan population. In 1909 this cell would form the Communist Party of Volta, which was quickly banned by the government for it's activities. The government raided the base of operations of the Communist Party at the same time, destroying its base of operations and kicking it out of the city.
However, they failed to capture the leadership of the Communist Party, and crucially Rudolf Thälmann. They would continue their activities for another 3 years, evading authorities and hiding with sympathizers. The party, and Rudolf Thälmann himself, grew famous within Volta for their anti-government activities. They were particularly well known for standing up for the rights of workers and against the mistreatment of Tlaloc slaves and Mischling contract workers. However, on 9 July 1912 Rudolf Thälmann was captured along with his compatriots by authorities while at a rally. He was publicly executed on 21 August 1912, without even being given a trial. This effectively destroyed the leadership of the Communist Party of Volta, but the party still servived albeit in a weakened state. What remained of the party escaped into dense forests.
The Communist Party then, knowing they wouldn't be able to survive on their own, formed an alliance with various other like-minded left-wing and far-left cells, known as the Voltan Workers' United Front. Though their strength was limited, they did engage in various activities from the dense forests, and authorities were never able to destroy them. Support for the Communist Party continued to grow, and the Communist Party began stockpiling resources and men in preparation for a violent uprising against the government.
In 1915, Hans Krenz became Chairman of the Communist Party of Volta. Hans was a mischling who came from a military family and had previously served in the military himself. Even after leaving the military he still maintained extensive connections within the military. Through this the Communist Party was able to coordinate with disgruntled soldiers within the military for the first time. On 8 November 1916, there was a mutiny on the Battleship Gneisenau, the first such uprising in the military, which resulted in the Gneisenau being taken over by revolutionary sympathizers. Around the same time workers in the then capital of Köstritz called for a general strike. When Hans heard of both the mutiny and the strike, he expected the government to react immediately and harshly. To counter this he called for an immediate uprising, and ordered as many members of the Voltan Workers' United Front, and any military sympathizers that were able, to attack the then capital of Köstritz. These forces reached Köstritz in January 1917, and found that the city in the midst of the strike, which authorities were struggling to contain. Many in the military defending the city also defected to the communists, and in particular the navy also experienced a series of mutinies like the one on the Battleship Gneisenau that handed the communists a small naval force. Within two weeks the city of Köstritz was captured by the communists, and the government evacuated and relocated to Friedburg. This marked the start of the Voltan Civil War
Voltan Civil War
After their victory at Köstritz, the communists engaged in a series of armed takeovers of cities wherever they could reach. This resulted in them gaining control over much of the area surrounding Köstritz. It also resulted in Volta consolidating their position in the east of the country, and the support of uprisings in other city gave them control of many eastern industrial cities. Meanwhile, the Voltan Democratic Republic, now led by President Otto Schmitt, consolidated their position in Friedburg and the west. Hans Krenz led the communist forces himself, assisted by others in the Communist Party. Hans Krenz organized his forces into the Voltan People's Army, also colloquially called as the Red Army. while Otto Schmitt assigned General Gustav von Bothmer to lead their army. Gustav's army was colloquially called the Blue Army due to the color of the flag of the Voltan Democratic Republic.
Gustav launched a massive offensive against Hans in March 1917 in an attempt to quickly crush the rebellion, and initially this was successful. The red army was driven back, and the blue army advanced towards Köstritz, even taking much of the Volta River by April 1918. Gustav, wanting to push his advantage as far as he could, wanted a rapid advance, and thus didn't even give his soldiers a single opportunity to rest. Eventually, his forces were exhausted and they suffered a major defeat, after which the advance stalled short of its objectives. However, at this point the blue army was still in an advantageous position in comparison to the red army.
Gustav had hoped that this victory would push popular opinion against the reds and inspire uprisings against some of their more controversial policies, but this didn't happen. Furthermore he had pushed his forces far enough to where supply lines were stretched thin. When Gustav's offensive stopped, Hans immediately began planning a counterattack.
This counterattack was launched in July 1919. Many blue soldiers deserted or defected to the reds when Hans attacked, and the reds quickly regained the land that they had lost. By February 1920, the reds had retaken all the land they lost. Though Hans' military generals advised for Hans to stop the advance and consolidate his gains, but Hans pressed on. By May 1920, the city of Hansberg fell to the reds. Gustav had planned a massive defense of the area, but ultimately was not able to stop many of his lowest ranking soldiers from deserting or defecting. By this time the blue army was a shell of its former self, and Hans finally slowed down his offensive
As the reds advanced, they slowly reformed their ranks. They instituted reforms that made their forces more of a traditional army, and recruited officers from the old government that were willing to defect to train their forces. Gustav saw this, and started a three-pronged offensive. Three armies were to simultaneously attack, one from the north, one from the center, and one from the south. The advance to the south was relatively successful, but the advance to the north was stalled partway, and the advance in the center was utterly defeated. Red forces pushed back the army in the center, and in July 1921 cut off Gustav's southern army from the rest of the main force. In November 1921, these forces surrendered to the red army due to dwindling supplies.
At this point, despite Gustav's attempts to reinforce his units by expanding conscription within blue territories, the massive amounts of desertions and defections had bred a culture of distrust. Commanders often refused to integrate the new recruits into their existing units. At this point Gustav himself stepped into the front lines, and chose to lead another offensive against the reds with his own units. However, while Gustav's offensive was moderately successful and took back part of the Volta river, Gustav himself would be die during the offensive after being struck by a stray bullet. Though Gustav's forces were in a strong position to continue the advantage, after his death his subordinates began fighting over whether or not to continue the offensive. Ultimately this ended in the blue forces being split into two armies, one of which attempted to hold the line and the other of which attempted to press the attack. This division weakened the blue forces, which were ultimately forced back and had lost all of their gains by September 1922.
After Gustav's death, Otto personally took command of the army. He began planning another offensive, but before it could be carried out the red army struck again. The reds quickly advanced, reaching Friedburg in January 1923. The Battle of Friedburg raged for one month, and ultimately the reds were victorious. This represented the final serious resistance that the blue army offered, after which they were constantly on the retreat. The reds had gained control 3/4 of the country by April 1923.
On 14 April 1923, Hans Krenz proclaimed the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Volta. This date was chosen specifically because it was the 60th anniversary of Eugen Rathenau's self-coup, in which Eugen gained absolute power. Over the next 7 months, the red army would advance and gain control of the remainder of Volta. During this retreat, much of the old ruling class escaped Volta and fled elsewhere. The civil war ended on 21 January 1924, with the surrender of the western port city of Schipe.
1920's to 1930's
Once it became clear that the Communists would win, Hans began implementing some of the economic reforms that he promised. The first one he implemented was collectivization of agriculture. It started with seizing the land of farmers who owned over 100 ha of land, which was placed understate ownership with the right to farm on those lands being granted to poorer farmers. Some more well-off farmers didn't approve of the new policies and resisted, in some cases even revolting, but these revolts were crushed. In response to these revolts, the Communist Party of Volta created the Abwehr Office (commonly known as the Abwehr), which served as a secret police and continues to do so to this day.
However, rather than increasing crop yields, what followed was a famine. This is at least partly caused by 2 years of crop failures, but the extent to which the collectivization policies contributed is hotly debated amongst economists. There was also a decline in economic growth. Both of these caused Hans to change course, and create a new set of economic policies known as the New Reform Policy. This policy kept industry state owned, but allowed farmers to begin selling their produce on the market and implemented several reforms that moved more towards a market-oriented system. This was done to foster the economy of the country, something badly needed since the end of the Voltan Civil War.
For the most part this was successful, though agriculture grew at a faster pace than industry, which caused problems with inflation. The government attempted to counteract this with price controls, to limited success. However, by the end of the policy agricultural production had recovered beyond it's pre-war levels.
After the recovery of agricultural output Hans began focusing on industrialization, hoping to speed up the process and make Volta an industrial powerhouse. The government ordered the construction of a handful of factories in various parts of the country and began allowing factory owners and workers to have greater leeway in the products they made and prices they sold at. While this did succeed in industrializing Volta beyond what had been the case before the Voltan Civil War, industrialization never increased as rapidly as the Communist Party wanted. By the end of the 1930's, Volta's industrial capacity had definitely grown but not massively.
1940's to 1970's
Hanz Krenz died on 27 February 1941, after which he was succeeded by Willi Ebert. Willi immediately embarked on a radically different economic policy, known as the Great Turn. This involved the re-collectivization of agriculture and a massive industrialization program. This was done through a series of Five-Year Plans, the success of which was mixed. Agricultural output did not meet government expectations, and in fact increased at an extremely slow rate. On the other hand, while the industrialization goals were completely unrealistic given the short time-frame (for example, Willi wanted industrial worker output to increase 100% in his first Five-Year Plan), they did increase Voltan industrialization at a rapid pace.
Another aspect of this Great Turn was a massive shift in culture. Until then, the government saw specialists such as doctors, scientists, and engineers as useful but potentially disloyal due to the fact that many of them had come from wealthy backgrounds. In an attempt to create a new generation of more loyal specialists, Willi ordered that all higher education be made available free of charge. Unwilling to compromise on quality, Willi ordered that eligibility requirements not be expanded, but did introduce an adult education program that workers could take enroll in part-time in order to gain an equivalent certification. This massively increased the number of specialist produced in Volta.
However, Willi also engaged in massive political repression, and dissent of any kind was not tolerated. The duties of the Abwehr were massively expanded, with them coming to monitor extensive parts of society. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press, all which were already under threat, were effectively eliminated during this time. Furthermore, Willi engaged in a program of massively persecuting all religious organizations and enforcing atheism across the population. Public observation of religious holidays was prohibited, but in place of them Willi instituted a series of secular holidays.
Towards the end of Willi's life his health gradually decreased. He suffered a series of strokes that left him paralyzed from the waist on down, and made speaking difficult. By 1977, he was effectively bedridden and under constant care by doctors. However, as he was not dead, Willi was allowed to remain in the position of Chancellor. While he was unable to lead the country, the Communist Party created a collective head-of-state known as the State Council. Of those in the executive council, Franz Ulbricht became the most prominent in the next few years, and by 1982 had almost unquestioned authority.
Towards the 1970's Volta's economy began to stagnate, with GDP growth slowing down. This stagnation was caused by a variety of factors which economists debate to this day, but one commonly cited figure is the limitations of central economic planning.
1980's to 2000's
Franz implemented another economic shift, slowing down industrialization and allowing some factories to produce more consumer goods. However, his largest project was the creation of the Voltan technology industry. To this effect he created the company VOLTek and provided them with many resources to develop their industry. This was done to eliminate the need for foreign imports of electronics. Throughout his time the Voltan tech industry began to establish itself, with VOLTek creating the first Voltan computer in 1987.
Willi quietly passed away in 1989, after which Franz became chancellor. He pushed the Voltan tech industry even further, though with limited success. While the Voltan tech industry did establish itself domestically, the Voltan government had ordered that all technology produced by VOLTek be incompatible with foreign counterparts. This was done specifically to prevent Voltans from importing electronics from abroad, but also limited the appeal of Voltan electronics abroad.
Volta's economy continued to stagnate during this time, with GDP growth further slowing. Calls for reform were suppressed by Franz, who staunchly rejected any reforms of the system and insisted on continuing the command economy.
On 17 May 2017, Franz Ulbricht died.
