First Colonial War
| First Colonial War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Formatory Wars of Meridon | |||||||
 Gervásio Leite storming the ramparts of Moritoa during the Battle of Moritoa in 1586. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Colonial militias | Tangaran tribes | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~5,000-7,000 | 30,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The First Colonial War, also known as the First Tangaran War, was a series of loosely interrelated conflicts and confrontations between Tangaran tribes and coalitions of city-states and militia groups from 1582 to 1588 over control of Alexandria Island in Meridon, the face of increasing colonization of the territory. Though attacks and raids against colonial settlements were not uncommon in the years preceding, the start of the conflict is generally recognized as 18 June 1582, when the settlement of Maretta was raided, which was a massive escalation in scale both in terms of forces involved and casualties, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of settlers and dozens of Tangarans. While few if any formal command structures existed across either group, both sides fought in loose coalitions until 1856, when a rough coalition between city-states form with the aim of expelling Tangaran natives from the island. By 1588, this was for the most part completed.
Background
Settlement of Alexandria Island, beginning in 1560 with the establishment of what would later become Port Sistine, was met with a variety of responses by the native Tangaran tribal groups that inhabited the island, who already formed a complex geopolitical scheme as competing groups. With a lack of unity between colonial settlements, in early years it was not uncommon for tribes and colonies to cooperate with one another against other groups interchangeably. As expansion continued, however, tribal groups began to feel the effects of colonial encroachment upon traditional territory, and actively began to work together to resist further encroachment. Starting in the mid 1570s, this took the form of punitive raids and strikes against farms, plantations, and settlements that largely inflicted structural and economic damage rather than death. Retaliatory raids by militia groups followed until the Raid of Maretta on 18 June 1582, where over a hundred colonists were massacred by a group of raiding tribals led by the Lauota tribe,
Early skirmishes
Raid on Maretta and escalation
This escalation of the conflict was a significant shock to colonial groups, who retaliated massively with punitive strikes into tribal territories of similar scale. The conflict reached fever pitch during the Sack of Maretta in 1584, when its population was killed to a man and the settlement burned to the ground. Neutral and indecisive tribes were drawn into the conflict indiscriminately as it intensified, and raids and skirmishes became common between 1582 and 1586 until the colonial groups had formed a more organized structure and became effective at repelling and deterring raids. A more organized structure emerged in 1586, and under this grouping colonies were able to carry out more organized campaigns against Tangaran tribes.
The Great Sweeping
From 1587 onwards this coalition conducted a coordinated effort to cull and expel Tangaran tribes from Alexandria island. Reprisal attacks continued as the Tangaran tribal groups were put on the backfoot, and colonials engaged in widespread massacres, rapes and other crimes considered genocide by most modern scholars. Increasing failures in coordinating leadership across the Tangaran tribes continued to plague attempts to resist the colonial approach, leading to decisive defeats at Carter's Plains and most famously at the Battle of Newcastle. By 1588, most Tangaran tribes had been forced into submission, irrelevance, or expulsion from the island, and most militia groups raised for the fights were downsized and disbanded. Though skirmishes in Alexandria would continue well into the 17th century, the war is generally recognized as ending around the end of the Battle of Newcastle.
Massacres and genocide
Drawdown and conclusion
Aftermath
The First Colonial War had dramatic consequences for both colonial and Tangaran tribal groups. From an estimated population of over a hundred thousand, less than five thousand remained after 1588, who were relegated to small areas and regularly harassed by Colonial groups. The conflict turned the opinions of Tangaran groups in the rest of the Meridonian archipelago staunchly against further cooperation and expansion of colonial settlements, and performed a similar effect for the vast majority of colonial groups. The widespread death and destruction visited to tribal groups meant that even after the war and the end of most hostilities, many tribes would disappear as their members died off- to this date, Alexandria Island, despite being the largest and most populous territory of Meridon, has the lowest amount of independent Tangaran tribal groups behind the Southern Islands and Eastern Islands territories. For the colonials, the necessitation of provisions for defense that smaller settlements could not always provide for themselves lead to the emergence of the city-state as the dominant political unit in the Meridon, which would remain dominant until they were deestablished as political entities in 1749 with the formation of the Federal Republic. The cooperation between colonial groups would be commonly cited in later arguments in nearly every formatory war.
