Greater Menghean Empire
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Greater Menghean Empire 대멩제국 大孟帝國 Dae Meng Jeguk | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927–1945 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
| Anthem: Aegukka | |||||||||
| Capital | Donggyŏng | ||||||||
| Common languages | Menghean | ||||||||
| Government | Unitary absolute monarchy | ||||||||
| Emperor | |||||||||
• 1927-1945 | Kim Myŏng-hwan | ||||||||
| Premier | |||||||||
• 1927-1937 | Kwon Chong-hoon | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 18 February 1927 | ||||||||
• Menghean intervention in Dzhungestan | 7 December 1932 | ||||||||
• Menghe declares war on Sylva | 7 May 1935 | ||||||||
• Menghe declares war on Anglia and Lechernt | 10 June 1938 | ||||||||
• Atomic bombing of Dongrŭng and Anchŏn | 8-11 November 1945 | ||||||||
• Articles of surrender signed | 15 November 1945 | ||||||||
• Allied occupation begins | 31 November 1945 | ||||||||
| 5 June 1953 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1935 | 3,721,000 km2 (1,437,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1935 | 200,290,000 | ||||||||
| Currency | Menghean Won | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Menghe | ||||||||
The Greater Menghean Empire, also known as Imperial Menghe or the Empire of Menghe, was the historical government of Menghe between 1927 and 1945. It was proclaimed on 18 February 1927, the day of Kwon Chong-hoon's military coup, and formally disbaned on 31 November 1945, which marked the official handover of the country's administration to the Menghean Occupation Authority. The next sovereign Menghean government would be the Republic of Menghe, which was formally established on 5 June 1953.
The Greater Menghean Empire was proclaimed during a period of substantial economic expansion, industrialization, and modernization, which had recently elevated Menghe to the status of a fledgeling great power. Its formation marked the reassertion of military nationalism over the civilian elite, many of whom had embraced Western values under the Federative Republic of Menghe. Hoping to restore Menghe's Yi dynasty status as the main hegemonic power on the continent of Hemithea, Kwon Chong-hoon led the Greater Menghean Empire into a string of offensive wars against Themiclesia in Dzhungestan (1932), against Sylva over Altagracia and Innominada (1935), and against Maverica over the kindgom of Nersia in 1937, drawing Menghe into the Pan-Septentrion War. This drew Menghe into additional conflicts against Anglia and Lechernt, Hallia, and Sieuxerr, among others, decisively tipping the scales against Menghe. On 8 November 1945, the Allied forces dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Anchŏn; Dongrŭng suffered a nuclear attack on the 11th. This led Kim Myŏng-hwan to seek a ceasefire deal on the 13th; Menghe's surrender was accepted on the 15th in Donggyŏng's time zone.
For its entire existence, the Greater Menghean Empire had one Emperor: Kim Myŏng-hwan, formally styled as the Donghyi Emperor. From 1927 to 1937, the Emperor served mainly as a figurehead, and most political power lay in the hands of Premier Kwon Chong-hoon. In 1937, Kim Myŏng-hwan dismissed Kwon and appointed a replacement Premier; from that year onward, the Emperor was the primary decision-maker in national politics, with the Premier serving as his deputy and chief advisor.
Names
In Menghean, the country established in 1927 was known as the Dae Meng Jeguk, written 대멩제국 in the Sinmun alphabet and 大孟帝國 with Gomun characters. Western press sources were the first to translate this into Anglian as the "Greater Menghean Empire," and Menghe's government adopted this translation as early as March 1927, but the use of "Greater" is misleading. Dae Meng (대멩 / 大孟), though literally meaning "Great Meng" or "Large Meng," has been used in the official name of all other modern Menghean states, including the Federative Republic of Menghe (Dae Meng Yŏnbang Gonghwaguk), the current Socialist Republic of Menghe (Dae Meng Sahoejuyi Gonghwaguk), and even the Anglian-controlled Republic of Menghe (Dae Meng Gonghwaguk), but "Great" is not used in the Anglian translation of any of these states' names. Nevertheless, owing to its widespread press use and official Menghean adoption, the translation "Greater Menghean Empire" stuck.
Previous dynasties, in keeping with the above, had been known simply as "Great Yi" or "Great Myŏn" (Dae Yi, Dae Myŏn), without the appended "Empire," at least in official state texts. The Greater Menghean Empire never adopted an official dynasty name, though Dae Meng could be interpreted as making it (a second version of) the Meng dynasty. The term "Kim dynasty" is sometimes used to describe the House of Kim, but the four Kim emperors were only a dynasty in the Western sense (i.e., a group of monarchs under their family name) and never in the Eastern sense, and the Kim dynasty also presided over the Three States Period (in the State of Sinyi) and the Federative Republic of Menghe (as purely ceremonial monarchs).
The term "empire" proved to be a source of controversy for some subsequent Menghean governments, which embraced strident anti-imperialist rhetoric while also adopting a generally sympathetic view of Menghe's efforts in the Pan-Septentrion War. Etymologically, Jeguk is comprised of 帝 (supreme ruler; emperor) and 國 (country; state) and might be more properly understood as "a state ruled by an emperor." Yet jegukjuyi (제국주의 / 帝國主義) remains the common Menghean term for imperialism in the sense of far-reaching territorial aggression.
Formation
Background
In 1901, in compliance with a ceasefire agreement signed two years earlier, the Namyang Government and the State of Sinyi formally merged into the Federative Republic of Menghe. At the behest of Namyang negotiators, this country was headed by a Casaterran-style system of government, with a Federal Assembly electing a Prime Minister to rule the country and the Emperor serving as a purely ceremonial figurehead. Kim Dae-wŏn, who took on the title of Yŏngtong (Eternal Unity) Emperor to commemmorate the new era, was entirely content to withdraw from politics and live out the rest of his reign in luxury, and the country was relatively democratic, with universal adult male suffrage granted in 1920.
With its trade-friendly policies, pragmatic approach to reform, and broad focus on modernization and industrialization, the Federative Republic of Menghe experienced substantial economic growth, and in 1923 it was symbolically recognized as a great power through its inclusion in the Selkiö Naval Treaty. Yet many Menghean military theorists felt that Menghe's growth would be constrained by its exclusion from other states' imperial trading spheres, especially after world trade broke down during the WSS, and argued that Menghe could only survive with its own sphere of influence. Menghean nationalists also chafed at the intrusion of Western institutions, values, and even sartorial fashions into the country, seeing it as a form of cultural infiltration. More radical nationalists aspired to re-establish the regional order of the late Yi dynasty, when Menghe was the dominant land power on the continent of Hemithea and the dominant naval power in the South Menghe Sea.
Conspiracy plots
In the late 1920s, a group of high-ranking military officers began conspiring to overthrow the Federal government and establish a stronger, more unified, and more disciplined state. The eventual coup ringleaders were mostly high officials in the Navy General Staff, which owing to its mission had a more outward-looking strategic focus, though they operated with the knowledge and support of many of the Federal Army's officers.
Most coup plots of the 1920s, including a botched uprising by Army officers in 1921, centered on restoring the Emperor to power, which would symbolically reject Western-style government and maintain continuity with the existing Kim imperial line. A persistent challenge for these coup plots was the nature of Kim Dae-wŏn, the reigning Yŏngtong Emperor. During his years in direct power in Sinyi (1897-1899), Kim Dae-wŏn had proven to be an inept, indecisive, and uninspiring leader, contributing to Sinyi's disastrous defeats in the war's final years. Once demoted to the status of symbolic figurehead, he had adopted a lavish lifestyle, with a growing court of servants and concubines. Though never reprinted in official presses under pain of lèse-majesté, rumors of his extravagant spending and debaucherous parties steadily spread throughout the country. Worse still, he had welcomed Western music and fashion into his court and was addicted to opium, making him a living symbol of the intrusion of Western culture into the country.
For most of the 1920s, the top officers in the military had suggested waiting until Kim Dae-wŏn's death, at which point they could intervene behind the scenes to influence the selection of a successor. By 1926, however, motivated by a growing sense of urgency, the Navy General Staff decided to expedite their plans and place a new heir on the throne ahead of time.
Coup of February 27th
On 27 February 1927, a squadron of ships of the Menghean Federal Navy sailed up the Kimhae Sea off the coast of Donggyŏng and fired a salvo of blank artillery rounds over the city. This marked the signal for two brigades of Menghean marines, deployed into the city the night before, to storm the Parliament building and the Donggwangsan palace. Aboard the lead ship was Fleet Admiral Kwon Chong-hoon, along with Kim Myŏng-hwan, a 23-year-old prince who had previously lived in relative obscurity.
Army conspirators in Junggyŏng surrounded the Summer Palace the same day. There, they invoked a clause of the 1904 Constitution, which permitted a sitting Emperor to abdicate the throne if he judged that he was no longer fit of body and mind. The Yŏngtong Emperor abdicated without resistance.
As soon as this information was confirmed via telegram, Kwon Chong-hoon had Kim Myŏng-hwan crowned Emperor in Donggyŏng. He adopted the reign name Donghyi, or "Eastern Light," to symbolize Menghe's return to glory as the leading power in the Eastern Hemisphere. In the same ceremony, Kwon unveiled a new Imperial Charter, which would replace the Menghean constitution of 1904. In doing so, he permanently dissolved the Federal Assembly, replaced the system of federal regions with a unitary system of government, and changed the country's official name to the Greater Menghean Empire. The Imperial Charter also established an Imperial Council to advise the Emperor, and a Premier to head this council. Per the carefully choreographed coup plan, Kim Myŏng-hwan appointed Kwon Chong-hoon as Premier, and approved his appointments of a slew of military officers to other top administrative posts.
History
Prewar era (1927-1932)
One of the Kwon government's first acts was to authorize a major increase in military spending, with a focus on expanding the (now-Imperial) Menghean Navy. The Selkiö Naval Treaty limited the rate at which Menghe could build capital ships, and the total tonnage of new fleet carriers it could build, but in its initial form, it did not limit ships displacing under 12,000 tonnes standard. Even after the 1930 Avallone Amendment regulated destroyer and cruiser tonnage, Menghe continued to mass-produce smaller torpedo boats and avisos outside its limits, while also misreporting tonnage for its newest cruiser classes. The Imperial Menghean Army also expanded, with its previous system of volunteer service replaced by limited conscription and its military district system giving way to a more centralized command structure.
Diplomatically, Kwon began making overtures to Dayashina, which until recently had been Menghe's main naval rival. By the late 1920s, pan-Hemitheanists also held sway in Dayashina, and the two countries were able to conclude a formal alliance in 1929. This alliance included secret protocols for the partitioning of spheres of influence in Hemithea and Meridia, though actual troop movements in the Pan-Septentrion War did not generally follow these lines. By contrast, Kwon's embrace of militantly anti-Western and anti-colonial rhetoric alienated Gothia, Anglia and Lechernt, and their commonwealth territories in the Eastern Hemisphere, all which had been part of Menghe's alliance structure in the early 20th century. Menghean agents established contact with a number of nationalist and anti-colonial parties in Hemithea and Meridia, hoping to promote pan-Hemitheanism and erode Western-aligned governments. The results of this campaign were mixed: the Themiclesian Nationalist Party at first gained influence, but was banned in 1932 over its role in a bloody failed coup; small nationalist factions in Khalistan and Maracaibo gained little popularity, but the Argentan, Azbek, and Taleyan independence movements embraced Menghean support.
Early escalation (1932-1937)
Menghe's entry into the Pan-Septentrion War is conventionally dated to 7 December 1932, when a Menghean force crossed the border into neighboring Dzhungestan in order to expel a Themiclesian occupation of the country. By the end of 1933, the fighting had progressed to Themiclesia's borders. Themiclesia offered a truce to Dzhungestan, but did not contact Menghe, and only offered a paltry sum for reparations. Slighted by this offence, and looking for an opportunity to gain resources, Kwon ultimately backed Batzorig Khan's proposal to occupy part of Themiclesia's borderland mining region for six years (until 1 January 1940) as unilateral reparations.
Over the course of 1934, Kwon Chong-hoon and his aides were in high spirits. The campaign to take Dzhungestan had been successful, Dayashina appeared committed to the alliance, and most Casaterran powers seemed too preoccupied with domestic turmoil and Ostland's rise to respond with anything more than firmly worded denunciations. Sensing an opportunity, Kwon moved ahead with a long-standing plan: a lightning offensive to seize Innominada in a sweeping land, air, and sea operation, thereby securing bases on the north side of the Strait of Portcullia and greatly strengthening Menghe's defensive position vis-a-vis Casaterra. Menghe formally declared war on Gothia and Innominada on 7 May 1935, officially on the pretext of supporting Argentan rebels in Innominada. Gothian forces performed well any time they encountered direct Menghean attacks; but the mix of infiltration tactics, deep motorized thrusts, amphibious diversions, and rebel insurrections cut off supplies and made it hard for the Gothian Army to maintain a coherent front line, and by spring of 1937 Menghe controlled most of the peninsula. Shortly after declaring war, Menghe also announced its intention to withdraw from the Selkiö Naval Treaty, precipitating the collapse of the treaty system.
Now swelling with confidence, Kwon set sights on a higher target. In January 1937, Anglia and Lechernt had slipped into civil war over an Army plot to overthrow King Robert II and install a far-right government; in February 1937, most of the Royal Navy's fleet assets in the Far East returned home to participate in the standoff. Menghe had no connection to the Anglian rightists, but it did have connections to Dayashina, and the two countries agreed to exploit this window of opportunity by attacking Anglia and Lechernt together. More cautious naval officers warned against this move, as AL still possessed the largest navy in the world, but the pro-war faction ultimately won out, primarily through the argument that this was a unique window of opportunity. Menghe and Dayashina both declared war on AL in May 1937, with Menghe landing troops in Khalistan and hitting Moradabad with air and submarine attacks.
Political crisis and inland shift (1937)
On 4 August 1937, just a few months after Menghe entered the war against AL, Kwon Chong-hoon suffered a fatal stroke. Power provisionally passed to his leading deputy, Rear Admiral Ho Nam-sŏn, who was formally appointed Premier on August 12th. Though reasonably sound as a strategic planner, Premier Ho lacked Kwon's personal connections and booming charisma, and his grasp on power was relatively fragile.
Seeing an opportunity of its own, the Maverican Confederation on 23 September 1937 invaded Nersia, a small kingdom and Menghean protectorate sandwiched between Menghe and Maverica on land. After Nersia's king invoked the 1911 defensive guarantee and called for support, Menghe spiraled into a political crisis: pragmatists, especially in the IMN, saw war with Maverica as a risky distraction, but idealists and nationalists balked at the idea of leaving Nersia to fend for itself against a Western settler invasion. Kim Myŏng-hwan, the reigning Donghyi Emperor, sympathized with the idealists, and on 27 September refused to sign Premier Ho's recommendation to decline support for Nersia. This ushered in a full-scale political crisis, with Ho Nam-sŏn fully losing control of the government until the Emperor formally dismissed on 3 October. The following day, Kim Myŏng-hwan appointed General Yun Hyŏn-sik of the Army General Staff as Premier, and the day after, Menghe formally issued a declaration of war against Maverica with the stated goal of liberating Nersia and restoring the neighboring kingdoms which Maverica had annexed in prior decades.
Domestically, this change marked a major shift in the internal politics of the Greater Menghean Empire, with the Emperor now holding de facto primary political power and the Premier serving as his figurehead and mouthpiece, rather than the other way around. Internationally, it put Menghe's government in the hands of a radical nationalist faction which believed that the country's prior string of victories was evidence of Western decay and Hemithean superiority. Menghe grew bolder in its offensives into Khalistan and Maverica, even though this risked alienating other Casaterran powers and bringing them into the war.
Government
The most important organ of state in the Greater Menghean Empire was the Imperial Council, similar in structure and role to a cabinet or state council. The Council of Ministers was headed by a Premier, who was appointed by the Emperor. The Premier then appointed the other members of the council, with the Emperor's approval. Under the Imperial Charter issued in 1927, the Imperial Council was responsible for advising the Emperor on state affairs and implementing his decisions, making it his only direct legal interface with the rest of the political system.
In practice, this meant that the Council, and particularly the Premier, could wield supreme power on the Emperor's behalf, either leaving him out of key discussions or instructing him on which decrees to issue. From 1927 until 1933, the Imperial Council functioned in this exact manner, with Kwon Chong-hoon serving as Menghe's unquestioned dictator and Kim Myŏng-hwan serving as a legitimizing figurehead. In the mid-1930s, encouraged by his rising age and motivated by the military operation against Themiclesia, Kim Myŏng-hwan began questioning Kwon's judgment in internal debates. Tensions erupted out into the open after Kwon's death, with individual government agencies and military units openly siding with either Premier Ho Nam-sŏn or the Donghyi Emperor in the dispute over whether to intervene in Nersia's defense.
From 4 October 1937 onward, Kim Myŏng-hwan wielded primary political power in Menghe, with the Premier serving as a deputy or chief advisor. Kim replaced the Premier on several other occasions, namely 1938, 1941, 1943, 1944, and twice in 1945, partly to express his dissatisfaction with incumbent Premiers' decisions and partly to prevent any other Premier from emerging as a rival.
As the Federal Assembly was dissolved in the wake of the Coup of February 18th and never reorganized, there was no elected legislature in the Greater Menghean Empire. Legislation was instead drafted and issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Similarly, the federal regions were dissolved, and provincial governors and city mayors, previously elected, were appointed by officials two tiers up.
Economy
In the economic realm, Kwon sought to promote the slogan of Buguk Gangbyŏng (부국강병 / 富國强兵), literally "rich country, strong military," which had already grown popular in the Federative Republic era. Compared with his predecessors, Kwon urged a greater focus on heavy industry, including coal, oil, and steel.
While this strategy led to impressive growth in Menghe's industrial output specifically, and allowed it to shoulder the costs of a long conventional war, it also came at a cost to light industry and other sectors. Kwon's aggressive foreign policy also led to a decline in trade and foreign investment, which intensified the military's search for potential resource-rich colonies.
Throughout the later interwar period, and the war itself, Menghe remained a largely agrarian and deindustrialized nation, leveraging its large population to compensate for its other weaknesses. While its total steel output was respectable, per-capita figures fell well behind the overall norm, and quality of life for most citizens remained poor. These problems were especially visible in the final years of the Pan-Septentrion War, as the cost of ten years of mobilization became apparent.