Provisional Government of Belhavia
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The Provisional Government of Belhavia | |
|---|---|
| 1945–1949 | |
|
Flag | |
| Motto: "Freedom, Liberty, Equality" | |
| Anthem: "O Rise, Spirit of Liberty Thou" | |
| Location of the Provisional Government of Belhavia (dark green) – with Ayton-Shelvay (light green) – in Pardes (gray) Location of the Provisional Government of Belhavia (dark green) – with Ayton-Shelvay (light green)
– in Pardes (gray) | |
| Capital | Provisa |
| Common languages | Belhavian English |
| Religion | None. (Secular) |
| Government | Liberal democracy, constitutional monarchy (nominal; throne empty) |
| Head of state | |
• 1945 - 1949 | President Matthew Rabin |
• 1945 - 1949 | Regent Grand Duke Noah Kohen (nominal) |
| Legislature | Provisional Assembly |
| Historical era | Cold War |
• Stein's Midnight Mutiny | May 23rd, 1945 |
• Second Empire Declared | January 1st, 1949 |
| Currency | Belhavian shekel |
| |
The Provisional Government of Belhavia, commonly also known as the Belhavian Interregnum, the Rabin Era, or the Republic of Belhavia (incorrectly), was an provisional government under the leadership of President Matthew Rabin. It came to be after a liberal military coup d'état on May 21st, 1945 overthrew the Galarian autocracy, itself an authoritarian regime founded by a self-coup by General Zachary Galarian in September 1940. The Belhavian government-in-exile returned and organized a caretaker provisional government that last until an heir was found and the Second Empire proclaimed.
During the coup, called Stein's Midnight Mutiny, His Majesty Emperor David IV, the nominal head of state who was effectively Galarian's puppet figurehead, was mysteriously killed. This sparked a succession crisis as David had no direct heir, and the throne sat empty. It was further complicated by David's collusion with Galarian, which discredited the Imperial Family in the public's eye and sparked a strong movement to abolish the Empire and institute a federal republic along Emmerian lines.
It came to an end on January 1st, 1949, when the Second Empire was restored, with the coronation of Emperor Jacob VI.
Background: the Galarian Autocracy (1940 - 1945)
Stein's Midnight Mutiny
Background
General Zachary Galarian, by the late spring of 1945, was acting erratically in light of the looming defeat of his ally, the National State regime, in the Great Fascist War in Arthurista. This contrasted with his usually confident and inspirational demeanor that had endeared the military to him originally as he rose the ranks in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Commonwealth's likely victory was evident to everyone but Galarian, who began to order his General Staff to prepare to dispatch a whole Imperial Army Field Group to stave off the inevitable Fascist defeat and create an allied puppet regime in western Arthurista more stable and malleable to Provisa's influence. Throughout the military hierarchy, officers and commanders began to openly question Galarian's sanity and strategic military prowess in light of the National State's looming defeat.
This intensified the Supreme Autocrat's already deepening unpopularity among his previously-loyal bastion of support in the military. It also introduced doubts about Galarian's military brilliance, a key piece of morale that had cemented the military's strong loyalty to him initially.
With Galarian's faltering and increasingly insular decision-making, a group of liberal military officers disillusioned with the General's reign began to meet to discuss a change in government. The conspiracy was headed by Abraham Stein, an Imperial Army major-general with secret Liberal Democrat leanings who was in contact with Matthew Rabin, head of the liberal Belhavian opposition-in-exile, who was based in Oured, D.A. Stein gathered around him senior and midlevel officers who he knew were anti-Galarian, liberal or left-wing, or had publicly renounced any "subversive" pre-1940 coup ideologies but continued to believe them privately. Since 1940, Stein had been in frequent contact with the resistance government, and had ingrained himself with Galarian's top officers so that when the General was weak, Stein would be in a position to topple him and restore constitutional government.
On April 9th, Stein and a group of 12 of his closest aides and adjutants met, and he revealed his resistance sympathies to them. All handpicked by him, they agreed to the opposition government's cause and swore an oath to see Galarian fall. Galarian's conduct increasingly became bizarre and insular, and it isolated his largest supporters in the public and throughout the military, except the hardliners, who stuck with him. For the next month, Stein and his cadre met secretly, planning troop movements and the details of a clean, bloodless overthrow. Meanwhile, Rabin was telegraphed in Oured, and made his way, with a contingent of guards and political leaders, to reside in nearby Havenwalde, where he could return quickly after a successful coup to take charge or to be out of reach if the overthrow failed.
On May 15th, a test run was done, with Stein, through a gullible intermediary, triggering a mock martial law operation he surreptitiously got Galarian's signature to perform. With the operation a success, he picked May 21st as the date for the coup.
Palace Fighting
At 9:16am on the 21st, Stein signaled his friend, a senior commander in the Imperial Guard, to seal off the Imperial Palace, where Galarian's puppet figurehead, His Majesty Emperor David IV was residing. He also sent mobilization orders to the 4th Imperial Army Battalion - 4th Capital Regiment to organize and be sent to secure the Presidential Palace, where Galarian had his residence. Galarian's compound was guarded his elite and highly-loyal 6th Army Battalion - 1st & 2nd Autocrat's Guard.
Meanwhile, he sent his own personal regiment across the city to secure key installations: the eight bridges across the Zallos River, Provisa City Hall, the Ministry of the Interior's central radio building, and most of the ministry headquarters in the Government District, with smaller teams to arrest high-ranking loyalists to Galarian.
The anti-Galarian elements of the Imperial Guard, with thirty minutes, had sealed off the Palace and arrested the Autocrat's loyalists with ease. However, during the disarming of the Autocrat loyalists at around 10:23am, a brawl broke out and firing commenced. The Emperor was killed, though in a mysterious manner. Panic broke out, and the rumor quickly spread the coup was anti-monarchist.
Meanwhile, the 4th Regiment, backed by several tanks and armored vehicles, fired on the Presidential Palace's outer defenses. Within two hours, regiment soldiers had broken through at least three entrances, but heavy melee fighting ensued for hours within the compound. By 4:14pm, Stein received word the Palace was theirs except for a small group of loyalists still held out, but that the Supreme Autocrat was missing.
Galarian, his top staffers, and a platoon of his elite guards had used an old 18th-century tunnel to flee to a nearby building, where they used a stashed troop truck to head to an auxilitary military facility at the edge of the city. He telegraphed orders to the rest of his Guard units scattered around Provisa, some of whom were bogged down in street fighting against Stein's forces, and dispatched a company of motorized infantry to march on Stein's operational headquarters.
Popular Revolt
The public, within hours, had awaken to the fact a coup was underway. Conflicting reports dodged the open street combat, with few civilians risking death by leaving their homes or businesses. However, it became evident that the effort to topple Galarian was working, and bystanders began to support the effort, aiding, when possible, Stein's forces as they fought street-by-street. Irregular militias appeared, and began to hit Galarian loyalist formations, many times cutting off vital resupply convoys dispatched by the pro-Galarian General Staff to aid the Autocrat's beleaguered Guard forces across the city. However, the rumors that the coup plotters killed the Emperor sparked some backlash, causing Galarian partisans and reactionaries to arm themselves and march with the Guards.
A mixed force of militiamen and barracks guards defended Stein's headquarters, while the Major-general got confirmations Galarian was holed up in an suburban Provisa military barracks and telegraphed two companies to march on it, while calling for reinforcements for his own position.
Galarian's Capture
At 7:18pm, after two hours of fighting, Stein forces broke through the auxiliary barracks and accepted Galarian's surrender. At that point, the deposed Supreme Autocrat was made to announce a nationwide surrender to his forces, most of whom obeyed.
Within the week, the last of his loyalists had surrendered or been killed resisting arrest.
Interim Military Rule
Between the end of May 21st and May 23rd, when Rabin arrived via train to popular acclaim, Stein put the capital and the entire country under martial law. Most of the military, government authorities, and public accepted Galarian's fall without dispute; however, scattered units of loyalists held out in some places, necessitating Stein to dispatch loyal forces to rout them out.
High-ranking Galarian loyalists in the military and political realm were held under house arrest.
Rabin's Return: Provisional Government Proclamation
At 10:14am, May 23rd, Rabin arrived via train from Dakos at the Provisa Grand Central Station to adoring crowds. He and his retinue retired to the vacant Presidential Palace to deliberate on how to move forward. The opposition government-in-exile contingent was an eclectic group of liberals, liberal democrats, monarchists, anti-fascist conservatives, and centrists. The liberal left and republicans wanted to use the Galarian dictatorship and Emperor David's collusion with it as a prima facie cause to abolish the monarchy and reorganize Belhavia into an Emmerian-style federal republic. The conservatives, moderates, and some liberals simply wished to reinstall the standing government that had been toppled by Galarian in September 1940. After two hours of debate, a majority agreed to proclaim a provisional government that would maintain the status quo and would call a constitutional convention to decide the country's political future.
Around 1:30pm that day, Rabin addressed a crowd thousands-strong as well as domestic and foreign press using a microphone to announce the decision.
My fellow citizens of Belhavia...I have come to tell you today, that we, the Provisional Constitutional Committee, newly returned after the just and swift fall of an illegitimate dictator, do hereby declare the proclamation of the Provisional Government of Belhavia and the return of constitutional order!
In the coming weeks and months ahead, we shall diligently and assuredly rebuild our great and proud country. Never again shall our proud Jewish nation be made slave to a pretender-tyrant that sought to erase our long-standing political and social traditions! Liberty and freedom shall never be vanquished in our land.
In two months' time, we, the Committee, shall convene a constitutional convention here in Provisa, where our nation's brightest political minds will choose how we move forward. Once the Convention has made its decision and a successor government is organized, our Committee and the Provisional Government shall dissolve ourselves.
Rabin was declared acting President of the government by one of his adjutants, to the crowd's thunderous applause. Rabin also sent envoys to Ulthrannia to negotiate an end to the fighting near Tobia in Southwest Ashizwe. Later, a treaty ending the conflict and solidifying Tobia's status was agreed to and ratified by the 1945 Convention.
As his first act of office, he dissolved the Rump Senate, as well as the post of 'Supreme Aurocrat', in Executive Decree #1. In Executive Decree #2, he initiated a mass arrest of major Galarian supporters, allies, and partisans throughout the government, military, and society.
Imperial Succession Crisis
His Majesty, David IV, died heirless. The newly-created Provisional Government decided that the monarchy's future would be dealt with in the upcoming Provisa Convention, and until it made a decision, the monarchy would be preserved. The Imperial Family was allowed to appoint a regent for the empty throne.
May 23rd Movement
Among the Provisional Government's left flank were liberals, democrats, and republicans of a strong anti-monarchist sentiment. Having unsuccessfully sought and failed to abolish the Imperial monarchy with the Provisional Government's proclamation, they sought to do so at the Convention. They named themselves the 'May 23rd movement'.
Among their ranks emerged Joshua Stein, a virulent and charismatic lawyer who had lost most of his family to Galarian's regime. He quickly became the anti-monarchist faction's de facto leader, and the contingent started to call themselves 'Steinists'. Using supporters in the press and artisanal professions, they started a media campaign demonizing and vilifying David IV for collaborating with the Autocrat, and bluntly suggesting in pamphlets and cheap newspapers that the remaining Imperial Family shared his feelings and were traitors-in-waiting.
Regency Declared
On June 2nd, the Imperial Family named Noah Kohen, a Grand Duke and first cousin of the deceased emperor, as imperial regent. President Rabin and the Constitutional Committee accepted the choice.
The announcement sparked outrage among the educated liberal middle strata, congregated in Provisa and Dakos, who were warming to the Steinists' arguments and propaganda. However, most of the country greeted the news with quiet support, exhausted with the uncertainty of how Belhavia's future would proceed.
Imperial Family In Exile
On June 21st, the Steinists on the Committee gained enough votes to pass a resolution calling for David's immediate relatives to be sent into exile. It stipulated that if the Convention agreed to restore the monarchy and the Imperial Family proved themselves clean of David's treason with Galarian by not interfering with the Convention, they could return later.
Rabin was initially opposed and threatened to veto. Most of the Committee members feared this would undermine the post-Galarian political unity and cascade back into political chaos. Added with violent protests that formed at the behest of the Steinists happening throughout Provisa, the president relented and withdrew his veto threat.
The Imperial Family had a week to gather their belongings and find foreign lodging; the Papal Republic of Rodarion agreed to host them in one of the Pope's lavish guest villas until they could return home. The monarchy's vast properties and lands were put under trust to the Imperial Regent, Grand Duke Noah Kohen.
1945 Provisa Convention
National Plebiscite and Convention Elections
True to his pledge two months earlier, Rabin ordered and organized a combined presidential referendum and elections for the Provisa Convention to be held jointly on July 23rd, 1945. With most of the pro-Galarian hardliners removed from the senior military brass (and others Galarian supporters in the military officer corps having been forcibly resigned, killed by vigilante justice or mob violence, or having recanted and renounced their previous support for the deposed Autocrat), Rabin and the Committee approved of the Imperial military to oversee orderly, free, and fair elections across the Empire and its colonies.
The limited franchise that existed prior to the Galarian coup in September 1940 (voting eligibility was limited to men aged 20 years or older of a certain level of property and education) was restored for the joint, nationwide election. Voters were to pick a Convention Delegate from their locality as well as either approve or disapprove of President Matthew Rabin's provisional presidency. If he lost the referendum, he had pledged to organize a caretaker government that would organize a new general election and resign his office.
Despite the apprehension of the anti-Galarian urban left at the prospect of one of Galarian's core consistencies (the military) overseeing the veracity of election results, the results were by and large without controversy. However, there were numerous accounts of local political factions or machines, having reemerged after the repeal of Galarian-era prohibitions, that attempted to interfere with local elections. Still, the national electorate seemed to find the election legitimate and its results were generally upheld as fair and free.
Rabin won the referendum with a surprising 71% approval; prior to the presidential plebiscite, the political agitation and factional fighting between Steinist left and monarchist right and their shared criticism of the centrist Rabin presidency had suggested to political actors that the provisional president would face a larger backlash. In exit interviews, however, voters outside of the extremes generally approved of Rabin's cautious and moderate direction and supported his continued national leadership.
Convention Factions & Politics
For the Provisa Convention, the factions broke down along anti-monarchism-monarchist lines, conventional left-right politics, and crypto-Galarianist-anti-Galarianist factionalism:
- Far Right: The Convention's far-right consisted of motley and sometimes incompatible contingent of closeted crypto-Galarianists, fascists, elements of the radical right, monarchists and so-called "Ultra-royalists", and other reactionaries.
- Conservative Faction: Sometimes alternatively referred to as the Monarchist Right, this was the mainstream faction of the political right that was overally monarchist, for the restoration of the pre-Galarian status quo, pro-retaining the colonies, anti-communist, fiscally conservative, and socially and culturally conservative. One of the two main blocs, along with the Liberals. Mostly elected from the countryside, the colonies, and smaller towns and cities.
- Moderate Bloc: Centrists mostly elected from more wealthier, small cities that pledged to support the Rabin presidency and to mediate a sensible, reasonable post-Galarian political settlement. Like the Conservatives, wanted to restore the pre-1940 status quo, but like the Liberals, wanted to make some reasonable, incremental reforms, as well. Most were monarchist but supported a constitutional monarchy noticeably weaker than pre-1940.
- Independents: Independents who stretched the political spectrum from center-left to center-right, as well as some radical centrists. A swing bloc of independent-minded delegates who refused on principle or out of ideology to sit with the larger factions.
- Liberal Faction: Often referred to as the Anti-communist Left, this political faction was the largest and reflected the current, majority classical liberal thinking of the majority of the educated, wealthy elite in the post-Galarian years. As opposed to the Far Left faction, however, the Liberals were by and large staunchly anti-communist. One of the two main factions, besides the Conservatives.
- Far Left: The liberal left faction composed of Steinist anti-monarchists, republicans, liberal democrats, and closeted leftists. They came from the intellectual and working-income major urban cores in places such as Dakos, Provisa, and other large cities. They supported abolishing the monarchy, major liberal political reforms, and split between becoming an Emmerian-style federal republic, an Arthuristan parliamentary democracy, or a social democracy.
Because of the time for Delegates-elect to receive their certified letters of commission as delegates, and the issue of travel time (including several weeks for the delegates from the colonies or Far South), the Convention was slated to start a month later, on August 21st, 1945. The Convention Delegates reflected the voters who elected them: mostly white-collar professionals, and other men of education and property. Lawyers predominated, followed by small numbers of Jewish clergy (rabbis, roshe yeshivot, yeshiva teachers, chazzans, among others), doctors, businessmen and corporate magnates, professors (of varied disciplines and from both undergraduate and graduate fields), merchants, accountants, military officers, famous novelists and writers, and a few other professions.
Empire Retained
With the support of all factions except the Far right and left, Rabin was made President of the Convention. The first question posed to the Convention was to reaffirm adopting the 1812 Constitution, which had been adopted on a tentative basis by the Provisional Government. This passed on 623-127 margin. Only a majority of the Far left and a few cryto-Galarianists and fascists on the Far right voted against.
The second posed was regarding the Monarchy Question. After a fierce 3-day debate, a strong majority decided on retaining the monarchy, with a 608-142 margin. Almost all of the Far Right, all Conservatives, and most of the Liberals, Moderates, and Independents backed this, with clear dissent from the Far Left, who all voted no, and left flank of the Liberals, Moderates, and Independents, who joined them.
However, a more narrow, cross-faction majority supported tweaking the pre-1940 constitutional monarchy from a modified Parliamentary constitutional monarchy (considered by political scientists of a type of hybrid Westminster system with elements of semi-presidentialism) to the current-day Federal presidential constitutional monarchy model. After a rancorous week-long debate that saw the rise and collapse of several cross-faction majority coalitions on the issue, the constitutional reform passed by a more contested 390-360 margin. All 67 Far leftists, 20 Moderates, 37 Independents, 2 Conservatives, and 264 Liberals voted for it, while all 93 Far rightists, 187 Conservatives, 16 Moderates, 27 Independents, and 37 Liberals voted against.
In a broad compromise measure the next day, a large cross-faction majority retroactively legalized the 8th Amendment, passed in the 1943. The amendment was a measure railroaded through by Galarian using nominally legal methods that transferred the power of Commander-in-chief of the Imperial military from the head of state (the Emperor, then David IV) to the head of government, which was Galarian himself as Supreme Autocrat, in the form of the Emperor constitutionally bestowing the title of 'Supreme Commander' on the head of government, so as to make the head of government the functional commander-in-chief on a daily basis. This made the President of Belhavia the equivalent status. This passed on a 537-213 vote. All but one of the Conservatives, all the Far right, three-fourths of the Moderates, one-fifth of the Independents, and 216 Liberals voted for it; opposed was 1 Conservative, all of the Far left contingent, most of the Independents, a quarter of the Moderates, and about a third of Liberals.
Colonial Debate
By early September, the Convention on gone through a litany of pressing constitutional questions and resolved them. It reaffirmed the restoration of the 1812 Constitution, the monarchy, instituted major political and electoral reforms, among other issues. The last major, contentious issue before the Convention was the status of the colonies.
Since the early 1930s, there had been a rising resistance to empire-building, imperialism, and colonialism, particularly among the wealthy liberal elites. This was reinforced by the hardline support and continued execution of these concepts under the Galarian Autocracy. Among the Convention's liberal left and neo-isolationist right, there was a budding feeling of a political moment to seek the end of the colonial empire and give the Imperial colonies full independence and self-determination.
The far right and left, despite their mutual loathing and dislike, started to make entreaties to the other in the run-up to the so-called 'Colonies Question' vote. The radical right - mainly paleoconservatives and right-wing populists - made up the primary faction of right-wing anti-imperialists on the far-right. They allied themselves with the Far left, made up chiefly of anti-monarchists and anti-colonialists, as well as similar persons on the left wings of the Liberals, Moderates, and Independents who shared such sentiments.
For thirteen days, both super-factions - the pro- and anti-retain the colonies positions - battled over dueling measures regarding various ways to deal with the colonies, all of which became tabled as they had insufficient support to proceed forward. With the "super-factions" fairly well-organized among Delegates by voting habits, the anti-colonies had a slight edge on the Colonies Question and had the votes to procedurally proceed to vote on the question the next day.
President Rabin, who had stuck to the sidelines, became convinced by the pro-colonies super-faction and quietly lobbied a number of swing Liberal and Independent delegates, who unbeknownst to the anti-colonies leaders, switched their votes. The next day, the vote was put up after lunch and passed narrowly to retain the colonies, by a slim 381-369 margin. As several Liberals defected as the voting was underway, the anti-colonies super-faction began to revolt on the floor, attempting to intimidate the Liberal defectors to reverse their votes. Chaos spilled out on the floor, including several fistfights, and Rabin subsequently ordered in soldiers to quell the pandemonium.
The measure to retain the colonies included all but 4 of the Conservatives, 74 of 93 Far rightists, 22 Moderates, 35 Independents, 2 Far leftists, and 63 Liberals; those opposed included 238 Liberals, 65 Far leftists, 29 Independents, 14 Moderates, and 19 Far rightists.
Interim Regime: Provisional Assembly
The Convention, having reaffirmed the Imperial Constitution of 1812, took up the issue of the dissolved Imperial Senate, having been abolished for being a rump Galarianist rubberstamp legislature. The body overwhelmingly voted, 703-47, to re-establish the Imperial Senate when the Empire was restored and repeal Rabin's Executive Decree #1. This was dated as tentatively for January 1st, 1949. The Convention voted to have the results of the national plebiscite act as a placeholder for the cancelled 1944 presidential elections (never held under Galarian), and that Rabin's term would continue as if the electoral system had not been disrupted by the Galarian years, with the next presidential election scheduled for the first Tuesday of November 1948.
In the meantime, as the search had begun for a proper heir to sit on the throne and the prospect of the proper restoration of the Empire uncertain while the throne remained empty (and thus the Imperial Senate could not be revived without a sitting monarch), the Convention created an interim legislative body, the Provisional Assembly, on a 543 - 207 margin. The Assembly would hold special general elections in November 1945, with normal elections scheduled (restoring the pre-1940 election timeframe) for 1946 and 1948. The Assembly would be composed of the same '2-members per province and territory' structure as the Senate had been.
The Convention then adjourned for two months, for political campaigning to commence. In the special elections of November, 2 Assemblymen were elected from each province and territory. Of the 70 Assemblymen-elect, about 63% (44 Assemblymen-elect) were Convention Delegates. On January 2nd, 1946, the incumbent Convention adjourned for the last time, voting unanimously to give all legal powers to its successor legislature, the Provisional Assembly, and formally ending the Convention. Mere hours later, the Assembly sworn in its new members, to the thunderous applause of most of the former Convention delegates, many of whom who had stuck around to see the new Assembly seated.
1946 Reforms
The interim Provisional Assembly, with eager liberal and left-wing reformers at its helm under its nominal National Unity Front coalition with a majority of Liberal Democrat, United Left, and independent senators, moved quickly to reorganize and restructure the government's military and intelligence apparatus.
Military Reforms
Intelligence Reforms
On August 14th, 1946, after much deliberation in the Assembly Intelligence Committee, the Foreign Intelligence Reorganization Act was marked up and presented for a floor vote, where it passed by an overwhelming 53-15-2, ayes, nays, and abstentions respectively.
The Act cemented the abolishment of the His Majesty's Imperial Intelligence Service, closed by Rabin's Executive Decree #17 the year prior, and divided up the former agency's duties and powers into two new organizations, National Belhavian Intelligence (changed in 1949 to Imperial Belhavian Intelligence) for foreign intelligence and the Department of Internal Security and Enforcement for domestic intelligence and counterintelligence, as well as law enforcement mandates.
The Act also outright eliminated or reduced some of the abolished agency's state security features such as warrantless arrests in extraordinary conditions, indefinite prisoner holding, and other policies.